In the old time and space, it was generally believed that Li Hongzhang was the loyal minister of the Qing court, and was deeply trusted by the Qing court, at least Cixi. In fact, both Cixi and Guangxu had almost never trusted Li Hongzhang 100% in trust. Instead, in the more than 10 years before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, he was very cautious about Li Hongzhang and set a lot of small obstacles for Li Hongzhang. The reason was that Li Hongzhang had the most elite army in the Qing court, the Huai Army, which was enough to threaten the court.

After the Beiyang Navy was formed, Empress Dowager Cixi embezzled the naval spending to build the Summer Palace and did not add a shot for seven years. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Li Hongzhang could not mobilize the Nanyang Navy, which was a very obvious example of the Qing court's hindrance. Therefore, the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 was a complete failure for Li Hongzhang, but for the Qing court, it was a loss to the east and the harvest, which at least solved an internal hidden danger.

But in this time and space, in the past few years after the Gengzi Reform, Cixi and Guangxu truly trusted Li Hongzhang and obeyed Li Hongzhang's opinions. First, Li Hongzhang now has no military power and no longer has a threat to the court; second, after the Gengzi Reform, Cixi and Guangxu were also very clear that the Qing court still needed Li Hongzhang to deal with the relationship between overseas Chinese and foreigners. Now that Li Hongzhang is dead, if the Qing court encounters another crisis, who else can stand up and solve the problems of the court?

For Cixi, there is another feeling. This year is the 70th birthday of Cixi. Speaking of which, Cixi has entered her seventies. When an old man heard the news of another old man's death, he would not feel good no matter what.

So Cixi and Guangxu ordered the cancellation of today's court meeting and ordered the Military Affairs Office to discuss the posthumous title and generous politeness to Li Hongzhang.

On the next day, the Qing court sent Li Lianying as an imperial envoy to Li Hongzhang's house to pass the imperial edict. First, Li Hongzhang was highly commended, praised Li Hongzhang for his contribution to the Qing court, and awarded the posthumous title "Wenzhong", posthumous title of Taifu, first-class Duke Suyi, gave him a yellow jacket and buried with a silver coffin, and sent 20 coffins waiting to be escorted to Li Hongzhang's hometown, and changed Li Hongzhang's hometown, Feidong County, Luzhou Prefecture, Anhui Province, to Shaoquan County. At the same time, Li Hongzhang's three sons and one daughter were also given the title of third-class earl, Li Jingshu and Li Jingmai's second-class viscount, and Zhang Peilun also added a third-class baron.

It should be said that the Qing court's pension to Li Hongzhang was quite kind. The Qing court's posthumous titles for meritorious officials generally started with the word "Wen". The second character is the evaluation of meritorious officials. For example, Zeng Guofan's posthumous title was "Wenzheng", Zuo Zongtang's posthumous title was "Wenxiang". According to the posthumous law, internal and external guests were called Zheng; the land was virtuous, and the armor was called Xiang, both Zeng. The evaluation of Zuo two was very appropriate. The explanation of "Zhong" in the posthumous law is: "Zheng" is called Zhong, so it is most suitable for Li Hongzhang.

However, after Zeng and Zuo died, they were all marquises, while Li Hongzhang added a duke. This was obviously higher than Zeng and Zuo. The two of Zuo were one headlong, and others were given yellow jackets together, rewarded silver, sent guards to escort the coffin back to their hometown, and changed the county name, which were also extremely honorable. Looking at the more than 260 years of history of the Qing court, only Li Hongzhang enjoyed such honors. What's more, he sent Li Lianying to personally pass the order, and how many people could work in the Qing Dynasty.

After reading the imperial edict, Li Lianying respectfully presented three incense sticks to Li Hongzhang, and then said a few comforting words such as "conscience, grief, and change", and then said goodbye and returned to the palace.

Originally, Li Hongzhang was in a high position and the court was grateful to him, so naturally the princes and ministers did not dare to neglect him. Needless to say, those who were able to come to pay homage to Li Hongzhang in person would never send their family members. Some people with outstanding literary talent also wrote elegy couplets. Zhang Zhidong also wrote a tribute to Li Hongzhang himself. Yuan Shikai also came from Tianjin and guarded Li Hongzhang for a night. Even if Li Hongzhang's political opponents were Li Hongzhang, they also sent their well-known family members to pay homage to pay homage. Overall, Li Hongzhang's funeral was quite glorious.

Seven days later, Li Jingfang, Li Jingshu, Li Jingmai, Zhang Peilun, Li Jingchun and Li Jingchun helped the spirits back to his hometown for burial. Almost all the officials of the capital came to see him off, and the team of seeing him off was more than 20 kilometers long. Li Hongzhang's residence in Beijing was changed to his ancestral hall.

After Li Hongzhang's coffin left, an open and secret struggle in the court immediately began. Now Li Hongzhang is the Minister of Military Affairs, the veritable Li Zhongtang. When Li Hongzhang died, a military aircraft vacant was vacant. Of course, the number of military affairs ministers was not fixed, one more or one less, but now the Qing government has recovered from the Gengzi Reform, and the new policy has been in place for 4 years. Therefore, Cixi also wanted to carry out a major restructuring of the Military Affairs Office. Naturally, many people have had the idea of ​​fighting for it.

Just the day after Li Hongzhang's coffin left Beijing, the Qing court formally issued an order to announce the new list of military aircraft offices. The military aircraft leader was still Prince Qing Yili, and the others were Zhang Zhidong, Qu Hongxi, Prince Chun Zaifeng, Shixu, Natong, Lu Chuanlin, and Yuan Shikai. The last four of them entered the military service office for the first time. Half of the entire military service office were replaced, and the movement was very big. The impact on the political situation of the Qing court was even more profound.

The current political situation in the Qing court is very complicated and there are many factions. Of course, this is also a situation deliberately caused by Cixi. Among the various political factions, the most powerful faction is the real power faction headed by Prince Qing and Yuan Shikai.

After the Gengzi Reform, Yuan Shikai worked hard to help him reunite his relationship with Prince Qing, because at this time, the Qing court had become a commonplace party, and Prince Qing had the oldest qualifications and was trusted by Cixi. Therefore, Yuan Shikai believed that for a long time in the future, Prince Qing would be the foreman of military aircraft. If Yuan Shikai wanted to consolidate his power, he naturally had to make good friends with Prince Qing. Prince Qing was always greedy for money, so Yuan Shikai devoted his preferences and paid a large sum of money. The relationship between the two quickly heated up and eventually formed an alliance.

In fact, although Prince Qing has always given people the impression of being greedy for money and mediocrity, he is by no means an incompetent person. Otherwise, he would not have been able to survive for decades in the late Qing Dynasty and become the military aircraft leader step by step. Prince Qing certainly knew that the military aircraft leader was the target of public criticism. After all, there were many princes in the Qing Dynasty, and there were countless eyes staring at him. Therefore, if you want to sit long and steadily in this position, in addition to continuing to please Cixi, you must also have strong partners in the court to support him. Yuan Shikai is a suitable candidate, and Yuan Shikai will also come and give money without hesitation, so the two hit it off. Prince Qing controls the power of military aircraft, and Yuan Shikai controls the strongest army of the Qing court, the Beiyang New Army. The two of them form the strongest political alliance of the Qing court, one inside and one outside, one outside, one outside, one civil and one martial, and form the strongest political alliance of the Qing court.

Li Hongzhang also played a certain role in promoting the alliance between the two. Although Li Hongzhang did not join the alliance between them, his personal relationship with them was good. Moreover, Li Hongzhang believed that these two people were pragmatic people. The Qing court lacked the most now is such pragmatic people. Prince Qing's talent was indeed a bit poor, but he knew not to command randomly and hand over the things to those who could do it. This was quite good. Therefore, Li Hongzhang gave them certain support openly and secretly. Of course, Prince Qing and Yuan Shikai also knew how to repay their favors, and they also supported Li Hongzhang's suggestions. Li Hongzhang could stop the radical proposals of the Manchus' powerful people several times, and they had their strength in it.

This time the reorganization of military aircraft, Yuan Shikai was able to enter the military aircraft, which greatly increased the strength of the Qingyuan Group and further consolidated the status of the two. Of course, the reason why Cixi arranged this way was because she was attracted by these two people's ability to do things and was pragmatic. After all, the Qing court now needs people who can do things. Moreover, Li Hongzhang's death was also a blow to the two. Tunnel Yuan Shikai into the military aircraft, and he could better control him. Therefore, the strength of the Qingyuan Group did not increase so much on the surface, and the skill of the Lao Fu was not comparable.

The second largest force is the Manchu powerful faction, with the main personnel including Prince Su Shanqi, Liangbi, Puwei, Tieliang, Rongqing, Yinchang and others. The dominant idea of ​​this group was to restore the dominance of the Manchus in the early Qing Dynasty and take power from the hands of Han officials. Therefore, the actions and plans were very radical. They demanded that the Qing court break with the East China government several times, which was dominated by this faction.

Although they are both Manchu powerful people, Prince Qing and they don’t like each other. Although Prince Qing’s talents are mediocre, they also understand that the rise of Han ministers is irreversible, and the idea of ​​this group of people is impossible to realize. Only by cooperating with Han ministers can the Qing court be maintained. However, this group of Manchu powerful people think that Prince Qing is completely confused, only caring for money and profit, and colluding with Han ministers, and even disregarding the country left by his ancestors. Therefore, this faction almost fought against Prince Qing, Yuan Shikai, Li Hongzhang and others everywhere in the court, and its momentum was like water and fire. However, this was also something Cixi was happy to see.

This time the military aircraft reorganization, the Manchu powerful faction suffered the biggest blow. Both of the backbone Tieliang and Rongqing were dismissed from military aircraft. Although Tieliang was renamed the Minister of War and Rongqing was renamed the Minister of Rites, they still retained a piece of power, but they were incomparable to the Minister of Military Affairs.

In fact, Cixi was also very clear that the Manchus had few talents. If the Qing Dynasty wanted to maintain it, it must rely on Han ministers. The extreme behavior of the Manchus' powerful people was not desirable at all. If we really wanted to take over the power of the Han ministers and hand them over to the Manchus' powerful people, the Qing court might not be able to hold on for even a year. The role of Cixi allowing the Manchus' powerful people was only to restrain the real power faction. However, in recent times, the Manchus' powerful people have asked the Qing court to send troops to the Northeast several times, and even catered to the suggestions of some foreigners, which made Cixi quite angry.

Cixi's attitude towards participating in the war in Liaodong was the same as Li Hongzhang. The Qing court would be better off watching the tiger fight in the mountains and never go to this muddy water. Cixi never believed the suggestions of foreigners. Therefore, the Manchu powerful faction was obviously a bit too much this time, so it was necessary to hit them, so Tieliang and Rongqing were removed from the military, but they could not beat the Manchu powerful faction to death. After all, the Qing Dynasty was still the Manchus in charge. In addition, when necessary, this faction was still useful, so Tieliang was appointed as the Minister of War and Rongqing was appointed as the Minister of Rites.
Chapter completed!