In other words, if there is no interference from foreign forces, the Tiger Ben army can easily defeat the Qing army in the provinces, and it is only a matter of time before the whole country is unified by force. Trying to get foreign powers to intervene seemed like a good idea. But those foreign devils only value their own interests, as long as Ren Chao promises foreign powers not to infringe on their vested interests, it is estimated that no one who is better than a monkey will be willing to wade into this muddy water. After all, the Tiger Army is not easy to mess with, the Russians are powerful, right? Isn't it easy for an army of more than 100,000 to be wiped out by the Tiger Army? With the experience of Tsarist Russia, I am afraid that no one is willing to provoke the Tiger Army. After all, those European and American powers also have to weigh how many troops they need to send to defeat the Tiger Army, and whether it is worth it.

Time? What Li Hongzhang lacks now is undoubtedly time, if there is enough time, wait until the provinces accumulate enough strength, and wait until a good time, so that the Qing army in each province will have a chance to defeat the Tiger Army, so what Li Hongzhang has to do now is to buy time. How do you buy time?

On the one hand, it is possible to ask foreign powers to exert some pressure on Ren Chao, but Ren Chao has always been arrogant and does not buy much face from foreigners, and secondly, Ren Chao is not a fool, and he must also see that the possibility of foreigners directly sending troops to intervene is very small, so it is far from enough to use foreigners to exert pressure on Ren Chao. If you want to drag Ren Chao and let him have no excuse to send troops, I'm afraid there is only one way to go, that is, Li Hongzhang goes north, only in this way can he temporarily drag Ren Chao and let him have no excuse to send troops.

Not to mention the current Beijing government. Although it seems that Ren Chao is covering the sky with one hand, it is actually far from being as calm as it seems on the surface. Due to Ren Chao's various actions, the interests of too many people have been touched, although these people temporarily succumb to Ren Chao's obscenity on the surface, but secretly they are probably planning how to bring down Ren Chao! At present, there are not a few officials of the Beijing government who have secretly negotiated with Li Hongzhang. Therefore, if Li Hongzhang goes north, he can completely use guò political means to constantly squeeze Ren Chao's power, even if it cannot weaken Ren Chao's power, at least it can temporarily curb the rapid expansion of his power.

As for security, Li Hongzhang is not worried. After all, Ren Chao is not a fool. Killing Li Hongzhang was of no benefit to Ren Chao, and could only cause dissatisfaction among the princes of all parties, and then force the princes of all parties to embark on the road of rebellion. Although Ren Chao is a brute, he will not do such a stupid thing. Because there are all kinds of indications. Ren Chao also didn't want to be able to unify the whole country. Otherwise, he would not have repeatedly urged Li Hongzhang to go north. Wouldn't it be the end of sending troops directly to fight me?

In fact, Li Hongzhang has already figured out the key to this, and this time he summoned Ding Ruchang just to find out the details of Ren Chao! Li Hongzhang sighed helplessly and said, "Since that's the case." I can only go back to Beijing with this old bone! ”

"Lord Zhongtang, don't you think about it again, after all, this matter is not trivial." Zhang Peilun hurriedly persuaded.

"Yes! Lord Zhongtang, this madman has always been eclectic in doing things, and it is unknown if he does anything to harm the adult, so the humble position is also recommended by Lord Yì to consider it. Ding Ruchang also persuaded on the side.

"Hey! Never mind! Do I have any other options now? Li Hongzhang shook his head and said, "What's more, he Ren Chao doesn't know it, just my old bones can live for a few years, and he Ren Chao is still young, he has to wait!" ”

Zhang Peilun and Ding Ruchang wanted to persuade again, but Li Hongzhang waved his hand, "Yuting! You go to sue Ren Chao, I can go back to Beijing, but I still have the position of Governor of Liangguang to act in Deshou. ”

"Yes! The humble position must convey the meaning of Lord Zhongtang to Ren Chao. Ding Ruchang saw that Li Hongzhang had already made up his mind, and he couldn't say anything more, so he could only bow down and receive his orders.

"That's it! You've worked hard all the way, go back and rest early! Li Hongzhang said casually.

"Yes! Retire from your duties! Ding Ruchang responded respectfully and then withdrew.

"Nakado-sama~!"

"Don't say it, you should go back and rest early! I want to be alone and quiet. Li Hongzhang waved his hand and directly interrupted Zhang Peilun's words. Zhang Peilun sighed helplessly, and could only retreat respectfully.

Aleksayev got his wish and was authorized by the tsar to negotiate with the Qing government as minister plenipotentiary. Geers, the former minister to China, also returned to Beijing, as Aleksayev's assistant, to negotiate with the Qing government, and the Qing government's negotiator this time was naturally Ren Chao.

This time, Ren Chaozhi gave Aleksayev enough face, because the Tiger Army did not publicly announce that he had captured Aleksayev, the governor of the Tsarist Far East, in the Battle of Jilin, and Aleksayev was always secretly placed under house arrest after being escorted to Beijing, and did not appear in public. Although governments of various countries have learned about Aleksayev's captivity through their own channels, few people know about it. So Ren Chao held a grand welcoming ceremony in Beijing to welcome Aleksayev to lead a delegation to visit the Qing Dynasty. Aleksayev is naturally grateful for Ren Chao's move.

This laid a good foundation for subsequent negotiations, and neither the Tsarist government nor Ren Chao wanted this war to be fought again, so the negotiations went quite smoothly.

Although the two sides are fighting at the negotiating table for their own interests, the focus of the dispute is only on the issue of war reparations. Although the Russian side is still very arrogant, its territorial and other demands before the war are not mentioned in this peace talks. The two sides have reached an agreement on this, and the border between the two countries has been restored to its pre-war state.

"On the issue of war reparations, we still insist that due to the civil strife in your country, our side was forced to send troops to the northeast region in order to protect the safety of our nationals, and in the conflict between the two sides, our Tsarist Russian soldiers suffered heavy losses, and your government must make compensation to make up for our losses." Aleksayev said very arrogantly.

Ren Chao is very disdainful of the Russian side's shamelessness, it is obviously aggression, but he said it so high-soundingly, where is your discipline. Ren Chao unceremoniously refused, "We resolutely disagree with your point of view, and your brazen dispatch of troops to invade our territory without our permission is a serious act of aggression, and you should be solely responsible for all the consequences caused." The loss of people's lives and property caused to our country as a result of the Russian invasion should also be borne by you and compensate for all losses incurred by our country. (To be continued......)