Master Yuan, start!

Explosives disguised as kettles.

In the original time and space, Sanzo Tsuda slashed at Nicholas with a samurai sword, leaving only a 9cm shallow wound on his head.

With the help of explosives, Sanzo Tsuda, who was on guard security, threw a kettle, killing Prince George of Greece who was traveling with Nicholas on the spot, and also overturned Nicholas' rickshaw.

Fortunately, although Nicholas was injured, his life was saved, but Prince George of Greece went to see Jesus.

The next day, Emperor Meiji boarded a Russian warship anchored in Kobe Port alone to personally comfort Nicholas.

The Japanese government was also extremely shocked by this incident and cooperated with the investigation to capture the criminal.

Of course, Japan took many actions in response to the assassination, but at this time, Yuan Shikai was more concerned about what the French were going to do.

After receiving such explosive news, the state meeting was naturally suspended, and the envoys of the three countries hurried back to the embassy to learn the latest information.

Naturally, discussions also took place on this aspect of the Qing court.

Weng Tong looked at the foreigner's back as he walked away, his eyes full of worry. He turned around and looked at Yuan Shikai, wondering how he planned to deal with the French threats.

After a while, Weng Tong said to Yuan Xiangcheng in a very stern tone: "Sir Yuan, why do you insist on offending the French?"

"Sir Weng, the French are worried that the imperial court will take Taiwan back, so they came to us to accuse us. I must have offended them first."

"Sir, that's how foreigners are." Yuan Xiangcheng couldn't say he was from the future and was used to the extreme pressure tactics of European and American countries, so he could only explain: "The French are powerful on the outside but weak on the inside. Now facing the renewed threat from Germany, they will definitely not dare to start a large-scale war in the East."

"Why are you so sure, Mr. Yuan?" Guangxu interrupted. "Why do you say Germany will threaten France now? Hasn't it threatened France before?"

Shi Duo, Li Hongzao, Pan Zuyin, Xu Gengshen and others also watched from the side, wanting to see what Yuan Xiangcheng would say.

Everyone present was not a fool. If they could fight, they would naturally not choose to surrender on their own initiative, but the pressure from the French was too great.

People who don’t know the truth may think that the French are nothing special, but they are all key ministers and know how Yuan Shikai was able to defeat the French last time.

Courbet led his troops north and fought all the way to Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Dengzhou, Lushun, Tianjin, and Beijing. Due to his underestimation of the enemy, his advance too deep, and the hot weather, he was eventually ambushed by Yuan Shikai from behind and took advantage of the situation.

Even with the advantage of time, place and people, more than half of the five armies of Jiashen were killed or wounded, and only less than 4 were left out of more than 2 soldiers, while their opponent was just a hastily organized French army.

This French army was able to reach the capital with only a few thousand French soldiers and Vietnamese. Now, five years have passed, and Badno claims that he will send 5 pure French soldiers to teach the Qing Dynasty a lesson. How can they not be afraid?

"Peace between France and Germany depends entirely on one man," Yuan Xiangcheng pointed a finger at the recently dismissed German Chancellor, Bismarck.

Under the gaze of the crowd, Yuan Xiangcheng talked about the importance of Bismarck in maintaining peace between Germany and France and Germany and Russia.

Although Bismarck was warlike, he would always make diplomatic preparations for every war and would not fight a meaningless battle. In order to consolidate the security of the eastern and western fronts, he also signed a reinsurance treaty with Russia to deal with the threat from France.

However, William II, who had just ascended the throne of Germany, was dissatisfied with Bismarck's various constraints on him, so he dismissed him in 1890. The reinsurance treaty with Russia also became invalid and was not renewed. He was still preparing for war on the border, as if to restart the war.

In order to deal with the German threat, the French would certainly not be able to devote too much energy to the Far East. If they were caught in a protracted war in China, the Germans would take advantage of the situation.

This explanation gave all the ministers a rough understanding of France's international environment, and finally no one had any objections to Yuan Shikai's tough attitude.

But Li Hongzao immediately raised another question: "What is this so-called bonded area you mentioned earlier? Isn't it selling out the sovereignty of the Qing Dynasty?"

"This is Xiangcheng's precautionary measure. The Southern Governor is in a great position, and the imperial court may find it difficult to control him. The root of his resistance to the imperial court lies in this money." Yuan Xiangcheng counted on his fingers:

"Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Shanghai are prosperous places with numerous commercial towns, and looking back to the north, only Tianjin can rival them.

Although there are Ningbo, Quanzhou, Xiamen, and Jiangsu prefectures in the south, there seems to be no other place in the north except Tianjin that can be as prosperous in business.

The annual customs duties of Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang combined amounted to tens of millions of taels, while the customs in the north collected only a few million taels at most.

That is why Xiangcheng proposed to establish a bonded zone to boost northern commerce and generate revenue for the imperial court.

Yuan Xiangcheng made these remarks in a very logical manner and used data to support his argument, demonstrating his immense love for the Qing Dynasty and the imperial court.

Guangxu listened carefully and stopped the others from asking Yuan Xiangcheng any more questions: "Master Yuan, I already know what you said. Just let it go."

Master Yuan?

Hearing this, Weng Tong couldn't help but twitch his mouth, feeling that his position as the imperial teacher was in jeopardy.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." With someone backing him up, Yuan Xiangcheng was of course happy and at ease.

On the second day, the envoys gathered in Ziguang Pavilion again, but this time the German envoy did not come. It was said that he had to communicate the situation with his country, so he did not come. Only the French and British were left.

Yuan Xiangcheng immediately proposed a condition that the French could not agree to: "Send the evil queen and the false emperor back to the capital, and all customs duties will be handled by the Beijing government!"

"That's impossible, General Yuan, you're kidding me." Badno's beard puffed up with anger. "If that's the case, let the 3 French Far East soldiers come and negotiate."

"Okay, then," Yuan Xiangcheng directly agreed with Badno's statement, and at the same time pretended to remind him, "However, His Majesty William II is considering visiting London. If France started a war in the Far East at this time, he would surely be very happy."

The two of them were at loggerheads, and eventually the threat of war came to a head. Even though the ministers around them had been warned against this, they were still frightened.

This is a serious move of not making concessions to foreigners. Can it really work?

Guangxu just felt restless in his heart. Under Yuan Shikai's repeated guidance, he was not afraid of going to war with the foreigners.

Upon hearing this, the British Minister Eugene couldn't help but look at Yuan Shikai.

It seems that I have underestimated this governor. How could he know so much about the situation in Europe?

Badno, who was beside Eugen, also had this thought at the first time. How could there be someone in the backward East who was so familiar with the European situation?

But the next moment, Badno felt insulted and threatened, a naked threat.

However, after his rage, Badnow had to calm down. Having experienced the Franco-Prussian War and watched Napoleon III's crown fall to the ground, Badnow did not dare to gamble.

What Yuan Xiangcheng said was true. At that time, Germany's newly appointed Prime Minister Leo von Caprivi was keen to establish friendship with Britain.

Of course, the end result was failure.

However, apart from Yuan Shikai, no one could be sure that the contact between Britain and Germany would fail. After all, European countries had too much experience in fighting and making peace.

6Does Badno dare to gamble?

6 Britain and Germany attacked from land and sea respectively, and the reappearance of the anti-French alliance seemed to be imminent.

As Shanbadeno's confidence weakened, Eugen stepped forward decisively to smooth things over.

Four Eugen knew that London had been in close contact with Berlin recently, and was willing to do the Germans a favor and take advantage of France, its "century-old neighbor."

"Tariffs can be negotiated, but the Empress Dowager and Emperor Baoqing will never send it back!" Badno insisted.

2 However, this hit the nail on the head for the ministers present. In their view, the status of the monarch and his subjects was more important than anything else. If the Qing Dynasty still had two emperors, wouldn't it be chaos?

"How can one country have two masters? Minister Badno, our Qing Dynasty will never agree to such conditions." Weng Tong was the first to express his opposition.

Li Hongzao, Pan Zuyin and others also expressed their disagreement.

However, Yuan Shikai did not make any more strong rebuttals, which made the ministers who had spoken just now feel a little guilty.

What's going on? Aren't you quite capable?

Yuan Shikai naturally did not have such good intentions. Everything he did was to weaken the power of the Qing court and strengthen himself.

He thought it was good to have two emperors coexisting, as long as he could get the tariffs. Otherwise, there was no guarantee that Guangxu would not be honest after he took power.

With Emperor Baoqing in the south to restrain Guangxu, Yuan Xiangcheng felt that he could now farm in peace in the northeast.

However, seeing Guangxu looking at him with some doubt, Yuan Xiangcheng decided to perform something.

"Your Majesty, anyone with a discerning eye can tell who is real and who is fake. Even if we let that fake emperor stay in the south, he is nothing more than another long-haired man." Yuan Xiangcheng said to Guangxu with a firm look in his eyes:

"The Queen's act of betraying our ancestors by joining the foreigners is no different from being a traitor to the nation.

"Mr. Zeng Wenzheng took ten years to quell the Jiangning uprising. Your Majesty, I swear an oath to train a hundred thousand elite soldiers within five years, march south, pacify the nine provinces, and bring the false emperor to the Forbidden City."

Hearing Yuan Xiangcheng's implicit agreement to the coexistence of two emperors, Weng Tong was the first to object: "No!"

"I would like to ask everyone to leave and speak alone!" Yuan Xiangcheng bowed.

It was a state meeting, but Yuan Shikai actually wanted to have a dialogue between the emperor and his ministers. It was really inappropriate. Weng, Li and others naturally expressed their disagreement.

However, in view of the fact that the situation had fallen into a stalemate again, Guangxu still proposed to rest and took the opportunity to meet Yuan Shikai's request for a city.

After the envoy and the ministers went to the side rooms, Yuan Xiangcheng approached Guangxu and said in a low voice:

"Your Majesty, I only have 4 troops at my disposal right now, which is barely enough to deal with the new southern army. If we meet the French, it will be hard to say. We can't really fight to the bitter end. Let's quit while we have the upper hand.

Those harsh words I used before were just to pressure the French. All I need to do is get the tariffs. I'll train 10 elite troops for the court, and then the world will be pacified."

Is this possible? Guangxu looked at Yuan Xiangcheng with doubt, only to see that his eyes were clear and firm, and his face was full of loyalty.

Then, trust Master Yuan again?

The young Guangxu was moved by Yuan Xiangcheng's sincere expression. Although he was not the imperial teacher, Guangxu had long regarded Yuan Xiangcheng as a life mentor in his heart and was willing to call him Master Yuan.

In this way, after the ministers and envoys returned, Guangxu overruled all objections and finally decided on the French proposal.

The customs duties were escorted north as usual under British supervision. As for Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Baoqing, they were deliberately ignored and not mentioned.

Seeing Badno retreat, the British Ogener exchanged glances with Yuan Xiangcheng before leaving, which clearly meant "happy cooperation"

At this moment, history was forked by Yuan Shikai, and the apparently unified Qing Dynasty was divided into two parts for the first time.

Chapter 156 The Current World Situation

After the court finished dealing with the negotiations with the French, it quickly began to prepare for the ceremony of Guangxu's restoration, and the capital became busy both inside and outside.

Yuan Shikai was also busy. Over the next ten days, he sent Duan Qirui, Sheng Fei, and Feng Guozhang to lead three regiments of troops south to quell the unrest in Shanxi, southern Zhili, northern Henan, and northern Shandong respectively.

Thanks to the Qing Dynasty's long-term suppression strategy in Shanxi, Henan and Shandong provinces, there were no large-scale militias in the local area.

Therefore, the area north of the Yellow River can probably be taken into our hands.

It was a rare opportunity to have such a long period of free time. After Guangxu had arranged his plans, Yuan Xiangcheng could start construction.

Once the French left, the foreigners' business was over. However, even though the rebellion had to be quelled, the defense around the capital could not be relaxed.

Duan Zhigui temporarily stationed the 5th Regiment at Shanhaiguan, while Wang Zhanyuan's 6th Regiment was stationed in Tianjin. However, although it was a regiment, most of it was understaffed, as half of the 5th and 6th Regiments of the National Defense Army remained in Korea.

The Jiashen surrendered army, Zhili training army and Green Camp that were incorporated into the army were forcibly relocated outside the Great Wall by Yuan Shikai, and after arriving at the place, they were required to write letters to persuade their families to come over.

After being disbanded and merged, these people will be used as internal defense forces and police.

In this way, the military forces near the capital seemed to be completely controlled by Yuan Shikai. However, Yuan Shikai had no interest in the capital at this time, so he decisively proposed to Guangxu to train a new army and temporarily organize four regiments.

The organization of the National Defense Force thus came to 10 towns.

After marching thousands of miles, they finally conquered half of the country. This was something that made Yuan Xiangcheng happy. The most important thing was that they had gained a short development window of several years. This was a rare opportunity both internationally and domestically.

Nicholas was injured in the explosion and the Greek prince was killed. This assassination was destined not to be easily resolved as in the original history, unless the Japanese were willing to pay a greater price to compensate the Russians.

Yuan Xiangcheng found it ridiculous when he thought about the fact that the Japanese in the original time and space wrote tens of thousands of letters of condolence to Nicholas II. He could only say that because the Trans-Siberian Railway had not been completed at that time and the casualties were not serious, Nicholas II had to swallow his anger.

However, now it is not just people who are injured. The Greek prince died in Japan. If the Tsarist Russian royal family, which claims to be the leader of the Orthodox Church, cannot uphold justice for the Greek royal family, the Tsarist Russian reputation in the Balkans will be affected.