After more than ten days of diplomatic efforts, the political axe finally failed, and finally succumbed under pressure from the British side. On 1 March, he issued a statement on the immediate withdrawal of troops from the Qing Dynasty, which was very simple, and did not mention the defeat of the Qing army at all, but only expressed that it was for peace in East Asia and in response to the peace demands of Britain, France, and the United States, and that he would take the lead in withdrawing troops from the Qing State to express the sincerity of the peace talks. At the same time, after the withdrawal of troops is completed, Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi will personally go to Qingguo to negotiate. At the same time, the official order for the withdrawal of troops was officially issued. Under the command and coordination of the Qing army, the Shandong army went to Dagu and the Liaodong army went to Dalian to board a ship and return to China. Under the sleepless blows of the Pacific Fleet, he lost all the ships that could carry out ocean transportation, and the task of withdrawing troops could only be completed by the cargo ships of the Qing State. The soldiers, who had already lost everything, marched to their respective embarkation sites with only five days' rations each.

In Dalian Bay, the commander of the Fourth Division of the Chinese Army, Heichuan Tongrail, was the first to board the ship to return to China after having a "friendly" handshake with Liang Huadian, the head of the Qing Army's Reading Force. Before boarding the ship, Kurokawa was told to bring more dry food and try not to eat the food on board. Moreover, the owner of the ship was also informed that he must return the Fourth Division of the Japanese Army safely and in a friendly manner. It turns out that this hint is a really friendly performance.

Compared with the Fourth Division, the rest of the army is not having a good time. First of all, what I didn't expect was that the stretchers they used to carry the wounded were made of wood cut from the Qing Kingdom, and they were also forcibly confiscated after carrying the wounded onto the boat. The Qing army, which had seen the collapse of the Yue army, was no longer afraid of the Yue army after winning successive victories in the war against the Yue army. The arrogant expression of the Qing army in front of the soldiers and the fact that they moved out of the black hole and the muzzle of the gun without saying a word, the soldiers believed that the Qing soldiers really dared to shoot.

And the day of suffering is still to come. The transport ship, which was supposed to travel for three days to reach Yuben, drove for six days, because the ship broke down halfway and had to be stopped for repairs. But just like that, the rations that the soldiers carried with them were not enough to eat. Food and drink are provided on board, but of course there is a charge for money. It's just that the price is really unacceptable, just say that you don't use white flour to make a steamed bun with miscellaneous grains, and you have to sell it for one or two silver, and the meat bun is two or two one. Not to mention the rest, the soldiers felt that they had been ruthlessly blackmailed, and they were furious to find the ship's owner, but they hit a soft nail.

"I didn't force you to buy it, you can't buy it if it's too expensive." The owner leisurely picked up a bun and took a bite, and then began to chirp. The sound of food chewing and the smell of meat made the soldiers who had been hungry all day unable to hold back any longer. The officers who led the team were forced to sign IOUs in the name of the army, and there was very little food, and in order to save money for the Great Empire, each soldier only had one multigrain steamed bun a day, that is, one or two silver per person a day. Because there was nothing but people, each boat carried a full 1,000 soldiers. It's three thousand taels of silver in just three days, and the emperor has to send an additional two taels of silver to each ship. Although these ships belong to the Pacific Freight Company, and although they have to pay management fees to the company, the money from selling food on the ships falls into their pockets. A round trip was three thousand taels of white flowers, and the owners of the ship laughed like crazy.

The owners are laughing because they are making solid money. But Lin Yongxiang was even happier, because he knew something that the shipowners didn't know, that is, the transportation fee charged by the emperor to the Zheng axe was two pounds per person. In addition to the excitement, he has already begun to contact the shipyards of Germany, France and Italy, and he wants to buy a 10,000-ton transport ship for Pacific Freight. He is now confident of the goal that the emperor had asked him to occupy 50 percent of all freight traffic in the Pacific Ocean three years ago.

Amid the cheers of the "Emperor Shengming", the owners of the troop carriers who arrived in Yokosuka immediately took the IOUs and immediately asked the authorities for money. The political axe of the Qing Dynasty paid the money quickly, because if the Qing side did not pay for a day, and the cargo ships of the Qing State did not leave for a day, then the Yue army would not be able to complete the withdrawal, and then the war between the Qing and the Qing Dynasty would not be over, and although the Pacific Fleet of the Qing State would no longer attack the coastal areas of the Qing Dynasty, they would continue to blockade the islands, and more people would starve to death on the islands, which were already short of food.

On March 18, as the last unit of the Yue army left the territory of the Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang, the newly established foreign minister of the Qing Dynasty, issued a statement to the outside world. The withdrawal of troops from the land of the Qing Dynasty really demonstrated the sincerity of the peace talks, and for this reason, the Qing Dynasty withdrew the Pacific Fleet from the Qing Dynasty and lifted the blockade of the islands.

As soon as the news came out, the cargo ships of Britain, France, Germany and other countries set sail for the capital, which lacked everything after the war, and arriving one day earlier meant getting profits one day earlier. But no one could have imagined that the first cargo ship to arrive at Yuben was Zhang Pufang, who had been smuggling Yuben for many years. He had been waiting off the coast for a long time, and the day after the Pacific Fleet left, he arrived at the port of Osaka with five cargo ships loaded with grain.

On March 20, Guangxu issued a metaphor. In order to truly restore peace in East Asia, the Qing said that the two countries should immediately start a concrete process of peace talks, and the Qing state will appoint Li Hongzhang, the minister of foreign affairs of the Qing Dynasty, as the plenipotentiary to negotiate peace with the Qing Dynasty, and at the same time designate the Qing Dynasty to send Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito as the sole plenipotentiary representative. The venue of the negotiation was set on the third floor of the Chunfan Building.

It was said that he had already stated that he would negotiate with Ito Hirobumi himself, but he was quite dissatisfied with the fact that Qing Guo still had to appoint negotiators, but in fact, it couldn't change anything. However, in the Qing court, almost all the ministers of the court and the central government opposed the emperor's imposition to set the place of negotiation in the book. They all said that the enemy was defeated, and when the begging prisoners came to surrender, it was better to choose the place of negotiation in the Qing country. But Guangxu insisted on such an arrangement despite public opinion.

On March 21, Ben responded with agreement. On the same day, the Beiyang Fleet, which had already completed repairs, received an order to set sail from their respective maintenance ports for Dagu to assemble. Pingyuan finally gave up, and the injury was too serious. It was eventually dismantled, and the artillery and other materials were used to repair the other six ships......

"Go to Yuben, go to Maguan. Take back the shame that those Oriental dwarves once inflicted on this country, this nation, and you personally......" said Guangxu and slammed his fists on the dragon case. Thinking of the emperor's hideous face before parting, Li Hongzhang and Tang Shaoyi boarded the Dingyuan, the flagship of the Beiyang Fleet, in Dagu. Early in the morning of the 25th, the Beiyang Fleet entered Maguan. Li Hongzhang was respectfully and warmly greeted by Ito Hirobumi in Shimonoseki.

On the 26th, the Qing soldiers took over Chunfan Tower, and Li Hongzhang and his entourage inspected the negotiation site and facilities. 27 The Qing Dynasty said that the negotiations officially began. As a result, before Li Hongzhang could put forward the conditions, he said that he was not satisfied first.

"Baga, why is my Imperial Chair two inches lower than yours? This is an insult to the Great Empire. Ito Hirofumi's face turned red, he propped up the table with both hands, and asked Li Hongzhang in a stern manner.

Li Hongzhang took a leisurely sip of tea, put down the teacup and said softly: "Shaochuan, send a report to the emperor, just say that the empire thinks we are big-Qing Guo insulted them, and I don't want to talk about it." By the way, inform the Beiyang Fleet that we will return home tonight. After speaking, Li Hongzhang stood up and walked outside.

Ito Hirobumi was originally afraid of Li Hongzhang, and Ito Hirobumi has always been a student in front of Li Hongzhang. Today, Li Hongzhang's actions really frightened Ito Hirobumi, Ito Hirobumi didn't expect that Li Hongzhang didn't even want to explain, so he raised his legs and left. If they really sent a report back to China, then according to the temper of the Qing Emperor, the Pacific Fleet would be sent again, plus the Beiyang Fleet, which had already been repaired, and it would have been said that there would be no peace.

Ito Hirofumi hurriedly grabbed Li Hongzhang's sleeve: "Lord Zhongtang, we just want to negotiate on an equal footing. ”

Li Hongzhang waved his hand lightly: "Either sit here and talk with your mouth, or talk with a cannon." You pick one. ”

Hirobumi Ito sat down as if he had lost his strength. Li Hongzhang smiled slightly, he finally understood why the emperor had to saw off his chair. This was in retaliation for the attack on the Qing Dynasty, which did not have the strength to attack the islands, so it declared the indisputable victory of the Qing Dynasty in this way. In this way, he undermined his confidence before the start of the negotiations and won the psychological initiative for the subsequent negotiations.

What Li Hongzhang didn't know was that all of this was Guangxu's narrow-minded revenge. In a place of shame for the Hereafter, there is a winner-to-win negotiation.

The negotiations began, and as soon as Li Hongzhang, as the plenipotentiary representative of the Great Qing Dynasty, put forward the conditions of the Great Qing Dynasty, he shook himself under the table: first, to release the king of the Ryukyus and recognize the sovereignty of the Ryukyus, and to recognize the indisputable suzerainty of the Great Qing over the Ryukyus. Second, it withdrew its troops from Korea, recognized Korea as a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, ceded Hokkaido, and opened Yokohama as a treaty port. Third, the compensation for the Qing Dynasty war was one billion taels of silver.

"It can't be." Hirofumi Ito did not hesitate to refuse.

The first condition is negotiable, anyway, at this moment the entire territory of Ryukyu has been occupied, and there is no way to recapture the lost navy. As for the latter conditions, it is absolutely impossible to agree. Although only half of North Korea remains, it has long been regarded as the cornerstone of the take-off of the DPRK, and without the loss of the DPRK, the DPRK will have nothing to gain in this war. The Qing army had the ability but did not cross the Han River to recover Seoul, which made the political axe of Yue Ben see hope, the main reason why he was willing to negotiate peace was to keep the last half of Korea, but now he wanted to return at the negotiating table, which made him how to accept it. Hokkaido occupies one-fifth of the territory. If this is ceded to the Qing State, it is better to surrender directly. Yokohama is located in Tokyo Bay next to Tokyo, the capital of Tokyo. According to the current world custom, once it was opened as a treaty port, the Qing State had the right to demand that a fleet and an army be stationed in Yokohama. It is said that the first goal of this future is always the Qing State, and if the Qing State is allowed to station a force near its own capital, then how will it be fought in the future. Not to mention the war reparations of up to one billion taels of silver, and now it is said that Ben can't even get 100 million taels. Because of the conditions of the Qing state, the negotiations reached an impasse from the beginning.

"I hope that this political axe will think carefully before answering." Li Hongzhang let go and left with people. The first day of negotiations between Qing and Yue ended after only 10 minutes.

The conditions offered by the Qing State not only frightened Yu himself, but also shocked the ministers of Britain, the United States, Germany and other countries. Putting aside the rest, for the Qing Dynasty, which currently has an annual fiscal revenue of only 80 million taels of silver, the war reparations of one billion taels of silver are equivalent to 12.5 years of Qing national revenue. So that everyone who heard about it thought that it was not true. The British government believed that even if Britain was attacked so badly, they would not demand such a high amount of reparations, because they would not be able to take it out at all. And because Nicholas II of Russia, who had not benefited from the Qing State for several years, learned of this, he shouted even more that the Qing Emperor was a madman, why not directly ask for the annexation of the Qing State into the Qing territory. And Wilhelm II of Germany immediately summoned all the ministers, gritted his teeth and said: No matter how much compensation the Qing State can get in the end, you will do everything you can to deduct it from the mouth of the Qing State.

At the same time, France, Italy and other countries have all started the idea of this huge war reparation.

In its current form, the political axe can only plead with Britain and the United States to intervene. However, the huge interests of the Qing State made Britain and the United States and other countries have stated that they will not intervene in the war until the two sides reach a negotiated result. In order to maintain its dominant advantage in the Far East, the British side took the initiative to assume the link between the Qing and the Chinese sides. Under the contact of the British, the next day, the negotiators of the two sides gathered again in Chunfan Tower, and Ito Hirobumi readily agreed to the first condition, but the latter two conditions also began a little bit of difficult bargaining process.

I don't know when, the conditions for peace talks in the Qing Kingdom were leaked, and the people of this country were in an uproar. On the sixth day of the peace talks, the two sides, still unable to reach an agreement, resumed an hour-long negotiation session and then announced the adjournment.

Outside the Chunfan Tower, the angry people of the Qing Dynasty were clamoring to carry out the Qing Dynasty war at the instigation of some officers. The cordon formed by the gendarmes was almost dispersed by the angry crowd. Li Hongzhang, who was smiling with a smile on his face, slowly paced out and left in a soft sedan chair outside the Chunfan Building. At this time, a man with a full face in the crowd pushed away the crowd and rushed to the front, took out a pistol from his arms, and fired five shots at Li Hongzhang's sedan chair. In the midst of the screams, the crowd trampled on each other and scattered, and the man who fired the gun was also captured by the military police.

Ito Hirobumi, who heard the news, took a long breath when he saw Li Hongzhang stepping out of the soft sedan chair, and found that the blood on the left side of Li Hongzhang's face had flowed to his chest. (To be continued.) )