In the eighth year of Guangxu, while Song Xiaofei's new army and the 3,000 French troops led by Guba were facing off in Hanoi, Vietnam, Li Hongzhang was conducting diplomatic negotiations with the French minister Baohai. Originally, Li Hongzhang had already reached a peace agreement with Baohai, but the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs telegraphed to Baohai that the original peace agreement was invalid and there was no need to talk about it anymore.

The angry Baohai went to the Prime Minister's Yamen to make a fuss, leaving a sentence for Prince Gong: "You just wait for the French warship to sail into Yanjing City again", and then slapped his ass and left.

Prince Gong was also very depressed, called Li Hongzhang to go into the palace to meet the Empress Dowager Cixi, report this, the Empress Dowager Cixi was a little afraid, the French minister 20 years ago also said this kind of thing, and then the French and British Yankees attacked Yanjing City, burned her family's Old Summer Palace, she realized that the consequences may be very serious, and immediately convened the Minister of Military Aircraft Zuo Zongtang, Weng Tongxi, Li Hongzao and others, as well as Zhang Peilun and a group of Qingliu ministers to hold a meeting to discuss the issue of war or peace with France. In this discussion, the old men of the main battle and the main peace quarreled in the main hall, the sound was full of gunpowder, and they almost fought, and the young Guangxu Emperor sat on the dragon chair and was scared and cried several times.

Li Hongzhang strongly advocated avoiding war and seeking peace, saying: "The French are very determined to annex Vietnam this time, and once the war starts, we must meet it with heavy troops, and the defenders in the interior will inevitably be empty." At present, the coastal waterproof divisions in the various provinces of China have not yet been trained, and if the French send warships to attack, our navy will be difficult to resist, and the troops in the interior are weak and lack of money, so I am afraid that the war will not be able to support it for a long time. “

Zuo Zongtang hated Li Hongzhang's weakness in the past, and now that he is the Minister of Military Aircraft, he does not give Li Hongzhang face at all, and sneers at Li Hongzhang's rhetoric: "I heard that the Huai army defeated the French army in Hanoi, according to what you say, I am afraid if I win, and I am even more afraid if I lose, so how can China gain a foothold in the world!" When the two armies meet, the brave wins, thinking that the momentum of the Russians was not very strong at the beginning, and the old man still carried the coffin to recover Xinjiang Province! ”

Li Hongzhang said: "I heard that the French have now increased their number of troops in Vietnam to 9,000, and have sent 12 warships to the waters of Taiwan and Fujian. Now the conditions for negotiating peace may not be high, and even Vietnam may not be completely lost. If we really want to fight, we don't know what the consequences will be in the future, and the compensation for land cession is unknown. ”

Weng Tongyi felt that Li Hongzhang's words were simply shameless, and attacked Li Hongzhang head-on: "Li Zhongtang is the most relied on minister of the imperial court, and the Queen Mother has entrusted military diplomacy to you all these years. Unexpectedly, in the end, Lord Nakado repaid the grace of the Queen Mother with a harmony. If Lord Zhongtang is really loyal to the country, he should reorganize his armament and destroy Xiyi! Instead of intimidating the Queen Mother with the strong ships and cannons of foreigners everywhere as today, in order to cover up her true face of greed for life and fear of death! ”

Weng Tongyi's words can be called a poisonous tongue! not only provoked the relationship between Li Hongzhang and the Empress Dowager Cixi, but also buckled the disloyal and patriotic basin on Li Hongzhang's head, directly attacked his character, and scolded him for being a villain who was greedy for life and afraid of death! Li Hongzhang was born in Hanlin, and he has developed a pair of iron teeth and copper teeth in diplomatic occasions, and he was already dissatisfied with Weng Tongping's deduction of the military salary of the Beiyang Naval Division, and when he heard Weng Tonggong humiliating himself with such words, Li Hongzhang was furious, and tore his face to shoot back: "After the Southern Song Dynasty, the scholars did not know much about the soldiers, and when they had nothing to do, they were angry and warlike, and only after defeat did they make cowardly peace, and the discussion was noisy, and finally they were destroyed. How could the minister have been afraid of death on the battlefield back then! It's just that now every move is a matter of urgency, and the minister can now ask for help from Britain and Germany, who are at odds with France, or can maneuver around, hoping that the Queen Mother will see clearly. ”

Li Hongzhang was indeed a hero who stepped on the corpse of the Taiping Army and climbed up, and he was famous for not being afraid of death. He took the example of the Southern Song Dynasty scholars and doctors discussing the death of the country as an example, and it was still very convincing to crack down on such a "clear stream" like Weng Tongyi, who only talked but did not practice. In addition, Li Hongzhang said that he could still find Britain and Germany to maneuver, and when the Empress Dowager Cixi heard it, she hurriedly played it and continued to go to diplomatic maneuvers.

Just as the Empress Dowager Cixi was about to end the court meeting, Zhang Peilun, who had just heard Li Hongzhang criticize the Southern Song Dynasty scholars for talking about the death of the country, held back for a long time, his face turned green, he felt that Li Hongzhang was smashing his own rice bowl and saying that he was worthless, his self-esteem was hit a lot, and he couldn't help it, and jumped out to attack Li Hongzhang regardless of the consequences: Lord Zhongtang, in the past 20 years, you have bought warships today and guns tomorrow, and you have spent millions of dollars in the imperial court! But every time a foreigner makes trouble, and even a small country on the island also concedes three points, why do they buy so many gunboats, is it just to eat more kickbacks? Although I, Zhang Peilun, am just a scholar and have no power to tie the chicken, I am willing to go to Fujian to supervise coastal defense affairs, and I will meet the strong ships and cannons of the French, even if I sacrifice my life for the country, I will not give up!

When Weng Tonggong and Zuo Zongtang and others heard this, they felt that letting Zhang Peilun go to Fujian to engage in coastal defense was an excellent opportunity to attack Li Hongzhang. When the Empress Dowager Cixi heard that Zhang Peilun was young and dared to carry the burden for the imperial court, which was really commendable, she immediately promoted him to the title of Sanpinqing and ordered him to go to Fuzhou to take charge of the Fujian Shipbuilding and Sailors, and make meritorious contributions.

In this court meeting, the Qing faction won a big victory, and even Prince Gong felt that Li Hongzhang was too weak. Back then, Li Hongzhang was in a very embarrassing situation, not only did the Qing faction point at his nose and scold, but even some people in the Westernization faction also complained about him. Among the Huai army, some generals who could fight well, such as Pan Dingxin, expressed dissatisfaction with his blind pursuit of peace, and Li Hongzhang's prestige in the imperial court fell to the bottom for a while.

The Qing faction headed by Li Hongzao took the opportunity to fall into the ground, and demanded that the imperial court withdraw all the young children studying in the United States on the grounds that the students studying in the United States were Westernized and had no father. Li Hongzhang argued with Prince Gong on the grounds that this would damage Sino-US relations, but Prince Gong was still forced by Qingliu to ask Rong Hong to bring 120 young children back to China, and Rong Rong also followed Rong Hong back to China, and she sent a letter back to Song Xiaofei, introducing the return of young children in the United States.

The teacher Zeng Guofan and his own plan to study in the United States with countless efforts died, and Li Hongzhang, who was close to his sixtieth birthday, was hit hard. In addition, when his eighty-year-old mother died of illness, he resigned from all positions in the imperial court on the grounds of returning to his hometown to keep filial piety for his mother for three years, which is also in line with the tradition of "Ding Wei" of ancient officials. His post as governor of Zhili was taken over by Zhang Shusheng, the general of the Huai Army and the governor of Liangguang. After Li Hongzhang left his post, Song Xiaofei's 3,000 new troops were also transferred out of the Vietnamese front and returned to North Korea.

After Li Hongzhang's resignation, diplomatic negotiations between France and China officially broke down. The 9,000 French troops led by Commander Guba replenished their ammunition and prepared for battle. Then, Gu Ba, who was familiar with "The Art of War", flooded the Black Flag Army in Vietnam, beat Liu Yongfu with no place to stand, and sailed the warship to Keelung, Taiwan.

The Qing court also convened a meeting of all the ministers of military aircraft, the prime minister, the ministers of the Yamen, and the former ministers of the imperial court, and discussed whether to make war with the French or not, and this time even Prince Alcohol participated in the discussion. Without Li Hongzhang's participation, the atmosphere of the main battle of this meeting was unstoppable.

The grumpy Prince Alcohol clenched his fists and said, "Hit! ”

Weng Tongyi said: "Fight to the end!" ”

Zuo Zongtang said: "The Chinese cannot forever submit to foreigners, instead of paying compensation, it is better to use the compensation money as military pay and fight!" Hit hard! ”

Before Prince Gong could speak, the Empress Dowager Cixi was infected by the high emotions of the main battle faction, and she was full of pride: "Then give the French some color and take a look, beat them back to Taixi, and be ashamed of the former emperor (Emperor Xianfeng)!" ”

Therefore, the Qing court also actively prepared for war, and then sent Liu Mingchuan as Taiwan's Minister of Defense, stationed in Taiwan, Zhang Peilun was in charge of the Fujian Shipbuilding Division, and the famous general of the Huai Army, Pan Dingxin, led 20,000 troops into Vietnam to resist Lonely, Zhang Zhidong acted as the governor of Liangguang, and brought the 15,000 troops led by the veteran Feng Zicai as backup, and rolled up his sleeves to fight a fierce battle with the French.