Qin Zheng did not make a speech at the wharf as he did in Tianjin, because the consuls of various countries had already prepared a welcome banquet at the Licha Hotel, the hotel where the negotiating delegation was staying, and notified the reporters of various newspapers, so Qin Zheng could make a speech at the Licha Hotel, and the consuls of various countries also hoped to have a simple meeting with the negotiating team in the Licha Hotel on the schedule of this negotiation. Qin Zheng, www.biquge.info the pen "Fun" Pavilion, had no objections, but just waved his hand like a crowd of onlookers and said a few words of "thank you".

Licha Hotel is also the Pujiang Hotel in the old time and space, founded in 1846, is one of the main foreign-funded hotels in the Shanghai Public Concession in this era. It is often the first place in China to accept modern things: in 1867, the shop was the first to use gas in Shanghai, in July 1882, the first electric light in China was installed here, which attracted curious visitors, in 1883, it became the first place in Shanghai to use running water, and in 1897, Cai Jun, then a Shanghai Taoist, held a large ball in the ballroom of the Licha Hotel to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Empress Dowager Cixi. Consuls and their wives from various countries in Shanghai and wealthy foreign businessmen in Shanghai were invited to attend the ball, which was the first large-scale ball held in Shanghai.

Huishan Wharf is about 3 kilometers away from the Licha Hotel, but there are no cars in the Shanghai Concession now, so the negotiators can only be sent to the Licha Hotel by horse-drawn carriage. In fact, in this era, the automobile has not yet been popularized, the carriage is the main furniture for short-distance transportation, and the carriages prepared by the Shanghai Public Concession for the negotiation team are of course the best carriages in the concession, all of them are four-wheeled carriages in the shape of a box, and are equipped with wide and bright glass windows, and the cart is also pulled by high-headed horses from Europe, and there is a team of cavalry guards on the left and right sides, in fact, it is also quite imposing.

Huo Bilan accompanied Qin Zheng to board the first carriage and lead the way away, and each of the other carriages had a foreign consul to accompany the members of the negotiation team and leave in turn, but the accompanying soldiers could only take a caravan and follow behind.

The carriages are not fast, they are all equipped with suspension shock absorption systems, and the roads in the concession are very flat, so it is very balanced and comfortable to sit in the carriage, and you can see the European-style streetscape on both sides of the road through the glass windows, which is also very pleasant.

More than ten minutes later, the convoy arrived at the Recha Hotel, which is still only a two-story East Indian-style brick and wood building, while the six-story Pudong Hotel in the old time and space was rebuilt after the current building was demolished six years later.

At this time, the entrance of the Licha Hotel was also full of people, but the people who came here did not come to see the excitement spontaneously, but the celebrities in the concession who came to attend the banquet to welcome the overseas Chinese negotiation group, the officials of the Ministry of Industry and the Bureau of the two concessions, and the officials of the Qing court such as Yu Lianyuan, who is currently in Shanghai Daotai, most of them were Chinese businessmen operating in the concession.

It turned out that the Qing court initially allowed foreign countries to set up concessions in China, in order to separate foreigners from Chinese, so Chinese were not allowed to live in the concession, but with the expansion of the territory of the concession, there were not many foreigners living in the concession, which left a large amount of vacant land idle, so foreigners began to rent houses in the concession to Chinese and collect rent to expand income.

At the beginning, the Chinese living in the concession were mainly comprador businessmen who had business dealings with various countries to facilitate their own business exchanges, so there were not many Chinese who settled in the concession. However, in September 1853, the Little Knife Society revolted and captured the county seat of Shanghai, and a large number of Chinese merchants, gentry, and landlords poured into the concession to take refuge. And in the second "Land Charter" in July 1854, it was officially established that Chinese could also rent land in the concession and settle down.

Although the refugees returned after the end of the war, the Chinese population in the concession declined. However, with the rapid prosperity of industry and commerce in the concession and the expansion of the concession, coupled with the application of modern urban management system by foreigners to the concession, the environment, sanitation, and infrastructure construction were indeed much better than those of the Qing court, and there were still many Chinese living in the concession, and even opening factories and shops, and a large number of residents of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other provinces, and even overseas Chinese entered the Shanghai public concession, or started a business, or made a living. All of them caused a sharp increase in the Chinese population in the concession. At present, there are only about 10,000 foreigners in the two concessions of Shanghai, while the number of Chinese has reached nearly 300,000, and most of the rest are ordinary residents working in the concessions, except for a few Chinese businessmen. Therefore, most of the people who welcomed the negotiating delegation were Chinese.

Qin Zheng stopped at the door of the Licha Hotel in the carriage, Qin Zheng and Huo Bilan got out of the car, and immediately burst into warm applause, and Harry Smithley, the hotel's businessman, came to the two of them and said with a smile on his face: "Welcome to the Licha Hotel." ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "There are many fights." ”

At this time, everyone else also got out of the carriage one after another, and Huo Bilan said: "Political Commissar Qin, let's hold a meeting first, and then introduce you to the guests attending the banquet later." ”

Qin Zheng said: "That's fine. ”

Huo Bilan said to Smith again: "Mr. Smith, please explain to all the guests that we should not make them wait too long. ”

Smith nodded and said, "Mr. Consul, you can have a meeting, and I will handle it here." ”

As he spoke, he turned to the crowd at the door and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the overseas Chinese negotiation team has just disembarked from the ship, and needs to make simple repairs, and we will not be able to meet you officially after a while. ”

After listening to Smith's words, he immediately separated a passage, and Smith took a few hotel waiters to lead Huo Bilan, Qin Zheng and others through the crowd and walked towards the hotel. Of course, there were also some people who knew Qin Zheng present, such as Zhang Peilun, Zhao Weizhong and others, who greeted Qin Zheng one after another, and Qin Zheng also responded one by one.

Everyone came to the second floor of the hotel, and Smith led Qin Zheng and the others to the door of a door, and said, "Political Commissar Qin, you can rest in this room for a while, and someone will come to inform you later." ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "Okay." As he spoke, he pushed the door and entered, only to see that there were three other people in the room, who were the other three traversers sent to Shanghai in advance.

Seeing Qin Zheng come in, the three of them also got up to greet Qin Zheng, and the rest of the negotiation team also entered the house and sat down, leaving the soldiers to guard the door. After everyone was looking for a place to sit down in the room, Qin Zheng said to Liu Lantao, "How did your work in Shanghai go in the early stage?"

Liu Lantao said: "It's going well, Zhao Weizhong has helped us a lot, if it weren't for him, we wouldn't have rented a house so easily." ”

Qin Zheng said: "Okay, when we have time, let's go and see what our Shanghai office is like." ”

Liu Lantao said: "Please rest assured, the location, area, and location are very good, and you will be satisfied with it." In addition, Zhao Weizhong invites you to attend a banquet organized by Shanghai businessmen during your stay in Shanghai, but the time is to be determined. ”

Qin Zheng said: "Okay, we should have extensive contact with people from all walks of life in Shanghai, so of course we should participate in this kind of banquet, and Zhao Weizhong came forward, so how to give this face." ”

When everyone was talking, they only heard the sound of the door, and only heard Smith's voice say outside the door: "Political Commissar Qin, can you start?"

Qin Zheng immediately got up and said, "Yes." Then he said: "Lan Tao and Hongbing should also come to this meeting, and the five of you should participate in this negotiation, which can also facilitate your future activities in Shanghai." ”

Everyone walked out of the room, and under the guidance of Smith, they came to the next room, which was a large conference room, and a large conference table with a long bar in the middle, Huo Bilan and other consuls from various countries had already sat on one side of the conference table, and on the seats behind them, there were more than ten other people.

Qin Zheng, Li Sanjie and others were on the other side of the conference table, Huo Bilan and others got up, and the two sides shook hands one by one across the conference table, and then sat down on both sides.

Huo Bilan first said: "Political Commissar Qin, this time for negotiation, we plan to set the venue of the negotiation in Jing'an Temple, this is Li Zhongtang's suggestion, I don't know if you agree." ”

Qin Zheng nodded, of course he knew Jing'an Temple, this is a historic ancient temple Zen Temple, it is said to have been built in the Three Kingdoms period, the current temple site was built in the Southern Song Dynasty Jiading period, the old time and space of Shanghai Jing'an District is named after this temple, Qin Zheng has visited this temple twice, now Jing'an Temple is located at the west end of the public concession, about 5 kilometers away from the Licha Hotel. Of course, for Qin Zheng, the location of the negotiations did not matter, so he said: "We have no opinion. ”

Huo Bilan said with a smile: "At that time, we have already arranged the negotiation venue, and tomorrow we can send someone to lead you to familiarize yourself with the environment of the scene, but in order to prevent unforeseen incidents, we will arrange 200 soldiers to accompany you to protect you on the way to and from the negotiation venue, of course, they will obey your arrangement to protect the soldiers, I hope you can understand." ”

Five years ago, when China and Japan were holding negotiations in Shimonoseki, Japan, there was an incident in which the Japanese assassinated Li Hongzhang, the minister of negotiations of the Qing Dynasty, which made Japan extremely passive politically at that time and was forced to make concessions, and was originally going to claim 300 million silver from the Qing State, but had to reduce it to 200 million. At that time, the Qing State was still on the weak side, and the current overseas Chinese were not comparable to the Qing State at that time, from their brazen dispatch of troops, the capture of Weihai and Qingdao can be seen, they are not only extremely tough, but also have a tough confidence, and now do not want the war to continue on the side of the Eight-Nation Alliance, so if there is another assassination incident, the consequences should be unimaginable, maybe the overseas Chinese will really come to attack Shanghai, and the countries will never dare to be careless about this.

Generally speaking, in negotiations, the party responsible for holding the negotiation naturally has the obligation to protect the safety of the negotiators on the other side, so Qin Zheng said: "This point will be done according to your arrangement, we have no opinion." ”