Chapter 45 Starting (5)

Wang Tao walked lonely on the streets of Tianjin, and the people busy with life on the street had nothing to do with him. What he had learned for many years seemed to be wasted at this moment. The lack of access to the country was the greatest pain in his life.

A month ago, Wang Tao, who forgot about longing, thought that based on his talent and understanding of Western culture, he should be favored by the court, and perhaps he would be valued. If he was not good, he could still find a job and work for the country, right? It was ridiculous that Yikuang, a dignified prince and military minister. Wang Tao came to the door to offer advice. The slave at the door was vicious and actually let the dog bite people. And Yikuang, Wang Tao blocked the sedan chair on the road and wrote a letter, but he only got Yikuang's words: "I'm a dog-Han again, and you all messed up the affairs of the court." Then he was confused.

After being beaten away by sticks, Wang Tao wrote about the country's rule that Wang Tao wrote for three days was thrown on the ground as garbage and ruthlessly trampled by the sedan chair carrier and horse. Wang Tao, who was unwilling to accept it, heard that the military minister and the new army leader Yang Yi was a man who cherished talents, so he found Yang Yi's mansion. The family members in front of Yang Yi's mansion were very polite and told Wang Tao that Yang Yi would go out for inspection, and he didn't know when he would come back. Wang Tao waited in Beijing for half a month, and spent most of the money in his pocket. Seeing that the travel expenses to go home had become a problem, he had to leave Beijing and return to his relative's house in Shanghai.

Misfortune never comes alone, wealth never comes together. When we walk to Tianjin, Wang Tao, who is disappointed and sad, gets seriously ill. He consumes all his money and only half of his illness is cured. The abominable store owner is about to drive people away. Helplessly, Wang Tao has to walk along the streets of Tianjin with his luggage on his back.

Wang Tao touched his shriveled pocket and looked at the steaming buns in the bun shop on the street, and couldn't help swallowing. Wang Tao, who had weak legs, stopped in front of the bun shop and could no longer move. Wang Tao pinched the pocket on his chest with his hand. The Swiss-made pocket watch was still walking faithfully. The regular ticking sound was not proportional to the beating of his heart. Wang Tao felt that this pocket watch might be his last life-saving straw, but it was a pity that this watch, and I was sorry for Mr. Jason who gave him this watch back then.

Wang Tao looked around, hoping to find a pawnshop. Finally, he found a "dang" flag dancing in the wind at the corner of the street. Wang Tao moved his footsteps hard to walk towards the pawnshop. The pawnshop flag kept shaking in Wang Tao's eyes. A dizzy feeling rushed over. Wang Tao fell heavily to the ground and knew nothing.

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"You're awake. This is great. I'll tell the lady later." This is the first sentence Wang Tao heard after waking up, but Wang Tao didn't understand it at the first time, because the woman who was talking was a foreign woman with a high nose and blue eyes, and she was half-familiar with Chinese language. After the woman finished speaking, she gently helped Wang Tao up from the bed and brought a bowl of water to feed Wang Tao. The water flowed in Wang Tao's hot throat. Wang Tao greedily drank all the bowl of water, and then said to the woman: "Thank you." This time, Wang

Tao spoke English. "Oh, you can speak English, that's great." The woman showed a happy smile. Wang Tao felt that this smile was sincere, a kind of joy from the bottom of his heart. But this woman was still speaking Chinese, which made Wang Tao very depressed. In his opinion, this woman might as well speak English to him to make it sound easier. After serving Wang Tao to drink water, the woman touched Wang Tao's forehead, put a pillow on Wang Tao's back, and said to Wang Tao: "You no longer have a fever, I'll inform the lady now."

Wang Tao slowly looked at the room he was in, and in a daze, he heard the woman say something about the lady. Wang Tao secretly wondered why Chinese ladies are popular with foreign maids now, which is a bit unreasonable. The bad habits of scholars have also been violated by Wang Tao at this time. The story of a talented man and a beautiful woman mentioned in the play began to emerge in Wang Tao's mind. Maybe this is a story of Duan Jia.

The door was opened again, and three people came in outside the door, a man in his thirties, a foreign woman in his forties, and the young foreign woman just now. The Chinese lady Wang Tao was looking forward to did not appear.

"Hello, I am Miss Nightingale. Congratulations on your safety and improvement. You have been in a coma for three days in a row. God bless you." Nightingale smiled and explained in elegant English like Wang Tao.

"Nightingale?" Wang Tao felt very familiar with the name, and soon it was reflected, it was the British saint in the army. How did she come to China? No matter how confused she was, Wang Tao still struggled to sit up and thank others for their life-saving grace.

"You are still very weak, lie down." Nightingale stopped Wang Tao's efforts and tucked the quilt for Wang Tao.

"Thank you very much for saving me." Wang Tao thanked me thanked:

"No, no, no, you should thank him. His gentleman carried you back from the street." Nightingale said and pointed to the man beside him. Then Wang Tao looked at the man carefully, and then said, "My benefactor's kindness to save his life, Wang Tao will never forget it. It will be a reward for it every day."

"You're welcome, you'd better take care of your illness. When the illness is cured, I have something to do and I have to leave first." As he said that, the man was about to go out.

Wang Tao shouted hurriedly: "My benefactor walks slowly and leave his name, so Wang Tao will be rewarded in the future." The man seemed to have no intention of turning back. Wang Tao was anxious and was about to get up as he said. The young foreign woman quickly persuaded in English: "Sir, don't worry, this person is easy to find, and Chinese people know him."

"Oh Miss, you don't know. Chinese people pay attention to life-saving grace, like rebirth of parents, so I must know who my benefactor is." Wang Tao spoke in English, and he spoke quickly and quickly. After saying that, he shouted loudly: "My benefactor, stay!"

The man who had already reached the mouth of every year slowly turned around, walked to Wang Tao's bed, stared at Wang Tao and said, "Your name is Wang Tao?"

Wang Tao was confused by the stare and replied subconsciously: "Yes."

"You know English? Well, let me think about it, you should still speak French, right?" The man smiled happily, as if he had found some treasure.

Wang Tao was even more confused. How did this person know that he could speak French? He has never seen this person in Shanghai for many years. Wang Tao nodded dizzyly. The man smiled even brighter and reached out to Wang Tao and said, "I am Yang Yi, I'm very happy to know you."

Yang Yi's words were like thunder sounding in half a day, which shocked Wang Tao on the spot. Wang Tao went to Beijing and couldn't see Yang Yi, but he didn't expect to see Yang Yi here. He said that it was Wang Tao's luck that Yang Yi rushed back to Beijing and arrived in Tianjin. He was worried about the railway construction project of Beijing-Tianjin-Dagukou, so he decided to stay in Tianjin for a few days. Coincidentally, Yang Yi had just arrived in Tianjin and saw Wang Tao who had fallen sick on the street. It happened that Yang Yi was planning to visit Nightingale, who was running a nursing training class in Tianjin. After saving Wang Tao, he sent it here. Wang Tao became a living textbook for this nursing training class these days. What's more coincidental is that Yang Yi had inspected the construction of the railway project and planned to return to Beijing today to say goodbye to Nightingale. He heard that the person he saved woke up, so he came to take a look.

There may be many Chinese names named Yang Yi, but with such a demeanor, only one who knows Nightingale. Wang Tao clearly knows who he is facing? He didn't dare to hold Yang Yi's hand, after all, he is not interested in this with Chinese people of the age.

"Caomin, please forgive me for not being able to stand up and perform rituals." Wang Tao sat on the bed and lowered his head hard.

Yang Yi looked nothing on the surface, but he was so excited that he shouted secretly: "Luck, Luck." This time he went to Shanghai, he sent someone to find Wang Tao, but his relatives said that Wang Tao went out. Yang Yi was a little disappointed. When he first heard Wang Tao mention his name, Yang Yi didn't think anything. There were too many Chinese names that read "wangtao", but Wang Tao, who can speak English and French, is the only one.

Wang Tao in history is a personal figure. From 1858 to 1862, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied Jiangnan. Although Wang Tao, who was a translator in Shanghai, did a good job, the Chinese literati's pursuit of fame made Wang Tao feel that this was a good opportunity to make a name for himself. He wrote letters to the Qing Dynasty's chief officials and gave advice on how to pacify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Unfortunately, all Wang Tao's letters were sank to the sea. In disappointment, Wang Tao's pseudonym was given to Li Xiucheng of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

I gave an idea and suggested that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom slow down the attack on Shanghai, build up Britain and France, and consolidate the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Li Xiucheng had not received this letter. In March 1862, the battle of Wangjia Temple in Shanghai, the Taiping Army was defeated. This letter fell into the hands of Xue Huan and Li Hongzhang, which scared them at that time. Fortunately, the Taiping Army did not follow the method in this letter, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable. (Wang Tao was originally named Wang Han, and in order to facilitate writing, he used his last name in history.)

Later, Wang Tao was wanted by the Qing government and forced to go abroad. In 1874, he opened the first Chinese newspaper, "Round Daily", in Hong Kong. "Round Daily" dared to discuss social ills and actively criticized current affairs. Its content was often reprinted by newspapers within. In the future, most newspapers run by the Reform Party inherited the style of "Round Daily".

History was changed due to the emergence of Yang Yi, and Wang Tao also embarked on the road of going to Beijing and studying. His fate made him and Yang Yi meet unexpectedly at the intersection of history.

"Recover well. When you get better, I will arrange someone to send you to Beijing. I will have a good talk with you. I know that you are a talented person and have many thoughts in your heart. I will not let you down." This was what Yang Yi told Wang Tao before leaving.

Yang Yi left and had to leave. There were too many things. There were still a city of wind and rain waiting for Yang Yi in Beijing.

Wang Tao was already crying when he sat on the bed. A scholar died for his confidant. For a declining literati like Wang Tao, what is more important than what Yang Yi said or done? Wang Tao felt that he could not repay his life-saving grace and the virtue of knowing the encounter.

Beijing, these days, Cixi has been in a state of extreme anxiety, anxious and contradictory. Taking advantage of Yang Yi's absence, letting Yikuang and other Manchu nobles re-enter the government again, which was a gamble for Cixi. Cixi was not willing to turn against Yang Yi and felt a fear of Yang Yi from the bottom of her heart. Even when Yang Yi was crying softly, Cixi still had the shadow of Yang Yi. On the night when Chengde and Yang Yi first met, they appeared in Cixi's dream countless times. Yang Yi's ruthless rejection of herself made Cixi extremely unconfident in front of Yang Yi. Even if Yang Yi accepted her and had a husband and wife later, Cixi still did not have confidence. How much weight does she have in Yang Yi's mind? This is what Cixi wants to know the most. In order to know this, Cixi did not hesitate to risk going against Yang Yi.

Another thing that Cixi himself did not notice was that there was a kind of fanaticism about power hidden deep in Cixi. At that time, the pioneer emperor often asked Cixi to review memorials on his behalf, and Cixi often gained a sense of pleasure from it. This pleasure was so wonderful. Cixi often recalled the pleasure brought by this pleasure again and again in her dreams.

Cixi was testing, testing Yang Yi's bottom line of tolerance for her, but this test did not seem to have any good results. Although Yang Yi had not returned to Beijing, some subtle changes had begun to appear in the palace. The guards at the gate of the palace had been strengthened. Cixi had no way to approach any outsider except for attending court every day. Even when attending court, she was stared at by more than a dozen eyes. Cixi felt the crisis, but now she could only wait. However, Cixi was very smart. She knew clearly that Yang Yi would not do anything to her at this time.

.The ministers in the court were divided into three categories. One category was basically promoted by Yang Yi. These people were all talents who were not valued in the past. They were definitely on Yang Yi's side. The other category was some old ministers of the Qing Dynasty. They were always the emperor. However, these people accounted for a very small number. There were also the Han ministers headed by Zeng Guofan, who accounted for one-third of the court. The Han ministers were Cixi's greatest support, and they still followed the emperor's orthodox leadership in their bones. This was also the greatest capital for Cixi to dare to test Yang Yi.

But while Cixi was waiting for conflict and fear, a conspiracy against Yang Yi was unfolding, and it also pushed Cixi completely to the opposite side of Yang Yi, which was unexpected by Cixi.

---……….

Beijing, in the palace of Yikuang.

"Prince, should you communicate with the Queen Mother first when doing this?" A man from black charity said to Yikuang worriedly.

"There is no time. As soon as Yang Yi returned to Beijing, as soon as he entered the palace, you old brothers will take action. Humph! The Empress Dowager has long made Yang Yi feel too comfortable, so how could he agree to us do this? If it succeeds this time, I will be the first to deal with this slut." Yikuang cursed fiercely.

Yang Yi finally returned to Beijing. Yang Yi returned to Beijing The first thing he did was to enter the palace. Yang Yi hoped that Cixi would not completely go to her opposite. After all, it was not the real time. But is the result that Yang Yi hoped would appear? Yang Yi didn't know.
Chapter completed!