After Yu Lianyuan and Sheng Xuanhuai said goodbye to Li Hongzhang and left, Zhang Peilun and Li Jingfang immediately surrounded them, and Zhang Peilun said: "Father-in-law, overseas Chinese have called back and invited Peilun to Tianjin again, I don't know how my father-in-law thinks he should respond." ”

It turned out that after the Battle of Qingdao ended, Li Hongzhang roughly judged the intention of the traverser, so he immediately asked Zhang Peilun to send a telegram to Tianjin in his personal name to test the attitude of overseas Chinese.

As early as before the Battle of Shandong, Zhang Peilun had sent a telegram to Tianjin, requesting to visit Tianjin again, and wanted to negotiate peace talks between the traverser and other countries, but the traverser politely declined because the timing was unsuitable. Now that Li Hongzhang recalled, it was probably the intention of the overseas Chinese at that time to break down the peace talks, so that they could justifiably send troops to attack Weihaiwei and Qingdao.

Now that the goal of the overseas Chinese has been achieved, Li Hongzhang estimated that the overseas Chinese should be prepared to negotiate with other countries to ensure the fruits of their victory on the battlefield. As the only group that has direct contact with overseas Chinese, Li Hongzhang certainly cannot miss this opportunity to act as a liaison between overseas Chinese and other countries, so as to strengthen his own right to speak on both sides; in addition, Li Hongzhang also hopes that in the negotiations between overseas Chinese and other countries, the Qing court will also be stuffed into it, and it will be a tripartite talk, and he will take advantage of the victory of overseas Chinese to win a little more benefits for the Qing Dynasty at the negotiating table.

Now the situation in China has become a competition between overseas Chinese and other countries, but the Qing court, the real master of this land, has been marginalized, whether it is overseas Chinese or other countries, they do not take the Qing court seriously at all, and Li Hongzhang has tried his best to protect the interests of the Qing court.

After Zhang Peilun sent electricity to Tianjin, he only waited for a day to receive a reply from the overseas Chinese, and the overseas Chinese really sent an invitation to Zhang Peilun again, asking Zhang Peilun to visit Tianjin again.

After receiving the reply from the overseas Chinese, Li Hongzhang was also greatly relieved, which also proved that his judgment was basically correct, and it is estimated that the overseas Chinese will hope that he will thread the needle through it this time, so as to facilitate the overseas Chinese to negotiate with other countries.

However, whether Zhang Peilun can make the trip depends on the attitude of various countries, mainly to see whether each country has the intention of negotiating with overseas Chinese, after all, this time the overseas Chinese snatched Weihaiwei and Qingdao from Britain and Germany. Britain and Germany are among the most powerful countries in the world, and it is not known whether they will be able to swallow this breath or what the conditions for negotiation they have. If you can't figure out these things, even if Zhang Peilun goes to Tianjin, it's useless.

So Li Hongzhang said: "Tomorrow I will visit the consuls of various countries to find out their tone and make a decision." ”

The next day, Li Hongzhang successively visited the consulates of Britain, France, the United States, and Germany, and although the consuls of the four countries had different attitudes, they expressed the same meaning to Li Hongzhang, that is, China was discussing how to deal with overseas Chinese, and there was no conclusion yet, so he could not give Li Hongzhang any promise now, and at the same time suggested that Li Hongzhang should not let Zhang Peilun go to Tianjin for the time being, and wait for the countries to come to a conclusion.

After getting this confession, Li Hongzhang could only ask Zhang Peilun to send electricity to Tianjin again, and politely declined the invitation of the traverser.

Of course, Li Hongzhang did not know that this time the countries were planning to play seriously, and began to seriously consider organizing a second coalition to expand the scale of the war in China in order to safeguard the interests of all countries in China. However, the stakes are very high in sending more troops to China, and it is not something that can be decided with a pat on the head, so the countries have also agreed that no country can contact overseas Chinese alone until a consensus is reached.

And this time, the proposal to organize a second coalition and expand the scale of the war in China was first initiated by the British. Although Britain did not send many troops in the last Eight-Nation Alliance, the British Empire was, after all, a century-old hegemon and now the world's number one power, with extraordinary influence, so it still dominates the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Although before this, Russia and Germany had also clamored for increasing troops to China and expanding the scale of the war, but not many other countries responded. Therefore, without the intervention of Britain, it would not have been possible to organize a second Eight-Nation Alliance.

Although countries can still do their own thing, but this risk is difficult to control, the German fleet is actually the product of Germany's own affairs, and the result is that the traverser defeated the whole army, and although Russia sent troops to occupy Northeast China, but this move was strongly opposed by Britain, France, Japan, the United States and other countries, resulting in diplomatic isolation. Therefore, the risk of going it alone is extremely high, and the gains often outweigh the losses.

In fact, Britain does not want to expand the scale of China's war at home, because the Boer War in South Africa has not yet ended, and Britain has invested nearly 400,000 troops and logistics personnel for this battlefield, and nearly 20,000 people have been killed and more than 70,000 people have been injured, and Britain has spent more than 200 million pounds for this war, which has made Britain's finances extremely difficult.

Moreover, Britain's enemies in South Africa, the "Boers", turned out to be descendants of the Dutch, because they were of the same European ethnicity, so the Boers won wide sympathy in Europe, and also caused Britain's international reputation to be extremely passive, and the European powers almost unanimously condemned Britain's policy in South Africa, believing that Britain bullied the country established by the same European ethnicity in order to covet South African gold. France, Russia, Germany, the United States, and other countries attacked one after another, taking advantage of the fact that Britain was in the middle of the war and had no time to take care of anything else, to expand their sphere of influence.

On the other hand, the imbalance on the European continent caused by the rise of Germany also put great pressure on Britain, which, dragged down by the Boer War and unable to cope with German competition, was forced to cede two islands in the Samoan archipelago in the Pacific Ocean to Germany in order to relieve Germany's pressure on itself. In this situation, the British government is really unwilling to expand the scale of the war in China and avoid new battlefields.

But the traverser recklessly captured Weihaiwei, which really angered the British. Although Weihaiwei was not a key British colony, as long as it was a colony of the British Empire, it could not be violated. And the behavior of the traverser is tantamount to a slap in the face to Britain, since the Napoleonic War, Britain has never encountered such a challenge, although the British Empire is now weakened, but not everyone can kick it. Therefore, if Britain does not take a tough countermeasure, the prestige of the British Empire for 100 years will be completely destroyed.

At the same time, the loss of Weihaiwei also involved the political struggle in Britain, and the opposition Liberal Party and Labour Party used this as an excuse to strongly attack the foreign policy adopted by the ruling Protectionist Party, believing that the ruling party had not effectively safeguarded the overseas interests of the British Empire.

Of course, the British Prime Minister, the Marquess of Salisbury, did not dare to be careless about this, and immediately launched a discussion in the British Parliament, and passed the bill of "approving the British government to promote the formation of coalition forces by various countries again and expand the scale of the war to defend the interests of all countries in China" by an absolute majority in both the Senate and the Senate.

Of course, the passage of this bill shows that the ruling Protectionist Party and British parliamentarians are still keeping a clear head, because the bill passed does not allow Britain to expand its military strength in the Chinese battlefield, but Britain will take the lead and organize an eight-nation coalition army. To put it bluntly, it is to fully develop Britain's international influence and use the strength of other countries to expand the scale of China's war and maintain Britain's global leadership when Britain's own strength is insufficient. This is also the earliest skillful strength.

After receiving the authorization of the Parliament, the British Prime Minister, the Marquess of Salisbury, immediately sent a telegram to various governments in the name of the British Government, formally proposing to organize a multinational coalition, expand the scale of the war, and defend the interests of various countries in China, and inquired about the attitude of various countries towards this proposal.

The reason why the name of the Eight-Nation Alliance was replaced by the Multinational Alliance was because the Marquis of Salisbury sent electricity not only to the countries that formed the Eight-Nation Alliance, but also Belgium, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, etc., a total of fifteen countries. The main reason for pulling so many countries is to find a few countries to share military spending in order to make up for Britain's lack of financial resources.

On the very next day, the German government was the first to send a telegram back, saying that Germany fully agreed with Britain's proposal and that Germany was willing to send an army of 50,000 men to join the Chinese battlefield, but it also showed that Germany's naval strength was insufficient, and Britain was required to provide sufficient naval support.

The second reply was from Russia, and Lao Maoxiao also agreed with Britain's suggestion, but Russia suggested that the multinational coalition formed this time could be divided into two parts: the south army was led by Britain and attacked China by sea, while the northern army was led by Russia and attacked China by land.

Although the Japanese Government also agreed with Britain's proposal and was willing to invest more troops in the war against China, the Japanese Government also proposed that the formation of a multinational coalition this time must have a unified operational command, and that any action must be agreed upon by all countries, and that no country can bypass the coalition and act alone, while respecting the interests of other countries in China.

Subsequently, other governments also called back, expressing their attitudes and positions.

The French government did not give a direct reply to the British proposal, but only said that the formation of a multinational coalition to expand the scale of the war in China was of great importance and required careful consideration, and that the French government was willing to consult with Britain in order to find the best solution.

The US Government's reply also advised Britain to consider it carefully, and at the same time suggested that negotiations should be held with overseas Chinese first, and efforts should be made to resolve China's war peacefully, and if negotiations fail, then consider war. The U.S. government has also indicated that it is willing to first negotiate contacts with overseas Chinese. This is the only country that has made a request to negotiate with overseas Chinese.

Most of the other countries, such as Ruyi, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Banban, agreed with the British proposal in principle, but they still had to hold further consultations on all matters to ensure the interests of each country.