Imperial Capital, Dongjiaomin Lane, British Legation.

Minister Dou Nale snorted in the soft sofa with a large cigar in his mouth, and unfolded an English-language newspaper "CHINANEWS" published by Beijing in front of him.

"The Russians are retreating from Chita...... I knew this would be the case, my gentleman, come and see ......."

Dou Nale waved his hand to the young clerk Brand, who was drinking coffee with the cat, and handed him the newspaper.

Brand looked at it carefully, shook his head unhappily, and said, "Is this good?" If Russia collapses, won't the Germans be even more arrogant? ”

Dou Nale wiped his white sideburns and looked like an old fox: "Kaiser Wilhelm wants his cousin to shed half of his blood in the Far East, and then obediently be his slave, it's too naïve...... The reality is already clear that Germany is trying to co-opt the entire European continent against the British Empire, and we need to be prepared in advance. ”

Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia were both daughters of the late Queen Victoria, and the two emperors were naturally cousins, and the current Emperor Edward VII was the uncle of the two, and the Empress Nicholas II was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Princess Alex of the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt...... In short, the emperors of the three major monarchies in Europe at this time were all relatives.

Brand put down the newspaper and drank it in one gulp, his expression still in doubt.

"Sir, are we going to woo Russia?"

Dou Nale spat out a beautiful smoke ring: "Yes." ”

"What's that for......"

"Do you have to explain it clearly? Well, listen to me, my gentleman. Russia and China are bleeding and burning money in the Far East, and although it now seems that China has the upper hand and is likely to achieve a final victory, his losses are irreparable, and he can acquire a large tract of land that is limited and difficult to develop, but he does not want to receive a penny in compensation, and the Russians have no money to pay him. The result? The war was over, both countries were in debt, and we and the bankers of France and the United States became their masters. From now on, Russia will have to abandon its expansion into the Far East and return to the Near East and Europe, and China will have to take a breath and find a way to repay its debts. This is the time to use borrowing to win over Russia, while at the same time limiting China's overreach, and to pass a military mutual assistance treaty to allow China to guard over the Far East, and if necessary, to take advantage of China's abundant resources and strong military in the event of a possible future conflict in Europe...... In short, it is necessary to let them lose both sides so that they can be used appropriately for us......"

"Is it to form a network of forces with France, Russia, and China to encircle Eurasia, so as to limit Germany's actions to the greatest extent?"

"Yes, we have concluded an entente with France a few days ago, our disputes with France in Egypt, Morocco, Siam and other places have been basically resolved, France has given up its claims to Egypt, we have given up its competition for Morocco, we are negotiating military cooperation against Germany, yes, this is exactly what we need, but it is not enough. Then there are Russia and China. We need to meet some of Russia's demands in the Near and Eastern Europe, and at the same time use financial means that will be sufficient to bring Russia into the Entente. As for China, the treaty now signed is enough to solve the problems in ten years, so that the huge and poor empire can honestly be the market and raw material supplier for our industrial products, and at the same time provide us with defense assistance, as long as China is there, the United States cannot mess with the Far East, and as long as the United States is there, China cannot easily play tricks in the Far East, and we can concentrate on facing the increasingly severe situation in Europe......"

Brand listened attentively and thoughtfully.

"Is Germany really our worst enemy?"

"Yes, the glorious future of the German Empire must be trampled on the bones of the British Empire, because it is always ready to seize by force everything that does not belong to it, and the British Empire has the vastest land and sea, we are the empire on which the sun never sets, and what it wants most is what we have, the pearls in the crown of the empire, our India, our Egypt, our South Africa, our Persian Gulf...... Our everything. ”

Dou Nale was inexplicably excited, and pride filled his heart, spilling over his aging appearance, making his face bright.

The feeling of the Great Empire is a wonderful feeling, perhaps similar to the feeling of flying to the Nine Heavens in one second......

Brand flew to the Ten Heavens.

Before landing, Brand glanced underneath the front page of the newspaper.

"His Excellency the Minister of Defense has returned home, do you think he will be reinstated as Acting Prime Minister?"

Dou Nale landed smoothly and shook the cigar in his hand: "If I'm not mistaken, that Mr. Zhang won't let go so easily......"

"Really?"

"Whatever, we have more important things to care about, like today's dinner recipe......"

"Mr. ......"

Brand was speechless.

Shichahai, the residence of the Duke of Wuwei.

"Father, you see, what my brother gave me was a reward from the emperor......"

Yuchun carried a golden silk sachet depicting dragons and phoenixes and dangled in front of Liu Yun - Liu Yun, who had just returned home, was walking towards the hall with his second-ranked daughter.

"Really? Your brother really hurts you, and the emperor has given you all the rewards......"

The pure black Longyun Academy's vertical collar uniform, newly haircut short hair, sword eyebrows, and starry eyes, the thirteen-year-old eldest son Liu Ping greeted him generously, set up in front, and called: "Father."

Liu Yun looked at his son with satisfaction, he hadn't seen him for dozens of days, his son's size seemed to have risen a little more, and his face also revealed a little mature temperament - he got closer to the appearance of his youth.

Liu Fan, the youngest son of the third in line, shrank behind Liu Ping with a gloomy face, and called out emotionlessly: "Father."

"It's annoying to watch."

Liu Yun thought, put down her daughter, and hugged the lady who had already walked downstairs with the corner of her dress skirt - she was very calm, indeed, she had already adapted to this kind of life.

After dinner, Liu Yun asked the children about their final exams from last semester.

"Ping'er said first, you are the boss, you have to be an example for everyone."

Yuchun immediately protested: "Father, he is only a few minutes older than me, what kind of boss is he." ”

"Don't interject, a few minutes is big, Ping'er say it quickly."

Liu Ping raised his head and looked at his father calmly, but his right hand was tightly pinching the corner of his clothes.

"Seventy-six points for Chinese language, one hundred points for arithmetic, sixty-four points for history, and ninety-five points for nature...... The overall score ranked thirteenth in the class......"

Mrs. Liu shook her head and said: "This kid, he just doesn't like to listen to classes, the teacher said that he always likes to read extracurricular books under the desk during class, confiscated a few books, all of them are picture books such as locomotives, wheels and ships, and often skips class and goes to the cinema to watch war documentaries, and when he comes home, he either takes his sister out to play, or to fiddle with those toys......"

"It's a model."

Liu Ping resolutely corrected.

"Okay, it's a model, you know how to play, can't you spend more time on learning? Raise your grades in Japanese language and history......

"I hate Mandarin, and I'm not interested in history, I just want to fly, I want to build a powered flying machine by myself, take my sister, and Brother Gale Wind, and Sister Xin, and everyone will fly together......"

Liu Ping said very affectionately, and the longing in his pupils was undisguised.

"You still say that the trouble you caused last time was not big enough? Do you want to scare everyone to death? You kid, you're ...... Sir, tell me about him too......"

In September last year, the wonderful incident of the "air raid on the base camp" of the Liu brothers and sisters is still often entertained by the noblewomen with whom Mrs. Liu is dating.

Mrs. Liu turned to Liu Yun, but saw that her husband's face did not show the expected stern expression, on the contrary, Liu Yun smiled and patted Ping'er's shoulder, nodded kindly: "Yes, although it is not a grand ambition, but it sounds very firm, so let's work hard for the ideal, but remember what I said last time, a manly man, you must be able to take responsibility for what you do, and the person who is not capable of being responsible but blindly comes here is not a man, and he is not even qualified to go home to breastfeed, so go directly back to his mother's womb." If you want to realize your ideals, you can start enriching yourself from now on, the score of the exam can be nothing, but you must not be lazy, you must have the consciousness of suffering for the ideal, I will hire a tutor for you another day, mainly to teach you some mechanical knowledge that you are interested in, and at the same time find a way to make up for your lessons in other subjects, so decided...... Okay, it's Yuchun's turn, talk about your grades. ”

Yuchun stuck out his tongue shallowly, grabbed the back of the skirt with both hands, twisted his neck and said: "That, the Chinese language is ninety-seven points, the arithmetic is seventy-three points, the history is eighty-seven points, and the natural eighty points...... The class was ranked ninth. ”

Liu Yun pinched his daughter's ruddy little face: "You, what excuse do you have?" ”

"There's no excuse, it's normal for me to get a score like this."

Mrs. Liu sighed and shook her head again: "Master, look at this child, he is not motivated at all......"

Liu Ping leaned into his father's ear: "The article written by Yuchun has been published in the magazine, I'll show it to you later." ”

Liu Yun smiled: "Oh, I didn't expect it, my little Yuchun still writes articles, what do you write?" ”

Yuchun grabbed Ping'er's arm and shouted, "Brother betrayed me!" ”

Liu Yun grabbed her: "What are you shouting, this is a good thing, tell me, what did you write?" ”

Ping'er put her hands together to her mouth to make a trumpet shape, and announced loudly: "It's a novel, the name is the daughter of the moon, and it is written about a fairy who went down to the world, called Princess Yuelan, and helped a boy who used various idiotic methods to build flying machines to realize his dream of flying...... Hahaha, it's too idiotic...... The editor of that magazine is a pig......"

"You're a pig! Well, my father, my brother scolded me and bullied me......"

Yuchun immediately made tears and budded to be released.

Liu Yun held her shoulder and scratched her nose: "Don't cry, I'll help you teach your brother a lesson...... That, Princess Yuelan, a nice name, if I become the emperor in the future, I will make you Princess Yuelan, okay? ”

Yuchun raised his hazy eyes: "Really? Does Father's Speech Count? Will my father really be an emperor? ”

"I'm just saying what ifs...... Let's look at what you wrote, Fan'er, what about your grades? ”

Liu Yun turned to his third son, Liu Fan, although this child did not like him, but as a father, necessary care was also indispensable.

Liu Fan took out the neatly folded report card from his jacket pocket and handed it to his father, scanning his father's face back and forth with expectant eyes.

"Mandarin ...... Ninety-three, arithmetic ninety-six, history one hundred, nature one hundred, the first overall score in the class...... Not bad...... Productive ......"

Liu Yun said, nodded to Fan'er, and then asked Ping'er to get the magazine that published the article written by Yuchun.

Liu Fan was completely disappointed.

All the expressions are just "good", and "promising", I studied hard and hard, and finally got the first place in the exam, better than my brothers and sisters, but I can't get the same favor as them......

Liu Fan walked away, hanging his hands, bowing his head, and not saying anything.

"This kid ...... Why is there no anger at all. ”

Liu Yun looked at Fan'er's back and furrowed his brows.

Liu Ping brought the magazine, flipped to Yuchun's article, and presented it to his father.

"Princess Yuelan...... Beautiful name. ”

Liu Yun thought to himself, while flipping through the magazine and observing his daughter, Yuchun was pouting, waiting for his father's reaction with anticrisy.

"What a little beauty, worthy of that name...... However, after all, he is still just a child...... If everything is expected, she will naturally become my most precious princess Yuelan, and if I determine my name now, I will save a little trouble in the future......"

Downright reversal.

Liu Yun likes to describe it like this.

From the beginning, he betrayed the party and the country, he was the leader of the rebel army, led a group of thugs to rob the country's property, illegally used the time machine, and installed time bombs in the space-time experimental base, exploded, killed, and did all kinds of evil, and dying a million times was not enough to apologize to the "people".

Therefore, it is not a good thing in the first place, and it is bad to the bone.

After coming here, he also did all kinds of bad things, even if he murdered the Empress Dowager and a large number of royal ministers, he actually supported the dog emperor of Manchuria, suppressed dissidents by terrorist means, assassinated countless celebrities, colluded with big landlords and big capitalists, engaged in some kind of rotten and backward capitalist constitutional monarchy, carried out land reform in the form of cruel deprivation of peasants, and also used the opportunity of land reform to lead his subordinates to devour the shares of state-owned land companies, indulged in the corruption of his subordinates, and also eliminated the hope of taking the "socialist road" by cruel means Ding Jieyun and his gang ...... Now he still wants to replace the Manchurian Emperor, with a yellow robe, and he has a rotten dream of an emperor.

It's really interesting to see yourself from the perspective of others.

The trip to the front line touched countless officers and soldiers, and even made his descendants and subordinates admire him to the ground, and domestic public opinion also applauded one after another, and the situation was very good.

So, the next step is to get the prime minister's seat back......

Three days later, Liu Yun approached the Minister of the Interior, Mo Ning.

"What happened to the emperor?"

Mo Ning paused for a moment, and shook his head again and again: "It's okay, live a good life, the people in the palace hall said that he held a banquet every night......"

"He didn't know if I was back?"

"The chamberlains of the Imperial Household Agency and the base camp have already told him, is there any problem?"

Liu Yun glanced at Mo Ning obliquely, in fact, he didn't know much about this person.

The two don't have much friendship, Mo Ning is Zhang Zhigao's senior brother at Guangxi Normal University, a master's degree in modern political science from the School of Social and Cultural Sciences, with a white and clean face, oily and shiny hair, a pair of black-framed glasses on the bridge of his nose, a black suit, a white shirt, a gray-blue checkered tie, and a mouth of too deliberate Mandarin like a CCTV announcer in that time and space, a little under-beaten.

"Hasn't the emperor issued an edict recently?"

"No, there has been no new edict since the last edict appointing Zhang Zhigao as prime minister."

"Strange ......"

Liu Yun felt that things were a little strange.

Before leaving for the front, the emperor kept saying that it would not be possible for the country to leave him Liu Yun, but only temporarily appointed Zhang Zhigao as the acting prime minister, and as soon as he returned to Beijing, he would immediately give him back the position of prime minister.

Now that Liu Yun has been back in Beijing for three days, not to mention the imperial decree appointing him as the prime minister, there is not even a notice of summons, and at this time, asking him to pull down his neck to "see" the emperor is simply asking him to rub his face on the ground next to the latrine.

"What else does Wu Weigong have to advise?"

"It's okay, by the way, please say hello to the Imperial Household Agency, if there is any news related to me in the Imperial Palace, please notify me as soon as possible."

"I know it."

Mo Ning bowed his head slightly to him and led two or three of his followers away.

"What are you proud of, if it weren't for me, you could have come here and be the Minister of the Interior? Five people and six people? ”

The universal consciousness of humanity jumped out, shook twice, and sank deep into the groove of the brain.

This is the official hall separated from the prime minister's official residence, and the afternoon cabinet meeting has ended, and the other cabinet ministers are preparing to leave, except for Mo Ning.

Acting Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Teo Chi Koh and Acting Minister of Culture and Education Luo Sulan, who is also his wife, appeared after the most and were stopped by Liu Yun.

"I want to talk to you."

Liu Yun's request is non-negotiable.

Russellan retreated knowingly.

"You talk, I'll go back first. Chigo, I'll wait for you to eat. ”

Zhang Zhigao smiled and greeted his wife, and he knew that the time for a showdown had come.

"Is it a matter of the treaty with Britain?"

Zhang Zhigao put his hands in his trouser pockets, very calm, although he deeply understood how terrifying the power of the fifty-one-year-old man in front of him was.

"I don't have any doubts about the treaty, I just want to know Lu Dao, when I left, what method did you use to influence that stupid emperor?"

"I don't understand ......"

"Don't pretend to be garlic with me, you know what you're doing. Wen Yi is really cowardly, he didn't dare to come forward, but he asked you to be a substitute for the dead...... Tell you, no one can stop me, we'll see. ”

After Liu Yun finished speaking, he was about to leave with his sleeves up, but was stopped by Zhang Zhigao.

"Liu Yun, have you forgotten who you are?"

As soon as Liu Yun turned around, his tiger and leopard-like gaze shot directly at Zhang Zhigao: "Boy, don't talk to me about clichés, I can forgive Wen Yi's words, a little guy like you, you are too ignorant of the sky, in the end, you have forgotten who you are, right?" ”

"I don't want to fight with you, but now is the time of the war, so we can't let go of everything and leave all the problems until the war is over...... You're still in charge of the base camp, and I'll do my best to cooperate with you. ”

Liu Yun let out a contemptuous "oh", and an emotionless, slightly trembling smile crossed his cheeks: "What do you want to say?" Just act like nothing happened? Well, I agree, I think so too. ”

"All issues should be resolved within the framework of the Constitution, which is also Mr. Wen's original intention."

"Constitution? Frame? Very good, I agree. ”

Zhang Zhigao raised his head and stubbornly resisted Liu Yun's stormy and overwhelming gaze: "The spirit of the constitution is parliamentary democracy and party politics, so to take the leader of the majority party in parliament as the head of government, and the active military to act as the head of government, originally violated the spirit of the constitution, and can only be used as a temporary measure, one or two months is acceptable, and in the long run, it will set a bad precedent and bury unstable factors in the future." If you retire from active service after the war and then join politics, we of course the Chinese People's Party will consider pulling you as president to lead the Chinese People's Party in the election campaign, and if you can still win a majority of seats in the National Assembly, you will naturally be able to be your prime minister. ”

Liu Yun's smile gradually turned cold: "How do you know that I must want to join the Chinese People's Party?" ”

"You may not want to, but the Chinese People's Party will probably want you very much."

"Sharp-toothed boy...... You know what I want to do when I become prime minister. ”

"If you can convince Congress, you can do whatever you want."

Liu Yun snorted in his nose, patted his sleeve, turned around fiercely, walked away without looking back, and threw a sentence with his back to Zhang Zhigao: "You guys are so naïve, very good, during the war, let's live together peacefully." ”

Zhang Zhigao saw him leave, sighed, his feet went limp, and he leaned against the putty white lime wall in the corridor.

Luo Sulan walked over.

"Why haven't you left yet?"

"Of course I'm going to wait for you, it's over so soon?"

Zhang Zhigao shook his head and said: "Although it doesn't seem like a formal promise, it should be able to guarantee peaceful coexistence during the war, and from his point of view, leading this war to victory is his most valuable political capital, and I think I have pointed out to him a broad road to the legal seizure of power after the war, and he has no reason to refuse." ”

"And then? If he takes power, what will we do then......"

"If he is prevented from gaining power through legal means, it will worsen the situation, and we will need time to take one step at a time."

Luo Sulan took out a handkerchief and wiped away the beads of sweat on Zhang Zhigao's forehead.

"He does have an incomparably strong mental will, and when I am watched by him like that, I really feel like I am going to be vaporized in the next second......"

"But you're not vaporized, at least you still exist."

"Yes, now ......"

"Let's go."

Luo Sulan took her husband's arm.

"Walk like a man, with your chest up."

"Yes."

The voice of the answer was so pale and weak.

"Really, I said I wanted to be like a man......"

"My feet are still a little soft......"

"Weak guy, I misread you......"

……