The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 653 Changes in the situation
In the separate cabin of the airship, although the portholes were covered with dark blue gauze curtains, the strong sunlight still stubbornly penetrated through the curtains, shrouding the cabin in a somewhat hazy blue light.

The cabin still contained the same people as before, but the atmosphere was unusually dull.

Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang were both leaning back on the sofa, seemingly thinking about something silently. Only occasionally would they raise their heads slightly and glance at Teng Yuzhao, who was pacing slowly and expressionlessly in the small cabin.

However, the looks of the two were very different.

There was a gleam of light in Yang Shixiang's eyes, while there was more heaviness in Xu Shichang's eyes.

Wei Jinghai stood alone in front of the wall panel on one side of the cabin, carefully examining a large-scale map of the country's provinces hanging on the wall. Occasionally, he would reach out and gesture on the map.

This map is not very accurate, but it is the most modern map in the country at that time. It was jointly surveyed and mapped by students of the Beiyang Military Academy and the Beiyang Railway Administration after the war, in the name of finding possible routes for the construction of railways in various provinces in the future.

Although Duan Qirui was sitting on a soft sofa, his body was still straight, but his brows were furrowed. He stared at the cup of long-cold coffee on the low table in front of him, motionless.

If someone paid attention to Duan Qirui's eyes at this time, they would find that his gaze seemed a little dazed and the expression on his face was changing, as if he was making a difficult decision in his heart.

Tang Shaoyi, who was sitting at the very edge, had an expression very different from everyone else's.

Not only was there a flash of excitement in Tang Shaoyi's eyes, but his entire body seemed to give people a feeling of being eager to try, as if he was anxious to get something he had long dreamed of.

Tang Shaoyi looked at Teng Yuzhao for a while, then at the several folded telegram drafts on the low table, and he was so restless that he almost jumped up at any time.

Tang Shaoyi wanted to speak several times, but when he saw that Yang Shixiang, Xu Shichang, and even Wei Jinghai did not speak, Tang Shaoyi finally suppressed his restlessness.

Only Ye Zugui was calm and composed. Although his expression was a little solemn, he actually took two bottles of beer and opened them. Not only did he sip them himself, he also poured a glass for Teng Yuzhao.

After breakfast today, everyone was first taken to the aircraft manufacturing plant to see the type of enclosed aircraft that Feng Ru mentioned in his report last night.

Although Teng Yuzao and Wei Jinghai were very interested in the plane with fan blades on its head, the others were not very interested. They still did not quite understand how such a plane which was only two meters long, could only carry one person and had two wings called wings could really serve the purpose of hiding.

Because in their opinion, its wings, which were tied together with thin steel cables, did not look strong. If it really flew into the sky, it seemed that it would be easily blown away by a gust of wind.

Teng Yuzao looked at the plane very carefully and even discussed technical issues with Feng Ru, Li Ruyan and others for a long time, such as how to better reduce wind resistance and how to make the plane more stable and more flexible in the air.

There were also words like cruising speed, climbing speed, ammunition load, etc. that they didn't quite understand. They even found that some of the words that their commander-in-chief suddenly said made Feng Ru, Li Ruyan, White Hyde and others confused for a moment, and then they would discuss with their commander-in-chief with greater interest.

Finally, after encouraging a group of engineers, Teng Yuzao instructed Feng Ru to seize the time and organize all the personnel to perfect the aircraft as soon as possible and develop a prototype by March next year at the latest.

It was even suggested that the weight of the bombs dropped by this aircraft should not be less than 100 kilograms.

Afterwards, he was taken by Teng Yubin, Feng Ru and others to an airport specially used for airplane takeoffs to watch the planes flying.

The airplane shown to them was somewhat different from the one that was being built, and even seemed to them to be more crude or uglier, because it was almost entirely tied together with ropes and thin steel cables.

However, after Feng Ru climbed into the cockpit of the plane and started it with a "buzzing" sound, the so-called planes made of iron sheets and wooden boards tied together glided for a distance on the airport, then took off with Feng Ru on board and began to fly flexibly hundreds of meters in the air, which made several people exclaim in amazement.

Especially when Teng Yuzao told them that this aircraft would be able to fly at a height comparable to that of an airship in the future, and at a speed dozens or even hundreds of times faster than an airship, and could even drop bombs from it, they began to really take it seriously and understood why Teng Yuzao attached great importance to this aircraft.

Even the thought of planes dropping bombs on each other's heads during a battle between two armies made them both surprised and excited.

But just when everyone was in high spirits, Teng Yuzhao began to receive several urgent telegrams from the Tianjin Zhili Army Staff Headquarters one after another.

Each of these telegrams was quite long, some were even two pages long. These telegrams were sent directly to their airships, and the people who sent them were the confidential staff officers of the General Staff.

Although Teng Yuzhao's expression remained unchanged after reading the telegram, he simply put the telegram into his pocket and did not let anyone see it, not even Wei Jinghai.

But everyone still found some clues from the tense face of the confidential staff officer, that is, something extremely serious must have happened.

Afterwards, after inspecting the living environment of these engineers and the flight team at the Zhangbei base, he instructed Teng Yubin to let his flight team members familiarize themselves with flying as soon as possible and temporarily conduct training flights with the aircraft that had just flown.

After doing all this calmly, Teng Yuzao told Teng Yubin, Feng Ru and Li Ruyan that he would return to Tianjin immediately. Teng Yuzao did not explain much to Teng Yubin, who was full of doubts, and did not even eat lunch. He just picked out a few cooked meals from the lunch that had been prepared for them and took everyone directly to the airship.

On the airship, Teng Yuzhao took out the telegrams he had received and let everyone read them. Then, everyone's good mood instantly fell to the bottom.

The contents of these telegrams were not only extremely important to Teng Yuzao, but also extremely serious to those who finally supported or depended on Teng Yuzao.

The telegrams were sent not only from Li Yaoting, but also from Yang Shiqi and Li Yulin in Tianjin.

Teng Yuzao and Wei Jinghai both knew that Li Yaoting rushed to Hankou by airship on the day Cixi left Beijing. And according to what Li Yaoting said in the telegram, Cixi arrived in Hankou eight days ago with her entourage, including Zai Yi, Zhao Shuchi and other ministers who were close to Teng Yuzao.

Cixi also met with the British Consul in Hankou, Mr. Frederick, who came to visit her in Hankou, and then rushed to the Jingmen Palace.

Except for Duan Qirui, everyone else had already known about Cixi's arrival at the Jingmen Palace. However, it was the first time they heard about Cixi's meeting with the British Consul Frederick. As for what they talked about, they had no idea.

However, the news that Li Yaoting said in this telegram made everyone look serious, and the content of the following telegram began to surprise these people.

Li Yaoting reported that he discovered last night that Yikuang and dozens of court ministers, who had originally stayed in the capital to preside over court affairs, suddenly appeared in the Jingmen Palace.

According to investigation, Yikuang and others got off the train in Xinyang and took a horse carriage from there to Jingmen.

The Security Department's personnel in the capital have now found out that the main officials of the six ministries of the court have all left the capital and rushed to Jingmen. These people should have disguised themselves and rushed to Zhuozhou by carriage and then boarded the train, so the people in the Security Department did not notice it.

Nowadays, almost all officials above the third rank in Beijing have gathered in Jingmen. In other words, it can be said that the entire imperial court has now moved to Jingmen.

At 8 o'clock this morning, a decree was issued in the name of Guangxu, which stated that in order to comply with public opinion and implement constitutional government as soon as possible, Yikuang was appointed as temporary prime minister and a cabinet was formed as soon as possible. The first prime minister Yikuang would solicit opinions from all parties as soon as possible and nominate the next prime minister.

The British Minister to Japan, Sir Thomas Sartorius, and the Japanese Minister to Japan, Keishiro Matsui, were appointed as advisors on the implementation of constitutional reform.

At the same time, Beizi Fu Lun was appointed as the president of the Council of State, and Sun Jianai was appointed as the vice president, to preside over the preparation of the Council of State Affairs of each province and the formulation of the charter for the election of provincial legislators.

British Consul in Hankou, Robert Fries, and Japanese Consul in Hankou, Yukichi Mizuno, both issued statements on behalf of Sadaoyi and Keishiro Matsui, stating that the British and Japanese envoys to Qing Dynasty accepted the appointment of the Qing Emperor, and at the same time expressed support for the implementation of constitutional government in Qing Dynasty on behalf of the British Empire and the Empire of Japan.

Fu Leis also stated that in order to express support for the Qing court, the British Empire's Far East Fleet has begun to gather along the coast of Qing Dynasty. It will make every effort to maintain the security and stability of the Qing Dynasty's coastal areas and the Yangtze River waters, safeguard the interests of the British Empire in Qing Dynasty, and will never allow anyone to undermine the safety of navigation.

Since the Security Department was aware of the above incidents only later, it was guilty of negligence, and Li Yaoting also asked Teng Yuzhao to punish him.

Li Yaoting also reported that Yuan Shikai led the three former Henan Army troops and arrived in Hankou by train seven days ago. On the same day, they boarded tugboats, barges, passenger ships and even warships that the British seemed to have prepared long ago, crossed the river overnight and rushed south.

Now, Cao Kun's troops have already entered Hengyang, Chenzhou, Yongzhou and other prefectures and counties in southern Hunan. The vanguards of Wang Shizhen and Wu Fengling's troops led by Yuan Shikai have also reached Shaoguan. It should be certain that their destination is Guangdong and Guangxi.

The two Shuntian armies led by Liangbi had all arrived in Hubei Province five days ago. One of the armies was stationed in the prefectures and counties in northern Hunan with Changsha as the center, and the other remained in Hubei.

It was also reported that Tie Liang led a group of people from the Army Department, as well as the former Henan Army and Shuntian Army units stationed in Shuntian Prefecture, all left their bases early this morning.

At the same time, since 21:00 last night, the Shuntian Army has successively detained several passenger and freight trains passing through Shuntian Prefecture. Even the coal-carrying trains from Tianjin to Zhangjiakou were detained and controlled. All of them were used by them to transport troops to Huguang.

He Zonglian's troops of the former Henan Army stationed in Fengtai and Wang Yingkai's troops stationed in Zhuozhou also left their bases.

After the two groups met in Zhuozhou, they headed westward on foot. As of the time of generation, the two groups had reached Laishui and were marching towards Yi County. Judging from their direction, they seemed to be planning to enter Shanxi via Zijing Pass.

Wu Changchun's former Henan Army was retreating towards Xinyang, and Wu Changchun himself had already arrived in Xinyang.

Yang Shiqi said in the telegram that since last night, the Shuntian Army not only detained train vehicles passing along the way south of Majiabao, but also took the opportunity to control all stations along the way while the Shuntian Army was traveling south. At Majiabao and major stations such as Baoding, Zhengzhou, and Handan, they also exchanged fire with station patrol police, resulting in casualties.

Finally, Yang Shiqi asked Teng Yuzhao to return to Tianjin as soon as possible to take charge of the overall situation.

The telegram sent by Li Yulin said that part of the Shuntian Army attacked the Baoding Arsenal and had a fierce exchange of fire with the escort team. Both sides not only used machine guns, but also carried out artillery attacks. Due to the strong firepower of the escort team, the Shuntian Army withdrew to the south after an hour.

(End of this chapter)