Daming: Lend the system to Emperor Hongwu at the beginning

Chapter 130 Emperor Xianfeng collapsed, Cixi ascended the throne [seeking monthly ticket]

April of the ninth year of Xianfeng.

The city of Peiping was gloomy and gloomy.

The hypocritical army has now reached Baoding, which is only a hundred miles away from Beiping.

Emperor Xianfeng, who had always been active in running away, did not run away this time.

It wasn't that he didn't want to run, but that he couldn't run anymore.

Emperor Xianfeng was ill, and the illness was very serious. Basically, he had exhaled more energy and less energy.

Originally, Xianfeng in history could actually survive for another two years, but now it is estimated that he listened to Zhu Yuanzhang's report every day, and felt the call of death in advance after being frightened.

"Li Hongzhang, has the news from the sea come back?" At the bedside of Emperor Xianfeng, a woman served Xianfeng with all her heart and went to bed, and then went outside to meet Li Hongzhang, the current governor of Zhili.

Although Li Hongzhang's encounters were also very different from those in history, and even because of the failure of previous errands, Emperor Xianfeng had a very bad impression of him.

But the only thing that has not changed between him and history is that he has tightly held military power.

Even because of Zeng Guofan's sudden death, Li Hongzhang took the Hunan Army into his pocket.

In this way, he is even more powerful than the original history by three points.

Of course, the current Manchu Qing Dynasty is not the Qing Dynasty in history that still dominates the country until now.

After being manipulated by Zhu Yuanzhang, the Qing Dynasty at this moment is like Emperor Xianfeng, only one breath away from death.

"The servant came this time to report on the military situation at sea!" Li Hongzhang showed a trace of bitterness on his face.

He sighed and said: "The invincible army of the Eight-Power Allied Forces has been defeated, but the false fleet is still invincible at sea."

"Crack!" Hearing the news, the woman sitting in the upper seat trembled, and the cup fell to the ground without holding it firmly.

"Say it again?" She said with a pale face.

"Empress, the servant just got the news!"

"The combined fleet of the Eight Nations was defeated by a fake fleet near Taiwan!"

"I heard that not even half of the warships escaped back!" Li Hongzhang said.

"What should I do!" Yehenala, the future Cixi, was flustered.

"what……!"

In the back room, Emperor Xianfeng, who had just fallen asleep but was awakened by the sound of the cup falling to the ground, also heard Li Hongzhang's performance.

He, who was already on the brink of death, suddenly sat up from the bed when he heard the bad news.

"Even if I die, how can I have the face to meet my ancestors in the Qing Dynasty!"

"Pfft!" Shouting this sentence, the enraged Emperor Xianfeng spurted out a mouthful of old blood.

The Yehenala family outside heard the commotion inside, and ran inside in a panic without caring about anything else.

When she ran into the back room, what she saw was Emperor Xianfeng lying on the bed, completely breathless.

After all, the Yehenala family at this moment is not the Empress Dowager Cixi who will hold power 20 years later.

Now she is just a concubine favored by Emperor Xianfeng. If he hadn't given birth to the eldest son of Emperor Xianfeng three years ago, who would later become Emperor Tongzhi, she might not even be close to Emperor Xianfeng at this moment. .

"How can this be good?"

"What should I do?" Yehenala was completely panicked at the moment, trying to close Emperor Xianfeng's eyes with trembling hands, but he didn't dare to approach him.

"Empress, Your Majesty is dead, the plan for now is to establish a new monarch early and stabilize the court!"

"In addition, we must summon the Tsarist Russian envoys as soon as possible, and immediately agree to all their conditions, so that the Tsarist Russian soldiers can enter the customs as soon as possible."

"Otherwise, if we wait for the hypocrisy to attack the city of Beiping, someone will open the city and surrender before we resist!"

Li Hongzhang couldn't care about anything else at this meeting, he followed Yehenala into the room, saw Xianfeng's appearance, his pupils shrank, and immediately realized that this would be a great opportunity for him.

The opportunity to fully grasp the power of the Qing Dynasty.

Now, with the loss of the fleet of the Eight-Power Allied Forces at sea, the maritime advantage has been completely gone, and the situation has become completely clear.

It is basically impossible for the Qing Dynasty to rely on themselves to keep the territory in the customs. The false Ming Dynasty is powerful, and without the foreign navy harassing the coast, they can't completely confront it head-on.

Then there is only one way left.

Lead Tsarist Russia into the customs.

He has been negotiating with people from Tsarist Russia these days, and he also asked Emperor Xianfeng for instructions.

The two sides have conducted several rounds of negotiations, and the situation has been deadlocked.

Tsarist Russia wants a lot.

If you want them to enter the military pass and resist the hypocrisy, you have to cede a large area of ​​land in the Ili area of ​​​​Xinjiang and the north of the Wusuli River.

Moreover, the Manchu Qing promised to lease Qingdao, an ice-free port, to Tsarist Russia for 100 years as a land lease.

These conditions made Emperor Xianfeng very heartbroken, and several rounds of negotiations did not let go.

After all, they had hope before.

If the fleet of the Eight-Power Allied Forces can annihilate the Puppet Fleet in one fell swoop, then they only need to defend Beiping City for a period of time, and the Puppet's lair is threatened by the foreign navy, and the possibility of retreating is extremely high.

At that time, there will naturally be no need to bow to Tsarist Russia.

But now that the foreigner's joint naval fleet has been destroyed, the last glimmer of hope for the Manchus has been shattered.

If Tsarist Russia does not help, the Qing Dynasty may not even have room to struggle, and it will be directly destroyed by falsehood.

At that time, not to mention the territory, even whether they can survive will be a problem.

Emperor Xianfeng saw this very clearly, and Li Hongzhang naturally understood it too.

"The two things you said are of course urgent."

"But my son is still young, if he inherits the throne, I'm afraid his uncles will have different opinions!"

"And if I can't inherit the emperor's throne, what capacity should I use to negotiate with the Russian envoy?" Yehenala was indeed shrewd, and quickly grasped the most important thing to him now.

The eldest son of the emperor is only three years old, and several princes are still in power. Now that Emperor Xianfeng is newly mourned, under such a chaotic situation, how to ensure that the crown prince can successfully ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor is what the Yehenala family is most concerned about .

Because the crown prince's interests are actually her interests.

Only when the crown prince successfully ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, will she have the opportunity to evolve from the Yehenala family to the Empress Dowager Cixi who listens to politics behind the curtain.

"The slave is willing to do the work of a dog and a horse!"

"If your majesty has a will, this servant will fulfill it for your majesty even if it takes this old life." Li Hongzhang said in a solemn tone.

Yehenala raised her head and exchanged a glance with Li Hongzhang.

In fact, after Emperor Xianfeng's condition worsened, she had already flirted with Li Hongzhang.

Of course, it is not that the two have any adultery, but that both of them are willing to make each other their political allies.

As a queen, what Yehenala needs most is to allow Aixinjueluo Zaichun, who is still only the eldest son of the emperor, to inherit the throne in a legitimate way after the death of Emperor Xianfeng.

And this requires the help of important officials from the foreign court.

What Li Hongzhang wanted was that there was only one voice in Beiping under the current chaotic situation, and the most important thing was that that voice had better be uttered by him.

And this also requires the full assistance of the imperial power of the inner court.

Coincidentally, both of them had the cards that the other party needed most.

It is very logical to combine with each other.

Li Hongzhang moved very quickly. First, he kept the news of Emperor Xianfeng's death secret, and then transferred the Huai army into Beijing on the order of Emperor Xianfeng.

After everything was ready, he directly beheaded several powerful princes for the crime of treason.

It was only at this time that the news of Emperor Xianfeng's death was spread, and then the eldest son of the emperor was enthroned and proclaimed emperor. At the same time, the queen mothers of the two palaces were invited to listen to the government behind the curtain and give an overview of the court situation.

This set of operations was completed in just two days, and everyone was dazzled by the speed.

When the ministers in the court reacted and wanted to do something, the overall situation had already been decided and nothing could be changed.

At this time, even if some people still have some other thoughts, they can only be suppressed in their hearts.

Two days later, the Ming army a hundred miles away finally got the news of Emperor Xianfeng's death, but at this time the city of Beiping had changed owners, and the most basic stability was still maintained.

It no longer makes sense to make a fuss about this matter.

"Deal with thunder and decisiveness, and kill without mercy."

"It seems that this Li Hongzhang and that Empress Dowager Cixi are both masters of political struggle!" Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help admiring when he heard what Jin Yiwei had inquired about the whole story.

"Unfortunately, if we could have gotten the news two days earlier, maybe Beiping would have been ruined by now!" Zhu Yuanzhang said.

"The subordinate is incompetent!" Mao Xiang hurriedly knelt on the ground to plead guilty.

"Get up!"

"This is not your fault!"

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up with his hands behind his back and said in a deep voice, "It's nothing more than another battle."

"To be honest, we are now looking forward to how these two political masters will deal with our hundreds of thousands of troops."

(End of this chapter)