Three days later, Zhao Weizhong arranged all the affairs of the family, bid farewell to the traverser, and came to Dagukou. The ship prepared for him by the traverser was the torpedo destroyer Hailong, which originally belonged to the Beiyang Naval Division, and sent 20 soldiers from the former Beiyang Naval Division to escort Zhao Weizhong south to Shanghai.

The Sea Dragon was fast and traveled day and night, so it only stayed on board for one day, and arrived at the Shanghai dock in the afternoon of the next day.

As soon as Zhao Weizhong landed ashore, he was greeted by the people sent by Li Hongzhang to wait by the dock, and after the two sides informed each other of their identities and origins, the people sent by Li Hongzhang immediately asked Zhao Weizhong to board the carriage that had been prepared and left. The crew who escorted Zhao Weizhong was entertained by another person.

The carriage pulled Zhao Weizhong to Li Hongzhang's mansion in Shanghai, in front of Lilac Villa. The family members guarding the door immediately greeted him, took Zhao Weizhong from the carriage, and led him into the gate.

When he came to the house, Zhao Weizhong found that there were five people in the house, and it was Li Hongzhang who sat in the center on the sofa in the middle, and Zhou Fu and Sheng Xuanhuai sat on the sofa on both sides. Behind Li Hongzhang, there are one person on the left and one on the right, the person on the left is slightly shorter and slightly fat, about forty-five or sixteen years old, and looks quite shrewd, while the person on the right is thin, about fifty years old, and looks like a scribe.

Zhao Weizhong knew both of these people, and the slightly chubby man on the left was Li Hongzhang's eldest son Li Jingfang, who was originally the son of Li Hongzhang's sixth brother Li Zhaoqing, and later passed on to Li Hongzhang as the eldest son. After becoming an adult, he followed Li Hongzhang to engage in various major issues of domestic and foreign affairs, and later served as a counselor to the United States minister, and successively served as a minister to Japan, basically engaged in diplomatic activities, and was also a good diplomat, after the First Sino-Japanese War, he assisted Li Hongzhang to negotiate with Japan in Shimonoseki, mainly as Li Hongzhang's assistant.

The thin person on the right is Li Hongzhang's son-in-law Zhang Peilun, he was born in the tenth year of Tongzhi (1871) Xin Weike Erjia Jinshi, in his early years was a member of the Qingliu Party, and Zhang Zhidong, Chen Baochen, and Baoting are called the four Cambodians of the Chunliu, good at acupuncture and disadvantages, discussing political affairs, and impeaching ministers. At the beginning of the Sino-French War, Zhang Peilun strongly advocated the war against France, and was appointed to handle Fujian's maritime affairs, and concurrently served as the Minister of Shipping, responsible for Fujian's military affairs. As a result, the Battle of Majiang was defeated, the Fujian Navy Division was destroyed, and the Mawei shipyard was destroyed. Zhang Peilun was also sent to the military station to atone for his crimes due to dereliction of duty, and was sent to Chaharcha, Handarahai, Zhangjiakou and other places. Three years later, after returning to Beijing, he was put into Li Hongzhang's curtain, in charge of clerical work, his original wife was dead, Li Hongzhang cherished Zhang Peilun's talent and learning, and married his daughter Li Jurong to Zhang Peilun as a continuation, after which Zhang Peilun ceased to be an official, and only worked under Li Hongzhang's curtain.

Zhao Weizhong stepped forward a few steps, saluted Li Hongzhang, and said, "I've seen Lord Zhongtang." Then he gave the others a salute.

Li Hongzhang nodded and said, "Wei Zhong has worked hard all the way, sit down and talk." ”

Zhao Weizhong was quite flattered when he heard this, it can be said that the four people present are Li Hongzhang's henchmen, and they are all people with considerable weight in the Qing court, Zhao Weizhong only looks up, and it is not easy to see one before. Not to mention that he could sit and talk to them, so he hurriedly thanked Li Hongzhang and sat down on a chair next to the sofa. However, he did not dare to lean on the back of the chair in a big way, but sat respectfully and precariously.

Li Hongzhang said: "This time in the northern turmoil, you can keep safe, it's not easy, is your family okay? I remember you have a daughter." ”

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly leaned on the chair and said: "Back to Lord Zhongtang, Lord Zhongtang remembers well, the villain does have a daughter, thanks to the blessing of Lord Zhongtang, although he was a little frightened, but it is finally a safe family." ”

Li Hongzhang sighed and said: "State affairs are so difficult, although the old man is in Shanghai, he is not worried about the current state affairs day and night, yesterday the imperial court called again to urge the old man to go north and negotiate with the foreigners, but now the situation is so erosive, is it so easy to talk about? If the imperial court had listened to the old man's words earlier, the state affairs would never have come to such a point, and now such a mess is left for the old man to clean up, what can the old man do?" As he spoke, Li Hongzhang's voice was a little choked.

Zhao Weizhong listened, and couldn't help but feel sad in his heart, and glanced at Li Hongzhang again, only to feel that Lord Zhongtang was already old, and his face was sick, and he was no longer the wind of the year, and said busily: "Lord Zhongtang, please take care of your health." ”

Li Jingfang also persuaded: "Yes, father, now in the autumn of national crisis, the safety of the world is all in my father's body, and the court still expects my father to turn the tide, so I also ask my father to take care of his health." ”

Li Hongzhang smiled bitterly and said: "What is the power to turn the tide, it sounds good, but it is just to sell my old face, go to the foreigners to complain, protect the court, and be able to cut less land and lose less silver, it is good, 'There is no clown after Yang San, Mr. Li Er is a traitor', I am afraid I can't take off my infamy." ”

Zhou Fu and Sheng Xuanhuai got up at the same time and said, "Lord Zhongtang." ”

Li Jingfang and Zhang Peilun also left and right, and said: "Father (father-in-law)." ”

And Zhao Weizhong also hurriedly got up from the chair, stood with his hands down, bowed his head and said nothing.

Li Hongzhang also realized that he was a little out of shape at this time, waved his hand, and said, "Sit down, it's all your own people, don't be restrained." ”

After everyone sat down again, Zhang Peilun said: "Father-in-law, I don't think the current situation may be unbearable, it's not that there is a group of overseas Chinese who want to return to China, and the foreigners have suffered a big loss at their hands, and even Tianjin has been lost. As he spoke, he glanced at Zhao Weizhong again and said, "Isn't Weizhong from Tianjin? I heard that he still has some friendship with this group of overseas Chinese, but I don't know if it is or not." ”

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly said: "Uncle is right, the villain does have some relationship with these overseas Chinese, for more than a month, the villain has been getting along with them, this time the villain father and daughter were able to get away with it, it is also thanks to these overseas Chinese who rescued him, and this time the villain came to Shanghai, they also asked the villain to greet Lord Zhongtang on their behalf." ”

In fact, just now, everyone was waiting for Zhao Weizhong's words, and Li Jingfang immediately said: "Weizhong, in addition to greeting my father, do overseas Chinese have anything to tell my father?"

Zhao Weizhong shook his head and said, "Back to the Grand Duke, no." ”

Li Jingfang asked again: "Then do you have a letter for you to send to your father?"

Zhao Weizhong said: "Not either." ”

Li Jingfang was stunned and couldn't help but be surprised. It turned out that since receiving Zhao Weizhong's telegram and knowing that he was coming to Shanghai, the whole Shanghai was immediately alarmed, and the consuls of various countries and the Qing court officials in Shanghai were waiting for Zhao Weizhong to arrive. Because everyone believes that Zhao Weizhong must have come to Shanghai with some intention of this group of overseas Chinese, it is possible to understand the purpose and next step of this group of overseas Chinese through Zhao Weizhong, and it is even possible to test whether this group of overseas Chinese has the intention of negotiating with other countries.

And Li Hongzhang and others even decided that Zhao Weizhong must have brought letters or oral messages from overseas Chinese to express their intentions to Li Hongzhang, but it was not good to ask directly, so they pulled out a lot of nonsense, and everyone even complained that Zhao Weizhong was too ignorant, why did he delay getting to the point, so he had to beat around the bush to get involved with overseas Chinese, but in the end he got such a plan.

At this time, everyone couldn't help but be stunned and dumbfounded, and they were a little at a loss, and even Li Hongzhang was greatly surprised, what exactly did this group of overseas Chinese plan to do? Send Zhao Weizhong to Shanghai, but they didn't ask him to bring a piece of paper.

Li Jingfang was still a little reluctant, and asked again: "Do they really have no words for you to convey?"

Zhao Weizhong nodded and said, "Back to the eldest prince, the villain also asked these overseas Chinese before leaving, but they clearly told the villain that they did not have any words and letters for the villain to convey to Zhongtang. ”

When Li Jingfang heard this, he couldn't help but be disappointed, and said, "So what did they ask you to do in Shanghai?"

Zhao Weizhong was stunned for a moment, and said: "When the villain was leaving, he had seen one of the leaders of the overseas Chinese, this person's surname was Qin Mingzheng, the official name was the political commissar, he told the villain that the overseas Chinese have nothing to do, after the villain came to Shanghai, what the Lord Zhongtang asked, the villain answered, there can be no concealment, and there can be no decoration, all answered truthfully." ”

Hearing this, Li Hongzhang's eyebrows raised slightly, after all, he is a person who has been in officialdom for a long time, and at this time he finally understands the intentions of this group of overseas Chinese, they are waiting for the foreigners here in Shanghai to send people to Tianjin to talk with them, or wait for the foreigners here to first ask for armistice negotiations.

Dealing with diplomatic negotiation affairs was one of Li Hongzhang's main tasks when he was the minister of Beiyang and the governor of Zhili, although in China in this era, it was a thankless task to do diplomatic negotiations, and he signed a large number of indemnity and land cession treaties, so that Li Hongzhang was infamous as a traitor, but it did allow Li Hongzhang to accumulate a lot of experience in diplomatic negotiations.

In diplomatic negotiations, there are two important principles: First, if one side enters into negotiations in the area controlled by that side, then that side is the leader of the negotiations and is the stronger side; and the other is that the side that first asks for armistice talks means that this side is at a disadvantage and is actually ready to admit defeat. Obviously, this group of overseas Chinese hopes to let the foreigners take the initiative to ask for negotiations and send people to Tianjin to negotiate, so that the overseas Chinese can occupy a dominant position in the negotiations, and Zhao Weizhong's role is only to lead the way between the overseas Chinese and Shanghai, so naturally he will not bring anything to say.

After thinking this out, Li Hongzhang couldn't help but reassess this group of overseas Chinese, because he thought that this group of overseas Chinese was just relying on strong ships and guns, fast guns, and strong military strength, and he didn't expect that they were so clear about the rules of negotiation between other countries, and it seemed that they were not just brave and strong.