It is not easy for those who can survive in the late Qing Dynasty. They may not understand Western learning and are a little confused in front of new things, but once they return to the battlefield they are familiar with, this group of people will be refreshed and become different people. Same.
What are they proficient in? It's nothing more than the alliance of various forces, the fake smiles on the stage, the intrigues under the stage, and the stabbing in the dark.
No one would think about how the Manchus should rise and break this situation from the perspective of the global situation, and they couldn't figure it out either.
The era of the technological explosion of the Second Industrial Revolution has arrived. No one in the entire Manchu Qing Dynasty has the slightest understanding of this, let alone leading the world, or even the idea of making a small breakthrough in a certain industry.
Not to mention how to train a new type of army. We hired a group of French and American instructors to keep up with Western military academies every day. The Chinese army has already begun to receive infantry and artillery training, and has begun to study skirmisher penetration tactics. , but Xishan Camp is still guarding the European code of conduct more than ten years ago, lining up to shoot, and backpacking cross-country.
When Xiao Letian killed Molière, the first thing that the Manchus thought of was the same thing as in the past, such as joining forces vertically and horizontally, or borrowing a knife to kill someone. No one could understand or want to understand why Xiao Letian dared to kill people in such a perverted way, or rather What was his purpose of killing like that?
They don't understand, and don't want to understand, that the genius of a fool is to immediately imagine their opponent as a fool, and then judge the opponent with a fool's thinking.
There is only one result of the analysis, that is, Xiao Letian is crazy. He has been dazzled by the consecutive victories. He wants to declare war on France and he is going to be finished...
Based on this judgment, various forces began to take action. Cixi was now wearing a pair of trousers with Yi, and the conservative forces they represented began to conspire with Tsarist Russia and France.
Within his authority, the French minister actually gave the Japanese an interest-free loan of 63 million gold francs, plus a low-interest loan of 5 million gold francs.
Although Tsarist Russia did not promise to give money, it also funded a batch of arms and even promised to secretly send a group of top Cossack cavalry for the Japanese to drive.
Yi's Xishan Camp has already taken over one-third of the Ministry of War's annual military expenditures, and Yang Zhi's banknote printing factory will also provide him with millions of yuan in Beipiao every year. Now plus the money given by France and Tsarist Russia. With financial support, Yi's power is flying as fast as if it has wings.
In the face of such a terrifying expansion of power, the reformers represented by Ci'an could only bow their heads. Ci'an did not attend the Forbidden City meeting for five consecutive days. At first, he just had a headache and brain fever. However, he became seriously ill on the last day. After rounds of consultations with the imperial doctors, he finally said What kind of fever is it?
If you have a fever, you need to take cold medicine. In the end, the large area of Beihai was not defeated by the Queen Mother. Afterwards, Ci'an issued an order to go to the Chengde Summer Resort to rest. All major matters in the court were discussed by the Queen Mother and the princes.
The ministers failed to persuade her to stay three times in a row, and finally they had no choice but to agree to the Queen Mother's move to the summer resort. Ci'an's retreat further increased Guiziliu's power. For a while, people in the court were panicked, and rumors spread in the capital.
Just when the whole city was surrounded by thunder and lightning, suddenly a thunder and lightning rolled over the ground from the south. Zeng Guofan was recovering from his illness and had already taken a boat from Jiangning to the north. At this moment, he was almost at the border of Shandong.
Who is Zeng Guofan? In the eyes of the world, he was the King of Jiangnan. Half of the Qing Dynasty had to obey him. His 500,000 tiger soldiers were the largest military force in Asia. No foreign devil dared to make trouble in front of him.
Zeng Guofan indeed received Ci'an's order and set off. He was going to take over the important task of governor of Zhili. His arrival finally broke the existing political balance in the capital.
The storm is about to come, and the weather in the capital has been very strange these past few days. It was still sunny in the morning, but at noon, a strong wind and black clouds came over the city, and it rained heavily at any time, leaving no one with any shelter. opportunity.
The heavy rain came quickly and urgently, and the water levels in the rivers around the capital suddenly swelled. The Xishan Camp even encountered the threat of flash floods. The kitchen of a military camp was washed away by flash floods. Fortunately, there were no casualties.
People in ancient times were very superstitious. As soon as Zeng Guofan left, there was such a celestial phenomenon in the capital, and the Xishan New Army Camp was the first to be violated. This simply forced the gossips and men to make up lies.
Why is Lao Zeng the water dragon in the south and Guiziliu the drought dragon in the north? It would be strange if the water dragon moves northward and it doesn't rain... This kind of mysterious rumor is the favorite drama of the Eight Banners idlers.
Not to mention King Jiangnan or Prince Gong, in the minds of these Eight Banners disciples, the emperor can be arranged. In fact, the earliest stories such as the Yongzheng Hongwan Case, the Wutou Case, Lu Siniang... etc. were all arranged by this group of people. from.
Similarly, the bizarre legends of Kangxi and Qianlong mostly originated from these idle Han people of the Eight Banners. On the contrary, those tired Han people had no time and energy on the one hand, and on the other hand they could not inquire about so many things. Palace secrets.
To put it bluntly, the Han peasants and workers didn’t know how many windows there were in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and they couldn’t arrange them even if they wanted to. Only these Manchus who are familiar with the inside story of the Forbidden City can make up some bizarre stories that are true or false, making people unable to believe them.
This group of gossiping men and women was, to put it bluntly, the social network of that era. A woman's boudoir was a private group, and a teahouse was a BBS forum... Forget about these weird rumors, even if they were real secrets in the Forbidden City, this group People can also spread it quickly.
"There is truth in the rumors... There is truth in the messages..." Lying on Yan Zhihu's bed, Fifth Master Yi Pei kept repeating this sentence over and over again, which made Yan Zhihu beside him feel annoyed.
"You've been nagging a hundred times this afternoon, haven't you? It's not over yet..."
"I'm a woman... What do you know? This is what Yang Zhi told me. It is said to be a mantra of Xiao Letian... The more I taste it, the better it tastes!"
Fireworks places like brothels are even more distribution centers for rumors. The same goes for Yanzhihu's half-open door. The more than twenty little girls she raises also have to receive customers on weekdays. Some private dishes in the small kitchen in the inner courtyard are also served by prostitutes. their favorite.
When they were drunk, these princes, ministers, and high-ranking Han officials would chat about the current affairs, and Yan Zhihu would summarize the news and report it to Yi Pei.
Yi Pei himself has a lot of connections in the world, and he has gained a lot of information. During this time, rumors were spreading that made him dizzy. However, Yang Zhi and his staff had too many things to do and had no time to gather. Yi Pei, who was confused, had to get into it. He went to Yan Zhihu's bed and recited Xiao Letian's quotations over and over again, trying to find the key to solving the mystery.
"There is truth in the rumors... What Xiao Letian said is interesting. Why can this kind of rumor spread so well, but no one cares about the other kind of rumor?"
"People are willing to spread a kind of gossip, which shows that this group of people have such a common desire in their hearts... Damn it, does Xiao Letian know how to speak human language? Who can understand such a complicated thing!"
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