Qin Zheng's judgment was indeed not wrong, and the next day, when Qin Zheng and Zhang Peilun met again, Zhang Peilun first told Qin Zheng that he had received a reply from Li Hongzhang, and Li Hongzhang said that he could play to the exiled Chun Court on his behalf, and asked the Qing court to officially issue an order to confirm the identity of overseas Chinese.

In fact, after Li Hongzhang received Zhang Peilun's telegram, he didn't think about the problem of procedural or non-procedural at all. After all, Chunting has now been mixed up in this part, and what kind of shelf do they have to worship, they have to go to the table first and ask for attachment before they issue an order to appease and accept them.

In this regard, Li Hongzhang can see more clearly than Zhang Peilun, and the so-called protracted time is just an excuse, because now there are telegraphs, and the transmission of information is extremely convenient, and it does not take much time at all, and in fact, overseas Chinese do not care about the recognition of the Qing court at all, and now they are not still occupying Tianjin, Weihaiwei, Qingdao, and it is said that it is quite popular, as long as they have strong enough force, and they are indeed the face of the Han Chinese, speak Chinese, and the administration is not too harsh, it is not difficult to win the support of the Han people, even if the Qing court does not confirm their identity, it is impossible to change this fact. And the overseas Chinese still want to make this request, in fact, they are just expressing an attitude to the Qing court, that is, telling the Qing court that they must follow the pace of the overseas Chinese.

Of course, with the strength of overseas Chinese, it is impossible for them to honestly listen to the orders of the Qing court, although it is now basically confirmed that this group of people is indeed descendants of Huaxia, but they may be descendants of the Song people, or they may be descendants of the Ming Dynasty, but they are not descendants of the Qing Dynasty.

However, Li Hongzhang also knew better that the current Qing court had no capital to refuse, because overseas Chinese had become a hurdle that the Qing court could not avoid, and it was impossible for the Qing court to get rid of overseas Chinese and negotiate directly with other countries. It doesn't matter how much money is lost or how much land is cut, but now the overseas Chinese still occupy Tianjin, which is not only the gateway to Beijing, but also after the Cao Yun is changed to sea transportation, Tianjin is the only port for southern materials to be transported to Beijing by sea, so unless Chunting is planning to move the capital, it will not be able to bypass the overseas Chinese at all.

After all, the Qing court is still the legitimate government of the land of China, and the overseas Chinese are still willing to be attached to the Qing court in name, and Li Hongzhang does not think that the overseas Chinese have the intention of replacing the Qing court, at least in a short period of time, there is no such intention, after all, the number of overseas Chinese is limited, and they lack a foundation, and the rule of the Qing Dynasty has been more than 250 years, and it is already deep-rooted, and it can not be easily shaken.

Li Hongzhang estimated that the current goal of overseas Chinese is to rely on the Qing court in nominal discussions, and to gain a foothold on the land of China, with considerable autonomy. Li Hongzhang believes that this condition is still acceptable, after all, the top priority of the Qing court now is to end the war as soon as possible and let the empress dowager and the emperor return to Beijing as soon as possible. In this regard, overseas Chinese still have great use value.

As for the development of overseas Chinese to the "three feudatories" in the future, Li Hongzhang believes that it will be at least 10 years or even 20 years later, and after the Qing court returns to Beijing and recovers its vitality, it can also slowly weaken the strength of overseas Chinese, and it is not impossible to do this with the Qing court's huge strength in the whole country. Therefore, Li Hongzhang immediately decided to immediately instruct Zhang Peilun to reply to the demands of the overseas Chinese, and to take over the matter, and according to Li Hongzhang's estimate, it was not difficult to ask the Qing court to issue the next edict to recognize the status of the overseas Chinese.

After getting Zhang Peilun's reply, Qin Zheng didn't have a happy expression, because this result had long been expected by Qin Zheng, although he was not as complicated as Li Hongzhang thought, but after all, the requirements put forward by the time-traveler were not harsh, it was nothing more than to make the Qing court feel a little more uncomfortable in terms of face, but the history of the old time and space proved that the Qing court was not a dynasty that wanted to save face, and things like "the Son of Heaven guarding the country" and "the death of the Son of Heaven" could not be seen in the Qing court.

Qin Zheng just nodded and said, "That's fine, but I don't know if the countries agree to let the imperial court also join this negotiation and solve China's problems together?"

Zhang Peilun said: "Before leaving Shanghai, Lord Zhongtang had negotiated this matter with the foreigners, and the foreigners' opinion was that as long as you agreed, they would not object. Of course, the detailed form, after returning to Shanghai, Lord Nakado will negotiate with the foreigners. ”

Qin Zheng said: "This is natural, regarding this negotiation, our initial principle is that we must go all out to safeguard China's sovereignty and national interests, and we must not lose power and humiliate the country in this negotiation." ”

After listening to Qin Zheng's words, Zhang Peilun's heart was also a little better, no matter what, overseas Chinese have always claimed that they are descendants of China, so in this negotiation, how can they help the Qing court, at least let the Qing court lose a little less silver, cede some less land, so that Li Hongzhang can be less scolded.

Zhang Peilun knows very well that this kind of negotiation with other countries is absolutely thankless. During the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty was wiped out by the Japanese army, the Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula were successfully landed by the Japanese army, forming a strategic control situation against Beijing, the Qing Dynasty had no resistance at all, and could only enable Li Hongzhang to negotiate with Japan, as a result, Li Hongzhang was assassinated in Japan and was shot, and almost died before signing the [Treaty of Shimonoseki], which generally preserved the body of the Qing Dynasty, but after returning, he was accused of being a traitor by the whole country, and the Qing court did not say a word about it, and never mentioned the [Treaty of Shimonoseki] In fact, it was only after being recognized by the Qing court that Li Hongzhang signed the treaty.

Last time, it was only against Japan, and only the Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula were lost, and Dachun lost 230 million 200 million silver, and also ceded the island of Taiwan, but this time it was against the eight countries, and even the capital was lost. Therefore, if the Qing court could lose less money and cut less land, Li Hongzhang's life would be better.

At this time, Qin Zheng said again: "Mr. Zhang, we still have to ask Li Zhongtang to work the affairs of Shanghai, and we hope to set the venue of this negotiation in Shanghai, you can see if Li Zhongtang can arrange a suitable location." ”

Zhang Peilun also felt very strange when he heard this, because the crossers did not set the place of negotiation in Tianjin or Qingdao, which was controlled by them, but Shanghai, although theoretically, the power of foreigners was only effective in the concession, but after decades of operation, coupled with the support and assistance of a group of Chinese comprador businessmen, foreigners actually had a huge influence on the county seat of Shanghai, as well as the surrounding areas, so it is not an exaggeration to say that Shanghai is actually the territory of foreigners.

Generally speaking, the venue of the negotiation is set in the territory controlled by the dominant party, but this group of overseas Chinese did the opposite, which made Zhang Peilun also puzzled. However, setting the negotiation venue in Shanghai is a good thing for Li Hongzhang, after all, Li Hongzhang has his own villa in Shanghai, and has been operating in Shanghai for many years, so it is not an exaggeration to say that he is half the master of Shanghai. At least it can make Li Hongzhang have a lot less trouble with cars and horses, Bi Jing's negotiation is an extremely energy-consuming thing, and Li Hongzhang is an old man who is nearly eighty years old, and it is naturally better to live in his own home. Therefore, Zhang Peilun said: "Okay, this matter must be told to Li Zhongtang in the future." ”

Qin Zheng said: "There is another point, since Li Zhongtang wants to participate in this negotiation on behalf of the imperial court, then how should we cooperate with Lord Zhongtang in the negotiation, it is best to communicate in advance." Therefore, we hope that we can meet with Nakado and consult in person before the negotiation. In addition, it is advisable for all countries to send representatives to Tianjin to communicate with us and discuss the negotiation matters of the club. Of course, we can also send someone to Shanghai to meet Li Zhongtang. ”

Qin Zheng's request is also very reasonable, because before the negotiation, the two sides usually send some low-level personnel to contact and negotiate some process regulations in the negotiation. Li Hongzhang also had plans to visit Tianjin, first, to negotiate with overseas Chinese; second, Li Hongzhang also wanted to personally observe the behavior of overseas Chinese, after all, Li Hongzhang was also full of curiosity about the overseas Chinese.

However, now that the situation has changed, the overseas Chinese have demanded that the venue for the negotiations be set in Shanghai, so is it still necessary for Li Hongzhang to come to Tianjin? Zhang Peilun could not decide, so he had no choice but to bid farewell to Qin Zheng and ask Shanghai Power Generation.

This time, Li Hongzhang replied faster, agreed to all the requests made by the traverser, and promised to arrange a good residence for the traverser in Shanghai, so that the traverser could get a good rest during the negotiations. In addition, Li Hongzhang still decided to come to Tianjin in person to meet with overseas Chinese. Because Li Hongzhang considered that Shanghai was, after all, a foreigner's power, and if it was inconvenient for him and overseas Chinese to negotiate in Shanghai, the foreigners would definitely inquire about the details in many ways, so it would be much better to negotiate in Tianjin.

In addition, Li Hongzhang still hopes to be able to meet with the high-level officials of overseas Chinese, so that they can better understand the attitude of overseas Chinese, and it is impossible for overseas Chinese to send high-level personnel to talk about this kind of preliminary consultation, so Li Hongzhang can only go to Tianjin. Therefore, Li Hongzhang plans to complete his visit to Tianjin before the New Year, so that after the New Year, he can officially start negotiations.

The New Year mentioned by Li Hongzhang certainly refers to the Lunar New Year, commonly known as the Spring Festival by the Chinese, and the Chinese of this era still use the Lunar New Year as the beginning and end of the year. This year's Lunar New Year was on February 19, 1901, almost two months away, so it was completely timely in time.

In the afternoon of the same day, Zhang Peilun conveyed Li Hongzhang's reply to Qin Zheng, and at the same time resigned to Qin Zheng, saying that he would leave for Shanghai early the next morning.

Qin Zheng did not keep it, but once again expressed to Zhang Peilun that he was willing to cooperate sincerely with Li Hongzhang to jointly safeguard the interests of the Chinese nation.