This dinner is destined to make Zhao Weizhong unforgettable for life, but it is very ordinary for Li Hongzhang and others, but it is just to let a meritorious subordinate eat a meal at the same table with him.

After dinner, Li Hongzhang ordered someone to arrange a guest room for Zhao Weizhong to rest, and led Zhou Fu, Sheng Xuanhuai, Li Jingfang, and Zhang Peilun to his study to discuss the next step.

Zhao Weizhong's remarks did make everyone feel that they benefited a lot, but it also disrupted Li Hongzhang's plan, because Li Hongzhang thought that Zhao Weizhong would bring letters or messages from overseas Chinese, and the expected response methods were all aimed at the content of the letters, but now there are no letters, so what to do next can only be re-planned.

After everyone sat down, Li Hongzhang said, "What do you think of this group of overseas Chinese?"

Sheng Xuanhuai first said: "Zhongtang, Xuanhuai thinks that this group of overseas Chinese is too arrogant, thinking that after only a few victories, they don't take foreigners in their eyes, and they want foreigners to take the initiative to seek peace, but they don't know how strong the strength of each country is, and the power of the eight countries is even more extraordinary, we must not let them go on like this, Zhongtang or start to negotiate peace with foreigners as soon as possible." ”

Zhou Fu said: "Having said that, but now that Tianjin has been occupied by this group of overseas Chinese, it will not be released, how can Lord Zhongtang go north to Beijing to negotiate peace with foreigners?"

At this time, Zhang Peilun said: "I see that the style of this group of overseas Chinese is quite sophisticated, not like a person who does not understand the world, so they do this, it may not be arrogant, I don't know why, maybe there are other intentions, such as before this, who would have thought that they could defeat the Eight-Nation Alliance and capture Tianjin, and even the German fleet was defeated in their hands." ”

Sheng Xuanhuai said with some disdain: "Youqiao, you also think too highly of this group of overseas Chinese, I just said that these victories are just small victories, not enough to sustain, and the eight countries have not done their best, if the countries really send out a large army again, how can this group of overseas Chinese resist." If they are defeated by the Eight-Nation Alliance, they can naturally take a boat and leave, and leave this mess behind, and in the end, Lord Zhongtang will clean it up. ”

Zhou Fu frowned and said, "Xingsun, what's the use of you saying these things now, if this group of overseas Chinese insists on not wanting to make peace with other countries, and if the countries take the initiative to sue for peace, what can we do, even if we want to negotiate with foreigners, who are we going to talk to?"

Sheng Xuanhuai said: "Why don't we negotiate with other countries in Shanghai, now that all countries have consulates in Shanghai, I can go and contact them, and immediately let the countries form a negotiation team to start peace negotiations, ignoring overseas Chinese." ”

Zhou Fu glared at Sheng Xuanhuai with some displeasure, and said, "Xingsun, aren't you child's play? Negotiating in Shanghai, not to mention whether the countries will agree or not, and no matter what happens to the overseas Chinese, even the imperial court will not be able to get through." Yesterday, the imperial court did not send a telegram, not only urging Lord Zhongtang to immediately go north to negotiate with other countries, but also to appease overseas Chinese, if you want to ignore them, then how to explain to the imperial court. What if the imperial court sends someone to contact the overseas Chinese first?"

In fact, Sheng Xuanhuai also knew that his idea would not work, his actual purpose was to create some pressure on overseas Chinese, which means that if you don't put down your body, then we will negotiate with foreigners in Shanghai, so as to force overseas Chinese to change their attitude and return to the negotiating table, but Zhou Fu mentioned the telegram of the imperial court, which made Sheng Xuanhuai also sigh heavily, and said: "This group of ignorant people know that they will cause trouble for us, if it weren't for them, how could this situation come to this point, in the end, I am afraid that it will be difficult for the Lord of the Hall." ”

Li Hongzhang also smiled bitterly and said, "Is it still like this for decades?"

It turned out that the Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor escaped from Beijing on August 15, and arrived in Huailai County, 100 kilometers northwest of Beijing, on the 19th, the Empress Dowager Cixi issued the first edict after fleeing in Huailai County, and sent it to the Minister of Military Aircraft Rong Lu, the scholar Xu Tong, and the Hubu Shangshu Chongqi, ordering them to stay in Beijing and sue for peace with the foreigners, but at this time Rong Lu had already run to Baoding, and Xu Tong and Chongqi hanged themselves one after another on the day of the break of Beijing. So the Empress Dowager Cixi issued a second edict to Li Hongzhang, who was in Shanghai, asking him to go north quickly and preside over the peace with Prince Qing Yixuan.

On August 20, the Empress Dowager Cixi, in the name of Emperor Guangxu, issued the "Edict of Guilt" to the world. On the one hand, he shirked his own responsibilities, and on the other hand, he expressed his willingness to negotiate peace with other countries.

However, at this time, the momentum of the Eight-Nation Alliance was in full swing, so she did not want to negotiate peace with the Qing court immediately, and the Empress Dowager Cixi felt that Huailai County was too close to Beijing and was not safe, so on August 23, the Empress Dowager Cixi left Huailai County and continued to travel west to prepare for Shanxi. The next day, she sent a telegram to Li Hongzhang again, telling him that he could "act cheaply" in the discussion of peace and friendship, and that the imperial court "would not be remotely controlled".

On September 7, the Empress Dowager Cixi issued an edict to severely suppress the Boxers on her way to the west, and Cixi clearly announced for the first time that she had begun to suppress the Boxers, and once again sent a telegram to Li Hongzhang urging him to Beijing, but Li Hongzhang did not reply to the princes and ministers who supported the main battle of the Boxers, so Li Hongzhang remained in Shanghai and was unmoved. On September 10, the Empress Dowager Cixi and her entourage arrived in Taiyuan, and at this time, the Minister of Military Aircraft Rong Lu also came to meet with the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu, so the exiled court temporarily settled in Taiyuan.

On September 15, Empress Dowager Cixi, who had fled Beijing for a whole month, telegraphed Li Hongzhang again in Taiyuan, urging him to go north immediately. At this time, the news that overseas Chinese returned to China, defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance, and captured Tianjin also reached Taiyuan.

At the beginning, the Empress Dowager Cixi, the Guangxu Emperor, and the accompanying princes and ministers did not believe this, because during this period of time, there were too many kinds of absurd and nonsensical news, and it was not because they believed in the invincibility of the Boxers that they suffered this catastrophe?

But on September 18, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, sent a congratulatory telegram to the fugitive imperial court, saying: God bless the Qing Dynasty and get the help of overseas righteous people. It was confirmed that the news of overseas Chinese was true. Of course, Zhang Zhidong's congratulatory telegram also contained his own private goods, which turned out to persuade the imperial court to go south and rebuild the capital in Dangyang County, Hubei, because the name of this place is auspicious: Yang Dangkong Zhao, which is a sign of the revival of the Qing Dynasty. And Rong Lu immediately exposed Zhang Zhidong's trick: that old guy wanted to move the imperial court to his territory, so that he could blackmail the heavens to order the princes.

However, at this time, the Empress Dowager Cixi, the Guangxu Emperor and the accompanying princes and ministers were only half-convinced of this, if there was a group of Chinese who had fled from China and founded a country overseas, it was credible that they wanted to return to China, and it was still credible, but they were able to defeat the Eight-Nation Alliance, and it is estimated that no one believed that such a panic report on the military situation had happened too much in the past few decades.

As early as the First Sino-Japanese War, the day after the official declaration of war between China and Japan, the commander-in-chief of the front line, Admiral Ye Zhichao, sent back a good news: Our army won a great victory in Asan, beheaded more than 2,000 people, and attacked by victory, only more than 70 miles away from Seoul. The court was naturally jubilant, and there was a momentum of victory, but the actual battle situation was that the Qing army was defeated by the Japanese army in Asan, and was defeated for hundreds of miles, and the military baggage was lost.

And five years later, after the Eight-Nation Coalition Army landed in Dagukou, marched to Beijing, such false good news is even more numerous, one moment is the Dagukou defenders annihilated the fleets of the nations, one will be Nie Shicheng in Tianjin to break the Eight-Nation Alliance, until the Eight-Nation Coalition Army conquered Tongzhou, directly approached the city of Beijing, and the Qing army broke the Eight-Nation Alliance Army in Tongzhou, after the defeat, the foreigners begged the Qing court to negotiate peace, and the Qing court also listed 25 terms of the peace treaty to the foreigners, and there was no shortage of returning the lost land. demanded compensation from foreigners, etc., but the fact is that in less than half a month, the Eight-Nation Coalition Army broke through the city of Beijing.

It is precisely because of so many painful lessons that the Empress Dowager Cixi, Emperor Guangxu and the accompanying princes and ministers dare to easily believe in such good news. But in the following time, congratulatory telegrams were sent to Taiyuan like snowflakes, all of which were congratulatory to the imperial court and the help of overseas righteous people, including Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kunyi, Yuan Shikai and other local officials, and of course Li Hongzhang. Therefore, the Qing court, who had been exiled to Taiyuan, finally believed that such a group of overseas Chinese had come to China, defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance, and recaptured Tianjin, and the situation changed dramatically.

The exiled Qing court monarchs and ministers were suddenly very excited, this is really such a group of overseas Chinese from the world, so the accompanying princes and ministers have asked the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu to ask the imperial court to immediately appease this group of overseas Chinese, and with the help of this group of overseas Chinese, resist various countries. The Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu were also excited, and the mother and son also worked together for the first time, and jointly issued an edict to Li Hongzhang, asking him to get in touch with overseas Chinese as soon as possible and try his best to appease this group of overseas Chinese.

Li Hongzhang replied by telegram, saying that the German fleet had arrived in China, and advised the imperial court not to act rashly, but to wait and see what would happen. Only then did he pour a basin of cold water on the heads of the exiled Qing court monarchs and ministers, which made them sober up a lot.

However, the traversers won the victory in the defense of Tianjin, which once again ignited the fanaticism of the exiled Qing court monarchs and ministers, and let them see the hope of victory, so they once again wrote to the imperial court, asking the imperial court to appease overseas Chinese as soon as possible, and even some people took the initiative to rush to Tianjin to appease this group of overseas Chinese for the imperial court. Of course, there were also many people who took the opportunity to carry private goods and wantonly attacked Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and other local officials in the southeast, and suggested that the imperial court punish them for their crimes.

Although the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu were also eager to return to Beijing as soon as possible, they still maintained a trace of sobriety at this time, Beijing was still in the hands of the Eight-Nation Alliance, how could they send people to Tianjin, so they could only rely on Li Hongzhang in Shanghai. However, the southeast area is half of the Qing court's country, and there can be no loss, and the local officials in the southeast can only fight it, and cannot really take it all out, and this is the reason why Li Hongzhang received the telegram yesterday.