The weather in the capital is getting hotter and hotter, and Cixi herself fanning in the Yiluan Hall of Zhongnanhai doesn't count, but the palace maid behind her also helps her fan the fan. However, at this time, Cixi didn't care whether it was hot or not, but said sharply to Yuan Shikai who was kneeling in front of her: "Yuan Shikai, you are making too much trouble!" After that, he grabbed a bunch of white folds from the imperial case, raised it and said, "Have you seen it, there are so many people who participate in you!" ”

Cixi was furious, Yuan Shikai hurriedly kowtowed, "The minister is guilty of capital crimes!" Capital crime! After pleading guilty, he argued: "However, the word is ......."

"Stop arguing!" Cixi saw that his strong argument was even more angry, and said, "Hurry up and return to office!" There are so many people who join you, and I can't protect you! ”

Seeing that the words came to this, Yuan Shikai could only kowtow "knock", "knock" and "knock", and said while kowtowing: "Yes!" The minister obeys the decree. After saying that, he bowed back and left the Yiluan Hall in high spirits, and returned to the new strategy hall in the east three gates (now the left gate of Chang'an).

In fact, this new strategy hall was originally a new inspection of the political hall last year, after the constitution was determined, it was changed to the compilation bureau, this bureau was presided over by the town of the state of the public Zaize, the bureau is mainly divided into three types of people, one is the head of each department, in addition to the presiding Zai Ze, there are also Dongge University Shi Shixu, Tiren Pavilion University Shi Natong, co-organizer Rong Qing, business Shangshu Zaizhen, the Ministry of Officials Shangshu Kuijun, the household department Shangshu Tieliang, Zhang Baixi, the Ministry of Rites Shangshu Dai Hongci, the criminal department Shangshu Dai Baohua, the patrol police department Shangshu Xu Shichang, the Ministry of Industry Shangshu Lu Runzhen, Zuodu Yushi Shouqi, There is no military department book in it, but Yuan Shikai was added as the minister of Beiyang.

In addition to the ministers of various ministries, the governors of Liangjiang, Huguang, Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Liangguang were also stipulated. "Elect a senior priest to come to Beijing and accompany the senators." However, because of the distance, no one in the place has yet arrived. At the same time, it was approved by the Director-General. In addition, Prince Qing Yixuan, Wenyuan Pavilion University Scholar Sun Jiading, and the co-organizer of the University Scholar Military Aircraft Minister Qu Hongji.

Here, Yuan Shikai only came to discuss matters in place of the Minister of War, which originally had no effect, but the officials mentioned above are all masters, who can only drink tea and chat, and do not know how to do things at all, and those who do the work are called compilers. There were only 17 people in total, and they were all chosen for the moment, and most of them were foreign students from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce. There are four of the most popular ones, known as the "Four King Kongs", Wang Rongbao, Zhang Zongxiang, Lu Zongyu, and Cao Rulin. Many of these people were assigned by Yuan Shikai, and they were there. Most of the drafts for the compilation of the official system were determined by Yuan Shikai. Then it will be submitted to the ministers for consultation.

According to Yuan Shikai's calculations, the Military Aircraft Department was to be abolished and transformed into a responsible cabinet, as for other inspectors, Honglu Temple, and the General Administration Department, and the cabinet could not be retained, and the cabinet was established in full accordance with the principle of separation of powers. The prime minister of the cabinet is Prince Qing Yixuan, what about him. is the vice premier, and then with the officials of Zai Ze's family, such as Tie Liang, the brother-in-law with the red flag lord Nalehe, etc., together with the major positions in the cabinet, Qu Hongji, Sun Jiading and others will just send a few famous and powerless positions. But who would have thought that Qu Hongji, Sun Jiading and others had already reached an agreement with Zai Ze and others, which leaked out some things about the Codification Bureau, saying that Yuan Shikai was going to cut off everyone's jobs, and suddenly the crowd was furious, and many officials broke bullets to impeach Yuan Shikai, and then Cixi reprimanded him for returning to office.

"You all know that, right?" Yuan Shikai's face was gloomy, and he asked Yang Shiqi and Sun Baoqi who were standing in the room weakly.

"I heard." Sun Baoqi said.

"It's nothing. In the past, Li Wenzhong and Prince Gongzhong passed by, and later they were still benevolent. Yang Shiqi looked at Yuan Shikai's deflated appearance and comforted him.

"Later is later!" Yuan Shikai didn't think so, "The most important thing is to save face right now." I really can't think of what to say about this return to office. ”

"No!" Yang Shiqi said: "I can't ask myself to return to office, I have to think of some other reason, and Mingfa sent the palace guard out of Beijing." ”

"That's right! Right! Yuan Shikai perked up when he heard this, and said: "In this way, you can go out of Beijing and return to your post openly, and when the things are done later, you can also stay here for a few days when you come back, so you can always say that it is always true." But what reason do you have to think of to go out of Beijing? ”

It is important to save face, and it is also important to participate in the compilation of the official system, but more important than these two is prestige, so he was kicked out halfway, and then he will have nothing to do with this matter in the future, and he will even say that he is obstructing the constitution and being driven out of the capital by Cixi, if so, then his reputation will be almost ruined. As soon as Yuan Shikai asked, Yang Shiqi and Sun Baoqi were stunned, everyone knew the direction, but how to go?

In contemplation, Yang Shiqi said: "I still have to ask Donghai (Xu Shichang) to see if there are any major cases in the Military Aircraft Department that need to be sent out to investigate." Also, the most important thing is to think about the way to pacify ......"

While everyone was discussing, they suddenly heard a eunuch in the hall outside reading out the edict, and across several layers of walls, Yuan Shikai held his breath and pricked up his ears, and could only hear the voices one after another: "...... On the same day, the official system bureau will be compiled...... Longrun Garden......"

Hearing the last three words "Langrun Garden", Yang Shiqi breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Lafayette is going to the Summer Palace." ”

Langrun Garden is actually an attached garden of the Old Summer Palace, which is close to the west and very close to the Summer Palace.

Xu Shichang came after Yi Zhi read it for a while, and he was very clear about the current situation, the most important thing at the moment was to find another excuse to go out of Beijing, and then turn back to the capital when the matter was done. It's just that everyone thought of a lot of excuses, but it didn't work, and Xu Shichang thought carefully about the report received by the most handsome military aircraft, and there was no serious accident.

"Then, isn't there a bandit on the Dongmeng side, it is said that they are still mixed with the rest of the Fuxing Army, is it okay to ......" Sun Baoqi heard that there were people in Dongmeng who opposed the reclamation, and there was a lot of chaos.

"It won't work." Xu Shichang has experienced that the Revival Society has been regarded as the best example of civil strife that has been eliminated by the constitution, and it is absolutely inappropriate to propose it to rebel against the imperial court. "Besides, in order to prevent Japan and Russia from dividing Mongolia, the Military Aircraft Department ordered Prince Su to go to Mongolia in October last year to investigate and handle the incident. They are going to leave in a few days, and it is not good to mention it at this time. ”

Another plan failed, but Yuan Shikai was inspired by this, and said with a smile: "I want to have a large-scale summer exercise this year, and go out to Beijing with Tie Baochen (Tie Liang) for a school review, Juren, what do you think?" ”

"Xia Cao. Isn't it autumn exercises? Is this good......? Xu Shichang twisted his beard and thought for a while before saying, it has been a year since Beiyang became an army. Last year, there was an autumn exercise, but it was small, with less than two towns participating in it, and it was completely under the command of the Japanese. Although shun lì. But because of the lack of confidence, foreign guests were not invited to visit at all. After the last autumn exercise, the people in the court said that they would have another autumn exercise commanded by their own people, and then invite envoys from various countries to visit to show the strength of our Qing Dynasty.

"When the army fights, what kind of spring and summer, as long as you find a place with few people and not damage the crops. Again. This exercise is not only for the Northern Army, but also for the Southern Army. When the time comes. The two armies of the north and the south practiced and exercised together, and they could also test how well the new army of the imperial court was doing. As soon as Yuan Shikai talked about military affairs, he changed his previous decadent appearance, and his hands were even more like usual, pinching and pinching at all.

What Yuan Shikai said was reasonable, Xu Shichang nodded, and said: "Then I will go and discuss this matter with King Qing and Zijiu (Qu Hongji), and when the time comes, it will be approved immediately." But who came up with this solution? ”

"That's easy! After a while, I will send a telegram to Zhong Yuan (Yan Dunyuan), in the past, he was your right and left hand, and he was familiar with everything in the army, so he picked this head and made a way to come out, and then King Qing and Qu Zijiu were on the side to help, and the matter was decided. As for Zhang Nanpi's side, he has long wanted to compete with our northern army. Yuan Shikai was confident.

When the excerpts of the summer exercises of the northern and southern armies were handed over, the Yiluan Palace was already packing up and moving to the Summer Palace, although the Summer Palace already had a set of household goods, but Lafayette's things have always been exquisite, things are not ready, once out of the fork then no one can afford to wait, Cixi lived in the Yiluan Palace for a few days, and dealt with some of the things to be dealt with, then wrapped in Emperor Guangxu, sitting on the sedan chair carried by 32 Luan Yuwei, the group of people swept out of the Forbidden City, and went to Wanshou Temple. The distance between the two places is only twenty miles, but the team is very pompous, and they go out in the morning and stay until noon to arrive at Wanshou Temple.

Every time you go to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, Cixi must enter the temple to worship and rest, legend has 9,999 Buddha statues in this temple, every time Cixi comes, that is to make up ten thousand Buddhas, so there is a palace built here, in case Cixi is too tired on the journey, this day at noon Cixi arrives, when she rests, she only feels restless, and the sun is like fire, so that Li Lianying will rest here today.

Cixi comforted the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple to rest, but Fang Junying and Cheng Ying, who were waiting for her at Changchun Bridge, couldn't hold on, they had been waiting on the old locust tree by the river for nine days, but they had not yet seen Cixi and Guangxu's imperial boat. In the past few days, they are hungry to eat the special dry food given by Mr. Gong in Beijing, and when they are thirsty, they run to the river at night to drink water, but the dry food is always limited, and the rations for three days are eaten, and the dry food bought in the city is also eaten, so they can only forage for food everywhere, and they can't fight any wild beasts at night, so they have to run to the sweet potato field in the distance to dig sweet potatoes to satisfy their hunger, but the sweet potatoes are not as good as dry food, and after eating for two days, both of them are weak, and they have to help each other on the tree.

"I think this Cixi won't come." Seeing that Cheng Ying's hand holding the gun was shaking, Fang Junying finally didn't want to insist anymore, thinking that it was time to go back.

"No, Sister Ying. It's getting hotter and hotter these days, and I guess they're coming, and if we're gone, when will we find another chance. "A few days ago, when the special dry food was eaten, Cheng Ying disguised himself and went into the city to find out the news, and the people all over the city said that Yuan Shikai was reprimanded by Cixi, and since he was reprimanded, then this Cixi is still in the Forbidden City." Or I'll go into the city tomorrow and buy some steamed buns and come back. ”

"Don't go, the more you go, the more people will be suspected. This river is a royal road, and the surrounding people are vigilant. "At this time, Beijing is like an enemy country for Fang Junying and Cheng Ying, and it is very inconvenient to move.

"Then wait another day, you can't go back without firing a shot." Cheng Ying touched the body of the gun with affection, since she was lurking here, she felt that this assassination would definitely succeed, and now the longer she waited, the stronger her desire to snipe, even if she herself wanted to get into the chamber of the gun, turn into a bullet, and explode under the piercing of the firing pin. Then he shot angrily into the brains of Cixi and Guangxu.

Fang Junying was climbing a tree at this time, and when she heard this, she slipped down from the trunk of the tree with a burst of energy. Sitting on the ground dejectedly, he said: "I don't have the strength to go up, even if I go up, I'm afraid that I will fall from the tree if I stand up, and then Cixi will come, and we won't be able to kill her." ”

"Then let's change the place, the grass is very dense, the light is good, and the terrain is high. The wind direction is also positive, and the view is more unobstructed. "The surrounding situation is very familiar these days, except that the locust tree is a good shooting spot. There are also a few other locations that are also good.

"But it's too far away. You ......" Cheng Ying said that Fang Junying also knew, but there were nearly 600 meters to the center of the river, no more than 400 meters from the old locust tree to the river, and the sniper paid the most attention to the starting hit rate. Although Cheng Ying used to be in Tokyo, he could hit the 600-meter target accurately. But the starters hit less than 30 percent of the shots.

"It's better than standing unsteady in a tree." Cheng Ying couldn't guarantee that he would fall off the tree while standing on it two days after tomorrow.

Fang Junying also felt that it could only be like this when she heard this, and said weakly: "Then wait for two more days, if you don't come again, then we will have to go." ”

In fact, they didn't have to wait for two more days, and on the afternoon of the second day, Cixi's Luan drove came. The first thing they heard was the sound of a trumpet, and then it wasn't the royal boat. It's the boundless Imperial Forest Army on both sides of the river. These soldiers came from the Eight Banners Forward Battalion Escort Army and the Infantry Army of the Yamen, and the two divisions combined had a total of more than 14,000 people. These are not all to prevent assassins, but to block the light - since ancient times, the appearance of emperors, empresses, and concubines is not allowed to be admired by ordinary people, but there are still some foolish people who do not know each other, so they can only send soldiers to guard along the way to prevent people from peeping on the shore, even if there are Diao people who slip through the net, the soldiers along the river can also block the view.

Where have Fang Junying and Cheng Ying seen this kind of royal style, they were immediately startled when they saw the rows of Imperial Forest Army on both sides of the Royal River, but the previous blood feud and hard training in Tokyo, Japan made them very determined, even if they were frightened in their hearts, they waited with bated breath for the Royal Forest Army to approach. The guards on the banks of the river were divided into two groups, one group just walked along the river bank in dense form to prevent outsiders from prying eyes, and the other group ran farther away as usual to expel the Diao people.

The grass that Cheng Xuan chose was between these two Royal Forest Army, if he shot in such a situation, if he couldn't dodge, he wouldn't be able to escape. In the dense grass, she and Fang Junying glanced at each other, the two had a deep friendship, and they were like brothers and sisters, and what they thought about each other immediately became clear when they looked at each other, and after a little hesitation, both of them made up their minds.

Every time I go to the Summer Palace, after the Wanshou Temple, Cixi takes the waterway by boat, while Guangxu takes the dry road by sedan chair, although his sedan chair is not as pompous as Cixi, but there are also sixteen Luan guards to carry. But maybe he has been imprisoned for a long time, and his heart has been suffocated, every time Cixi takes a boat to the Summer Palace slowly, Guangxu sits on the sedan chair and orders the Luan guards to run quickly, that is, he is still not fast enough, from time to time he pats the sedan window, and urges in Manchu: "Step up!" Hop on! Iriga step! "The journey of sixteen or seventeen miles took less than half an hour, but at this time, the guards in the team and the Luan Yuwei were already tired and couldn't stand steadily, looking at these minions and wolves, and Guangxu, who had always pulled his face, could rarely laugh. (Note)

When Guangxu arrived at the East Palace Gate, Cixi walked leisurely to Changchun Bridge, she smoked a hookah, while listening to the play of Queen Longyu singing with a fan, at this time the cool breeze on the river blew, and she was cool and contented. She was at ease on her side, but Fang Junying and Cheng Ying on the shore were really nervous. Fortunately, the place chosen is high, otherwise the soldiers will block it, and they can't see the situation on the royal boat in the river at all, in the telescope, Fang Junying only saw a few small boats and a few big boats in the river, she didn't know which boat Cixi Guangxu would be on. The boat got closer and closer, and it was only when I finally saw a big ship with a screen window on it, and in addition to the eunuch and palace maid, there was also a woman holding a fan and seemed to be singing, so I told Cheng Ying, who had been waiting for a long time.

The barrel of the gun with weeds quietly cut through the grass and stretched out, inside the sniper scope, Cheng Ying had already found the big boat that Fang Junying said, and also saw the woman standing and singing, in front of this woman, there was a person lying on his back on a big chair, unable to see his face clearly, he could only judge from the color of his clothes that this person was a woman, if this was Cixi, then where was Guangxu? The imperial ship is getting closer and closer, and Fang Junying can't find Guangxu no matter how much she looks for it, so she just waits for the ship to be in front of her. She slapped Cheng Ying's left shoulder twice, the left shoulder meant to shoot, and the two beats indicated that the wind speed was second-class.

A qiē seems to be ready. A qiē seems to be fate. Cheng Ying gently pulled the bolt of the gun, gently pushed the bullet into loading, and then gently put the index finger of her right hand wrapped in white gauze to the trigger, she closed her glasses at this time, while listening to the rhythm of the drums and trumpets of the accompanying guards, while adjusting her breathing, waiting for herself and the gun in her hand to melt into one. and the surrounding qiē dissolves into one. After a long time, when she opened her eyes again, her eyes suddenly became extremely sharp. With the sound of a gong and drum, she steadily pulled the trigger, and with a "bang", the gun body shook instantly. A special 6.5mm sniper bullet bursts out of the chamber. Break through a qiē obstruction and go to the target.

Time seems to stand still at this moment, at this moment, Guangxu has arrived at his prison Yulan Hall, he has already entered the door, every time he comes back, the craftsmen outside will build a brick wall with stone bricks at the entrance, and then he will live in this cage, hoping that Cixi will die early. or be able to die early;

At this moment, Yuan Shikai had returned to Tianjin. While planning the summer exercises of the northern and southern armies, he remotely controlled the four King Kongs of the bureaucratic bureau, hoping to make the Beiyang family not suffer any losses, and under the opposition of various forces in the court, he was no longer as full of interest as before;

At this moment, in addition to meeting with Dog Yangyi and asking for more funds, Sun Wen gathered all the members of the League in Tokyo to cheer everyone up, and revealed to the backbone the news that he was going to raise righteousness on the next day, which greatly boosted the morale of all members;

At this moment, Yang Rui has put aside his feelings, and is wholeheartedly with everyone, according to the following investigation report, formulating a township work outline under the guise of autonomy, not knowing that he is already the target of some people, nor does he know that the bullet shot by his beloved woman has changed history.

In the midst of a harmonious and celebratory imperial boat, with a "poof" sound, the hookah that Cixi was smoking suddenly fell to the ground, and blood splattered. After a brief silence, "Ah! Yes! ”…… The palace maids and eunuchs exclaimed together, and the singing Empress Longyu suddenly became dumbfounded, the blood on her face suddenly disappeared without a trace, and the fan in her hand also fell off, while Li Lianying rushed to Cixi's side after panic, and she was at a loss while crying......

The commotion on the boat was completely in the eyes of Cheng Ying and Fang Junying, in fact, they were not completely sure that the shot was Cixi, or maybe it was Longyu, but the opportunity was just one, there was no chance to fire the second shot after one shot, Cheng Ying felt hit when the bullet came out, she quietly put the gun in, and then crawled out of the grass with Fang Junying one after the other, although they did not make any retreat plan at all, but at this time, the scout in charge of the perimeter patrol had already moved forward, and the distance of six hundred meters, and the sound of gunfire accompanied by the beat of drums and silenced to give them a glimmer of life.

However, just when they climbed out of the dozens of meters, the sound of "catching assassins" on the royal boat had already shouted through the sky, and more than 10,000 royal forest troops moved, some jumped into the river, some searched the riverbank, and some went to the fields from the riverbank.

Listening to the commotion behind them getting bigger and bigger, Fang Junying and Cheng Ying no longer crawled forward, and after turning a small forest, they began to run with all their might, but at this time they were exhausted, and they fell to the ground after not running far.

"Give me the gun! I can't run. Fang Junying gasped, propped up on the ground weakly, and seemed to have no strength to speak.

Cheng Ying knew that she wanted to stay behind the broken queen, and then die with the Manchu Tartars, if it was before, I was afraid that she would also have such thoughts, but Bai Ru's teachings to her during training made her understand that a living warrior is the best warrior, she wanted to pull Fang Junying up, but unexpectedly she also fell to the ground, she said loudly: "If you don't leave, then we will die together!" Seeing that she was still indifferent, she said, "You are dead, what should I do with the fourth sister-in-law's child?!" ”

The fourth sister-in-law died to protect everyone, but a three-year-old child left behind was left unattended, thinking of the fatherless and motherless child, Fang Junying didn't know how to give birth to another strength, struggled to get up from the ground, and ran forward under the pull of Cheng Ying. (To be continued......)

PS: [Note: The above historical facts are excerpted from Su Xuncheng's "Cixi and Guangxu I Saw" in "Anecdotes of the Qing Palace". ]