Li Hongzhang thought about it seriously and finally agreed to Qin Zheng's request. After all, no matter what the overseas Chinese are for, this request is ultimately beneficial to the Qing court.

After finishing his conversation with Qin Zheng, Li Hongzhang immediately found Sa Zhenbing, the agent of the Beiyang Navy, and explained to him the requirements of overseas Chinese. Ye Zugui, who is currently the admiral of the Beiyang Navy, has always been ill, so the affairs of the Beiyang Navy are now managed by Sa Zhenbing.

After hearing Li Hongzhang's words, Sa Zhenbing immediately expressed his willingness to participate in this joint maritime military exercise. First, this was an action to enhance the reputation of the Beiyang Navy; second, Sa Zhenbing did have a good impression of overseas Chinese. He visited Tianjin with Li Hongzhang, and left a deep impression on the military appearance of overseas Chinese and their unique warships. He also hoped that through this joint maritime military exercise, he would establish a good relationship with overseas Chinese and cooperate with foreign hostile forces in the future.

Seeing that Sa Zhenbing agreed to participate in the operation, Li Hongzhang was also very satisfied. After consultation with Sa Zhenbing, he decided that Sa Zhenbing would lead the team himself and lead Haiqi, Hairong and Haichao three warships to Tianjin to join the fleet of overseas Chinese. At the same time, Li Hongzhang ordered Sa Zhenbing to follow the arrangements of overseas Chinese after arriving in Tianjin. In addition, don't inform the court of this matter.

It turned out that Li Hongzhang was a little confused about what the Qing court would take about this joint maritime military exercise. Although this matter was beneficial to the Qing court, there were few people in Xi'an now, and there were many ignorant people. Cixi didn't know anything about this. Therefore, the news came to Xi'an. Who knew what they would think? Now Li Hongzhang was too lazy to explain patiently, so he simply took the action first and then reported to the Qing court, and even if the Qing court was unwilling to withdraw the fleet, he would not let the fleet retreat again.

On the next day, Qin Zheng left Shanghai and returned to Tianjin. After all, Qin Zheng was the main leader of the Time Travel Group and one of the main military leaders. There are still many things in Tianjin waiting for Qin Zheng to go back before confirming. Now the matter in Shanghai has basically ended. Although the exhibition and concert are still being held, Qin Zheng does not need to be watched here. Even if he wants to negotiate with Russia in the future, Qin Zheng does not need to come forward, and Li Sanjie is responsible.

Now all the focus has shifted to Russia. After all, in the Eight-Nation Alliance, only Russia has not joined the treaty yet, and Russia now occupies China's northeast, so the next step depends on how to force Russia to make concessions.

Others Although Russia did not participate in this Shanghai negotiation, the government of Russian Tsar Nicholas II was very clear that the current situation was quite unfavorable to Russia. Once overseas Chinese negotiated with the other seven countries successfully, Russia was in danger of being isolated and fell into a great diplomatic passiveness. Judging from the current situation, there is a great possibility. Of course, Russia is not willing to fall into diplomatic dilemma like this, but the previous words were too full, and the Shanhaiguan battle also lost too badly, which made it difficult for Russia to actively join the Shanghai negotiations. Therefore, during the Shanghai negotiations, Russia also frequently launched activities in the hope of breaking diplomatic isolation.

First, Russia has two countries that can communicate, France and Germany. France is an ally of Russia, and the German royal family and the Russian royal family have a very close relationship. Therefore, Russia has continuously requested low-cost Shanghai negotiations from France and Germany through diplomatic channels and re-determined its policy to China. However, France's response was that the Shanghai negotiations were in line with France's interests and urged Russia to join the Shanghai negotiations; while the German royal family expressed that they understood Russia's decision and would fully support Russia's expansion in the Far East, but Germany did not intend to withdraw from the Shanghai negotiations.

Seeing that France, Germany and Russia were unable to speak out, they turned to Japan and expressed their willingness to negotiate with Japan on the issue of the Korean Peninsula and to completely divide and determine the scope of interests of both sides on the Korean Peninsula, but Japan must withdraw from the Shanghai negotiations.

But this request was naturally rejected by Japan. On the contrary, the Japanese government demanded that unless Russia retreated to the Korean Peninsula, it would not accept any conditions proposed by Russia, because after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japan regarded North Korea as its sphere of influence and was unwilling to let Russia get involved. Moreover, Japan has been spying on the northeastern region of China. How can it accept the conditions issued by Russia? Moreover, Japan now has British support behind Japan, and overseas Chinese are also interested in joining forces with Japan to fight against Russia. With these confidence, Japan dares to force Russia to withdraw from the Korean Peninsula completely.

But now Russia wants to protect Northeast China and is unwilling to give up the Korean Peninsula. Of course, it is impossible to accept Japan's conditions. Therefore, the road to Lalong Japan is not available.

When Russia could not find a partner in the Eight-Nation Alliance, it simply turned to the Qing court. Shanghai Consul p.a. Dmitryev came to find Li Hongzhang in person. On the one hand, it talked about the personal friendship between Russia and Li Hongzhang, and on the other hand, it expressed that Russia was willing to negotiate with the Qing court alone, and it clearly promised that Russia would agree to withdraw its troops from Northeast China. In addition, Dmitryev also promised Li Hongzhang that as long as Li Hongzhang facilitated separate negotiations between Russia and the Qing court, he would be granted a personal reward of 10,000 rubles.

It should be said that Russia's purpose is very clear, because China's legal government is still the Qing court now. Therefore, as long as it can promote separate negotiations between Russia and the Qing court, it can break the deadlock caused by the Shanghai negotiations on Russia, and even refuse to give up the agreement to withdraw troops from the Northeast as bait. Of course, Russia will not withdraw troops from the Northeast, but as long as the separate negotiations between Russia and the Qing court are held, Russia will break through the diplomatic dilemma. Whether overseas Chinese or various countries will take the initiative to come to Russia, so that Russia will have the capital to raise prices. As for negotiations with the Qing court, reversing one's words has always been Russia's specialty.

Li Hongzhang was indeed a little moved by the conditions put forward by the Russians, but when he thought of the tough measures of overseas Chinese, Li Hongzhang could also imagine that once he agreed to the Russians' request, overseas Chinese would definitely go to war against Russia immediately. Moreover, Beijing is still in the hands of overseas Chinese, and the court no longer needs to think about returning to Beijing. Therefore, Li Hongzhang finally rejected the Russians' request, but expressed that the Qing court hoped to use the Shanghai negotiation platform to resolve disputes with other countries, and would not negotiate with other countries alone except for Shanghai negotiations.

After sending off the Russian consul, Li Hongzhang immediately sent a telegram like Prince Qing from Beijing and the court in Xi'an, asking them to refuse if they received a separate negotiation from Russia, and they would not agree.

It should be said that Li Hongzhang's concerns are very reasonable. After the Russians encountered a nail in Li Hongzhang, they immediately looked for other channels to contact the Qing court. However, the Qing court is far away in Xi'an and cannot be contacted. Therefore, the Russians set their target on Prince Qing in Beijing. The conditions they offered to Prince Qing were the same as Li Hongzhang. As long as it could promote separate negotiations between Russia and the Qing court, they would give Prince Qing a reward of 10,000 rubles.

If it weren't for Li Hongzhang's telegram, Prince Qing would have received the money. After all, 10,000 rubles is about 40,000 taels of silver, which is a huge amount of income. Prince Qing was a famous old man in the Qing court. He asked him for his business to be honest and priced, and each portion of money was paid. Since it was the ten-death wealth accumulated by Prince Qing after the Gengzi Kingdom, he needed this money to make up for it.

However, Prince Qing is not stupid. He knows what money can be taken, what money can not be taken, when can he be greedy, when can he not be greedy, and when can he not be greedy, he also has to send money out. After receiving Li Hongzhang's telegram, Prince Qing understood that the money could not be taken, so Prince Qing could only grit his teeth and rejected the Russians' request. For this reason, Prince Qing was so sad that he could not eat for three days and was tired all over. Later, Cixi and Guangxu returned to Beijing. Seeing that Prince Qing looked haggard, he thought he was worried day and night for state affairs, and could not help but be moved and praised Prince Qing Dajia.

As a result, the Russians were busy for a long time, but they all achieved nothing. At this time, the Shanghai negotiations had ended. Then the seven countries of Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Japan, Italy and the Olympics jointly issued diplomatic documents to the Russian government, demanding that Russia accept the results of the Shanghai negotiations and negotiate with the Qing Dynasty as soon as possible to withdraw troops from Northeast China to restore China's peace situation. Li Hongzhang also represented the Qing court and formally asked Russia to withdraw from Northeast China. The Crossing Group also made a statement, saying that Russia would never be allowed to be in Northeast China. For a moment, all the pressure accumulated on Russia.

Faced with the pressure from all countries, the Russian government did show a very tough attitude. Tsar Nicholas II made a very tough statement, saying that Russia would never succumb to pressure, accept the results of the Shanghai negotiations, and would do its best to defend Russia's national interests. At the same time, it recruited the Russian team stationed in the Far East, requiring them to prepare for battle, shed every blood to defend every inch of Russia's land, and fight to the last person.

This is almost like a naked battle declaration, which shocked the whole world, as if it had smelled the strong smell of gunpowder. Is Russia really planning to start a large-scale war in the Far East? But at this time, the Russian government made a slightly eased statement: the Russian government will not accept the result of the Shanghai negotiations, but can accept negotiations with the Qing court separately to resolve the Northeast China issue through negotiations, but the negotiation location must be set in Shenyang, not Shanghai.

But then Li Hongzhang replied on behalf of the Qing court: Qingting will not hold separate negotiations with Russia, and Russia must accept the results of the Shanghai negotiations.

The Travel Group made a tougher statement, saying that if the Russian government does not accept the results of the Shanghai negotiations and continues to lie in Northeast China, then what awaits them will be the guns and cannons of the People's Army, which will definitely drive the Russian ** team out of the Northeast.
Chapter completed!