Master Yuan, start!

"Besides, Shiduo didn't give up the position of Grand Councilor for nothing. He was clearly retreating to advance." A bannerman who had served as a Manchu minister in the Ministry of Personnel revealed the inside story.

Everyone looked at this person quietly, wanting to hear what had happened.

"Ever since his son Chenghou was suddenly promoted from a commoner to a Beile, he has never held any respectable position." This person lowered his voice and spoke about the news he had heard from an old friend in the Ministry of Personnel:

"But Shiduo just resigned from his post as Grand Councilor a few days ago. I heard Chenghou is about to be promoted from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry of Works and concurrently the Minister of Railway Supervision. The Ministry of Personnel has even written the paperwork."

Old man 975844

What a good deal! He used his position as the Grand Councilor to exchange for a real position for his son. Upon hearing this, everyone could only sigh at Shiduo's courage.

That’s the position of the Grand Councilor!

"The guy from the Forbidden City spent a lot of money on this railway," someone next to him was amazed when talking about the railway construction.

"I heard he even had the marble columns and antiques and paintings in the Summer Palace removed and sold. He was handling millions of taels of silver."

This person was referring to the demolition of the Summer Palace. After Guangxu returned to Beijing, the more he looked at the Summer Palace, the more uncomfortable he felt.

Guangxu always recalled the days when he got up early in the morning, set out from the Forbidden City, and ran dozens of miles to pay his respects to Cixi.

So they just demolished it and sold the jade and furniture to make some money.

"No wonder Shiduo was able to retreat so easily." Upon hearing this, Prince Zhuang Zaixun's eyes were filled with greed: "If I could take this lucrative position, I wouldn't even trade it for a Grand Councilor!"

"The Emperor is also trying to boost the country's strength, so he's been a bit harsh on the Bannermen. As his subjects, shouldn't we share his worries and help him solve his problems?"

Boyan Nemuhu finally found an opportunity to speak and express what he was thinking. After all, even though he was reprimanded, he still had a trace of loyalty to Guangxu as a subject.

"National strength, national strength, bullshit national strength, is this a country ruled by the Manchus or the Mongols, or a country ruled by the Han people?

When Emperor Taizu encountered a cold disaster outside the Great Wall, he even killed the Han people in Shenyang City as military rations.

How could he, as the leader of the Eight Banners, use the imperial grain of our bannermen to feed the Han people?

Is his last name Aixinjueluo or Yuan?"

Prince Zhuang Zaixun finally couldn't bear it anymore and scolded Guangxu by name.

But he forgot that when Nurhaci massacred the Han people outside the Great Wall, the Jurchens had not yet conquered the Mongolians south of the Gobi Desert. At that time, Nurhaci also killed all the Mongols who were still enemies.

"That Yuan Shikai must have drugged him in Korea," Fu Yu said bitterly. "Ever since returning to Beijing, he's been refusing to agree to anything. He's truly unfit to rule!"

The reason why Fu Yu also hated Yuan Shikai was because he was the prefect of Fengtian Prefecture and was in charge of the local civil affairs of Shengjing.

However, since Shengjing was established as a province and changed into Fengtian Province, he, the San Yin of Fengtian Prefecture, was called back to the capital by a transfer order and remained unemployed at home.

Although the Fengtian prefect was under the control of the Shengjing general, that was only in matters of military and political importance.

In reality, there were not so many constraints in daily government affairs, and as the prefect of Fengtian Prefecture, Fu Yu could earn more than 100,000 taels of silver a year outside the Great Wall.

What a wonderful situation, but it was completely ruined because of Yuan Shikai's arrival.

Therefore, Fu Yu held a grudge against Yuan Shikai and was also dissatisfied with Guangxu for summoning him back to Beijing.

"Prince Zhuang, and all of you." Boyan Nemuhu understood. They were all dissatisfied with the emperor, and the cause was mostly because of Yuan Xiangcheng. "I finally understand. If you want to change the emperor's mind, you must get rid of Yuan Xiangcheng."

"That's right," Zaixun said with a delighted look. "However, we don't necessarily have to get rid of Yuan Xiangcheng. After all, he has tens of thousands of troops at his side, so it's not easy to kill him. As long as we can make the emperor dislike him, that's fine."

Unconsciously, Prince Zhuang Zaixun's way of addressing Guangxu changed from the one in the Forbidden City to "Zai", and then from "Zai" to "Your Majesty".

"This is easy to handle. Didn't the emperor ask Yuan Xiangcheng to send a large army to wipe out the rioters?" Boyan Nemuhu pondered for a moment and said, "Then let him suppress them until they are completely wiped out!"

Boyan Nemuhu had no good feelings towards Yuan Shikai. He was just a Han Chinese and a slave. Why did he climb over the heads of the Mongols?

"Oh, what does Prince Bo have in mind?" Zaixun became interested, and Fu Yu and several others also came forward.

"Prince Zhuang, don't forget that my father Abu traveled all over the country and left behind many remnants." Boyan Nemohu thought of his own father Senggelinqin and immediately puffed out his chest.

"There are many of my old subordinates in the eastern part of Mengdong. I can have them use the name of Jindan Dao to kill Han people. If Yuan Xiangcheng's army attacks, we can run west or north. Can he chase us into the desert?"

"That's right!" Fu Yu clapped his hands excitedly. "When it comes to horseback riding, who can compare to us Mongols? We come and go like the wind. Let's see how he can defeat us! 2LOU: Do it!"

"And that's not all. We can also borrow a few from the Outer Mongolians," Bayan Nemohu said sinisterly. "We can have them use the name of the Golden Elixir Sect to move eastward along the river and invade Heilongjiang, Jilin, and other places."

"What a great idea!" Prince Zhuang Zaixun nodded repeatedly. "By then, the Golden Elixir Dao will flourish everywhere outside the Great Wall. Even if Yuan Xiangcheng talks a lot, he won't be able to explain it clearly!"

This method sounds fantastic, but if you think about it carefully, it is perfect.

Even if one or two lone people are caught, there is no need to worry. Who says that Mongolians cannot believe in the Golden Elixir Dao?

As long as the leader is not caught, there is no solution to this problem.

There was even less to worry about Outer Mongolia, as Yuan Xiangcheng's forces outside the Great Wall were concentrated east and south of Shengjing. There weren't many national defense forces in the north.

"Prince Bo, you truly are worthy of being the son of the Monk King," said Prince Zhuang Zaixun, beaming after hearing the plan. "With such a talented person in Manchuria and Mongolia, why should we worry about the Qing Dynasty having no successor?"

"That's right," Fu Yu said solemnly, "As long as there's a rift between the two of them, that's our chance. Prince Bo, on behalf of the two million Manchu and Mongolian Bannermen, I sincerely want to thank you."

"For the foundation of Manchuria and Mongolia!" Bayan Nemuhu was not modest and raised his glass to greet everyone.

"For the foundation of Manchuria and Mongolia!" Prince Zhuang Zaixun, Fu Yu and eight others also raised their glasses in response.

At the end of 1891, in a secret room in the basement of an inconspicuous residence in the capital, ambitious men among the Manchu and Mongolian bannermen concocted a conspiracy against Yuan Shikai and Emperor Guangxu.

However, what they didn't know was that their plan to expand the Jindan Dao and develop westward fell right into Yuan Xiangcheng's plan.

It can only be said that people’s calculations are not as good as God’s calculations.

All their strategies were based on the fact that Yuan Shikai was a "loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty."

After all, if the emperor trusted someone so much and gave him whatever he wanted, that person would probably be willing to sacrifice his life and swear allegiance to the emperor until death.

However, unfortunately, although Guangxu trusted Yuan Xiangcheng very much, Yuan Xiangcheng was really not loyal to Guangxu.

As fate would have it, a palace conspiracy that had an extremely crooked starting point was doomed to fail before it even began.

Chapter 189 No one knows how to win people's hearts better than me

While people in the capital were plotting against Yuan Shikai, in Incheon, many scholars were walking together on the streets, congratulating each other, creating a joyous scene.

Yuan Xiangcheng was not yet aware of the conspiracy against him.

Of course, even if he knew, he might not take it to heart.

Because his power was growing, he became less and less concerned about the political struggles within the Guangxu court.

Yuan Shikai had previously handed over the task of recruiting soldiers for the new four regiments of the National Defense Army to Guangxu, intending to reassure him.

After Guangxu came to power, in order to deal with the situation in the south, he took the initiative to divide the recruitment tasks of three of the regiments among Duan Qirui, Sheng Fei and Feng Guozhang who were stationed in southern Shanxi, northern Henan and central Shandong, leaving only one regiment in Beijing.

This move was suggested by Weng Tong. He originally wanted to use the method of the discord between Hunan and Chu and the conflict between Hunan and Huaihe to add some sand to the National Defense Army and dilute Yuan Shikai's influence in this army.

However, he did not know that the National Defense Army was not a private army, and even if he bribed Duan, Sheng and Feng.

Most of the middle and upper-level military officers in these three towns are also members of the Red Confucian Society. The political instructors are not just for show. Although the grassroots "three-member" system is not perfect, it is sufficient to deal with the short-term erosion of feudal forces.

Therefore, it is equivalent to the National Defense Force expanding its troops by 3 in disguise.

With this one town left, everyone thought Guangxu would recruit more bannermen, but to everyone's surprise, the result was just the opposite.

He did not mention giving priority to bannermen, but only said that those who are capable should be given priority.

Guangxu felt that he was oppressed too harshly by Cixi in the days before his wedding, and at that time the Eight Banners in the capital did not lend a helping hand. Instead, he relied on a Han Chinese, Yuan Shikai, to rescue him. After returning to the capital, he completely lost his heart towards the Eight Banners.

When recruiting national defense troops to garrison the capital, he ordered a careful selection, and those who were old, weak, smoked opium, drank heavily, or were slick were not accepted.

These rules immediately excluded most of the bannermen.

The Eight Banners in Beijing had no means of livelihood on a daily basis, and could not farm or do business. They relied on flag ringing, gambling, and military service to make a living, and had long been infected with many bad habits.

The Han army flag was fine. If they couldn't survive, they would just flee. No one cared about them anyway. Most of them ran to Tianjin or outside the Great Wall to work.

The purebred Manchu bannermen were miserable. They were strictly watched by the higher-ups and could not do anything. The whole family had no food to eat.

Cixi had previously organized a new army near the capital, which absorbed a large number of idle bannermen. Although a group of Han officers privately believed that "such soldiers are of no benefit to the army and harmful to the people", this move did effectively ease the internal conflicts within the Eight Banners that were intensifying in the late Qing Dynasty.

Of course, when Yuan Shikai entered the Pass, he swept across all directions as if he were in an empty land, which was enough to show the combat effectiveness of this group of bannermen soldiers.

After Guangxu returned to Beijing, all the new troops near the capital were disbanded except those who died in battle.

Among them, the vast majority of the bannermen soldiers were not selected to serve in patrol camps or police forces, and could only return home and live off their savings.

When they heard the news that the emperor had ordered the National Defense Army to train a new regiment of troops, these people became eager to try again.

Unexpectedly, when Guangxu issued an edict to "strengthen national defense and the army", a total of 1000 soldiers were recruited, but it was said that only a few hundred bannermen were recruited, less than people.

In this way, Guangxu took the initiative to tear off the fig leaf and no longer followed the implicit rule of giving priority to bannermen. Instead, he did it openly, which the lower-class bannermen naturally could not accept.

However, Guangxu also thought about giving the bannermen a way out. He had discussed with his ministers three times to abolish the ancestral precept that the Eight Banners could not engage in business or farming.

However, not only Weng Tong, but also Li Hongzao, Xu Gengshen, Pan Zuyin, and even Shi Duo advised Guangxu to postpone his actions on the grounds that the ancestral family teachings should not be taken lightly.

Guangxu was not clear about it, but these old ministers knew it very well. Rather than saying that the bannermen were incapable of engaging in agriculture and commerce, it would be better to say that after hundreds of years of "honorary care", the bannermen had long been spoiled.

If the ban on flags is lifted now and they are allowed to engage in business, I am afraid that the little family property passed down by their ancestors will disappear in an instant.

If we let them farm, it is possible that no food will grow in the soil in the next year.

If things get out of hand, won’t the court still have to take responsibility?

Therefore, Weng Tong and others naturally wanted to delay the matter as much as possible and slow it down as much as possible.

This is also the reason why Prince Zhuang Zaixun and others dared to conspire in the capital. To be fair, after Guangxu came to power, the lives of most bannermen, whether at the bottom or the middle and upper classes, were indeed getting worse and worse.

It was only because Yuan Shikai's army was at their side that they did not dare to act rashly.

However, everyone was angry, so naturally some people had bad intentions.

Some people were stealing and robbing frequently, while others were plotting to trick Guangxu.

Of course, the people who were conspiring in the basement in the capital had no idea that Guangxu had the idea of ​​abolishing the banner ban, or even if they knew, they probably would not agree.

It was just like when Chongzhen asked officials to donate money to suppress bandits. In front of the emperor, they all acted like good officials with clean hands, and they were willing to risk their lives to donate hundreds of taels of silver.

But when Li Zicheng interrogated people for money, the silver he found could be piled up into a small mountain.

There was not much difference within the ruling groups of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Throughout the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu and Mongolian upper class nobles seemed united, but that was only an appearance. The real struggle for power was extremely cruel. During the Later Jin Dynasty, a few Beizi could fight to the death for the Khan position.

How did Shunzhi die? How was Guangxu imprisoned for several years in the original time and space?

Kings who don't conform to the interests of the ruling class have always encountered various accidents. The Ming Dynasty had emperors falling into the water and the emperor who was only one month old. The Qing Dynasty was no exception, but it was better concealed.

Of course, in the face of absolute strength, all conspiracies and tricks are meaningless.

If the strategy was effective, then by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Jurchens outside the Great Wall would have been pacified by the "X-year plan to pacify Liao" implemented by the civil officials in the capital.