Chapter 105 Sowing Discord

  When the Minister of War, Jingxin, who had eaten a bellyful of silk, reappeared in public for the second time, he had transformed into an envoy representing the emperor to comfort the soldiers on the front line. Under the personal escort of General Yang, he shuttled between the various armies, carrying the official authority of a first-class official to convey the country's greetings to the brave warriors who were holding out in the trenches, leaving those rough men stunned and honored.

  Moreover, the Grand Secretary had a reporter from the Ming Pao newspaper following him at all times, who repeated in a mechanical tone the magnificent article that he had memorized, and it quickly appeared in the Shanghai newspapers, then spread to various places with a speed like wildfire, soon appearing on Cixi's desk. This strange situation completely bewildered her, she couldn't understand no matter how hard she tried, why the person she sent to urge withdrawal of troops suddenly became someone encouraging morale to continue fighting?

  "Old Buddha, the article in the newspaper about the respectful gentleman's speech at the front line, it is said that he was sent by the Emperor to comfort the troops, and did not mention you, Old Buddha." Li Lianying said cautiously beside him, this guy had been beaten by Guangxu a few days ago, and his heart was still remembering the small dog's cunning trick.

  "Be quiet!" Cixi rebuked in a low and stern tone.

  "I should die." Li Lianying hastily knelt down and knocked her head on the ground.

  Cixi raised her hand and motioned for him to get up, then frowned and said, "Has there been a telegram back from Jingxin?"

  "Reporting to the Old Buddha, it still hasn't arrived yet." Li Lianying hastily said.

  Cixi sneered, and then these old women began to think wildly. This kind of clever person generally easily falls into this bad habit. Put nicely, it's called seeing the subtle and knowing the grand; put not so nicely, it's called being suspicious and doubting ghosts. Now she couldn't possibly think that Jingxin was forced to eat a bellyful of silk floss and didn't want to continue eating anymore, so he did this.

  Someone as clever as her would first consider the standpoint of the memorial, this person is a member of the royal family, a true Aixinjueluo Huangdai Zi, but now the Huangdai Zi is no longer valuable, so it can be said that his birth is not high. It can be said that he rose to prominence on his own, from being a pen holder in the Guangxu dynasty to becoming the Minister of War, and it's not like he would betray himself, but now this situation is hard to say. This person's heart is the most changeable, especially since the emperor is young, everyone can't help but think about the future.

  She couldn't help but sigh at this thought, age was her own Achilles' heel, after all, she had already passed sixty years old. Even if she wanted to live for another twenty years, she would still have to hand over power eventually, and that was the greatest confidence of those people in the Imperial Party. She raised her head to look at the colorful phoenix presented by the King of Ryukyu not far away, the sunlight outside shining on its body made of colorful gems. It looked dazzlingly beautiful, but how many more years could she maintain her own radiance?

  But immediately her eyes flashed fiercely, thinking of plotting against me? Dare to make me unhappy for a moment, I'll make you unhappy for a lifetime.

  At this time, the old ladies were still thinking wildly about nothing, but Li Hongzhang was laughing so hard that he was holding his belly. He really didn't expect Yang Feng to be such a good player, ruthless and cunning, with a big appetite for risk, and more importantly, daring to think big. Thinking of himself, Li Ergouzi found that as a person of the same kind, he had indeed lived a bit too humbly in recent years.

  Yang Feng forced Jing Xin to eat the sacred decree. This matter can deceive others, but it is impossible to deceive him. Whether it was Xu Bangdao or Deng Shichang on the Zhongyuan ship, they all had wireless telegraph machines that could contact him directly. They would naturally report such important matters to him at the fastest speed. Moreover, Yang Feng did not prohibit them from doing so. This guy just wanted to lead a bad head among these Han generals, letting them know that the imperial court was nothing but a pile of dog shit. As long as their interests were affected, any means were possible, including rebellion.

  "It's just that after this letter of respect comes back, I'm afraid Yang Feng won't have a good ending." Sheng Xuanhuai said from the side.

  "Respectfully?" Li Hongzhang said with a cold smile: "He won't be able to come back, never mind. Let's help Yang Feng for now and see how this little guy continues to play out this big show. Send a telegram to Ding Yutian using wireless telegraphy, have him find an excuse to immediately call Deng Zhengqing back, and don't notify Jingxin, just have him return directly. As for the rest, we won't interfere."

  "Huh? The Zhī Yuǎn has left?" When Mr. Yang learned that the Zhī Yuǎn had set sail overnight and left Tokyo Bay to return home, he was slightly surprised, but immediately understood Li Hongzhang's intention. This was to tell himself that since he had done such a thing, he might as well do it thoroughly, and quickly get rid of this person, Rong Lu. It was just a matter of playing the role well, without revealing his true intentions. Of course, this problem wasn't difficult to solve; with only a few people isolated in the tiger's den, how hard could it be to manipulate them?

  But in this regard, Li Hongzhang really measured the gentleman's belly with a small person's heart. Someone like Yang Da Boss couldn't do such a thing as killing and silencing people. In fact, he originally planned to let Jingxin and his party inspect the front line when they suddenly came under Japanese artillery fire and were killed, and then send the survivors to an Australian mine to spend their later years. Of course, Li Ergui's reminder did not change the course of the story, and Jingxin's fate was still fulfilled according to this script, which is a trivial matter not worth mentioning.

  The news of Guangxu sending his Minister of War, Jingxin, to Tokyo to comfort the front-line troops sparked a new wave of pro-war sentiment at home, especially among the Qing officials and scholars. Under the guidance of Weng Tonghe, they wrote extensively about Guangxu's actions, portraying him as a wise and enlightened ruler. Little did they know that this "wise ruler" was actually hiding in his palace, trembling with fear like a dog with its tail between its legs.

  He's really suffered an undeserved calamity this time, and he can't argue his way out of it. Jingxin's actions in Tokyo are like a basin of cold water poured over his head; now his mind is filled with the ferocious face of his father.

  Looking like a quail huddled on the couch, Guangxu, even a great Confucian scholar like Weng Tonghe couldn't help but want to go over and kick him and scold his mother. What a good opportunity this is! Although this opportunity came in a somewhat strange way, it was a real opportunity to get rid of that old witch's claws. As long as Guangxu said one sentence to stop the negotiations at the early court meeting, he would immediately gain the support of the people.

  What's more important is that they will also get the support of frontline generals. What can be relied on to fight for power, even Master Lianyong himself knows that no matter how well an article is written, it can't compare to a Mauser gun. As long as there is military support, wanting to drive Cixi to the Yiheyuan and encircle her would still be easy.

  "Your Majesty, this humble official thinks that it was also in Tokyo where Yang's army was strong and powerful, enough to sweep across Japan. He couldn't bear to abandon this good opportunity, so he temporarily concealed the imperial edict. Although his actions were not proper, as the saying goes, 'a general on the outside has things that he cannot accept from the ruler', it precisely shows his talent for responding to changing circumstances."

  "This move, the whole country was stirred up, and even the various generals in Liaodong, also repeatedly petitioned the court to stop peace talks and regroup for another battle. Even Liu Kun's veteran generals on the battlefield said that within two months, they could capture Shan Xian and present him as a prisoner at the imperial court. At this time, Your Majesty should issue another edict to encourage Yang Feng and his four generals to continue their efforts. In this way, the whole country would be grateful for the wisdom of our great emperor."

  "But this matter of making peace is the will of the Empress Dowager, how can I go against it? Moreover, the mausoleums of our ancestors Taizu and Taizong are also in the hands of the Japanese. If they were to be disturbed, with what face could I meet our ancestral spirits?" Guangxu said weakly.

  "Your Majesty, you are the Emperor, you have already taken control of the government, why must you always listen to the Empress Dowager?" Zhenfei said discontentedly from the side.

  "This is a matter of national importance, you are just a woman and don't need to interfere!" Guangxu glared at her.

  Zhen Fei hummed and turned her head away.

  "Your Majesty, the matter of the Taizu and Taizong mausoleums is not difficult to resolve. Since General Yang has already captured the Japanese imperial capital, their imperial mausoleum must also be under his control. Your Majesty can draft an edict ordering him to also place explosives in the Japanese imperial mausoleum. If they blow up our imperial mausoleum, we will also blow up theirs. In this way, the Japanese will certainly not dare to move." Weng Shifu said confidently, unaware that the first Japanese emperor buried in Tokyo had not yet ascended to the throne.

  However, this countermeasure is entirely feasible. The Japanese imperial mausoleums are scattered all over the place, with the most concentrated in Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara. There's no need to go anywhere else. Yang Feng can just occupy Osaka and then tell the Japanese people to demolish the tomb of Emperor Nintoku, to see where this guy is really from. I reckon Yamagata Aritomo will have to carefully consider whether he should blow up the tomb of the wild boar skin.

  Unfortunately, if it weren't for this incident, Boss Yang might have had the interest to do so. Besides, there must be many good things inside the Japanese imperial mausoleum. But now with this incident, he has no interest in doing this job at all. He would rather have Yamagata Aritomo burn the wild boar skin to ashes right now.

  Of course, Master Weng and Guangxu did not know about this. The lovely puppy, under the encouragement of his teacher and wife, finally made up his mind to write a decree for Yang Feng. However, it was a secret decree. Since it was a secret decree, Master Weng no longer expected anything else. This secret decree was handed over by one of Master Weng's family members to the manager of the Russian firm Boguslavsky, O'Connor, and then passed on to his boss.

  Just as this secret edict was being taken to Tianjin and then transferred to the cruiser Fei Ying, which had been specially dispatched to receive it, War Minister Jingxin finally completed his historical mission.

  "What? Zengqi is dead?" Cixi was stunned by this news again.

  "The Empress Dowager, according to the report of Taiwan's Governor Yang Feng, Jingxin was killed by a cannonball while visiting the front lines because his official uniform was too conspicuous. As a result, he died under the cannonballs, and all those who followed him were also killed, with no bodies remaining, only a blood-stained official hat was retrieved." Guizi Liu said expressionlessly, Shizeng had to return home due to sudden illness, so he temporarily took over as the acting head of the military affairs department.

  Cixi was really confused, the death of Jingxin must have been problematic. It's not necessary to say that there is no such coincidence, all the followers died together. But if it was Yang Feng who did it, then the previous things couldn't be explained. At this moment, even her strong mind, which had been tempered in the political struggle, was confused.