"1. Acknowledges that the siege of the embassy is contrary to public international law and guarantees that similar incidents will not occur in the future; 2. Willing to negotiate the issue of compensation; 3. Agree to revise the relevant treaties to focus on Chinese and foreign commerce; 4. Take back the occupied government offices and conclude separate treaties with each country; 5. Advance truce. General Manager Li read the outline of the "Blue Book of Contracts between the Qing Dynasty and the Nations" in a low voice.

Lafayette sat upright in the Peng Zu Hall by the Pearl Spring, Li Hongzhang and Li Zhongtang, who had just arrived from Shanghai all the way yesterday, sat on the upper hand, and Yuan Shikai, the new acting governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, was distributed left and right, and as for Wu Chenxuan, the political envoy of Shandong from the second grade, who was also freshly baked, had to accompany the last seat. I am also very content, except for the kowtow to Cixi just now, at least I can have a seat, and others such as Xu Juren, Duan Qirui, etc. have to wait outside the hall, and there is no place to stand without being summoned.

As my brother-in-law Li Daguan just recited, it was the first time that the Qing government formally set out its own conditions for negotiation, which could be regarded as a response to the six points of negotiation that all countries had agreed to in principle. The six comments made by the French include:

"1. To punish offenders designated by ministers of various countries; 2. Prohibition of arms imports; 3. Indemnity; 4. Establishment of a permanent embassy guard; 5. Demolition of Dagu Fort; 6. Allow countries to station troops on the front line from Dagu to Beijing. ”

In fact, we all know that such a contract blueprint is nothing more than to deal with official business, and if the coalition forces are not funny, such conditions are fundamentally different. However, to punish criminals, it is necessary to offend a large number of Manchurian relatives and Qingliu officials, and even their own relatives and friends may also be involved in a piece of escort to the vegetable market, and the establishment of embassy guards and Beijing-Tianjin garrisons means that as long as the coalition countries are happy in the future, it is common for two or three times a year to change the Gengzi country, and it is difficult for Lafayette to tour the south and west three or two times a year, and it is clear that Lafayette will not agree. The fox here who is not a thousand-year-old fox, who would be stunned to pierce this layer of window paper, or let the coalition army use artillery to put forward conditions.

"Old Zhongtang, I don't know how sure I can persuade countries to negotiate peace?" Although Cixi also understood that this was self-deception, she still had a trace of luck after all.

"Returning to the Queen Mother, the old minister thought that as long as I was sincere in the Qing Dynasty and reconciled with all countries, I would always be able to negotiate terms acceptable to both parties. It's just that the old minister is decrepit and old, embarrassed by the heavy responsibility, and asked the queen mother to send important ministers in the court to preside over the peace talks, and the old minister is willing to do his best to assist the ambassador of the peace talks, and strive to complete the peace talks as soon as possible, so that the emperor and the queen mother can return to Beijing as soon as possible, which is the blessing of the society. ”

"Lao Zhongtang, the mourning family knows that you are loyal, diligent in the king's affairs, and do your best for my Qing Dynasty. The Manchu Dynasty is proficient in foreign affairs, the old Zhongtang is the leader, and at this time of national disaster, I hope that the old Zhongtang can be old and stable, and share worries for the country. Cixi looked serious, and when she saw Li Hongzhang standing up, she was about to kneel down and excuse herself, and hurriedly motioned to Manager Li to step forward to help.

"Come," Cixi beckoned, and two clean-faced little eunuchs came to the hall with a pair of yellow silks and a tray. "Proclaim the decree."

The little eunuch unfolded the yellow silk, and it was indeed a holy decree. The gist is to read that Li Hongzhang has worked hard and made great achievements, is diligent in government affairs, and is specially given a three-eyed dazzling feather, promoted to the founding of the county, and Yin Yizi is a sincere and loyal uncle. Li Hongzhang, the governor of Liangjiang, was the minister of the Qin Council and presided over the peace talks with other countries.

In fact, after learning that the foreign powers had a dispute over the identity of his minister plenipotentiary, Li Hongzhang, who was in Shanghai at the time, sent a telegram to Cixi in Jinan, asking the imperial court to add Prince Yixuan and Rong Lu, as well as Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, and Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, as plenipotentiary ministers. Li Hongzhang's move was obviously intended to use the imperial court's appointment of the above-mentioned ministers to balance the disputes between the foreign powers over him.

"Lao Zhongtang must not shirk, the mourning family understands that you are getting older, and the emperor asks the emperor to appoint Qing Wangye Yixuan and Liu Kunyi and Zhang Zhidong as the deputy ministers of the council, and the other candidates are all designated by the old Zhongtang, and the mourning family has granted the old Zhongtang the right to act cheaply this time, and the old Zhongtang thinks it is good?"

Cixi has already forced Li Hongzhang into a corner, and if she doesn't agree, she will inevitably be suspected of relying on the old and selling the old and despising the imperial court. Li Hongzhang sighed secretly, thinking to himself that if Lafayette had half the scheming and courage to deal with Hanchen in dealing with foreigners, why would he be thrown around. What do you think in your heart, you have to deal with the face first, Li Hongzhang kowtowed and thanked him, looking like an old loyal minister who swore to die to repay the grace of heaven, Cixi also personally got off the throne, supported the old middle hall, and personally replaced Li Hongzhang with a three-eyed flower, for a time Peng Zutang on the monarch and ministers got along, and the touching scene of the top and bottom working together. Qing Wangye, Yuan Datou and I are naturally congratulating, anyway, when you are an extra, you just follow Yuan Datou to have a box lunch.

Sure enough, two days after Jinan proposed the peace outline, the coalition forces held a joint meeting in Beijing to discuss the matter, and all parties involved were dissatisfied with the perfunctory attitude of the Qing court. Regarding the peace outline proposed by the Great Qing State, Wadsey's attitude was to "give no heedness." Wadsey, who was so angry about the hostage incident and the looting incident, even more encouraged other countries to resolutely reject China's demand for an armistice before peace, and proposed that all countries could only start considering the issue of peace negotiations after the Qing government had made a clear statement on how to punish the culprits.

Cixi Lafayette, who settled down on the shore of Daming Lake, looked forward to Li Hongzhang's "good" news every day, but bad news followed, and a telegram sent back from the front said that the coalition forces had taken Baoding and there was still the possibility of going south. The news alarmed her again. There are also rumors that the foreigners in the capital have issued a list of those who need to be "punished", and the foreigners warn that these people are all accomplices, and for the sake of China's decency, the name of the first offender is not mentioned, and if these accomplices are not punished, then they will go to find the first offender to settle accounts. Cixi knew very well that the "first offender" referred to herself. The current Laode Wangfu looks very orderly outside, but the arrangement of General Manager Li asking me to secretly prepare a few Western-style four-wheeled carriages and dispatch a detachment to stand by on the north shore of Daming Lake two days ago still reveals a very unusual meaning.

"Brother Li, could it be that Lafayette has the intention of continuing his southern tour?" Taking advantage of the time to send the car into the house, I found Manager Li Lianying to inquire.

"Brother, I won't tell you, I don't want to, brother, but the Queen Mother and her old man think that if the foreigners get an inch again, it will be too late to prepare now." Manager Li just stabilized his buttocks, Jinan Mansion was delicious, drunk and entertained, and a lot of building silver (all the officials in the Chamber of Commerce donated officials, plus many middle and low-level officials from surrounding provinces), so he didn't want to move his nest, but Lafayette had already been frightened, and he couldn't listen to the movement of foreign guns and artillery, and the coalition forces actually didn't even occupy all the work of Shunyi Daxing, where were the troops going south. Unless the more than 30,000 troops are scattered like sesame salt, they will not even be able to reach the prefectures and counties south of Zhili, let alone Shandong. But I won't break it, the escape of their master and slave is addictive, anyway, Lao Tzu has already caught what he wants, and he is too lazy to bird them. On the face, he had to shout and ask for warmth to design an escape route for General Manager Li, with the face of a good buddy, patting his chest to give the horse team of a detachment and the insurance group of two detachments that he had just bought from Rebudan Jiaren to General Manager Li as bodyguards, and escorted them all the way through Henan to Tongguan to Xi'an to eat cured mutton. I am happy to have Mr. Li praise his brother for his righteousness enough buddy.

"By the way, my brother still has some money in his hand, I don't know if your brother has a way to help release it. Don't ask for much interest, just ask for stability" Manager Li has always been both public and private.

"Brother Li, you have opened your mouth, and the little brother has everything to follow. In this way, the younger brother's own chamber of commerce has a Shandong Chamber of Commerce Investment Society, and the younger brother and dozens of large buyers and sellers in Shandong are shareholders, which is much more stable than the Shanxi ticket number. Deposit the silver in the investment cooperative, the annual interest rate of ten percent is the official price, but your brother can afford our Shandong Chamber of Commerce, when the time comes, you can take it at any time, how about an annual interest rate of twenty? "I don't expect Mr. Li to invest his whole net worth in, and there is no need to take it too seriously.

"That's good, it's still your brother who has a way to make money. My brother has saved up for half his life, and the 200,000 taels of silver are all stored in the provincial investment cooperative. "Mr. Li has a relieved expression on your face. Although I feel sorry for the annual income of fifty or sixty thousand taels of silver, I can't care about the small money at this time, and I agreed with a light expression. In fact, the current market, if handed over to the standard factory and the two major mining areas, the annual profit is not a problem, the annual interest rate of 20% is ruthless enough, but the machinery mining industry is lucrative, there is no pressure at all.

"As for the monkey cubs under his hands, they also instigated some life-raising silver, but about 100,000 taels, and they will also be handed over to the elder brother. They have to be happy to kowtow to your brother if they have a penny, but there is no need to let them eat fat people in one bite. "Manager Li is really a decent person, and he doesn't forget to take care of the net worth of his younger brothers when his money is settled. Anyway, now I'm not afraid of the silver biting my hand, I will also accept it happily, and when the time comes, let the steward Liu go to the investment agency to find Lao Wu to open an account. Manager Li was very interested, and asked the steward Liu to open a table in the small courtyard, and while Lafayette was taking a nap, the two brothers had a beautiful meal. The current housekeeper Liu wants to see my father when he sees me, it is not the time to look at people with his nostrils, he pours wine for Mr. Li and me, and he is thoughtful, and he sends me out of the house when he is leaving, and he nods until I get in the car and leave.

Seeing that the two little eunuchs who were standing in the gate had expressions that they wanted to laugh but didn't dare to laugh, the steward Liu Yiren rewarded him with a chestnut blow, "Monkey cubs, it's upside down." Have you never seen the red-capped ministers? The miscellaneous family sent him is the righteous brother of our chief manager, and you may not be qualified to serve in front of his old man after decades of cultivation. A few of you are not good at standing on duty, so take care of your skin. ”

After dealing with these bad things, I calmed down to sort out my own affairs, the front mainly arranged the development layout of heavy industry in the province, that is, relying on the resources of Zhongxing, Zichuan two coal mines and Laiwu iron ore, in Laiwu, Juye two places to open iron and steel plants, Jinan around and Tai'an Fu to set up machinery industry, the future machine tools, engines, locomotives and other heavy industries will be laid out in this area, the future of the Taishan Mountains north and south of the two foothills will be an important machinery industry base. Since the focus of Jinan and Tai'an is on heavy industry and some high-tech industries, Yanzhou is naturally dominated by mining and agriculture. Caozhou is barren and poor, but it is suitable for planting cotton, and it should be good to vigorously develop the textile industry and cotton planting. Wuding Mansion in the north is also more saline-alkali land, but close to the sea, rich in salt resources, I also know that the Shengli Oilfield in later generations is also within the scope of Wuding Mansion and Qingzhou Mansion, the next positioning is mainly to develop the chemical industry, but there is no technical talent at hand, always can not let Du Niang go to the chemical plant alone, at present, I have to develop traditional agriculture and vegetable and fruit tree planting, and then have the conditions to go to the chemical industry. Dongchang Province is positioned as a light industry business base, backed by the Grand Canal, and the future Jinpu Road also passes through Dongchang, with convenient transportation, which is a good place for the development of trade and civil light industry products. As for the several state capitals in the east, they are still stable for the time being, and Qing, Deng, and Laizhou each have their own characteristic industries, and their economic development is good. Yizhou is a province with more mountainous areas in Shandong, and it is also a wholesale distribution center in Shandong in later generations, but now the development of commercial conditions is insufficient, mainly in the local recruitment of soldiers, first through the export of labor to drive the local economy.