Master Yuan, start!

Even if there are more people in the world who oppose the Qing Dynasty, its status is still there. Yuan Shikai can capture Beijing in a short period of time, and in the long run, he can also resist the anti-Yuan forces in the world.

Apart from anything else, if Yuan Shikai launched his army westward from Korea, and if his army was outside, Cixi would have said, "I don't want Korea anymore, you can take it from me."

What is he going to do?

Even if he launched a lightning attack and captured Beijing in a few days, and then sent troops to defend North Korea, the problem would still not be solved.

First of all, it was difficult for him to ensure that he could capture Cixi alive. Even the Eight-Nation Alliance failed to do it, so Yuan Shikai did not think he had much chance.

If Cixi ran to Xi'an as in the original time and space, she would then send out a "Request for Help from All Nations"

Without saying too much, the Russians would certainly be willing to use Heilongjiang as a reward to help Cixi clean up Yuan Shikai City.

Therefore, Yuan Shikai believed that he would only consider rebelling against the Qing Dynasty if he had at least 15 troops and a stable rear base.

If we rise up against the Qing Dynasty now, we may end up like the Hubei New Army in the Chuwangtai Arsenal, making things difficult for others.

Yuan Shikai did not want to be like Chen Sheng and Wu Guang. Although his name was passed down to later generations, he ended up dying and his clan was destroyed.

It would be funny if he traveled through time and space and ended up being called a "revolutionary martyr".

After much deliberation, Yuan Xiangcheng asked, "Your Majesty, what exactly happened in the palace? Why do you agree with everything the Queen Mother says?"

Yi X looked up, tears already welling up in his eyes. "Weiting, what else can I do if I disagree? My son is in this state now. How can he still get up and cooperate with you?"

After seeing his son lying motionless in bed, only breathing in and out, with no response no matter how he pushed or shouted, Yi X knew that his dream of becoming emperor was over.

At that time, he suddenly realized that compared with the throne of emperor, he valued his son's life more. Now he just wanted to spend the rest of his life with his son's body and no longer had any unreasonable thoughts of competing for the throne.

Things that belonged to him, such as wealth and honor, were given to him since he was young; the throne that did not belong to him was not his turn after Emperor Daoguang's death, and it is not his son's turn now.

YiX has somewhat accepted his fate.

However, Yuan Xiangcheng refused to give up and said, "Prince Liu, are you sure that the person lying on the bed is the emperor?"

"How could I not recognize the child who grew up in my arms?"

"I have a different opinion." Yuan Xiangcheng hesitated for a moment, and still told what happened at the Laba gathering that day.

On the day of the Laba Festival, the emperor rewarded all officials in the palace, and the princes distributed porridge to the people outside the palace. Yi Xin was specifically appointed by Cixi to do this, so he did not see Guangxu that day.

Yuan Xiangcheng was not sure what had happened at the moment, but he knew that his eyes would not deceive him.

At this point, it is necessary to provoke Yi Xin, or at least use the title of Guangxu and the emperor to muddy the waters.

The Taoist sects in the Gyeonggi region have already started to mobilize, and the Jiashen Right Army has also gathered along the Yalu River under the pretext of suppressing bandits in the mountains.

The arrow is on the string and must be fired!

After Yuan Xiangcheng's words,

"Snapped!"

The porcelain bowl of tofu pudding shattered on the ground. Yi X grabbed Yuan Xiangcheng's hand and asked in disbelief:

"Weiting, you said that the emperor in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony on Laba Day was not my son at all?"

"It's absolutely true. My eyesight is excellent. There's no way I'm wrong!"

"In other words, the one who fell to the ground that day was not my son?" Yi X was so happy that he stood up and asked without even having time to clean the residue on his clothes.

But then he realized, "But the Queen Mother summoned me into the palace, and the man lying on the bed is undoubtedly my son. How can this be fake?"

"Could it be that my son has teamed up with the Queen Mother to deceive his father?" Yi X still couldn't believe it. Instead, he felt that Yuan Shikai was deceiving him.

Seeing that Yi X didn't believe him, Yuan Xiangcheng could only tell him about the strangeness he had noticed:

"I, your humble servant, originally did not dare to speak rashly. But now that I think about it, apart from the guards and eunuchs, it seems that no minister had close contact with the emperor that day.

Moreover, the 69th generation Living Buddha of Grassland passed away just last year, and the one who came to pay respects to His Majesty the first two times this year was the Acting Living Buddha, who had never seen the Emperor before!

After the emperor fell, the eunuchs hurriedly wrapped him in a blanket and sent him to the Imperial Hospital, as if they were afraid of being approached by others.

"But how did he do it?" Yi X asked back.

"I'm afraid they used drugs like knockout drugs to make people unconscious!" Yuan Xiangcheng put forward his guess.

After Yuan Xiangcheng pointed out all the unreasonable aspects one by one, the more he spoke, the more worried Yi Xin became. He never expected that Cixi would dare to go against the will of the world and find someone to impersonate the emperor without authorization.

The closer someone is to drowning, the more they will grasp at the last straw.

Therefore, Yi X has now been completely brought into Yuan Xiangcheng's idea and began to believe in it without a doubt.

He gnashed his teeth and whispered in hatred, "This vicious woman! Even if we don't care about clan law, my son should call her aunt. How could she be so vicious and do such a cruel thing to her nephew!"

Yi X never expected that his sister-in-law Cixi would be so obsessed with power. I'm afraid there is nothing she dare not do except regicide!

No, if there is no timely rescue, the regicide will probably happen in the next few days!

"Wei Ting, save my son, please save my son!" Yi X grabbed Yuan Xiangcheng's hands tightly and refused to let go, as if his body was about to sink.

Prince Chun Yixun, a Manchu iron-hat prince and the emperor's biological father, pleaded so humbly to a Han Chinese, even almost kneeling down. This was probably the first time since the founding of the Qing Dynasty.

Yuan Xiangcheng used both arms to drag Yi X, preventing him from kneeling, and then he consoled him: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I have my own way, but in the court, especially with the royal family.

You still need the prince to use your status as the emperor's biological father to comfort her. No matter what happens next, remember not to stand on the Queen Mother's side!"

Yuan Xiangcheng gave Yi X a shot of prevention in advance so that he could avoid being suspected and constrained in future actions.

"Okay, Wei Ting, I promise you!" Yi X nodded heavily to Yuan Xiangcheng.

...

The emperor's wedding date has been set, changed from the 30rd day of the first lunar month next year to the nd day of the twelfth lunar month this year, a full days earlier.

It was held on the day before the New Year, also to provide a benefit to the people of the capital.

For the emperor's wedding this year, the empress dowager issued a special decree that the empress's carriage should travel through the streets and alleys of the capital, starting from Yongdingmen at the southern end of Beijing, heading north along Zhengyang Street, crossing the overpass and Zhengyangmen to enter the inner city.

After entering the inner city, the emperor boarded the carriage, drove back and forth along East Chang'an Avenue and West Chang'an Avenue, and finally stopped in front of the Meridian Gate and entered the Forbidden City.

Originally, the emperor should have gone to the empress's house to pick up the bride, but given the emperor's current condition, he definitely couldn't do that, so he had to resort to this compromise.

However, in the eyes of the common people, this wedding still feels a bit like a "quasi-ghost marriage". It is okay for poor country people to have a ghost marriage for the sake of incense, but why would the emperor of the dynasty do this? Isn't it unlucky?

Therefore, in order to win over the people of the capital, the emperor would throw candies, cakes, silver coins, cloth and dry food along the way from the moment he entered the Yongding Gate.

Take the things from the Imperial Household Department and have a good New Year, but don’t gossip about them behind their backs!

For this reason, the queen's wedding procession, which originally only required more than a hundred people, was forcibly expanded to more than 300 people.

The extra 200 or so people pulled carriages and followed the queen's sedan chair, throwing things to the people from time to time.

It is called "sharing happiness with the people"

...

The situation in the capital after the Laba Court Meeting changed so fast that it was a little overwhelming. First, the eldest prince was made the emperor, then the emperor had a ghost marriage in advance, and later he organized a ceremony to throw gift money to celebrate with the people.

The common people were happy, but the scholars who came to the capital to take the imperial examinations disdained to join in the fun and gathered in the restaurant to discuss current events and interesting things.

"Hey, have you heard? The emperor seems to be possessed by a demon, which is why he fell down at the Laba Festival!"

"I heard a different version. It said that a Taoist priest from western Hunan came to Beijing to drive away corpses. When he cast a spell, he accidentally pointed at the wrong person and drew the emperor's soul back. At the Laba Festival that day, there was only a zombie shell."

The topic discussed most by this group of scholars was the rumor of "zombies replacing the emperor" that had been circulating in the capital recently.

In fact, not many people believed it at the beginning. After all, Confucius does not talk about strange things. No one could believe that the emperor had been replaced. If he had been replaced, then who was the emperor at the Laba Court Meeting?

Therefore, only a small number of people believed it, and most people regarded it as a strange story. It was not until the Empress Dowager's hasty attempt to arrange a marriage for the Emperor was made into a fuss that such remarks began to be taken seriously.

"If there wasn't something wrong with the Emperor, why would the Queen Mother rush to ask for the Emperor's wedding?"

"Why?"

"Aren't you hoping to use the Emperor's true dragon energy to wash away the evil spirits from the Emperor?"

"But the Emperor is the Son of Heaven!"

"What do you know? The Emperor hasn't gotten married yet, hasn't taken power yet, so he can't be considered the true Son of Heaven. The Son of Heaven is naturally called the Son of Heaven only after he reaches adulthood. The Emperor hasn't experienced the affairs of the boudoir yet, so right now he can only be considered a baby!"

"Then why do we have to establish the eldest prince? Can't we just focus on treating the emperor?"

"What do you know? Enthroning the eldest prince is a precaution. If the treatment fails and the emperor passes away, the dragon energy will dissipate, and the dragons will be leaderless, inevitably being devoured by evil spirits. So we can only appoint the eldest prince as a safety measure. He can then ascend the throne directly to contain the dragon energy!"

"However, although the Queen Mother has taken every precaution, there are still hidden dangers in this matter."

"Oh, what's the hidden danger?"

"Your Majesty is currently in a coma, half asleep and half awake. His Yang energy is definitely insufficient and his Yin energy is excessive. If the Empress meets him after the wedding, her extremely Yin body will clash with the Emperor's Yin energy, and disaster may ensue!"

"Oh, I see! You truly understand me, sir. You are truly knowledgeable. I admire you so much!"

The above conversation was played out in more than one teahouse. There were people who claimed to be well-versed in history and present-day knowledge, claiming to know the secrets of the current royal family and be able to tell everyone.

Although discussing palace secrets is a capital crime, people are curious, and soon some people could not bear the torment in their hearts and paid money to inquire.

This conversation was so magical, as if he was standing next to Karl Lagerfeld and giving him instructions, which shocked the audience for a moment.

However, when the audience wanted to find out more secrets and look for the person again a few days later, the person had disappeared!

In just a few days, several different versions of the news went viral, whether it was breakfast tea stalls or brothels and restaurants!

Moreover, each one is described in great detail, and is passed down in a way that sounds so mysterious and true that even those who originally did not believe in it become confused.

"Zombies replaced the emperor", "Demons possessed the emperor", "The emperor's dragon energy was drained away"

Each version has a different story, but they all undoubtedly point to one thing: the emperor has health problems, and getting married now is a bad idea, as it would give evil spirits an opportunity to take advantage!

Inside the restaurant, a Yunnan scholar whispered, "In broad daylight, could it be that there really was a zombie impersonating the emperor on that high platform?"

"It's better to believe it exists than to believe it doesn't!" someone else replied.

The Yunnan scholar had grown up listening to stories about Miao poisons, so he believed in these stories to some extent. However, he also had a question: "If this is true, why didn't the Living Buddha of the grassland kill these evil spirits when he stepped forward to "wipe" them?

Don’t say that the zombie has profound skills and the Grassland Buddha can’t do anything to him. He is one of the four famous living Buddhas and the reincarnation of Manjushri Bodhisattva!

"Manjusri Bodhisattva is the Buddha's left attendant, can't he even deal with a small zombie?"

A Korean scholar replied, "Perhaps it's because the evil spirit has great power, and because it wasn't the Living Buddha of the Grassland who came in person, that we weren't able to bring it down!"

"maybe"

After the wine and food were finished, the few people stopped chatting and went back to the inn to rest.

...

However, when they returned, some people were unable to return to the house.