personal prestige or his influence at Court. As a
result of this audience the Emperor was completely won
over by Yüan's professed interest in the cause of reform,
and was convinced that in him he had secured a powerful
supporter. His Majesty had already realised that he must
now reckon with the Old Buddha's uncompromising opposi-
tion; 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 there-
fore 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 T'a Pu and Hsü Ying-ku'ei were to be
seized at their residences 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

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