After visiting the textile factory for almost an hour, Li Hongzhang also felt a lot of emotion. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 During the Westernization Movement carried out by the Qing court, the textile industry, the shipping industry, the mining industry, and the telegraph industry were the four key projects of the Western-style industry in addition to the military industry. Among them, the more famous textile enterprises include the Lanzhou Weaving Bureau founded by Zuo Zongtang in Lanzhou, the Hubei Fourth Textile Bureau founded by Zhang Zhidong in Hubei, and the Shanghai Machine Weaving Layout founded by Li Hongzhang in Shanghai.

Although the original intention of these textile enterprises is to develop national capital, compete with foreign countries for the domestic market, and distribute the benefits of foreign businessmen, they have also made some achievements in the establishment period, but due to various reasons, they have not been able to achieve ultimate success. Lanzhou weaving bureau because the geographical location is too remote, in fact, it is not suitable for building a factory, and the fourth Hubei textile bureau is Zhang Zhidong is a habit of high and low masters, at the beginning of the establishment of the high-minded, greedy, do not hesitate to invest a lot of money and manpower, but after the production is often not worthy of the name, plus Zhang Zhidong has served as the governor of Liangguang, the governor of Huguang, Governor of Liangjiang, and the foreign affairs enterprises he ran could only be in the place where he was in office, as a result, Zhang Zhidong was still able to maintain business when he was in office, and Zhang Zhidong deteriorated as soon as he was transferred, and eventually it was either suspended or resold to private individuals.

The layout of Shanghai machine weaving was originally the best among the conditions, firstly, Li Hongzhang has extremely rich experience in handling foreign affairs, and is more pragmatic than Zhang Zhidong, and there are a large number of capable and practical talents under his hands, and secondly, Shanghai is China's economic center and has a broad market. In the end, the machine-weaving layout in Shanghai did not succeed, and a large part of the reason was really bad luck.

The layout of Shanghai machine weaving was in 1878, and Peng Rucong proposed to build it, but Peng Rucong himself was a corrupt official, and in the process of preparing for the bidding, buying machinery, buying land, and building factories, there were many problems, and even Zheng Guanying, the organizer who assisted him, could not see it and was forced to resign. So Li Hongzhang in 1880 re-assigned Dai Heng, Gong Shoutu and Zheng Guanying to re-establish the weaving layout, but only two years later, in 1883, there was a financial reversal in Shanghai, followed by the Sino-French War, the result of great setbacks, Shanghai machine weaving layout was officially completed in December 1889, before and after 12 years.

On October 19, 1893, a fire broke out in the layout of machine weaving in Shanghai, burning all the factories, warehouses, dormitories, and machines, with a total loss of no less than 1.5 million taels of silver. At that time, Shanghai's "Declaration" commented: Machine weaving so to recover the inherent benefits, the relationship is huge, the business creation, painstaking efforts, is a success, but it was ruined in a flash, and those who are interested in current affairs can not be consulted.

However, Li Hongzhang was not discouraged, in November of that year, he appointed Sheng Xuanhuai to be responsible for restoring the weaving layout, and re-raised the capital of 1 million taels, and changed to the official supervision and commercial operation, and changed the bureau to the factory, the Shanghai machine weaving layout was renamed Huasheng Textile General Factory, only 11 months after the fire, in September 1894, the new factory was put into operation again, and the new factory was larger, better equipment, there were 1,500 cloth machines, 70,000 spindles. Sheng Xuanhuai also plans to set up 10 branches in Zhenjiang, Ningbo and other places, and eventually reach 4,000 cloth machines, 320,000 spindles, and an annual output of more than 240 horses.

Unfortunately, at this time, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, a year later China and Japan signed the "Treaty of Shimonoseki", stipulating that foreigners can set up factories in China, so for a time foreign businessmen have to Shanghai to open textile factories, Huasheng Textile Factory can not cope with the fierce competition of foreign factories, every year of losses, free of strong support after a few years, and finally in 1900, after the approval of the Qing government, Sheng Xuanhuai bought Huasheng Textile Factory at a price of 2.1 million taels of silver, renamed Integrated Textile Company. At this point, the layout of Shanghai machine weaving has completely become Sheng Xuanhuai's private property.

Thinking about the Westernization Movement for more than 30 years, there are no less than 100 Western-style enterprises set up, and now only a few of them remain, and the rest are either stopped or resold to private individuals.

Thinking of this, Li Hongzhang's interest was also a little gloomy, and the others didn't know what was going on, thinking that he was too old and lacking in energy, and the textile factory was almost visited, so Tian Zechu invited Li Hongzhang and the observation group to the lounge to rest.

After sitting for a while, Li Hongzhang also praised the textile factory for a few words, and then Tian Zechu said: "Li Zhongtang, our textile factory does not have an official name yet, Li Zhongtang is the first person to visit the textile factory, so I want to ask Li Zhongtang to give our textile factory a name and inscribe a few words, this is also our honor, and please Li Zhongtang can appreciate a face." ”

Li Hongzhang was stunned, he didn't expect the other party to make such a request, so Li Hongzhang looked at Qin Zheng and wanted to see his attitude.

Qin Zheng smiled and said: "Even if it is the request of Director Tian, please ask Zhongtang to give face." ”

Seeing Qin Zheng say this, Li Hongzhang nodded and said with a smile: "Since this is the case, then the old man is not welcome." After thinking about it, he said: "Industry prospers the country, the country is rich and the people are prosperous, which is the word real wealth." ”

Tian Zechu nodded, in fact, the name is a colorful head, Li Hongzhang took the word "Shiyu", both literally and meaninglessly, so he said: "Thank you Li Zhongtang for naming our textile factory." As he spoke, he hurriedly waved his hand and asked someone to bring over the prepared pen and ink and let Li Hongzhang inscribe.

The name of the factory is up, of course, the inscription is not a problem, Li Hongzhang happily picked up the pen, wrote on the paper "Tianjin Shiyu Textile Factory" seven words, and wrote three sheets, from which he chose a picture that he thought was the best written, handed it to Tian Zechu, and wrote a "prosperous country, rich country and rich people" words, and all the words were stamped with their own private seals. Of course, Tian Zechu put away all the words and kept them as historical materials of the factory.

Ask Li Hongzhang to name the textile factory, the inscription is of course not Tian Zechu's personal behavior, but the executive committee instructed, first, the name inscription, is a very honorable thing, but also to give Li Hongzhang a face, because the traverser still hopes to have a good relationship with Li Hongzhang, although Li Hongzhang is absolutely loyal to the Qing court, after all, he is the most knowledgeable Chinese in this era, and his position in the Qing court is even more important, and in a short time, the traverser does not plan to tear his face with the Qing court, so it is still very convenient for the future traverser to act well。 However, on the issue of principle, of course, it is impossible for the traverser to make concessions, and now the traverser does not have a large amount of money to bribe Li Hongzhang, and Li Hongzhang can't look down on it at all, so he can only say that the traverser is courteous to Li Hongzhang on these other things, such as a name and an inscription. Although it did not give Li Hongzhang any substantial benefits, with the strong strength that the traverser is showing now, he can take the initiative to show favor to Li Hongzhang, which is already very face-saving, if Li Hongzhang is not interested, then he is not Li Hongzhang.

Second, to find a celebrity name, inscription in the old time and space of common things, and Li Hongzhang is of course a celebrity, and with the development of China in the old time and space, the evaluation of historical figures is not labeled, symbolized, so Li Hongzhang is simply positioned as a traitor There is not much view, and Li Hongzhang's contributions to China's modern industry, military and other aspects are basically positive. As for the traitorous treaty signed by Li Hongzhang, we can also get an objective understanding, although Li Hongzhang has to bear a certain amount of responsibility, but it is also unfair to detain all the black pots on Li Hongzhang alone.

After the inscription was over, the tour of the textile factory was over, and Li Hongzhang and the members of the observation group returned to the hotel to discuss what they had seen and heard on this day. Of course, Xia Bohai's outrageous words were not written, and after handing them over to Li Hongzhang for review, they were immediately sent to Xi'an through the Tianjin Telegraph Office.

The next day, according to the schedule, it was supposed to be a formal meeting with the observer group, and it was still a matter of discussing the negotiations in Shanghai. Of course, it is impossible to talk about any substantive matters at this meeting, because after all, it is impossible for both sides to easily show their cards. Therefore, the two sides only discussed some issues such as the negotiation arrangement, itinerary, and situation, such as the personnel and specifications of the negotiators, the seating order of the tripartite personnel, and the accommodation and security of the negotiation delegation sent by the crosser.

In the end, the two sides reached a deal, and the time of negotiation was set to officially begin on February 5, 1901, and the tentative time was scheduled to end on the 10th. The negotiation table uses a triangle to show the fairness of all parties, and the negotiators of each party are 12 people, of which 4 people are at the negotiation table to preside, and the other 8 people sit on the sidelines, and can communicate with their own representatives, but are prohibited from participating in the negotiations. And allowed the traverser to bring 20 soldiers to accompany the protection, and the itinerary arrangement, the Shanghai steamship China Merchants Bureau sent a ship to Tianjin on February 1, to pick up the delegation to Shanghai, the escort along the way is still in charge of the Beiyang Naval Division, and after arriving in Shanghai, arrange for them to stay in the Shanghai Licha Hotel (now Pujiang Hotel), and the cost of food and accommodation are borne by the Shanghai Public Concession and the French Concession. At the same time, the countries will be jointly responsible for the security of the mission.

After negotiating these details, some people in the Mission asked questions about the origin of the traverser.

During this time, the traverser has specially organized personnel to compile a historical outline of the traverser, and also compiled some of the details, which are being gradually improved. A number of pamphlets were also printed, briefly introducing the overseas life history of the travelers, as a way to reply to similar questions in the future. However, the location of the island where the traveler lived was concealed, and the traveler's explanation was that the island where he used to live had sunk, and all the remaining people had returned to China, so he did not want to mention the past again, and only wanted to live in China from now on. A booklet was distributed to each country. Although this answer made the Observation Group skeptical, no one could find any flaws, and they could only believe it.

At this time, some people also proposed that they would like to be able to visit the warship of the traverser, and the traverser also promised that when the observation group left Tianjin, he would organize the observation group to visit a warship.