late Qing Dynasty arrest

In the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the Forbidden City in the early morning, the Empress Dowager Ci'an of the East Palace and the Empress Dowager Cixi of the West Palace listened to the government behind the curtain. The two sat side by side, like good sisters, with their seats close together.In front of them is a bamboo curtain of kindness, making them want to look at the ministers in the hall through the gap of the bamboo curtain of kindness.And the few ministers who went to the study room could only see a curtain, and the looming figure of the queen dowager of the two palaces could not see the tail.

Tongzhi Emperor Zai Chun sits on the dragon throne, wearing a crown in regular clothes, black velvet covered with red tassels, and red velvet topped.Wearing a bright yellow dragon robe and a bright yellow silk woven court belt around his waist.There are four gold round plates with dragon inscriptions on the court belt, with gems and oriental beads embedded in the middle.Zai Chun flipped through the eleven old articles in the original version of Li Guolou's book, and remained silent. No one knew what was going on in his mind?

Prince Gong Yixin (the sixth child) is still sitting on the porcelain stool, wearing a satin crown on his head, and wearing a khaki-colored five-clawed dragon satin standing dragon satin trousers. There are two groups of five-clawed dragons on each shoulder, one group of the county king's supplementary clothing pattern, and one group of five-clawed dragons on the front and back of the body.The hem of the court clothes is also embroidered with "Shui Hai Jiang Ya".The court beads are made of golden yellow silk, with 108 east beads hanging around the neck.

Yixin glanced at the few ministers in the study around the main hall with gleam in his eyes. Holding the throne of the regent for a long time, he developed a restrained and stable character, but he did not show an air of prestige.

Prince Chun Yizhen (old seventh), Prince Qing Yikui (grandson of Emperor Qianlong’s No. 17 son Yonglin), and Tirenge University scholar Wenxiang stand on the left. They belong to the royal family, and their status is on the left.Prince Jin Yixuan and Prince Qing Yikui were able to enter the upper study room, which was a means for the two empress dowagers to restrict the power of Prince Gong Yixin, dividing part of the power of the Prime Minister's Office.

Yizhen is in his thirties, about 1.6 meters [-] tall, thin, with a mustache and blistered eyes.The character is "Pu'an", the name is "Master of Jiusitang", and the name is "Master of Tuiqian".The seventh son of Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty, half-brother of Emperor Xianfeng, his mother is Wu Yashi, the noble concubine of Emperor Daoguang Zhuangshun.Yizhen is a low-key person, only the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces obeys orders.But it is precisely because of Yizhen's cowardly character, being very knowledgeable about current affairs, being courteous, and cautious in dealing with others, that he is favored by the Empress Dowager Cixi.

Yikuang was over forty years old, with a long face, a nose job, skinny bones, and a mustache. At this time, although he was able to step into the upper study room and enter the highest level of power in the Qing Dynasty, he was granted the title only when Emperor Tongzhi Zaichun got married. For Prince Qing, who is a late bloomer, I feel resentful.He is very jealous of the power of Prince Gong Yixin, the prime minister. He is the leader of the conservative faction in the court and an important weight for the two empress dowagers to restrain Prince Gong Yixin.

Wenxiang, a scholar of Tirenge University, is in his fifties, with white hair and bright head, Guerjia family, style name Bochuan, name Wenshan, minister of military aircraft, the second person in the military aircraft department and the minister of the prime minister's office. In 1865, Minister of the Department of Housekeeping, led the Shenji Battalion to the northeast to suppress the uprising of Wang Da and Ma Shazi.Among the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, he was a capable minister who was capable of writing and martial arts, and he was a minister who relied heavily on the empress dowagers of the two palaces.He is also Prince Gong Yixin's right-hand man, and Wen Xiang has made great contributions to the policies formulated by Yixin being passed in the court.

Li Hongzhang, Minister of Beiyang Commercial Affairs, Li Hongzao, a cabinet scholar, and Weng Tonghe, a co-organizer, are arranged in turn on the right side of the hall.

Weng Tonghe, courtesy name Shuping, Pingsheng, Hao Shengfu, late Songchan, Ping'an Jushi, was born in Changshu, Jiangsu.The son of Weng Xincun, a university scholar, is almost 50 years old, with three long beards, gray hair, and a tall figure.He was also the teacher of Emperor Tongzhi, and he was already the same as Li Hongzao in order of rank.In the Qing Dynasty, there were a total of six bachelor titles, the honorary titles of Wei and civil servants, which needed to be promoted step by step. Weng Tonghe was one level lower than Li Hongzao's honorary title.

The structure of the small court meeting on the third day of the Qing Dynasty is now composed of a few of them, and sometimes other important officials of the court will be added, but these few are unshakable important officials.

After the ceremony, these people were all seated by Emperor Tongzhi, and several eunuchs moved to the porcelain board to respectfully invite the two princes and four first-rank officials to take their seats.

Now that Emperor Tongzhi Zaichun is about to take charge of the government, it is reasonable for him to promote two teachers to assist him in the government.The structure of the court hall also changed, and the Qing School suddenly took the dominant position in the court hall.An undercurrent surged in the court. The patriots of the Qing Dynasty all looked forward to the day when they could compete with the Eight-Power Allied Forces. It would come sooner, and the concessions in various places would be regained. Lost ground regained.

At this time, the Qing Empire's attitude towards foreigners was groveling and flattering, and it had a harmonious relationship with most Western countries.The foreigners not only bought guns, guns, and warships for the Qing Dynasty, but even organized foreign gun teams to wipe out the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Eastern Nian for the Qing Empire. The two rebel factions have been wiped out.

But the country that the Qing Empire was most worried about was its neighbor in the north, the "polar bear" Russia, because Russia had the ambition to annex the Qing Empire, and took advantage of the Xinjiang revolution to occupy the Ili region.

Followed by France, the two countries had already fought a battle in Annan. Liu Yongfu led a "Black Banner Army of the Zhonghe Regiment" to kill the French army commander An Ye in the suburbs of Hanoi, forcing the French army to withdraw from the Beiqi area (the area on both sides of the Red River).Therefore, Liu Yongfu was named the deputy admiral of Sanxuan by King Annan, and the Black Banner Army under his command was also legalized in Beiqi, and became a border guard that was not dispatched by Annan.Now permanently stationed in the Annan Beiqi area, Liu Yongfu's Black Banner Army has a scale of 3000 people.

However, Britain has suddenly become a country of friendship with the Qing Dynasty, and major national affairs will still be directed towards the Qing Dynasty. In the face of political interests, there is no permanent enemy.Li Hongzhang and the newly appointed British Minister Wade have just signed and completed a warship deal, and the contract for two iron-clad warships has just been completed.

However, when Li Hongzao and Weng Tonghe entered the study, the patriotic enthusiasm of the Qing school had a market again. At this time, Prince Gong Yixin threw out Li Guolou's old advice, which was just throwing bricks to attract jade and severely suppressing the arrogance of the Qing school.Because in Li Guolou's old article, there is one that says that the Qing Dynasty should not start war lightly. Whoever dares to declare a war with the "Eight-Power Allied Forces" should let them go to the front line. If they dare not go to the front line, they should go back to their hometown for retirement. .

Several royal relatives and first-rank ministers were holding copies of Li Guolou's statement in their hands, and they were arguing in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.Weng Tonghe impassionedly asked the emperor to let him go to military training.On the other hand, Wen Xiang ridiculed Weng Tonghe, who is almost 50 years old, and only waved the command flag in the martial arts field. The soldiers trained are also fake skills. Those who do not understand soldiers should not mistake their children.

Li Hongzao didn't go to listen to Weng Tonghe and Wen Xiang's argument, but looked at the old note in his hand, feeling strange in his heart, a new scholar who has not formally entered the court, why would he talk about Li Guolou's old note at the court meeting?Li Guolou's old articles have already been discussed in the prime minister's office, and the contents of the eleven articles have long been known to the important officials in the court.At that time, Prince Gong did not support Li Guolou's proposition, but severely criticized several of them, even the comments next to the old article did not have a few good words.Why did he suddenly change the course and let the empress dowagers of the two palaces and the emperor listen to Li Guolou, who had only the title of ninth-rank official at that time, which was innocuous?In Li Guolou's old statement, although he disagreed with going to war with foreigners, he believed that the Qing Dynasty still needed to try its best and follow the strategy of keeping a low profile.But several articles are at odds with the Westernization School, and there are big differences. Why did Prince Gong, Li Hongzhang, and Wen Xiang unite to praise such a young man?

Prince Chun Yixuan is worse than silence than a thousand words, sitting quietly and studying the old note in his hand, no one can see what he is thinking in his heart?In fact, there is no need to guess, everyone in the Hall of Mental Cultivation knows that Yizhen is waiting for the Empress Dowager Cixi to speak, what does the Empress Dowager say?Wherever his weather vane goes.Yizhen is extremely talented and good at writing poems. People from the Aixinjueluo family specialize in child prodigies, and every generation has people with the best literary talent.The three most talented "uncles" in the royal family are sitting in the Hall of Mental Cultivation. He is by no means a person without thoughts, but for standing on the court.A wise man chooses to be wise and protect himself. Yi Zhen studied Prince Gong's annotations next to the old article word by word, holding back for a long time without speaking, which also required real skill.

Prince Qing Yikuang couldn't hold back any longer, what didn't he know?He already knew that Li Guolou wanted to donate 1000 million taels of silver to Li Hongzhang.There are only two words in his heart: "hate" and "jealousy". He only hates that he didn't get any benefits, so before he got benefits, he wouldn't say good things about Li Guolou.Yikuang is a greedy man, and those who come from his sect will bribe him with huge sums of money.Yikuang belongs to the rich and talkative people, and his unsatisfactory greed made him hate Li Guolou for worshiping under Prince Gong.

Prince Qing Yikuang knew in his heart that Li Guolou was a disciple of the Son of Heaven, and would be the direct descendant of Emperor Tongzhi from now on.He was also chosen by the empresses of the two palaces as Tanhualang, and his future is limitless.Today's court meeting is constantly talking about Li Guolou's cliche, which means that the Empress Dowager Cixi wants to use this person.

Prince Qing Yikuang figured out the deep meaning of this. Anyway, it was still early in the future, so he decided to knock a sum of money from Li Guolou. Li Guolou actually gave Li Hongzao a three-foot-high emerald Avalokitesvara. The sound is full of energy, relying on each other.He also wants a Jade Guanyin, and he will not give up if he does not extort 10 taels of silver from Li Guolou!

Prince Qing suppressed the hatred in his heart, and said with a steady and sophisticated smile: "Congratulations to the empress dowager, congratulations to the emperor, we have successors in the Qing Dynasty. Tanhualang Li Guolou is a minister of the country, and he can still share the court's worries in the Ministry of punishment. The proposal put forward is in line with the disadvantages of the times. Although immature, he already has a visionary talent. Li Guolou has the ability to start a school, is good at planning and layout, and is good at raising funds. To prepare for the state government to study abroad. It happened that the establishment of "Tsingzhong University" was also handed over to Li Guolou. The minister recommended Li Guolou as the chief academic officer of Tsingzhong University to develop the old site of Shenjiying on Shiwangfu Street, which has been idle for a long time , it happened to be used for the establishment of 'Tsing Chung University', and I just did my part to be the first president of Tsing Chung University."

Prince Qing Yikuang is so smart, if he wants to get benefits from Li Guolou, he has to be tied together on errands.Most of the political and military power is in the hands of Prince Gong, and he has no way of intervening.He could only find another way, and suddenly put on the agenda the establishment of a Western-style university "Tsing Chung University" that had been vetoed by him.In this way, it is too late for Prince Gong to be happy, and no one in the court will object to his proposition.

As soon as the words finished, Prince Gong Yixin hurriedly stood up, bowed and said, "This king is following Prince Qing's proposal."

Prince Qing Yikuang, the head of the conservative faction, suddenly had a wrong brain and wanted to establish a Western-style university.Prince Gong Yixin did not expect that there would be a sudden change at the court meeting, and someone would recommend Li Guolou to do an irrelevant thing, but it is a rare event in a thousand years.Today was proposed by Prince Qing, and Prince Gong Yixin hurriedly agreed without even thinking about it.

Li Hongzao also stood up, bowed and said: "The minister also seconded the proposal."

"The minister also seconded the proposal." Several other important ministers all stood up and saluted Emperor Tongzhi.

Tongzhi Emperor Zaichun said without hesitation: "Well, I will play. Prince Qing is a virtuous man for the country and has worked tirelessly. I am very relieved. It is imperative to establish Qingzhong University. This is a matter of benefiting the country and the people. , and only Prince Qing can take on the important task."

Empress Dowager Cixi was behind the curtain and raised her voice to ask: "Prince Qing, it's too close to the French Legation, will foreigners complain?"

Shiwangfu Street is the Wangfujing of later generations. Because there were 10 palaces and 3 princess palaces on this street in the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty followed the Ming system, and the palaces were also built here, and the Yuwang Duoze Mansion was the largest.The prosperity of Shiwangfu Street is due to the old Dong'an market, which was originally a palace in the Ming Dynasty. It was granted to Wu Sangui in the early Qing Dynasty and was renamed Pingxi Wangfu.After the San Francisco Rebellion, the palace was changed into the playground of Shenjiying, where the children of the Eight Banners were stationed, but later Dongjiaomin Lane became the embassy area, and it has become a country within a country.The playground in Shenji Camp had been vacant for many years, and the imperial court didn't know what to do with it, for fear of causing dissatisfaction among foreigners.At this time, Cixi raised this question because of this concern.

Prince Qing Yikuang seemed to be scheming, stroking his beard and beard, and said with a carefree smile, "My Majesty the Empress Dowager, foreigners pay the most attention to education. Seeing that we imitated their schools, we learned that we established a Western-style university in the playground of Shenjiying. , I dare not fart, and it’s too late to welcome. I won’t note our Western Affairs Minister Li Zhongtang, Li Zhongtang, are you right?”

"Well, Prince Qing is mature and prudent, and thoughtful." Li Hongzhang also quickly echoed, one after another, what happened to the old stubborn?Li Hongzhang was confused.

"Mm;;;;;; quasi-play!" Cixi's sweet voice made everyone in the hall overjoyed. People in the Hall of Mental Cultivation thought in one place. If they can keep up with the trend of history, the country will surely prosper , the two empress dowagers happily held hands together.It is rare that the representatives of the Westernization School, the Qing Dynasty School, and the Conservative School in the court are in harmony. With so many experienced and prudent courtiers escorting them, the Emperor Tongzhi will govern the country and the people, and make the Qing Dynasty prosperous.