Li Hongzhang naturally had no objection to the change of location, and since he was to negotiate the settlement of Shandong, it was naturally better to hold the talks in Shandong, and it was also evident from this that overseas Chinese still attached great importance to this meeting. So Li Hongzhang immediately sent a telegram to Yuan Shikai, asking Yuan Shikai to come to Shanghai to meet him, and then go to Qingdao together.

Three days later, Li Hongzhang received a call back from Yuan Shikai, who said that Yuan Shikai did not go to Shanghai, but went directly from Jinan to Qingdao, and casually escorted the 100,000 taels of silver compensated to overseas Chinese to personally escort him over, and waited for Li Hongzhang to meet him in Qingdao.

In fact, Li Hongzhang also knows that it is much more convenient for Yuan Shikai to go directly from Jinan to Qingdao, because Jinan to Qingdao is about 700 miles away, which is almost half from Shanghai to Qingdao, of course, Jinan to Qingdao is all by land, and Shanghai to Qingdao can be taken by sea, so the two are actually basically the same, but from Jinan to Shanghai is more than 1600 miles away.

Of course, Li Hongzhang asked Yuan Shikai to come to Shanghai to join him, and he didn't intend to toss Yuan Shikai, but considering that there are still contradictions between Yuan Shikai and overseas Chinese, although Li Hongzhang estimates that since the overseas Chinese have agreed to let Yuan Shikai go to Qingdao, they will not treat Yuan Shikai as a whole, but let him go to Qingdao alone, I am afraid that Yuan Shikai will have some scruples, but this Li Hongzhang wants to let Yuan Shikai go with him. And now that Yuan Shikai took the initiative to go directly to Qingdao from Jinan, Li Hongzhang naturally had no objections, but he still had some appreciation for Yuan Shikai's courage.

In fact, Yuan Shikai's decision was also unanimously opposed by his staff, after all, the contradictions between the two sides have not been eliminated, and no one dares to say how overseas Chinese will deal with Yuan Shikai. Of course, the aides did not object to Yuan Shikai going to Qingdao, but they must go with Li Hongzhang, so that with Li Hongzhang's signboard in front of them, the overseas Chinese would definitely have some scruples and would not dare to openly harm Yuan Shikai, but now that Yuan Shikai wants to set off alone and go from Jinan to Qingdao, it will be dangerous, and what if the overseas Chinese send troops to set up an ambush to attack Yuan Shikai halfway? When the time comes, no one can say anything about pushing it to the robbers.

However, Yuan Shikai still tried his best to resist public opinion and insisted on setting off alone from Jinan to Qingdao, which was also Yuan Shikai's own consideration. During this period of time, Yuan Shikai collected a large amount of information about overseas Chinese through various channels, and through some of his connections in Shanghai, he had a basic and comprehensive understanding of the strength of overseas Chinese, and only then did he know that the strength of overseas Chinese and the wide range of influence were far beyond his own imagination. And more importantly, although Li Hongzhang's Huai system was huge, it was ultimately dependent on the imperial court, and the sphere of influence of overseas Chinese may not be as huge as the Huai system, but it existed completely independent of the imperial court, and could simply ignore the imperial court and do its own thing. Therefore, they can have no scruples about confiscating land and property, land reform, controlling the county seat, and even not afraid of war with Yuan Shikai and so on.

After learning about these situations, Yuan Shikai couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, he dared to pick up overseas Chinese, it was too much to do. And overseas Chinese in China in the future, will inevitably become an important independent force existence, because even the imperial court can not control them, the future will definitely be similar to the existence of the three feudatories at the beginning of the dynasty, and because they are the descendants of the previous dynasty, the special identity of the Yan and Huang dynasty, the influence of the Qing Dynasty can not be underestimated, although logically speaking, the imperial court must not allow the existence of independent feudal towns, but Yuan Shikai is very clear that the current imperial court has no ability to cut the feudal domain at all, Therefore, if you want to develop in your career, not only can you not offend overseas Chinese, but you must also establish a good relationship with them.

And if you want to repair the relationship with overseas Chinese, and even want to establish good friendships with overseas Chinese, it is not enough to rely on Li Hongzhang's maneuvering, but also Yuan Shikai himself needs to come forward. So this time, Yuan Shikai insisted on setting off alone and going from Jinan to Qingdao, which was to express his hope to make friends with overseas Chinese.

In addition, according to the information collected, Yuan Shikai also has some understanding of the style of overseas Chinese, knows that they are extremely rigorous and pragmatic, and at present, he still hopes to maintain a good relationship with the imperial court, and after all, he is a local member of the imperial court, so it is not very likely that overseas Chinese will harm themselves. And after all, Yuan Shikai is a person who came from the rain of bullets on the battlefield, and he still has the courage to do so. What's more, Yuan Shikai has also prepared several big gifts to give to overseas Chinese, and I believe that he can impress overseas Chinese.

The staff saw that Yuan Shikai had made up his mind, so it was not easy to persuade him again, but they all asked to go to Qingdao with Yuan Shikai, on the one hand, everyone really wanted to see the image of overseas Chinese; on the other hand, this is also an opportunity to strive for a good impression in front of Yuan Shikai, at this time Yuan Shikai's staff is not much, only more than 20 people, but it is also divided into three, six, nine and so on, Yuan Shikai trusts Xu Shichang the most, Zhao Bingjun, Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and others, these people have followed Yuan Shikai for a long time, and they all started to work with Yuan Shikai when they were training at the small station, and they all have their own talents, so they are the most reused by Yuan Shikai.

And the other staff members naturally want to squeeze into Yuan Shikai's circle of henchmen, and now is a great opportunity, because this time Yuan Shikai went to Shandong after all, it was a bit of an adventure, so going to Qingdao with Yuan Shikai was to take risks with Yuan Shikai, and he would inevitably gain Yuan Shikai's trust in the future.

Yuan Shikai finally decided that during his departure from Jinan, Xu Shichang would take over the affairs of the governor's yamen, and Wang Shizhen would be in charge of the Beiyang New Army, which was also Yuan Shikai's practice. Among the entourage, in terms of military generals, Duan Qirui led a battalion, Duan Zhigui commanded two cavalry armies, and Cao Kun commanded a personal guard, totaling more than 800 people. Because Yuan Shikai is very pure, if the overseas Chinese really want to attack themselves, it is useless to bring as many troops as they want, so it is better to be generous, just bring enough troops to guard against bandits and thieves along the way, and also show their courage to the overseas Chinese. Although he said that he did admit defeat, this is a lack of strength, and he cannot teach overseas Chinese to underestimate themselves.

In terms of civil officials, Yuan Shikai brought three people, with Tang Shaoyi as his chief copywriter, and the other two were Cai Shaoji and Liang Ruhao.

These three people have a common characteristic, they are all from Xiangshan County, Guangdong Province (now Zhongshan City, Guangdong), and they are the third batch of young children of the Qing court to study in the United States in the twelfth year of Tongzhi (1874), among which Tang Shaoyi studied at Columbia University in the United States, Liang Ruhao studied at Stephen Institute of Technology, and Cai Shaoji studied at Yale University. Although the three and other young children did not complete their studies and returned to China ahead of schedule due to various reasons for studying abroad, the three of them were proficient in foreign languages and Western France and good at negotiations, so when they first returned to China, they were all engaged in diplomatic work as translators, and in the ninth year of Guangxu (1883), they served as the attaché of the Chinese German adviser Mu Linde, and went to Korea to prepare for the establishment of customs. He also met Yuan Shikai, then Minister of Trade and Commerce in Korea.

At that time, Yuan Shikai had the intention to cultivate his own team, and at that time, the Qing court was in charge of foreign affairs, and these three people were all proficient in foreign affairs, so Yuan Shikai also deliberately made friends with the three of them. And the three of them also hope to rely on a big man like Yuan Shikai to realize their own talents. During the "Jiashen Coup" in North Korea, Tang, Liang, and Cai assisted Yuan Shikai to quell the civil strife in North Korea, and gave birth to a life-and-death friendship. It can be said that this experience in North Korea, in addition to Yuan Shikai being appreciated by Li Hongzhang, getting to know these three people is his second biggest gain. In the old time and space, these three people made great contributions to Yuan Shikai's career development in the future.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, Tang Shaoyi was sent by the Qing court as consul general in Korea and took over Yuan Shikai's original position. After Yuan Shikai was reactivated by the Qing court, he sponsored Liang Ruhao as the director of the railway transportation department in Guannai, and later promoted to the general office of the Beining Railway; Cai Shaoji successively served as the Niuzhuang Customs Daotai and Tianjin Customs Daotai, but due to the Gengzi National Revolution and the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, the two of them could not continue in office, so they fled to Shandong to join Yuan Shikai, and temporarily worked under Yuan Shikai; while Tang Shaoyi returned to China in 1898 because of the death of his father, and now the filial piety period has just expired, so he joined Yuan Shikai's disciples. All of them were reused by Yuan Shikai.

It's just that none of these three people have participated in the small station training, and Liang Ruhao, Cai Shao basically has his own official position, but because of the chaotic situation, he can't continue to do it in office; and Tang Shaoyi is Ding You's expiration of the term, due to the turmoil in the imperial court, there is no way to reinstate the office, so he temporarily works under Yuan Shikai, once the court returns to normal, the three will definitely be re-enabled by the Qing court, of course, once the Qing court returns to normal, Yuan Shikai is also ready to recommend the three important positions to the imperial court, after all, he still has to expand his power, and he can't just guard this place in Shandong, so although the three are still very respected and trusted by Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai can't give them too important tasks, and the position in Yuan Shikai's staff is second to Xu Shichang, Wang Shizhen and others.

On this trip to Qingdao, Yuan Shikai took Tang Shaoyi, Cai Shaoji, and Liang Ruhao with him, first, because the three of them had no important business on their hands and would not delay their official duties when they left Jinan; second, Yuan Shikai had heard that the style of behavior and customs and life of overseas Chinese were similar to those of foreigners, and these three people knew very well the customs and habits of foreigners, so taking the three of them was also conducive to exchanges and communication with overseas Chinese.