Master Yuan, start!

Every time a shot is fired, due to the huge recoil, the gun carriage and the gun body will move backward as a whole. The gun carriage can only be loaded again after it has recovered.

From loading, aiming, firing, moving the gun carriage back to resetting it, reloading and aiming again, the entire process of retracting the gun consumes a lot of time, so it often takes one to several minutes to fire a shell.

In principle, a rapid-fire gun is a "barrel recoil gun". There is a buffer between the gun body and the gun mount during firing. After firing, the gun mount does not move, and there is only the recoil of the gun barrel, and the gun body can also automatically reset.

A recoil gun only requires loading, aiming, firing, resetting the gun body, and reloading. Not only does this shorten the steps a lot, it also saves a lot of time.

To make the simplest comparison, the 150mm Armstrong rapid-fire gun on the Japanese ship Yoshino can fire 7 rounds per minute.

The 305mm Krupp cannon on the Dingyuan can fire one round every three minutes.

Yuan Xiangcheng remembered a famous line from a TV series called "Towards the Republic" in his previous life, in which a character who played a Qing Dynasty official said, "Even if it fires five cannons, they can't match my one. In a naval battle, what does it matter if I take five cannons? As long as we share a common hatred and are united in purpose, a single cannon from me can destroy it!"

Indeed, during the Sino-Japanese War of 150-300, the Dingyuan-class's mm armor was not too scary compared to the mm rapid-fire guns on the Japanese flagship.

But no matter how great the destructive power is, it has to hit the target. Moreover, not every ship of the Beiyang Fleet has as thick armor as the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan.

The distance of naval artillery battles is often more than ten kilometers. In the era without electronically controlled radar, it was extremely difficult to hit a maneuvering warship from a long distance.

Overall, the Japanese army's firepower density was more than three times that of the Beiyang Fleet. Even though the Japanese army's rapid-fire guns had a shorter range and lower accuracy than the Beiyang Fleet's cannons, the Japanese still relied on wolf pack tactics to kill several big tigers of the Beiyang Fleet at sea.

Therefore, Yuan Xiangcheng's desire for large-caliber rapid-fire guns is second only to warships.

In the end, after some bargaining, Yuan Shikai purchased three Zhiyuan-class warships at a price of 80 taels each, as well as 3mm and 150mm rapid-fire guns at an additional cost.

The Germans received half of the shares of Yuan Shikai's soon-to-be-opened Benxi Iron and Steel Plant, plus 240 million taels of silver, which, of course, was paid in installments with the Korean Customs as collateral.

Both parties were very satisfied with the transaction, and neither side suffered a particular loss. Yuan Shikai paid a large amount of money but got precious warships in return, as well as large-caliber rapid-fire cannons that could be used in both naval and land battles.

The Germans also received a reasonable order and the benefits of their own capital entering China.

After Yuan Xiangcheng took his leave in a friendly manner, he sent Liu Buchan and Lin Taizeng back to the navy residence. Before they could return to their own room to rest, Ming Ye informed them that someone was coming.

"Chief Instructor, this man claims to be requesting a secret audience with the Emperor!"

Chapter 107 The Forbidden City Case!

"By secret order of the Emperor?"

This news surprised Yuan Xiangcheng a little. It was no longer the Han and Tang Dynasties, and playing with the secret decree was completely out of date. Besides, Guangxu might not have the courage to do so.

Yuan Xiangcheng once thought that Cixi might have become addicted to fishing again and was trying to test him.

However, after seeing the person who came, he ruled out this guess. Perhaps the conflict within the court had indeed reached a semi-public level.

After confirming that no one was following him on the street, Yuan Xiangcheng invited the man into the house.

The man who came was Chenghou, the legitimate son of Prince Li Shiduo, who had previously joined the Jiashen Right Army and later returned to Beijing due to the war. However, he looked a little tired.

Even the stubble on the front half of his head had grown back, and he hadn't had time to shave his beard, which was not common among the upper-class Eight Banners.

Shaving the head has been a custom since ancient times, but before the Qing Dynasty, most adult men grew their hair long and might not shave their hair once every six months, so this industry was not that popular.

But it was different in the Qing Dynasty. Due to the Qing Dynasty's policy of shaving the hair, this business was particularly booming throughout the Qing Dynasty.

Men with short hair in later generations had to shave their heads almost once a month. During the Qing Dynasty, men shaved their heads even more frequently. Since the front half of their skulls were bald, they would have noticeable stubble in about a week.

In order to avoid trouble, most ordinary people would choose to shave their heads every few days, unless they were poor beggars who had no money.

This gave rise to a unique phenomenon in the Qing Dynasty: the barber's pole, also known as a mobile barber shop.

The barber carried a shoulder pole with a clay stove in front of it, which held hot water. Behind it hung a large wooden box, which contained razors, combs, brushes, towels, baskets, and other items. He would roam the city daily, hawking his wares along the streets or providing door-to-door service.

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This is what is called a barber's pole.

There is also a two-part allegorical saying to describe it, which means that one end of the barber's pole is hot. It vividly describes the meaning of the barber's pole, that is, only one end is hot because it is burning hot water.

Therefore, even the Eight Banners descendants who carried bird cages and wandered around the city would not forget to have their faces trimmed by the barbers who were everywhere on the streets.

Chenghou came by boat. The distance from Tianjin to Incheon is about 400 nautical miles, and the boat ride takes about 2 days.

Even if it took some time to travel from Beijing to Tianjin in disguise, it would take me less than a week at most.

The waves in the Yellow Sea were not that dangerous, and as the eldest son of the Qing Dynasty's iron-hat prince, he had no shortage of people to serve him.

So seeing Chenghou's untidy beard, Yuan Xiangcheng asked with some concern:

"Brother Chenghou, I haven't seen you for a long time. I didn't expect you to be in such a hurry this time."

Yuan Xiangcheng's words made Cheng Hou pause as he sat down. He reached out and grabbed his beard and the top of his head. After putting his hands down, he said with a sad face:

"Master Yuan, the situation was too urgent when I came here, and I was worried all the way, so I didn't have the energy to take care of these things."

"You are also the son of a prince, and your father is the military minister of the dynasty. How could you be so panic-stricken?" Yuan Xiangcheng pretended to blame, but in fact he also wanted to know what happened in the capital.

"By the way, Chenghou, where are your followers? You traveled thousands of miles to Korea, but you don't even have anyone with you."

"There were so many people around, and my father was afraid that the news would leak out, so he didn't dare to take them. Even I had to pretend to be a servant of the palace when I left the capital."

"What happened?" Yuan Xiangcheng looked at Chenghou in the flickering candlelight.

Cheng Hou took two deep breaths, leaned close to Yuan Xiangcheng's ear, lowered his voice, and said nervously:

"Master Yuan, the Empress Dowager is afraid she will depose the emperor!"

"What?" Yuan Xiangcheng couldn't help but growl.

"Hush! Hush!"

Chenghou desperately covered Yuan Xiangcheng's mouth, then looked up at Mingye who was standing outside the door on guard.

"It's okay, he is my confidant!" Yuan Xiangcheng said to comfort him.

After lighting another candle, Yuan Xiangcheng asked in a low voice:

"Has the situation in the capital really reached such a critical point?"

"Oh! I don't know how it came to this!"

Chenghou spread his hands and slowly recounted what had happened in the capital during these days.

Cixi really wanted to push for Guangxu's wedding, and she actually set the wedding date for the first month of 1889.

But although she had a wedding, she never thought of giving up power. In the original time and space, she could even hold on to power until the Reform Movement of 1898.

The current situation of the Qing Dynasty is far worse than in the original time and space, so Cixi is also afraid that after she withdraws from the political arena and returns to power, she will be retaliated by Guangxu.

After all, she had studied with Emperor Xianfeng for so many years and knew what happened to Empress Dowager Gao Taotao of the Song Dynasty after her death.

The current situation of the Qing Dynasty is very similar to that of the Song Dynasty at that time. There are also disputes over reforms in the court and invasions from enemy countries outside the court.

The period when Gao Taotao was in power was called "Yuan V's Reign" by later generations; the early period when Empress Dowager Cixi was in power was also praised by the world as "Tongzhi Restoration".

The Northern Song Dynasty ceded Lanzhou, Mizhi and other five places to Western Xia; the Qing Dynasty ceded Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xiamen, Zhuhai and other places to Western Xia.

Gao Taotao was also in power behind the scenes. However, he could not suppress the power of the New Party and recruited Sima Guang from the Old Party to suppress it, which led to constant factional strife in the court.

Cixi almost lost the throne to the diehard and regent Su Shun, and had no choice but to form an alliance with Prince Gong at the central level and vigorously promote Han governors and governors in the local areas in order to consolidate her power behind the scenes.

In his later years, Gao Taotao was unable to control the Northern Song Dynasty court, which led to the Yuanyou Factional Struggle; Cixi was now unable to suppress the calls for reform, and a new storm was imminent in the Qing Dynasty.

However, what was the court like after Gao Taotao’s death?

Gao Taotao's grandson, Song Zhezong, had been suppressed for nearly ten years and had long been dissatisfied.

After he took power, all those who had been convicted by Gao Taotao during his lifetime were liquidated, and Sima Guang was almost dug out of his grave.

Even the posthumous title given to Gao Taotao was "Empress Xuanren Shenglie"

Don’t be fooled by the beautiful words like Xuan, Ren and Sheng in the front, Cixi was not an ignorant palace maid who came to power.

She knew very well that since Emperor Taizong of Tang, posthumous titles had become long and boring, and only the last emperor's posthumous title had any evaluative significance.

If we consider Gao Taotao's posthumous title, we only need to look at one word.

"strong!"

Which emperors are called Lie in history books?

The Sixteen Kingdoms period's Emperor Liezong of Han Zhao, Liu Cong, was incompetent and murderous.

Sima Yao, Emperor Liezong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was weak and incompetent, greedy for pleasure, and was killed by his favorite concubine.

Murong Bao, the Emperor of Later Yan during the Sixteen Kingdoms Period, was known for his harsh laws and tyranny.

Each of these Liezong emperors is recorded in history as a top tyrant. Gao Taotao was given the posthumous title of "Lie", and the meaning is very clear.

Xuanren Shenglie, the praise of the first three words cannot save the derogatory word of the last word Lie.

When Cixi thought of this, she became extremely worried because the current emperor was not even her biological child, but was adopted.

Gao Taotao was subjected to such a purge after his death and was given a bad posthumous title, so Cixi was somewhat worried about his fate after he stepped down from power.

The next thing that happened further solidified her determination to withdraw from politics and not return to power.

When a new emperor gets married, the empress dowager can usually live in the Forbidden City, but the emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang all had precedents of letting the empress dowager enjoy herself in the gardens outside the capital.

Guangxu didn't know what stimulated him. Maybe he had read too many tabloids about Yuan Shikai. He didn't know where he got the courage from.

During a routine visit to pay his respects, he actually asked Cixi directly where he would live after his wedding.

He also said: "Dear father, you have worked hard day and night for state affairs. It is very hard. In the days to come, you can live out your days in the Yuanmingyuan. I will visit you every morning and evening and remember the etiquette."

Cixi's face changed drastically after hearing this, but she managed not to lose her temper. Instead, she praised Guangxu: "The Emperor is so considerate and has really grown up. I am deeply touched by this. Li Lianying!"

"The slave is here!"

"The emperor was so devoted to filial piety that he gave his unmarried daughter-in-law a copy of the Classic of Filial Piety so that she could study it carefully."

"!"

After Guangxu passed away, Cixi was so angry that she smashed the porcelain in the Winter Warmth Pavilion to pieces, and even several famous paintings that Qianlong had stamped on them were damaged.

Cixi's action frightened the palace maids around her so much that they trembled and knelt on the ground, not daring to raise their heads.

Li Lianying also hurriedly brought a cup of pear soup from the stove in the side room, intending to persuade Cixi to drink a few sips to cool down her anger.

"Old Li, tell me, how could there be such a person in this world?!" Cixi was furious and couldn't help but confide in Li Lianying.

"The Qing Empire is in a precarious situation. I have worked hard to support it and it has become what it is today, but he actually..."

"How outrageous! How outrageous!" Cixi gritted her teeth. She didn't expect the little emperor to be so direct.

Originally, she just wanted to keep some loyal ministers as a backup. After the emperor's wedding, she would really move out of the Forbidden City and move to the Summer Palace.

Unexpectedly, before she even opened her mouth, the emperor couldn't wait to get her away from the Forbidden City!