Master Yuan, start!

"Brother Liuliu." Despite his frail body, Yi X struggled to his feet and said, "Since ancient times, there has been no one who is immortal. This is true for the Emperor, and it is also true for me."

"Don't say that, Seventh Brother, don't say that!" Yi D sobbed with tears and snot.

"Brother Liuliu, I can die. Ahem... ahem, I just really don't feel at ease with the Qing Dynasty today, and I really don't feel at ease with my son."

"Seventh brother, stop talking, stop talking, and rest in peace. Rest now!"

"Sixth brother, Sixth brother, I know I don't have much time left. Quickly summon the ministers. I have something to say...cough...cough..."

"Okay, I'll call someone right away!"

Hearing this, Yi D wiped away his tears and quickly gave a wink to Shanqi who was following behind him. Shanqi immediately understood what he meant.

He ran out of the door, shouting "Call all the cabinet ministers to the Imperial Hospital!" as he ran out of the palace.

Yi Xin listened to the shouts coming from outside the room, exhaled a deep breath, and forced himself not to close his eyes, wanting to wait until all the ministers arrived before saying a few final words.

But who would have known that after Shanqi ran out of the Imperial Hospital shouting slogans, he actually hid in a small fire room under the wall and refused to leave.

He listened to the crackling of firewood and counted the stars in the sky.

A quarter of an hour, two quarters of an hour, three quarters of an hour; an hour, two hours, three hours.

It was not until the east began to brighten that Shanqi set out again and invited the ministers outside the palace one by one.

But the Regent Prince Yix, who was lying on the sickbed, obviously could not hold on for that long. He died just one hour after Shanqi left.

Yi X, after all, never waited for the cabinet ministers to arrive.

However, all the above deeds are "wild history"

As we all know, unofficial history is not credible.

According to the authentic records of Qing Palace historical materials, on February 1896, , the Regent Yixun was seriously ill and bedridden, unable to get up again.

Brother Yixun, Prince Gong YiD, took care of him day and night, so that he became thin.

Before his death, Yi Xin issued an edict to remove Prince Gong Yi Xin from the position of Prime Minister of the Cabinet and promoted him to the position of Prince of Political Affairs, and planned to summon a group of Manchu and Han ministers to read it out.

But unfortunately, before the ministers could reach the palace, Yi X felt that he could not hold on any longer.

So after entrusting Yi D with a few words, "The fate of the Eight Banners is entirely in the hands of my sixth brother. I hope you will not let down our ancestors and the current emperor," he passed away.

And Yi D, with the help of this imperial edict, was promoted to the second-in-command of the Qing court in name only, but the number one in reality.

Prince Regent!

...

After taking power, Yi D immediately sent a telegram to the whole country, stating that the court had indeed invited the Russians to come south.

The Regent was seriously ill and would not live for many days. All the ministers knew this, so his death did not surprise anyone.

But what is unexpected is why the Regent did not let his ministers see him before his death, and why only Yi D was by his side.

What's the point?

It is true that when a country is about to perish, evil spirits will appear.

As soon as he came to power, he could not wait to announce that he would seek help from foreigners and use foreign soldiers to deal with political enemies.

Seeing that the country was in turmoil, the Manchu central government still could not see the situation clearly and fought for power to the point of being crazy.

Weng Tong, a veteran minister of three dynasties and Minister of Finance, resigned in anger and left Beijing without waiting to be retained. He hid in the British Concession in Tianjin, waiting for a ship to go south to his hometown of Changshu.

Minister of Personnel Li Hongzao bluntly said that one should not invite a wolf into the house. The Russians are cruel and it is very likely that it will be difficult to get rid of them. He called on the court to send a close confidant of the royal family to negotiate with Yuan Shikai and not to resort to force without authorization.

After his memorial was rejected by the new Regent Prince Yi D, Li Hongzao stayed at his residence in Beijing sick, unwilling to participate in cabinet meetings, and looked like he was refusing to cooperate.

In the court, there was also a call to oppose the Russians' southward advance and to put aside past grudges and resolve misunderstandings with Yuan Shikai.

In just a few days, the capital was filled with voices expressing confusion about the court's policies and regret for Yuan Shikai.

Unless you are a Han Chinese who are die-hard loyal to the Qing court, you will feel that the court is extremely cold and indifferent.

These days are so turbulent, ministers have power and troops, so what if they are a little ostentatious? Yuan Shikai is a Han Chinese, and he has no intention of seizing the throne of your Aixinjueluo family. Who are you targeting?

Even after making such great contributions to the court, can he still escape the price of being abandoned after his time is up?

Jiangning City has only been captured for a few days. Is the court so eager to fabricate charges against Yuan Shikai and suppress him?

The vast majority of Han officials openly opposed the court's actions.

And some Manchus also felt that what the court did was really unfair. Even if you, Yi D, had just taken office as the Prince Regent, you wouldn't have done the first three things a new official should do. It was too embarrassing!

Under pressure from all sides, Yi D ordered people to come out to clarify, saying that it was all because Yuan Shikai treated the Manchus outside the Great Wall badly, forced them to open mines, and destroyed farmland to build railways, which aroused great indignation among the Eight Banners outside the Great Wall.

Seeing that the discussion in the capital had not subsided, Yi D announced an emergency cabinet meeting and announced that he would discuss how to deal with Yuan Shikai.

There were more than a dozen ministers in the cabinet meeting, but only two or three of them had real opinions. After Weng Tong and Li Hongzao did not participate, the rest were just yes-men.

In the end, the cabinet reached a resolution and put forward two conditions for Yuan Shikai.

One is to continue to march southward and wipe out Li Hongzhang who has gone south to occupy Guangdong and Guangxi. After clearing Lingnan, the court can appoint Yuan Shikai as the "King of Western Guangdong" and allow him to divide Guangxi, appoint himself an official, and handle all the old affairs of a vassal.

Another condition was to go north to the capital. Yi D said that as long as Yuan Shikai was willing to repent, the court would forgive his past mistakes, leave him the position of Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, and also give him the title of hereditary iron-hat king.

However, from then on, he had nothing to do with leading troops.

These words finally calmed people's hearts a little, and the court still left some way for Yuan Shikai to retreat.

Since ancient times, it is inevitable that those in power will be suspicious of those who command the military because of their achievements.

Now that the contradiction has become apparent, Yuan Shikai wants to be a local emperor, so he takes over Guangdong and Guangxi and goes to Guangxi to be the emperor.

If you want to be a loyal minister, then go north and take charge of the central government.

No matter which one is chosen, the court will not have to engage in war with Yuan Shikai and the matter can be resolved perfectly.

An iron-hat king with no real power, or a local king of Guangxi with real power.

It seems that Yuan Xiangcheng is getting promoted.

...

Just when everyone thought that the storm would gradually subside, Wu Daji, the governor of Heilongjiang Province and Yiktang'a's deputy, sent a telegram to the whole country from Qiqihar.

It was claimed that Yiktang'a was captured by villains, and the people who imprisoned him were the suspects in the assassination of the emperor, Fu Yu and Boyan Nemuhu.

The two men held a grudge against Yuan Shikai and defected to the Russians, hoping to take this opportunity to lure and kill Yuan Shikai.

However, when he invited Iktang'a to participate, he refused, so he had to lead the Russian troops south in person.

After the Russians moved south, they burned, killed, looted and committed all kinds of atrocities. The area outside Aihui City was littered with frozen limbs and broken arms.

Wu Daji's telegram completely exposed the lies constructed by Yi D.

He was willing to collude with the suspect in the assassination case to eliminate Yuan Shikai. The people of the capital city completely saw the true face of the new prince.

Yi D's reputation was ruined, and the sky over the capital was shrouded in a sense of impending storm.

More and more officials resigned, and a large amount of gold, silver and treasures were secretly transferred, buried underground or deposited in banks in the concessions.

Yuan Shikai, who had just arrived in Korea, said nothing after hearing the news.

He did not care about the Manchus' struggle for power, nor did he care about the officials who resigned, nor did he care about the King of Guangxi and the hereditary iron-hat kings.

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After a moment's silence, he ordered someone to bring a piece of white paper and wrote the four characters "Aihui Tragedy" on it. He then gently pulled the paper away and sighed:

"Send someone to investigate the Russian army's massacre of Aihui and publish it in the Dong-A Ilbo. Let our nation remember this bloody incident forever!"

In this way, the massacre, which Russia called the "Amur River Incident" and China called the "Aihui Massacre", became one of the ironclad evidences in the subsequent trial of the Russians.

Chapter 290 Chief Instructor, don’t hesitate!

On February 1896, , Aihui City fell.

On the 300th, the city of Chikle, kilometers south, was captured.

On March 200, the defenders of Wuyunhe City, 8 km south of Qikele, were defeated by the Russian army and died in three battles.

The three important cities on the south bank of the Heilongjiang River were destroyed, declaring the complete failure of the river defense plan built by Yiktang'a.

The northern gate of Heilongjiang Province was wide open, and the only thing blocking the Russian army to the south was the low Lesser Khingan Mountains. Apart from that, there was no other organized military base.

It was only after Yuan Xiangcheng arrived in Seoul that he learned the details of the cause and effect through the telegram sent by Wu Dajie.

"Deep in the Russians' den, forced by the situation, Daji had no choice but to flee to Qiqihar, where he was captured by Yiktang'a. He was afraid that the Russians and the two Mongolian rebels would take advantage of the opportunity to stir up trouble and incite the people. The defenses of Aihui, Qikele, and Wuyunhe were insufficient, making it extremely difficult to stop them.

Please ask Xiangcheng to quickly dispatch the National Defense Army to the north, cross the Tumen River to attack Russia's weak spot and resolve the crisis in Heilongjiang.

I don't know about the various power struggles in the court, but the millions of people outside the pass have done nothing wrong. I hope Xiangcheng will put the people of the world first and personally look forward to the royal army's assistance."

"Weiting, what should we do?"

At an emergency meeting of the Red Confucian Society in Seoul, dozens of people sat around a small stove to discuss the current situation.

Xu Shichang went north with Yuan Xiangcheng and returned to Korea. When he saw the telegram sent by Wu Daji, he was also in a dilemma.

The National Defense Army had few troops left outside the Great Wall, and the only ones that could be used were the two towns of Jinweidong and Baidingshan.

The two of them, one is known as the Bear of National Defense, and the other is known as the Fox of National Defense.

Although they all have titles, their achievements are not achieved through hard-fought battles.

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Jin Weidong was called the "Bear of National Defense" because of his cumbersome step-by-step tactics when he was suppressing the Jindan Dao.

Bai Dingshan had never commanded a frontal battle. He earned the nickname "Fox" by luring refugees from the capital, infiltrating Ronglu's army, and then killing Ronglu.

"Chief Instructor, the Heilongjiang defense line has collapsed." Wang Shizhen stood up from the crowd of attendants and said in a deep voice: "The next four areas to be attacked will definitely be Morgan, Hailun, Suihua and other places west of the Lesser Khingan Mountains.

If the Heilongjiang border troops can put up a strong resistance, they might be able to hold out for a while or two. If they flee as soon as they see the enemy, the fall of these places is probably only a matter of time."

"West of the Lesser Khingan Mountains?" Yuan Xiangcheng frowned as he looked at the map spread out on the table. "Why are you so sure that the Russian army will move south from the Heilongjiang River and not west from the Ussuri River or Vladivostok?

If the Russian army attacks from both sides, not only will Heilongjiang collapse, but the garrison in Jilin will also be unable to hold out."

"No!" Wang Shizhen said firmly upon hearing this, attracting everyone's attention.

"Why not?"

Putting down his pencil, Yuan Xiangcheng quietly looked at the person in front of him, Wang Shizhen, who was known as the "Dragon of the Beiyang" in the original time and space.

"Chief Instructor, comrades, there are three points that prove my point."