The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 501: Cixi's Calculation

Yang Shixiang came here overnight, so there must be something urgent.

Teng Yuzhao did not dare to delay and hurriedly followed Wei Jinghai to a courtyard in the backyard to meet Yang Shixiang who had rushed back overnight.

From Wei Jinghai, Teng Yuzhao learned that not only Yang Shixiang, but Xu Shichang also came to the front line of Jiuzhou Town with Yang Shixiang.

Xu Shichang was left by Teng Yuzhao in Longhu Village, Yongqing, dozens of miles away, where he helped to raise military supplies for the front line and was responsible for assisting in the resettlement of the wounded.

The two of them came together. It should be that Yang Shixiang arrived at Longhu Village first, did not see Teng Yuzhao, and then rushed to the front line with Xu Shichang without stopping. This must be something big happening.

Although Teng Yuzao was eager to know why Yang Shixiang rushed back overnight and what it was all about, after seeing Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang who had just washed up, Teng Yuzao suppressed his anxiety, asked about their well-being, and urged them to arrange wine and food, especially asking for ginger soup for the two of them.

The weather in Zhili in April, although the temperature has reached a very pleasant level and people have long taken off their winter clothes, the temperature is still a little low and a bit cool at night.

The two men had been traveling all night, and not only were they tired, they were probably also freezing. Drinking a bowl of ginger soup would help them get rid of the chill and prevent them from catching a cold.

To Teng Yuzhao, these two men were both rare generals and capable people. If anything happened to either of them, Teng Yuzhao would be heartbroken.

Teng Yuzao even stopped Yang Shixiang, who looked a little anxious, and Xu Shichang, who looked serious, from reporting to him, and instead personally took the hot tea brought by the guards and handed it to the two of them.

Teng Yuzao's calm and patient behavior seemed to put Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang at ease.

After watching the two of them take a few sips of hot tea, Teng Yuzhao spoke in a calm tone.

"Lian Fu, you rushed back in such a hurry, there must be something urgent. Don't worry, the sky won't fall. Although Weng Tonghe's vision, ability, and even his mind are ordinary, his saying 'When faced with major events, stay calm' is still very good."

Yang Shixiang smiled bitterly and said, "General, no matter what, Weng Tonghe was also a prime minister. I can't compare to him. In terms of determination, I can't compare to you, General!"

Yang Shixiang sighed, reached out and took out an unsealed envelope from his arms, took out a page of handwritten paper from it and handed it to Teng Yuzhao.

"Marshal, this is the secret message that the Queen Mother sent to Li Zhongtang during the day. Li Zhongtang asked me to give it to you for your review."

Yang Shixiang added, "Also sent to Li Zhongtang along with this telegram is the full text of the memorial that the Marshal delivered to the Empress Dowager."

It had taken more than ten days for the memorial he delivered to the court to arrive in Xi'an. Teng Yuzhao had learned from the letter sent by Zai Yi that there was a lot of controversy in the court over his memorial, and the two sides of the dispute had even broken the boundary between the peace faction and the war faction that had already suffered a severe blow.

From this we can see that the memorial submitted by Teng Yuzhao caused great controversy in the court.

The focus of the court officials' dispute over Teng Yuzhao's memorial was mainly on two points: Teng Yuzhao's suggestion to list the heads of the armies of various countries in the coalition as war criminals and to demand that the great powers compensate for the war losses.

One side believed that Teng Yuzhao's suggestion was very popular. If the wishes proposed in Teng Yuzhao's memorial could be achieved, the court would be able to wipe out the humiliation it had suffered in the face of foreigners in the past six months, allow the Qing Dynasty to revive again, and even achieve a revival.

What this side actually cared about the most was that Zai Yi had told these people that Teng Yuzhao's pursuit of war criminals was to speak for these pro-war factions who were labeled as culprits by the foreigners. If the foreigners insisted on pursuing them, the foreign leaders should also be pursued at the same time. If they did not, both sides would give up and thus save them.

This naturally gave great encouragement to the former pro-war faction, who had suffered a severe blow and were in a state of depression. Each of them was like a chicken with its blood pumped up. Everyone went into battle bare-handed and tried their best to support Teng Yuzao. They actually managed to resist the larger opposition party with a smaller number of people.

The opposing party believed that Teng Yuzhao was proud of his achievements, arrogant, and thought that he had hundreds of thousands of troops at his command, so he looked down on the powerful countries of the time for no reason.

It should be noted that these powers did not use their full strength. If they were really pushed to the limit, not to mention the collective reinforcement of these powers, even if they were Japan and the Russian Empire in the north, Teng Yuzao would not be able to resist the enemy. At that time, the court would have to pay a greater price.

It would be better to take advantage of the great powers' initiative to propose peace talks and pay some price to end this war as soon as possible.

Among them, Yikuang also fabricated another charge against Teng Yuzao, saying that Teng Yuzao had no respect for the law, despised the court, and had rebellious intentions.

The reason was that Teng Yuzao, as a local official, was so arrogant that he wanted to interfere in the affairs of the customs and foreign concessions which should have been under the jurisdiction of the imperial court. The imperial court should not tolerate Teng Yuzao and should punish him severely to serve as a warning to others.

Although no one agreed with the charges that Yikuang fabricated against Teng Yuzao, Yikuang, who hated Teng Yuzao to the core, still refused to give up and insisted that Cixi punish Teng Yuzao.

As neither side would give in, every time there was a court meeting, both sides would argue until their faces were red and they enjoyed themselves very much.

Of course, those who supported Teng Yuzao were mainly pro-war factions such as Prince Zhuang Zaixun, Zai Yi, the Grand Councilor, and the Grand Councilor and Minister of Justice Zhao Shuqiao, but there were also former peace advocates who participated in them. The most representative of them were a group of resolute resistance factions after the war broke out, headed by the Minister of Revenue and Associate Grand Secretary Wang Wenshao.

The opposing side was headed by Prince Qing Yikuang, Minister of the Lifanyuan Aisin-Gioro Kungang, the former Governor of Jiangsu who led his troops to protect the emperor, Lu Chuanlin who was now appointed as the Grand Councilor, and the new Grand Councilor Qu Hongyi.

Having learned the lesson from the previous incident regarding the leak of peace talks, this time Cixi issued a strict decree requiring that Teng Yuzhao's memorial be kept absolutely confidential and anyone who leaked the information would be severely punished. This time the dispute was not reported.

However, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, who was always ambitious, submitted a memorial, strongly agreeing with Teng Yuzhao's proposal.

Li Hongzhang, who was in Baoding and definitely knew the contents of Teng Yuzhao's memorial, remained silent during this period, which gave the opposition some confidence.

But Ronglu’s attitude was somewhat confusing. He neither supported nor opposed it.

Cixi, the de facto ruler of the court, did not say a word, but just watched coldly, and her attitude is intriguing.

The two factions in the court remained in a stalemate, and Teng Yuzhao did not receive any feedback from the court.

However, now Cixi suddenly sent a secret telegram to Li Hongzhang. Could it be that the dispute in the court had come to an end?

Or has Cixi already made the official decision?
Moreover, it was clearly a secret telegram sent by Cixi to Li Hongzhang, so why did Li Hongzhang ask Yang Shixiang to send it to him for review overnight?
Teng Yuzhao took the telegram handed to him by Yang Shixiang with full of doubts and read it carefully.

The content of the telegram was very simple. The gist was that Cixi told Li Hongzhang in the telegram that all the suggestions made by Teng Yuzao were of great importance and the court should not express its attitude at this time.

Moreover, as the official historian of the peace talks, it would not have been appropriate for Li Hongzhang to rashly put forward Teng Yuzao's suggestions during the peace talks.

In the telegram, Cixi suggested that Li Hongzhang and Teng Yuzhao should properly discuss the matter.

He also implicitly suggested to Li Hongzhang that he should persuade Teng Yuzao to publish the peace terms in newspapers first to test the foreigners' reaction, and then make a decision at that time.

After reading the telegram, Teng Yuzhao understood Cixi's intention after a little thought.

This is Cixi plotting against herself!

(End of this chapter)