Chapter 20 Section 20

At the time when Japan and Russia were planning to negotiate peace, from Tianjin to Nanjing, many major events were beginning to take place. These big things belong to the New Deal.Since Xin Chou returned to Luan, it took three or four years for the Empress Dowager Cixi to be persuaded that the implementation of the New Deal was the only way to strive for strength.However, the New Deal has many aspects, and some of them can be implemented gradually without being affected by the situation, such as setting up more schools, revitalizing business, etc., while some big plans for managing the world and building a country cannot be held unless the situation is quite stable.

Now that the Russo-Japanese War is coming to an end, the recovery of the three eastern provinces seems to be more assured with the support of the United States.Therefore, the Military Aircraft Department, Beiyang Minister's Yamen, and Huguang Governor's Yamen are all very busy, formulating policies, drafting regulations, formulating plans, and exchanging letters and telegrams. However, before launching these major events, everyone has their own opinions and scruples when evaluating the future.Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong had similar views. To implement the New Deal, obstacles must first be removed. If Wang Wenshao was in power, it would be impossible to completely abolish the imperial examinations. Therefore, scholars were more on the sidelines, and schools were generally established in difficult times.As a result, Wang Wenshao was sent to the post of the Minister of Military Aircraft, and Xu Shichang, because Qu Hongji had a good impression of him, under the protection of Yikuang, became a "military aircraft with curtains", "learned to walk" among the Minister of Military Aircraft, and Acting as the left servant of the Ministry of War.

Others, mainly a group of relatives and people with deep views of Manchu and Han people, were suspicious of Yuan Shikai day by day, but there was Yiqian who supported him in secret, and boasted in public, and asked at every turn: " After going to Yuan Weiting, who can replace him? Especially in military training, let alone such a person!" These words are very convincing, and after much deliberation, the only good strategy is to find someone who can succeed Yuan Shikai.Of course, this person has to be found among the bannermen. As a result, Tie Liang, who was born in the first batch of Japanese non-commissioned officers, was able to stand out.First, he was a Taoist who was not a real vacancy, and he became the right servant of the household department. In April last year, he was transferred to the left servant of the military department. Soon he was given a secret order to check the warehouses and military equipment in all provinces from Beijing to Jiangsu.The trip lasted half a year, passing through six provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and Henan. Wherever he went, he checked the treasury, checked the battalion, and also inspected the fort, navy and military training school. A memorial of tens of thousands of words details the real situation of the armies of various provinces. From the Empress Dowager Cixi to the military commanders, none of them can read this protracted and trivial memorial, but they have the impression that Tie Liang is very serious in his work.

In addition, there are also detailed reports on the revenue and expenditure of each province, and there are suggestions for rectifying taxation.The most relevant thing is that the Soil Paste Taxation Bureau set up in Yichang was requested to be reorganized into the Soil Paste General Administrations of the eight provinces of Lianghu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui, and Fujian to collect unified donations for native products and opium. In addition, let it be what you want”, if it is not “sales on the ground”, no additional tax will be levied.Compared with the previous lijin, it is much lighter to pass the card every time and collect it step by step.If the tax is light, the tax will be reduced privately, and the tax will be greatly increased.The military training office made a decision that all provinces should only allocate the amount before the establishment of the Soil Paste General Administration, and the excess revenue will be stored in a special case for military training.

Therefore, Tie Liang gave another impression to his relatives: he not only knows soldiers, but is also good at managing money.This can give Yuan Shikai the important task of training soldiers and raising salaries in the future.So immediately after Xu Shichang's appointment, the Empress Dowager Cixi sent Tie Liang to act as Minister of the Ministry of War, and Xu Shichang would handle military training matters, and had been appointed to walk on the Minister of Military Aircraft. In addition, there are some urgent transfers, the most eye-catching one is that Zhao Erxun was released as the general of Shengjing to take over the three eastern provinces; serve as.

This position, one can tell at a glance that it is a good job to make money every day.In Tie Liang's original melody, he said: "The general office of taxes and taxes in the eight provinces has heavy responsibilities, and Sun Tinglin, who now acts as the general office of the bureau, supplements Dao Sun Tinglin. " Having said that, I always think that the so-called "big officials" are nothing more than third-rank officials who serve as supervisors outside and third-rank officials in the capital.Therefore, people who thought they had the qualifications moved one after another, sharpened their heads and drilled upwards, but they did not expect to fall on the head of Ke Fengshi, who had been a great official in the frontier.

It turns out that it has no effect.This Ke Fengshi was from the Imperial Academy of Guiwei in the ninth year of the Guangxu Period. His style name was Xun'an. He was born in Wuchang, Hubei. Participate in impeachment.Articles and New Deals were known as capable members for a while.Therefore, as soon as Cen Chunxuan took office, he expelled Wang Zhichun, the governor of Guangxi, and the imperial court succeeded him with Ke Fengshi. In fact, Cen Chunxuan moved to Guangxi to command the suppression of bandits. "Governors and governors in the same city" are often in dire straits, let alone Cen Chunxuan as the governor?

Cen Chunxuan, of course, would not take Ke Fengshi seriously, and acted arbitrarily when things went wrong, and there was no room for the governor to participate.Ke Fengshi thought to himself that the governor of Guangxi is no better than the governor of Guangdong. Cen Chunxuan took his power for no reason. I figured out a way.Cen Chunxuan was born as a noble son, even though he frequently impeached his subordinates for corruption, he himself just didn't take money home and enjoyed his daily life without being wronged.There are often banquets in Xingyuan, and opera troupes are often passed on to entertain guests.

Ke Fengshi came up with a solution on this matter.One day, when Cen Chunxuan came across an opera passing on, he personally led the tender soldiers on guard on the road. When the troupe passed by, he asked where he was going, and then ordered the troupe to turn back halfway on the grounds that "it is time to use soldiers, and drama should be banned." When he heard the news, he was furious, but there was nothing he could do for a while. Cen Chunxuan, who must avenge his grievances, began to inquire about Ke Fengshi's misdeeds in many ways, and prepared to seize the opportunity to read a book, not only dismissed, but also investigated, not only investigated, but also imprisoned, so as to relieve the hatred in his heart .

According to his estimates, Ke Fengshi must have been corrupt to ink, because before he was transferred to the governor of Guangxi, he served as the governor of Jiangxi for eleven months, and his political reputation was very bad. A couplet is given as a gift, and the couplet is a collection of sentences: "When you meet the king's evil, the crime cannot be tolerated; when the time is mourned, I will die with you."The banner shouted loudly and attacked in groups: "Fake Fake!" The scolding was so vicious that it was enough to relieve hatred.Someone else said that this couplet was written by Wang Xiangqi, and that Ke Fengshi treated him just like Cen Chunxuan treated Ke Fengshi.

However, in Guangxi, he couldn't catch him, so someone made a mockery for Cen Chunxuan: "Ke Xun'an is shocked by the prestige of the commander-in-chief. If you want to be greedy, you dare not be greedy. Where the scepter comes, it is really enough to be stubborn and cowardly." These words Naturally, it can make Cen Chunxuan proud, but he still can't spare Ke Fengshi. When he reported the military situation, he included an attached piece, saying that Ke Fengshi was "stubborn when things happen, and he didn't understand the military situation".This is different from corruption and dereliction of duty, which can only be transferred but not punished, so he was swapped with the governor of Guizhou.Guangxi is a central province, while Guizhou is a small province. This tune is invisibly tantamount to punishment. Of course Cen Chunxuan was pleased, but Ke Fengshi was greatly aggrieved, so he excused his illness and refused to take up the post, but he brought with him the eunuch money he had accumulated in Jiangxi. Traveling far away to Beijing and Tianjin, introduced by Rongqing in the same year, he got on a line with Yikuang.However, half of the reason why he was able to win this coveted job was due to his filial piety to Yikuang, and half because he dared to stroke Cen Chunxuan's beard, which Yuan Shikai thought should be rewarded. In the last edict: "Wang Wenshao, a university scholar, has been on duty for many years and has been hardworking. Now he is over seventy years old, and it is difficult to kneel down every day when he is summoned. He should be sympathetic and drive to the Minister of Military Aircraft to save labor. On the third day, led by Yuan Shikai, together with Zhang Zhidong, governor of Huguang, and Zhou Fu, acting governor of Liangjiang, they jointly entered the memorial, please implement a constitutional government after twelve years.Then, an edict was issued: "The current situation is difficult, and there are many things to be dealt with. The imperial court has repeatedly issued edicts, trying to reform and revitalize. For several years, although the scale has been achieved, the actual effect has not been shown. Stressing nothing, but failing to understand the whole story. It seems that this is perfunctory, how to save the crisis from the decline. Zi Te Jian Zaize, Dai Hongci, Xu Shichang, Duan Fang, etc., accompanied their personnel, and went to Eastern and Western countries to study everything Politics, in order to choose the good and follow. Afterwards, they will be selected and dispatched, and they will go in groups. They will consult with each other, carefully examine them, and prepare for selection, without any appointment." Constitutionalism was not mentioned in the decree, and Yuan Shikai and others kept the original document requesting constitutionalism, and the intention of the imperial court was obvious.Many people who claim to be knowledgeable about current affairs have bought many books and studied day and night for the constitutional regimes of the East and the West, especially Japan's "Meiji Restoration" and the actual effects of constitutionalism. Nouns such as "virtual monarch system", "responsible cabinet", "members of the upper and lower houses", "exercising the right of consent" and other terms are catchy, and they are thought to be copied by important ministers, and they must be widely consulted. According to the imperial edict and Chen Yan, you can be prosperous and prosperous, and you can expect wealth.Now it's all gone. Fortunately, there is a sentence in the imperial edict that "then you will be selected and dispatched in different classes", which shows that the imperial court regards sending officials to investigate politics as a regular task. No matter what, it is always a good thing to go abroad.So there are still some people who are very active, posting articles and posting posts, all making a big fuss about the phrase "understand the truth".The desks of the four ministers who were sent to investigate were all piled up with these articles. But no one is willing to take the time to take a closer look, because they all know that the court's move is to prevaricate public opinion, and there is no plan to "return the power to the people".Those "rebel" words are fine if you don't read them, they will inevitably be imprinted in your mind, and if you are not careful, they will be verbal, especially when they are played correctly, it is even worse, so it is best to ignore them. Therefore, everyone has their own plans this time, some are to curry favor with errands, some are for gaining money, and some are aiming to gain knowledge and knowledge. Among them, Duanfang wants to go overseas to search for antiques, while Zaize has other deep-rooted intentions. Originally from Zaifeng who returned from his trip to Germany to apologize for his crimes, talking about what he saw and heard during his trip to Yinghai, all relatives and nobles realized that European royal families, rich and honored, and enjoying a long period of peace, have a set of ingenious means to maintain their status, such as Germany It is the relatives and nobles who hold the military power in their hands to ensure that the regime will not fall. Therefore, Zaifeng has already played to the Empress Dowager Cixi and sent his two younger brothers, the sixth Zaixun and the eldest Zaitao, to Germany To study abroad, one studied the navy and the other studied the army. In addition to this, of course there are other methods, but it cannot be understood without field investigation.The investigation is not to make friends with the royal family, so you can't learn about its details, and making friends must be of equal status, so it is necessary to send relatives and nobles.But they were sent to Zaize for another reason. Zaize is Shuzong—the fifteenth son of the holy ancestor, Yujun Wang Yinyu, who is said to be the "Yi" generation. Among them is Yifeng, who has seven sons, and the youngest is Zaize.When he was young, he went to the palace with his mother to congratulate him, and by chance, he was quite fond of the Empress Dowager Cixi.At that time, Yixun, the fourth son of Prince Hui Mianyu, the "Old Fifth Master", died of illness and had no children. This has immediate benefits.Because of the title of Zaize, according to the rule of the royal family, there can only be one "General Fengguo" at most, and the clothes are the same as those of the third-rank military officer. They are the so-called "idle clan". Among the "princes and princes", the status is quite different. In the early years of Guangxu's draft period, Zaize was appreciated by the Empress Dowager Cixi, who married the daughter of Dutong Guixiang and became the emperor's brother-in-law. Zai Ze's wedding date is April 19th, Guangxu thirteenth year. Before Jiali, he had learned that his biological father, Yi Shu, was seriously ill and was in critical condition, but Zai Ze dared not ask for a change of court.On the day of the wedding, the sedan chair is carried on one side, and the list of disasters is posted on the other side. Yi Fang will die on this day, and the auspicious date will not change.The congratulatory ministers of the Han Dynasty, such as Weng Tonghe, were amazed by the unheard of strange things, but the Empress Dowager Cixi said that he was "filial and conscientious", and she looked at him more and more differently.This time he was sent abroad, and the Empress Dowager Cixi was doing it for him, so she was going to make good use of him.