Chapter 67: Cixi
I feel irritable. I believe everyone knows the reason. Some people specifically blackmailed me. I don’t know if I offended you by writing honestly. I deserve your concern for me.
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In the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, Guangxu was so angry that he could not speak. He was in a daze, as if he had just taken opium.
"Li Hongzhang, Li Hongzhang, what do you want me to do to you?" Guangxu's mood is extremely unstable now. He even thinks about killing Li Hongzhang. I believe that if he has real power in his hands, he will definitely do so. .
The courtiers of the Qing Dynasty kneeling below looked like their dead parents. They were all devastated, lying on the ground and not daring to speak.
Minister of Military Aircraft Weng Tonghe was just an afterthought. At this time, he stood up calmly and said: "Your Majesty, I have long said that the Huai Army is not useful. Now that Lushun is lost, the Japanese Navy has gained a foothold in the Bohai Bay. , from now on our Beiyang gateway will be opened, and the Japanese army can march straight into our Beijing and Tianjin areas. I hope that your Majesty will quickly recruit the Hunan Army and recruit troops to help the north to save the critical situation. "
It turns out that just this morning, military news came from the front line. Lushun, known as the "No. 1 Fortress in East Asia," actually fell into the hands of the Japanese army.
When the Japanese vanguard marched into Lushun, only Xu Bangdao's guard troops resisted tenaciously in Tuchengzi. However, Gong Zhaoxuan, the former general manager of the enemy's camp affairs office, ignored all the troops and fled to Yantai in a torpedo boat.
Subsequently, three commanders, Huang Shilin, Zhao Huaiye and Wei Rucheng, also absconded one after another.
The generals have no fighting spirit and the soldiers have no morale.
In the end, the Qing government spent huge sums of money to operate the Port Arthur military port for 15 years, which was known as Port Arthur in the West and Gibraltar in the East. It was also the largest shipyard in East Asia at the time and was occupied by the Japanese army.
Since then, the Bohai Sea has opened up, directly threatening the vitality of Tianjin and Beijing.
It's no wonder that these Qing officials, who only plundered people's wealth and wealth all day long, were also frightened and felt that the sky was about to fall.
Li Hongzhang knelt on the ground, his face equally ashen. Facing Guangxu's questioning, he could only cry: "I, I have nothing to say."
Li Hongzhang really had nothing to say. He didn't understand why Lushun, which he had worked so hard to manage, was attacked by the Japanese overnight.
Are the Japanese too powerful, or are our own people too stupid?
"Since you have nothing to say, just keep your black gauze hat and go home to take care of yourself." Guangxu scolded angrily.
Weng Tonghe pulled a sneer from the corner of his mouth and said in his heart: Li Hongzhang, Li Hongzhang, you also have today.
Just as Li Hongzhang was about to be dismissed from his post and investigated, he heard a chamberlain outside the door shouting loudly: "Your Majesty, a telegram has come from the front line."
Has something new happened? It's not like it was lost somewhere.
The ministers, with sad faces, began to discuss among themselves one by one.
One and two are talking about what to do.
After Guangxu made the announcement, the little eunuch quickly ran in with the telegram.
The eyes of all the ministers followed the telegram held by the little eunuch, and their hearts were so nervous that they almost jumped out of their chests.
Guangxu felt that the little eunuch was walking too slowly, so he left the throne in a hurry, walked down quickly, and personally picked up the telegram in the little eunuch's hand.
After opening the telegram, Guangxu read it anxiously.
All the ministers craned their necks to see Guangxu's reaction, even Li Hongzhang, who had been kneeling in despair just now, was no different.
The expression on Guangxu's face was stunned for a moment, and then the corners of his mouth trembled slightly.
"Okay, okay, we in the Qing Dynasty still have brave and capable warriors." Guangxu read the telegram over and over again, then put it down and said softly.
Weng Tonghe was anxious and couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, what is this?"
"My lords, good news came from Dakaoling. Nie Shicheng and Heilongjiang general Yiketang'a regained Lianshanguan and Caohekou, annihilated more than 5,000 enemies, and killed Major General Li Jian Shangwen of the Japanese 10th Brigade and several other generals. Ten men captured the flag of the 11th Japanese Regiment and achieved the greatest victory since the war began."
Guangxu said the words in the telegram without missing a breath, and then he breathed a long sigh of relief and continued: "My dear friends, it seems that God has blessed me in the Qing Dynasty!"
Guangxu was in a state of ice and fire, and he didn't even know what to do. On the one hand, he had lost the most important strategic location in Liaodong, and on the other hand, he had achieved the greatest victory since the war began.
"I will reward those meritorious soldiers greatly, and I will not show any mercy to those useless people who are greedy for life and afraid of death." Guangxu was so excited that he walked back and forth for a few steps, then stopped, his face flushed. said.
Originally, Guangxu would not have thought of severely punishing those who were greedy for life and fearful of death. In the Qing Dynasty, there were many people who were greedy for life and fearful of death. If they were all punished, the whole hall would probably be empty tomorrow morning.
However, everything depends on comparison. On the one hand, they are brave and good at winning, but on the other hand, they are constantly losing territory. Of course Guangxu would consider it in his heart.
Hearing that Nie Shicheng had won another victory, Li Hongzhang couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. This great victory came at the right time. It was a timely blessing from his Li Zhongtang protector.
Li Hongzhang winked, and Zhang Yinhuan, the Minister of Household Affairs, bowed and said: "Your Majesty, since the front line has achieved a great victory, Mr. Li has no merit but hard work, so please give him a lighter punishment."
Guangxu's face sank a little, but thinking that Li Hongzhang was still Cixi's confidant, and that this was indeed a great victory, he said: "My dear minister, you are right, he should be dismissed and investigated, and then changed his position and retained."
The difference between the two words is a world of difference. Although dismissing and retaining the position means dismissing the Beiyang minister, he is still doing what the Beiyang minister should do. As long as he can make up for his mistakes later, his reinstatement is just around the corner.
"Your Majesty, I thank you very much for your grace!" Li Hongzhang kowtowed to thank you.
Although Guangxu did not bother Li Hongzhang for the time being, he also approved Weng Tonghe's suggestion to recruit the Hunan Army, and decided to use the Hunan Army veterans such as Wei Guangtao, the governor of the province, Li Guangjiu, and recruit troops to help the north.
Liu Kunyi, the veteran of the Hunan Army and the governor-general of Liangjiang, had just met the emperor a few days ago. Guangxu appointed him as the imperial commissioner to supervise the military affairs of the Eastern Expedition and ordered him to go to Shanhaiguan to command the troops.
Of course, although Liu Kunyi's appointment was issued, it would take at least half a month for him to arrive at Shanhaiguan.
Guangxu then rewarded a large number of meritorious soldiers in the battle to recapture Lianshanguan, and reported the news of the victory to the whole country in a court report to boost the morale of the domestic war of resistance.
For a time, the names of Nie Shicheng, Wei Jichen and others frequently appeared in government notices, in the mouths of officers and soldiers, and in the mouths of the people.
However, just when Guangxu was slightly excited by a victory and was ready to fight the Japanese to the end.
That night in the Leshou Hall of the Summer Palace, four nine-peach copper furnaces were burning sandalwood, and Cixi, the helmsman of the Qing Empire, was lying on her back on a red sandalwood and gold-threaded armchair.
Li Lianying, the eunuch next to her, was carefully applying egg white to her face.
For Cixi, this old woman, in addition to admiring her power and tactics, you also have to admire her beauty skills.
If this were put in the future, she would be a real beauty master.
After Cixi's 'mask' was done, she lay down for a while, and Li Lianying carefully wiped the egg white with Hangzhou's fine silk, and then asked softly: "Old Buddha, do you want to take a bath today?"
Cixi squinted her eyes and nodded gently, and Li Lianying understood and helped her to a magnificent bathing pool.
Several palace maids hurriedly poured the fishy-smelling human milk into the bathing pool. Others at most took a milk bath, but Cixi took a human milk bath, which was not on the same level.
Li Lianying gently undressed Cixi. When he saw that Cixi's skin was slightly wrinkled but still smooth and white, he couldn't help but praise: "Old Buddha, look, your skin is a hundred times smoother than that of a newborn baby."
That woman didn't care about beauty. Even Cixi, who was the master of the harem, couldn't help but smile when she heard Li Lianying's praise. She walked into the bath and said with a smile: "You, my servant, are so sweet-mouthed. Come, give me a full body massage. I feel uncomfortable all over my body when I get old."
The reason why Li Lianying was so favored by Cixi was that in addition to his powerful mouth skills, his hand skills were also good. After a while, Cixi was made comfortable and moaned.
After a moment, Cixi suddenly opened her squinting eyes and asked Li Lianying: "Little Li, is the Sixth Prince still waiting outside?"
"To answer the old Buddha, the Sixth Prince is still waiting for your summons outside." Li Lianying stretched his hand up from below and gently pinched Cixi's shoulder.
The Sixth Prince is the Prince Gong Yizhen of the Qing Dynasty. Yizhen is known as the last wise man of the Manchus in the Qing court. Because he is good at dealing with foreigners, he is also called Guizi Liu.
At the end of September, Cixi re-employed Guizi Liu Yizhen, who was deposed by her in 1884, to preside over the Zongli Yamen. Why? Because Guizi Liu originally advocated surrender to foreign countries.
Cixi hoped that he would come forward and ask Britain to jointly mediate the Sino-Japanese War with the United States and Russia, but because the three countries had their own plans, the mediation proposal put forward by the British in October did not get any results.
But now the Japanese have brought the war to China, and Lushun has fallen. Cixi is anxious, fearing that the Japanese army will invade Beijing and Tianjin. She remembered that when the British and French forces invaded Beijing, she followed Emperor Xianfeng and fled to Chengde like a wild dog.
Cixi never wanted to have such an experience again. As long as she could continue to live such a stable life and the Qing Dynasty could continue to rule the Central Plains, it was not unacceptable to lose some barren land.
"Let him come in now." Cixi lay in the bathtub, did not get up, but raised her hand and said.
"Yes!" Li Lianying bowed and walked out to report.
Not long after, he came in with the old Guizi Liu.
"The servant Yizhen greets the old Buddha, the old Buddha is holy," Guizi Liu Yizhen bowed and saluted.
"Get up!" Cixi waved her hand and asked in a somewhat bleak tone, "How is the matter going?"
Cixi was afraid and hated foreigners. She hated dealing with foreigners the most, so she felt very uncomfortable asking foreigners to do things for her.