After Prince Gong Yixin and Li Hongzhang attended Lin Daxin's wedding in Weihaiwei, they returned to Beijing and went directly to the palace to meet the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu. 《.

In the Xinuan Pavilion of the Forbidden City, the four core people of the Qing Dynasty gathered together again.

The Empress Dowager Cixi said to Prince Gong Yixin and Li Hongzhang: "The two Aiqing have worked hard, and I have to let you go all the way to Weihaiwei to appease that Lin Daxin!" ”

Yi Xin and Li Hongzhang hurriedly said that this was what they should do as courtiers.

The Empress Dowager Cixi couldn't wait to ask: "How about the two Aiqing go to Weihaiwei to observe that Lin Daxin?" Did he have any objections? ”

Prince Gong Yixin said: "Through guò contact, that Lin Daxin only wants to keep his position as the governor of the four northeastern provinces, and there should be no rebellion against the imperial court!" ”

Li Hongzhang also said: "That Lin Daxin himself said that he would not rebel against the imperial court!" Lao Chen's observation of Lin Daxin doesn't look like he is telling a lie! ”

Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu were relieved at the same time, if Lin Daxin really had the idea of rebellion, the Dingbei Army attacked Beijing City from the two directions of Shanhaiguan and Weihaiwei, and the remnants of the imperial court were now defeated, and they couldn't resist the powerful Dingbei Army at all, it was really a change of color in the mountains and rivers!

Then Emperor Guangxu said: "Dear father! Isn't it time for us to think about preparing for a new army? ”

The Empress Dowager Cixi nodded slowly and said: "It is time to build a new army under the control of our imperial court, otherwise if that Lin Daxin has the heart of rebellion again, the imperial court will not even have an army that can quell the rebellion, and the inheritance of the ancestors will be destroyed in the hands of our people!" ”

Prince Gong Yixin nodded and said, "What the Queen Mother said is reasonable!" The matter of building a new army cannot be delayed! ”

The Empress Dowager Cixi asked again: "Prince Gong, Master Li." Do you two have any regulations in mind about the affairs of the New Army? ”

Yixin and Li Hongzhang glanced at each other, and Prince Gong Yixin said first: "On the way back to Beijing from Weihaiwei, Chen and Master Li discussed the matter of the new army. I thought that I could leave the matter to the war with the Japanese. The better Iktanga and Nie Shicheng were in charge of the affairs of the new army. ”

Yi Ke Tanga can be regarded as the Empress Dowager Cixi's person, and Nie Shicheng is Beiyang Li Hongzhang's person, if the two of them are in charge of this matter, it means that the new army is in the hands of the Empress Dowager Cixi and Li Hongzhang.

The Empress Dowager Cixi also nodded and said: "The mourning family also coincides with the two Aiqing, Yi Ketanga and Nie Shicheng are quite competent, let them be in charge of the affairs of the new army!" Prince Gong, how many new troops do you think the imperial court has cultivated? Can you suppress Lin Daxin's Dingbei Army? ”

Prince Gong Yixin said with a wry smile: "Queen Mother, according to the minister's understanding, Lin Daxin's Dingbei Army already has 15 divisions and 270,000 people, plus miscellaneous ones. The Dingbei Army has a new army of nearly 300,000. Our imperial court must train at least 300,000 troops, so as not to suffer losses in the face of the Dingbei Army, and if we want to suppress the Dingbei Army, we must at least train more than 400,000 new army. But the new army needs to buy a lot of new weapons. It is also necessary to pay high salaries to the officers and men of the new army. The cost is huge, and according to the finances of the imperial court, it is already the limit to be able to train a new army of 70,000 or 80,000! ”

Li Hongzhang also said: "Prince Gong's words are true, Queen Mother, we can only train a part of the new army first, wait for the imperial court's finances to improve, and then expand the scale of the new army!" ”

The Empress Dowager Cixi frowned and thought for a while, and then said, "Prince Gong, go and ask those foreign ministers if they are willing to lend us money to the Qing Dynasty!" The building of a new army cannot be delayed. The imperial court would rather borrow some money than train a new army! ”

At this time, Emperor Guangxu suddenly interjected and said, "Dear father! I have a candidate in my hands. It turned out that Yuan Shikai, the minister of the imperial court, heard that he had some ideas about military training, and I wanted him to be in charge of the formation and training of the new army together with Yi Ketanga and Nie Shicheng! ”

When Prince Gong Yixin heard Emperor Guangxu say this, a fine light flashed in his eyes, and he immediately followed: "The minister has also heard of this Yuan Shikai, who is a capable minister and quite capable!" ”

Guangxu listened to Prince Gong Yixin help him speak, and glanced at him with grateful eyes. Yi Xin also nodded lightly at Guangxu.

The Empress Dowager Cixi glanced at Emperor Guangxu with a strange look, and then slowly nodded her head and said, "Since the emperor is optimistic about this Yuan Shikai, let him also be responsible for the formation and training of the new army!" ”

In the end, the four agreed that Yi Ketang'a, Nie Shicheng and Yuan Shikai would each train a new army.

After Emperor Guangxu, Prince Gong Yixin and Li Hongzhang left Xinuan Pavilion, Empress Dowager Cixi sneered and said to herself: "It seems that the emperor has grown up and his heart has become bigger!" ”

Then the Empress Dowager Cixi issued an edict: "Spread the word Yiketang A to enter the palace to see the mourning family!" ”

After Emperor Guangxu came out of the Xinuan Pavilion, he returned to the Palace of Nourishing the Heart. At this time, there were 2 courtiers waiting for Emperor Guangxu in the side room of the Yangxin Palace, and the 2 people saw that Emperor Guangxu was back, and immediately greeted him.

"The courtiers will meet the emperor together!"

"Minister Yuan Shikai knocked on the emperor, long live, long live, long live!"

These two courtiers were Guangxu's teacher, Hubu Shangshu Weng Tongyi, and Yuan Shikai, the former minister of the Qing Dynasty in Korea.

It turned out that after the war broke out between the Qing Dynasty and Japan in Korea, Yuan Shikai, as the minister of the Qing Dynasty in Korea, felt that the Qing army in Korea could not defeat the Japanese at all, so Yuan Shikai reported to Li Hongzhang after withdrawing from Korea to the Qing Dynasty that the Qing Dynasty was by no means Japan's opponent in Korea, and he withdrew his troops to the Yalu River and lost Korea to Japan. Li Hongzhang did not adopt his Jianyi, and a large number of the elite of the Huai army were lost in Korea.

After the Battle of Pyongyang, Li Hongzhang asked Yuan Shikai to remain his minister in Korea and go to the northeast to help raise food and weapons. But Yuan Shikai was reluctant to do it, he thought that the Qing Dynasty had no hope of winning the war with Japan, so he excused himself and returned to Beijing.

Later, Yuan Shikai saw that the Japanese in the Dingbei Army trained by Lin Daxin lost their armor, and the idea of training and controlling a new army also germinated in his heart. In Beijing, Yuan Shikai took the initiative to visit Guangxu's teacher, Hubu Shangshu Weng Tongyong, and under the recommendation of Weng Tongxiao, Yuan Shikai walked into the sight of Emperor Guangxu. In this way, Yuan Shikai is also equivalent to breaking away from Beiyang.

Emperor Guangxu said to the two people: "Teacher, Yuan Aiqing, let's go in and talk!" ”

After the three of Guangxu walked into the Palace of Nourishing Hearts, Guangxu asked the eunuchs and palace maids who were serving him to retreat, and the Hubu Shangshu Weng asked eagerly: "Your Majesty, how is it?" ”

Guangxu said excitedly: "The Queen Mother has agreed that Yuan Aiqing, Yi Ketang'a, and Nie Shicheng will be responsible for the formation and training of the new army, and each of them will be responsible for a new army!" ”

Yuan Shikai, who was next to him, was overjoyed when he heard it and said: "The minister must work hard for the emperor and train a new army that is willing to go to the soup for the emperor!" ”

Emperor Guangxu nodded with satisfaction and said, "Yuan Aiqing, the affairs of the new army depend on you!" ”

Weng Tongyi next to him said to Yuan Shikai with a happy face: "Lord Yuan, you must firmly grasp the military power of this new army for the emperor!" ”

Yuan Shikai patted his chest and said: "The emperor and Lord Weng can rest assured, as long as Yuan is there, this new army will always belong to the emperor!" ”

After Li Hongzhang returned to the mansion in Beijing City, he recruited Nie Shicheng to the mansion, Li Hongzhang said to Nie Shicheng: "Now the imperial court wants to train a new army, and the old man has won the commander of a new army for you, you go back and immediately transfer the remaining elite of our Huai army, and draw Wang Shizhen, Feng Guozhang, Yu Guangxian, Zhou Xianxian, and the troops they are now leading into this new army!" ”

Nie Shicheng nodded and said, "Yes!" My lord! ”

Li Hongzhang said again: "This new army is very important to our Beiyang, and we must firmly grasp the military power in our hands!" ”

Nie Shicheng said: "Don't worry, my lord! Subordinates know how to do it! ”

Britain, the United States, and France heard that the Qing Dynasty wanted to take out loans to train the new army, and they were all willing to give the Qing Dynasty loans, and finally the Qing Dynasty used tariffs as collateral to borrow a total of 8 million pounds from the three countries, equivalent to nearly 40 million silver, and began to organize and train the three new armies.

The establishment of the three new armies is three infantry associations under the jurisdiction of each town, three standards for each association, three battalions for each battalion, and three teams for each battalion, and one standard for cavalry, one standard for artillery, one battalion for engineering troops, and one battalion for baggage troops. infantry, artillery, and engineering three arms, each team has three rows, and each row has three sheds; The cavalry had two rows per team, two sheds per row; The baggage soldiers were in two rows in each row, and each row was three sheds. There are 14 soldiers per shed of each branch of the army. The total number of people in the town is 15,000.

The recruits of the new army must be at least 10 years old, under 25 years old, about 4 feet 8 inches tall, have no bad habits, and have no dark diseases.

According to the will of the Empress Dowager Cixi, the Wuwei Army recruited a large number of Manchurian, Mongolian and Han men, and also incorporated a large number of Eight Banner soldiers and Green Battalion soldiers who survived the battle to defend the city in Beijing, and a total of 4 towns of Wuwei Army were formed.

Nie Shicheng was ordered to organize and train the Beiyang Army, with Wang Shizhen, Feng Guozhang, Yu Guangxin, and Zhou Xianxian's 4-person headquarters and the elite of the Huai Army as the main backbone, plus the newly recruited troops of the original Huai Army and the recruits recruited, a total of 6 towns of the Beiyang Army were organized and trained.

In addition to Wang Shizhen, Feng Guozhang, Yu Guangxin, and Zhou Xianzhang as the commanders of the four towns, the commanders of the other Beiyang two towns appointed He Zonglian and Wang Yingkai, who were quite capable among the original Huai Army officers.

Yuan Shikai was ordered to organize and train the Dingwu Army, with the students of the Wubei Academy as the backbone, plus a large number of recruits recruited, a total of 3 Dingwu troops were organized and trained.

The weapons of the three new armies were all purchased by the imperial court, and the imperial court saw that the combat effectiveness of the Dingbei Army was strong, so it tried its best to equip the three new armies to 13 towns in accordance with the weapons of the Dingbei Army.

The soldier's rifle was also the M1888 repeater, and some of the Forces nouvelles officers were armed with Mauser revolvers. Gatling machine guns, 75-mm mountain guns, and 75-mm field guns were also equipped with the new army, but the number of equipment was much smaller than that of the Dingbei army. In addition, the 105 mm howitzers equipped by the Dingbei Army were not equipped with the three new armies of the imperial court.

At the beginning of 1896, the personnel and weapons and equipment of the three new armies were all in place, and with the assistance of foreign instructors, the three new armies of the imperial court began to train as a whole army. (To be continued......)