The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 388 Constitutional monarchy and republic, the struggle for orthodoxy! (Please subscribe, please vote)

Xujiahui, which originally belonged to the French Concession, has entered a period of rapid development since it was taken back by Luo Xueyan. It has now become a high-end residential area where celebrities and wealthy people gather in Shanghai. Although it is not as prosperous as Shanghai County and the original British Concession area, many Western-style or Chinese-style garden houses have been built like mushrooms after rain. Rich people from all over the south and north of the Yangtze River, compradors who made a fortune in Shanghai, and some foreign wealthy people who did big business in Shanghai all bought land here and built luxury houses. Among them was the former French Consul in Shanghai, Ai Tong.

After the French Minister to Shanghai, Bourboulon, he stopped serving as consul and went into business, opening the Aitong Trading Company. He quickly became rich by selling arms and speculating in real estate, so he purchased 35 acres of land in Xujiahui and spent a huge amount of money to build an Aitong Garden.

Li Hongzhang and his Marty lived in this mansion for the past two days. After the failure of the constitutional monarchy campaign, he planned to go to Huai'an to join his father Li Wenxuan and his teacher Zeng Guofan. He planned to first get the "military books" of several battalions from his father and teacher, and then go to his hometown in Hefei to recruit soldiers.

As long as we have a foreign rifle troop of 10,000 or 20,000 people, everything will be fine!
But his Marty would not go with him to the countryside of Anhui to suffer together. As a noble French princess and the future "Empress of the Tang Dynasty", she had to live in a city like Shanghai under the care of the French ambassador to China, Bourboulon. She would not leave Shanghai until Li Hongzhang got a city that could be run as an imperial or royal capital.

So Li Hongzhang was busy settling Mathilde these two days, while discussing with Lieutenant Colonel Henri-Gustave de Vigenet, the military adviser sent to him by Napoleon III, how to rally the "war army".

This 40-something, dark-skinned, weather-beaten French Army lieutenant colonel had fought in Algeria for many years and was very experienced. He was also an expert in firearms. He had worked with Minié to develop an excellent muzzle-loading rifle, the famous Minié rifle.

This time, he arrived in Shanghai with Li Hongzhang and Mathilde, bringing with him an advisory group of fifty French officers and non-commissioned officers, as well as a full ten thousand rifled 1777 rifles, one thousand Minié rifles, and fifty cannons and mortars of various calibers.

His first task was to help Li Hongzhang organize a division of "combat army" as soon as possible and to deploy this army to fight against Russia within 1855. As long as this combat army could capture Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula, then Napoleon III's investment in Li Hongzhang on behalf of the French government would be recovered.

After discussing military affairs with Lieutenant Colonel De Vikinet for an entire afternoon yesterday, and being "caught" by Mathilde to "go horseback riding" in the evening, Li Hongzhang, who was busy until late at night, was standing in front of the French window of the study in Aitong Garden, staring blankly outside, watching the prosperous and bustling scene from near to far. This is a rapidly growing city that has attracted half of China's wealth. Unfortunately, it fell into the hands of the republican Luo Xueyan. If Li Hongzhang wants to achieve great things, he should have a city as prosperous as Shanghai as his base.

But where is his Shanghai? Tianjin is a good choice, but how can I get it?
Suddenly, there was a noisy sound outside the window. He looked carefully and found that hundreds of rough men wearing short coats, red scarves on their heads, holding paper placards in their hands appeared on the originally quiet road outside. They looked like dock workers and were walking along the road while shouting something.

“Is this a petition march?”

Li Hongzhang was stunned for a moment.

He had seen this scene several times in England and France!
I didn’t expect to see him after returning to Shanghai!
He hurried to the window, pushed it open, and then he heard slogans outside.

"Support the Republic! Down with the Qing demons."

Support the Republic?

Li Hongzhang, who had broadened his horizons in Britain and France, immediately understood what was happening?
Luo Xueyan is manipulating public opinion to find an excuse for his betrayal of the Qing Dynasty and his betrayal of the Qing Dynasty!
It's so hateful that he got the upper hand over this trick!

People on the street have already started knocking on the doors of every house, shouting as they knock: "Open the door! Support the Republic!"

Can you do this?

Li Hongzhang was stunned when he saw Aitong, the owner of Aitong Garden, walk out of the house with a few servants, run to the gate of the yard, and seem to open a side door to talk to the protesters outside. After a while, he ran back to the house with a piece of paper. After a while, there was a light knock on the door of Li Hongzhang's study.

"Shaoquan, it's me."

Feng Guifen's voice came from outside.

"Mr. Jingting? Please come in."

Li Hongzhang quickly invited Feng Guifen in.

Feng Guifen came in with Aitong, holding an unsigned "petition" in her hand, and handed it to Li Hongzhang: "Shaoquan, look at this."

Li Hongzhang took it and looked at it, then whispered, "Please ask Luo Xueshuai to join the Republic Book?"

"Shaoquan," Feng Guifen said angrily, "This petition says that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's meeting of kings passed a resolution calling on all corners of the world to join in the republican cause, elect national representatives, go to Tianjing to attend the National Conference, pass the Constitution, jointly build a republic, and jointly eliminate the Tartars and restore China. I never thought that Luo Xueyan would do this!"

Li Hongzhang shook his head slightly, his face extremely solemn: "Now I am afraid that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will really call on all quarters to support the republic!" "Call on all quarters?" Feng Guifen frowned and said, "No one will really follow them just because of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's call, right?"

"It's hard to say." Li Hongzhang frowned. "Jingting, you don't know that calling on the four parties to hold a national conference, pass the constitution, and declare a republic is to give the republic a legal system!"

"Legal system? Is this considered a legal system?" Feng Guifen looked incredulous.

Li Hongzhang explained: "The legal system of the Republic comes from the National People's Congress. If only Shanghai responds, the legal system of the Republic will naturally not be established. But if more places respond to the Republic and send people to attend the National People's Congress, then the legal system of the Republic will be established!
Once they have the legal system, they will have a legitimate cause and will be orthodox!"

"Orthodoxy?" Feng Guifen asked in surprise, "Can anyone in the world recognize it?"

"It's hard to say," Li Hongzhang whispered, "The emperor is a Manchu after all! There is a legal basis for overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty, not to mention the republic approved by the National People's Congress?"

"This"

Feng Guifen looked at Li Hongzhang, speechless for a moment.

Li Hongzhang said to Aitong, "Mr. Aitong, go ask when the Dongfang can depart. I want to leave Shanghai for Tianjin as soon as possible!"

Aitang nodded: "Okay, I'll arrange it right away."

After saying this, he hurriedly left the study.

"To Tianjin?" Feng Guifen asked, "Aren't we going to Huai'an?"

"Go to Tianjin and then to Beijing to see the emperor!" Li Hongzhang said with a sullen face, "The constitutional monarchy must compete with the republic for legal legitimacy! They want to hold a national conference, so we must also hold a constitutional monarchy conference, and also call on the gentry of the world to come to Beijing for a meeting to discuss the constitution.

Otherwise, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's republic would be supported by all the people in the world, and our constitutional monarchy would have no legitimacy at all! The legitimacy of a constitutional monarchy lies in the monarch. If the monarch is not legitimate, what kind of constitution is there? We can just have a republic!"

Weng Family Garden.

When Luo Xueyan "learned" that Shanghai citizens had spontaneously petitioned for the implementation of a republic, he was on a "blind date" at Weng Tonghe's house with a young girl who was only thirteen or fourteen years old. They just wanted to get to know each other, but not to "kiss" because she was too young.

"Wanzhen, you are still young. You can study in Shanghai and grow up slowly."

Luo Xueyan looked at the pink and tender little sister of "Empress Dowager Cixi" with a shy face, and couldn't help but feel "friendly". In addition to "friendly", there was also the thought that Guangxu must not be born. There was nothing else!

"Study?" Wanzhen looked at Luo Xueyan timidly, "I have studied and know quite a few words."

"Oh, that's right," Luo Xueyan said with a smile, "Shanghai will soon open a primary school to promote a national education that combines Chinese and Western elements. You should at least finish primary school."

Wanzhen seemed to dislike reading. She pouted and asked, "Is it difficult to combine Chinese and Western cultures?"

Weng Tonghe at the side said with a smile: "It's not difficult, not difficult at all. I have already learned the math for the first to third grade of elementary school with Mr. Qian in the past two days. It's very simple and you can learn it right away."

Well, he was the top scholar in history! The one who taught him was Qian Sanqiang's grandfather.
"Okay then," Wanzhen smiled, "I'll listen to you, Master, and go to primary school first."

At this moment, slogans of "Support the Republic" were heard outside the window of Weng's house.

(End of this chapter)