News of the fall of Tianjin quickly spread to Beijing.
Empress Dowager Cixi was in Cining Palace. When she learned that Tianjin had fallen and Zhang Peilun had died, she was silent for a long time, and then issued an edict to posthumously confer Zhang Peilun the title of Zhongxiao Hou.
At the same time, Zhang Peilun's wife, Li Juou, was given the title of first-grade imperial concubine.
This is also the Empress Dowager Cixi trying to appease Li Hongzhang. If it was before, Cixi still had a grudge against Li Hongzhang, but now that his son-in-law and daughter were forced to death by Liu Hai, the Empress Dowager Cixi no longer had any suspicion of Li Hongzhang.
Due to the urgency of the matter, Empress Dowager Cixi immediately summoned the military ministers at Cining Palace without caring whether it was late at night.
Each of these people are talented people, and they are also very powerful in the court. Before Empress Dowager Cixi summoned them, these people had already known through different channels that Tianjin had fallen and Liu Hai's soldiers would arrive in the capital soon.
So some of the military and aircraft ministers were smart and began to plan their own escape routes.
Or he secretly sends his wife out of the capital, or he writes letters to his family members in his hometown, asking them to live in peace and order.
As a result, before the matter was completed, the Empress Dowager Cixi's order came, asking these military ministers to pay respect to Cining Palace immediately.
Just like this, at midnight, the Cining Palace was still brightly lit, and Empress Dowager Cixi was sitting in the center of the hall.
However, the main hall of Cining Palace is now in dead silence, and all the military ministers who came here are silent.
At the end of the day, Empress Dowager Cixi couldn't bear the dull atmosphere and started to call the names.
"Li Hongzhang, what do you think?"
Li Hongzhang had just experienced the pain of losing his daughter, and his face was very gloomy. Now he can stand in Cining Palace because he is holding on and not letting himself fall.
"If we go back to the Queen Mother, it seems that the capital is no longer safe. It is better to go west to Xi'an, and then order Lord Ronglu to lead the troops to slowly retreat and organize a defense line in Shanxi, and then plan for big things."
When the Empress Dowager Cixi heard Li Hongzhang's words, she immediately became happy, because Li Hongzhang's suggestion was exactly what she thought.
As Liu Hai's soldiers were getting closer and closer to the capital, the Empress Dowager Cixi was very worried. She didn't want to stay in the capital for a day now. She was just afraid that one day at night, Liu Hai suddenly broke into her Cining Palace.
"Master Li is indeed an old man who seeks the country with sincerity. If you have any other suggestions, please tell me."
The other military ministers actually had no other options now, so they could only agree with Li Hongzhang's advice one by one.
Seeing that they had nothing else to say, Empress Dowager Cixi immediately ordered, "All the treasury silver in the capital will be transported westward immediately. All ministers in the imperial court will pack up their gears tonight, and we will leave the capital tomorrow."
After the Empress Dowager Cixi conveyed the decree, she ordered the military and aircraft ministers to go to work immediately.
After the military ministers kowtowed and left, Empress Dowager Cixi took a long breath, and then said to Li Lianying beside her: "You also go down and prepare. We will leave Jincheng early tomorrow morning."
Li Lianying quickly bowed her head and respected the order, and then went out to do business.
After Li Lianying left, Cui Yugui, who was standing next to Cixi, rolled his eyes, then stepped forward and comforted Cixi and asked: "Lafayette, we are leaving, what should the emperor do?"
After hearing this, the Empress Dowager Cixi's eyes flashed with fierceness. If the little emperor hadn't acted recklessly this time, how could he have caused such turmoil.
The current Empress Dowager Cixi was extremely disgusted with Emperor Guangxu and did not want to see him anymore.
"You can send someone to give the emperor a ride, so that he won't be troubled by traveling with us."
After hearing this, Cui Yugui quickly kowtowed and then slowly exited the Cining Palace.
When Cui Yugui left Cining Palace and came outside the palace, he immediately summoned his confidants, and then dozens of people went straight to Yingtai.
But before Cui Yugui could overthrow Yingtai, he was intercepted by Li Lianying on the way.
"Where are you going, Eunuch Cui?"
When Cui Yugui saw that it was Li Lianying who was here, his expression immediately turned bad, "I'm going to do something on the order of the Queen Mother Lafayette. Why does Eunuch Li still want to ask questions?"
After Li Lianying heard this, he looked Cui Yugui up and down and said, "Eunuch Cui, what you said in front of the Queen Mother Lafayette is known to everyone in our family."
"What can you do if you know?"
Li Lianying took a long breath, and then said: "You dealt with the emperor like this, do you really think you can get away with it?"
After Cui Yugui heard this, he laughed heartily, "We are slaves, just to share the worries of the master. Things that are difficult for the Queen Mother to do, will naturally be handled by slaves like us. This is the duty of slaves.
.”
Li Lianying was speechless for a long time due to Cui Yugui's words.
It seems that Cui Yugui proposed this matter to the Empress Dowager Cixi. In fact, the Empress Dowager Cixi had already had this idea in her mind, and Cui Yugui was just following the trend.
When Cui Yugui saw Li Lianying, he had nothing to say, so he bowed his hands to Li Lianying and turned around to leave with the others.
But then Li Lianying suddenly stopped him again, "Eunuch Cui, please stay with me for a moment while I go inside to say a few words to the Queen Mother. Eunuch Cui will be in charge by then."
After Cui Yugui heard this, he just nodded slightly and left again.
But Li Lianying couldn't care about anything else this time, turned around and ran towards Cining Palace.
When Li Lianying entered the Cining Palace, he did not let the eunuch report to him, but directly broke into the palace of the Empress Dowager Cixi.
At this time, the Empress Dowager Cixi was sitting alone by the bed, thinking about the glory, wealth and ups and downs of her life, and feeling sorry for herself.
Suddenly a man broke in and knelt down in front of him. This shocked the Empress Dowager Cixi.
When the Empress Dowager Cixi calmed down a little and saw that it was Li Lianying kneeling in front of her, she breathed a sigh of relief temporarily, and then her face turned ugly.
"What's going on? Are there any rules for slapping the Yi family?"
Li Lianying just ran in from outside and was about to take a breath to give some advice to the Empress Dowager Cixi, but as soon as she met the Empress Dowager Cixi, she slapped him.
But since the Empress Dowager told her, Li Lianying had no choice but to obey her orders, so she knelt there and kept mouthing her words.
After a while, the corner of Li Lianying's mouth was already bleeding from the beating, and Empress Dowager Cixi said slowly: "That's it, remember the rules in the future."
"Slave, I remember."
"Then what's the matter? You're in such a hurry."
Li Lianying breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Empress Dowager Cixi finally got the right point in her question. Then she quickly kowtowed and said, "When I came back just now, I saw Cui Yugui going to the direction of Yingtai. Is Lafayette going to take him with me?"
Go with the emperor?"
When the Empress Dowager Cixi heard Li Lianying's question, she immediately understood what Li Lianying was thinking. She wanted to plead with Emperor Guangxu.
If it had been anyone else, Empress Dowager Cixi would have been annoyed and immediately ordered people to pull her out and kill her with a cane. However, Li Lianying was different from others in that she still had some patience.
"Why do you want to plead with the emperor?"
"How dare you, slave? The emperor's fate today is all his own fault."
Listening to Li Lianying's flattery, Empress Dowager Cixi finally had a smile on her face again.
However, Li Lianying changed the subject and continued: "Now is the time when the capital is in chaos. These civil and military ministers may not have their hearts set on the emperor. If something goes wrong now, there may be trouble."
When the Empress Dowager Cixi heard Li Lianying's words, she was immediately aroused. Just now, she had only been angry with Emperor Guangxu, but she had forgotten that a large part of the Aisin Gioro royal family still did not want anything to happen to the emperor.
If I deal with Emperor Guangxu now, I'm afraid these princes will no longer support me as they did before.
At this time, I need the full cooperation of these princes and ministers, otherwise, I will be alone out of Beijing.
"Quick, go catch up with Cui Yugui and tell him about this."
Li Lianying heard the Empress Dowager Cixi's words and immediately rolled out of Cining Palace and flew away like Yingtai.
Fortunately, Li Lianying came back in time, and Cui Yugui also listened to Li Lianying's words and did not take action immediately.
When Li Lianying saw Cui Yugui, he was respectfully talking to the emperor.
Emperor Guangxu didn't know yet that Cui Yugui was here to kill him this time.
At this point, Li Lianying finally breathed a sigh of relief. He calmed down his message, then stepped forward a few steps into the Yingtai palace gate, knelt in front of Emperor Guangxu, and saluted him.
When Emperor Guangxu saw Li Lianying coming, he knew that something big had happened, "What happened in the court?"
Li Lianning was not going to hide anything from Emperor Guangxu now, "If I tell you, Liu Hai is rebellious and has sent troops to Liangjiang. Now the troops have conquered Tianjin and will soon arrive in the capital."
After Emperor Guangxu heard this, he immediately became excited. Then he sat on the bed again, lowered his head and thought for a while, then sighed and said: "With his majestic appearance, I have long known that he is a disaster, but because of his powerful
I had to do it, but I didn’t expect that he finally couldn’t bear it anymore.”
But Li Lianying didn't want to chat with Emperor Guangxu here anymore, so he winked at Cui Yugui on the side.
As soon as Cui Yugui saw Li Lianying coming and looked at his eyes, he knew that Empress Dowager Cixi had withdrawn her order, so he quietly waved his hand to the dozen or so followers in the palace, and the eunuch who had come quietly left Yingtai.
But Emperor Guangxu is still in a hazy state, not knowing that he has come around the gate of hell.
"So how about now? How did my biological father arrange the next thing?"
After listening to Emperor Guangxu's question, Li Lianying hurriedly said: "The Queen Mother and Lafayette have decided to visit Xi'an in the west. I asked my servant to tell the emperor to prepare quickly and leave early tomorrow morning."
Emperor Guangxu sighed, "I understand."
Li Lianying bowed to Emperor Guangxu again and then exited Yingtai.