New Year's Eve, also called New Year's Eve, refers to the last day of the Chinese lunar year. The night of this day is New Year's Eve, and after New Year's Eve, it is the Lunar New Year.

Historically, before the Gregorian calendar, that is, the Western calendar system, was passed down, the Chinese people had always celebrated the Lunar New Year. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty officially designated the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar as New Year's Day, the Chinese people have continued to use it and unified the New Year.

The Lunar New Year is called New Year's Day.

In other words, New Year's Day was originally the New Year of the lunar calendar. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, January 1 of the Western calendar was designated as the New Year for the first time, and January 1 of the lunar calendar was designated as the Spring Festival. After that, in the Republic era, it was

The first day of January in the Christian era was re-designated as New Year's Day, and the first day of January in the lunar calendar was designated as the Spring Festival.

Of course, that's all for later, because the Qing Dynasty had not yet perished, so New Year's Eve was still called New Year's Day.

Normally, New Year’s Eve was the most festive day of the year in the Qing Dynasty. In previous years, there would usually be fireworks in Beijing from the morning, but this year’s New Year’s Eve, Beijing’s fireworks

The festive atmosphere was much less festive. Although there were firecrackers during the day, they were not as dense as usual. Instead, they were sparse, adding to the desolation.

The reason for this is that the main force of setting off firecrackers in previous years, the princes, nobles and wealthy businessmen, no longer set off firecrackers. Only ordinary people from small families were left to set off firecrackers, so the effect was naturally much worse.

As for why those rich people stopped setting off firecrackers, the reason is very simple, because those people are relatively well-informed. Although there is no clear news from the palace, they all know that the current situation of the Qing Dynasty is not good.

"Xu Shichang!" Empress Dowager Longyu in the Forbidden City was full of grief and indignation at the moment. Her fingers pointing at the minister opposite were trembling. I don't know whether she was angry or afraid. "You, you, how are you? This is what you recommended.

Wise Minister! You, you people, kept saying good things about Yuan Shikai, saying that as long as he takes action, everything can be settled, and we will give him whatever he wants. But what happened? Now you are actually trying to force us to abdicate!

This, this... How can this not make sense, how can this not make sense! Rebel, rebel! Treason! Great... Xu Shichang, you recommended this person, please tell me. What should I do with Yuan Shikai? Huh?"

Being questioned by Empress Dowager Longyu without any reason, Xu Shichang sighed and had no choice but to kneel down and then kneel on the ground with his head lowered without saying a word.

Seeing him like this, Queen Mother Longyu became even more angry: "Xu Shichang, I asked you something, you really have to say it!"

"I...have nothing to say." Xu Shichang shook his head.

"You!" Seeing him like this, Queen Mother Longyu was speechless.

Yes. He had nothing to say. Could it be that Queen Mother Longyu had something to say? Now that things have happened, even if Xu Shichang is killed, what will happen?

Thinking of the recent situation, Empress Dowager Longyu felt a burst of sadness again. Regardless of the military minister in front, she started to cry.

Indeed, the current situation of the Qing Dynasty has become extremely bad!

Ever since the 1st, 2nd and 3rd armies of the New Army retreated without a fight at the gates of Nanjing, and the 4th and 5th armies were completely wiped out at the gates of Anqing, the Qing Dynasty was like a girl who had been stripped naked and had thrown away her last fig leaf.

The fall of the Qing Dynasty made everyone see the weakness of the Qing court. Since then, the independent trend of governors in various parts of the Qing Dynasty has come and gone, and it can no longer be stopped.

Originally, the Qing government made a decisive decision and quickly appointed Yuan Shikai as the governor of Liangjiang and asked him to rush to Huai'an, thinking that he would pack up the new army and then regain Nanjing.

Thinking about it, the Qing government only needed to go to Nanjing and wipe out Li Zhigao, the leader of the rebellious party, and other rebellions could naturally be planned slowly, either suppressed or pacified, and there was no need to worry about it.

The Qing court thought well at the time, or in other words, its optimism was good. Unfortunately, times have changed, and it neither understood Li Zhigao's power nor Yuan Shikai's thoughts, nor what the current trend is.

Those dignitaries in the Qing government still don't understand that when everyone in a country from top to bottom dislikes the government that is in power now, and puts all kinds of grievances on the government, and hopes that this regime will end soon, then this

The government is not far from destruction.

In other words, when a regime becomes deviant, even if it has strong armed forces, it cannot guarantee the stability of the regime, not to mention that the armed forces of the Qing court at this time cannot be said to be strong at all.

When Yuan Shikai arrived in Huai'an, he quickly regained control of the only combat-effective force of the Qing Dynasty. However, he still stayed in Huai'an and trained non-stop every day. He had no intention of moving south. Once the Qing Dynasty

When the order was given to urge the troops to advance, he started to cry about poverty, saying that the soldiers had no money, lack of ammunition, etc. In short, he just wanted to ask for money!

As the situation became worse and worse, the Qing government quickly collected a sum of money and gave it to Yuan Shikai, thinking that he should finally join the army. Who knew that after Yuan Shikai got the money, he remained still and only said that he would contact him to purchase arms.

Regarding supplies, he said that this amount of money was not enough and continued to ask the Qing court for money.

At this time, the Qing court became furious and continued to urge troops to advance. Unfortunately, Yuan Shikai remained motionless and continued to train troops in Huai'an and buy arms from foreigners, sitting back and watching the flames of revolution burning more and more across the country.

During the days when Yuan Shikai was firmly seated in Huai'an, the corruption in various places had increased. Even the three northeastern provinces had declared an uprising. The only areas that the Qing government could actually control were the Beijing, Tianjin and Tang regions!

At this point, the situation could not get worse, even worse than during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Qing Dynasty was on the verge of collapse.

As a result, the Qing court finally woke up and realized that the only life-saving straw now was Yuan Shikai and his elite soldiers. Moreover, according to the intelligence, Yuan Shikai did use the money given by the Qing court in Huai'an to continuously recruit troops and purchase weapons and equipment.

It was finally used on "state affairs", so I had to continue to think of ways to raise money.

The Qing government had no money at this time, so it had to continue to use the railway as collateral to borrow money from the four-nation banking group. Unfortunately, this time, for some unknown reason, the four-nation banking group that was originally interested in its own railway refused to lend money.

!

After some inquiries from Sheng Xuanhuai, they learned an astonishing fact. That is, the reason why the four-nation banking group gave up the railway mortgage and no longer loaned money to the Qing Dynasty was because they were not optimistic about the Qing court, because they felt that the Qing court would be very weak in the short term.

It’s hard to defeat Li Zhigao’s rebellious party!

Obviously, the reason why the four-nation banking group did not lend money to the Qing court was not because of Sun Wen's passionate lobbying, which was already in Europe, but because of the Qing court's previous series of military defeats and Li Zhigao's public relations.

This has already caused the banking group from four countries to hesitate.

The four-nation banking group only wanted profits, and they did not want to be tied to the Qing court. They had agreed to use the railway as collateral for loans. They wanted to see that the Qing court was still a unified regime, but the Qing court was now on fire, and it seemed that it was no longer possible.

In this way, no one dared to lend money to the Qing court until the situation became clear.

They couldn't borrow money from foreigners here, and Yuan Shikai was pressing for money over there. The Qing government really had no choice but to find a way on its own. The business expenses were taxed. It also complained to the princes and nobles about their poverty and asked them to donate some money.

It was a pity that no one wanted to worry about the country at this time, and everyone was crying about poverty, so the Qing government scraped together and scraped together, only to scrape together two million taels of silver, and hurriedly sent it to Yuan Shikai.

Who would have known that after Yuan Shikai got this money, he was still crying about poverty and refused to join the army!

This is unbearable! Now, no matter how good-tempered the Empress Dowager Longyu was, she was very angry. She would desperately order Yuan Shikai to be dismissed from all his posts. Fortunately, Xu Shichang and others understood the reason and quickly persuaded her to stop, because everyone knew at this time.

My mother's new Beiyang army only listened to Yuan Shikai. It really made Yuan Shikai anxious. If he also rebelled, then everyone would be completely ruined!

In other words, the Qing court is now powerless and can only plead. I hope Yuan Shikai will show some conscience and be loyal to the country, so he will give away various rewards for free, not only giving him the title of Batulu and a yellow mantle, but also

Both eyes and flowers were given to the first-class Duke of Loyalty and Yi, which can be said to be the highest honor for a foreign minister. It is higher than Zeng Guofan's title. The only foreign minister who can compare with him in terms of title is He Shen.

Yuan Shikai seemed a little embarrassed to be given so many honors. He finally moved his troops, but as soon as they arrived at Tianchang County, they continued to stand still and refused to continue going south.

Just kidding, although Tianchang County is very close to Nanjing, it still does not belong to the realm of Nanjing. It can only be regarded as an overlapping border. Yuan Shikai's gesture makes it clear that he only wants to show off and does not want to fight.

If you really want to fight, even if it is a confrontation, you must at least advance to Lu'an, not Tianchang County. Such a long distance is basically outside the scope of combat given the mobility capabilities of the army in this era.

At this point, everyone with a discerning eye can see that Yuan Shikai does not want to go against the revolutionary party in the south, or against Li Zhigao. He is just waiting for a price, because Yuan Shikai knows very well that the Qing government can no longer do without Yuan Shikai and his Beiyang Army.

, as for Yuan Shikai, he is not ready yet and still needs the Qing court to raise funds for him, so everyone is in peace for the time being.

In the original history, after the Revolution of 1911, Yuan Shikai was actually the stronger party. He could have easily wiped out the Wuchang Uprising Army. It was he who ordered the postponement of the attack and played a confrontation with the Uprising Army, which allowed the Revolutionary Party to survive, and relied on

This kind of contact with the revolutionary army without a ceasefire without winning or losing, and constantly asking for money from the Qing government, finally made his Beiyang Army grow bigger and bigger, creating the later Beiyang Army.

However, in this time and space, things have turned upside down. Li Zhigao's army is far stronger than the New Army, and the New Army has no way to defeat Li Zhigao's troops. In order to preserve his strength, Yuan Shikai had to play this trick of no exchange of fire and only confrontation.

, secretly negotiating with Li Zhigao, and publicly high-profile tricks to demand money from the Qing court.

This is not because Yuan Shikai has changed his gender, but because Yuan Shikai is a leader after all, and he understands the balance of power best. Although he has not personally led troops to fight against Li Zhigao's troops, this does not hinder him.

Judgments of each other's military strength.

At this time, the Qing court's new army mainly consisted of two parts. One part was the Beiyang New Army, formerly known as the Dingwu Army. It was almost all taught by Yuan Shikai. It was the strongest and was mainly stationed in the north; the other part was Zhang Zhidong.

The Hubei New Army formed, such as Wuchang, Nanjing and other new army units, are almost all Hubei New Army.

Although the Hubei New Army is slightly weaker than the Beiyang New Army, it is not much weaker. At least Yuan Shikai believed that he could not sweep through the ninth town of the army in such a short period of time with only one lone army, and then annihilate the second

Eleven towns, and then easily destroyed the 4th and 5th armies without much loss themselves.

It can be said that Li Zhigao's troops have wiped out the main force of the Hubei New Army, and Yuan Shikai's soldiers who escaped from the front lines are his own spies. Especially his own special envoy, Yang, who is visiting Li Zhigao's hometown Taiping Mansion.

According to Du's report, Li Zhigao's troops had a large number of "machine guns" and "heavy artillery", as well as many "cars", and there was no shortage of ammunition. The morale of the soldiers was high. It can be said that the firepower and mobility were quite strong.

Yuan Shikai knew very well that it would be impossible to deal with such a modern force without relying on human sea tactics to inflict heavy blood. With the number of troops and equipment he currently had, it would be difficult to even defend and confront Li Zhigao's troops, let alone capture them. Therefore, he

He just made peace with Li Zhigao in such a low voice.

If it were those poor guys from the Alliance, he wouldn't be so easy to talk to, and they would have beaten them without even saying a word.

As for the Qing court, Yuan Shikai has long ignored it, especially in this situation where everyone is against it. Anyone with a discerning eye knows that the Qing court is about to die soon, so there is no need for Yuan Shikai to talk to the Qing court about being shameless.

Finally, seeing that the Qing court could no longer extract much oil, the Restoration Party in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui and the revolutionary parties of the Southern League made it clear that they could divide the river and rule the country to maintain peace for the time being, but they must first do so within half a month.

Let the Qing government formally abdicate. Then send people to Nanjing to discuss the plan for founding the country, otherwise they will send troops to attack.

Forced by helplessness, the main reason was that Yuan Shikai felt that he was not ready yet. Although it was not Li Zhigao who said that the Qing government would send troops to attack if it did not abdicate, it was someone from the Tongmenghui. It was not sure whether Li Zhigao's troops would participate in the Northern Expedition by then.

, but even if Li Zhigao did not participate, just the arrival of the revolutionary party troops from the Tongmenghui would give him a headache.

After all, those people from the Tongmenghui are all a bunch of lunatics. If we really fight against the Tongmenghui's army, both sides will lose, and in the end we will only be able to take advantage of Li Zhigao.

Therefore, in order to preserve his strength, he had to confront the Southern Revolutionary Party too early and lose the troops in his hands too early. After losing the foundation for conquering the world in the future, Yuan Shikai broke out and began to send people back to Beijing to privately force the Qing court to abdicate.

At this moment, the countdown to the demise of the Qing Dynasty officially entered.

Seeing Empress Dowager Longyu crying all the time, Prime Minister Yi Kuang couldn't bear it, so he had to persuade her: "Empress Dowager, the matter has reached this point, and we have no other way. In my opinion, it is better to obey Yuan Shikai first, at least it can still be done."

Preserve some things, and then we wait for the situation to change, and there may be no chance of a comeback, but if we refuse now and anger Yuan Shikai, the Beiyang army will rebel immediately, and then we will march straight in, and we will be completely ruined."

"You, you..." Seeing Yikuang actually saying this, Queen Mother Longyu trembled all over again, "What are you talking about? I have hundreds of years of Qing Dynasty foundation, how can, how can..."

"Queen Mother!" Yikuang took another step forward and said with tears streaming down his face, "Don't you know that our Qing Dynasty has been hard-earned, but now the situation is stronger than others, and there is nothing we can do. As the saying goes, if you keep the green hills,

Don’t worry about running out of firewood. Looking at foreign history, Western powers such as Britain and France have also experienced the fall of dynasties. As long as we are still here, we will still have the opportunity to start over."

"Start over again?" Queen Mother Longyu said with a miserable face, "You think of me as a three-year-old child. Once we really abdicate, can we start over again? How can we start over again?"

"It depends on the current situation!" Yi Kuang said firmly, "Your Majesty, Yuan Shikai's ambition is true, but Li Zhigao is also an arrogant person, plus Sun Wen and other southern revolutionaries, huh, they are fighting each other.

There are a lot of discords, and sooner or later the war will start again. By then, it will be a chaotic world, and as long as we sit and watch them fight to the death while recuperating, there may be no chance of re-entering the customs in the future. To be honest, the Japanese have already
To be continued...