Chapter 38: A sudden appearance of a beauty on the road

  Xie Yuanda laughed loudly: "Liu Guandai, sand table exercises are for actual combat! Currently in the world, my Great Qing's number one enemy is the Westerners, so the imaginary enemy of the exercise should naturally be the Westerners!"

  "This...” Liu Buxian found it hard to refute, as the whole country looked down on the little Japanese, and the focus of national defense, especially coastal defense, was indeed aimed at Westerners. Moreover, in the recently concluded Sino-French War, the Qing Empire had suffered greatly at the hands of the French, and both the imperial court and local governments regarded the French as their number one enemy.

  Min Hui continued: "Whether it is the Tianjin Military Academy or the Beiyang Navy, they are all the elite of our great Qing country and should take the basic national policy of our great Qing country as the basis for military training! So, Li Zhongtang's examination questions, the Blue Army is Westerners, Zhou Xuanzhang, what makes you say that the landing troops mainly use mountain guns?"

  Ye Kung had just been defeated by Zhou Xuanzhang and lost face in front of Li Hongzhang, he was feeling downcast, but as soon as he heard Min Hui's words, he became excited: "Right, the princess is right! We were all deceived by Zhou Xuanzhang! The armies of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia are all equipped with wheel-style field artillery, which can't even march in mountainous terrain!"

  Min Hui said: "Since the Westerners' army is mainly composed of field artillery, it is impossible for the Blue Army to gather so many large cannons under the gate of Rongcheng City. Without heavy artillery, the Blue Army cannot capture Rongcheng City, and they cannot even attack Weihaiwei!"

  Ye Qiong was overjoyed: "What a brilliant plan! The Blue Army will surely be intercepted by our Red Army at the foot of Rong City and fall into the encirclement of our relief troops, ultimately leading to their complete defeat! You are truly a heroine with both literary and military talents, just like Mu Guiying and Hua Mulan of our great Qing dynasty. I am deeply impressed and pay my respects to you from the bottom of my heart. It is indeed a blessing for our great Qing dynasty to have someone as talented as you!"

  Ye Qiong's flattery was nauseating, Min Hui frowned and said coldly: "I am not Hua Mulan or Mu Guiying, I am just a princess. This Zhou Xuan Zhang arbitrarily changes the basic national policy of my Qing Dynasty, deceives the public, and confuses the people with his evil words. You, the generals of the Qing Dynasty, actually turn a blind eye to this, and even praise him as a hero! And you want to recruit him into the Beiyang Navy as an officer! In my opinion, Zhou Xuan Zhang is not a hero, on the contrary, he is a spy for the Westerners!"

  Ye Qiong waved his arm and shouted loudly: "Gegi Yingming, this Zhou Xianzhang deserves to be beheaded, announce it to the nine borders!"

  As soon as Ye Kui's voice fell, a chorus of approval rose from the hall. The generals who had just lost Weihaiwei and were feeling disheartened, suddenly regained their spirits, indignation filled their chests, and they strongly demanded that Zhou Xuanzhang be executed to rectify the situation.

  Zhou Xuan Zhang led the Blue Army to victory over the Red Army, but this was based on the Japanese army's main artillery being field guns, which made the Blue Army seem like Westerners. This basis no longer exists. Zhou Xuan Zhang's victory instantly turned into nothingness.

  Although Zhenxiu's words were strong and unreasonable, they helped Li Zhongtang get out of trouble.

  Zhou Xuzhang easily defeated the so-called "Eastern Fortress" of Weihaiwei with only 4,000 men, greatly embarrassing Li Hongzhang and giving the Qing loyalists led by Weng Tonghe a handle to attack Li Hongzhang. A military exercise turned into a political struggle.

  Min Zhenyi stepped out to prove that Zhou Xuanzhang's victory was a pack of lies, Weihaiwei would not be lost, on the contrary, the Beiyang Army would inevitably be annihilated. As a result, Li Hongzhang regained his face, and Weng Tonghe had nothing to say.

  The generals present knew that Zuo was being unreasonable, but they were all promoted by Li Hongzhang, so they had to maintain the dignity of Li Zhongtang.

  In the Great Qing Empire, being a good general requires military skills that are secondary, what's important is understanding politics!

  Li Hongzhang is a high-ranking official in the imperial court, while Zhou Xianzhang is an insignificant elementary school student. Even a fool can see who's more important.

  Everyone followed Min Wei's words and criticized Zhou Xunzhang.

  Weng Tonghe and his Qingliu faction officials remained silent. Weng Tonghe was well aware that the open and secret struggles between the Qingliu faction and the Yangwu faction had not yet reached the point of tearing their faces apart, and Minzhu Gege was clearly here to help Li Hongzhang out of trouble. If Minzhu Gege took action, it would be the Empress Dowager's intention, at least related to Prince Gong. At this time, if they protected Zhou Xianzhang, it would be openly breaking with Li Hongzhang and offending Prince Gong or the Empress Dowager, which would be very unwise.

  Only Liu Buxian hung his head and did not speak, with a despondent expression.

  Actually, Mian Yu Ge Ge suddenly appeared halfway and had nothing to do with Queen Dowager Chun or Old Buddha, she purely wanted Zhou Xuan Zhang's head.

  In the reception hall, Min Hui was seen by Zhou Xuan Zhang and was left with no dignity. As a princess, she suffered this humiliation for no reason, and her anger was unbearable. She decided to behead Zhou Xuan Zhang to vent her hatred.

  Unexpectedly, just as he was about to tear Zhou Xuanzhang in two, Cui suddenly burst in, declaring that he would take Zhou Xuanzhang away and behead him.

  If Cui Bo really cut off Zhou Xuan Zhang, he could keep his reputation without Gigi having to take action herself, which would be a good thing that kills two birds with one stone.

  Choi took Zhou Xuanzhang away, and Min Hui stayed in the room, feeling more and more uneasy.

  She was afraid of having too many dreams at night, and even more afraid that Zhou Xuan Zhang would come to a dead pig who wasn't afraid of boiling water. At the moment of his death, he would shout out the fact that he had secretly watched her take a bath. If this matter were to be known by people all over the world, she, as a princess, would have no way to continue being one.

  So, Min Xiu let Cherry wear the uniform of the Beiyang Fleet and ran to the drill ground to gather information.

  Cherry went away for a while and came back to report that Zhou Xuanzhang not only wasn't beheaded, but on the contrary, he achieved a great victory in the sand table operation, which means Li Zhongtang is going to reuse him.

  This news was like a bolt from the blue, shocking and stunning everyone.

  Minu feared that Zhou Xuanzhang was still alive, as long as Zhou Xuanzhang was alive, he might open his big mouth and proclaim everywhere, making Minu's jade body public.

  Gegi's jade body was stolen away by someone, which is equivalent to her reputation being robbed away!

  She decisively took off the numbered uniform she had been wearing and changed into a Manchu dress, then bravely rushed into the martial arts hall. She wanted to force Li Hongzhang to kill Zhou Xuanzhang in her capacity as a princess.

  This is Gege's willfulness, in her mind, Gege's reputation is above everything, the life of a primary school student, in front of Gege's reputation, means nothing. She didn't even think about what it means to kill someone.

  Although Mian Xiu was just a little girl, she wasn't too unfamiliar with fighting and killing enemies on the battlefield. In her daily life, she liked to dance with swords and spears, and had spent some time in the Beiyang Navy, so she still had some basic military knowledge.

  All the way, she let Cherry describe the process of doing sand tray work in detail. She was clever and immediately grasped Zhou Xianzhang's weakness - assuming the enemy was Oriental rather than Western.

  This imaginary enemy led to Zhou Xuanzhang's great victory, and the key to victory lay in the dispute between mountain guns and field guns.

  Minxiang replaced the imaginary enemy with Westerners, completely removing Zhou Xuanzhang's basis for victory. Minxiang can then rightfully accuse Zhou Xuanzhang of spreading rumors and deceiving the people.

  Originally, Min Heng's reason was extremely far-fetched, but it happened to get Li Hongzhang out of trouble and immediately received strong support from the crowd.

  The wall fell and everyone pushed, Zhou Xuanzhang closed his eyes in despair.

  He proved his strength with a victory, but offended the powerful minister Li Hongzhang of the imperial court. In the reception hall, he also seriously offended the noble and arrogant princess. One was a high-ranking official of the imperial court who had the power to decide life and death with just one word, and the other was a proud and arrogant princess, both of whom wanted his head, where could he still have a way out?