The three-day rest was actually Sheng Xuanhuai's delaying tactic, because in the first six days of negotiations, the tough attitude of the traverser made Sheng Xuanhuai, Taikoo and Yihe clear that they could not subdue the overseas Chinese by their own strength alone, and the traverser controlled the sea route from Shandong to Tianjin, which also made Taikoo and Jardine dare not completely turn their faces, so they could only bring in external forces to help.

On the evening of the same day, Sheng Xuanhuai consulted with the representatives of Swire and Jardine Matheson, asking them to make a request to the British minister in China and protest to the Qing court, saying that the shipping rights demanded by the overseas Chinese had harmed the interests of Britain, and demanded that the Qing court immediately cancel the shipping rights of the overseas Chinese. The Jardine and Jardine Mathesons came forward to put pressure on the overseas Chinese, so that they had scruples and did not dare to block the sea route; Sheng Xuanhuai made a concession to the Qing court, forcing the overseas Chinese to be insatiable in fighting for shipping rights, putting forward all kinds of unreasonable demands, and triggering disputes between China and foreign countries, making the negotiations unsustainable, and asking the Qing court to issue an edict to severely prosecute the overseas Chinese, and ask the overseas Chinese to put away their unreasonable thoughts. In this way, China and foreign countries will join hands to suppress overseas Chinese, and they will definitely be able to force overseas Chinese to make concessions.

For Sheng Xuanhuai's Swire and Jardine representatives, they are naturally willing, and they still have considerable confidence in the influence of the British government, although the Eight-Nation Coalition failed, but among the Eight-Nation Alliance, except for a few countries, other countries almost did not take it seriously, and it was Britain, because Britain's most powerful navy, and in the Eight-Nation Alliance, Britain only sent a second-class battleship at the beginning, and returned to Hong Kong after the Eight-Nation Coalition captured Beijing, so the British Navy did not participate in the battle with overseas Chinese. In the psychology of the British, the British Navy is still invincible in the world, and as long as the British Navy is still there, Britain will have enough confidence and strength to interfere in global affairs. It is of course normal to ask the British government to put pressure on the Qing court to support itself. So the representatives of Swire and Jardine immediately readily agreed, so Sheng Xuanhuai took his leave and left.

In fact, Sheng Xuanhuai knew very well in his heart that the Qing court did not have the strength to restrain the overseas Chinese at all, but only with the help of the Qing court's righteous name, it was only possible to suppress the overseas Chinese with the help of the power of the foreigners, although the overseas Chinese defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance, but Sheng Xuanhuai was proficient in foreign affairs, and knew that the Eight Nations actually did not send all their strength, and from the process and content of the Shanghai negotiations, the overseas Chinese still have some scruples about various countries, so it is still possible to use foreign forces to suppress the overseas Chinese. And this is the only way Sheng Xuanhuai can think of.

From Sheng Xuanhuai's heart, he also wants to have a good relationship with overseas Chinese, after all, overseas Chinese are now a force that cannot be ignored in China, but overseas Chinese ask for a share of the shipping industry, but it is Sheng Xuanhuai's cheese, Sheng Xuanhuai is in charge of more than a dozen foreign enterprises, but he values only two the most, one is the telegraph bureau, the other is the steamship China Merchants Bureau, and it is also the two enterprises that Sheng Xuanhuai has invested the most effort in.

It is fair to say that Sheng Xuanhuai has indeed spent a lot of energy and effort for the development and growth of China Merchants. In the battle of Qichang, the price of each other was lowered, resulting in huge losses for all parties, the steamship China Merchants Bureau was at the bottom of the trough, only more than 10,000 taels of silver a year, and the stock value fell from 100 taels of silver to 28 taels of silver, although the current steamship China Merchants Bureau won the battle and achieved good development, but Sheng Xuanhuai was under tremendous pressure at that time, on the one hand, he had to try his best to raise funds to maintain the operation of the steamship China Merchants Bureau; on the other hand, he had to face shareholders, the imperial court, the society, The accusations and questioning of the Qingliu Party can be said that it is indeed quite difficult for China Merchants to come this way, and to be able to have the current situation. Therefore, now that the traverser wants to get involved in the shipping industry, Sheng Xuanhuai's heart is naturally quite dissatisfied.

As early as Li Hongzhang and the traveler negotiated a secret agreement in Beijing, promising to give the traveler the right to operate shipping, Sheng Xuanhuai wrote to the court several times, and wrote a letter to Li Hongzhang, Licheng This matter is inappropriate, and asks the court to take back the order, but the fold is like a stone sinking into the sea, there is no news, and Li Hongzhang only replied to him with a letter, saying that the general trend is irreversible, and asked Sheng Xuanhuai to take into account the overall situation.

However, Sheng Xuanhuai was still unwilling, and after the successful strategy of the southeast mutual insurance, Sheng Xuanhuai's self-confidence skyrocketed, since the imperial court is unreliable, then do it yourself, and if you can successfully get the southeast mutual insurance, you will definitely be able to prevent overseas Chinese from getting involved in the shipping industry, and pulling foreigners to fight against overseas Chinese is the first step, and the second step Sheng Xuanhuai intends to recruit shareholders of the steamship China Merchants Bureau, and jointly submit a letter to the imperial court, not allowing overseas Chinese to get involved in shipping; if it is not possible, Sheng Xuanhuai is ready to mobilize the southeast businessmen to jointly put pressure on overseas Chinese。

Sheng Xuanhuai left the China Merchants Building and returned to his residence, while his family reported to him, and Li Hongzhang received another letter. Sheng Xuanhuai hurriedly took the letter, opened it and looked at it, his heart suddenly cooled half, it turned out that Li Hongzhang warned Sheng Xuanhuai in a more stern tone in the letter, and completed the negotiation of shipping rights with overseas Chinese as soon as possible, otherwise the court would blame him, and he would not be able to protect Sheng Xuanhuai.

This letter was a very heavy blow to Sheng Xuanhuai, because Li Hongzhang couldn't even say what he couldn't say, which showed that the situation was far from being as optimistic as he thought. If he really insists on stopping overseas Chinese, the imperial court is afraid that he will really withdraw from his post and change someone to manage the steamship China Merchants Bureau, and once he loses his official position, he is an ordinary shareholder, nothing more than holding more shares, but now the shareholders of the steamship China Merchants Bureau can have much power, Sheng Xuanhuai is naturally very clear. Therefore, only to cede part of the shipping rights to overseas Chinese, so that although the interests of the steamship China Merchants Bureau are damaged, their own power position can still be retained.

However, Sheng Xuanhuai is still a little unwilling, after all, he still has the last straw in his hand, that is, foreigners, if the British side can intervene, then there should still be room for redemption. So early the next morning, Sheng Xuanhuai urgently met with the representatives of Swire and Concord to inquire about the British side's attitude. The British side's reply to Swire and Concord was that Britain would try its best to negotiate with overseas Chinese, but it did not want to see the negotiation break down, but that the negotiation could have a satisfactory outcome for all parties.

It turned out that Sheng Xuanhuai was introducing external forces to interfere in this negotiation, and the traverser was also doing the same thing, and on the first day of the negotiation, the traverser knew that he wanted to use peaceful means to win the right of navigation, and it was not enough to rely on this negotiation, and he had to work hard outside the plate. Therefore, Chen Jianning immediately fed back this information to the Qingdao side, and the traveler first made solemn representations to Li Hongzhang, saying that Sheng Xuanhuai did not sincerely discuss the issue of shipping rights at all, which was a serious violation of the provisions of the Beijing secret agreement reached by the two sides, and hoped that Li Hongzhang could take measures to immediately correct Sheng Xuanhuai's behavior, otherwise the Shandong side would not respect the agreement on Cao Yun in the Beijing secret agreement.

After receiving the report of the traverser, Li Hongzhang suddenly felt that the situation was serious, before Sheng Xuanhuai folded to the imperial court several times, asking to prevent overseas Chinese from involving the shipping industry, Li Hongzhang of course knew, and he could also understand Sheng Xuanhuai's mentality, in fact, Li Hongzhang also knew that the benefits of shipping were great, and if they were distributed to overseas Chinese, they would definitely damage themselves, but after all, Li Hongzhang was looking at this question from the standpoint of the overall situation, and the current Qing court could no longer be dismantled, and in the near future, it was necessary to do a good job with overseas Chinese, so it was obviously cost-effective to sacrifice part of the shipping interests and let the Chun court maintain a harmonious relationship with overseas Chinese, and Sheng Xuanhuai's pattern and bearing are still a little narrower.

Of course, Li Hongzhang also blamed himself for not thinking about it well, the previous letter to Sheng Xuanhuai was not clear, and he did not expect Sheng Xuanhuai to be too entangled in the interests of China Merchants Steamship. However, the overseas Chinese notified themselves first, instead of directly stabbing the imperial court, indicating that the overseas Chinese did not want to make a big deal about the matter, but just wanted to get the shipping rights smoothly and steadily, so there was still a lot of room for maneuver, so Li Hongzhang immediately sent a telegram to Sheng Xuanhuai, the wording was quite harsh, I believe that this time Sheng Xuanhuai should understand.

And the traverser also knows that it is not possible to only find Li Hongzhang in this matter, because it also involves the two steamship companies of Taikoo and Jardine, Li Hongzhang can suppress Sheng Xuanhuai, but he has nothing to do with these two steamship companies, so the East China government immediately warned the British Consul General in Tianjin, Jin Zhang. Once the negotiations on shipping rights break down, the East China government will prohibit the ships of the two companies from passing through the waters under its jurisdiction, and it is hoped that the British government will not come to negotiate at that time.

After receiving the warning, Jin Zhang did not dare to slack off, and immediately fed back to the British Minister to China, Dou Nale, and after receiving this information, Dou Nale hurriedly sent someone to learn the details, and soon figured out the ins and outs of the whole matter, which is nothing more than that the two steamship companies Swire and Jardine Matheson did not want to enter another competitor, so they joined forces with China Merchants to squeeze overseas Chinese out of the shipping industry. At this time, Swire and Jardine Matheson also asked the British Legation for help, hoping that the government could come forward to exert pressure on overseas Chinese

Of course, the idea of primeval and jardine, The practice can be understood by Dou Nale, because in other places, British companies also do this, the so-called fair competition, but based on equal strength, but now the British government is afraid that it is difficult to give support to these two companies, first of all, in the overseas Chinese, the British government's face is not so big, overseas Chinese are not the Qing court, say a few hard words can scare them, and the British government also needs the cooperation of overseas Chinese to curb the expansion of Russia, so Dou Nale to the Taikoo, Jardine Matheson conveyed his opinions, in fact, hoping that Swire and Jardine Matheson would give up some interests and negotiate with overseas Chinese for the distribution of shipping rights.