Li Hongzhang said: "Your Excellency, I have been an official for more than two years, and I am not very familiar with the affairs of the DPRK and China, so it is unknown whether this group of overseas Chinese is related to the imperial court, but in my personal opinion, it is not very likely that the imperial court has anything to do with this group of overseas Chinese. ”

Hearing this, Wadsey said thoughtfully, "Is Your Excellency Zhongtang sure?"

Li Hongzhang said with a smile: "I just said, this is just my personal opinion, only for His Excellency the Marshal's reference. Moreover, Your Excellency the Marshal also knows that there are tens of millions of Chinese compatriots overseas in the Qing Dynasty, and all the Chinese are in a state of desirance, so it is not surprising that some people want to return to China. ”

Waldxi snorted, of course he could hear Li Hongzhang's overtones, in fact, he was completely pushing the relationship between the Qing court and overseas Chinese, waiting to see the German army and overseas Chinese fight. However, Waldsea did not care, although now Waldsea already knew the battle situation in Tianjin, but he was not too worried, because in Waldesi's view, Tianjin was lost and the fleet was completely annihilated, but the Eight-Nation Coalition was too useless, not how strong this group of overseas Chinese was, and the German fleet was confident enough to defeat this group of overseas Chinese, and he came to Li Hongzhang mainly for the mutual protection of the southeast.

It turned out that Germany sent such a powerful fleet to China, ostensibly because the German minister to China, Decklin, was killed by a Qing soldier in Beijing, so he wanted to show China the strength of Germany and teach the Chinese a lesson, but in fact it hoped to take advantage of this war to occupy a few more colonies in China and expand the scope of German interests in China.

But at this time, the Qing court's southeast governor and the powers led by Britain, France and the United States reached the [Southeast Mutual Insurance Agreement], which included almost all areas along the southeast coast of China, so that Germany had no way to grab land, so Waldexi hoped to find evidence that the Qing court's southeast governor was connected with this group of overseas Chinese, so that he could use the Qing court's southeast governor to violate the [Southeast Mutual Insurance Agreement] as an excuse to grab territory in China.

Although Li Hongzhang completely pushed the relationship between the Qing court and overseas Chinese, this answer was also within Wadsey's expectations, so Wadsey said: "Your Excellency Zhongtang, I also want to know, what is your attitude towards this group of overseas Chinese?"

Li Hongzhang said with a smile: "I don't know anything about the situation of this group of overseas Chinese, and I don't even know whether it's true or not, so how can I talk about what attitude I have toward them? I have a subordinate in Tianjin, and a few days ago he sent me a telegram saying that he had some contacts with this group of overseas Chinese, so I asked him to go to Shanghai in the hope of learning about the situation of these overseas Chinese, but unfortunately he said that he could not come to Shanghai until the war stabilized. ”

Wadsi said: "Then after this group of overseas Chinese intervenes, I wonder if His Excellency Zhongtang still intends to abide by the [Southeast Mutual Insurance Agreement]?"

When Li Hongzhang heard this, he also narrowed his eyes and said, "Marshal Wadsey, I also want to ask, does Germany still plan to abide by the [Southeast Mutual Insurance Agreement] now?"

Waldesi said: "Of course, we in Germany have always attached importance to respecting the agreement, if Your Excellency Zhongtang, as well as the governor of the southeast of your country, promise not to break the [Southeast Mutual Insurance Agreement] first, our Germany will naturally respect the [Southeast Mutual Insurance Agreement]. ”

Li Hongzhang also nodded and said, "Then I can also tell Your Excellency the Marshal that all the officials who have participated in the [Southeast Mutual Insurance Agreement] will definitely not break the agreement." ”

Wadesi said: "Then I can understand that the officials who participated in the [Southeast Mutual Insurance Agreement] will definitely not support this group of overseas Chinese, otherwise it will be regarded as a violation of the [Southeast Mutual Insurance Agreement]?"

Li Hongzhang nodded vigorously and said, "Yes, I can assure Your Excellency the Marshal that it will never be." ”

The corners of Valdesi's mouth showed some smiles, and he said: "Very good, with the guarantee of His Excellency Zhongtang, I can rest assured, tomorrow we will set sail for the north and compete with this group of overseas Chinese." ”

Li Hongzhang's heart moved, and he said: "Is Your Excellency Marshal sure of this battle? You must know that the fleet of the Eight Nations has been completely annihilated. ”

Wadsey glanced at Li Hongzhang and said proudly: "At this point, Your Excellency Zhongtang can rest assured, our German army is the strongest army in the world, and we are fully confident that we will complete the task assigned to us by His Majesty the Emperor. ”

When Li Hongzhang heard this, his face was still impassive, and he said, "Okay, I will listen to your army's good news in Shanghai." ”

Speaking of this, everything that should be said has been said, so Li Hongzhang got up to say goodbye to Wadsey, and Wadsey also got up and sent Li Hongzhang to the side of the ship, watched Li Hongzhang get off the gangway, and then turned back to the cabin.

After leaving the berth of the German fleet, Li Hongzhang immediately instructed his servants: "Tell Sheng Xuanhuai to immediately send a telegram to all those participating in the Southeast Mutual Insurance, and strictly order anyone to contact overseas Chinese, and if they have any contact, they must be cut off immediately, otherwise they will not be forgiven." It is Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi. After a pause, Li Hongzhang said again: "Forget it, Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi will be left to me to generate electricity, and the others will be handed over to Sheng Xuanhuai to deal with." ”

Wadsey returned to the cabin, and Deputy Commander Falkenhain immediately said, "Marshal, how's it going?"

Wadsey said: "We will set off tomorrow as usual, and after we capture Tianjin, are we afraid that we will not find any evidence that the officials of the Chunguo Kingdom have any contact with this group of overseas Chinese? Even if we don't, we can make it, in short, we have come to China thousands of miles away, and we must not go back empty-handed." Inform the Qingdao side and let them prepare for the reception. ”

At this time, Waldsey did not know that after the arrival of the German fleet in China, the other countries were not idle, and all began emergency operations.

In the old time and space, when the German fleet arrived in China, the Eight-Nation Coalition had already captured Beijing, and the substantive battle had ended, so although the strength of the German fleet was strong, after arriving in China, the strength of the German army was strengthened to the first of the coalition forces in one fell swoop, but because the overall situation in China had been decided at that time, what the German army could do was to rob and loot some property for itself, and then ask for a little more in the reparations, but the most important goal, to expand Germany's interests in China, was not achieved. Unless Germany intends to completely turn against the other seven countries led by Britain and France, but at this time Germany does not have such courage.

However, in this time and space, due to the arrival of the crossing fleet, the situation in northern China has changed dramatically, and the situation has become extremely complicated, and at this time, the German fleet intervened in this battlefield, making the situation in China tend to be further complicated. On the one hand, the Eight-Nation Coalition really needs reinforcements from the German fleet to counter this sudden appearance of overseas Chinese, and on the other hand, all countries are very vigilant about the arrival of the German fleet, and cannot allow Germany to become the main force in the Chinese battlefield and gain huge benefits in China after the war.

The Eight-Nation Coalition was originally the product of struggle and compromise among various countries, and from the moment the Eight-Nation Coalition was formed, internal contradictions have never stopped, but all countries are trying every means to expand their own interests in China and weaken the power of other countries in China, or in other words, they cannot obtain greater interests in China than themselves, but all parties have checked and balanced each other, and for the sake of common interests, they have reached a delicate balance among the countries, so that the Eight-Nation Alliance can maintain the same position in major operations.

But the advent of the Chinese diaspora and the arrival of the German fleet upset this balance, so other countries moved to try to re-establish a new balance.

Britain, France, and the United States were the first great powers to come to China, so they are also the imperialist countries that have gained the most benefits in China at present, and they certainly hope to continue to maintain China's status quo and further expand China's opening up to the outside world, that is, China will not have such xenophobic movements as the Boxer Rebellion, but they do not want China to be completely chaotic or even split and disintegrated, which will damage their own interests in China.

When organizing the Eight-Nation Alliance, the main target of the three countries was Russia, Britain mainly curbed Russia's expansion in northern China and harmed its own interests; France wanted to bring Russia's ideas back to Europe from Asia to help France fight against Germany; while the United States wanted to maintain the policy of opening the door and equalizing the interests of all countries in China and could not tolerate Russia's expansion.

Now the goal of the three countries is to face the strong intervention of the German fleet, but these three countries have their own problems at present, Britain is mired in the Boer War, and France is to defend Germany in Europe with all its might, although the United States is now the world's largest industrial country, but at this time it is large but not strong, its own military strength is very limited, and the "Monroe Doctrine" is prevalent in the country, and they dare not be interested in expansion, so it is difficult for these three countries to invest more strength in China at present.

However, the reason why the old imperialist countries were able to dominate the country was not entirely by military strength, and sometimes taking advantage of the situation was also an important means, and of course, if they wanted to take advantage of the situation, they also needed to have enough strength themselves.

And Britain, France, and the United States borrowed the momentum. As early as the formation of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Britain used Japan to suppress Russia, and Japan also wanted to counteract Russia's pressure on itself in the northeast region, so the two sides hit it off, and the Japanese army dispatched the most troops, which effectively suppressed Russia.

Now against the German fleet, Britain considered Japan to be the most reliable, because Japan was closest to China and had considerable military strength, and France and the United States also agreed with Britain. Therefore, the three countries immediately signed a joint agreement with Japan, asking Japan to increase its military input to China, while the three countries were responsible for providing political and financial support to Japan, and the four countries acted in unison to maintain the goal of the formation of the Eight-Nation Coalition and maintain the status quo in China.

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