Seeing that Li Jingfang did not refuse his arrangements, and was still quite eager in his expression, Li Hongzhang felt a little relieved, because his plans were not clear yet. If Li Jingfang refused, Li Hongzhang could only use his father's authority to suppress it, but from Li Hongzhang's heart, he did not want to do so. Of course, Li Hongzhang also understood Li Jingfang's idea. Since Li Jingfang had always wanted to join the army, then let him go to the battlefield to experience it this time, so that Li Jingfang would understand that the battlefield was not as simple as he thought.

Li Hongzhang said again: "It is not difficult for me to write a letter to Zhang Nanpi (i.e. Zhang Zhidong, who is from Nanpi County, Zhili). However, everyone knows that I and Zhang Nanpi have never met each other very much, so it is unknown how much effect can be achieved by writing a letter? Since we want to help overseas Chinese, we must help to the end. If Zhang Nanpi sees my letter and refuses to sell weapons to overseas Chinese, it will do a bad thing." As he said that, he turned to Zhang Peilun and said: "It is better for Youqiao to write a letter to Zhang Nanpi first to explain the requirements of overseas Chinese, and to show his interests and explore his tone."

It turned out that when Zhang Peilun was an imperial envoy in Beijing in his early years, he was a member of the Qingliu Party. He was famous for impeaching ministers. He was known as the Four Advices of Qingliu with Zhang Zhidong, Chen Baochen and Baoting. Therefore, he had a good relationship with Zhang Zhidong. After Zhang Peilun failed the Battle of Ponytail, he also wrote a letter of recommendation to Zhang Zhidong for his aide Rong Junye, hoping that Rong Junye could find a suitable job under Zhang Zhidong.

However, later Zhang Peilun became Li Hongzhang's son-in-law, and Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong were never dealt with each other, so Zhang Peilun lost contact with Zhang Zhidong. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Zhang Peilun settled in Nanjing because of his bad friendship with Li Jingfang. At that time, Zhang Zhidong became the governor of Liangjiang. It happened that the two could meet again and retell the old relationship, but the two basically had no relationship. However, after all, the two had a good relationship back then, so Zhang Peilun wrote a letter to Zhang Zhidong, which was much better than Li Hongzhang.

Zhang Peilun nodded and said, "Okay, Peilun writes a letter immediately."

At this time, Li Jingfang suddenly interrupted and said, "Why wouldn't it be better to let Peilun accompany overseas Chinese to Hubei to meet Zhang Xiangtao (Zhang Zhidong Xiangtao).?"

Li Hongzhang glanced at him, shook his head, and said, "No need, Peilun and Zhang Nanpi have not seen each other for many years. Even if they accompany overseas Chinese to Hubei, it may not be useful. Writing a letter is enough. Those who can help overseas Chinese can only reach this point. Whether or not they can convince Zhang Nanpi in the end depends on the ability of overseas Chinese."

This time, the overseas Chinese looked for Zhang Zhidong to buy weapons. The relationship between this matter was even more important, but it was much bigger than convincing the Shanhaiguan Guard. It was not possible that the little friendship between Zhang Peilun and Zhang Zhidong could work. If overseas Chinese wanted to buy weapons from Zhang Zhidong, they would definitely have a major exchange of interests with Zhang Zhidong. Maybe there would be any shameful transactions. As for what kind of interests overseas Chinese can use to impress Zhang Zhidong, of course it would be impossible to tell Li Hongzhang. Therefore, it would be bad to ask Zhang Peilun to accompany overseas Chinese to Hubei to meet Zhang Zhidong, because overseas Chinese and Zhang Zhidong still had to carry Zhang Peilun on their backs when negotiating. So why bother to find this embarrassment?

Zhou Fu and Sheng Xuanhuai didn't say anything just now because they both knew very well that once Li Hongzhang decided, there would be no easy change, and it can be seen from the decisions made by Li Hongzhang that Li Hongzhang obviously hoped to establish a better relationship with overseas Chinese.

Of course, Li Hongzhang's decision is not inappropriate. After all, after capturing Beijing, overseas Chinese have basically completely controlled the situation in northern China. If the Russian army is repelled, then the reputation will be at its peak. I am afraid that even the court will have to give them three points of court. Although the current force of overseas Chinese is unlikely to take over the court and replace it, it is probably going to be the story of the Three Feudatories when the Qing Dynasty was founded, forcing the Qing court to let itself rule over. As for the current situation of the court, they may have to agree to the conditions of overseas Chinese. Therefore, Li Hongzhang and overseas Chinese are actually taking overseas Chinese to respect themselves.

However, the two of them were not fully satisfied at this time. Zhou Fu was mainly worried that although Li Hongzhang now used overseas Chinese to respect himself, he could indeed stabilize his position in the court, and even if he made a comeback from now on, it would not be impossible. However, if overseas Chinese really dominate one side, they will definitely have conflicts with the court in the future. Bi Jing's court would never let overseas Chinese sleep soundly by the couch. Then, where would Li Hongzhang beside him? Could it be that he planned to defect to overseas Chinese? Thinking of this, Zhou Fu couldn't help but feel scared and sweated. This was not impossible. If Li Hongzhang had already determined that overseas Chinese could accomplish anything.

Sheng Xuanhuai wanted to find that it was not as complicated as Zhou Fu's thoughts. What he was mainly considering was whether he should change his attitude towards overseas Chinese. After all, the rise of overseas Chinese is inevitable now, and he is even more powerless to stop it. Therefore, it is better to use Li Hongzhang's relationship to establish a direct relationship with overseas Chinese as soon as possible. Although Li Hongzhang has been in contact with overseas Chinese for a long time, due to Sheng Xuanhuai's prejudice against overseas Chinese, he had the opportunity to meet overseas Chinese with Li Hongzhang several times, but Sheng Xuanhuai looked for various excuses to avoid this time, Sheng Xuanhuai couldn't help but feel a little secretly regretted.

However, Sheng Xuanhuai immediately thought that Zhao Weizhong had a deep relationship with overseas Chinese, and Yanran was the business representative of overseas Chinese in Shanghai, so he might as well find some breakthroughs from him.

As the two were thinking about it, the negotiation ended. Zhang Peilun immediately wrote a letter to Zhang Zhidong, indicating that overseas Chinese hoped to get to know Zhang Zhidong, and explained the requirements of overseas Chinese very tactfully, and then immediately went to Wuchang.

What Zhang Peilun did not expect was that just the next morning, Zhang Zhidong replied to Zhang Peilun. He first spent a lot of space to express the old love between the two when they were "clear streams" in the capital together and their nostalgia after parting. Then he changed his words and expressed that he admired the character, integrity, loyalty, and courage of overseas Chinese. He hoped to meet with famous people among overseas Chinese, and also hinted that it was easy to negotiate if they wanted to buy weapons. Therefore, Zhang Peilun and overseas Chinese went to Wuchang for a visit to Wuchang.

Although I didn't expect that Zhang Zhidong's personality, who likes fame for nothing, has not changed much after so many years, Zhang Zhidong's reply was still a positive signal, so Zhang Peilun was very relieved.

So Li Hongzhang immediately notified Li Sanjie and asked him to come to Dingxiang Villa again. After everyone met, Li Hongzhang also told Li Sanjie his decision and Zhang Zhidong's reply. At the same time, Zhang Peilun also said that although it was inconvenient for him to go to Wuchang, he could also write another letter to Zhang Zhidong, and the representatives of overseas Chinese were handed over to Zhang Zhidong. I believe that after seeing the letter, Zhang Zhidong would definitely treat the representatives preferentially. However, Zhang Peilun also reminded Li Sanjie that Zhang Zhidong admired his reputation and liked to make friends with famous people. Most of the staff around him were celebrities and madmen, so overseas Chinese must send appropriate representatives, and suggested that Qin Zheng would go there in person.

In the exchanges with overseas Chinese, Zhang Peilun had the most contact with Qin Zheng, and he left a deep impression on Qin Zheng's rich knowledge, keen reaction and organized mind. Although the last Shanghai negotiation failed to succeed, Qin Zheng's performance in Shanghai won a high reputation. Therefore, Zhang Peilun believed that Qin Zheng was the most suitable person among overseas Chinese to meet Zhang Zhidong.

After learning about Li Hongzhang's decision, Li Sanjie was also very excited. He did not expect that these two things could be done so successfully. Therefore, he immediately expressed that he would not hesitate. It would be best to arrange Zhang Peilun and Li Jingfang to Tianjin tomorrow to persuade the guards of Shanhaiguan as soon as possible so that the People's Army had enough time to arrange a base in Shanhaiguan. Li Hongzhang did not refuse, and the two sides agreed to meet up at the Shanghai office of the Crossing Group, and the service would be sent to send Zhang Peilun and Li Jingfang to Tianjin.

Now the traverser is mooring a 318 boat in Shanghai, and it takes about 15 hours to get from Shanghai to Tianjin. Of course, the Executive Committee decided to send who to Wuchang to meet with Zhang Zhidong. Li Sanjie only needed to convey Zhang Peilun’s request to the Tianjin side.

After saying goodbye to Li Hongzhang, Li Sanjie immediately rushed back to the office, started the radio station and contacted Tianjin, and reported today's results in detail to Tianjin. After receiving Li Sanjie's report, the Tianjin Executive Committee was very satisfied with the result, because it was much better than the expected results of the Executive Committee, so he praised Li Sanjie's work in Shanghai. However, the Executive Committee immediately gave Li Sanjie a new task.

It turned out that tomorrow, the new issue of the [New China News] will be delivered to Shanghai. In this issue of the [New China News], the People's Army will conduct a news report that the People's Army inspected the embassies of various countries in Beijing and found out a large number of treasures looted by the Eight-Nation Alliance in China. It also published three editorials, strongly criticizing the Eight-Nation Alliance for protecting the embassy, ​​but in China, it is engaged in a robbery war of aggression that is not demolished or detained. This once again exposes the hypocrisy of imperialism and proves that the development of imperialism is based on the crazy plunder of backward countries such as Asia, Africa and Latin America, etc.
Chapter completed!