Zhao Shuqiao and He Naiying arrived in Zhuozhou on 7 June.

The Boxers attached great importance to the arrival of Zhao Shuqiao and Yin He Naiying of Shuntian Mansion, and welcomed them to the prefect's yamen as if they were guests. Now, the Yamen has been occupied by the Boxers and has become the headquarters of the Boxers, and the former prefect of Zhuozhou has committed suicide. Zhao Shuqiao had no time to care about the cause of death of the unlucky Gong Governor at this time, and eagerly asked to see the so-called righteousness and divine skills.

The leaders of the Boxers were very happy, "No problem, you can watch it at any time." ”

So, Zhao Shuqiao and He Naiying were invited to an altar in the city, where there was an open space, surrounded by flags and cigarette smoke. Zhao Shuqiao and He Naiying were invited to the throne, and then the performance began.

The first show was an oath. The elder brother led several groups of people to line up in front of the incense burner, and then muttered something in his mouth. Zhao Shuqiao couldn't hear it clearly, and he didn't want to hear it clearly, it was probably the rules of the Boxers. Of course, he didn't feel that the eyes of the two young men in the crowd who were watching around him in colorful clothes like operas kept wandering over him and He Naiying. These two people are Jiang Yun and Tian Shubang.

The group rules recited by the senior brother were heard clearly by Jiang Yun, and he laughed secretly in his heart, what is not greedy for money, not robbed, and not close to women, it is all deception! Where did the headscarf on your head come from? Following Long Qian for more than a year, Jiang Yun already had a strong immunity to these things that the gods were chattering, and he couldn't help but want to laugh when he saw the serious demeanor of the people around him.

Tian Shubang also thought it was funny. Joining the Boxer Rebellion temporarily was not in the plan, but Jiang Yun's decision. This time I came to Zhuozhou. Long Qian designated Jiang Yun as the leader, and he could only obey. He admitted that although Jiang Yun was seven or eight years younger than him, he was scheming and did not panic when encountering problems, which made Tian Shubang admire the bearded head. This temporary decision is actually very good, at least now I have become the master in Zhuozhou, I don't have to worry about eating, and my actions are even more convenient.

The imperial court really sent a messenger, and in this way, the messenger came for the Boxers. Maybe the imperial court will really rely on the Boxers to deal with the foreigners. Commander Long clearly expected this. But Commander Long seemed to be deeply worried about the situation in Jingshi, which was not something that Tian Shubang could understand. Before coming, Long Qian had a special explanation for them, and his task was to understand the situation of the Boxers and how many foreign guns they had. How many people. How many foreign guns. Is there any rigorous organization and training? He had almost figured out these things, although the Boxers in Zhuozhou had exceeded 4,000 people, and they were increasing every moment. But it is a group of rabble, and against this group of people, one infantry battalion of the Mengshan army is enough to win the battle.

The show in the clearing is still ongoing. The oath has been completed, and now the Dharma has begun. A dozen or so people with red and yellow turbans entered the open space, and the master came to the kneeling people with a wad of paper and distributed the pieces of paper, on which were written the names of the immortals, and then the group members carefully folded the pieces of paper and hid them in the headscarves, and the master touched the heads of the people and began to recite the Dharma, and the immortals written were probably attached to him.

The next thing is the possession of the gods, the master leads the team, walking back and forth with the steps on the stage, and the speech has become a joke, but everyone can understand: I am the Monkey King! I am Lu Dongbin is also! The legendary gods appear one by one, as if they are putting on a good show. To the audience's amusement, the performers not only had to announce the name of the immortal, but also imitated the demeanor of the immortal as much as possible: Sun Wukong was a monkey, and Tie Guan Li appeared on one leg, making this originally extremely serious performance have a strong comedic effect.

Zhao Shuqiao was in a trance, he was in the theater, watching a lame opera. He wanted to give a shout and blast this group of crappy actors down. Zhao Shuqiao is a minister who has watched the performances of Peking Opera masters, and the performances of these clowns in front of him are too lame. Before he could say anything, he was taken aback by the chaos of the scene.

The crowd first fell suddenly, dead and motionless, and then suddenly jumped up, brandished the big knife in their hands and danced in an orderly manner, still muttering words in their mouths, sometimes laughing, sometimes yelling, foaming at the mouth, and after dancing wildly, the performer suddenly fell to the ground again and remained motionless, only his chest was still rising and falling violently. The master introduced to the Qin Cha that this is the "unloading method"

The last performance is what he wants to see the most, that is, the staging of invulnerability. A group of people with a foreign gun pointed at a partner more than a dozen paces away, and with a bang, the group member who was "shot" stood unharmed and motionless. Immediately there was a warm cheer, and all the people who watched were excited.

Tian Shubang was dumbfounded. Because that gun did fire! He could see this completely, but the person who acted as the target really didn't have anything to do! As he was pondering the reason, he immediately heard Jiang Yun's words in his ear: The bullet has been pulled out!

I see!

The leader stepped forward and asked the Chin Cha to judge. Jiang Yun squeezed a few steps forward, wanting to hear what Qin Cha had to say.

Qin Cha stroked his beard, "I think you better go home and farm." ”

This old man is a person who understands__Jiang Yun thought to himself.

That old man is Zhao Shuqiao's military aircraft, which has a deep relationship with the Mengshan Army.

But the Boxers are gone! The scene began to be chaotic, and the Boxers did not seem to have the courage to stop the Chincha to ask for an explanation.

Zhao Shuqiao's heart was desolate. This is the Boxer Rebellion of the Divine Fist that was pinned on by the Queen Mother? Just rely on these peasants who are not as good as fighting to help clear and extinguish the foreigners? He has already thought about how to report to the Queen Mother when he returns to Beijing, and he must not believe in the Boxers! Believe them, the Qing Dynasty is really going to be finished!

However, another Manchu military aircraft minister came with Fortitude.

If fortitude does not come, history may look different, and this is by no means alarmist. Because at this time, the attitude of the imperial court towards the Boxers would determine the fate of the country.

However, Fortitude came to Zhuozhou.

The Qing Dynasty was originally the court of the Manchus, and Fortitude was a Manchu military aircraft, and its status was higher than that of Zhao Shuqiao, a Han military aircraft. Therefore, Zhao Shuqiao must meet Gangyi and report to Gangyi on the inspection situation. The current fortitude is no longer the squire of the criminal department who was not afraid of power and did not judge the case impartially in the "Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage" case that caused a sensation a few years ago, that case is indeed an unjust case, and the resolute reversal of the case has another purpose, that is, to crack down on the Hunan army and Huai army system that took away more than half of the governors of the provinces by suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The common people don't care who is who, they learned that Gangyi is a good official in the case of Yang Naiwu, which was made into a drama.

He came to Zhuozhou with a deep hatred for the fortitude of foreigners, and listened to the report that Zhao Shuqiao prepared to the Queen Mother, and immediately said, "Zhanru, don't make a big mistake!" ”

This is to disagree with Zhao Shuqiao's opinion. Zhao Shuqiao was taken aback: Gangyi is the most trusted person of King Duanjun, and King Duanjun is the biological father of the heir. My good man, if he hadn't come to Zhuozhou in person, he would have really made a big mistake!

The result that Zhao Shuqiao didn't make a mistake was to make the imperial court make a big mistake!

When Zhao Shuqiao returned to Beijing, he did not present the written recital to Cixi, but took the form of a face-to-face report, and Cixi asked him if the Boxers were reliable. Zhao Shuqiao didn't say a word, and compared what he saw in Zhuozhou to Cixi with the most vivid body language possible, which made the Queen Mother cloudy and foggy. In Cixi's opinion, Zhao Shuqiao didn't make it clear what the problem was.

Zhao Shuqiao's purpose is this, he thinks that in this way, no matter what, he is safe, this official who has been honed in the imperial officialdom will certainly not think that a year later, he was listed by the foreigners who hated the Boxers as a list of ministers who must be punished for supporting foreigners, and was ordered to die by Cixi!

Cixi, who lived in the Summer Palace, was distraught. Cixi was a little uncertain about such a situation, even she thought she had experienced strong winds and waves, Cixi was like a mirror in her heart, she didn't believe in the slogan of the Boxer Rebellion "Helping the Qing to destroy the foreigners", once this movement with obvious rebellious characteristics got out of control, the foreigners may not be destroyed, and the court is afraid that it will be destroyed first!

Cixi decided to listen to the opinion of Rong Lu, who was closest to her closest confidants. Rong Lu has a firm attitude, and the Boxers are by no means reliable! Young-rok, who was under full military responsibility for Gyeonggi from all sides, was overwhelmed, and if he ordered to resist the coalition forces (about 300 men) that were entering Beijing to protect the embassy, he would be pushed into opposition to the foreigners. And Rong Lu, who was still sober-minded, said that no matter what, the imperial court could not support the Boxers to enter Beijing to attack the foreign churches of the Beijing Division, let alone attack the embassies of various countries. In this regard, he agrees with the deaf Prince Qing Yixuan. Yixuan strongly advocated opening up the city defense and allowing foreign soldiers to enter Beijing. For this reason, Yixuan and Rong Lu were both scolded as traitors by the Boxer Rebellion to replace Guangxu's Duanjun Wang, a series of Manchurian nobles.

In fact, it should be called a "Manchu traitor", it can be seen that the Manchus have been in charge of the Central Plains for more than 200 years and have been completely sinicized.

Not only Duanjun Wang Zaiyi scolded Yixuan and Rong Lu, but even Ganjun Dong Fuxiang also went to Ronglu, Dong Fuxiang said that if it wasn't for Rong Lu's intervention, his Gan army would only need five days to sweep away the foreigners in Beijing, but Rong Lu just didn't allow him to do it, isn't this a traitor?

Cixi, who had been thinking about it for a few days, finally made a decision. The first decision was to leave the Summer Palace and move back to the Forbidden City, and then, on June 10, Cixi appointed Duanjun Wang Zaiyi as the prime minister of the Yamen for national affairs, an appointment that showed Cixi's final attitude towards the Boxers.

Things took a turn for the worse.

Not surprisingly, the Boxers gathered in Zhuozhou flocked to the city of Beijing. Because of the "edict" a few days ago about not allowing the Boxers to enter Beijing to make trouble, the Admiral of Jiumen immediately ordered the city gate to be closed, but immediately sent an order from the auxiliary state Gong Zailan, ordering the city gate to be opened immediately and let the Boxers enter the city.

Hulala, a huge majority of peasants who had never entered Beijing poured into the imperial capital, day and night, and the number of people entering Beijing before and after was as high as more than 100,000. (To be continued......)