Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang's mood was extremely complicated, like many Han people at that time, whenever they heard that there was a Han uprising against the Qing Dynasty, although they did not say it, their hearts were always full of sympathy, pain and contradictions. On the one hand, what lingers in the minds of these people who study and become officials is the poison of Confucianism after being castrated by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and on the other hand, it is the unwillingness of being a Han Chinese. Although this reluctance is gradually fading, this dilution is just like the sense of disidentification with the whole nation expressed by some local people who were colonized in later generations. However, although it is being diluted, Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang still have a lingering Han muscle in their bones.

In history, Li Hongzhang as the later known Manchu Qing Dynasty's minister, whether he did the Westernization Movement or the Beiyang Army, he was in the rich country and strong people, the Manchu and Han arguments were excluded by him, at that time in his eyes, the national interests were higher than the national interests, so he did not hesitate to maintain the rule of the Manchu Qing, the simplest reason is that he did not want to have internal friction and make the country more backward than the foreign powers.

In the past, most of the evaluations of him in history were negative, saying that he was the executioner who suppressed the Taiping Rebellion and was an out-and-out traitor, but in terms of the unrealistic theocracy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in history and the too idealistic equalization of poverty, Li Hongzhang was right to suppress the Heavenly Rebellion, because the practices of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in history did not conform to the national conditions and historical trends at that time, so the defeat was certain.

However, the current Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is very different from the historical one, and the cunning Western King made an epoch-making theory of the united front, thus making the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's policy more flexible, and adding the idea of separation of church and state. So that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can unite a force that can be united to fight against the Qing Dynasty together. The slogan on the political zhì has also changed from the slogan of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to the slogan of expelling the Tartars and restoring China. It is undeniable that this slogan was a fatal temptation for the Han people under the Manchu rule.

Although the Heaven and Earth Society has also shouted this slogan before. However, in the eyes of scholars like Li Hongzhang, it is far better to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty than to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Han Dynasty, and at the same time, the Jianghu forces with strong gang habits like the Tiandihui are far from being able to achieve great things. On the other hand, in today's Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they systematically exposed the castration of Confucianism by the Manchu Qing Dynasty and put forward a comprehensive retro theory, which gave their rebellion more theoretical guidance. At the same time, it is also of great epoch-making significance to skillfully transform the land contradictions, introduce the development of industry and commerce, and set up foreign affairs, so that the surplus population can be transformed into industry and commerce.

There was such an enlightened and energetic Han Chinese regime that was gradually replacing the Manchus. With Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang and other people who are the representatives of Han officials, their minds will naturally begin to change. Especially after the siege of the capital, they also worked hard, and the gloomy court was unwilling to let the city go, which meant that the old ship of the Manchu Qing Dynasty would eventually sink, and Yuan Jiasan, Li Hongzhang and others also asked themselves what they should do as courtiers, but when they were unable to return to the sky, Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang would not be the loyal Yue Fei, and they would not sink the ship with the Manchu Dynasty.

This time, he came to the Taiping Army camp for negotiations. The leader is Yishan, a first-class Zhenguo general, who previously went out of the northeast of the town to serve as the general of Heilongjiang, although he was also the minister of the Qing Dynasty and the nephew of Emperor Daoguang, but because he was unable to fight against the Taiping army and the Russians in the northeast. In addition, the Empress Dowager of the West later ordered the ban on the Northeast, but Yishan was ineffective in the Northeast, so he was recalled to the capital by early dismissal and scattered. At this time, Yishan was sent as a representative to negotiate with the Taiping army. Yuan Jiasan, Li Hongzhang and others saw more clearly the perfunctory attitude of the Manchu court towards this matter, and it was obvious that Yishan was not enough.

As expected. After the group arrived at the Taiping Army camp, although the other party did not make it too difficult for them. But they were not able to meet the king of the west, and the Taiping army only sent Qian Jiang, who was in charge of the intelligence department, to receive them, which shows that the Taiping army had no interest in negotiating at all.

So the negotiation process was lackluster, Yishan proposed to divide the river and rule, and Qianjiang scoffed at the rhetorical question of whether it was to turn Heilongjiang into a rule? Then there was the mutual slander and abuse between the two sides, Yishan and others reprimanded Qian Jiang and others for being chaotic ministers and thieves, and Qian Jiang and others laughed at Yishan and others for being a monkey for two hundred years, and it was time to change places.

After the negotiations broke up unhappily, Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang met with Qian Jiang alone under the pretext of going to the toilet. The content of the conversation was very vague, Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang complimented the heroic heroism of the King of the West, expressed their appreciation for the great development of local people's livelihood after their hometowns were occupied by the Taiping Army, and finally expressed their hope that they could return to their hometowns after the war to spend their old age in peace.

Qian Jiang also wondered why the two of them came to talk to him about this, so he asked tentatively: "Do you two have any ambitions from Long?" But seeing that the two did not refuse, but there was a period of Ai Ai's appearance, Qian Jiang somewhat understood, the two of them dared to talk about the conditions for surrendering, to paraphrase a classic sentence of Chen Peisi's sketch in later generations, who surrendered without conditions? !

Qian Jiang has been engaged in intelligence work for many years, and he is still very sensitive to the matter of bribing important enemy figures, so he quickly reported the matter to the king of the west, and the king of the west was also interested in meeting the two, so he sent someone to invite the two over.

When people came to invite each other, Yishan happened to sulk and take a nap, and Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang were placed in a separate tent, so they secretly followed the guards of the King of the West to the big tent of the King of the West.

Although Yuan Jiasan, Li Hongzhang and the Taiping Army have fought for many years before, and the name Xiao Chaogui, the king of the West, has been heard countless times, it is the first time that they have met face-to-face. After entering the tent, the two of them hesitated about what etiquette to do, but fortunately, the king of the west smiled and said first: "This king doesn't like kneeling here, you don't have to be polite, sit down and talk." ”

Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang were relieved at this time, sitting on the Eight Immortal Chairs in the tent, and when they raised their eyes to look at the King of the West for the first time, both of them were a little surprised, but this King of the West was such a seemingly rude person.

Then the king of the West said directly: "Duke Yuan and Brother Shaoquan are characters that they have admired for a long time, and it is really fortunate to see them today." ”

Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang were slightly excited, it turned out that the King of the West still knew the two of them, and the two of them were polite at the moment, only to hear the King of the West say again: "This king admires the two, and thinks that my Heavenly General Lin Fengxiang has led the army to fight with the Huai Army of the two in the Jianghuai Land for several years, and there are mutual victories and defeats. ”

Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang were shocked when they heard this, is the king of the West going to ask the teacher for guilt? I only heard Qian Jiang distinguish between the two: "Your Highness, although the two of them resisted the heavenly soldiers, they were their masters at that time, and when they met in battle, they naturally had to be taken seriously. ”

King Xi nodded and said: "Yes, this king also heard Lin Fengxiang talk about the two, saying that although the two have been fighting with our Taiping Army for many years, they can treat our prisoners well after every battle, and they have exchanged prisoners with our army many times, and they have not done anything too evil." Moreover, the two of them led the local Huai army to fight in Jianghuai, and they did not do anything harmful to the place, so in the eyes of this king, the two of them still have some good reputations. ”

Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang breathed a sigh of relief, although Li Hongzhang had done things in history, but at that time, the shape was stronger than people, and he Li Hongzhang had the upper hand, but now on the battlefield of Jianghuai, Lin Fengxiang has always taken the initiative, Yuan and Li did not dare to do anything too out of the ordinary, plus every time after the war, there were many people captured by the Qing army, and there were few people captured by the Taiping army, so they naturally would not do something stupid to kill prisoners, and they did not think that they did not break through the bottom limit of the king of the west.

After a few humble words, the two knew that the words of the King of the West were to explain that he could ignore the previous suspicions, and then the King of the West said: "But now that my Heavenly Kingdom has completed the siege of the Manchu capital, and the fall of the Manchu Qing is imminent, do you want to go with the Manchus and die on this single-plank bridge?" Or does this king point out a sunny avenue for the two? ”

Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang perked up when they heard this, and Yuan Jiasan asked, "I don't know what the Sunshine Avenue is that the King of the West is talking about?" ”

King Xi smiled and said: "Naturally, it is attached to my heavenly kingdom, Yuan Gong is already the governor of Anhui in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and Brother Shaoquan is the envoy of Anhui, let's not talk about the ministers of regimental training next to him, as long as the two of them belong to my heavenly kingdom, the official position can naturally be equal to the present, if you can make great contributions, this king will naturally have another reward." ”

Yuan Jiasan and Li Hongzhang were a little surprised, originally thinking that the West King would use some national righteousness and lobby to say the conditions for surrender, but they didn't expect the West King to be so single-handed, and they all looked at each other for a while.

King Xi smiled and said: "What national righteousness, what will be famous for centuries, I don't think this king needs to go into details, both of them are people who have read poetry and books, and naturally understand that history is written by the victors. The key is the treatment of the two, this king has always done things to convince people with power and profit, and this king doesn't like to go around what twists and turns, everyone can say whatever they have. ”

Qian Jiang also smiled and said: "Two, since Your Highness has already promised two official positions, the guarantees that should be there are naturally all available, and the two of you should constantly suffer from it." ”

Yuan Jiasan was also down, and immediately got up and bowed to the ground and said: "Since the time when I met with Master Qian alone, the two of us have actually turned their backs, what's the point of hiding it?" The minister Yuan Jiasan is willing to serve the kingdom of heaven, under the command of the king of the west, to serve the country and restore the Han family! Seeing this, Li Hongzhang also bowed to the ground and said the same thing.

Xiao Yungui laughed, he personally walked down to help the two of them, at this moment he was not excited because he let the two historical celebrities come to work automatically, now that he has the general trend of history in his hands, it is naturally not surprising what happened in a qiē, so what is there to be excited about? The situation has reached this point, and no one has taken the initiative to come to help, which is a strange thing.

After helping the two of them, Xiao Yungui said with a smile: "With Yuan Gong and Brother Shaoquan to serve, my Heavenly Kingdom army will enter the capital and set the world to ...... just around the corner" (to be continued......