On May 25, 1875, the Times of London reported:

"The Chinese Vice-Ambassador, Liu Xihong, disappeared seven days ago, and the Chinese Legation has reported the case to the Metropolitan Police Department, and the Chinese Minister, Mr. Guo Songtao, has formally lodged solemn representations with the Imperial Foreign Office...... This is a very serious diplomatic incident, and our reporter is closely following the development of the incident and the investigation of the Metropolitan Police Department......"

"Guo Wengong's Public Collection: Envoy to the British Minister Guo Zhi's General Administration":

“…… Deputy Envoy Liu Xihong disappeared seven days ago, and has made representations with the British Foreign Office, British Foreign Secretary Derby personally apologized to the Embassy, and the British King strictly ordered the National Police Agency to investigate, but there is no news yet......"

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"Master, it's done—"

"Hmm—how?"

"The old rule, put it in a sack and sink in the river. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo”

"Didn't leave a mouth alive, did you?"

"Back to the master, the attaché and the coachman all broke their necks and died, and were thrown into the Thames with no other life."

"Who did it?"

"There are four people in total, all of them are Irish day workers, quite powerful, and the small ones watching from the sidelines are all done neatly, and they don't need to be used for a while."

"How did you arrange these four people?"

"Five hundred pounds per person, overnight on a ship to Australia, and now on the way."

"Well done -- such a headless murder case, they can't find out why."

The old housekeeper said goodbye and withdrew, Chen Tingxuan glanced at Liu Xihong's telegram that could not be sent, sneered, and put the telegram in the drawer.

At about the same moment, in a morgue at the Metropolitan Police in London, a British forensic doctor shook his head, shrugged his nose and covered the body with a white cloth. One of his assistants was sorting through the corpse's belongings—a broken paper fan, a small snuffbox, a warm hat, a pair of gloves, a bunch of keys, a broken gray stone seal.

The assistant looked carefully at the odd text on the seal, which was already mutilated, shook his head, and set the seal aside. At this time, there was a rush of footsteps, and then the door of the morgue opened, and the inspector of the Metropolitan Police accompanied Guo Songtao in a hurry.

The forensic doctor looked at the detective with an inquiring gaze, the detective nodded, and stretched out his hand, asking Guo Songtao to step forward, the forensic doctor reached out and carefully uncovered the corner of the white cloth covering the corpse, and a foul smell came out, Guo Songtao frowned, gently waved his hand in front of his nose, and then stepped forward to look at the face of the corpse, and nodded sadly.

The forensic doctor's assistant showed the seal to Guo Songtao, and although the handwriting was a little blurry, Guo Songtao still recognized the two seal characters engraved on it, "Confucianism", and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

After taking care of Liu Xihong's funeral, Guo Songtao returned to the embassy, and his mood could not be calm for a long time.

He had already guessed who caused Liu Xihong's death.

Guo Songtao paced in the room for a while, and it was easy to calm down his mood, he thought about it, pulled the bell, and called the servant.

"Prepare the car and go to the Chen Mansion."

When Guo Songtao rushed to Chen's manor again, Chen Tingxuan heard that Guo Songtao was visiting, and immediately greeted him in person. Seeing Guo Songtao's gloomy face, Chen Tingxuan roughly guessed Guo Songtao's intention.

The two entered the living room, and Chen Tingxuan seemed to know what Guo Songtao was going to say, so he retreated first.

When only Chen Tingxuan and Guo Songtao were left in the hall, Guo Songtao showed Chen Tingxuan the "Times" of the day.

"Why does Gong Chen want to be like this?" Guo Songtao asked bluntly.

"For you, Gong Guo." Chen Tingxuan met Guo Songtao's gaze and said frankly, "This person is the eyes and ears of the stubborn and conservative ministers of the DPRK and China who arranged for Guo Gong, and Guo Gong must know it in his heart." There are people in the DPRK who want to be unfavorable to Guo Gong, and if this person does not go for a day, Guo Gong will not be able to perform in Britain for a day, and we will never have a day when Chinese businessmen will come out. ”

Listening to Chen Tingxuan's unjustified answer, Guo Songtao was speechless for a while.

The events that had happened when he first went out came back to his mind at this time.

Guo Songtao devoted himself to Western studies, and in the struggle between the Westernists and the diehards in China, he spared no effort to defend the Westernists with his knowledge and became an important member of the Westernists. The news of China's dispatch of an envoy to Britain spread, causing an immediate uproar. For thousands of years, the Chinese civilization has been radiating from all directions with its splendid splendor, attracting "all directions to come to court", and other countries are all "vassals" of China, and they regularly send "tribute envoys" to China to worship, and there is absolutely no such thing as China sending envoys to "stay abroad". In the traditional Chinese concept, there is only the "Li Domain" that embodies the relationship between the clan (China) and the vassal (foreign), and there is no such thing as "diplomacy" as an equal. In the late 19th century, although China was repeatedly invaded by foreign powers, this concept of "diplomacy" did not change, and the presence of foreign envoys in China and China's foreign envoys were regarded as a great shame and humiliation that greatly damaged the national body. More people even think that going abroad is a "ghost", and the traitor is the same, and some people even made up a couplet and scolded: "Out of its kind, out of its class, not allowed in the world of Yao Shun; If you can't help people, you can do ghosts, why go to the state of your parents! At that time, the Hunan gentry, who had a strong conservative mood, were even more excited, thinking that this trip would disgrace the Hunan people, and they wanted to expel him from the province, and even threatened to smash the Guo family.

Under such tremendous pressure, Guo Songtao sued the illness several times to shirk the illness, but was not approved. Empress Dowager Cixi personally summoned Guo Songtao to appease. Guo Songtao's intention to resign was completely dispelled. Before Guo Songtao's departure, the imperial court was invited by the Prime Minister Yamen to send Guo Songtao to the General Administration the diaries and other diaries recorded along the way. After Guo Songtao arrived in London, he immediately sent his extremely detailed diary of dozens of days entitled "The Journey to the West" to the General Administration. However, as soon as Prime Minister Yamen published this book, it immediately attracted wave after wave of verbal criticism from the stubborn old-fashioned people in the government and the opposition, and even demanded that the book be destroyed and banned!

He just wrote a book about Western customs and customs, which attracted the fingers of Wanfu, and Liu Xihong even threatened to impeach himself that day, Guo Songtao could hardly imagine what kind of uproar Liu Xihong's excerpt would set off if it really arrived in Beijing.

From this point of view, Chen Tingxuan's concern is completely justified.

"Guo Gong knows that we Chinese businessmen have been discriminated against in the UK, endured humiliation for many years to start a business, and have gone through hardships to have today's meager status." Chen Tingxuan said earnestly, "We look forward to a good minister from our homeland every day who will take care of us and make decisions for us and other overseas Chinese people. The moment the old man saw Guo Gong, he decided that Guo Gong You, you are a person who can make decisions for Chinese businessmen such as me. ”

"Guo Gong is a loyal elder who always treats others with sincerity, but others may not be willing to treat Guo Gong like this." Chen Tingxuan said, came to the table, opened the drawer, took out Liu Xihong's telegram, and handed it to Guo Songtao.

Guo Songtao took the telegram and only glanced at it, and his face immediately changed. He put the telegram into his sleeve, said goodbye to Chen Tingxuan, and left in a hurry.

Chen Tingxuan watched Guo Songtao leave, and as soon as he turned around, he found Chen Hong and Sara walking out from behind the screen.

"Master Guo is here to ask the teacher." Chen Hong said with some concern, "Will he ...... us?"

"Don't worry, Master Guo is an understanding person." Sara said with a smile and took Chen Hong's hand.

When Guo Songtao rushed back to the embassy, it was already a little late, Guo Songtao didn't change his clothes, and walked straight to Liu Xihong's room.

The door of Liu Xihong's room was locked, and Guo Songtao took the key found from Liu Xihong's body, opened the door, and walked in.

Guo Songtao walked straight to Liu Xihong's bookcase, at this time the bookcase and the study utensils were neatly placed, and it didn't seem to have been used, Guo Songtao looked at the bookcase and found a beautiful small wooden box locked, he took out Liu Xihong's bunch of keys, found a few small keys to try, and opened the wooden box.

In the wooden box was Liu Xihong's unfinished manuscript, Guo Songtao picked up the manuscript and read it.

“…… The foreigners' businessmen and the government, the officials and businessmen defend each other, and the capital and businessmen are used to raise soldiers, and the law is better than China's, and the situation is very different. The so-called lord of the country by foreigners is nothing more than the first thing in the country; The so-called officials are no strangers to the rich people in the township. The lord of the country is elected by the public, and he undertakes the affairs of a country with a certain share, and cannot arbitrarily decide his affairs. …… China has been a family for thousands of years, the government decrees are unified in one respect, the wealth belongs to one person, the system of respect and humility is very strict, and the flow of scholars, peasants, workers and commodities is of various factions. The way of Yidi cannot be applied to China. China's governance must be governed by the imperial court. However, Guo Songtao actually wanted to make overseas Jia Jia an official, manipulate the business authority, and did not think about state affairs at all, and vainly said that the political system of the Western Kingdom was superior to China, and wanted to change Xia with raze, so that China's ministers would be heroic and ......"

"Guo Songtao traveled to the Jiadun Fort, and he actually wore foreign clothes, even if he froze to death, he should not be dressed in ......"

"Guo Songtao saw that the Brazilian lord stood up without authorization, dignified ****, why should he pay tribute to the small lord?"

"Listening to music in the Birkin Palace, Guo Songtao repeatedly read the music list, imitating the actions of foreigners......"

"Guo Songtao admires the behavior of foreigners, uses umbrellas without fans, imitates foreigners are still right, and instead of tea, he uses silver plates to serve sugar and cheese foreigners...... violated Cheng Zhu and wanted women to learn foreign languages and listen to operas. …… All kinds of paradoxes are outrageous...... I will not tolerate the people who are all traitors in the same direction! ”

Guo Songtao read Liu Xihong's unfinished recital, and he was angry for a while, his eyes were dark, he held on to the table hard, stabilized his body, and finally didn't let himself fall.

At this time, his ears were full of echoes such as "Yiyi Becomes Xia" and "Traitor".

Guo Songtao fumbled to let himself sit down on the chair, and after a long break for tea, he felt better.

Guo Songtao leaned down, picked up Liu Xihong's "legacy" that fell at his feet, put it in his sleeve, got up and left Liu Xihong's room, and came to the corridor.