During this period of time, the overseas Chinese have been in the limelight, defeating the Eight-Nation Alliance in succession, capturing Tianjin, Weihaiwei, and Qingdao, and their power is like the sky, and their attitude towards the Chun Court is not very polite, and they have made many disrespectful remarks about the imperial court. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info the Empress Dowager Cixi remembered it in her heart. It's just that at this time, the Qing court was already weak, and it had to rely on overseas Chinese to restrain foreigners, so they could only endure it, and they had to issue an order to reward overseas Chinese.

However, the situation is different now, the attitude of the foreigners has changed, and there is no need for the Qing court to be involved with the overseas Chinese, so it is necessary to suppress the overseas Chinese, so that they know that the current ruler of the land of China is still the Qing Dynasty, and if you want to return to China, you must be respectful to Dachun.

On the contrary, if we accept the negotiation conditions of the foreigners and give the foreigners some benefits, it will not only be able to yellow the merits of the overseas Chinese, but also help the foreigners and the overseas Chinese to contain each other and maintain the balance of power, and the Qing Dynasty can play the trick of left and right in this game。

It just so happens that now Zaiyi takes the initiative to propose and accept the negotiation conditions of the foreigners, and the Empress Dowager Cixi just pushes the boat down the river, as for Zaiyi's careful thinking, the Empress Dowager Cixi doesn't care about it at all, since you can make your son the eldest brother, you can abolish him, are you afraid that Zaiyi can play with the palm of her own hand?

It should be said that the Empress Dowager Cixi's vision, means, thoughts, and plans are many times more clever than Zaiyi, but there is one thing that the two of them are half-hearted, that is, as long as their own interests are achieved, betraying the interests of the country is not something that the two of them consider.

Although he understood the intention of the Empress Dowager Cixi, Li Hongzhang was also quite disapproving. Of course, Li Hongzhang raised his hands in favor of playing a balance between overseas Chinese and foreigners, and even planned to make such a suggestion to the imperial court, but he could not give too many benefits to foreigners. And for the time being, it is better to go a little more to the overseas Chinese, after all, the overseas Chinese are descendants of the Chinese, and in the past few months, what the overseas Chinese have done is basically beneficial to the Chunting, and it is indeed to safeguard China's national interests, and to establish a huge prestige among the people.

And now that the imperial court is blatantly helping foreigners to suppress overseas Chinese, this will not only offend overseas Chinese, but will also make the Qing court greatly disappointed.

The main reason for such a cognitive difference between Li Hongzhang and the Qing court is that the two sides have different positions. Although from a general standpoint, Li Hongzhang and the Qing court are basically the same, that is, they must try their best to maintain the life of the Qing court. But Li Hongzhang is Han after all, so he does not have much rejection of the traverser, from the heart, Li Hongzhang even hopes to completely pull the traverser into the system of the Qing court, and better maintain the rule of the Qing court.

But the Qing court was, after all, a minority regime, and was essentially a tribal government, so the rulers of the Qing court were first and foremost concerned with maintaining Manchu rule over China's national interests. The Han people should not only be used, but also prevented. However, since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the rise of the Han people has been unstoppable, and there are really few decent talents among the Manchus, so the Qing court has to sit back and watch the Han ministers sit on the throne. But we always have to try our best to add more elbows. In the First Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang used the Beiyang line to fight against the whole of Japan, and there was no secret force of the Qing court behind this.

And now the overseas Chinese return to China with strong military force, it will naturally cause the Qing court to take precautions, if the overseas Chinese and the Han ministers are allowed to merge, then the Qing court may not be able to sit still, so the Empress Dowager Cixi did not hesitate to betray the interests of the country, but also tried her best to suppress the overseas Chinese.

However, this time Li Hongzhang was unwilling to carry this black cauldron to the Qing court, after all, the current situation was different, once he carried this black cauldron, it would be a catastrophe, so he hurriedly came to visit the traverser, and gave the Qing court's proposal to the whole thing, and also pushed his responsibility away.

Although Qin Zheng did not know much about these inside stories, one thing was certain, that is, the Qing court was ready to accept the negotiation conditions of various countries and sell national sovereignty. And for the traverser, this result is absolutely unacceptable, and no reason will work. Of course, this also shows once again that the Qing Dynasty is simply an untrustworthy and lazy object, and the traverser did not choose to cooperate with the Qing Dynasty, but to overthrow the Qing court, which is completely correct.

Qin Zheng said: "Then what is Zhongtang going to do?"

Li Zhongtang smiled bitterly and said: "The old man is not willing to accept such harsh conditions from foreigners, and the old man has already stated his interests to the court, and strongly advised the court not to easily agree to foreigners, but unfortunately the court did not listen, and ordered the old man to sign a treaty with the foreigners, and the old man was really powerless." ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "This matter is not responsible for Zhongtang, and Zhongtang is also involuntarily, we can also understand it." No matter what Li Hongzhang thinks in his heart, but from a legal point of view, he is indeed ordered to act, so he really has no responsibility, and he can't be blamed. And Li Hongzhang was able to tell himself the decision of the Qing court first, which can be regarded as very worthy of himself.

Li Hongzhang said: "Then tomorrow's negotiation, the old man can only act according to the intentions of the imperial court." After a pause, he said, "I don't know what you are going to do, if you need the old man to delay for a few days, the old man can still do it." ”

Qin Zheng pondered for a while before he said, "No need, Zhongtang will only act according to the intentions of the imperial court tomorrow, and we have our own countermeasures." ”

Li Hongzhang listened to it and breathed a sigh of relief, no matter what, he has shirked all the responsibilities, and he will not go to the black pot for the imperial court this time, as for what overseas Chinese have to deal with, it is not a matter for him to consider. So he also got up and said goodbye and left.

After sending Li Hongzhang away, Qin Zheng immediately summoned the members of the negotiation team for a meeting.

After listening to Qin Zheng's briefing, the members of the negotiation team were immediately filled with righteous indignation, although before coming to participate in the negotiations again, the traveler expected that the Qing court might get rid of the traveler and reach a compromise with various countries alone, and also made a plan. But it really happened, it still makes people feel very angry, after all, before this, the traverser negotiated with various countries, laborious, although it was indeed for the traverser himself, but it was also really trying his best to protect the interests of the Qing court, and the Qing court did not care about the efforts of the traverser at all, got rid of the traverser, fully accepted the conditions proposed by the countries, and even did not hesitate to sell a large number of national interests, which also made the traverser feel betrayed.

Liu Lantao first said: "Political commissar, now that the Qing court has decided to fully accept the conditions put forward by various countries, what should we do next?"

Wang Hailong said: "What else can I do, start the plan immediately, we should refuse to accept this result and withdraw from this negotiation, I don't want to be scolded as a traitor after I cross it." Next time, we will drive all our warships over, give them a ship to block the mouth of the Yangtze River, and shell the beach. ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "It's certain to withdraw from the negotiation, we must not carry this pot, but there are still some things to be done, and we must not make people feel that we have sabotaged this negotiation." ”

Li Sanjie said: "What other things need to be done?"

Qin Zheng first said to Du Yingyi: "Xiao Du, you immediately contact the Tianjin side and report what happened in Shanghai to the Tianjin Executive Committee in detail, so that the Executive Committee is also ready for the breakdown of negotiations." ”

Du Yingyi nodded immediately, because she was the only woman among the people who came to Shanghai this time, so these affairs records, liaison with Tianjin, reporting and other things were handed over to her, although Du Yingyi was not a clerk.

Qin Zheng said again: "Chen Zhaosheng, you go to the telegraph office early tomorrow morning and get the original telegram sent by the Qing court, this is Guan Jian's evidence, we must get it, tomorrow you bring five hundred taels of silver, and a few soldiers to go together, if you can solve it with silver, use silver to solve it, if you can't solve it with silver, then let the soldiers come forward." ”

Chen Zhaosheng nodded and said, "Yes." ”

Qin Zheng said: "Comrade Li Hongbing, your task is to contact the newspapers in Shanghai early tomorrow morning, and at 11 o'clock in the morning, we will hold a press conference to officially announce the news to the newspapers in Shanghai as soon as possible. ”

At this time, Liu Lantao said: "Political commissar, they all have something, so what should I do?"

Qin Zheng said: "Your task is the most important, tomorrow after we announce our withdrawal from the negotiations, we will definitely move out of the Licha Hotel and live in the office, so you have to arrange the reception of the office." ”

Liu Lantao said with a smile: "This is easy to do, the houses are ready-made, but we have a little more people, I'm afraid we have to squeeze a little." ”

Qin Zheng said: "It's important to squeeze a little, we won't live too old, at most one or two days." And if we withdraw from the negotiations, we will definitely have to evacuate Shanghai, but the office has already been leased, and it cannot be empty, and even if the negotiations break down, we still need someone to stay in Shanghai, on the one hand, to convey our voice like Shanghai, so that it still has to occupy the highest point in public opinion; on the other hand, it is also to maintain communication with other countries, after all, although the negotiations have broken down, it does not mean that there will be no more negotiations, even if we finally capture Beijing, but we still have to negotiate with other countries again. However, staying in Shanghai may have certain risks, so it is necessary to assess the risks in advance and be well prepared in this regard. ”