A Yuan Shikai is nothing remarkable, but there is a suzerainty behind Yuan Shikai! As a result, Minfei Group has accelerated the pace of finding new backers.

We know that Yuan Shikai's problems are carried away, and his ambition is rampant. How can he be so empty-minded in North Korea?

People need to master the degree of doing things, and it will be counterproductive if they go too far; Even Gaozong Li Xi, who had always trusted him, couldn't stand it anymore. Everyone has national pride, and a king's self-esteem in this regard will certainly be stronger. In addition, Li Xi is an unassertive person, everyone speaks ill of Yuan Shikai, and his wariness of Yuan Shikai is even heavier.

This made him feel more and more: "When I surrendered to Huawei, I was ashamed to surrender to Hua." ”

In this way, Li Xi came together with Concubine Min Group in terms of finding a new backer.

In 1886, Min Yongyi, the nephew of Concubine Min, secretly told Yuan Shikai that Korea had secretly sent a letter to the Russian minister in Korea, requesting Russian protection in an attempt to achieve complete independence.

For such a major matter, Yuan Shikai believed it without verification. On a whim, hot-headed, Li Hongzhang was electrified; It was proposed that Li Xi should be deposed and a new monarch should be appointed.

He said: "In Kaiguan's opinion, Han Zong sent a message to Russia, but the Russian soldiers failed to come quickly. It is better to wait for him to lead Russia Zhang Lu, Hua first sent a sailor, a little land soldiers, and was ordered to abolish this faint monarch and set up another sage of the Li family; The next time with thousands of soldiers continued to cross, the Russians saw that the Chinese soldiers entered first, and Han Yi Xinjun may be able to rest the matter. And at this time, the people's hearts are disintegrated, and the countries are complaining, if the decree is clearly issued, and then Li Gang should be assisted by the constitution (Li Hongzhang), it can be determined in three or five days, and it is not difficult to do. If the Russian soldiers enter first, it will be difficult to be afraid of China. ”

From these remarks of Yuan Shikai, it is not difficult to see that he has never figured out the true internal letter of the suzerain-vassal relationship between China and Korea, and has never regarded Korea as an independent country. Isn't it nonsense to propose to depose the reigning king and appoint a new king? At the same time, he is also a frog at the bottom of the well, and he doesn't know how decaying the world trend and Qing ** have been, and how unexpected.

Of course, these ideas of his will not be adopted by Li Hongzhang.

Yuan Shikai didn't know the attitude of Shangfeng, on the one hand, he was waiting for instructions, and on the other hand, he took action on his own. He forced North Korean Prime Minister Shen Sun-taek and Right Prime Minister Kim Hongji to hand over relevant documents requesting Russian protection.

Not only did they vehemently deny the existence of these documents, but they even repeatedly claimed that the request for Russian protection did not exist.

Yuan Shikai said: There is no conclusive evidence, how can he, as an envoy of the Celestial Empire, joke about such a thing.

But he was also very tactical, telling the two men that they might be kept in the dark. Immediately afterwards, the two were intimidated and sternly pointed out the seriousness of the consequences of the incident.

He told them: "The Holy Dynasty looks to the east, and the righteousness is benevolent, why should it be lost to North Korea?" With this move, it is obvious that it is a betrayal of China. If the Celestial Empire is furious and will Xingshi ask for guilt, how can Wei Zhihan respond? ”

These two people may or may not know about it.

And Yuan Shikai just listened to Min Yongyi's words, so it is possible that this matter does not exist at all.

However, Yuan Shikai's words still frightened the two important ministers of North Korea, and they said that even if there was such a thing, it would be a ghost by a few people, and it was definitely not the behavior of the imperial court. They said that they would seriously investigate the matter and give Yuan Shikai an explanation after the investigation. On the other hand, Yuan Shikai was also asked to explain to the Qing court and Li Hongzhang.

A few days later, the DPRK side replied to Yuan Shikai that it had conducted a detailed investigation and had verified with the Russian legation that there was indeed no such thing.

Yuan Shikai was unwilling to let this matter go undone, and felt that he was weak.

He called Li Hongzhang and requested: "Quickly send a large number of troops to investigate." He claimed: "At this time, the subjects (of Korea) are in a commotion, and the whole country is in an uproar, and if there are 500 soldiers, the king will be deposed, and the small group will be captured to relieve Jin (Tianjin) and wait for the news." ”

At this time, Yuan Shikai still fantasized that the Qing ** could send troops to North Korea. Perhaps, he was afraid that North Korea would lose control and would not be able to repay Li Hongzhang's kindness. Or, he already thinks that Li Xi doesn't listen to the greetings and wants to set up a young master, so he can be the emperor. Yuan Shikai's true thoughts, only he knows. Anyway, at this moment, he is determined to scrap the old and create a new.

Let's talk about Li Hongzhang again.

Although Li Hongzhang was fully aware of the independent status of the DPRK, he, like many Chinese people, always regarded the DPRK as a vassal state in his heart. In addition, North Korea's geographical location, once it is controlled by other countries, it is equivalent to opening a country. From Yuan Shikai, he already knew that letting Li Gang go back did not play a role in containing Concubine Min's group. It is believed that if the DPRK problem is allowed to develop, there is a great possibility that it will get out of control.

However, at that time, there were internal and external troubles, and there was still room to manage the affairs of North Korea. Besides, even if he wants to manage, he has more than enough heart but not enough power. The so-called, thirty years of He Dong, thirty years of Hexi, at that time, his own life was not easy.

Galeries Lafayette doesn't trust him that much anymore. However, Yuan Shikai's enthusiasm is not easy to dampen. He ordered the prefect Chen Yunyi to go to Seoul to investigate the situation under the pretext of checking the wires.

Seeing that the situation was serious, the North Korean side officially issued a note, clearly denying the incident and demanding that Yuan Shikai produce evidence.

Yuan Shikai had no choice but to launch Min Yongyi, and at this time Min Yongyi was gone. If there is no evidence, the matter can only be settled.

There are two consequences of this incident: First, after Yuan Shikai's tossing up and down, the conspiracy of the Min Concubine group to throw itself into Russia was exposed, and the action was reined in. Second, Yuan Shikai's honeymoon period with the Korean court came to an end.

Li Hongzhang conveyed Yuan Shikai through the prefect Chen Yunyi: He affirmed his active and serious performance of his duties. He also clearly told him that Li Gangying could no longer be counted on there, and that he could only rely on himself to strengthen his control over North Korea.

People are always lacking in self-knowledge.

Although at this time, North Korea, from the monarch to the ministers, was deeply wary of Yuan Shikai, but it was only perfunctory on the surface; But Yuan Shikai feels good about himself.

At the end of September, Yuan Shikai wrote to Li Xi, proposing "four edicts, everything is done to ten times", asking him to adopt it and strive to eliminate the past.

In early October, he wrote another article entitled "The Overall Situation of North Korea" and sent it to North Korea**, declaring: "North Korea originally belongs to China, and if he wants to go now, he is a son who has left his parents and begged others to take care of him." He also said that North Korea has six major advantages of "relying on China." There are four major disadvantages of "turning back on China".

Finally, he refuted the theory of independence of the DPRK: "The DPRK is its own monarch and its own people, and it has made treaties with other countries, claiming to be independent, but it is subject to the jurisdiction of China and China." If you don't subordinate to people for your autonomy, you are taking the dignity of the text in vain, and ignoring the death of the sect and society. …… Fang is now disintegrating from top to bottom, the country is weak and the people are poor, and they want to seek a near, largest, most benevolent, and most public country to shelter it, and give up China, who will they return to? Relying on China in order to survive on its own, do you still have other worries, but what do you want to do with China? ”

The so-called weak country has no diplomacy, and the DPRK authorities can only make promises to Yuan Shikai's arrogant and ignorant remarks and practices on the surface.

In this regard, Yuan Shikai felt good about himself and thought that he had a plan, and he still boasted about it many years later.

For example, someone wrote: "If he had died in battle on the streets of North Korea or been executed by the Japanese, would we have found a national hero named Yuan Shikai in the text of the sad century-old history?" Even if he was lucky enough not to die and was imprisoned by the enemy for many years, will we remember him with laurels such as Su Wu in modern times or Wen Tianxiang in the Qing Dynasty? ”

There are times when our country is weak and we are humiliated by a strong country. However, when bullying the weak, they often cannot think from the standpoint of the weak and small nations. Perhaps, this is the sorrow of human nature.

Yuan Shikai would not know how his words and practices of chauvinism of the great powers deeply hurt the national self-esteem of the whole country; This hastened the disintegration of the suzerain-vassal relationship between Korea and China. Of course, that's an afterthought.

These practices of his can't even stand Li Hongzhang, who has always supported him. He was severely reprimanded for "stopping the emperor" and "being rash and rash".

I wanted to behave well, as I boasted in the letter to his second sister: "I can support the overall situation of the East with one hand", "The Qing court and Li Zhongtang will definitely reward him for doing things in a good way." "I didn't expect to be scolded for a bloody spray. The so-called patting of the horse's ass was not in the right place, and it was slapped on the horse's hooves.

With this lesson, he has reined in his work and began to learn more steadily.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance, and where there is control, there is counter-control. Yuan Shikai's abuse of power provoked the North Korean authorities to increasingly want to break away from the control of China, the suzerain.

In order to show independence and seek the support of more countries. In August 1887, Li Xi sent Pu Dingyang as Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States, and Shen Yang Xue as Minister Plenipotentiary to Britain, Germany, Russia, Italy, France, and other countries.