Yamafu Military Affairs

Chapter 430: Weiting's Suspicious Formation

"The world is so big, who can see it all? If it weren't for Jingbo today, I'm afraid I would never have witnessed this lifelike trick with my own eyes until I die, right?"

Seeing the dark golden dragon head suddenly disappear, Yuan Xiangcheng felt a little lost, but soon he resumed his demeanor of a shrewd and powerful official.

"Mr. Kikuto, what do you think Gong Bao is thinking?"

"Jingbo, you still don't understand Weiting. My colleagues and I all know that our Yuan Gongbao is an expert in Tai Chi."

After hearing these half-truthful lies from Yuan and Xu, Qin Huai just smiled and said, "I've heard for a long time that Mr. Ju Ren has a lot of talents in his mind. After hearing it in the courtyard today, I found that he is indeed worthy of his reputation. But a smart person like you, can't you guess what Gong Bao is thinking?"

"Gong Bao is an important minister of the country. His thoughts are as numerous as the stars in the sky. How can we guess them? Let alone me, a scholar with only a nominal title, even the regent of the capital still relies on our Lord Yuan for political and military affairs."

Xu Juren stroked his beard and not only did not step on the trap, but also took the opportunity to praise Yuan Xiangcheng while asking questions.

"Okay, Ah Huai, just say whatever you want to say. Gong Bao is your elder, there's no need to beat around the bush."

Li Shuwen on the side spoke up.

"Since Master has spoken, I won't hide it anymore. Gong Bao, last time you asked Xi Zinan to cross the river, you got a call from Zhong Shanqiao. Today, it's my turn to be the messenger."

Qin Huai said, reaching out and taking out a letter from his bosom: "Mr. Zhong would like to invite you to have afternoon tea at Purple Mountain in three days. Only my master and I will be there at that time, and we will be responsible for safety and confidentiality."

"Oh? He wants to see me? That's great. I want to see him, too."

Yuan Xiangcheng was not surprised by Zhongshan Qiao's invitation. He had long guessed that Honolulu was now in a dilemma. Qin Huai suddenly came to his door today and went to great lengths to perform magic. What was his purpose? It was actually not difficult to guess.

It is nothing more than a means to gain his trust and promote cooperation between the two parties.

Yuan Xiangcheng thought so and immediately nodded and agreed to this matter: "However, the content of this interview must be kept confidential, but the news that Zhongshan Qiao and I are going to meet cannot be kept secret. On the contrary, it must be publicized with great fanfare."

"Juren, I remember a few days ago, a foreign journalist came to the capital. His name was Morrison. He is in the government office now. Please invite him to come here for a chat."

Not long after, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his fifties, wearing a black suit and a felt hat, walked into the hall, took off his hat and greeted, revealing his Scottish face with high cheekbones, deep blue eyes, and two mustaches on the corners of his lips.

"Prime Minister Yuan, do you have something to talk to me about?"

"Haha, Mr. Morrison, let me introduce you. This is Qin Huai, the eldest disciple of Master Tongchen. Jinlou is his property."

"Jin Lou? You must be Mr. Qin who invented penicillin. Nice to meet you."

Morrison took the initiative to clasp his hands, but saw Qin Huai had already stretched out his left hand.

“Nice to meet you.”

Morrison was slightly stunned when he saw Qin Huai, who was dressed as a warrior, speaking fluent English, and quickly extended his hand to greet him.

"Mr. Morrison, I know you came all the way from Zhili to Nanjing just to find news. I'm going to tell you a big piece of news."

Yuan Xiangcheng pointed his finger at Morrison, who was quite influential in the media and newspaper industry, and spoke first to whet the appetite.

"The news about the Prime Minister must be big, but can it be bigger than the dragon in the north?"

Morrison obviously had his own connections. Even though he was in Nanjing at the time, he knew that a dragon had appeared in the Qinling Mountains and entered the Forbidden City.

Yuan Xiangcheng's eyes moved, and he said quietly, "Zhongshan Qiao has secretly gone north and crossed the river."

"Secret negotiations?"

Morrison has an extremely keen political sense. Just through this one sentence, he was able to detect the turbulent undercurrent behind it.

"Jinling has been a place of dragons coiled in Zhongfu Mountain and tigers crouching in Shicheng City since ancient times. It is a rare situation of four-elephant affection, not much worse than Qinling Mountains. It's a pity that the First Emperor ordered Changsheng and Xiandao to cut off the mountain dragon veins and divert the water of Qinhuai River to run through the Yangtze River, breaking the water dragon situation. This is why the royal aura of this ancient capital of the Six Dynasties could not survive. Now Nanjing has mountains, water, and me. Isn't it a dragon? Is it something very rare?"

Yuan Xiangcheng stretched out his finger and tapped Morrison's notebook, then tapped Qin Huai who was sitting next to him, and said with a chuckle: "I would like to ask you to make this matter public in an appropriate way. The bigger the noise, the better."

"Don't worry, Prime Minister. It will be as you wish."

Morrison took a pen and wrote and drew in his notebook, and quickly summarized the key points.

Zhongshan Qiao——mountain; Qinhuai——water; Yuan Xiangcheng——dragon; secret negotiations→?

Looking at Yuan Xiangcheng's arrangement, Qin Huai pursed his lips slightly, but did not stop it.
-
"Newspapers for sale! Newspapers for sale! Mountain people are crossing the river! Big news, come and read!"

"Extra! Extra! Jinling has been turbulent in recent days, and a dragon may appear!"

"Zhongshan Qiao is suspected to have crossed the river to the north to host the North-South peace talks with Prime Minister Yuan!"

"Give me one!"

"I also want!"

"I'll have one too."

Beijing.

In the bustling street market, five or six newsboys, with cloth bags slung across their shoulders and a stack of newspapers in their arms, walked and jumped among the crowds of all kinds, shouting loudly, stretching their hands here and there, collecting money for newspapers.

The street was busy with traffic and there were shops on both sides. Suddenly, a passing car stopped and a man in gorgeous clothes rolled down the window and said to the newsboy.

"Give this king one portion as well."

When the newsboy saw the person clearly, he quickly took out a newspaper and didn't even dare to ask for money. He immediately turned around and squeezed into the crowd.

After being stripped of his position, Prince Chun Zaifeng, who had been an idle prince for a few days, was flipping through the newspaper and looking down along the bold font. His fingers suddenly stopped. It turned out that there were several black-and-white photos printed under the newspaper. They were the scenery that Morrison took with a camera on the hills around Nanjing.

Seeing the faint traces of a creature in the mist, Zaifeng tightened his fingers and hurriedly urged the driver to drive to the Forbidden City. "Your Highness, stop. The old ancestor has ordered that no one is allowed to disturb his retreat. Anyone who violates this order will be executed first and reported later."

"Get out of the way. I have something urgent to report. Yuan Xiangcheng is so ambitious that he almost openly said he wants to rebel!"

Facing Puhu Baturu's warning, Zaifeng shouted coldly and was about to move forward with his arms as thick as a log.

"My Lord, my Lord! Fuck!"

Seeing that Zaifeng didn't take his words to heart at all, Baturu cursed angrily, suddenly raised his palm knife, and tapped Zaifeng's neck lightly, and Zaifeng immediately fell limp in his arms.

"Go, send the prince back home and take good care of him. If anything goes wrong, I will hold you accountable!"

Baturu threw Zaifeng back into the car and shouted at his driver and his entourage.

"To invite a wolf into the house, this is simply to invite a wolf into the house!"

Zaifeng woke up slowly and rubbed his still sore neck. Holding a newspaper in his hand, he loudly denounced Yuan Shikai who was far away in Nanjing.

"Prince Chun, how many of these good things do you have?"

Liangbi, who was then assistant commander of the Imperial Guard, was playing with the revolver in Zaifeng's home, aiming the crosshairs at Yuan Shikai's portrait, as if ready to strike.

"Although I am no longer the Prime Minister, I am confident that I can still arm a foreign-style rifle team."

Zaifeng looked at Yuan Xiangcheng's portrait, gritting his teeth, wishing he could eat his flesh, sip his blood, crack his bones, suck his marrow, sleep on his skin, and pull out his hair.

"Okay! We, the members of the Qing imperial family, will form a Zongshe Party and keep an eye on Yuan Xiangcheng. If he hasn't committed treason, it's fine. But if he really wants to collude with Honolulu, I will be the first one to not let him go!"

Liangbi raised his hand and pulled the trigger, and the bullet hit the center of the eyebrows of Yuan Xiangcheng's portrait with a bang.

"It's good that you have this intention, but now is the era of warriors. With the magic spear Li protecting Yuan Xiangcheng, no matter how many foreign guns and explosives you have, I'm afraid it will have little effect."

Zaifeng knew more than Liangbi. Looking at the princes in the hall, he sighed and continued, "I think we should take out some money and offer a bounty. A lot of fierce bandits came to Zhili some time ago. We can lure them to take action, and when Yuan Xiangcheng comes back, we can take his head!"

"Okay, let's do it. I'm willing to pay a thousand taels of silver, and the boxers and guards in the mansion will also be at the prince's disposal!"

"And I am also willing to offer eight hundred taels of silver to help in some small way."

All of a sudden, followers came in droves. Zaifeng and Liangbi looked at each other, and looked towards Nanjing on the hanging map in tacit understanding.
-
Nanjing is located on the Yangtze River in the north and overlooks Jiangsu and Anhui in the south. It is situated at the crossroads of the two rivers and is a thoroughfare between the east and the west, making it a prosperous place.

In addition, the day before yesterday, the eighth day of the second month of the Xinchou year, was the birthday of Guanyin Bodhisattva, and the temple fair was held for three consecutive days, making the city even more lively. The bright lights were as bright as stars falling to the ground, and the shops were lined up like pearls.

On such a prosperous day, people were talking about the newly appointed Prime Minister Yuan Xiangcheng, who had booked the entire Yonghe Garden to celebrate the birthday of Zhang Shoukang, the Governor-General of Liangjiang. He also invited a troupe of actors from Zhili and the famous Hui school master Wang Hongshou, who was known as the "Living Guan Yu", to entertain the guests. Sitting with them were Cheng Dequan, the Governor of Jiangsu, Zhang Jian, a talented man from Jiangzuo, Gu Yanqing, a gentleman of Shangjie, and other local officials, gentry, wealthy people, and celebrities. It was quite a commotion.

At noon, the gate of Yonghe Garden, known as the "First Building of Qinhuai", was already filled with sedan chairs and carriages. The dignitaries who were rarely seen on weekdays, with their shining green feathers and jade belts, casually chatting and laughing elegantly, exuded an overwhelming sense of wealth and elegance.

In Yonghe Garden, a peacock was spread out for a banquet. At the table in the middle, the first seated in the lower row was Yuan Xiangcheng's think tank Xu Juren, and the first seated in the upper row was the old birthday star whom Yuan Xiangcheng was going to host with such a grand ceremony.

Zhang Shoukang, the Governor-General of Liangjiang, and Yuan Xiangcheng were both sworn brothers and in-laws, so it was natural that he sat at the top seat without any dispute. The second seat was Cheng Dequan, the Governor of Jiangsu, who was committed to constitutional monarchy and took Yuan Xiangcheng as his role model. The third seat was Zhang Jian, an industrialist who was the most talented person in Jiangsu. In addition, there was another person sitting at the fourth seat.

However, this man's background made the gentry present more or less confused.

A peasant born in the martial arts world, even if he does have some skills and has accumulated a considerable fortune in his early years by relying on his cleverness, is ultimately not presentable enough, so how can he be worthy of sitting at the same table with them?
Not to mention that the protagonist of today's birthday banquet, Zhang Shoukang, is a serious first-rank official, a frontier official in charge of military affairs, food, wages, water transport, salt and iron and other local military and financial affairs, a true pillar of the country.

Even Zhang Jian, who was seated last, was the leader among the Five Talents of Jiangsu. He was known as the "Qilin of Jiangzuo" for his ability to save the country through industry, which was unmatched by ordinary people.

As for the owner of the Golden Building
He runs a low-class business in a brothel and is unknown to the public. However, the penicillin in his hand is well-known. But he is just a crude warrior after all. How can he deserve such kindness?
But after all, times have changed. Since the emergence of many strange people and frequent assassinations in recent years, any celebrity or gentry with a bit of brains has realized the importance of fists, so no one dares to make things difficult for themselves in such an occasion.

"Master Zhang, Governor Cheng, I know you two dislike each other and have different political views, but today it is the palace guard's intention. Let's not talk about politics, just wine and food. Ji Zhi is an old subordinate of Marshal Xiang, and Jingbo is even more familiar to the Yuan family, so I will be close but not disrespectful, and just speak freely."

Xu Juren is worldly-wise and tactful, and her words make people feel close to her.

Zhang Shoukang, the governor-general of Liangjiang, who was responsible for the livelihoods of tens of millions of people, snorted coldly and remained silent, giving Yuan Xiangcheng enough face.

However, Jiangsu Governor Cheng Dequan did not let Xu Juren's words fall on deaf ears, and said with a smile: "I have heard of Mr. Juren's great name for a long time. How dare I disobey the order of a great sage? But it's already past noon, why haven't I seen Mr. Yuan yet?"

"Earlier today, a telegram was sent from the Forbidden City, saying that the Empress Dowager would call Beiyang after the court meeting. Mr. Yuan has been waiting in the government office with the Qing Dynasty in mind, and I don't know when he can finish his official business. That's why I was sent to entertain you. I hope you will forgive me for my impoliteness."

Xu Juren was the assistant minister of the cabinet, and he and Zhang Shoukang, the governor-general of Liangjiang, were both of the first rank. So at this moment, they spoke in a much more casual manner.

"Mr. Juren, you are too kind. Chunru is not a picky person. I just admire Mr. Yuan very much. I haven't seen him for a long time and I miss him very much."

Zhang Jian, who was a close friend of Cheng Dequan, started to help explain, and the atmosphere gradually became familiar.

These people were chatting and laughing freely, but Qin Huai pretended not to notice. His eyes were unfocused and his mind was wandering, his whole mind focused on the 108 drawings.

"Your master is Li Shuwen?"

Seeing Cheng Dequan, Zhang Jian and Xu Juren chatting happily, Zhang Shoukang, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly spoke up and turned the topic to Qin Huai.

Qin Huai's eyes moved, and he nodded slightly and said, "Yes, it's my master. What advice do you have for me, old master?"

Qin Huai's reply was neither humble nor arrogant, and his tone was not flattering. Zhang Shoukang looked him up and down and said, "It is true that a good teacher produces a good student. Your words and gestures are meticulous. No wonder you can be the mainstay between Honolulu and Beiyang."

"You are overpraising me, old man. I am just strong because I have no desires."

Qin Huai laughed it off, trying to let the matter go.

Zhang Shoukang's eyes moved, he smacked his lips at the words twice, shook his head and was about to say something when he heard a deafening explosion outside the restaurant.

boom! ! !
(End of this chapter)