Master Yuan, start!

It is the ancestral custom for the emperor to rule the country personally after his wedding. It is not appropriate for the Empress Dowager to continue to exercise tutelage. How can it be like this now? The emperor hasn't even moved out of the palace. How can this be considered a return of power?"

"That's not right. If the court officials were clamoring for the emperor to get married, shouldn't the Empress Dowager stop it? Why did she let the court officials discuss marriageable women, and even let the people talk about it?"

Bai Liu raised a finger and said solemnly, "This is what's so strange. Not only did the Empress Dowager not stop him, but she also let the court officials discuss the selection of the Empress.

Logically speaking, for the emperor's wedding, the Empress Dowager, who was nominally the emperor's mother, should designate a princess from a Manchu noble family. After all, it was a royal matter, and no one else had the right to interfere.

Yet, she actually caused all the officials to discuss it, and the news spread throughout the capital."

After Bai Liu finished speaking, the people around him finally understood why everyone in restaurants and teahouses had been discussing the candidate for queen recently.

They were very puzzled and didn't know why the Empress Dowager did this, and what this matter had to do with the officials in Beijing who requested to be transferred to other places.

"Sixth brother, do you mean that... the same thing as in the battle for the throne among the nine dragons is happening again?" Zhang Bo deduced some meaning from Bai Liu's words.

"That's right!" Bai Liu clapped his hands, agreeing with Zhang Bo. He then explained to the even more confused crowd, "Look, asking all officials to recommend a queen is similar to what happened during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, when Emperor Shengzu deposed the crown prince and asked all officials to publicly nominate a new crown prince?"

"That's what happened. All the officials unanimously elected the Eighth Prince, thinking they would be recognized by the Holy Ancestor. Unexpectedly, they were reprimanded and the officials who supported the Eighth Prince were severely purged."

"Sixth brother, could it be that the Empress Dowager deliberately let all the officials discuss the selection of the Empress, and actually has some ulterior motive behind it?"

"That's right!" Bai Liu gave the man an approving look.

"But I haven't heard of any official from the six ministries and nine departments recommending a suitable candidate for the queen?" Zheng Si'er asked in confusion.

"This is the cleverness of our Qing officials. Over the centuries, they've seen all sorts of tricks. The Empress Dowager is clearly desperate, fishing with a direct hook. The Qing officials are all shrewd and have seen through it. No one is really taking the bait. Instead, they're afraid that this empress appointment controversy will implicate them, so they've all requested to be sent out."

"Hey! So that's what's going on!"

After Bai Liu explained the whole story to them, everyone suddenly understood and felt that they were too uneducated and had no idea about the intrigues in the court.

While the common people were happily discussing the candidate for queen, the officials were already thinking about how to leave the capital, a place of trouble.

Deduction

The situation in the court is becoming increasingly confusing.

...

As the sun sets in the west, the cicadas stop singing and begin to rest.

After sitting under the tree for the whole day and listening to a story about "official secrets" with great interest, everyone said that it was getting late and they should go home and find their mothers.

At this moment, a horse galloped down the street from the east. Before the sound of the horse's hooves got closer, the rider's loud shout was heard:

"The Zongli Yamen received a telegram from Korea, and Yuan Xiangcheng reported that King Yi Xi of Korea, missing his father, had requested to live in China as a sign of filial piety. The affairs of Korea were handed over to Xiangcheng and the Korean officials.

The abolition of feudal domains and the establishment of provinces in Korea are just around the corner!"

Upon hearing this news, Bai Liu was stunned for a moment, then quickly raised the corners of his mouth and said to himself in a voice that only he could hear: "Chief Instructor, the foundation of hegemony has been established!"

Not only Bai Liu, but the people who were sitting under the tree just now also cheered when they heard the news, and praised Yuan Xiangcheng as if he was free. If they had not learned modern vocabulary, they would have almost called him awesome.

Before it got dark, the good news spread throughout the capital at an extremely fast speed: Korea abolished the feudal system and established provinces!

During the past sixty years of the Qing Dynasty, land was ceded almost every 20 years. Officials and people had become numb to it and never thought there would be another time to expand territory.

After the telegram arrived in Beijing, the whole country was shocked!

Chapter 82 The Legend of Whitebeard

After hearing the news, Bai Liu hurried back home, packed his luggage in a hurry, and planned to go out of the city with a stack of yellow paper in his hand.

If he told so many people at once about the fabricated rumors about Cixi, there was no guarantee that someone would not report it. With word spreading from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, sooner or later someone would come to his small courtyard in the Dongcheng alley.

Fortunately, Bai Liu managed to complete the plan assigned to him by Ming Ye.

As early as after the Sino-French signing of the Treaty of Hanoi, Yuan Shikai was keenly aware of the undercurrents beneath the surface of Beijing's officialdom. After establishing the Red Confucian Society's intelligence investigation and operations camp, he extended his tentacles beyond North Korea.

He planned to establish his own intelligence agencies in the Qing Dynasty, Korea, Japan, Russia's Far East, and Southeast Asia.

The hierarchical structure from top to bottom is composed of headquarters, districts, and stations. The headquarters is the intelligence search department of the Red Confucian Society, referred to as the "Red Search Department".

The establishment of local institutions is relatively slow. Currently, only the North Korea region and three direct-administered stations, including Beijing Station, Tianjin Station, and Shanghai Station, have been established. In addition, the Hong Kong Station, Tokyo Station, and Vladivostok Direct-Administered Station are recruiting suitable candidates and will be officially established soon.

Only Korea, where Yuan Shikai's power was dominant, was able to be established as a district. Due to lack of manpower in other places, direct-controlled stations could only be set up in key cities.

Among them, the district chiefs and station chiefs are all members of the Red Confucian Society. In addition to the station chiefs, each direct-controlled station and district will have injured retired soldiers dispatched by the Jiashen Right Army to serve as operatives. The operatives do not have to be members of the Red Confucian Society, but they must also undergo loyalty tests and be fully obedient to the Jiashen Right Army and Yuan Shikai.

As for the intelligence gathering in each place, the station chief leads the local operatives to carry out the work by personally taking action, bribing officials, and inciting others.

The Red Confucian Society has only a few hundred members to date, so currently it can only carry out intelligence work in this way, which is somewhat risky.

Fortunately, in this day and age, espionage work has not received much attention from countries around the world, and the people's awareness of anti-detection is not that strong.

Yuan Xiangcheng took Mingye to personally teach a period of training courses for the Red Confucian Society's Intelligence Department, ranging from intelligence collection and analysis, to the use of infiltration capabilities and camouflage techniques, to communication and interpersonal relationship building at the lurking location, as well as the training of psychological pressure and stress resistance.

Yuan Shikai trained the station chiefs of more than a dozen intelligence stations in various places in basic espionage skills, although these superficial trainings were far inferior to the training levels of well-known spy agencies in later generations.

But in this era, these skills are enough. The rest can be left to intelligence agencies to explore on their own, integrate a set of training methods for intelligence personnel, and improve themselves.

Bai Liu's real name was Bai Dingshan. He was originally a resident of Beijing. Later, by coincidence, he joined the Jiashen Right Army and was once promoted to a battalion commander of the Jiashen Right Army. Unfortunately, he was injured in the defense of the capital. While returning to Korea for treatment, he was selected and trained as a spy. Later, he was sent to the Qing court as the station chief of the Beijing Direct Station.

His first task was to spread rumors about the Eight Strange Things in Beijing and Tianjin: Hong Chengchou the badger, Dorgon the bear, Wu Sangui the eagle, Nian Gengyao the pig, Hailancha the donkey, He the wolf, Cixi the fox, and Zeng Guofan the python.

The stories of the Eight Evils of Beijing were naturally picked out by Yuan Xiangcheng from the "Ten Evils of Western Hills" in his previous life. Zhang Zhidong was deliberately omitted because he was still far from being well-known to the people of the world.

The metaphors in these ten evils are actually quite appropriate, except that some of them are directed at a certain Yuan, comparing him to a "toad". In this life, Yuan Xiangcheng naturally wanted to avoid this situation, so he compiled the story of the Eight Weirdos of the Western Hills in advance to get himself out of it.

Furthermore, Bai Liu's mission to Beijing to spread rumors was only part of his mission. The ultimate goal was to provoke a dispute between the emperor and the empress, ideally stirring up a wave of popular opposition against Cixi and the foreigners. To this end, Yuan Xiangcheng specially crafted a narrative about the "yin and yang imbalance" and had Bai Liu spread it among the people.

"I hate the peace treaty most. It has brought disaster to the country and the people. The people follow the example of the superiors and their grievances remain unredressed.

Victory on the battlefield, defeat in negotiations; if you ask why, it's because the Western Fox has ruined the country! "

At first glance, this passage is nothing more than scolding officials for not doing their job properly. Qing officials have seen this many times, so they just let it spread. Without orders from above, they don't have the time to investigate what is going on.

But if the last sentence of this passage is combined with the rumors about the Eight Weirdos of Beijing, it would be a big deal. Who is Xihu referring to?

The Empress Dowager's honorific title was the Holy Mother Empress Dowager. When she and her mother, the Empress Dowager Cixi, were both in the same palace, one was called the Western Empress Dowager and the other was called the Eastern Empress Dowager.

The direction of this Western Fox is a little too obvious.

Fortunately, the two waves of rumors spread to different extents. The rumors about the Eight Weirdos of Beijing were mainly circulated in Beijing, and gossipers took it as a bit of fun. After all, it involved Karl Lagerfeld, so most of them were discussed in private.

As for the rumor that the Western Fox was harming the country, it was circulating in the vast rural areas of Zhili and Shandong, but had not yet reached the capital.

However, as Bai Liu posted this message everywhere, it only took a day for people in the capital to know about this rumor.

In addition, Yuan Shikai felt that the anger was not big enough, so he specifically asked the recruiters of the Jiashen Right Army Recruiting Office to spread the word in Shandong, Zhili, and Jingji areas, saying that the Jiashen Five Armies urgently needed to be reorganized and needed a large number of soldiers, and when recruiting, priority would be given to those who were strong and skilled in martial arts.

In addition, the recruitment offices of the Jiashen Right Army in Tianjin, Jinan, Beijing and other places would indeed give priority to those who knew martial arts and send them to Korea. If the conditions were met, they would be given 10 taels of resettlement allowance on the spot.

Therefore, in recent times, in order to obtain high salaries, the trend of practicing martial arts has become increasingly popular in Zhili, where martial arts already existed.

10两，光绪十年1885顺天府的粮价大概是每两u：捌[^七戮陆司怠！2银子可买100斤出头的粮食，10两银子就能给家里添上1000多斤粮食，这可是足够清朝末年的一家三口吃上一整年的粮食。

Public resentment gradually boiled over, the government was indifferent, and with Yuan Shikai adding fuel to the fire, the public sentiment in Zhili could be easily ignited with just a match.

The pointed moon hung low in the sky and the cold wind was blowing by the river, but Bai Liu still couldn't hide his excitement.

"Now that the Chief Instructor has defeated the Japanese army and conquered Korea, it's time to move on to the second step of the plan."

As night fell, Bai Liu posted yellow papers on every conspicuous wall in Dongcheng, accusing Cixi of causing chaos in the country and the imbalance of yin and yang in the Qing Dynasty.

After dodging the patrolling yamen runners, Bai Liu knocked on the door of a house.

"Boom"

The lights in the house came on, but the door didn't open.

"Who is coming?"

"Wing Chun Ip Man!"

Seeing that the person outside answered the code correctly, the door opened.

"Stationmaster, why are you here?" Guan Xiangming, the Beijing Station liaison officer in the room, was a little surprised.

"Can't it be me?" Bai Liu asked back and put his luggage on the table.

"Now that there's news from North Korea, the plan should move to the second phase." Bai Liu took out a piece of white paper with strange symbols from his luggage filled with banknotes, and then pulled out a piece of yellow paper from his shoe. When the two were superimposed, the strange symbols corresponded to each other, and a complete sentence appeared.

Bai Liu signed his name on the stacked papers and then read aloud to Guan Xiangming.

"Guan Xiangming is hereby appointed Acting Station Chief of the Red Confucian Society's Intelligence Investigation Division, Beijing Station. Upon learning that information regarding North Korea is fully under control, he will succeed the former Station Chief, Bai Dingshan, as the overall head of all intelligence work in the Beijing area. This declaration, Bai Dingshan, dated August 1887, 8."

"Whose idea was it to let me be the acting stationmaster of Beijing Station?" Guan Xiangming was a little incredulous. He immediately asked Bai Liu, "Then where are you going, stationmaster?"

"That's what Section Chief Ming Yeming meant. As for me, the Red Search Section has other plans for me, so you don't have to worry." After Bai Liu asked Guan Xiangming to read the letter of appointment carefully, he rolled the paper into a thin strip and held it above the candle to light it.

Watching the letter of appointment gradually turn into ashes, Bai Liu clapped his hands and said, "Alright, I've brought the letter of appointment. You also have the contact information of several operatives at the Beijing station. We can contact each other when we have the chance."

After saying that, without waiting for Guan Xiangming to say anything to persuade him to stay, he picked up his luggage and walked out the door.

It was already dawn, and Bai Liu took advantage of the moment when no one was paying attention to stuff his luggage into a vehicle leaving the city. He then left the city openly through Yongdingmen in the south of Beijing along with the other common people.

This departure is like a dragon returning to the sea and a tiger returning to the mountains.

In the next few years, the legends of the "White Beard" and the "White King" in Zhili and Shandong were passed on from mouth to mouth among the people, setting off a wave of anti-aggression movement of "supporting the emperor and destroying the foreigners."

Chapter 83: The Emperor and Empress's Parties with Complex Compositions

As soon as Yuan Shikai's telegram sending the King of Korea to China arrived in Beijing, it caused another uproar among the people of the capital.

But on the contrary, a cool rain fell on the hot and stalemate court in the capital. The officials who had packed their bags and planned to request to be transferred to other places stopped what they were doing to see how the central government would handle this important matter.

Originally, all the officials in the court were terrified because of the issue of selecting the queen. Seeing that Cixi had not said anything, the officials were in a dilemma.

Let me tell you, I'm afraid I'll pick the wrong person and make the old lady angry and get punished.

If I don't tell you, I'm afraid that Empress Dowager will lose face and find a reason to fire the person she dislikes. Who can I complain to?

Only some of the "emperor's party" in the court who are loyal to the current emperor dare to come out and shout a few words.

One is Weng Tong, the imperial tutor of two dynasties and a die-hard member of the imperial party. He once submitted a memorial requesting that a "Manchu woman with a clean background, dignity and intelligence" be selected as the empress. It was as good as saying nothing. This was just a memorial he had to submit due to his status as the imperial tutor.

Although he is a member of the imperial party, he is not a fool. With his qualifications, he can just wait patiently for the emperor to take the throne. There is no need to compete for the "merit of supporting the dragon". As long as he waits until the emperor takes the throne, he will be the first to contribute.

After Cixi dismissed him from his position as Grand Councilor, she still allowed him to work in the Yuqing Palace, but she could do nothing about his status as the Emperor's tutor.

After all, anyone could see that Cixi was fishing, so why should he offer the fish to her and ask her to lift the rod?

There is also the imperial party, which is made up of some old princes in the royal family, all of whom are iron-hat princes. They have always been dissatisfied with the fact that Cixi, a woman, is in power. After the Sino-French War, this group of people was the main force pushing Guangxu to rule the country.

After all, Cixi was not a proper emperor, and she had no good way to deal with these iron-hat princes. That was why the public opinion in Beijing for her to step down and return to power became increasingly intense.

The emperor's family affairs were also a major event for the Aisin Gioro family. In addition, Cixi personally asked the ministers to discuss it, so as members of the royal family, they naturally came to join in the fun.