Page:China Under the Empress Dowager - ed. Backhouse and Bland - 1914.pdf/183

 had already realised that he must now reckon with the Old Buddha's uncompromising opposition; quite recently she had severely rebuked him for even noticing K'ang Yu-wei's suggestion that he should act more on his own authority. Jung Lu, he knew, would always loyally support his imperial mistress; and there was not one prominent Manchu in the Empire, and, as far as Peking was concerned, hardly a Chinese, who would dare to oppose the Old Buddha, if once she declared herself actively on the side of reaction. The only two high officials in Peking on whom he could confidently reckon for sympathy and support were the Cantonese Chang Yin-huan, and Li Tuan-fen, a native of Kueichou. But if he could obtain control of the Northern foreign-drilled army, the reactionary party might yet be overthrown. To secure this end it was essential that Jung Lu, the Governor-General of Chihli and Commander-in-Chief of the foreign-drilled forces, should be put out of the way, and this before the Empress could be warned of the plot. The Emperor therefore proposed to have Jung Lu put to death in his Yamên at Tientsin, and then swiftly to bring a force of 10,000 of his disciplined troops to the capital, who would confine the Empress Dowager to the Summer Palace. At the same time the most prominent reactionaries in Peking, i.e. Kang Yi, Yü Lu, Huai Ta Pu and Hsü Ying-ku'ei were to be seized at their residence and hurried off to the prison of the Board of Punishments. This was the scheme suggested by K'ang Yu-wei, the Censor Yang Shen-hsiu, and the secretaries of the Grand Council, T'an Ssu-t'ung, Lin-Hsü, Yang Jui, and Liu Kuang-ti. At this first audience Yüan Shih-k'ai was informed of the Emperor's determination to maintain and enforce his reform policy, and was asked whether he would be loyal to his sovereign if placed in command of a large force of troops. "Your servant will endeavour to recompense the Imperial favour," he replied, “even though his merit be only as a drop of water in the ocean or a grain of sand in the desert; he will faithfully perform the service of a dog or a horse while there remains breath in his body."