Chapter 66 Prime Minister's Official Residence

Nanjing Central Government Affairs District, built on the former full city, is exactly in the area of the imperial palace Forbidden Garden during the Ming Empire. In the Central Government Affairs District, a Chinese and Western-style building is scattered near the scenic park and on both sides of the groves. In the old city within the city wall, it truly accepts modern urban planning. There is only the central political district that has been completely rebuilt on a piece of ruins. Because of this, in addition to the central government agency, the central government district is also the residence of many dignitaries.

In the rear of the Imperial Congress, there is a unique style of the official residence. In most cases, anyone who approaches the official residence will be severely reprimanded by the guards. People can only see from afar that the walls of the official residence are covered with pine trees, cypress and maple trees, which is the official residence of the Prime Minister of the Empire.

One night at the end of February of the eleventh year of the Empire, the official residence of the Prime Minister.

In the official residence, the electric lampshade was covered with a sunshade umbrella, and the dim light sprinkled on the blurred aristocratic luxury furniture. The guests in the room couldn't see Chen Shizeng's famous painting "Yanjing Customs Painting" hanging on the wall. The painter, who worked at the Painting Research Society of Imperial University, was not famous for his figure painting. The reason why he became famous was not because of his skill in figure painting, but because he introduced the daily life of ordinary people into traditional Chinese painting for the first time. It is also because of this that his paintings are respected by His Majesty. More than a dozen of his paintings are collected in the palace, and it is normal to see his paintings in the official residence of the Prime Minister.

"Gun Gong,"

The land with the teacup in his mouth is open.

"Now, we have declared war on the internal chronicles, and the British have protested against us. Now, all countries are very wary of our expansion. We must take action. If we blindly expand our ambitions, the consequences will be unimaginable. It's still urgent now, otherwise, everything will be too late."

The person known as "Gong Gong" is Guan Mingtang, who has been the prime minister of the empire twice.

After Zhang Zhidong's death, he temporarily talked about the prime minister. Later, it was he who recommended Yuan Shikai, the governor of North Korea, as the prime minister of the empire. The prime minister who has studied in the United States for many years is an alternative existence in Chinese politics. On the one hand, he supports the opening up [***], and on the other hand, he supports the establishment of the constitution, but In any case, everyone understands that His Majesty trusts him 100%.

Guan Mingtang, who is 53 years old this year, looks energetic. He is nearly 1.8 meters tall and wears a regular Hanfu. Although he received a traditional Chinese education in his youth, he had the greatest influence on the United States. Most of the time, he wore a suit and was interested in American style: baseball, golf, and equestrian. It can be said that many years of life in the United States have made his hobbies seriously influenced by Americans.

However, in the past few years, his political life has changed him a lot, such as wearing Hanfu in informal occasions and collecting ancient Chinese books. He has a high degree of discerning power in this regard.

Although after becoming the prime minister, he has less and less time for himself. He rarely goes to the horse farm outside the city to ride horses and plays golf. However, the physique accumulated over the years of exercise is not comparable to that of ordinary officials. In the words of others, even many officers are not as healthy as him.

"Zi,"

Drinking tea, the heat in the house made Guan Mingtang more or less uncomfortable. As far as his intention was concerned, he hoped that winter would be winter, unlike now. While heating made people feel hot, it would even make people drowsy. In fact, before he moved into the official residence, he never used heating in winter. However, he is not the only one in the Prime Minister's official residence, but also more than a hundred staff and staff. He must respect their right to choose. In this case, he can only sacrifice the "soberness" he longs. In fact, in his opinion, the cold in winter can make people more sober. This is his experience while studying in the United States. .

"What's your opinion?"

Lu is an important minister of the imperial court. The foreign minister played an important role in Yuan Shikai's cabinet.

China's political system is as complex as political reality. Contrary to the light and elegant traditional Chinese painting, it carries all kinds of stains, mixed colors, bloody, copper smell, feudal and modern deformities. It is as messy as spider silk and confused as eight arrays. With every change in the political, economic and especially military situation, its kaleidoscope changes its angle, and the stained glass in the mirror is rearranged and combined to present a new graphic. At first glance, outsiders are complicated and confusing, and the clouds cover the fog, and they don't know the essentials.

On the one hand, the strength of your majesty, the important ministers, the House of Lords, and monopoly capital, they hope to expand and ease domestic contradictions through external expansion. On the other hand, the people of the Congress and political parties are weak, calm, wise and helpless. They are neglectful, decadent and decadent, full of various shortcomings and weaknesses, but they also hope that the country will expand to the outside world and prove the strength of the country to the people.

For the land and sea, which is the main force of expansion, although the army does not agree with the declaration of war on Germany, they do not mind expanding their influence through war to achieve the purpose of increasing military spending. As for the navy, their goal is much simpler. They take Germany as an "fictical enemy" under the banner of war to obtain With huge military spending, in short, the army and navy are eager for war.

And the opening up in China for many years [***] seems to have reached a turning point. From the beginning of the war, all the political forces in the country were ready to move. Although they were quickly calmed down later, Guan Mingtang knew that this was just a moment of suppression. Now the focus of their eyesight is on him and the cabinet he leads. The success of the last overthrow made those people realize that they are fully capable of carrying out a new "constitutional protection movement" in another way, aiming at overthrowing the cabinet.

"We must maintain limited military expansion in Arabia and ease the conflict with Britain,"

Looking at the prime minister in front of him, Lu asked tentatively.

"If possible, you can officially give up..."

Without waiting for him to finish, Guan Mingtang shook his head, "Some things are impossible to give up. If we give up Hong Kong now, the cabinet will fall within a month, and Your Majesty will certainly not support giving up Hong Kong diplomatically. You know..."

Put down the teacup and look at Lu. Guan Mingtang knew that in the past period of time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had continuously negotiated with the United Kingdom and France on the lease. Although some progress was made, the progress was very limited. It was difficult for others to get back when they ate some things.

"Your Majesty once said, "Although China is big, there is no extra inch!" An inch of land must be contested, and an inch of land is not allowed. This is the most basic land policy of a normal country. In the six years of the empire, we had a conflict with Russia because of the 64 villages in Jiangdong. For that place, Your Majesty even did not hesitate to transfer 100 of the 106 divisions in the country to Xinjiang, Mongolia, Northeast China, and even still Domestic mobilization, you were not in the cabinet at that time, and there are some things you don't know!"

Looking at Lu in front of him, Guan Mingtang sighed in his heart. Fortunately, there were only two of them today. Otherwise... Thinking of this, he reminded him with the old example of the past.

"At that time, according to Your Majesty's mind, if the Russians do not return, they will fight with them and fight fiercely!"

Lu couldn't help but be stunned. During the "Jiangdong Sixty-four Tun Incident" in the sixth year of the Empire, he was the ambassador to France. At that time, all European countries thought that it was impossible for China and Russia to go to war, and he also received domestic instructions to lobby for the French political axe and win the support of the French political axe. In the end, the result was very simple. In France and the United States With the mediation of the two countries, China has to take back 64 villages in Jiangdong.

But he didn't expect that the domestic policy at that time was a war!

"We should not only fight a fierce battle, but also prepare to recover all the lost land. Regarding the territorial scope, Your Majesty once said that China enjoys sovereignty in all the past generations of China. In other words, in the next few decades, it is estimated that we will have to fight a battle with the Russians, the British and the French sooner or later. According to According to the rule of the Tang Dynasty, to the west, our national boundary line goes all the way to the Caspian Sea to Siberia in the north. Today's Persia and Afghanistan are more to protect the territory of Anxi in the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, it is estimated that we have to be prepared to fight a big battle in two generations of time!"

The Prime Minister's words only surprised Lu. He knew that Guan Mingtang's words would never be false. Otherwise, with His Majesty's temper, he would not instruct the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to negotiate with Britain and France. It doesn't matter whether to reach an agreement or not. The important thing is not to let them hold the handle. In other words, Your Majesty does not have much hope for negotiations at all. To be precise, Your Majesty's heart is probably ready to declare war on these European powers after China is strong enough at a certain appropriate time, so as to restore the "country of the Han and Tang Dynasties" in his mind.

However, when he heard that it was a "grand restoration", Lu couldn't laugh at all and was even more excited. As a diplomat, he clearly knew that once China made that choice, it meant that China had to be the enemy of the whole world in a certain period of time in the future, just like now. Same as Germany.

What will be waiting for China at that time?

Yes... For a moment, he didn't even dare to think about it anymore. He didn't know if there would be a day when the crazy chariot was started. If he could, he just hoped that the chariot would never start.

"Well, it's just an idea, Your Majesty, sometimes it's naive!"

Guan Mingtang smiled and said a joke, and then he poured a cup of tea for Lu himself.

"Zi Ci, as for the one you said to ease the vigilance of countries against China to a certain extent, so why are they wary of China?"

(to be continued)