Red Alert 1895

Chapter 71 – Famous All Over The World (Middle)

Outside the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing, countless scholars also gathered, and then they, led by the organizers, began to shout slogans. And the slogan they chanted was to abolish the Shimonoseki Treaty with Japan, and then fight the Japanese army again to regain the lost benefits. And these scholars are obviously unwilling to be lonely, and then they shouted all kinds of slogans. What revived the emperor’s power, and even asked the Empress Dowager Cixi to get out of the way. And many people are also taking advantage of this trend to gain their own interests.

“The emperor, please abolish the contract with the Japanese pirates, and then prepare for a decisive battle with the Japanese pirates!” “Please behead the main peace faction, to show your determination to fight the Japanese pirates to the end!” “Please punish Li Hongzhang severely, and behead Li Hongzhang to show the public to show that he is listening. “”Kill Li Hongzhang, kill the national traitor!”…

All kinds of slogans were shouted, and the Empress Dowager Cixi was immediately furious.

“Crack!” The Empress Dowager Cixi smashed a piece of cultural relic porcelain, and then shouted; “Bastards, these bastards, the scholars misled the country! What do these scholars know? Beheading the main peace faction, what a bastard! They all He is the pillar of the country, how can he kill casually?”

The Empress Dowager Cixi couldn’t help being angry, because the Lord and the faction were all direct descendants of the Empress Dowager, and they were both the backbone of the Empress Dowager, how could they be killed casually? And please kill Li Hongzhang, this is even more nonsense. Not to mention that although Li Hongzhang was dismissed from his post, he is still a protégé and an old official all over the world, how can he be so easy to provoke! As for Li Hongzhang, countless people in the world know that he is the scapegoat for Empress Dowager Cixi. If Li Hongzhang died like this, where would the Empress Dowager Cixi’s face go? If someone took the blame for you, that’s all. Could it still make people die?

However, the anger of the Empress Dowager Cixi was different. In the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the front palace, Emperor Guangxu came out with a rare smile and started a morning court.

“Your Majesty, my minister Weng Tongsu said that Li Hongzhang was cowardly and traitorous, and actually ceded all the great rivers and mountains of our Qing Dynasty to the Japanese pirates. It is a crime worthy of death. Please order the emperor to behead Li Hongzhang for public display. Thank the people of the country! ” said Zhirui, the servant of the Ministry of Rites.

Zhirui, the servant of the Ministry of Rites, is the cousin of Emperor Guangxu’s concubine and a member of the imperial party. Now that Wang Guorui was able to defeat the Japanese army this time, it also gave the imperial party headed by Guangxu the hope of attacking the Empress Dowager Cixi’s queen party. The queen party supported the main peace faction at that time. Then a treaty of treachery was signed. But now that everyone has seen that the Japanese army is so “vulnerable”, how could this not make them feel that the opportunity has come! Now all the facts prove that it was wrong to negotiate the peace at the beginning. The Japanese army was a group of parallel importers, but the Empress Dowager Cixi actually admitted to being cowardly. Isn’t this an excuse for Guangxu to criticize Cixi’s queen party?

However, Zhang Zhiwan, Minister of Military Affairs and Cabinet Academician, said: “Hmph, the strength of the Japanese army was obvious to all at the beginning. Our army retreated continuously, and it was impossible to hold on for a while. The strength of the Japanese army was beyond our Qing army’s resistance. So it was necessary to negotiate peace at the beginning. Therefore, it is really biased for the emperor to shift the responsibility to Lord Li Hongzhang with this remark!”

“Then Wang Guorui from Taiwan led troops to wipe out most of the Japanese army. So what?” Zhi Rui asked.

And the Houdang people were also silent for a while, because this was too difficult to explain, Wang Guorui actually relied on Taiwan’s underdog to achieve such a result, this obviously made them unable to understand. No matter how you look at it, this matter is revealingly weird, and Wang Guorui’s battle report did not make it clear, so now everyone is guessing the reason. However, quite a few people have already begun to make up a lot of things according to their own ideas and wronged themselves. So they all rely on these things made up by their own brains to attack their political opponents.

As for the people of the imperial party, seeing that the queen party had nothing to say, they immediately became excited. Wang Mingluan, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Industry of the Imperial Party, took the initiative to say: “Wang Guorui, a small county magistrate in Taiwan, was able to lead some low-level troops and defeated the Japanese Imperial Forest Army in the absence of ordnance personnel. This is not enough to show the weakness of the Japanese army. Is it possible for a magistrate to do this, so shouldn’t we, the princes of the imperial court, be able to defeat the Japanese army more easily? And I also learned from the Ministry of Officials that this Hsinchu county magistrate Wang Guorui in Taiwan is a man who spends money to buy officials. A magistrate who was born in a donated class can defeat the Japanese army and wipe out most of the enemies, so shouldn’t we, who have read poetry and books and accepted the teachings of saints, be more powerful?”

“Idiot!” Countless queens cursed inwardly.

The officials of the Queen’s Party treated Wang Mingluan’s words like a piece of stinky shit. Wang Mingluan said that Wang Guorui was a county magistrate, and he was able to defeat the Japanese army, so those senior officials should be even more so. And they also think that Wang Guorui was born in a donated class, so his ability is poor. He actually wanted to take advantage of Wang Guorui’s low official position and his lack of professional background to indirectly prove the strength of the Japanese army. This is simply nonsense. But everyone can’t refute anything, because in the eyes of ancient people, officials with imperial examination background are the highest and the right way. And those donated class backgrounds are never right, and everyone can’t say that those who spend money to buy officials from donated classes are more capable than those who are from professional classes, otherwise they will really slap themselves in the face.

“Then so many famous generals before the Qing Dynasty suffered a lot under the hands of the Japanese pirates, so what’s the explanation?” someone asked.

Wang Mingluan immediately said: “It’s because those officials are incompetent, that’s why they have repeatedly defeated the Japanese pirates. If only some capable people are replaced, they will definitely be able to defeat the Japanese army. There are raging soldiers and raging generals, precisely because of those The stupid officials let me empty out the huge army, so that I would lose to the Japanese pirates. You see, now that Taiwan is free from the constraints of stupid officials, even a small county magistrate who came from a donated class can defeat the Japanese army The Imperial Forest Army. The Imperial Forest Army of the Japanese army is nothing more than this, so will our millions of soldiers in the Qing Dynasty lose to the Japanese pirates? Therefore, everything is hindered by this group of stupid officials. Please the emperor abolish the stupid officials, and then promote young and promising officials Come to work.”

At this time, the Queen’s Party has also smelled it. This time, the Imperial Party wants to use Wang Guorui’s victory as an excuse to purge the Queen’s Party officials in the court, so as to cut off the wings of the Empress Dowager Cixi. But of course the queen party is not simple, they are all old fritters, how could they make Emperor Guangxu succeed?

Soon, various characters with various purposes in the capital also started to move, trying to achieve their own goals.

“We must launch a second letter to the court to abolish the contract with the Japanese pirates, and then fight against the Japanese pirates again.” Kang Youwei said.

Soon, the scholars wrote to the court again, and they put forward several suggestions.

“Reward the hero Wang Guorui!”

“Rescind the contract with the Japanese pirates!”

“Reuse young and promising officials and clean up incompetent and mediocre officials!”

…

A large number of scholars also put forward many ideas of their own, and these ideas of them are examples of “stupid and naive”. They don’t think about whether it will work or not, so they talk to themselves here. They don’t have any experience in governing, but they seem to be able to do better than those officials.

“Your Majesty, the hearts of the people are worthy! So many scholars can support the Emperor so much, so why worry about the Emperor not being able to regain power!” Weng Tongsu said.

And Guangxu saw so many scholars supporting him, and he was very happy in his heart, because he felt that he seemed to regain the imperial power just around the corner, and Guangxu also forgot an old saying-a scholar rebelled for three years and failed.

“Then thanks to Wang Guorui, the magistrate of Hsinchu County, otherwise we really would not have been able to get this opportunity! Look, how is this Wang Guorui? We just lack this kind of people who can fight and know soldiers.” Guangxu asked.

Guangxu’s meaning was very obvious, that is, he wanted to win over Wang Guorui, because Wang Guorui defeated the Japanese army, so no matter what it was, he could be regarded as a person who knew how to fight. The reason why Guangxu failed to grasp real power was that he did not have military power, which was not in his hands. If Wang Guorui, a man who knows how to fight, can be brought over, or even the soldiers under Wang Guorui’s command, then it can be said to be a great help to him.

“Your Majesty, I think it is okay. If Wang Guorui is willing to support the Emperor, and if he can have an army to support the Emperor, then the Emperor will be able to live a lot better. Even if they are far away in the sky, it is like a sword hanging over their heads. It’s not a big threat, but it’s not too small.” Weng Tongsu said.

“Then I will give him a high-ranking official and rich salary, and canonize him as the governor of Taiwan! Tang Jingsong is really useless. He, the governor of Taiwan, ran away when he saw the Japanese army~www.mtlnovel.com~ and left Taiwan to the Japanese pirates. ” Guangxu said.

But Weng Tongsu also said: “Your Majesty, now we have signed a cession agreement with the Japanese pirates, and we have also handed over, Taiwan is no longer our territory!”

Weng Tongsu’s meaning is obvious. Taiwan is no longer the territory of the Manchus in legal terms, so naturally they have no right to appoint officials. And this made Guangxu annoyed for a while, and he didn’t know how to make Wang Guorui.

“How about being knighted?” Guangxu asked.

“No, it’s not clear which country Wang Guorui is from now!” Weng Tongsu said.

Taiwan has been ceded legally, so Wang Guorui’s current identity is embarrassing, is he Japanese? Or Chinese? This is inconclusive, and the nationality cannot be determined legally, so it is naturally not easy to be knighted.

“I have a suggestion, that is, Wang Guorui’s family members are all in the mainland, and he is from Fujian, so we can consider canonizing his mother as Mrs. Gaoming!” Weng Tongsu said.

“Wonderful, really wonderful! This one is neither far nor near, just right!” Guangxu replied. (to be continued)