November 30, the eve of the Blessing Puja.

The north wind was blowing, and the goose feathers and heavy snow covered the entire city of Beijing in half color.

Lee House.

An old man with a gray beard and a sixtieth birthday sat alone at the dining table.

There weren't many dishes on the table, only four or five.

But when you look closely, each dish is the best of the best.

The old man usually eats very little for breakfast, but he has a good appetite at noon.

Every time for lunch, he eats a bowl of shark fin and a bowl of bird's nest.

After the meal, I also have to drink a cup of thick chicken juice slowly stewed with two old hens.

Stop for a while, and drink molten iron Gu. After dinner, you should also drink iron wine.

This eating habit has been going on for decades.

(Molten iron and iron wine are supplements made from medicinal herbs such as ginseng and skullcapella)

This old man is one of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang, who is also a scholar of the Cultural Palace, the governor of Zhili, and the minister of Beiyang.

"Zhongtang, Ding Ruchang came to urge the silver again." An official from the Beiyang Department came to report to him.

"It is said that our Beiyang Naval Division is Dingyuan and Zhenyuan......"

"Okay." After listening to his report, Li Hongzhang did not raise his head, and responded lightly.

Within two minutes, a subordinate came to report:

"My lord, the news that Japan formulated the policy of conquering the Qing Dynasty that was rumored a few days ago has been confirmed."

"The specific steps of the Japanese, the first step to capture Korea, as a springboard for attacking the mainland of the Qing Kingdom."

"The second step is to invade and occupy Taiwan......"

After Li Hongzhang listened, he still responded lightly: "I know." ”

After a while, another subordinate came to report: "Yuzhongtang, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Liangguang, has made an excerpt. ”

"The Guangdong Iron Works that he asked the Germans to supervise the construction of has already produced iron, costing a total of 3.8 million taels of official silver."

When Li Hongzhang heard Zhang Zhidong's name, his eyes froze, and he returned to his indifferent appearance.

The subordinate continued: "The excerpt on Zhang Zhidong said that after that, I will produce military products in the Qing Dynasty, lay railways, and even the iron materials needed for my new merchant steamship in Beiyang. ”

"All of them can be supplied by his Hanyang Iron Works to ensure that the supply will continue for decades."

"It is reported that the government and the opposition are in an uproar, saying that Zhang Xiangshuai's move is overpowering my Beiyang in the end."

After listening to the report of his subordinates, Li Hongzhang was silent for a while, and asked: "Yuan Shikai ran back from North Korea, why did he disappear?" ”

"Yuan, Yuan Shikai?" The subordinate was a little hesitant, he didn't know Yuan Shikai's situation.

Li Hongzhang didn't expect him to know anything, so he waved his hand casually.

"Alright, you can go down."

At this moment, the servant of the Li Mansion suddenly hurriedly shouted:

"Sir! Master, the parrot that is going to pay tribute to the Queen Mother has not eaten or drunk for more than a day! ”

"The color of the dung is also a little wrong!"

Hearing this, Li Hongzhang hurriedly put down his chopsticks and looked at the servant with a frown.

After wiping his mouth with a silk scarf, he stood up and walked briskly towards the location of the birdcage.

Seeing the parrot cowering in the corner of the cage with its dying breath, Li Hongzhang was shocked, and then angrily reprimanded the servant:

"How do you do it? A good parrot can also raise it like this? ”

The servant said with a bitter face: "Master, I am ...... according to you"

Li Hongzhang waved his hand: "Don't talk nonsense, go to the Tai Hospital and ask an imperial doctor to come, go quickly." ”

The servant hurriedly went out to find the royal doctor.

After about half an hour, a tall man who looked to be in his thirties knocked on the door of the Li Mansion.

The man claimed to be the apprentice of Imperial Doctor Liu of the Tai Hospital, named Ke Xu, and was invited to see Li Zhongtang's parrot, claiming to be very good at treating birds and animals.

Menlang did not doubt him, and let the man into the Li Mansion.

The other led Yu Ke to the birdcage and bowed to Li Hongzhang and said:

"Master, Imperial Doctor Liu's apprentice has arrived."

Li Hongzhang said to himself with some confusion when he heard this: "Imperial Doctor Liu's apprentice, why don't I remember that there is an imperial doctor surnamed Liu in the Tai Hospital?" ”

Immediately, Li Hongzhang reacted, and his face changed greatly.

He pointed to the man who was observing the parrot in front of the birdcage and exclaimed, "Who are you?" ”

The man turned slowly, and arched his hand loosely, the expression on his face was like a smile:

"Li Zhongtang, I've been looking up for a long time!"

The next moment, I saw an extra steel knife in the man's hand out of thin air.

The cold and piercing sword light flashed, the blood source gushed out, and the old man's head flew two meters high.

One of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, he died casually in his own home.

Fortune +28.74, total Fortune 32.51.

……

Li

The first paster in the late Qing Dynasty, he did his best, and after his death, he only left a family fortune of 40 million taels of silver.

He was the leader of the Westernization movement and made outstanding contributions to the construction of Galeries Lafayette's garden.

He was also the highest-ranking Han Chinese in the Manchu court for hundreds of years, and signed many unequal treaties on behalf of the Manchu government that humiliated the country:

The Sino-British Treaty of Yantai, the Sino-French New Treaty, the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty, and the Xincho Treaty, etc.

People give the nickname Oriental Bismarck.

Li Hongzhang, the ear of the national thief.

In terms of betraying the country, if Cixi ranks first, Li Hongzhang will definitely follow second.

After the broadcast of the drama "Towards the Republic", many people thought that Li Hongzhang was really wronged by the infamy of the ages, but he was just signing for the Qing government.

But can a sentence of backing the black pot clear him of all his responsibilities?

Li Hongzhang, in his heart, the power in his hands is higher than the interests of the country.

In order to win the political struggle, he could work together with the British minister Wittoma to defeat the Qing army on the premise that the Qing court would go to war with the Kokand Khanate.

He even instructed the Huai generals to warn the relevant officials in charge of transit logistics:

"From today onwards, don't get paid."

When Zuo Zongtang recovered Xinjiang and victory was in sight, he quickly arranged for his own officials to snatch the fruits of Xinjiang's victory.

Before the First Sino-Japanese War, Japanese spies were spying on intelligence in China.

Li Hongzhang not only did not kill the spies who were caught alive, but also gave them travel expenses and released them to return to China on the grounds that they would lose money if they were killed.

Even a Japanese spy didn't dare to move, which shows how weak Li Hongzhang's heart is.

It is no wonder that the Beiyang Naval Division, which the country spent a huge amount of money to build by him, would be completely wiped out during the First Sino-Japanese Naval War.

I don't know how much silver he made when he established the Beiyang Naval Division.

After the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, Li Hongzhang signed the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" with the Russians.

This treaty enabled Russia to turn Northeast China into a Russian sphere of influence without firing a single shot.

After Li Hongzhang signed the treaty, he was very satisfied.

In a telegram to the Qing government's premier's yamen for national affairs, he said:

"There are very few differences in treaty negotiations. The Russian side has the motive of establishing friendly relations with me. ”

"If I refuse, he will regret it and will do me a disservice."

Unlike other treaties, the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty was signed with Russia on its own initiative by the Qing court.

The Qing Dynasty sent its own territory to the door, how could Russia not agree.

According to the "Compilation of Archives of the Ministry of Finance of Tsarist Russia", when signing the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty", Li Hongzhang also accepted bribes from Russians three times, totaling 1,702,500 rubles.

(So much historical evidence can prove that Li Hongzhang was corrupt, bribery and betrayed the country, and there are still many filial sons and grandsons of Li Hongzhang who want to whitewash him).

……

After killing Li Hongzhang, Yu Ke knocked everyone in the entire Li Mansion unconscious from top to bottom, and then tied them up and threw them into the cellar of the Li Mansion. His method of tying people was learned from a Japanese rope art master, and absolutely no one could break free.

It's not that the Li Mansion doesn't have any martial arts masters to protect Li Hongzhang.

Among Li Hongzhang's servants, there was a martial artist who was well-nourished, and he immediately rushed over after hearing the movement, but he didn't even block Yu Ke's second punch, and his heart was shattered.

After cleaning up all traces and confirming that they were correct, Yu Ke pretended to be a doorman again, and sent all the officials who came to see Li Hongzhang under the pretext that Li Hongzhang was unwell.

It wasn't until it was dark that Yu Ke left the Li Mansion to prepare for the next step of the plan.

After leaving the Li Mansion, Yu Ke walked to a darkly lit corner, changed into a night suit, and came to the outside of the palace.

After many days of summarizing the patrol patterns of the palace guards, he had already planned a route to infiltrate the inner palace.

The inner palace of the imperial palace is inhabited by the emperor and empress, concubines and princes, and the outer palace is inhabited by eunuchs and palace maids and guards.

Compared to the inner palace, the guards of the outer palace were not very strict, and Yu Ke easily blended in without alarming anyone.

Outside the walls of the inner palace of the imperial palace, there is a moat more than ten meters wide.

Yu Ke took advantage of the gap between the patrol guards to come to the shore and sprint and jump, and easily jumped to the other side of the river.

Then, Yu Ke took out a dark gray cloth from the mustard seed space and covered it on his body.

From a distance, it looks as if it has disappeared, and it is difficult to tell the difference.

After another quarter of an hour or so, there was a pause in the rotation of the guards.

A three-legged hook claw quietly clinged to the walls of the inner palace, making only a slight sound.

Yu Ke struggled to jump five meters high, and then used a rope to borrow a little strength, and then went up to the city wall.

At the same time, at the staircase of the city wall seven or eight meters away, the palace guards who had changed shifts were striding upwards, and they would climb the city wall in three seconds at most.

Yu Ke was like a bat in the night, and after climbing the city wall, the hook claw disappeared in his hand.

With a light touch of your foot, you will drop to the other side of the wall.

As soon as he landed, Yu Ke sprinted forward as fast as he could, while trying not to make too much noise.

After climbing over five or six walls and seven or eight halls in succession, we came to the outside of a palace.

According to the map of the inner palace drawn by Eunuch Pang, Yu Ke judged that his location was the Wenhua Palace.

The Empress Dowager Cixi lived in Chuxiu Palace.

Zaiyan, that is, Emperor Guangxu, lived in the Qianqing Palace.

As for Li Lianying, the great eunuch, although she is in a high position and has the trust of Cixi, she still lives in 'Tatan'.

That is, where all the eunuchs in the palace lived.

From the Wenhua Hall to the Chuxiu Palace where Cixi is located, the straight-line distance is about 700 meters.

To the Qianqing Palace where Emperor Guangxu is located, there are about more than 600 meters.

But Emperor Guangxu is not necessarily in the Qianqing Palace, but also in the Kunning Palace where the queen is located, or in the palace where the noble concubine lives.

At this time, it was already more than two o'clock in the morning, and after another two or three hours, it was time for the morning pilgrimage.

Time is running out for Yu Ke.