After listening to Li Hongzhang's words, Huo Bilan also felt that his attitude just now was indeed a bit excessive, because overseas Chinese belonged to foreign forces, and no matter how they were calculated, they could not be counted on Li Hongzhang's head. Therefore, he said: "Of course I know what Lord Nakado said, but Lord Nakado has a direct connection with overseas Chinese, and this Lord Nakado can't deny it." ”

Li Hongzhang smiled and said, "Of course." ”

Huo Bilan said: "Then I hope that Lord Zhongtang can convey what I just said to overseas Chinese." ”

Li Hongzhang nodded and said, "Of course you can, but does Your Excellency the Consul have any other opinions that we need to convey, such as asking the overseas Chinese to return Weihaiwei to your country?"

Huo Bilan shook his head and said, "No need, Lord Zhongtang just needs to bring my words, if the overseas Chinese don't want to be enemies of our British Empire, they should know how to do it." ”

Although Huo Bilan was angry with the traverser, he had not completely lost his mind, in fact, he also knew that the words just now were transmitted to the overseas Chinese, and it would not have much effect, since the overseas Chinese had already captured Weihaiwei, there was no reason to return it to the British. After all, any tough diplomatic rhetoric is backed by force, and overseas Chinese are not the Qing court, and a few harsh words can scare them, unless ten battleships are sent from the British mainland, which may still have some effect.

After all, overseas Chinese first took Britain as the first thing to do, and Britain had no other way in a short period of time, so it had to make a gesture.

Li Hongzhang said with a smile: "Well, once the overseas Chinese have a reply, I will definitely notify your country immediately." ”

After Huo Bilan said goodbye, Li Hongzhang did not dare to slack off, and immediately called Zhang Peilun and asked him to send a telegram to Tianjin immediately, convey Huo Bilan's words to overseas Chinese, and at the same time put forward a request to overseas Chinese who want to visit Tianjin again.

Huo Bilan's words just now did not scare overseas Chinese, but they did make Li Hongzhang feel nervous, and Britain was very angry, and the consequences were very serious. Although Li Hongzhang did not think that the overseas Chinese would give in easily, he still had to work hard to win it, hoping to persuade the overseas Chinese to make concessions.

Zhang Peilun naturally understood what Li Hongzhang meant, so he immediately sent a report to Tianjin and conveyed Li Hongzhang's request. After the telegram was sent, it only took more than an hour to receive a reply from Tianjin. The traverser first said that the recovery of Weihaiwei is to safeguard China's national interests, which is the obligation of every Yanhuang grandson, so Weihaiwei will never be returned to Britain, and if Britain really decides to send troops, then it will give Britain a head-on blow and knock down Britain's century-old prestige. As for Zhang Peilun's request to visit Tianjin again, the traveler also welcomed it, but he still has to discuss the time and itinerary of the visit, and will reply in the next few days.

Of course, Li Hongzhang didn't know, in fact, the traverser really hoped that Britain would increase its troops and send a powerful fleet to China, because in this era, the traversal fleet could destroy the fleet of any country, and the traverser could just use this battle to establish his authority, so that all countries knew that the traverser was not easy to mess with, and any behavior that challenged the traverser would have to pay a heavy price. But the intention of the traversers to never compromise with Britain was made very clear. Of course, the traverser still gave Li Hongzhang enough face and did not refuse Zhang Peilun's request to go to Tianjin, but in this case, Zhang Peilun went to Tianjin, and it is estimated that there will be no result.

In addition, Li Hongzhang also thought that Shandong is not only Weihaiwei, a foreign leased land, but also Qingdao, so will the overseas Chinese occupy Qingdao after seizing Weihaiwei? But it's really hard to say, after all, the overseas Chinese have even provoked the UK, and I'm afraid they don't care about messing with Germany again.

In fact, it is not only Li Hongzhang who thinks so, after the traverser captured Weihaiwei, the most embarrassing is undoubtedly the British, but the most nervous is the Germans, because Qingdao is only more than 200 kilometers away from Weihaiwei by land, and the sea distance is less than 300 kilometers, so the Germans immediately thought that the next goal of overseas Chinese would be to attack Qingdao, the Germans have not forgotten that the German fleet, which was pinned on by Germany and the entire Eight-Nation Alliance, was a crushing defeat to the overseas Chinese fleet, and only seven of the more than 30 ships of various kinds fled to Qingdao。

Now the German army in Qingdao has about 600 people, all of them are troops transferred from the German mainland, so the strength is of course much stronger than the British army in Weihaiwei, but the original conditions of Qingdao are much worse than Weihaiwei, Weihaiwei was originally one of the two anchoring bases of the Beiyang Fleet, all the infrastructure, fortifications are very perfect, although in the Sino-Japanese War suffered some damage, but it does not hurt the muscles and bones, only need to be slightly repaired.

Although Qingdao's geographical location is superior, and Germany has also formulated a plan to build Qingdao, but after all, it has only been more than two years, and most of the engineering projects are still on the drawings, and now only a few basic projects such as barracks, docks, hospitals, and highways have been completed, while shipyards, arsenals, As well as the project invested and constructed by German businessmen, it is still far from completion, not to mention anything else, that is, the German governor in Jiaoao (Qingdao) does not have a special governor's palace now, but temporarily lives in the yamen of the former Qingting Jiaoao Qing Court Jiaoao General Soldier Zhang Gao Yuan. Therefore, now there are almost no sea and land fortifications in Qingdao.

In addition, although the strength of the German army is more than that of the British army in Weihaiwei, and the quality is much higher, after all, there are only more than 600 people, not to mention the navy, which is originally a defeated general under the overseas Chinese, so although the German governor of Jiaoao, Ye Shike, has ordered to start preparing to defend Qingdao, but it is not easy to hold Qingdao with the current strength of Qingdao. Ye Shike also sent a telegram to the country, saying that it would be very difficult to hold Qingdao without reinforcements.

However, both the German country and the German consulate in Shanghai were a little helpless in this regard, because it was obviously too late to transfer troops and reinforcements from within Germany, and Germany only had one colony in the Far East, the island of Jindao, and the other colonies were either islands in the Pacific Ocean or in Africa.

Even if you can't count on it at home, then you can borrow some troops from allies or friendly countries, and now there are only 10,000 troops from various countries in Shanghai, mainly the armies of Britain, France, the United States, and Japan.

It turned out that in June, the Boxer Rebellion in northern China reached its peak, and there was a tendency to spread to the south, and even in some cities in the south there were organizations claiming to be the Boxer Rebellion, which naturally attracted the attention of Britain, which had the greatest interests and the most powerful in the Yangtze River Valley, so Huo Bilan sent a telegram to China, suggesting that measures be taken to maintain order in the Yangtze River Valley, Shanghai sent the Fairy and Cardinal warships to Nanjing and Hankou to garrison, while the warship Intrepid originally stationed in Hong Kong was stationed in Shanghai, and at the same time from India, About 5,000 troops were dispatched from Hong Kong and other places, landed in Shanghai, and then garrisoned Nanjing and Hankou respectively.

Although the Qing court's southeastern governors and consuls in Shanghai later signed a mutual guarantee for the southeast, guaranteeing that the security and order of southeast China would be the responsibility of the Qing court's governors and preventing the spread of the Boxer Rebellion to the south, they also asked other countries not to send troops and warships to southeastern China. Although Britain also signed the [Southeast Mutual Insurance Charter], it still found various excuses to send troops to Shanghai.

In fact, Britain's goal was not only to maintain order in the Yangtze River valley, but also to use the Boxer Rebellion in the north to develop along the Yangtze River into the interior of China, expand its sphere of influence in China, and preferably include the entire Yangtze River valley under British control.

In August, Major General Seymour of Britain, who had joined the Eight-Nation Alliance, led the first British troops to Shanghai, and despite repeated consultations with the British by Chinese officials, Seymour and Huo Bilan still left 3,000 soldiers stationed in Shanghai on the pretext of defending Shanghai.

However, Britain's wishful thinking can not be concealed from other countries, of course, countries will not sit idly by and watch Britain send troops, because it is France, the United States and Japan, and they also have a lot of interests in southeast China, and these three countries also have troops to adjust, so they have also sent troops to Shanghai, of course, the reason is also to defend Shanghai, and Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy and other countries although they have little interests in southeast China, or have no troops available, but they also follow the coax, because Britain cannot be allowed to dominate in China. As a result, by the end of August, the armies of France, the United States, and Japan were also stationed in Shanghai one after another, bringing the garrison in Shanghai to 10,000.

Chinese officials seized the opportunity to negotiate with other countries and demanded that the garrison be limited to Shanghai and that it should not spread to the interior. Therefore, there are still enough troops in Shanghai now, and if one or two thousand troops are drawn from it to reinforce Qingdao, then the chances of holding Qingdao will naturally be greatly increased.

However, Germany was very sad to find that these four countries had no friendship with Germany, and France, not to mention, had become mortal enemies since the Franco-Prussian War, and the relations between Germany and Britain had deteriorated in recent years. Therefore, I hope that Britain and France will send troops to reinforce Qingdao, don't even think about it.

There is no contradiction between Germany and the United States and Japan, but there is no friendship either, and although it is not completely out of trouble to ask the United States and Japan to send troops to reinforce Qingdao, it is not an easy thing to do, and it requires diplomatic maneuvering and an exchange of interests, which cannot be negotiated in a day or two. Of course, if there is a glimmer of hope, it cannot be abandoned, so Germany quickly called the consulate in Shanghai, saying that China had made diplomatic contacts with the United States and Japan, and sought to send troops to reinforce Qingdao.