On April 19, the 27th year of Guangxu, Cixi, who returned to Beijing, couldn't wait to set up the New Deal Supervision Office, with Rong Lu, Kungang, Wang Wenshao, and Lu Chuanlin as the supervising ministers. Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong, and Yuan Shikai are the ministers of the Administrative Office. The Superintendent of the Administrative Office compiled the political situation of various countries into a "political code" for Cixi's reference.

The above list almost wiped out the political elites of the late Qing Dynasty, and these people were the objects that Cixi relied on. While contemplating this list, Cixi thought about the young man who had impressed her on the West Hunt Road and in Taiyuan, and his views on innovation were very much to her appetite. But she didn't say this to anyone, and she hid it deep in her heart. Probably only Rong Lu, the old monkey who has cultivated to the house, saw the clues, and in a separate recital about Shandong's military and political affairs, Rong Lu intentionally or unintentionally mentioned Long Qian, saying that the kid had bragged about it at the beginning, and he could make a name for himself by giving him a state. Now it is equivalent to handing over the two states of Lunan to him: Tang Shaoyi has a history of studying in the United States, and he fights the enemy side by side, so there must be no civil and military constraints. And Wu Yong had a closer relationship with Long Qian, and if he wanted to implement a new policy in Lunan, the conditions were given to him.

Rong Lu vaguely guessed that Cixi had not forgotten the young general. The formation of the administrative office requires a large number of middle and lower-level officials, and he is not sure whether Cixi intends to transfer Long Qian to the center to fill an important position such as the military aircraft department.

Rong Lu saw Cixi almost every day, Lafayette was generally in a bad mood after returning to Beijing, the sequelae of the Gengzi national disaster were emerging, money was needed everywhere, the palace was barren and dilapidated and urgently needed to be renovated, and the weeds in the Taihedian Square were half a person high. Several gates and walls near Miyagi need to be repaired. There are also the renovation costs of the Taimiao, Xiyuan Sanhai and the Summer Palace, and there is no need to think that it is a lot of silver. For this leaky empire, these don't seem to be the most important, but the top rulers of the empire care about these things the most! After nearly a year of suffocation in the small, dark and damp governor's yamen in Taiyuan, Cixi had long wanted to go back to Beijing for a few comfortable days. What's more, the Forbidden City, the most desolate face of the Qing Empire, really needs to be renovated.

The annual income of the imperial court was only more than 80 million, which was already stretched, and now it has an additional 10 million in war reparations out of thin air, plus the heavy burden of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Every year, a quarter of the income goes to foreigners. A lot of regular expenditures, such as water conservancy, are not in place. The Yellow River broke the gap in Shandong the year before last, and a lot of people died, and the household department only gave 300,000 taels of meaning. How much of that silver can be used for river work? No one will ever be able to tell. The Yongding River is also becoming more and more flooded. The cost of repairing the river reported by the Ministry of Industry was as high as 11 million taels, and it was not completely renovated. Can the court still get the money? It is also a matter of allocating hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is still true for those who are close to Gyeonggi, and even more so for remote places. In fact, since the beginning of the Daoguang Dynasty. The finances of the imperial court have deteriorated, and the customs have made more purchases over the years, but the standards and revenues of the customs have been controlled by foreigners, and they have all paid compensation, and the imperial court has not even seen the face of tax silver. The influx of foreign goods has overwhelmed the already unfashionable export top, and raw silk, which was originally a traditional export strength, has now completely defeated Japan. The area around Jiangsu and Zhejiang was originally the source of tax and silver treasury of the imperial court, but now the situation is extremely miserable.

The Gengzi national disaster was a great stimulus not only for Cixi, but also for the always conservative Manchurian magnates. When he was in Taiyuan, Rong Lu listened to the princes' discussions, and they all thought that it was not good to remain unchanged. Therefore, Galeries Lafayette issued an edict to solicit opinions on the new policy, which received a warm response from the governors in various places. Returning to Beijing to prepare for the establishment of an administrative office to plan the new policy is also a move in line with the will of the people. Rong Lu saw this very clearly.

As a result, under the personal auspices of Cixi, new policies were launched one after another. No one can tell whether Cixi thought that there was no Wuxu New Deal that she had stifled three years ago, anyway, since the implementation of the New Deal, people soon found that the old empress dowager who presided over the government could go much farther than the original Guangxu Emperor this time.

In addition to signing treaties, demarcating borders, and sending envoys, all affairs related to trade, coastal defense, roads and mines, customs duties, posts and telecommunications, Chinese laborers, missionaries, and travels were all under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After dealing with the affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cixi turned her attention to the military again. This is Ronglu's duty. After recommending Yuan Shikai to take over as his temporary governor of Zhili, Rong Lu returned to his position last year before the Gengzi National Disaster - Minister of Military Aircraft and Secretary of the Ministry of War, and he had to do his homework to consider military issues as a whole.

After the Gengzi national disaster, military problems were more serious in front of the imperial court. In the entire north, after getting rid of the army in Yuan Shikai's hands, there is no formed army! There is no even the force to decorate the façade, how can this make the court embarrassed? Therefore, the imperial court immediately agreed to Yuan Shikai's proposal to transfer the right army of Wuwei to Gyeonggi, but only the more than 10,000 elite soldiers in Yuan Shikai's hands could not support the defense of Gyeonggi, and Rong Lu knew very well that the Gyeonggi defense system must be reorganized. The core is to organize and train the new army.

Although Rong Lu had been a general in Xi'an, a secretary of the military department, and a commander of the armed guards, he considered himself inferior to Yuan Shikai in the training of the new army. Therefore, Rong Lu instructed Yuan Shikai to come up with an opinion. Fortunately, Humpty Dumpty in this Henan was preparing to throw off his arms and do a big job, and it only took ten days for Yuan Shikai to take an excerpt about the formation and training of the new army.

According to the excerpt reported by Yuan Shikai, it is proposed to set up a central military training office, and establish an army academy that is more advanced than the military academy in Baoding Mansion, the current Baoding Mansion of the Governor-General's Palace, and use about three years to organize and train the new-style army of four ~ six towns, and prepare the establishment of imitation of the German army division, one town has jurisdiction over two associations, one association has jurisdiction over two standards, one standard has jurisdiction over three battalions, one battalion has jurisdiction over four teams, one team has jurisdiction over three platoons, and one platoon has jurisdiction over three sheds (classes). Coupled with the special forces such as artillery, engineering, cavalry, and baggage directly under the jurisdiction of Zhentai, the total strength of the town is about 12,500 people. Yuan Shikai made a bold prediction, believing that the imperial court had six elite army towns, which were enough to defend Gyeonggi in case of accidents.

This plan also moved Cixi. But immediately became haunted by money. Not to mention the cost of organizing and establishing these army towns, it will be maintained normally in the future, and it may not be enough to take out all the income of the imperial court. In all fairness, there are not many towns to be formed, and the evil neighbor in the east, who brought great disasters to China, was the first batch of six towns to be established after the Meiji Restoration! How big is Japan? The area is less than one-thirtieth of China! But what about the money? Where does the money come from?

Therefore, after talking about the administrative office and Shandong's military and political affairs, Rong Lu mentioned Long Qian's original rhetoric to remind Cixi to try a new path. If Long Qian could rely on the two not wealthy states of Yizhou and Yanzhou to organize and train a wing army, things would be much easier.

Long Qian's qualifications are too young to be included in the list of the Administrative Office. Cixi had not talked to anyone about Long Qian, but she still hoped that Long Qian would do something in the new deal. That person is extraordinary, presumably highly educated in the United States, Cixi even wants Long Qian to replace Zhou Fu in charge of Shandong, but she can't ignore Yuan Shikai's reaction, Long Qian and Yuan Shikai's filthy Cixi is aware of the Tao, although the Lunan turmoil has not reached her ears so far. She is happy to see the discord between the courtiers, especially the generals, and the dog-eat-dog below is the most happy thing to see above.

The Han Chinese were unreliable, this was a deep-rooted belief among the Manchurian elites. Cixi had already talked to his most trusted minister Rong Lu more than once about the formation of a flag camp, and the Eight Banners ancestral system had long been proved to be unsuccessful, but the Manchu court did not have a real Manchu army! Therefore, when forming the Weisheng Army, Rong Lu proposed to build the Weisheng Army into a "pure" banner army, undertake the guard task of the Beijing Division, and replace the forward battalion and the guard battalion that have actually existed in name only. But last year, he was anxious to comfort Long Qian's department, which had made great contributions, so he hastily gave Long Qian's department the establishment of the right wing of the Weisheng Army, and the left wing was to form a flag battalion. It can also be seen from the serial number that the status of the left wing is certainly higher than that of the right wing. But now that Yuan Shikai threw out the new army that set up the Central Military Training Office and began to organize and train 4~6 towns, it would be more embarrassing to actually form the Weisheng Army. Rong Lu believed that if the Empress Dowager approved Yuan Shikai's training plan, then the first town should undoubtedly be left to the banner camp. That is to say, the troops dominated by the bannermen must be at least the size of a town, otherwise it will be difficult to act as the duty of the imperial guard. But this has put Long Qian's department on hold again, but this is a matter of the future, and there is no need to worry about it now.

Cixi was very smart, and immediately understood Rong Lu's subtext, "Yes, Xiaolongzi spoke big words at the beginning. Originally, I wanted him to come to the government office to run errands and experience a few years, maybe it would be of great use, but now it seems that I should let him be an errand in Shandong. You can give Zhou Fu and Long Qian a will, all the taxes in Lunan Prefecture are used to raise soldiers, there is no need to pay a penny of silver, Shandong will allocate 500,000 taels of silver every year, and Long Qian will also give him two years to train a strong army if he wants to run an industry! ”

"Yes! However, Yuan Shikai brought the right army of Wuwei into Zhili, what should Shandong do? Is it to keep part of the Wuwei Right Army or let Zhou Fu reorganize and train the new army? Zhou Fu's financial management skills are good, but he is not good at military affairs. Shandong's geographical location is extremely important, in order to connect the north and south, and to deal with the Germans, it is necessary to send a reliable person to help Zhou Fu arrest the military. Rong Lu voiced his concerns.

"And what do you have in mind?" Cixi asked Ronglu.

"The first is to leave Feng Guozhang or Duan Qirui as the governor of Shandong. Commanded the military of Shandong. The second is to let the king deign to go to Shandong. ”

That king was Nayantu the Mongol. This is the person Cixi trusted, "It is impossible for that king to go to Shandong to be a governor!" Just according to the first one you said, who is more suitable for those two people? ”

"The slave is more optimistic about Feng Guozhang, this person is mellow. Because Long Qian and Yuan Shikai have a holiday, Feng Guozhang is more suitable. ”

"That's it." Cixi quickly made a decision. It's not that she didn't think about letting Long Qian be the governor of Shandong, the question of seniority was once again in front of her, and sudden advancement was a taboo in officialdom, "It is rumored that Feng Guozhang has entered the palace, and the palace has something to ask him." Zhonghua, you seem to have something to say? ”

"The Queen Mother Mingjian. Yuan Shikai had great enthusiasm for the establishment of the Central Military Training Office and the preparation for the establishment of the Baoding Military Academy, and he planned to ask Feng Guozhang to preside over the affairs of the military academy. Rong Lu hesitated.

"No, the military academy can't be handed over to Yuan Shikai. Let's choose someone else. Cixi said resolutely. (To be continued......)