This supper is destined to be unforgettable to Zhao Weizhong for life, but it is very common to Li Hongzhang and others. It is just that a servant who has made meritorious has had a meal with his deskmate.

After dinner, Li Hongzhang ordered someone to arrange a room for Zhao Weizhong to rest, and led Zhou Fu, Sheng Xuanhuai, Li Jingfang and Zhang Peilun to his study to discuss the next plan.

Zhao Weizhong's remarks did make everyone feel that they benefited a lot, but they also disrupted Li Hongzhang's plan, because Li Hongzhang originally thought that Zhao Weizhong would bring letters or messages from overseas Chinese, and the responses they expected were all based on the content of the letters, but now there is no letter, so what to do next can only be re-planned.

After everyone sat down, Li Hongzhang said, "How do you see this group of overseas Chinese?"

Sheng Xuanhuai first said: "Zhongtang, Xuanhuai thought that this group of overseas Chinese were too arrogant. He thought that after only a few victories, he would not take foreigners seriously. He also wanted foreigners to take the initiative to seek peace. However, he did not know how powerful the strength of each country is, and the power of the eight countries is even more amazing. We must not let them continue to do so. Zhongtang should start peace with foreigners as soon as possible."

Zhou Fu said: "After that being said, Tianjin has been occupied by this group of overseas Chinese and will not be allowed to go. How can Lord Zhongtang go north to Beijing and negotiate peace with foreigners?"

At this time, Zhang Peilun said: "I see that the behavior of this group of overseas Chinese is determined by the plan. They are quite experienced and not like those who are not familiar with the world. Therefore, their actions may not be arrogant and unaware of the reason. Perhaps it is because of other intentions. For example, before this, who would have thought that they could defeat the Eight-Nation Alliance and conquer Tianjin, and even the German fleet was defeated in their hands."

Sheng Xuanhuai said a little disdainfully: "You Qiao, you are too arrogant to this group of overseas Chinese. I have all just now. These victories are only won by themselves, and it is not enough to support them. The Eight Kingdoms have not done their best. If all countries really dispatch large troops again, how can this group of overseas Chinese resist? If they are defeated by the Eight Kingdom coalition, they can naturally leave on a boat and leave this mess, and in the end they will have to clean up the Lord Zhongtang."

Zhou Fu frowned and said, "Xingsun, what's the use of these words now? If this group of overseas Chinese insisted on not being willing to make peace with the countries and insisted on proactively proposing peace, what can we do? Even if we want to negotiate with foreigners, who will we go to talk with?"

Sheng Xuanhuai said: "It's better to negotiate with all countries in Shanghai. Now all countries have consulates in Shanghai. I can contact them and immediately ask the countries to form a negotiation team to start peace talks and ignore overseas Chinese."

Zhou Fu glared at Sheng Xuanhuai with some displeasure and said, "Xingsun, aren't this a joke? In Shanghai, will the countries agree to the negotiations, and no matter what happens to overseas Chinese, even the imperial court cannot pass. Yesterday, the imperial court did not send a telegram, not only urging the Zhongtang to go north to negotiate with the countries, but also to recruit overseas Chinese. If you want to ignore them, then how can you explain to the imperial court? What if the imperial court sends people to contact overseas Chinese first?"

In fact, Sheng Xuanhuai also knew that his idea would not work. His actual purpose was to create some pressure for overseas Chinese, meaning that if you don’t let go of your posture, then we will negotiate with foreigners in Shanghai to force overseas Chinese to change their attitude and return to the negotiating table. However, Zhou Fu mentioned the telegram from the court, which made Sheng Xuanhuai sigh heavily and said, "This group of ignorant people knows to cause trouble for us. If it weren’t for them, why would this situation have reached this point? In the end, I’m afraid it will be a difficult situation again."

Li Hongzhang also smiled bitterly and said, "Have you been like this in the past few decades?"

It turned out that Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu escaped from Beijing on August 15 and arrived in Huailai County 100 kilometers northwest of Beijing on the 18th. On the 19th, Empress Dowager Cixi issued the first edict after her escape in Huailai County, and sent it to the Military Minister Ronglu, Grand Secretary Xu Tong, and Minister of Revenue Chongqi, who clearly ordered them to stay in Beijing to seek peace from foreigners, but Ronglu had already run to Baoding, and Xu Tong and Chongqi hanged themselves one after another on the day when the city of Beijing was broken. So Empress Dowager Cixi issued a second edict to Li Hongzhang, who was in Shanghai, asking him to go north quickly and preside over the peace talks with Prince Qing Yili.

On August 0, Empress Dowager Cixi issued the "Self-Crime Edict" to the world in the name of Emperor Guangxu. While shirking away his own responsibilities, she expressed her intention to make peace with other countries.

But at this time the Eight-Nation Alliance was in full swing, so she didn't want to negotiate peace with the Qing court immediately. Empress Dowager Cixi felt that Huailai County was too close to Beijing and was unsafe. So on August, Empress Dowager Cixi left Huailai County and continued to travel westward to prepare to go to Shanxi. The next day, she sent Li Hongzhang again, telling him that peace talks can "do things cheaply" and the court "does not control it from afar."

On September 7, Empress Dowager Cixi issued an edict to strictly eliminate the Boxer Rebellion on her way west. Cixi clearly announced for the first time that it would start to suppress the Boxer Rebellion, and once again sent a telegram to Li Hongzhang to urge him to Beijing. However, Li Hongzhang asked for punishment to punish the princes and ministers who supported the Boxer Rebellion's main battle without reply, so Li Hongzhang remained in Shanghai and was unmoved. On September 10, Empress Dowager Cixi and her party arrived in Taiyuan, and at this time, the military minister Ronglu also came to meet with Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu and her party, so the exiled court temporarily settled in Taiyuan.

On September 15, Empress Dowager Cixi, who had been out of Beijing for a whole month, called Li Hongzhang again in Taiyuan, urging him to go north immediately. At this moment, the news that overseas Chinese returned to China, defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance and captured Tianjin also spread to Taiyuan.

At the beginning, Empress Dowager Cixi, Emperor Guangxu, and the princes and ministers who accompanied them did not believe this, because there were too many absurd news during this period. Didn’t it be that I believed that the Boxer Rebellion was invincible and that I suffered this great disaster? Now, the group of overseas Chinese who came from there, which sounded fake.

But on September 18, the governor of Huguang, Zhang Zhidong, sent a congratulatory message to the escaped court, saying: God blesses the Qing Dynasty and gets help from overseas righteous people. It confirms that the news about overseas Chinese is true. Of course, Zhang Zhidong's congratulatory message also carries his own private goods. It turned out that he was trying to persuade the court to go south and rebuild the capital in Dangyang County, Hubei. The reason is that this place name is Jili: Yang Dangkong Zhao, which is a sign of the revival of the Qing Dynasty. Ronglu immediately exposed Zhang Zhidong's trick: the old guy wanted to move the court to his territory so that he could use Tianjie to command the princes.

However, at this time, Empress Dowager Cixi, Emperor Guangxu and the princes and ministers who accompanied her were only half-doubted. If there were a group of Chinese who had left China and founded overseas, it would be credible. It would be credible that they wanted to return to China, but they could actually defeat the Eight-Nation Alliance. I guess no one believed that such a panic report on military information has happened too much in the past few decades.

As early as the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the second day after China and Japan officially declared war, the commander-in-chief of the front line, Ye Zhichao, the commander-in-chief of the front line, sent back the news of the good news: Our army won a great victory in Yashan, beheaded more than 2,000 people, and took advantage of the victory. It was only more than 70 miles away from Seoul. He urged the northern army to advance, and ordered the naval warships to fight together, and the north and the south were united and expelled as soon as possible. The court was naturally happy and had a great momentum of victory, but the actual situation was that the Qing army was defeated by the Japanese army in Yashan, and was defeated a hundred miles away, and all military supplies were lost.

Five years later, after the Eight-Nation Alliance landed in Dagukou, marched into Beijing. Such false good news was even more numerous. Sometimes the Dagukou defenders wiped out the fleets of all countries. Sometimes Nie Shicheng defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance in Tianjin. Until the Eight-Nation Alliance conquered Tongzhou and approached the city of Beijing, the Qing army defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance in Tongzhou. After the failure, the foreigners begged for peace from the Qing court. The Qing court also listed twenty-five peace terms to the foreigners, returning lost land, asking foreigners for compensation, etc. The fact is that less than half a month later, the Eight-Nation Alliance captured Beijing.

It is precisely because of so many painful lessons that Empress Dowager Cixi, Emperor Guangxu, and the princes and ministers who accompanied her dared to easily believe such good news. But in the following time, the congratulatory message sent to Taiyuan like snowflakes, all of which were congratulations to the court and received help from overseas righteous people, including local officials like Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kunyi, and Yuan Shikai, and of course Li Hongzhang was also included. Therefore, the Qing court, who was exiled to Taiyuan, finally believed that such a group of overseas Chinese came to China, defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance, and captured Tianjin again, and the situation changed significantly.

The exiled Qing court monarch and ministers were immediately excited. This was really a group of overseas Chinese that fell from the world. Therefore, the princes and ministers who accompanied him all asked Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu to immediately recruit the overseas Chinese and use the combat power of this group of overseas Chinese to resist various countries. Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu were also excited. This mother was also united for the first time and issued an edict to Li Hongzhang, asking him to contact the overseas Chinese as soon as possible and try his best to recruit the overseas Chinese.

Li Hongzhang replied that the German fleet had arrived in China and advised the court not to act rashly, or to wait and see if it was better. This poured a basin of cold water on the exiled Qing monarch and ministers, which made them much more awake.

However, the time travelers won the victory of the Tianjin defense battle, which once again ignited the fanatic spirit of the exiled Qing monarch and ministers, and let them see hope for victory. So they once again raised their letters to the court, asking the court to recruit overseas Chinese as soon as possible and serve Daqing. Some even took the initiative to ask to rush to Tianjin to recruit this group of overseas Chinese for the court. Of course, many people took the opportunity to carry private goods and attacked local officials in the southeast such as Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong, and suggested that the court punish them for their crimes.
Chapter completed!