Master Yuan, start!

"Long live the President!"

"Long live the National Revolutionary Army!"

"Long live the People's Republic of China!"

At some point, the crowd suddenly shouted "Long live the emperor". Most of the people at the front of the crowd were scholars from Jiangning City and nearby Jiangnan areas. They were the youngest group of people.

Five years ago, they were the group of people who were most opposed to the Qing Dynasty and also the group who most wanted to pull the Qing emperor off the throne.

But now, facing Yuan Xiangcheng, they spontaneously shouted "Long live the emperor".

Even the objects of the "Long Live" slogan include not only Yuan Shikai but also the Republic and the National Revolutionary Army.

But this also shows how important Yuan Shikai is in their hearts.

Liu Kunyi looked at Yuan Xiangcheng waving to the people in front of him, and suddenly thought to himself, "If Yuan proclaimed himself emperor right then and there, these people would also happily agree, right?"

"It is a blessing in 5000 years that China has a great president!" Some social elites in Jiangning City came forward and praised Yuan Shikai highly.

No matter what attitude they had held towards Yuan Shikai before, when they learned that Li Hongzhang was doomed to defeat, they finally chose not to wait and see and chose to cooperate with Yuan Shikai.

Although Yuan Shikai did not know about the people's welcome beforehand, he had experienced this kind of situation several times in Korea and Beijing, so he could handle it.

Liu Kunyi followed Yuan Xiangcheng, walking step by step, until Yuan Xiangcheng bowed to the crowd and took a short rest, then he stepped forward and said:

"Mr. President, if you had been born 50 years earlier and emerged during the Taiping Rebellion, the world would not have been ruled by the Manchus, but by the Han people!

9-758744$Wu novel

After the Taiping Rebellion, China suffered repeated disasters for nearly 50 years, with Britain, France, and Russia constantly spying on it. 4 million people were filled with anger but had no power to do anything about it.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Xiangcheng smiled silently.

Even a diehard member of the Hunan Army like Liu Kunyi was ultimately impressed by his own achievements.

Being called the President is not only a recognition of himself, but also a recognition of the People's Republic of China.

However, Yuan Xiangcheng more or less disagreed with some of Liu Kunyi's words.

He looked at the cheering crowd on the street, tightened his collar in his woolen republican coat, and turned around and said:

"Xian Weng is wrong. If I had followed Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing to rise up against the Qing Dynasty 50 years ago, how could I have known that I would not have died at the hands of your militia?

Instead of saying that if I had been born 50 years earlier, I could have overthrown the Qing Dynasty and regained national dignity, you might as well ask yourselves.

Why did he serve the Qing Dynasty and strangle the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which was also a Han Chinese regime, even though he had a large number of troops under his command?

If the history of the Qing Dynasty is compiled in the future, both Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing and you will probably be recorded in the history books.

However, both Hong and Yang can be praised in separate biographies.

What about you who are helping the evil?

The Tartar chieftain, Emperor Qianlong, once commissioned the writing of a biography of traitors. In the future, who knows, there might be a biography of traitors in the late Qing dynasty, with your name in the title!

Yuan Xiangcheng disdained the so-called flattery. After all, Liu Kunyi still believed that he was the savior of China and did not think that there was anything wrong with what he did.

At that time, he felt that he should be loyal to the Qing Dynasty and not rebel.

But in reality, if everyone is just trying to protect themselves, who will be the first three people?

The so-called savior is just following the trend of the times. Historically, if these ministers in the late Qing Dynasty really "loved China", the Qing Dynasty would have perished long ago.

At that time, the Qing Dynasty was extremely corrupt, and the so-called Eight Banners and the so-called Green Camp were all vulnerable.

Only some Mongolian cavalry transferred from outside the Great Wall still have some combat effectiveness.

The field army near the capital could not even muster 10,000 men, and the rest were just a bunch of rotten fish and shrimp.

The fact that a detachment of the Taiping Army was able to march north to near Tianjin is enough to show that the Qing army in the north during the Xianfeng period was completely a decoration.

At that time, both Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang had elite troops under their command.

Didn't they ever think of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty when they had an army of hundreds of thousands and were marching across the country?

They must have thought about it!

But why didn't they take action?

It's just that they are afraid of becoming like Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, letting others take advantage of them!

If Zeng Guofan could lead hundreds of thousands of Hunan troops north to attack the capital after the fall of Tianjing, the city of Beijing might have opened its gates and surrendered.

If after Senggelinqin's death, Li Hongzhang had taken advantage of the fact that the Eight Banners in North China were leaderless and the Manchus had no generals to lead the Huai Army to attack the capital directly, then Empress Dowager Cixi and the infant Emperor Tongzhi would probably have fled back to the Northeast.

No matter what the outcome, the worst case scenario would be a situation of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. At least the Chinese people could get rid of the shackles of the Qing Dynasty 40-50 years earlier.

Maybe we can catch up with the spring breeze of the Second Industrial Revolution and launch a broader and deeper Westernization Movement.

Even if the country was divided into north and south, the outcome might have been better than if the Qing Dynasty was not overthrown until 1911.

Just like the Republic of China in history, no matter how bad it was, it did not sign as many unequal treaties as the Qing Dynasty.

However, although they were clearly capable of being Qi, they were unwilling to be Liu, and insisted on being a so-called loyal minister and filial son under Man Sanqing's command.

He was simply afraid that after rebelling against the Qing Dynasty, he would lose the honor he had gained and end up with his family broken up.

Thinking of this, Yuan Xiangcheng sighed.

The timeline is constantly advancing, but the so-called "heroes" of the Qing Dynasty are still not as good as the ruffians in the late Western Han Dynasty.

At least the Red Eyebrows and Green Forest still understand the principle of "United we stand, divided we perish."

However, Zeng and Li, for their own selfish desires and the future of their families, chose to treat each other as enemies.

They all madly expressed their loyalty to the Qing Dynasty, forcing the other side to be obedient subjects.

Therefore, facing Liu Kunyi's self-defense remarks, Yuan Xiangcheng retorted:

"Mr. Xian, there have been anti-Qing movements in the past few decades, but what were their outcomes?

Weren't they all suppressed by the government one by one?

Even the common people who stood on the same side as the Qing Dynasty were inevitably liquidated.

You have experienced the Tianjin Incident. Do you think the people of Tianjin at that time hated foreigners and did not support the Qing Dynasty?

But what did the Qing central government do?

The common people involved were beheaded in public, the county magistrate was sentenced to death for harboring a criminal, and the prefect and the Tianjin governor were exiled to Ningguta, never to be allowed to enter the country again.

Despite the overwhelming support of the people, the Qing dynasty managed to achieve a result that benefited the foreigners and oppressed the people.”

When Yuan Xiangcheng talked about the Tianjin Incident, Liu Kunyi's face became more embarrassed with every word he said.

The reason is simple. When he was in power in Jiangnan, he handled several religious incidents in Jiangnan in a way that was even worse than the Qing central government's approach to the Tianjin religious incident.

They all protect foreigners and punish the people.

If there is any progress, it is that Liu Kunyi spared the death penalty for the officials involved and allowed them to resign and return home.

Therefore, Liu Kun's remarks seemed to be a lament that it was too late for the Qing Dynasty to overthrow the Wu Liao Liu Can group, but in fact, he had a subtle intention of defending himself.

It's like saying, it's not that I don't want to rebel against the Manchus, but I really have no power, so I have no choice but to submit to the Qing Dynasty and become a loyal minister and general.

After all, it is impossible for people to recognize all their mistakes.

Yuan Shikai had nothing much to say about this. The Qing Dynasty was overthrown anyway, and no matter how many hindsight remarks he made, it would be of no avail.

Anyway, today, he brought Liu Kunyi out not to discuss when the Qing Dynasty should be overthrown, but to make some efforts for the upcoming Hunan campaign.

"Xian Weng, you are from Hunan and were once the leader of the Hunan Army. Now the Hunan Braves are entrenched in Hunan and refuse to retreat.

Although the National Revolutionary Army had the ability to wipe out the rebellion, it was unwilling to waste more time on it.

The situation in Guangzhou has not been pacified yet, and Vietnam is about to go to war with France. I need you to go to Hunan and act as a lobbyist to persuade those Hunan warriors to lay down their arms and surrender on the spot!

If this succeeds, I promise you that you will definitely be given a fair evaluation in the history of the Qing Dynasty.

Even if there is a book about traitors in the late Qing Dynasty in the future, you will definitely not be included in it! "

After saying this, Yuan Xiangcheng raised the collar of his republican uniform, turned around and walked out of the city, leaving Liu Kunyi and some guards there.

"If this is done, will you give me a fair evaluation?" Liu Kunyi squinted his eyes and murmured as he watched Yuan Xiangcheng's receding figure.

"What if it doesn't work out?"

No one answered his question. That afternoon, Liu Kunyi boarded a cargo ship of the Sihai Shipping Company and traveled day and night from Jiangning to Wuchang.

After arriving in Wuchang, he continued his journey through Yuezhou and Changsha and rushed to Xiangtan, the city where the Hunan Braves were most concentrated.

Chapter 413 I'd rather be a Chinese ghost than a foreign king

In Guangzhou City, in front of the Lingnan Xinghan Grand Commandery, there is a bleak scene.

This piece of Lingnan land finally felt the coming cold wave from Siberia, and it had a hint of chill.

It was once the political power center of Guangzhou, Lingnan, and even the entire South China. It was a place that countless people wanted to enter, but now it is so lifeless.

If there weren't two guards standing at the door, no one would have thought this was a center of power, and would have thought it was some wealthy family that had gone on a long trip.

In the courtyard, Li Hongzhang was wearing a cotton armor and a yellow jacket, leaning on a cane in his right hand, and his beard was white.

If it weren't for the lack of a braid on his back, Li Hongzhang's attire would have made him look like a Qing Dynasty official who was unemployed at home.

It was as if he was not the Grand Commander of Lingnan Xinghan of the Republic, but Li Zhongtang, the Beiyang Minister who was idle at home in winter and was awarded a yellow jacket.

Yu Shimei, Zhang Peilun, Li Jingshu and others stared blankly at Li Hongzhang in the courtyard.

Ding Ruchang, who had just rushed in from outside, had a complicated expression and his eyes were full of worries.

However, Li Hongzhang did not care about other people's eyes at all.

He paced around the courtyard somewhat contentedly, as if recalling the scene when he went north from his post as Governor of Jiangsu to succeed Zeng Guofan as Minister of Beiyang.

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As a native of Hefei, Li Hongzhang was able to take on this unique position in the Qing court. When he recalled the time when he took up the post, his heart was filled with excitement.

That period was a rare period of peace for the Qing Dynasty. The local rebellion of Taiping Rebellion had just subsided, and the external powers were temporarily intimidated by the intensity of the war and dared not threaten China again.

As for the central government, after the death of Emperor Xianfeng, there were two young rulers in succession. The young rulers did not rule the country, and the two palaces ruled the country from behind the scenes. It was rare for local officials to handle affairs without being constrained.

After taking office, Li Hongzhang "properly" handled the Tianjin Incident.

Not only that, he also volunteered to start foreign affairs, set up many factories across the country, and requested to build the Beiyang Navy to strengthen coastal defense.

During that period, perhaps because many people died, the originally fierce tenant-rent conflicts were eased due to some minor conflicts, and the court and the countryside were prosperous.