Huo Bilan said: "Of course this is different. Beijing was conquered by our army with great sacrifices. Therefore, we will never hand over Beijing to anyone before we negotiate a treaty with the Qing Dynasty."

Qin Zheng said tit-for-tat: "Your war to capture Beijing is an aggressive war, so after the negotiations are over, we should withdraw from Beijing immediately. Although we have no subordinate relationship with Qingguo, we are Chinese and are fully qualified to take over Beijing. We will never give in. If you think that Beijing is your army captured through war, then we can also take Beijing back through war."

Huo Bilan was not willing to be outdone and said, "Okay, you guys will attack Beijing to see if they can capture Beijing."

Seeing that the two sides were about to have a breakup again, Li Hongzhang hurriedly said, "Let's do this, even if you two sides are temporarily unable to reach an agreement on the issue of Beijing, then let this one go first if you don't visit and discuss the subsequent terms."

In fact, it is common for both parties to refuse to give in to each other and enter a stalemate in negotiations. The usual solution is to first put down the difficult clauses and turn to discuss other clauses, first negotiate the terms that are easy to reach agreement, and then go back to discuss the difficult part. This is to promote the continuous progress of negotiations; second, it is to find common ground between the two parties as much as possible and reduce differences, which is conducive to the discussion of the difficult part in the future. Therefore, the time travelers and countries have no objection to Li Hongzhang's proposal, but since Article 2 and Article 1 are closely related, the two sides skip Article 2 and directly discuss Article 3.

However, the subsequent discussions continued quite unsuccessfully. Although the two sides were not as confrontation as the previous two terms, there were still huge differences. Regarding the issue of redeeming prisoners, although the countries agreed to pay the redemption fee, they proposed an upper limit of the cost, that is, to redeem all the prisoners in a fixed price, and the total redemption fee of the prisoners who were willing to pay was 10,000 taels of silver.

This was naturally rejected by the time traveler because the cost was too different from the time traveler's expectations. In the negotiation terms, the time traveler did not demand compensation from various countries, but was expected to make a big profit by redeeming prisoners. Therefore, the time traveler advocated determining the cost of redeeming prisoners according to the corresponding calculation formula and dividing the cost of redeeming prisoners into two parts. One part is the direct cost of redeeming prisoners. This is different according to the military streets of the prisoners, and the direct cost is also different. The higher the military rank, the higher the cost of redeeming prisoners. The cost of redeeming prisoners is equivalent to nearly a hundred ordinary privateers; the other part is the cost of management, living and food during the period of being captured. This is calculated by time. The longer the time it is captured, the higher the cost is paid. In addition, every day the negotiation will be delayed, the cost will increase by one day.

Although the time traveler did not calculate how much the final cost would be if he followed the plan he proposed, it was expected to be at least about 50,000 taels of silver, and what would be more, which was far beyond the expectations of various countries and naturally could not be accepted by various countries. As a result, the two sides had a fierce debate and refused to give in to each other. In the end, they could only determine the cost of redemption of prisoners. However, how to determine the cost of redemption of prisoners will be discussed later.

There was nothing to argue about the abolition of the Concessions in Tianjin, Weihaiwei and Qingdao, because all countries understand that they should not swallow the places swallowed by overseas Chinese. The real intention of various countries is to obtain compensation from the Qing court, so the negotiation clauses given to the Qing court by various countries are to obtain the new concession.

However, countries will not allow time travelers to pass easily, but will use this article to increase bargaining chips for other terms. Therefore, countries propose that the concessions can be given to time travelers, but time travelers must pay certain fees to each country to make up for the losses of each country. However, this was naturally flatly rejected by time travelers. The concessions were occupied by me, and I still wanted me to pay for them, but there was no door.

The discussion in Article 5 is similar to that in Article 4, and it is basically something that countries are preparing to give up. It is just that they have to make up for it if they are ignored. Therefore, in the end, they can only discuss it again.

Only Article 6 and Article 7 There is not much difference between the two sides, because both of these take into account the interests of each country and are basically mutually beneficial to both sides. Therefore, it can be basically determined. Of course, there are still areas that need to be discussed in detail, but the general principle can be determined.

Overall, there are two of the seven negotiation terms proposed by the Time Traveler, which have huge differences; there are three that have objections, but there are still three that need to be discussed and negotiated; and there are two that can be basically determined, which is basically normal in negotiations. After all, this is just the initial discussion, and of course it is impossible to all be determined all at once. This also shows that the negotiation terms proposed by the Time Traveler are still generally reliable and have not offered high prices like other countries.

At this time, the morning time ended, and the preliminary discussion on the negotiation terms proposed by the time traveler came to an end. After lunch in Jing'an Temple, the three parties began to continue the afternoon negotiations at 2:00 pm, and the afternoon discussion was discussed with the terms proposed by various countries to the Qing court.

However, in the morning, the time travelers who had had enough troubles from various countries finally waited for the time being to be proud and rejected all eight clauses proposed by various countries, and their attitude was quite refusal and could not be discussed at all.

The time traveler was so happy, but it made all countries feel very annoyed. This was here to negotiate, and it was clearly to disrupt the situation. Therefore, after talking about it, Huo Bilan was a little impatient and said, "Political Commissar Qin, your attitude is not as good as you are here to negotiate. I doubt your sincerity in negotiations."

Qin Zheng said: "We came to negotiate with great sincerity, so we came from Tianjin to Shanghai. The Consular said this to us the greatest insult, so I hope the Consular will give me a reasonable explanation."

Huo Bilan said: "Since it is a negotiation, we must allow discussions on the plans proposed by both parties. You not only deny all the negotiation clauses we proposed, but also insist that you do not discuss them again. If there is such negotiation, I suspect that your negotiation sincerity is absolutely grounded."

Qin Zheng sneered and said, "Sir Consul, I think as a diplomat, you should be very clear that negotiations are not about business. You ask for a price everywhere, I will pay the money on the spot. In the end, both sides make concessions. Hello, I am all good. Your side proposed that all eight negotiation terms are unreasonable terms, and all of them have passed our bottom line. The reason was mentioned in the discussion one by one, so we will not repeat them. But we have to deny them all, which is a hasty question."

Seeing that the two sides were about to have a break again, Bai Zaotai said: "We had been talking for a long time just now, but we didn't ask for the opinions of the Qing Dynasty, which is a bit rude. Therefore, I think it is necessary to listen to the opinions of the Qing Dynasty."

After hearing this, Huo Bilan immediately understood Bai Zaotai's intention, which was to find a breakthrough from the Qing court when he could not touch overseas Chinese. Therefore, he did not ask the time travelers and turned to the Qing court and said, "Li Zhongtang, our discussion just now is related to the Qing court, so we hope to hear your attitude?"

From the beginning of the negotiations until now, the Qing court only spoke and eased the severity of the time travelers and countries, but did not express any opinions on the substance of the discussion between the two sides, but listened to them. If anyone who didn't know met, he would think that the Qing court was the mediator of the negotiations, not the party involved. Li Jingfang had been engaged in diplomacy with Li Hongzhang for more than ten years, and had never encountered such a situation. When the two sides discussed the affairs of the Qing court, they were in a dispute. The negotiators of the Qing court felt uncomfortable. On two occasions, Li Jingfang wanted to express his opinions, but they were both stopped by Li Hongzhang.

Now Huo Bilan took the initiative to ask about the attitude of the Qing court, and Li Jingfang and others couldn't help but feel excited. Finally it was his turn to say it. At this time, Li Hongzhang said: "To be honest, although we are also on one side of the negotiation, we are led by you. We are not inconvenient to take over the main points. There is nothing to say at this moment. Just wait for the two sides to negotiate the result. I will report the result to the court, which will be decided by the court." After a pause, he said: "It's too late today, and you have talked a lot. According to my opinion, it's better to give up today. Everyone should go back and rest for a night, and continue to talk tomorrow."

Li Hongzhang knew in his heart that Huo Bilan respected the Qing court on the surface, but in fact he wanted to put himself on the fire, just to accept the conditions of various countries to suppress overseas Chinese. However, Li Hongzhang also understood that overseas Chinese were not fooled, so he must not go to this muddy water. So Li Hongzhang came to pretend that he would not offend both his grandson.

Huo Bilan was obviously very dissatisfied with Li Hongzhang's attitude, but he couldn't say anything at this time. When talking about this step today, he really couldn't talk about anything. Therefore, Huo Bilan nodded and said, "It's good that this is the case today. Let's continue to talk tomorrow. What do Political Commissar Qin think?"

Qin Zheng smiled and said, "I have no objection, so let's talk about it tomorrow."

The three parties agreed that today's negotiations would end, so they packed up their own things and left the negotiation room one after another.

Qin Zheng and his group came outside and were about to get in the car and go back to Licha Hotel, but Li Hongzhang said behind him: "Political Commissar Qin, please stay."

Qin Zheng turned around and said, "Is there anything wrong with Li Zhongtang?"

Li Hongzhang said: "Today, thank you for your efforts to win the interests of the court."

Although the time travelers did not take the Qing court seriously, in today's negotiations, they objectively helped the Qing court safeguard their interests. Therefore, whether Li Hongzhang was sincere or not, he would also thank the time travelers first.

Qin Zheng said: "Li Zhongtang is so polite. We are also descendants of Yan and Huang, so we naturally have to safeguard China's interests."

Li Hongzhang said again: "But I have to report the content of today's negotiations to the court truthfully, so I would like to ask the Political Commissar Qin to be more tolerant."

Qin Zheng understood that the so-called negotiation content includes the negotiation clauses proposed by various countries to the Qing court. Although time travelers argue with reason and safeguard China's interests, the Qing court may not pay attention to these interests. Maybe some of them will be given up in order to complete the negotiation as soon as possible. However, Li Hongzhang's actions are understandable, and Qin Zheng has no reason to stop them, so he said: "This is the matter of Zhongtang, but Zhongtang also asks Zhongtang to report our attitude to the court in detail."
Chapter completed!