After the first round of talks with Qin Zheng, the two sides reached three major principles: First, the Qing court assigned Shandong Province to the jurisdiction of the time traveler, and was still ruled by the Qing court in the famous discussion, but implemented complete autonomy within. The time travel group handed over Beijing to the Qing court and withdrew troops from Beijing and surrounding areas. Only one office was retained in Beijing, and the responsibility and power was equivalent to that of the embassies of various countries; Second, the time travel group returned the old city of Tianjin to the Qing court, and the former Tianjin Concession area was under the jurisdiction of the time travel group, with the responsibility and power of Shandong Province. At the same time, Tianjin's customs, shipping, ports, etc. were controlled by the time travel group; Third, the Qing court agreed that the time travel group had a piece of land autonomy in Shanghai, and the rights and responsibilities were shared in the Shanghai Concession.

Li Hongzhang sent the results of today's negotiations overnight to the Qing court in Xi'an, asking the Qing court to ruling whether they agree with these three major principles so that they can continue to negotiate details.

After receiving the telegram from Li Hongzhang, Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu did not dare to neglect them, and immediately recruited ministers to discuss whether to accept these three major principles. In fact, the Qing court did not have much objection to Article 1 and Article 3, because it had long reached a consensus within the Qing court for Shandong to exchange for Beijing. Naturally, no one objected at this time. As for overseas Chinese people's request to set up an office in Beijing, it was a small matter and could be agreed upon; while overseas Chinese people's request to set up a "concession" in Shanghai, although it was a bit unexpected, it was not a big deal. Anyway, there were enough concessions in Shanghai now, so they didn't care about one more. However, overseas Chinese people refused to give up Tianjin completely, which made the Qing court very undecided.

Tianjin's geographical location is really too important to Beijing. Although the Qing court is now interested in establishing good relations with overseas Chinese, it does make it difficult for the Qing court to rest assured. From Cixi's heart, it would rather let foreigners occupy Tianjin than hand over Tianjin to overseas Chinese. Although foreigners are cruel and terrible, they are not considered a major concern, because after all, foreigners are not Chinese ethnic groups and cannot be recognized by the Chinese. Therefore, no matter how they cede land and pay compensation, foreigners will not fully occupy China, and will not endanger the rule of the Qing court. In a sense, foreigners will even support or support the Qing court, as long as the Qing court is willing to safeguard the interests of foreigners.

Overseas Chinese are different. They are not only Chinese ethnic groups, but also descendants of the previous dynasty. This alone is enough to arouse the vigilance of the Qing court. What's more, overseas Chinese also have their own army and gained a high reputation by defeating the Eight-Nation Alliance. No matter in that dynasty, it was a great threat to the rulers. Overseas Chinese occupying Tianjin means that they can attack Beijing at any time. Now Cixi just wants to live a comfortable life for a few years, but she does not want to deal with the threat from Tianjin at any time.

Although Cixi did not say this idea, all the ministers undoubtedly understood and supported it. Therefore, after three days of negotiation, the Qing court called back Li Hongzhang, demanding that overseas Chinese still insist on giving up Tianjin.

After receiving the telegram, Li Hongzhang couldn't help but smile bitterly. It was not that he didn't know Empress Dowager Cixi's psychology, but his current form was better than others, so he couldn't help but feel the old lady's intentions. Li Hongzhang did not negotiate with the time traveler because he understood that even negotiation was useless. Instead, he immediately replied to a telegram to Xi'an, indicating that overseas Chinese had no possibility of giving up Tianjin. If the court insisted on asking overseas Chinese for Tianjin, it would probably anger overseas Chinese. Not only would Jieshi not even return to the old city of Tianjin, but he would even be out of date when he returned to Beijing. He also asked the court to think twice.

After receiving Li Hongzhang's call, Cixi was in a dilemma, and the ministers could not come up with any good solutions. When everyone was at a loss, Guangxu expressed his opinion: At present, it should be better to return to Beijing as soon as possible, and other things can be done slowly, not to mention that it is not easy to take back the old city of Tianjin. At this moment, no more troubles can be made, and other changes will occur.

After listening to the emperor's speech, everyone felt it was reasonable. After thinking about it for another day, Cixi finally made up her mind to accept these three major principles, and at the same time ordered Li Hongzhang to negotiate details with overseas Chinese as soon as possible.

In fact, during the few days of waiting for the Qing court to reply, Li Hongzhang had already begun to prepare for the relevant details of the affairs of the time travelers in accordance with these three major principles, and discussed the details with Yuan Shikai, Li Jingfang, Zhang Peilun and others. Although he received a telegram from the Qing court to return to Tianjin, Li Hongzhang still did not make any changes because Li Hongzhang knew very well that the Qing court had no bargaining chips with overseas Chinese at all, so in the end he could only accept the conditions of overseas Chinese, otherwise what else could it be, unless it was the empress dowager and the emperor planned to move the capital to Xi'an.

Yuan Shikai did not dare to conceal Li Hongzhang, and reported to Li Hongzhang about his consultation with overseas Chinese and asking overseas Chinese to send troops to Jinan in advance.

After hearing this, Li Hongzhang not only did not blame Yuan Shikai for his own actions and acted boldly, but instead praised Yuan Shikai for doing it right, because the overall situation of overseas Chinese demanding to occupy Shandong was decided, and no matter whether the Qing court agreed or not, there would be no change. Since this is the case, it would be better to be generous and try to cooperate with the actions of overseas Chinese when handing over to Shandong. This will not only establish a good relationship with overseas Chinese, but also exchange for less trouble for the Qing court when they return to Beijing. This is really a good thing to win one stone. Therefore, Li Hongzhang also decided to follow Yuan Shikai's proposal to review the details and clauses in the next negotiations.

Of course, not everyone agrees with Yuan Shikai's behavior. Zhang Peilun reminded Li Hongzhang in private that Yuan Shikai was ambitious and too bold and arrogant, and regarded the court system as nothing, and he was afraid of heresy in the future, so he should not trust Yuan Shikai too much. However, Li Hongzhang did not care about this, thinking that in this extraordinary period, he could only follow the power of his affairs, and this also shows that Yuan Shikai dared to take responsibility, not stick to small matters, be flexible in dealing with things, and be able to adapt to changes. Only such people can accomplish great things. If everything has to be considered in line with the court system, then nothing can be done. In fact, Li Hongzhang himself often does something that is playing the edge with the court system.

Li Hongzhang is preparing and the Travel Group is also discussing the full takeover of Shandong. There are two main methods within the Travel Group to takeover of Shandong. One is the "rural surround city" style formulated in the past, that is, firstly, through the implementation of land reform actions from rural areas, the control of rural areas will be completed, and then gradually expanded to county towns, and then control the entire Shandong area. Since this method starts from the bottom, it is also called the bottom-to-top method.

The advantage of adopting the bottom-to-top method is to advance step by step, steadily and steadily. First, control the grassroots, lay a solid foundation for the ruling of the group in Shandong. While controlling the grassroots, gradually cultivate a group of local administrative management personnel, and then gradually move upward, you can basically determine your rule in Shandong smoothly. In addition, the early control of Jiaozhou, Gaomi and Jimo counties was basically adopted, and a certain amount of experience has been accumulated, so there will be no major accidents.

However, the disadvantage of this method is that it takes a long time and slow effect. After all, controlling the grassroots and promoting land reform takes time. Moreover, due to the lack of control over local high-level leaders, it is easy to be violently resisted by local forces. For example, the incident of the landlord alliance attacking Menbu Village is a typical example. I believe that when promoting land reform in other places, similar things will definitely happen. Of course, these shortcomings are not insurmountable. If you are patient for a long time, you can be more patient. If you are violently resisted by local forces, you can also use violence as a suppression. However, one problem is difficult to solve, that is, the bottom-to-top law requires a large number of local managers in the early stage, whether it is a naturalized person who travels through the group or the local people.

According to the local administrative division of the Qing court, Shandong Province has 10 prefectures, 2 Zhili prefectures, 8 scattered prefectures, and 96 counties. If you only control the county town, the time travel group must form 96 teams. Based on the average team of 15 time travelers, more than 1,400 time travelers are needed, which accounts for almost 40% of the current number of non-military time travelers. It is enough to make the current time travel group hurt. Moreover, even if it controls the county town, it is not possible for everyone to have some local management experience. However, the current time travel group is still a local naturalized person. Obviously, there are so many local managers.

Since Li Hongzhang proposed to the Time Travel Group that the Qing court could allow time travelers to serve as Shandong Governor, Chief Secretary, Censor, Daotai, Admiral, General, and officials of various prefectures and prefectures. In this way, the Time Travel Group could package the entire Shandong officialdom, which led to another model of controlling Shandong, which was the emergence of the top-down law. It was to first obtain the highest administrative position in Shandong Province, and then slowly develop downward. That is, first take over Shandong Governor, Chief Secretary, Censor, and Daotai, and then obtain the highest official position in the prefecture and prefecture, and then expand to the scattered prefectures and counties below.

The advantage of adopting this method is that it allows the Time Travel Group to obtain full control of Shandong Province in a short period of time, and there are not many local managers who need to be invested in the early stage, which is currently possible for the human resources conditions of the Time Travel Group. However, the disadvantage is that the ruling foundation in Shandong is not solid and may be undermined by local forces. Due to insufficient control, it is easy to cause major accidents. At the same time, the Time Travel Group also has to bear the resentment of the grassroots people and take the blame for some harm to the people of the local forces.
Chapter completed!