Episode 186 Everything must be fair and aboveboard
As soon as Mu Hu's press conference ended, the entire Ming Dynasty was in an uproar. The cabinet held an emergency meeting to discuss how to deal with the unexpected situation. And the world once again turned its attention to the east.
The response from the public was even more lively. The evening newspapers of the day responded immediately and organized a batch of articles for discussion at lightning speed. The morning newspapers, double daily newspapers, and weekly magazines were not to be left behind, and launched extra issues one after another to join the competition.
In the battle of readers. And "The Voice of Jinling"
and "Voice of China" immediately started to compete with each other, each inviting leaders of civil political organizations, political commentators, university professors, columnists, political page writers, etc., to have lively discussions. The discussion also stopped from time to time.
, urgently inserting the latest news just received...
A political feast was officially served in front of the people.
The mainstream opinion is that Ming Dynasty should regain the entire territory without hesitation and cannot establish a state within a state. However, this does not mean that the people will completely and unconditionally support the Ming Dynasty government. Most people hope to use this as an opportunity to accelerate the constitutional reform of Ming Dynasty.
Process. At least the government and the royal family must come up with a timetable. There will be many processions and rallies.
The people even shouted the slogan "Your Majesty, please learn from Mu Hu". Some more radical people directly supported Mu Hu's "Republic". When they were interviewed by newspapers on the street, they even expressed that they would consider immigrating there in a few years.
Because although the conditions there are poor, at least they can give us votes. Then everything will be fine...
At the imperial meeting, Shen Rongxuan showed his true character as a hardliner. He said categorically:
"Your Majesty, everyone, we must not get entangled in 'constitutional' or 'republican' now. This is a war period, and we are the victors and the strong. We must end the war as soon as possible instead of being led by that careerist.
Go. On the one hand, we should immediately report to the outside world
Declare that we cannot tolerate anyone causing the division of the country for any reason. On the other hand, we should send people to Beijing to get in touch with Mu Hu to see what he wants. Such people often say nice things on the scene, but they are just for their own benefit.
Benefits. We should wake him up."
Army Minister Li Gaoting interjected:
"Your Majesty, Sir, I have an idea, which may be said to be perfect."
Shen Rongxuan said:
"Master Li, please speak."
"After much thought, I realized that Mu Hu knew very well that he didn't have many soldiers and was too tough to resist us, so he tried his best to seize the moral high ground and use nice words to bully us in front of the whole world. We can do it.
We must respond to the consequences of our actions and publicly stated that we support holding a referendum in Beijing. The Beijing Municipal Government
The people have one vote, and in the end, the votes will speak. It will be supervised by representatives of the League of Nations and the press corps of various countries to see whether the people in Beijing are willing to be citizens of the Ming Dynasty now, or whether they are willing to follow Mu Hu and become citizens of a 'republic'. This can bring everyone's
Their mouths are blocked. Moreover, self-determination of national ownership in disputed areas is also in line with international practice."
Shen Rongxuan did not comment, but looked around and said with a smile:
"What do you think?"
Foreign Minister He Ziguang spoke:
"Master Li, hehe, I have a different view than you. This method is not bad in itself. As you said, it can silence everyone, and it is basically certain that Mu Hu cannot win. But now this method is still not good.
It's too early. The current situation has not reached that point yet. Lao Cao believes that we should firmly adhere to the principle of "the country must not be divided" and not get involved in the rest. Mr. Li is right, Mu Hu
Those people know how to be tough
There is no chance of winning. Now he is hoping that we will argue with him. Then he will still have a lot of capital. Didn't Mu Hu say that he will not resist? Well, we should directly send troops into the city now and take control of Beijing. As for you
How about Mu Hu's reform plan? After we take control of Beijing, we can still study it together. If it is good, we will still adopt it. However, now we want to use the city of Beijing to blackmail us and split the country, that is not possible!
"
After He Ziguang finished speaking, many ministers nodded in agreement. Shen Rongxuan also smiled and nodded:
"That's what I mean too."
Zhu Yourong, who was sitting in the chief position, had not said a word from beginning to end. Now, she hesitated and nodded. However, she always felt in her heart that there seemed to be something missing in the discussion among these ministers. In other words, they were deliberately avoiding it. Some kind of content. Zhu Yourong also wanted to interrupt several times, but for some reason, he never had the courage.
…
The next day, on the morning of March 6, an official car gradually approached the Beijing city wall from a distance. There was also a flag on the car, flapping fiercely in the wind.
The Imperial Guards stationed on the walls of Beijing became nervous and fired their heavy machine guns at the same time, aiming at the car. A platoon leader stood on the top of the city and saw through the telescope that there were four people sitting in the officer's car. , one of them is an officer, they are all in Ming army uniform. The small flag flying on the car is not a white flag, but the Ming army flag.
In this posture, they were obviously here to negotiate. Moreover, they had already passed through the position of the Eight Banners Army, and it was obvious that they were let in from the front. But according to the rules, negotiations must be carried out with a white flag. This car did not even fly a white flag. Just drove right over.
The Ming and Qing Dynasties did not formally sign any armistice document, which means that even shooting is justified now.
However, the platoon leader in charge of this section did not dare to order shooting. He held his binoculars and stared nervously at the Ming Army officer's car driving closer and closer until it was still a few hundred meters away, then he bravely shouted :
"No firing! No firing at all! ...Whoever dares to open fire, I will kill him!"
Even if he is a platoon leader, he can figure out the reason: 80% of it is a flaw sold by the Ming army, which leads the Qing army to take the initiative to attack, and then the Ming army has reason to attack Beijing...
Several eyes and muzzles on the city wall kept watching the car as it drove under the city gate, then stopped and honked the horn impatiently.
The platoon leader of the Praetorian Guard shouted down:
"What are you doing? Are you here to negotiate?"
The Ming army driver below honked the horn again, raised his head and shouted:
"No, I'm here to give you an ultimatum!"
"Ultimatum?" the Qing army platoon leader shouted down, "What is an ultimatum?"
There was a burst of laughter below the city gate.
Then, the Ming army officer smiled and said:
"The ultimatum is to give you a certain amount of time to do something, otherwise, we will do something to you! This is called an ultimatum! Do you understand? Open the city gate!"
A group of Qing soldiers at the top of the city looked at each other. After a few seconds, the platoon leader shouted:
"Open the city gate!"
…
In a waiting room at the Imperial Guard Headquarters, the Ming Army captain sat upright on the sofa with his briefcase under his arm.
The door opened.
The captain of the Ming Army turned his head to look, but he did not see Mu Hu. Instead, a group of foreign reporters rushed in and surrounded the captain, shouting in all kinds of broken Chinese at the same time. Several spotlights also "bang bang bang" "The ground flashed, and for a moment the room was filled with choking white smoke.
"Mr. Captain, would you like to ask if your army accepts General Mu's suggestion?"
"Mr. Captain, I heard that you are here to deliver an ultimatum?"
"Does this mean that Ming Dynasty rejected General Mu's request for democratic reforms?"
"Do you now think that the famous saying of Her Majesty the Queen is empty talk?"
…
The captain of the Ming Army had never seen such a large formation, and he did not expect to be suddenly surrounded by a large group of foreign reporters in the headquarters. At this time, he panicked and was at a loss.
At the end of the group of reporters, Mu Hu came in with a smile.
The captain of the Ming Army caught a glimpse of him, stood up immediately, pushed through the group of reporters, and shouted:
"General Mu! I am here to talk to the general on behalf of our army, and I also want to submit a document to..."
Mu Hu chuckled and said:
"Okay, what do you want to talk about? Let's talk. What documents should I submit? Submit it. Right here, in front of the eyes of people all over the world, we will talk openly."