Master Yuan, start!

The first person to stand up and refute was the Grand Councilor Sun Yuwen, who called himself "the Empress Dowager Cixi's most trusted person" and Cixi's most loyal lackey.

The second one is Ronglu, the Governor-General of Zhili. The Governor-General of Zhili was not a Beijing official and his station was in Baoding, Hebei.

However, Ronglu was able to attend the court meeting because he was involved in the affairs of the Zongli Yamen. He pointed at Yang Shenxiu and scolded him:

"Empress Dowager, Yang Shenxiu is a Han Chinese, yet he is trying to alienate the royal family. This is a capital crime. Killing him is not enough to appease the public anger!"

Seeing that the Hou party members all spoke out and often called for killing Yang Shenxiu, Guangxu's father Yixuan was so anxious that he didn't know what to do.

He didn't have the courage to beg for mercy, so he could only look at Weng Tong in front of him.

At this time, even though Weng Tong, who was also a member of the imperial party, didn't want to get involved in any more trouble, he had to stand up and say something:

"Renovating the warm pavilion cost countless millions. Your Majesty, Yang Shenxiu's remarks are completely nonsense and a waste of national funds. I request that he be stripped of his official title, sent back home, and never employed again!"

Weng Tong had to speak out, but the punishment he gave was much lighter. He was only stripped of his official title and never employed again.

God has mercy on me, it was not his permission for Yang Shenxiu to do this, but he was forced to clean up Yang Shenxiu's mess.

As the tutor of Emperor Guangxu, he could not get rid of the label of being a member of the Kuomintang. Only when Guangxu came to power could he make further progress.

But in fact, he was not in a hurry. His idea was almost the same as Yi X's. He just wanted to let the matter of ruling the country come naturally and not be impatient for success.

In the past two years, the court had been turbulently raising the issue of personal rule, but he had deliberately not participated. Who would have thought that after two years of hiding, Yang Shenxiu would give him a big surprise at the grand court meeting in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

He looked at Yang Shenxiu beside him and thought

"You kid, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, why don't you even say hello?"

The reason why Weng Tong advocated a lighter punishment for Yang Shenxiu, unlike the previous two important ministers, was because he believed that Cixi could understand his thoughts.

As the emperor's wedding approaches, any disturbance in the court will cause an uproar in the local area. The more arrogant Yang Shenxiu is, the more he cannot cause trouble.

Everything will have to wait until after the Emperor's wedding. Your Majesty, you must not allow the court to become turbulent at this time.

After staring at the gauze curtain, Weng Tong took the initiative to meet Cixi's gaze.

Seeing Weng Tong's unavoidable gaze, Cixi's angry mind gradually cleared up. She had originally planned to carry out a large-scale purge of the court, but now she decided to only target Yang Shenxiu.

"I understand. I have my own plans.

"Yang Shenxiu, since you're so interested in building a warm room, then take off your imperial censor's hat and go to the edge of the Summer Palace for a thorough on-site inspection." Cixi spoke slowly, making it difficult to guess what she was thinking.

"Pan Zuyin!"

"I'm here!" Minister of Works Pan Zuyin stood up from among the ministers.

"I'll leave Yang Shenxiu to you. You must keep an eye on him. Have him measure the dimensions of Kunming Lake every day and perform some exercises yourself.

This way, it won't be a disgrace to his brilliant idea of ​​building a warm pavilion."

"Your Majesty, I will obey the Queen Mother's order!"

Exile, definitely exile! When Yi X heard Cixi's arrangement for Yang Shenxiu, this word immediately came to his mind.

In ancient times, Emperor Qin Shi Huang conscripted civilians to build the Great Wall in the twelfth lunar month. Today, Empress Dowager Cixi dispatched imperial censors to build warm rooms in the winter solstice.

Yi X felt a little sorry for Censor Yang, but fortunately, at least he saved his life. As long as he was alive, there was still hope.

As long as he says a few nice words to the Empress Dowager and surrenders himself after his son's wedding, Yang Shenxiu can naturally be transferred back to the capital. Such a loyal minister should not be buried in the countryside.

Just when Yi X took a deep breath and thought that the matter was over.

Cixi, who had already stood up and was about to leave, said, "After the court is dismissed, the emperor does not need to go to the Temple of Heaven in Nanyuan to offer sacrifices to the heavens. It's so cold, let Prince Chun do it for him."

Hearing Cixi mention himself, Prince Chun Yixun suddenly realized something and quickly stood up and said yes.

"As for the Emperor, since Yang Shenxiu said that after the wedding, I will live outside the city.

Counting on my fingers, I only have a few days left to meet the emperor.

From now on, the Emperor will move to Yangxingzhai, next to my bedroom, Chuxiu Palace. This way, I can see the Emperor every day. I must take advantage of the time I still have to take a few more glances at my precious son."

Yi X's body was originally relaxed, but when he heard Cixi's words, his hair stood on end.

What does it mean to let the emperor live in Yangxingzhai?

The place was located deep in the harem and was small, with only a lonely two-story building.

The emperor of the current dynasty has never lived here. Only Emperor Jiaqing and Emperor Daoguang went there to have vegetarian meals a few times.

What? You want my son to go to Yangxingzhai to eat vegetarian food and chant Buddhist scriptures, and never let him get involved in government affairs again?

This is clearly confinement!

Emperor Kangxi only imprisoned the princes. Do you, Yehenara Xingzhen, dare to imprison the emperor of the dynasty?

Under the official uniform, YiX4 had already clenched his fists, but even so, YiX could only say yes and looked at Guangxu on the throne.

"My son, you must hold back!"

Ever since he heard that Yang Shenxiu was forced to dig the soil, Guangxu never opened his mouth. His lips were tightly closed, trying to suppress the anger in his heart.

He had thought that in front of all the officials, at such an important moment as the Winter Solstice Court Meeting, Cixi would always be concerned about her face, but he did not expect her to be so decisive.

The young Guangxu still lacked actual experience in officialdom. He did not expect that his rash action of sending people to the grand court meeting would undoubtedly expose the contradiction.

Since it is on the surface, Cixi's power is much greater than Guangxu's.

When Cixi forbade him to offer sacrifices to heaven on the winter solstice and said that he would be sent to live in Yangxingzhai, Guangxu closed his eyes tightly, tucked his hands into the wide sleeves of his yellow robe, pressed them hard on the armrests of the dragon throne, and trembled uncontrollably all over.

He was afraid and angry. He wished he could run over right now and kick this woman who was bringing disaster to the country and the people to death.

But he knew that if he did so, he would not be able to become the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, where filial piety was the top priority.

So after a while, he lost his temper and could only follow Cixi's steps and leave the court together.

Before leaving, Guangxu looked at Amayi X who was kneeling on the ground, his big eyes flushed red.

Seeing his own son's eyes that seemed to be dripping with blood, Yi X finally made up his mind.

After dismissing the court, he rushed to the palace of Prince Li Shiduo, an important member of the royal family, that night.

Yi X couldn't stop crying in Shiduo's study, and told Prince Li about the depression he had been suppressed by Cixi for more than ten years, and his love for his own son.

By the time Yi X finished speaking his heart out, the sky was already getting brighter.

Prince Li Shiduo was a man of temperament, otherwise he would not have shown favor to Yuan Jiasan, Yuan Xiangcheng's great-uncle, just because he had studied Confucian classics with him for a few years.

So, when YiX came to complain, he, who had grown up with YiX, felt the same way.

He immediately pulled his good-for-nothing son out of bed and told him everything Yi X had said.

"Chenghou, before this grand court meeting, I just wanted to send a servant to Korea to look for Yuan Xiangcheng.

But after Yang Shenxiu's incident, other people were no longer reliable, and only the men of the Aisin Gioro family could be trusted.

So this time, Uncle Qi is counting on you."

After saying this, Yi X bowed to Cheng Hou and was about to make a gesture of bowing.

Chenghou quickly stepped aside and said that there was no need to do so. He would rush to Korea as soon as possible to find Yuan Xiangcheng and inform him of the matter.

"So, this is the ultimate reason why you came to see me this time?" Yuan Xiangcheng looked outside the house. The sky had already cleared up.

Before he knew it, Chenghou had been talking to him the whole night!

"That's right, Master Yuan, there's no time to lose, let's get going as soon as possible.

The sooner we arrive in the capital, the greater the chances of the Emperor's victory!" Cheng Hou drank the cold tea in one gulp.

When Yuan Xiangcheng heard what Chenghou had said, he could only say that Cixi was still the most experienced.

Distributing "heating fees" at the Winter Solstice Court Meeting was a reasonable and logical bribe to all officials, which was really a brilliant move.

Yang Shenxiu was not executed, and Guangxu was simply kept under surveillance, without any talk of deposing him.

In addition, once she spent 10 taels of silver, apart from the die-hard imperial party, the vast majority of centrists in the court would accept her silver and then follow the imperial party in waving flags and shouting against her, which would be a bit inappropriate.

One has to sigh that Cixi was really good at political struggles. It can be said that if she had not had few offspring, she might have been able to fulfill her dream of becoming a female emperor like Wu Zetian.

In terms of ability, Cixi may be even better than Wu Zetian. After all, Wu Zetian took over the huge nascent empire of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, and the national strength was booming.

Cixi took over a late Qing Dynasty that was facing invasions from major powers such as Britain, France and Russia. She also contributed to the fact that the Qing Dynasty was able to survive for 50 years after the Taiping Rebellion.

However, no matter how much he lamented, the purpose in his heart would not change. Even if Cixi had more means, her means could not escape the nest of feudal bureaucracy.

But what Yuan Shikai wanted to establish was a republican China, not a promax version of the Qing Empire.

For him:

The artillery fire at Dagukou still roared;

In the Qing-French naval battle, the souls of the Chinese fleet are still buried deep in the sea;

On both sides of the Heilongjiang River where the cold wind howled, thousands of people who opened up the living space for their nation in the Northeast,

Still waiting for him to save her!

Yuan Shikai was not Cixi's man, nor would he become Guangxu's man.

If he wants to do it, he must be a proud Chinese!

After thinking about it, Yuan Xiangcheng decided to mobilize all the forces he could to add fuel to the fire of the dispute between the emperor and the empress.

Yuan Xiangcheng stood up and opened the door:

"Come on, Chenghou, let's go find a place in the city to pack up. Once I'm ready, we'll set off immediately!"

"Thank you, Lord Yuan!" Chenghou clasped his fists in gratitude and walked out.

Chapter 110: Sewing the railway, sewing the ideology!

"Sir Yuan, why doesn't this train go to Incheon Port, but instead goes all the way north?" Cheng Hou, who was following Yuan Xiangcheng, couldn't help but ask.

As the sun set further and further west, but he still couldn't see the coastline, he realized that Yuan Shikai had not rushed to Incheon from Seoul.

"It's not safe to go back by boat, Chenghou. Although the situation in the capital is urgent, the most important thing right now is to ensure that you and I are safe." Yuan Xiangcheng, who was sitting on the train, admired the beautiful scenery all the way back and said calmly.

Yuan Xiangcheng did not plan to return to Tianjin by sea because sea transportation was too fast.

When Chenghou came, the wind was northwesterly, and the speed was faster with the wind. If he went back, even with the wind against him, it would only take him three days at most according to the speed of ships in the late 19th century.

Three days was not enough time for public opinion at the grand court meeting to ferment.

So he had to return slowly to give Cixi enough time.

His plan was to take a train to the Yalu River first, cross the Yalu River, and then ride a fast horse across the Liaodong hills, go south to Shanhaiguan, and rush to the capital.