After the traversers launched the campaign to attack Beijing, the reaction of the Shanghai side was very strong, some people cheered, some people thundered, some people were worried, and some people gloated. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

However, due to the interruption of the telegraph line in Beijing, the Shanghai side could not understand the progress of the war, so the office of the crossing group in Shanghai also became the target of public criticism, and people from all walks of life came to inquire about Beijing. However, Li Sanjie, who is in charge of Shanghai's diplomatic work, is tight-lipped and will say to any inquiry: I don't know the situation, so I have nothing to say.

However, only two days later, Li Sanjie took the initiative to hold a press conference to officially confirm that the People's Army had recovered Beijing, and also issued a declaration, saying that the Chinese nation has been a peace-loving nation since ancient times and opposes war, and the overseas Chinese have inherited the peace-loving tradition of the Chinese nation, and originally did not want to use war to solve the situation in China, but the countries rejected the fairness and fairness proposed by the overseas Chinese. The notarized peace proposal, but insisted on not giving up the encroached interests of China, led to the breakdown of the Shanghai negotiations, and the countries should bear full responsibility, and the overseas Chinese were forced to use force to recover Beijing. This also fully shows that all imperialism is a paper tiger, because the war of aggression they launched is an unjust war, so it is doomed to failure, and the overseas Chinese launched the war to safeguard the interests of the Chinese nation, to oppose oppression, If the imperialists do not realize the inevitability of their own defeat and immediately change their ways, and think of launching a new war again to seize interests that do not belong to them, then what awaits them will be an even greater defeat. The Chinese nation is not afraid of power and violence and will certainly crush the ambitions of imperialism.

If you look at it from the point of view of the old time and space, this declaration is a full eight-strand article, but in this era, it is a completely new style, the sentences are extremely simple, almost everyone can understand, but the content is not simple, the sad card, the moral card, the righteous card, and the tough card are all occupied, because it occupies the moral high point, which is also in line with the concept of the Chinese, and this declaration was issued on the basis of the People's Army's capture of Beijing, so it also seems to be full of low spirits, not empty talk of benevolence and morality.

The manifesto was immediately reprinted by major Chinese newspapers in Shanghai and quickly spread in Shanghai. And it greatly lifted the mood of the Chinese in Shanghai, and it was the New Year, so many people even held a celebration for this, and at the same time did not forget to put a whip on the New Year.

However, the consuls in Shanghai were very aware of this trick of the traversers, which was in fact to promote nationalist sentiments, which was a common thing in Europe, and that before the war, all countries would promote and agitate the national sentiments of their own citizens in order to motivate their armies to fight hard. But what is the purpose of the overseas Chinese playing this game after they have captured Beijing? Is it so difficult that they plan to attack Shanghai?

Since all the telegrams from Beijing had been cut off at this time, the consulates of various countries in Shanghai did not know anything about the current situation in Beijing, and in order to test the attitude of overseas Chinese, the consuls of various countries sent representatives to the Shanghai office of the crossing group to visit Li Sanjie, inquire about the situation in Beijing, and propose to the crossing group to ensure the personal safety of the embassies of various countries in Beijing and other overseas Chinese. At the same time, the traverser was also asked to immediately restore communications in Beijing.

As for the resumption of communications in Beijing, he has sent people to step up the repair of telegraph lines and will restore telegraph communications in Beijing as soon as possible, and so on.

After sending representatives of the consuls of various countries, Li Sanjie immediately rushed to the Lilac Villa to visit Li Hongzhang, which was also the task assigned to Li Sanjie by the Tianjin Executive Committee.

After meeting Li Hongzhang, Li Sanjie immediately discussed in the name of the Tianjin Executive Committee, saying that the People's Army would do its best to resist the invasion of the Russian army and safeguard the national interests of the Chinese nation if the Russian army moved south, but he hoped that Li Hongzhang would be able to provide two pieces of help to the crossing group: First, let Li Hongzhang introduce Zhang Zhidong to the crossing group, and the crossing group wanted to buy some guns and weapons from Zhang Zhidong to meet the invasion of the Russian army; second, he hoped that Li Hongzhang would come forward to persuade the guards of Shanhaiguan to open the gate and let the People's Army enter the pass and set up defensive positions to meet the Russian army.

And after listening to Li Sanjie's two requests, Li Hongzhang couldn't help but sink down. This is the first time that overseas Chinese have formally asked for help since they established contact with overseas Chinese, and it was only a trivial matter to ask myself for help in setting up an office in Shanghai and conducting trade in the past. Of course, Li Hongzhang can completely push back the demands put forward by overseas Chinese, but although he will not make enemies with overseas Chinese, the fairly good relations he has established with overseas Chinese will definitely drop sharply, or even disappear.

However, Li Hongzhang is very clear, and it is basically impossible for any other country to send troops to China on a large scale now, so after the capture of Beijing, in the future negotiations with various countries and the Qing court, the overseas Chinese already have an absolute advantage, and the countries may still have some hole cards to bargain with the overseas Chinese, but the Qing court has no bargaining chips, and can only accept any conditions put forward by the overseas Chinese. No matter what the final outcome is, it will be a weighty weight in China's political structure in the future, and even the imperial court will not dare to despise the attitude of overseas Chinese, and at this time, if the relationship with overseas Chinese is not handled well, it will undoubtedly be unwise, unless Li Hongzhang really plans to retire.

Judging from the two requests put forward by Li Sanjie on behalf of overseas Chinese, it is not difficult to introduce Zhang Zhidong to overseas Chinese, although Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong have never dealt with each other, but they are still passable on the big picture, so as long as Li Hongzhang writes a letter to Zhang Zhidong, Zhang Zhidong will definitely meet with representatives of overseas Chinese, not to mention that now that overseas Chinese are in the limelight, Li Hongzhang estimates that Zhang Zhidong is probably trying his best to connect with overseas Chinese.

However, Li Hongzhang could not guarantee that Zhang Zhidong would sell weapons to overseas Chinese, so after the meeting between the two sides, it had nothing to do with Li Hongzhang in what way the overseas Chinese said that Zhang Zhidong would be moved.

And to persuade the guards of Shanhaiguan to open the gate and let the People's Army enter the pass and set up defensive positions to meet the Russian army. This does make Li Hongzhang a little dilemma, this is not to say that Li Hongzhang's words are useless, although the First Sino-Japanese War made Li Hongzhang's reputation plummet, but in the Qing Dynasty, he is still a pivotal figure, just with the three words "Li Zhongtang", he can be used as a few taels of silver in the pawnshop. Therefore, Li Hongzhang is also full of self-confidence, as long as he writes a letter, there is a good chance that the guards of Shanhaiguan will really open the gate and let the People's Army enter the pass to arrange defensive positions to meet the Russian army. On the one hand, this is the prestige that Li Zhongtang has established for more than 30 years, and on the other hand, the guards of Shanhaiguan are probably in need of a strong force to help them defend the city, after all, the Russian army is moving south, which is not a joke.

However, now the overseas Chinese are not subjects of the Qing court, and during the negotiations in Shanghai, the overseas Chinese have repeatedly criticized the imperial court with harsh words, and many of the words have been published in the newspapers. Although the imperial court has not said anything now, but in the future, it will still be Beijing, and the situation has been stabilized again, and it is inevitable that this old account will not be reopened.

In fact, from Li Hongzhang's heart, he still wants to help the overseas Chinese, after all, if the Russian army really breaks through the pass in the south, drives straight in, and defeats the overseas Chinese to capture Beijing, it will be unimaginable in the future.

Originally, Li Hongzhang still had a good impression of Russia, but after the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, Russia, together with France and Germany, put pressure on Japan to force Japan to abandon the Liaodong Peninsula. Therefore, Li Hongzhang also had the idea of uniting Russia to resist Japan, so on April 30, 1896, Li Hongzhang sent an envoy to Russia to attend the coronation ceremony of Nicholas II, and was highly courteous by the Russian side, and under the authorization of the Qing court, on behalf of the Qing court, signed the "Sino-Russian Mutual Assistance Treaty" with Russia, that is, the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty".

Although the "Secret Treaty" stipulates, on the one hand, that if Japan invades and occupies the Russian Far East, China, and Korea, China and Russia shall provide assistance to each other with all their naval and land forces; unless the two countries jointly consult, one of the signatory countries shall not negotiate peace with the enemy alone, and this seems to guarantee China's security, but at the same time, it also stipulates that Russia is allowed to build railways in Heilongjiang and Jilin to reach Vladivostok, and this has provided all kinds of convenience for the Russian invading forces to further penetrate into and control China's northeast region, and has greatly strengthened Tsarist Russia's position in contending for hegemony in the Far East. The reason why Russia is now able to compete with Japan for the Far East and the Korean Peninsula is precisely because of the signing of this treaty.

On the whole, this treaty will definitely do more harm than good to China. However, out of consideration for confronting Japan, Li Hongzhang accepted these conditions in their entirety, and even after the signing of the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty," Li Hongzhang once claimed that this treaty could guarantee the peace of the Qing Dynasty for 20 years; because the benefits of the Qing court's concession were too great, there were rumors in China that Li Hongzhang had received a bribe of 3 million rubles from Russia, and when Russia later forcibly leased Port Arthur, Li Hongzhang strongly advocated leasing Port Arthur to Russia out of consideration of forming a good alliance with Russia and safeguarding the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty."

And this time, when Li Hongzhang was ordered to go north and negotiate peace with other countries, Li Hongzhang still had illusions about Russia, believing that Russia was the object that the Qing court could rely on. However, with the intervention of the traverser, Li Hongzhang did not start talks and peace with other countries like the old time and space, and with the gradual deepening of Russia's invasion of the three eastern provinces, Li Hongzhang was also wary of Russia, hoping that someone could dampen the arrogance of the Russians, and now only overseas Chinese can complete this task.

Note: Whether or not the Russian government paid a bribe of 3 million rubles to Li Hongzhang for a secret agreement has always been an open case in history, and Romanov, who was then director of the General Office of the Russian Ministry of Finance, and Ukhtomsky, who was Li Hongzhang's "full accompaniment" during his stay in Russia, both mentioned that there was such a special fund and named it the "Li Hongzhang Fund," but there is no evidence to prove that this was a bribe received by Li Hongzhang. What can be confirmed is that: first, there is indeed such a "fund for special purposes for negotiations"; second, this fund has always been stored in the Sino-Russian Daosheng bank account and is managed and controlled by the General Affairs Department of the Russian Ministry of Finance; third, this fund is indeed 1.7 million rubles received by the Chinese (but there is no proof that it is Li Hongzhang); fourth, the fund is more used as a small treasury by the tsar himself, and the expenditure is huge.