Shandong's water situation is not a first-class event for the central princes. Entering the year of the Lunar New Year (1903), major events are one after another, and there is a dizzying feeling. The Jiyang break doesn't seem to be a particularly important event. After receiving the report from Shandong Province, the imperial court only issued an edict commending the officers and soldiers of the right wing of the Weisheng Army who had made outstanding achievements, and rewarding them with 10,000 taels of silver as a token of appreciation. As for the Shandong region and the Northeast Ocean Army stationed in Shandong, the edict did not even mention it.

There are indeed many things in the imperial court.

If we talk about the main characteristics of the past two years, it is undoubtedly the protagonist of the New Deal. In less than two years, since the winter of the previous year, the imperial court has been running at a rapid pace—the strength of the new policy far exceeds those of Kang Liang in the year of Wuxu.

There are three main aspects of the New Deal: first, it promotes and rewards private capital to run industry; The second is to abolish the imperial examination and establish a new type of school, and the third is to reform the military system and build a strong army that can resist foreign aggression.

To advocate and reward private capital to run industry, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Lunan are the best ones to do. According to statistics, there were only 104 private enterprises with a total capital of 10,000 yuan in 1895~1900, with a total capital of more than 2,300 yuan. Since 1901, private capital has increased rapidly, represented by Lunan, in just two years, more than 70 industries have been opened, and an industrial group with a total capital of tens of millions has been formed, which cannot but be eye-catching. The economic strength of Jiangsu and Zhejiang is already very strong, taking the Dasheng Yarn Factory of Zhuangyuan Lang Zhang Jian as an example, since 1901, the factory has also entered a period of rapid development, and its strength has increased several times. Private enterprises in Shaanxi, Sichuan, Guangzhou, and Lianghu are developing rapidly. There is no exhaustive data yet, but it is estimated. In the past two years, private capital has at least tripled in the industrial sector.

The abolition of the imperial examination and the establishment of new-style schools are even more remarkable. Yuan Shikai founded Shandong and Zhili University Hall, Zhang Zhidong founded Lianghu University Hall, and Sichuan Governor Kuijun founded Sichuan University Hall - it has become a fashion for governors everywhere to hold back their efforts to run new-style schools, as if they would lose their share if they did not run a new-style school in a province.

The curriculum of these new schools is unheard of by the Chinese people who have only known the classics of the sages for thousands of years: physics, chemistry, mechanics, botany, agriculture, engineering, mathematics, geography, and so on. Let's take a look at the curriculum design of the Beijing Normal University Hall: the general meaning of politics, the essence of the Qing Dynasty, and the legal system examination of ancient and modern Chinese dynasties. Comparison of the legal systems of Eastern and Western countries. National Finance, National Administration, Land and Population Statistics, Police and Prisons. The diplomatic history of various countries in the modern world. Academic history of financial management in various countries. Pedagogy, Negotiation Law, Principles of Law. Political history of various countries, constitutions of various countries, civil law, commercial law, criminal law, general discussion of criminal law of various countries......

The authorities noticed the convergence with the world, but did not think about the consequences of the students' exposure to this knowledge.

This is the case for education in China, and sending students to study abroad is in full swing. After the Xin Chou year, the imperial court encouraged study tours, and the famous governor and leader of the Qingliu Dynasty, Zhang Zhidong, sent his son to the United States at his own expense, and even the New York Times reported on it. For a while, there was a craze for studying abroad in Japan, and studying in Japan was the most common. After the Meiji Restoration, there was a kind of fresh air that Chinese obsessed, and international students thought that they had seen the new world, and even Liang Qichao wrote, "When I went to Japan, I saw the rise of a new state, like breathing the breeze in the early morning, and the brain was refreshing...... "Look, what is the feeling of the leader of the royalist party in Japan?"

The vigor of the new-style education office has almost become synonymous with the New Deal. But what the Qing court did not expect was that the new education would find itself a gravedigger ideologically and organizationally. Inevitably, the student uprising appeared, and in the eyes of the bureaucrats, the students were too angry, the former dignity of teachers was destroyed, and the students became unruly. Hundreds of students at Nanyang College dropped out of school en masse because of a trivial incident that was nothing more than a ban on students from reading newspapers and periodicals.

Education is one thing, and the openness of public opinion is also one of the hallmarks of the New Deal. In the past two years, newspapers and periodicals have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, leaving the intellectuals of the Great Qing Kingdom at a loss. Reading newspapers has become a very fashionable move, and both official and non-governmental organizations seem to have reached a consensus that as long as the people are willing to read the newspaper, the wisdom of the people can be opened.

The news published in the newspapers was even more varied, ranging from those advocating tourism to those openly soliciting marriages. None of this counts, more newspapers got involved in politics and were full of criticism of the Qing Dynasty, such as encouraging hair cuts and easy clothes, which was simply a rebellion.

The trial of the "Su Bao" case sounded the alarm for the Qing court and made the Qing court realize the power of the newspaper. When some intellectuals with ulterior motives (such as Zhang Binglin and others) found a platform for the use of force, the media, the role was so great that it was beyond the worst considerations of the Qing court.

The establishment of the new university hall and the rise of newspapers are still things in the spiritual realm, and the changes in the material realm are also quite large. The popularization of the cable telegraph communicated the connection between the center and the provinces. So that important news can be passed on immediately. And all kinds of strange and ingenious things have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, bringing convenience to people's lives and changing people's thinking, even the most powerful Jingshi of the old trend, fresh gadgets from the two major industrial groups in Lunan - from clothing to transportation, from Western medicine to electric lights, a strong impact on the life of Jingshi.

The last point is the reform of the military system. This is the core of the New Deal, and it is also the most sensitive thing of the New Deal.

Cixi was cautious about reforming the military system, especially after Rong Lu, whom she relied on most trust, became seriously ill, and progress in this work was actually slow.

However, the change in the situation was not taken seriously by Cixi.

The problem comes from the Northeast. According to the agreement, the second phase of the withdrawal of the Russian army, which occupied the entire territory of the northeast under the pretext of the boxer rebellion, should be withdrawn from the northern part of Mukden and the whole province of Jilin after the expiration of the second phase of the withdrawal period. However, Lao Maozi, who was reluctant to leave in the northeast, refused to withdraw troops under the pretext that the Japanese had set fire to the forest on the Korean side, invoking the clause of "no other country to contain it." The Russian Chargé d'Affaires in China, Pransson, sent a seven-point note to the Qing government, demanding that no commercial ports should be opened in the northeast, no consuls should be set up in various countries, and that if the Qing court could not be satisfied, the Russian army would not withdraw.

Naturally, the Qing court could not agree to the arrogant and unreasonable demands of the Russians, and even if the Qing court wanted to give in, Britain, Japan, Germany, and other countries would not agree. Therefore, the Russians just stuck in the northeast with a dead face. They can see clearly that relying only on the little force of the Qing court, there is no way to take themselves.

The Russians' ambition to dominate the northeast is clearly exposed, and it also shows that Li Hongzhang's diplomatic line of using Russia to control the country has completely failed. Facts have proved that in the past 50 years, the Qing Dynasty has suffered the most from foreign affairs, not only the Japanese, let alone Britain and France, but its northern neighbors. If Lao Maozi doesn't leave, how should the ancestral mausoleum be treated? Ceded the whole of the Northeast to Russia?

In the first half of 1903, the biggest problem in the imperial court's diplomacy was the Northeast. This has led to profound changes on both the political and military fronts.

Let's start with politics. Northeast China is geographically and politically specific. It is very different from the governance of Kannai. There is no superintendent but is managed by the three generals of Fengtian, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. It's just that the culture is not repaired. The armament was unbearably lax. The Northeast is located on the front line of national defense, and the so-called national defense forces of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, let alone dealing with the invading Russian army, even the beard on the ground has no good way. In this case. It was proposed to reform the ancestral system in the Northeast. The call for the establishment of a governor is growing. The starting point is to deal with civil affairs first, and then run the military. If the financial endowment of the northeast is straightened out, there will be conditions for reorganizing the armed forces.

Yuan Shikai instructed his old friend Xu Shichang to write to the imperial court. pointed out that to defend the land of Longxing in the Qing Dynasty, we must have enough food and strong soldiers. And implementing the new policy is the only way. Of course, Xu Shichang, who has been in the officialdom for a long time, did not forget to take the opportunity to make a big slap on the back of Cixi, and greatly praised the achievements of the new policy led by the queen mother. Xu Shichang enumerated the achievements of the new policy in the Guannei Office, and believed that the Northeast has fertile land and abundant products, and as long as you work hard, you will definitely be able to make achievements. Therefore, Xu Shichang put forward a package plan for the implementation of the new policy outside the customs, as if he was in charge of the government outside the customs.

But Xu Shichang's excerpt was left behind, and Cixi did not say whether it was true or not.

In early summer, Rong Lu, who was lingering on the sickbed, finally died. The Manchurian magnates lost another pillar of support. Rong Lu's death is a signal that marks the withering of the older generation of politicians in the center. Yuan Shikai and other new generation of political forces completely came to the fore and became the most dynamic force in the center of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Xu Shichang stared at Guanwai, and the idea of suggesting that the imperial court should carry out drastic reforms immediately spread throughout the imperial court. His proposal to reform the bureaucratic system was opposed by the old bureaucrats such as General Sheng Jing and Zhao Erxun, who feared that the separation of powers would go out of the way. After several months of arguing and shouting, Cixi finally decided to reform the official system in the northeast. The decision was made at the highest level, and the struggle for the additional post of superintendent began. There are only a few seats, and all factions are staring at them, and they all want to take the opportunity to expand their power. The floods in Shandong are nothing compared to this.

In July, the long-awaited Ministry of Commerce was established, with the Manchu nobles Zai Zhen as the book, and the industrial and mining railways were all owned by the Ministry. China, which had valued agriculture over commerce for thousands of years, finally understood the importance of commerce, but the traditional culture based on agriculture collapsed, which the imperial court did not expect.

The critical situation in the northeast also gave Yuan Shikai, who strongly advocated the reform of the military system and the unified training of the army, the best excuse for him. Yuan Shikai played Cixi, analyzed the national defense situation, and believed that the most important ones were the northwest and northeast. Border defenses were tight, but the existing strength was seriously insufficient to allocate, so they came up with an ambitious plan for the nationwide organization and training of the new army, and the total number of towns (divisions) was as high as 36.

The formation and training of the new army of the 36 towns is nothing less than a fantasy for the current Manchu court. Although Yuan Shikai's ambitious plan to build an army moved Cixi. Where does the money come from, and where do the officers come from? It's not a matter of one sentence. Yuan Shikai immediately came up with a step-by-step implementation proposal, and in the first phase, the army of six towns was built to defend Gyeonggi. This scheme is more reliable. So, everyone stared at the six towns of Beiyang again, and they all wanted to get a piece of the pie.

Cixi attached great importance to the formation and training of the new army. The core of this was the establishment of the Manchu armed forces. It was Rong Lu's idea to form the Wasion Army two years ago, with the aim of creating a new army that would be absolutely loyal to the imperial court. It was a helpless move to organize the right wing in advance, not only to reward merit, but also to contain a large armed guard right army. Therefore, Rong Lu suggested that the right wing of the Weisheng Army be sent back to Shandong.

After the signing of the Xinchou Treaty, the coalition forces gradually withdrew from the Beijing Division, and the formation of the left wing of the Weisheng Army was also put on the agenda. According to the plan agreed between Cixi and Rong Lu, the left wing of the Weisheng Army completely recruited bannermen and was a pure Manchurian army. However, the formation of the banner people's armed forces, which had pinned infinite hopes, did not go smoothly, and due to Rong Lu's serious illness, this unit was not completed until last autumn, and the combat effectiveness was not to mention. Fortunately, Yuan Shikai was well-behaved, knowing the heart disease of the Empress Dowager Dao, and came forward to form four battalions of the "Beijing Banner Standing Army", so that the bannermen were armed with more than ten battalions, which looked a bit interesting. In Yuan Shikai's plan, the number of the first town was left to the banner soldiers to show respect for the armed forces of the country.

In fact, the remaining five towns are up for grabs. The core of these is the question of the right wing of the Wasion Army, whether to break it up and break it up into other towns, or to use it as the core to form a separate town? This problem became the most concerned issue for the imperial court in the summer and autumn of 1903. (To be continued......)