On the fourth day, Li Hongzhang received a reply from the Qing court, in which the Qing court instructed that he could accept the negotiation conditions proposed by the traverser to negotiate with various countries, and try his best to assist the traverser, so as not to fall into the national prestige and not damage the national interests, and also instructed Li Hongzhang that he could act cheaply during the negotiations, and the imperial court did not control it, but asked Li Hongzhang to do his best to promote the negotiation of peace, and let the second palace return to Beijing as soon as possible. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info also sent a message of commendation to the traverser, although the content is not long, but all of them are praise.

In fact, there are some contradictions in the content of this telegram, since Li Hongzhang is allowed to act cheaply, this is also to give Li Hongzhang the right to make his own decisions, but he also asked Li Hongzhang to do his best to facilitate the return of the second palace to Beijing as soon as possible, which became an order given by the Qing court to Li Hongzhang. But what is Li Hongzhang, at a glance, you can understand the meaning of the imperial court, or the old lady, the so-called "do not fall into the national prestige, do not damage the national interests" is just a scene, this is for overseas Chinese, but in fact, Li Hongzhang is authorized to see the opportunity to make agreements with various countries in private, as long as the Qing court can return to Beijing as soon as possible, he can make some concessions to various countries.

It turned out that after the Empress Dowager Cixi received Li Hongzhang's telegram, she was not interested in the first article of non-indemnity and non-ceding of land at all, and the second article proposed by the traverser, asking to take over Beijing, aroused the great vigilance of the old lady. Although the Empress Dowager Cixi had not read much, her sensitivity to politics was second to none in this era, unmatched, and she certainly knew the political significance of Beijing, and what it meant that overseas Chinese were asking for Beijing to be taken over.

When the Qing court was exiled to Taiyuan, it basically confirmed the authenticity of the overseas Chinese news, and they did defeat the Eight-Nation Alliance and captured Tianjin. Although the entire exiled court was happy at that time, the emperor, empress, eldest brother, prince, and ministers all clapped their hands and shouted that the ancestors blessed the Qing Dynasty and that the Qing Dynasty should not lose the country. However, the old lady only breathed a sigh of relief, but there was always a trace of doubt in her heart: Did this group of overseas Chinese really help the Qing Dynasty? Will they have other plans to return to China at this time? You must know that this group of overseas Chinese can beat the foreigners to the ground, and will Dachun really be able to subdue this group of overseas Chinese? When the time comes, don't resist the wolf at the front door and enter the tiger at the back door, these overseas Chinese are all descendants of the previous dynasty, and the difference between the Manchus and the Han Dynasty must be guarded against.

Therefore, despite the repeated suggestions of the ministers, they demanded that the Qing court immediately send people to contact the overseas Chinese, and as soon as possible, appease and confer official titles and titles, so that the overseas Chinese could be used by Dachun. Zhao Shuqiao, Minister of Military Aircraft, Qixiu, Shanxi Governor Yuxian, Prince Zhuang Zaixun, Duanjun Wang Zaiyi, and Fuguo Gong Zailan all asked for orders one after another, and took the initiative to go to Tianjin to appease overseas Chinese. Even Guangxu thought that even if he didn't send people to Tianjin, he should first send electricity to Tianjin and get in touch with overseas Chinese.

However, the Empress Dowager Cixi insisted on not allowing the exiled court to have direct contact with overseas Chinese, but handed over this task to Li Hongzhang in Shanghai, which was actually to let Li Hongzhang find out the intentions of overseas Chinese.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for Li Hongzhang to send a telegram to Xi'an, suggesting that the imperial court wait and see what was going on, and not act rashly, and the Empress Dowager Cixi immediately understood what Li Hongzhang meant, and this group of overseas Chinese was unreliable. Although Li Hongzhang's telegram triggered a round of attacks on him by the ministers, news soon came that the overseas Chinese had sent troops to capture Weihaiwei and Qingdao, and that the countries were discussing sending reinforcements to China. Seeing that the war was about to start again, those officials who asked to appease overseas Chinese were also afraid to speak out again, and the Empress Dowager Cixi was also secretly glad that as soon as the war started, the outcome was difficult to decide, but fortunately, she did not act rashly, otherwise she would have caused trouble again.

However, with the passage of time, the matter of increasing troops in various countries was not resolved, but they officially began to contact overseas Chinese, hoping to hold peace talks with overseas Chinese, and the voices in the imperial court calling for the appeasement of overseas Chinese gradually rose again. Although the Empress Dowager Cixi was also a little puzzled, was it so difficult that the countries recognized it after losing Weihaiwei and Qingdao! Or the overseas Chinese were really brave and good at fighting, and even the foreigners did not dare to take advantage of it.

However, the Empress Dowager Cixi also made up her mind, and the affairs of overseas Chinese would be handed over to Li Hongzhang to deal with, and the imperial court would never take the initiative to come forward, so there would be enough room for maneuver. Now that the overseas Chinese have taken the initiative to take over Beijing, it is natural that the Empress Dowager Cixi cannot but arouse the vigilance of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and if the overseas Chinese really take over Beijing from the foreigners, it will not be good news for the Qing court. But if you want to negotiate with other countries, you still need to rely on the power of overseas Chinese, so the Qing court sent Li Hongzhang such a telegram, and the Empress Dowager Cixi also believed that Li Hongzhang could understand this telegram.

Of course, the Qing court's reply was basically expected by Li Hongzhang, and Li Hongzhang also planned to make a private agreement with other countries, bypassing overseas Chinese during the negotiations, ceding some interests, and allowing the Qing court to regain control of Beijing as soon as possible.

However, after receiving the Qing court's reply, Li Hongzhang hesitated a little, but could his plan be feasible? Through his contacts and experiences in Tianjin over the past few days, Li Hongzhang has gained a relatively profound understanding of overseas Chinese. Judging from the knowledge, it is obviously closer to the foreigners, and they have a very clear grasp of the general trend of the world and the situation of various countries.

Then, with the wisdom and insight of overseas Chinese, can they not see the intentions of the imperial court? Or will the overseas Chinese admit that they want to bypass the overseas Chinese and reach agreements with other countries in private? According to Li Hongzhang's judgment, the overseas Chinese will never give up and will certainly try to stop them, and with the style of the overseas Chinese, there is probably nothing they dare not do.

However, these things are not under Li Hongzhang's control, and since the imperial court has already replied, then we will first negotiate with the overseas Chinese according to the will of the imperial court, so as to make this trip to Tianjin a successful conclusion, and when I return to Shanghai, I will slowly negotiate with the imperial court and others to come up with a proper approach.

So Li Hongzhang did not delay, and immediately sent someone to inform the traverser, and immediately held another consultation. Although only Xia Bohai, Qin Zheng, and Xu Jichao met with Li Hongzhang this time, the talks went very smoothly and ended in less than an hour. Because the Qing court ostensibly agreed to negotiate with other countries according to the conditions put forward by the traverser, the two sides actually had no differences, so the two sides mainly discussed some details of the negotiations.

Moreover, Li Hongzhang also lowered his posture very low, saying that this time the negotiations were still dominated by the traversers, and the Qing court only tried its best to assist the traversers, and tried its best to protect the interests of the Qing court in the negotiations.

In fact, the telegram sent back by the Qing court to Li Hongzhang had already been deciphered by the traverser, and the traverser saw the content of the telegram, even earlier than Li Hongzhang, and the Qing court's intentions, the traverser basically guessed a seven, seven, eighty, eight, eight, but did not say it, Xia Bohai also said on behalf of the traverser that this negotiation will definitely try its best to safeguard China's interests. Xia Bohai also told Li Hongzhang that the traverser would send a working group to Shanghai with Li Hongzhang and his party to do some preparatory work for the negotiations, and also wanted to buy the next property in Shanghai and set up an office in Shanghai, asking Li Hongzhang to provide some help. Li Hongzhang naturally agreed to come down.

The talks finally reached a satisfactory conclusion, so Li Hongzhang also proposed to the travelers that they should return to Shanghai early tomorrow morning and ask the travelers to make arrangements.

Xia Bohai also told Li Hongzhang that he would notify the Dagukou side to make preparations today, and arrange a vehicle to send Li Hongzhang and his party to Dagukou early tomorrow morning. And just this evening, a banquet will be held at the Li Shunde Hotel to see them off.

After Li Hongzhang left, Xia Bohai immediately informed the members of the working group who went to Shanghai, telling them to get ready and set off with Li Hongzhang and his party early tomorrow morning.

The members of the working group have been determined, a total of five people, two soldiers, three ordinary traversers, led by Liu Lantao, the political commissar of the Changbai Mountain ship, and Li Hongbing, the quartermaster of the Changbai Mountain ship, and the other three traversers are Chen Zhaosheng, Gao Lei, and a woman Du Yingyi. Business work, in fact, this time the working group went to Shanghai, in addition to dealing with the preliminary work of the negotiations, preparing for the Shanghai office, in addition to examining Shanghai's commercial market, first, most of the materials needed by the crossers are purchased from the Shanghai market through intermediaries, so it is better to go to Shanghai in person to purchase, eliminate the middlemen, can save money, and secondly, to see if there are business opportunities in Shanghai that the crossers can take advantage of, after all, now the crossers need to develop their own industry, they need to have enough market.

The traverser did not put all their hopes on Li Hongzhang, and found Zhao Weizhong, hoping that he could accompany the working group to Shanghai and assist the working group in Shanghai's work. Now Zhao Weizhong has established some connections in Shanghai, and he belongs to the people who can be trusted by the traverser, so he is more reliable than Li Hongzhang in the eyes of the traverser.

Zhao Weizhong is naturally happy to accept the order, although he is now between the traverser and Li Hongzhang to curry favor with each other, but he mainly relies on the traverser, after all, now Zhao Weizhong's industry and foundation are in Tianjin, so his interests are actually linked to the traverser, so as long as it is something that can help the traverser, he must try his best to do it.

On the other hand, you can also take a hitchhiker to Shanghai. Now the commercial shipping between Tianjin and Shanghai has all stopped, so to go from Tianjin to Shanghai, you must hire a separate ship, but to Shanghai you have to pay the port fee, and vice versa, although the merchants of Tianjin joint venture regularly hire ships, between Tianjin and Shanghai, but the cost of transportation is still increased a lot, and this time you can take a hitchhiker to Shanghai, you can also save a boat fare. On the way back, take a hired boat from Tianjin to go back, so that you only need to pay a one-way ticket.