After the conclusion of the second meeting between Maguan and Qingri on the 10th, Li Hongzhang's telegram was sent to Tongzhou.

Electricity reached the Forbidden City, Cixi, and Guangxu were moved.

Immediately, Cixi and Guangxu urgently summoned the ministers in the Forbidden City to take countermeasures, and everyone promised to have no plan, or they were full of words, and they couldn't run the horses.

That night, Yixuan, Sun Yuwen, and Xu Yongyi retired first and went to Dongjiaomin Lane to ask foreigners for advice.

The envoys of the Western countries all proposed to avoid the armistice conditions proposed by the East for the time being, and directly demanded the terms of the peace agreement from the East.

When the news came back to the Forbidden City, Cixi, Guangxu, and the ministers who stayed up all night and had red eyes all thought so.

Therefore, it was agreed to reply to Li Hongzhang with this intention.

After that, Cixi ordered Sun Yuwen and Weng Tonggong to each issue a telegram; After reading it, the resolution was drafted by Sun Yuwen, and Weng Tongyi had no choice but to laugh at himself to the point that 'I deeply feel that the wording is not easy'.

At 8:35 a.m. on the 11th, a telegram from Tongzhou was sent to the Maguan Telegraph Office, where it was immediately sent to the 4th Squad of the Second Bureau of the Japanese General Staff Headquarters to decipher the code, and then the translation was delivered to Ito Hirobumi.

In the previous North Korea, the 6th Division of the 2nd Bureau of the Oriental Staff Headquarters and the 4th Class had already obtained the code book of the Qing Dynasty, so the telegram of the Great Qing Dynasty no longer had any secrets for the East.

(The Oriental Staff Part consists of the first and second bureaus; The second bureau is led by the deputy chief of staff, and is responsible for the intelligence agent hudng of the staff headquarters, and has 'three classes and one class' under it. Lesson 5 is responsible for Russia, Germany, France and Italy; Lesson 6 is responsible for the United States and the United Kingdom; Lesson 7: Responsible for China; Shift 4 is mainly responsible for propaganda, strategy, code deciphering and other special confidential information. ）

It was nearly noon that day that Li Hongzhang received a call back from Yanjing, which was then translated by Wang Chonghou, a member of the telegram committee.

"Reading the various sections of the armistice opened by the law firm, it is too much to coerce. The first three are hard to allow; It is necessary to have to do so, or to allow military expenses to be paid during the armistice. But this is not the only thing that can be done. Yesterday, he ordered Yixuan and others to meet with the ministers, and they all wanted to ask for and change the terms first. It can be told that China and the DPRK have agreed to negotiate peace, and they will all promote sincerity and harmony, and they will agree to it, and there is no need to be qualified. During the armistice period, the section on military expenses may be permitted, and if he still insists on the previous statement, he will put aside the articles for the time being and ask for peace with the terms of the agreement. The court will sincerely discuss the meaning of peace, talk about it earnestly, and learn from each other, always to get the negotiation first. ”

"The Queen Mother is not confused!"

Seeing this telegram, Li Hongzhang suddenly felt a lot more relaxed, he was afraid that the domestic death would seize the conditions of the armistice in the East, so the prospects for this peace talks would be 'worrying'.

Now the Queen Mother's gaze bypasses these obstacles deliberately set up by the East, does not entangle those trivial messes, and directly sees the most essential things, which is a great wisdom in itself.

As long as we get the 'peace terms' of the Orient, we will not talk about the 'armistice' first, but will go all out to 'negotiate the terms'.

Once the terms of peace between the Qing and Japan countries reached a consensus and a contract was signed, this armistice was a matter of course.

At 3 p.m. on the 12th, the Minister Plenipotentiary of Qing and Japan held the third negotiation, and the attendees of both sides were the same as the second negotiation.

Li Hongzhang proposed to read out the reply to the Japanese side, that is, to take the original Chinese and hand it to Ito Hirobumi, and to give the English translation to Luo Fenglu for him to read.

The reply stated that the Japanese side "will find it difficult to comply with the requirements of the resumption of the armistice plan" and said: "The minister's original wish to negotiate peace with all his heart has never been reduced in the slightest." In order to make peace between the two countries as soon as possible. ”

Since Li Hongzhang put aside the proposal of an armistice, he asked the Japanese side to present the peace payment.

Ito Hirobumi had already known about the telegram from the Qing Imperial Family, and promised to hand in a reply the next day.

Subsequently, Ito Hirobumi and Li Hongzhang had a dialogue on Taiwan.

Ito Hirobumi first said shamelessly: "Our troops have marched to Taiwan, but they have not yet received news from the south, and the situation is difficult to understand. I don't know how the people of Taiwan are? ”

Li Hongzhang suddenly heard the word 'Taiwan', his face was shocked, and he pretended to be calm and said:

"As your minister knows, there are two kinds of residents in Taiwan: guest and native. Most of the Hakka are from Guangdong, accounting for four-tenths, and they are the most powerful. Six-tenths of the native dwellings. A few days ago, when the armistice was discussed, your minister refused to allow it lightly, and it was the reason for sending troops to Taiwan? ”

'Why did you send troops to Taiwan? ’

At this point, Lao Li and Ito began to make peace like a dumb riddle, and Taiwan became the outcast of the Qing Dynasty and surrendered to the East.

Hearing Li Hongzhang's rhetorical question, Ito Hirobumi had a Mona Lisa-like smile on his face and said categorically: "This is absolutely not the case! ”

Of course, Li Hongzhang didn't believe Ito Hirofumi's nonsense, and asked tentatively: "If your country occupies Taiwan, Britain will not be reconciled, so what?" ”

Ito Hirobumi seemed to be very matter-of-fact to refute Li Hongzhang: "Britain is neutral from the outside, and there is no reason to put its beak in it. ”

At this time, the meaning of Ito Hirofumi is already very clear.

Li Hongzhang also wanted to use Britain to suppress the East: "Britain insists on being neutral from the outside, but this matter has a lot at stake. ”

Ito Hirofumi listened to Li Hongzhang's words of using chicken feathers as arrows, and slanted at Li Hongzhang with big eyes and 'joked': "The stakeholder is not Yingyuan, isn't it your country?" ”

Li Hongzhang was trembling when Ito Hirofumi saw it, and hurriedly denied it: "No." Taiwan is close to Hong Kong. ”

Ito Hirobumi's body suddenly leaned forward, glared at Li Hongzhang and said, "What's the matter if you're close to Hong Kong?" I will only attack hostile countries. ”

Li Hongzhang's face turned pale with fright, and he said timidly: "Except for China, Britain does not want other countries to entrench in Taiwan. ”

The word 'entrenched' has completely expressed Li Hongzhang's attitude: As far as the Qing Dynasty is concerned, Taiwan is only entrenched here.

"Haha-"

At this time, Ito Hirobumi had completely obtained the dáàn he wanted, laughed loudly and said arrogantly: "It's not just Taiwan!" Wherever you are in your territory, if I want to take it, who can refuse it? ”

Li Hongzhang's face was red, and he didn't dare to speak.

At 4:15, the third round of negotiations between Qing and Japan ended immediately.

Although the Qing Dynasty did not want an 'armistice' or a 'peace clause', the East had already arrived at Taiwan!

From March 9 to 12, the Qing and Japanese ministers held three negotiations.

It is the first stage of peace for Ma Guan.

At this stage, Ito Hirofumi was arrogant and unreasonable, and he used all kinds of tricky and shameless methods, while Li Hongzhang blindly made compromises, fearing that he would be in the middle of the discussion.

Moreover, the Oriental finally made the Qing Dynasty voluntarily withdraw the proposal for an armistice under harsh conditions, and achieved the goal of peace talks without stopping the war.

And he has also shown Taiwan's hole cards to the Orient cleanly.

At 4:30 p.m., Li Hongzhang returned in a sedan chair after concluding negotiations, and was stabbed by Toyo Ronin Koyama Toyotaro with a gun in front of the Waihama Town Post and Telecommunications Bureau.

The bullet hit Li Hongzhang's left eye and cheek, and immediately bled profusely.

On the same day, this news shocked the entire Qing Dynasty and the East, scaring the Meiji Emperor and the sober ministers of the East, Ito Hirobumi and Mutsu Munemitsu.

The British and American envoys to Qing and Japan were all embarrassed, and one by one they sent telegrams to Tokyo, Tokyo, to express their anger in their hearts.

The Qing Dynasty and the opposition were also happy.

The common people laughed and scolded happily: "You deserve it!" Let you lick the belly of your Oriental master without shame, and you will also be slaughtered as a pig by a dog. ”

The clear streams of the Qing Dynasty, the opposite side of the Beiyang, are all full of energy. - Lao Li, just look at your jokes, how do you drop, you bite me?

Cixi, Guangxu, and the important ministers of the Qing Dynasty were excited.

- In this case, Toyo, who is at a loss, has to take a few steps back, right? It's a pity that I didn't kill Lao Li, otherwise in addition to a headache 'old trouble', it can also give Daqing the advantage he earned!

And the entire Young Zhuang soldiers, radicals, ronins and underworld communities in the East were also excited, thinking that since Li Hongzhang of the Qing Dynasty had been assassinated, then this battle between the Qing Dynasty and Japan would definitely continue.

"Capture Yanjing and capture the emperor and Cixi of the Qing Dynasty alive!"

"Hit the Yangtze River, row the river and rule!"

"Hit Guangdong and occupy the whole Qing Dynasty!"

For a time, the entire Oriental country was in an uproar, and they were all shouting excitedly that they would continue to fight to the death with the Qing State and completely defeat the Qing Dynasty.