Qu Hongji knew that he was unlucky because of Cixi's change in attitude towards foreigners, and Cixi advocated calming things down before, so Qu Hongji agreed to the five requests of foreigners. Now that the Empress Dowager Cixi has become tougher, this change is very sudden, and he has no chance to know how Cixi changed.

After Chen Hao ordered Li Zhun to refuse to carry out the order, he immediately sent a telegram to Yuan Shikai and the Empress Dowager Cixi. In the telegram, he made a generous statement, saying that it was not at all terrible for the Japanese to have insufficient naval strength and for the army to be held down by the Russians on the Korean Peninsula. Even if they were tougher, the Japanese would not dare to actually lead a fleet to fight when they went to war with Russia.

Of course, these were not enough to make Cixi change her attitude, Chen Hao listed the number of warships under his command, and then listed the number of warships owned by the Japanese. He swore that he had more than 30 warships than the Japanese, and that Japan, which had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Tsushima, was definitely not his opponent, so that the Empress Dowager Cixi could rest assured.

Chen Hao took a trick when enumerating the comparison of the strength of the two sides, although the tonnage and number of warships of the Japanese were not as good as those of Cam Ranh Bay, most of the Japanese were new warships. Chen Hao captured a lot of destroyers and torpedo boats, these small ships accounted for a lot of tonnage, but it was certainly impossible to use these warships to fight the Japanese dreadnoughts.

The Japanese dreadnought was officially commissioned two days ago, and this warship was named Kongo by the Japanese, which is why the Japanese attitude is so arrogant. Historically, Japan had a tough attitude in the Erchen Maru case, that was because they won the Russo-Japanese War and had an absolute psychological advantage over the Qing court.

After the Qing Dynasty now joins the navy led by Chen Hao, even if it fights with Japan at sea, it will not necessarily suffer. Japan's biggest enemy is Russia, and they should be able to distinguish between the important and the bad. Chen Hao is very confident in this. He blatantly refused the demands of Japan and Portugal, and there was no risk in doing so, so why not do it?

As for the Portuguese Navy, Chen Hao completely ignored that even if the capital ship was sent to Vladivostok, he would have the ability to destroy the Portuguese Far East Fleet. If the Japanese relented in this incident and did not make any more unreasonable demands, Chen Hao was also ready to use this as an excuse to provoke Portugal. It is better to take back the land that belongs to Huaxia.

After receiving Chen Hao's telegram, Yuan Shikai had already attacked in advance, confirming that Chen Hao's naval comparison and analysis were very thorough, and the Japanese were not the opponents of the Guangdong naval division. With his help, the Empress Dowager Cixi of course believed in Chen Hao's words, after all, Chen Hao won all battles with foreign countries, and the Empress Dowager Cixi must have confidence in him.

Yuan Shikai was willing to help because Chen Hao told him that this was a good opportunity to move to Qu Hongji, and the two of them took what they needed. After Qu Hongji was dismissed, the Empress Dowager Cixi appointed Yuan Shikai as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs. Lao Yuan took a tough attitude and rejected the five-point demands of the Japanese, and at the same time demanded that Portugal strengthen its management of Macao and not allow the Macao people to smuggle arms wantonly.

It is not surprising that the Empress Dowager Cixi is so decisive, and when a person can't beat the opponent, she must be unhappy when she is subdued for a long time. Once you are sure that you have the backing and will definitely not lose to your opponent, of course, you have to show off your might. Even the Empress Dowager Cixi took the initiative to prompt Yuan Shikai and asked Yuan Shikai if he could use this as an excuse for the Portuguese to return Macao. That's why Yuan Shikai made a request to Portugal.

The Empress Dowager Cixi's idea of reclaiming Macao was mainly due to Chen Hao, who devalued the combat effectiveness of the Portuguese fleet to worthless. Let the Empress Dowager Cixi feel that taking back Macao is a matter of minutes. After Yuan Shikai fought back strongly on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Japanese minister Hayashi Quansuke and the Portuguese minister Badero were dumbfounded, is this still the Qing court, which has always been weak?

Lin Quanzhu issued a strongly worded statement, and the Japanese minister Hayashi Quanzhu forced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work with Zhang Renjun, the governor of Guangdong, to strictly prohibit Cantonese merchants from boycotting Japanese goods; Japan's acting minister in Beijing, Shotaro Abe, protested to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Qing court for the rejection of Japanese goods in Guangdong, demanding that the Qing court claim compensation of 218,000 yuan for the Nichenmaru case. He said that Japan would send a fleet to ask for an explanation.

The two Japanese envoys shouted loudly, but the Japanese base camp remained surprisingly silent. Chen Baxian's fleet is not weak, he doesn't come to provoke the Japanese navy, if he really sends the main fleet that has been developed with great difficulty to fight Chen Baxian, then what to do against the Russians?

Portugal saw that the Japanese minister was tough. He immediately said that he would send warships to support Japan, and a few days later the Portuguese minister Badero realized that something was wrong. The Japanese minister shouted fiercely, but Japan had no intention of sending warships, and he quickly understood what the problem was. Damn the Japanese are shouting slogans, their fleet is busy dealing with the Japanese, where do they dare to provoke the Chinese, whose navy is not weak today.

Badro began to panic, this is not the Age of Discovery, the Portuguese navy is only second-rate in Europe. Even if all the Portuguese warships were sent to Asia, they would not be able to defeat the fleet in Cam Ranh Bay, and they would continue to be tough and anger the Qing court, fearing that they would suffer. With this thought, Badro's tone began to soften, and he no longer mentioned the matter of letting the Qing court deal with Chen Baxian.

Yuan Shikai took a tough attitude and demanded that Portugal punish those who purchased arms, and asked Portugal to send people to re-demarcate the border. Portugal objected to this, demanding that the Qing government stop in moderation and not provoke the Portuguese Empire.

As early as the end of 1907, the gentry and merchants in Guangzhou, Xiangshan and Hong Kong petitioned the government one after another, asking for "sending people to Macao to draw boundaries". At the end of 1908, Liu Shixun, the Chinese minister to France, went to Lisbon to discuss the demarcation of Macao with the Portuguese government, and in February 1909, China and Portugal reached an agreement and decided to send personnel to survey the boundary of Macao, and the place of negotiation was to be located in Hong Kong.

The Portuguese sent Marchador, who had been the colonial governor of Portuguese East Africa, as the negotiator, and the Qing Dynasty negotiator was Gao Erqian, a Fujian official who had served as the Sino-French diplomatic envoy to Yunnan. On 1 July, Sino-Portuguese negotiations officially began in Hong Kong. At the first meeting, Machado made a claim for land, claiming that Macao included: (1) the Macao Peninsula, from A-Ma to the Border Gate; 2. The islands include the opposite mountains (i.e. 28 townships such as Wan Chai, Yin Hang, Nanping and Beishan), Ilha Verde, Taipa, Coloane, Hengqin, Ma Liuzhou and other islands; (3) Territorial waters shall be waterways near the above land and islands; Fourth, the gate to Beishanling is "outside the bureau".

Under this demarcation plan, the newly expanded territory occupied by Portugal would be 30 times larger than the area of the original leased land. The Qing government was weak in these negotiations and adopted a policy of seeking compromise through concessions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs advocated that the original concession of the Portuguese should be ascertained as Macao itself, and that the first place occupied outside the walls of the original concession should be classified as dependent territory, and that the islands near Macao, whether occupied or not, should be vigorously rejected.

When these opinions were conveyed to the negotiator, Gao Erqian, he arbitrarily changed it to allow the Macanese and Portuguese to reside in Taipa and Coloane, and the Qing government was extremely weak in this compromise policy, and had already made the greatest concessions, but the Portuguese colonists were still not satisfied.

Under pressure from the Portuguese representatives, Gao Erqian also expressed China's willingness to "cede the Macao Peninsula (from A-Ma to the Border Gate), as well as Ilha Verde, Taipa, Coloane and other places, and the nearby inland rivers and seas will be managed by China and Portugal." However, the Portuguese colonists were not satisfied, and Massaduo insisted on claiming the opposite mountain and the large and small Hengqin islands, as well as controlling the entire water boundary, so that the demarcation negotiations reached a deadlock.

After the people of Guangdong learned of the Portuguese ambitions, the Xiangshan County Boundary Survey and Maintenance Association passed the "Charter of the 98 Township People's League of Lianli", announcing the establishment of a militia group to take up arms to resist Macao and Portugal and defend their hometown. The people's struggle prevented the trend of compromise in the negotiations, and the Qing government had to "be extremely cautious and take into account" in the negotiations, resolutely rejecting the unreasonable demands of the Portuguese colonists.

Masador's blackmail tactics failed to achieve the intended ends, and he walked away from the ninth meeting and flagrantly sabotaged the negotiations. The Portuguese authorities attempted to use force to achieve their expansion plans, and between 1910 and 1911 there were two major incidents in Macau, namely the Coloane Massacre and the Muddy Sea Negotiations.

Coloane is located 8 kilometers south of Macau on the sea, is the entrance to the Cross Gate, the outpost of Macau, with an area of 6 square kilometers, formerly known as Ka Ho, and later after the village of Coloane in the west of the island as the island name. In 1864, Portugal invaded Lychee Bay on the island, covering an area of dozens of acres to build a fort and garrison 20 soldiers. In July 1910, Portugal sent troops to attack Coloane under the pretext of "suppressing bandits".

The islanders defended themselves, repelled the invaders three times, and recaptured the Portuguese batteries on the island. Subsequently, the Portuguese deployed additional warships and laid siege to the island with all their might. On August 4, the Portuguese army landed on the island, burned and looted on a large scale, and "hundreds of villagers were brutally killed". The fishing boat on which the villagers retreated was also chased and sunk by the Portuguese ship, and 38 people were killed.

The bloodshed in Coloane aroused strong indignation among the people, who demanded that the Qing government annul the treaty and take back Macao. The Qing government was also forced to send Liu Shixun, the minister to France, to Lisbon again to demand that Portugal resume negotiations on the demarcation of Macao. At the beginning of 1911, Portugal carried out large-scale dredging works on the sea surface and inland waterways near Macao, in an attempt to gain control of the inland rivers and open seas by this means. Under the strong pressure of public opinion from the people of Guangdong, Zhang Mingqi, the governor of Guangdong, sent personnel to negotiate with the Portuguese authorities in Macao, demanding that the dredging project be stopped immediately. On the one hand, Huang Shilong, a staff officer of the 25 towns, was sent to inspect the defense of the vicinity of Macao, and formulated a plan to control Macao by "developing both military and commercial affairs."

On the military front, Cheung Ming-ki strengthened the Wan Chai Fort at the North Shan Ridge, making the two places horns against each other, and at the same time stationed additional troops at each pass. On the commercial front, the government encouraged and supported capitalists to strengthen the construction of the port of Xiangzhou, opened shopping malls in Wan Chai, and mobilized Macao businessmen to move to other places to open their businesses, so as to boycott Macao's commerce. (To be continued......)