Li Hongzhang sighed and said, "Didn't you see that the telegram also said that the overseas Chinese will officially announce their six principles of negotiation to the outside world at three o'clock this afternoon?"

Li Jingfang said: "Yes, it's not yet twelve o'clock at noon, if we send a telegram to Youqiao now, let him tell the overseas Chinese, stop announcing the principles of negotiation, it's still too late, otherwise, when the overseas Chinese announce it, it's too late to change the word." ”

By this time, except for Li Jingfang, who had not yet reacted, Zhou Fu and Sheng Xuanhuai had already understood what was going on, and Zhou Fu said: "Eldest prince, don't you still understand? Overseas Chinese should have known for a long time that other countries would not accept the negotiation principles they proposed, and they deliberately did this to make all countries refuse to negotiate first. ”

Sheng Xuanhuai said: "What's more, the overseas Chinese have set a ten-day reply time, which also shows that they have no intention of negotiating with other countries at all, but are just playing tricks, delaying time, and fighting this battle again." ”

In fact, Li Jingfang is also a very shrewd person, who is not easy to be fooled, but just now his thoughts entered a misunderstanding, so he didn't come to his mind for a while, and now when he heard Zhou Fu and Sheng Xuanhuai say this, he suddenly understood, and couldn't help but say: "Father, what should we do now, do you want to let Youqiao go around again." ”

Before Li Hongzhang could speak, Sheng Xuanhuai said: "The overseas Chinese obviously don't want to make peace with the foreigners, and if they continue to fight the war, what can you do about it, Zhongtang, we can't just watch this group of overseas Chinese mess around." ”

Li Hongzhang glanced at him and said, "Do you have any good ideas?"

Sheng Xuanhuai said: "There are still three hours before the announcement of the overseas Chinese, and the foreigners do not know the negotiation principles of the overseas Chinese, the Zhongtang should immediately hand over these six negotiation principles to the countries, and then clearly tell them that we are against the six negotiations, once the war resumes, the southeastern provinces will still be neutral, and will not give the overseas Chinese any support." I will contact the other governors, and then we will make a joint statement in support of the central hall. ”

Before Li Hongzhang could speak, Zhou Fuji hurriedly said, "Don't." ”

Sheng Xuanhuai frowned and said, "Why not." ”

Zhou Fu smiled bitterly and said: "The behavior of overseas Chinese in Tianjin is not comparable to that of boxers and bandits, and these six negotiation principles are all greatly beneficial to the imperial court. ”

Sheng Xuanhuai was stunned for a moment, and immediately understood what Zhou Fu meant.

Although the members of the Southeast Mutual Insurance were the governors of the southeastern provinces of the Qing court, the original initiator and the person who communicated with the governors of the southeastern provinces was Sheng Xuanhuai. The reason why Sheng Xuanhuai was keen to promote mutual protection in the southeast was that in addition to ensuring the stability of the southern region of the Qing court and not being affected by the Boxer Rebellion in the Gengzi Rebellion, there was also Sheng Xuanhuai's selfishness.

Although Sheng Xuanhuai's official position is now Shaoqing of Zhengsanpin Dali Temple, he is still a businessman in essence, and after decades of operation, coupled with Li Hongzhang's strong support, Sheng Xuanhuai now has nearly 20 industries in hand or shares, including Hanyang Iron Works, Daye Iron Mine, railway companies, enterprise steamship China Merchants Bureau, telegraph office, Huasheng Textile General Factory, China International Commercial Bank such a large modern enterprise, these enterprises naturally brought Sheng Xuanhuai a huge amount of wealth, but also the basis for Sheng Xuanhuai to settle down, if there is a Forbes or Hurun or other rankings in this era, Sheng Xuanhuai will definitely be at the top of the list.

Once the Boxer Rebellion spread to the Yangtze River Valley, it would inevitably cause social unrest, which would be a devastating blow to Sheng Xuanhuai, and he was likely to succeed Hu Xueyan and the huge business empire would collapse overnight. Therefore, Sheng Xuanhuai tried his best to promote mutual protection in the southeast, determine the stability of the south, and at the same time defend his huge business empire.

But the arrival of the traverser defeated the Eight-Nation Coalition in a row, and the war in China has a tendency to expand, which also makes Sheng Xuanhuai see the danger, because once the war expands, there is a possibility of spreading to the south, and the war spreads to the south, it will threaten the safety of Sheng Xuanhuai's business empire, which is the thing that worries Sheng Xuanhuai the most, so now Sheng Xuanhuai's most hope is that the Qing court and other countries will succeed in negotiating peace as soon as possible, and the second is to continue to maintain the situation of mutual protection in the southeast, and remain neutral for a long time in the battle between overseas Chinese and the Eight-Nation Alliance.

However, Zhou Fu's words also made Sheng Xuanhuai understand that it is far more difficult to maintain the situation of mutual protection in the southeast now than at the beginning, because the overseas Chinese are not the Boxers, they did not use the so-called magic skills to deceive the world, nor did they blindly xenophobic and anti-foreign, causing social turmoil, on the contrary, from the information obtained from the foreigners, the overseas Chinese are more civilized than the Chunting. The most important foundation and general purpose of the mutual preservation of the southeast is to prevent the Boxer Rebellion from spreading to the south and undermining social stability in the south.

In addition, in the troubled times, there is no shortage of people who want to fish in troubled waters, speculative and gambling, Zhang Zhidong played the imperial court twice, suggesting that the imperial court move the capital to Dangyang, and the discerning person knew at a glance that he wanted to put the imperial court under his sphere of influence, and play the trick of coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes, and Li Hongzhang also moved the idea of independence of the two Guangzhou, or to replace the Qing court. Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong were also loyal ministers of the Qing Dynasty, but what about other people? Now that overseas Chinese are rising and showing strong military strength, it is inevitable that there will be no ambitious people who will collude with overseas Chinese. Therefore, it is really difficult to say whether the governors of the southeastern provinces will make concerted efforts to maintain the situation of mutual protection in the southeast.

Moreover, these six principles of negotiation put forward by overseas Chinese are indeed quite beneficial to the Qing court, and they have indeed achieved military superiority at present, and ordinary people will not understand whether countries will accept these six principles, and whether the military superiority of overseas Chinese is really solid, they will only talk about patriotism, so whoever opposes the six principles of negotiation at this time will definitely not be able to escape the charge of betraying the country.

Although after the First Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang was accused of being a traitor among the people, but anyone with a discerning eye knows that he actually carried this black pot for the imperial court, and at this time, if Li Hongzhang came forward to oppose the negotiation principle of overseas Chinese, he would really become a traitor. Although Sheng Xuanhuai hoped to clear up the relationship with overseas Chinese, he could not push Li Hongzhang to the forefront, so Sheng Xuanhuai said: "Zhongtang, I didn't think about it properly. ”

After signing the [Treaty of Shimonoseki], the whole country unanimously accused him of being a traitor and a traitor, and he also carried it, and this time he didn't care about this false name, so as long as Li Hongzhang believes that if it is beneficial to the Qing court to oppose the six negotiation principles set forth by overseas Chinese, then Li Hongzhang will not hesitate to oppose it, and then negotiate peace with other countries at any time.

However, since the overseas Chinese dare to do this, there must be their reasons, presumably they also have a backhand, after all, countries can send troops to reinforce, then the countries of overseas Chinese can also increase their troops, so this war has really expanded, and it is really difficult to predict who will die, after all, up to this time, overseas Chinese have occupied an absolutely active dominant position. Moreover, from Li Hongzhang's heart, he did not want to negotiate with other countries in accordance with the negotiation principles of overseas Chinese, at least he did not need to sign treaties on land cession and compensation.

Li Hongzhang said: "Now we can only wait and see what happens, and we should not know about the six negotiation principles proposed by overseas Chinese, and wait for the overseas Chinese to announce them themselves, and see how the countries react." ”

Zhou Fu and Sheng Xuanhuai hurriedly said, "Yes." ”

Li Hongzhang said to Li Jingfang again: "Send a telegram to Youqiao and ask him to go back to Shanghai immediately and listen to him tell him what the origin of this group of overseas Chinese is." ”

It turned out that Zhang Peilun said in the telegram that he already knew the origin of overseas Chinese, but the process was tortuous, and the length was too long, so it was inconvenient to explain it in the telegram, and he would explain it to Li Hongzhang in detail after he returned to Shanghai. Now Li Hongzhang also hopes to learn more about overseas Chinese, so that he can deal with them in the future. Moreover, Zhang Peilun's task has been completed, and there is no need to continue to stay in Tianjin.

Sure enough, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the traverser officially announced his six principles of negotiation to the public, and of course said in a very high profile that he loved peace and opposed war, so he hoped to negotiate and so on, and finally gave a time limit, requiring countries to give a clear answer within ten days whether they are willing to negotiate.

This telegram immediately caused a sensation, because no one thought that overseas Chinese would completely disclose their negotiation principles, although in the negotiation, their own hole cards are revealed later, the better, but at some point, they will first explain some of their own principles to the other party, after all, the principle is not a hole card, and the principle explained to the other party may not be a real hole card, and generally will leave a certain amount of flexibility space, as a bargaining, to a certain extent, this is also a negotiation technique.

However, to completely disclose one's negotiation principles in this way is not a negotiation skill, because once one's negotiation principles are completely disclosed, it is tantamount to telling one's own cards to the opponent, and there is no room for recovery, either oneself has an absolute dominant position in this negotiation, and the other party must accept it no matter what conditions are offered; or it is to clearly tell the other party that this is my condition, and if I don't accept it, I will fight, and there is another kind of that I don't want to talk at all.

Although the consuls of various countries in Shanghai did not expect that overseas Chinese would come to such a hand, after receiving the telegram, the consuls of various countries forwarded the content back to China as soon as possible, and at the same time did not express their attitude on the content of the telegram.