After reading Li Hongzhang's telegram, Yuan Shikai was speechless for a long time, and the expression on his face was changeable, both happy and excited, and embarrassed and unwilling. When the others saw it, they couldn't guess what the content of the telegram was, which made Yuan Shikai have such an abnormal change.

After a long while, Yuan Shikai sighed softly, handed the telegram to Xu Shichang, and said, "Brother Juren, please read it to everyone." ”

Xu Shichang took the draft of the telegram and read it again, it turned out that Li Hongzhang repeatedly warned Yuan Shikai in the telegram that the overseas Chinese had made great contributions to the Qing Dynasty, and now the imperial court was trying to seal the overseas Chinese, so it must not have a conflict with the overseas Chinese, and after the imperial court experienced the major changes in the Gengzi National Revolution, it will definitely make great efforts to make the country rich and strengthen the army.

After everyone listened to it, they all suddenly realized that the first half of Li Hongzhang's telegram was to warn Yuan Shikai that he must not go against the overseas Chinese, because now the imperial court is relying on the overseas Chinese to return to Beijing, so no matter what happens, as long as the overseas Chinese do not openly raise the flag to rebel, then the imperial court will completely stand on the side of the overseas Chinese, if Yuan Shikai goes against the overseas Chinese at this time, it is undoubtedly asking for his own suffering; and the second half is to comfort Yuan Shikai, which is also equivalent to making a promise to Yuan Shikai that after the imperial court settles down, he will inevitably recommend Yuan Shikai to the imperial court to reuse Yuan Shikai, which is further than nowDon't make the wrong choice at this time.

Although the traverser is not afraid of a war with Yuan Shikai, and is also ready for a full-scale war, it is better not to go to war than to start a war, after all, Yuan Shikai is not an ordinary magistrate, but a local member of the Qing court, if there is really a full-scale war with Yuan Shikai, although the crossing group will not immediately turn against the Qing court, but the relationship in the future will definitely be more difficult to deal with, and it will also lose points politically. Therefore, on the one hand, the crossing group is preparing for war, and on the other hand, it is also actively looking for other ways to solve the problem. And Li Hongzhang is, of course, the most suitable person to solve the Shandong problem without war. So Qin Zheng immediately contacted Li Hongzhang, told Li Hongzhang everything that had happened, and asked Li Hongzhang to restrain Yuan Shikai's actions, otherwise the traverser would take the necessary action.

After receiving Qin Zheng's notice, Li Hongzhang was also surprised, he had repeatedly warned Yuan Shikai and asked him not to offend overseas Chinese, but he didn't expect Yuan Shikai to do such a thing.

Although the negotiations between Li Hongzhang and Russia were at a critical juncture at this time, he did not dare to despise the Shandong issue, because if the overseas Chinese and Yuan Shikai really fought, then the consequences would be difficult to control. If the imperial court wants to return to Beijing, it cannot offend overseas Chinese, and can only punish Yuan Shikai, but this will hurt the hearts of the governors of the world, and it will also shake the prestige of the imperial court, which is already limited. In addition, for Yuan Shikai, it will be a major setback in his life, and he may collapse because of this.

In fact, Li Hongzhang began to pay attention to Yuan Shikai very early, in 1882, there was a military rebellion in Korea, Yuan Shikai crossed to Korea with Wu Changqing's troops to quell the rebellion, in this battle, the 23-year-old Yuan Shikai performed very well, Wu Changqing reported to the Qing court that he "governed the army seriously, dispatched well, rushed to attack and suppress, and was particularly brave", so after the military rebellion in North Korea subsided, Yuan Shikai was stationed in North Korea as an assistant to the Korean military affairs. In 1884, the Korean Enlightenment Party took advantage of the lack of time for the Chun court to look east during the Sino-French War to launch the Jiashen coup, trying to seize the power of Korea with the help of the Japanese army stationed in Korea, so as to get rid of the status of a vassal state of the Qing court. Yuan Shikai was also promoted to the Minister of Trade and Trade Affairs of the Prime Minister stationed in North Korea, and he was the same as the Sanpin Taoist, who controlled the political situation in North Korea, just like the emperor of North Korea.

Yuan Shikai's performance in the two turmoil in North Korea also attracted the attention of Li Hongzhang, who intended to cultivate Yuan Shikai. Although there were many people in North Korea and the Qing court who attacked Yuan Shikai and demanded that Yuan Shikai be evacuated from North Korea, Li Hongzhang tried his best to override public opinion and let Yuan Shikai move to continue to serve in North Korea.

In 1894, when the Donghak Party uprising broke out in Korea, China and Japan sent troops to Korea at the same time to quell the rebellion, Yuan Shikai repeatedly reminded Li Hongzhang to pay attention to Japan's actions, and Japan really took advantage of this opportunity to launch the First Sino-Japanese War. During the First Sino-Japanese War, Yuan Shikai's main responsibility was to assist Zhou Fu on the Liaodong front and assist in the transportation of grain and food for the Chun army. After the defeat of the Chun army, a large number of people who broke away from the army structure caused great harm, harassed the people, and even plundered the military and military transportation convoys. Yuan Shikai's 2,000 guns to be transported to the front to be used to arm the Korean volunteers were also looted. Therefore, Yuan Shikai recruited brave warriors by himself, strictly investigated, intercepted and contained the brave, and used both grace and power, and chose to kill a few people to set an example, and most of the rest were given to Sichuan or escorted back to the army. During the entire Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang was very satisfied with Yuan Shikai's work of collecting the defeated bravery.

These things also made Li Hongzhang have a good impression of Yuan Shikai, thinking that Yuan Shikai is a capable, courageous, acting, and daring cadre, and he will inevitably become a usable material for the imperial court in the future. After the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang, together with Liu Kunyi and Wang Wenshao, jointly sponsored Yuan Shikai, so Yuan Shikai was able to officially enter the Tianjin station and began to train China's first new army with Western methods. It can be said that without Li Hongzhang's support, there would be no Yuan Shikai today.

For Yuan Shikai's moves, Li Hongzhang can also understand, he has been in the officialdom for a long time, of course he knows the importance of holding local power, and seeing that overseas Chinese are coming to seize their own territory, no one can swallow this breath, but the current general trend is like this, Yuan Shikai has no chance of winning against overseas Chinese, and if Yuan Shikai loses power because of conflicts with overseas Chinese, Li Hongzhang also thinks that it is a pity for this talent.

Li Hongzhang has a ban in his heart, the Gengzi National Revolution is basically over, and after the imperial court returns to Beijing, he will definitely become the master of the military aircraft and take charge of the government, and now he still hangs on the vacant positions of the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, and he will definitely have to be replaced, so Li Hongzhang plans to recommend Yuan Shikai to the imperial court to take over as the governor of Zhili, the minister of Beiyang, or the yamen of the prime minister's office.

So Li Hongzhang sent a telegram to Yuan Shikai, on the one hand, to warn Yuan Shikai not to have any more conflicts with overseas Chinese, and on the other hand, he also hinted to Yuan Shikai that after the imperial court was restored, he would recommend him to join the court as an official, and this place in Shandong would be given to overseas Chinese.

Li Hongzhang's meaning, Yuan Shikai naturally fully understood, although Li Hongzhang did not explicitly say that he would recommend Yuan Shikai's official position, but Yuan Shikai can generally guess that Yuan Shikai is already the governor of a province, if he wants to go further, he will either be promoted to the governor, or he will become an official in Beijing.

The governor and the governor are both local officials, but the governor's scope of authority is undoubtedly much larger than that of the governor, in terms of rank, the governor's official rank is the second rank, if the military department is still the title of the military department, or the title of the right capital of the Imperial Palace, it can be higher than the first rank, and the governor's official rank is from the second rank, if the military department is the secretary of the military department, it can be higher than the second rank, and the governor's official rank is always slightly higher than the governor. The Qing court divided the country into 23 provinces, each province had a governor, while the Qing Dynasty had only eight permanent governors at the local level, including: the governor of Zhili, the governor of Sichuan, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the governor of Hunan and Hubei, the governor of Liangjiang and the governor of Liangguang, and later the governor of the three eastern provinces, except for the governor of Sichuan, the rest of the governors were under the jurisdiction of 2 or 3 provinces. And when there are governors and governors in the same place, the governors are controlled by the governors.

However, now among the 9 governors, 8 of them are already manned, and the general court will not be easily replaced, only the governor of Zhili is temporarily named by Li Hongzhang, but although the governor of Zhili is the head of the 9 governors, but because of his special status, he cannot be completely regarded as a local magistrate. Semi-central position, so this promotion, Yuan Shikai is ironclad to enter the court as an official, of course, in addition to the governor of Zhili, after entering the court, Yuan Shikai also has several different positions, either to enter the military aircraft, or to serve as the prime minister's office Yamen or Beiyang minister, it is not excluded that he will concurrently hold several of these positions at the same time.

But no matter which one it is, it will be a great leap for Yuan Shikai's world, after all, Yuan Shikai has only been the governor of Shandong for two years, and he jumped into the court and took power. And with Yuan Shikai's promotion, these staff members are naturally rising, and they finally waited for the day when they came out, so after listening to Xu Shichang's telegram, everyone was quite excited. It's just that I don't understand why Yuan Shikai has an angry expression.

Yuan Shikai thinks about it more than everyone else, and it is naturally a good thing that he can be promoted, but in the end he still has to lose Shandong, which still makes Yuan Shikai quite unwilling, because Yuan Shikai sees the situation of the Qing court very clearly, and the control of the imperial court over the local area is constantly declining, although there has not been a situation of separating feudal towns in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, but the situation of strong branches and last cadres has been formed。 Therefore, even if you are an official in the capital, you must ensure that you have a reliable force in the local area, otherwise even if you become the Minister of Military Aircraft, you will just be an empty shell. Li Hongzhang has never entered the military aircraft, but he is named Zhongtang, and his power at the peak of his power is definitely more than that of any military minister, because Li Hongzhang has a strong local power.

According to Yuan Shikai's plan, he planned to work hard in Shandong for a few years and take root in Shandong completely, and the Beiyang New Army had also become a climate, and after he entered the DPRK, he would also recommend or arrange his own comrades to take over as the governor of Shandong, and make Shandong his sphere of influence. And now, although the time for his ascension has been advanced, if he wants to lose Shandong, Yuan Shikai is naturally a little unwilling in his heart.

Among the people present, only Xu Shichang understood Yuan Shikai's mood, and said: "Lord Futai, those who are unsatisfactory in life, eight or nine times out of ten, not to mention the loss of the east, the harvest of Sangyu, it is also inevitable, not to mention that China has a vast area, although Shandong is lost today, but after Lord Futai enters the center, he should have other gains, so there is no need to care about the temporary gains and losses." ”

Yuan Shikai nodded, and also understood that Xu Shichang was comforting himself, but this is not unreasonable, firstly, he can't compete with overseas Chinese at all, and secondly, after he enters the court, he can also try to find a place for himself to operate. Thinking of this, Yuan Shikai was also a lot more relieved, arched his hand to Xu Shichang, and said: "Thank you Brother Juren for your enlightenment, or bother Brother Juren to draft the draft on my behalf and reply to Li Zhongtang." ”