The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 923 Tang Dynasty Yuan Shikai Silver Dollar

Orlov Palace, St. Petersburg.

Morning light filtered through the lace curtains, casting dappled patterns on the gilded dressing table. Countess Olga Alexandrovna Orlova reclined in her carved chair, an ivory comb lazily tracing her cascading blonde hair, her voluptuous curves subtly revealed beneath her silk nightgown with each movement. Suddenly hearing the creak of the canopy bed behind her, she turned and smiled, her Russian laced with a honeyed sweetness: "My dear Yuan, the Tsar's summons won't wait until you've finished your morning tea."

On the bed, Yuan Shikai sat up with a jolt, his hair loosely hanging down his neck. His short, stocky frame was wrapped in a Tang-style silk-cotton nightgown embroidered with dragon patterns, making him look like a startled bear. He squinted at the French clock—the hands were nearing nine o'clock—and suddenly blurted out in a Henan-accented Russian, "Big sister! Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

Olga covered her mouth and chuckled, tapping his round nose with her fingertip: "Last night you said, 'Even if the Winter Palace collapses, don't stop,' and now you're blaming me?" Seeing Yuan Shikai hurriedly putting on his new dark blue woolen military uniform, she suddenly stopped smiling, a probing look appearing in her emerald eyes, "Minister Wu Changqing has already drunk three cups of tea in the side hall... Did the Tsar summon you today because of the Taiping Army's cannon fire in the Pacific, or the cargo boxes being transported to the East from the Berlin cellars?"

Yuan Shikai's hand, which was fastening the knotted buttons, paused for a moment.

This woman was a notorious "two-faced rose" in St. Petersburg—ostensibly the widow of a favorite of the Tsar, but secretly a go-between for Empress Mathilde in Paris and Red France. Her advances last night were a ploy to extract information from him!
“Madam is joking,” he grinned, revealing his white teeth, his Henan dialect mixed with Russian words coming out awkwardly. “We in the Great Tang have always been fair in doing business. Germany’s embargo on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? That was just to fool the British, everyone knows that!”

Olga chuckled, her jade-like feet stepping onto the Persian carpet, and slapped a sealed letter with sealing wax onto his chest: "The Berlin bank's transaction records don't lie... Last year, four thousand tons of Krupp steel and three hundred Zeiss scopes were transshipped through the Tang Dynasty's ports—my dear Colonel Yuan, your 'middleman' profits are enough to buy half of Nevsky Prospekt, aren't they? If this telegram gets to the British, how will you explain it?"

Yuan Shikai's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

This woman has even figured out the transit weighing slip! He, however, wore a simple, honest smile, his thumb rubbing the edge of the secret letter: "What does Madam want? Just say it!"

“Simple,” Olga’s red lips brushed against his ear, her breath hot, “I just want to know how many more days the jackals of Berlin can act as watchdogs for the British in Europe? I need a specific date, the agreement between Berlin and Tianjing!”

Yuan Shikai was taken aback, his small eyes darting around before he understood. It turned out that Germany and Russia wanted the Tang Dynasty to help them contact the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for peace talks! He nodded: "Very well! I'll try to find out, but I can't do it for nothing."

Olga chuckled softly: "You'll definitely get your share!"

The long corridors of the Winter Palace were shrouded in dark clouds.

As Yuan Shikai hunched over, receiving a scolding, Wu Changqing, the Tang Dynasty's Special Envoy to Russia, spoke in Anhui dialect that sounded like a file scraping iron: "You scoundrel! You dare to be late for an audience with the Tsar! Which countess's skirt did you sneak under last night?"

"Uncle, you've been wronged!" Yuan Shikai said with a grin, taking his old superior's arm and lowering his voice, "We've heard some big news—the Germans and the Russians want our Great Tang to act as a middleman and secretly make peace with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

Wu Changqing stopped in his tracks, his eagle-like eyes piercing him: "Where did you get this information?"

“Olga said it herself!” Yuan Shikai pointed his thumb toward the Orlov Palace behind him. “This woman is scouting for the French, and the Tsar probably tacitly approves… Uncle, the Russians are probably going to join forces with the Germans to overturn the table! But when that table can be overturned depends on a good discussion with the Heavenly Kingdom in the east! And once that table is overturned, the German army will definitely march into French soil!”

Wu Changqing stroked his gray beard and looked at the gilded gate ahead.

Outside the gate stood menacing Cossack guards, while inside was the Winter Palace audience hall, where a Russian bear, capable of giving the Tang Dynasty of Central Asia a run for its money, sat on the throne!
“Remember this,” he gripped Yuan Shikai’s wrist tightly, “when you meet the Tsar later, if he asks about our role as middlemen for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, you absolutely must not admit it!”

"I know!" Yuan Shikai said with a grin. "It can be done, but you can't keep your mouth shut; only then can the business last!"

Wu Changqing lowered his voice: "It's not a matter of buying and selling, it's a matter of lives. The British have suffered a huge loss, and if they want to pursue the matter, we can't afford to bear the consequences! Moreover, we're acting as middlemen for the Germans and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom through Tsarist Russia's territory. You don't really think that the Russo-German friendship can last, do you?"

Yuan Shikai shrank back, realizing the seriousness of the problem.

Audience Hall.

Alexander III sat regally on his golden throne, the back of which was covered with snow leopard skin, making him resemble a brown bear draped in gold. To his left, Foreign Minister Giles darted about, while to his right, Field Marshal Milyutin stood ramrod straight as a spear.

"Minister Wu," the Tsar's voice was deep and rumbling, "the Taiping Army sank five British battleships on Saipan... I heard that the sighting and aiming equipment they used was full of Zeiss parts, all of which you resold?"

His words were translated into Chinese by Yuan Shikai, who had studied in Russia, and relayed to Wu Changqing. Wu Changqing bowed respectfully, speaking in his steady Anhui Mandarin: "Our country's merchants occasionally purchase some German machinery, but I do not know its purpose! If Your Majesty suspects anything about the Tang Dynasty..." He suddenly pointed to Yuan Shikai, "This man is the grandson of Yuan Shikai, the military governor of Dingxi in the Tang Dynasty, and is most knowledgeable about foreign affairs—Your Majesty may ask him!"

Yuan Shikai cursed the old fox inwardly, but on the surface he appeared innocent and amiable: "Long live the Tsar! Our merchants occasionally buy some of the Germans' outdated goods, which are all second- or third-hand items. We don't know who they resell them to."

Field Marshal Milyutin suddenly sneered: "You think you can sink the Trafalgar with outdated equipment?"

Yuan Shikai laughed and said, "Marshal, how do you know exactly what method the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom used to sink the British warship? I've heard that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's battleships all had witches who knew magic!"

The Russian Army Minister scoffed: "Colonel Yuan, those Daimler gasoline engines that Berlin shipped to Samarkand last year—they weren't exactly meant for pulling camel carts, were they?"

The hall was deathly silent.

Yuan Shikai broke out in a cold sweat on the back of his neck—these Daimler gasoline engines were mainly used on airships, and the Tang Dynasty had no need for them! Just as he was racking his brains for an explanation, a bell suddenly rang outside the hall.

"It's noon," Alexander III abruptly ended the sentence, his gold ring clanging against the armrest, "I'm hungry!"

Milyutin knew the Tsar didn't want him to continue questioning—what if he found out something? But he hadn't intended to find out anything anyway; he just wanted to test how tight Yuan Shikai's tongue was. He was the one to mediate the collusion between Russia, Germany, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!

"Tell Li Hongzhang—" The Tsar's bear-like eyes swept over Wu and Yuan, "Which of you can make a trip to the new Chang'an for me and tell Li Hongzhang to help me contact that heavenly kingdom in the East with Kaiser Wilhelm!"

Yuan Shikai's pupils contracted.

The Russians and Germans genuinely wanted to make peace with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
They even wanted the Tang Dynasty to act as the middleman!
“Your Majesty,” Yuan Shikai immediately stepped forward, bowed, and said, “I am willing to make a trip to the new Chang’an for Your Majesty!”

Yuan Shikai fastened the last brass button of his new dark blue military uniform, his gaze sweeping over his short, stocky reflection in the mirror—his hair was now neatly styled again, only a red mark on his neck betraying the absurdity of the previous night. As he turned, Olga was slipping an enamel-inlaid pocket watch into his breast pocket, her Russian syllables sweet as honey: "The bankers in St. Petersburg can't wait any longer; they all want this news!"

“Don’t worry, elder sister,” Yuan Shikai grinned, speaking in a mix of Henan dialect and Russian words, “I’m going to the new Chang’an this time, and I’ll definitely find out the length of the German Emperor’s ‘dog leash’!” He suddenly leaned closer to the dressing table, the bronze mirror reflecting their overlapping faces, “But you have to tell me the truth—aren’t the People’s Commissars in Paris craning their necks, eager to know when the Germans will launch a surprise attack on them?”

Olga's ivory comb snapped in two with a "crack".

The pair of emerald eyes reflected in the mirror suddenly turned cold: "Colonel Yuan, some things can't be said carelessly, or they can kill people!"

“Sister,” he suddenly turned around, his Henan dialect shattering the room’s ostentatious atmosphere, “how did you, a Russian noblewoman, become a spy for those ‘workers and laborers’ in Paris?”

“Colonel Yuan, do you think I’m one of those red-flag-waving workers’ association thugs?” Countess Ogalova abruptly ripped open the velvet curtains, the Winter Palace double-headed eagle emblem fluttering in the wind. “Look at those eagle eyes! One is staring at Constantinople, and the other—” her gilded fingernail suddenly pointed westward, “is glaring intently at the west!”

Yuan Shikai squinted. Across the Neva River, the tricolor flag of the "White France" embassy fluttered in the cold wind atop its roof. "In 1812, Napoleon's army burned Moscow," Olga's voice suddenly took on a profound historical weight, "but if today Wilhelm II were to raze Paris to the ground..." She turned and stared intently at Yuan Shikai, "Would the iron cavalry of Germany spare the rich lands of Russia?"

Yuan Shikai suddenly sneered: "It seems that what the lady fears is not the red flag, but the German Emperor's black eagle flag flying all over Europe?"

“Napoleon almost unified Europe back then, but it was our Tsar, in alliance with Britain, who buried him on Saint Helena,” Olga said softly. “Now the Kaiser wants to be the new Napoleon, can the Tsar tolerate it? But there are some things… His Majesty cannot say himself!”

Yuan Shikai suddenly understood.

This woman was not a pro-French sympathizer at all; she was the Tsar's spy hidden in the gossip! Russia wanted to use Germany to seize Constantinople, but it would never allow Germany to dominate Western Europe—just as Alexander III tacitly allowed her to contact French and Soviet influence, in fact, to build a bridge of communication between Russia and France.

"Don't worry, elder sister!" Yuan Shikai clasped his hands in a fist salute. "Once I've found out the details, I'll send you a telegram as soon as possible!"

(End of this chapter)