Li Hongzhang sighed and said, "You haven't seen the telegram. Will overseas Chinese officially announce their six negotiation principles to the public at three o'clock this afternoon?"

Li Jingfang said: "Yes, it's not yet twelve noon. If we generate electricity to Youqiao now and ask him to tell overseas Chinese to stop announcing the negotiation principles, it will be too late. Otherwise, when overseas Chinese announce it, it will be too late to change the words."

At this time, except for Li Jingfang not responding, Zhou Fu and Sheng Xuanhuai had already understood what was going on. Zhou Fu said: "Young Master, don't you understand? Overseas Chinese should have known for a long time that countries will not accept the negotiation principles they proposed. They did this on purpose to make countries refuse negotiations first."

Sheng Xuanhuai said: "What's more, overseas Chinese have set up ten days of reply time, which shows that they have no intention of negotiating with various countries at all. They are just pretending to be mysterious and delaying time to fight the battle."

In fact, Li Jingfang is also very smart and will never be fooled. He just entered a misunderstanding, so he didn't feel sorry for it. Now, hearing Zhou Fu and Sheng Xuanhuai's words, he suddenly understood and couldn't help but say, "Father, what should we do now? Should we let Youqiao deal with it again?"

Li Hongzhang had nothing to say, Sheng Xuanhuai said: "The overseas Chinese obviously don't want to make peace with foreigners, and they will continue the war. What can you do if Youqiao can do? Zhongtang, we can't just watch this group of overseas Chinese do it."

Li Hongzhang glanced at him and said, "Do you have any good solutions?"

Sheng Xuanhuai said: "There are three times left before the announcement of overseas Chinese, and foreigners do not know the negotiation principles of overseas Chinese. Zhongtang should immediately hand over these six negotiation principles to various countries and then clearly tell them that we oppose these six negotiations. Once the war begins again, the southeastern provinces will remain neutral and will not give overseas Chinese support. I will contact other governors and governors, and then everyone will issue a joint statement to support Zhongtang."

Li Hongzhang had nothing to say yet, and Zhou Fuji said anxiously: "No."

Sheng Xuanhuai frowned and said, "Why not."

Zhou Fu smiled bitterly and said, "The overseas Chinese in Tianjin are not comparable to boxing bandits, and these six negotiation principles are very beneficial to the court. If the Zhongtang Lord clearly expresses his opposition, he will inevitably be criticized by thousands of people and denounced as traitors of the country and collude with the enemy, even more so than the Sino-Japanese War of 1894. I think the governors and governors of the Southeast provinces may not clearly express their support for Zhongtang at this time."

Sheng Xuanhuai was stunned for a moment and immediately understood what Zhou Fu meant.

Although the members of Southeast Mutual Protection were the governors and governors of the Qing court in the southeastern provinces, the original initiator and the person who communicated between the governors and governors of the southeastern provinces was Sheng Xuanhuai. However, if Sheng Xuanhuai did not have Sheng Xuanhuai, the Southeast Mutual Protection would probably not be able to be established. The reason why Sheng Xuanhuai was keen on promoting Southeast Mutual Protection was that in addition to ensuring the stability of the southern part of the Qing court and not being affected by the Boxer Rebellion during the Boxer Rebellion, Sheng Xuanhuai's selfishness was also included.

Although Sheng Xuanhuai's official position is Shaoqing of the third-rank Dali Temple, he is essentially a businessman. After decades of operation and the strong support of Li Hongzhang, Sheng Xuanhuai now has nearly 20 industries in hand or has a shareholding, including large modern enterprises such as Hanyang Iron Factory, Daye Iron Mine, Railway Company, Enterprise Shipbuilding Merchants Bureau, Telegraph Bureau, Huasheng Textile Factory, and China Merchants Bank. These enterprises naturally brought huge wealth to Sheng Xuanhuai and were also the basis for Sheng Xuanhuai to settle down. If there were rankings such as Forbes or Hurun in this era, Sheng Xuanhuai would definitely be at the top.

The industries controlled by Sheng Xuanhuai are basically in the Yangtze River Basin. Once the Boxer Rebellion spread to the Yangtze River Basin, it will inevitably cause social turmoil and will be a devastating blow to Sheng Xuanhuai. He is likely to collapse overnight after Hu Xueyan. Therefore, Sheng Xuanhuai tried his best to promote mutual protection in the south, determine the stability of the south, and also defend his huge commercial empire.

However, the arrival of the time travelers defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance in succession. China's war had a tendency to expand, which also allowed Sheng Xuanhuai to see danger, because once the war expanded, it would spread to the south. When the war spread to the south, it would threaten the safety of Sheng Xuanhuai's commercial empire. This is what Sheng Xuanhuai most worried about. Therefore, what Sheng Xuanhuai most hopes is that the Qing court and other countries will succeed in peace talks as soon as possible, and the second is to continue to maintain the situation of mutual protection in the Southeast and remain neutral in the battle between overseas Chinese and the Eight-Nation Alliance.

However, Zhou Fu's words also made Sheng Xuanhuai understand that it is much more difficult to maintain the situation of mutual protection in Southeast China now, because overseas Chinese are not Boxer Rebellion. They did not use so-called magical skills to deceive the world, nor did they blindly exclusion and anti-foreignty, causing social turmoil. On the contrary, the information obtained from foreigners is that overseas Chinese are more civilized than Qingting. The main basis and great significance of the Southeast China mutual preservation is to prevent the Boxer Rebellion from spreading to the south and destroying social stability in the south. Once this foundation is gone, it will be difficult for Southeast China mutual protection to continue.

In addition, in the troubled times, there are also people who want to take advantage of the situation and speculate in the fortunes. Zhang Zhidong submitted two memorials to the court, suggesting that the court move the capital to Dangyang. A discerning person can tell at a glance that he wanted to put the court under his own sphere of influence and play the trick of using the emperor to make the princes. Li Hongzhang also had the idea of ​​independence from Guangdong and Guangxi, or taking over the Qing court and replacing it. Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong were also considered loyal ministers of the Qing Dynasty. What if they were like this, let alone others? Now that overseas Chinese are rising and showing strong military strength, there will inevitably be no ambitious people who will connect with overseas Chinese. Therefore, it is really difficult whether the governors and governors of the Southeast provinces will work together to maintain the situation of mutual protection in the Southeast.

Moreover, the six negotiation principles issued by overseas Chinese were indeed quite beneficial to the Qing court. They have indeed gained military advantages at present. Most people will not appreciate whether countries will accept these six principles. Whether the military advantages of overseas Chinese are really solid, they will only talk about patriotism. Therefore, whoever opposes the six negotiation principles at this time will definitely not be eliminated.

Although Li Hongzhang was accused of being a traitor among the people after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, anyone with discerning eyes knew that he actually took the blame for the court. At this time, if Li Hongzhang came forward to oppose the negotiation principle of overseas Chinese, he would really become a traitor. Although Sheng Xuanhuai hoped to clear his relationship with overseas Chinese, he could not push Li Hongzhang to the forefront. Therefore, Sheng Xuanhuai said: "Middle Hall is a lack of proper consideration."

Li Hongzhang didn't mind Sheng Xuanhuai's words. In fact, Li Hongzhang was not a person who dared not take responsibility. After signing the [Treaty of Shimonoseki], the whole country unanimously accused him of being a traitor and a traitor. He also took it over, and this time he didn't care about this false reputation. Therefore, as long as Li Hongzhang believed that if he opposed the six negotiation principles issued by overseas Chinese were beneficial to the Qing court, Li Hongzhang would object without hesitation and then negotiate peace with various countries at any time.

However, since overseas Chinese dare to do this, there must be their reason. I believe they have a backup plan. After all, countries can send troops to reinforce, and overseas Chinese countries can also increase troops. Therefore, the war has really expanded, and it is hard to predict who will win. After all, by this time, overseas Chinese have already occupied an absolute and proactive advantage. Moreover, from Li Hongzhang's heart, he did not want to negotiate with various countries according to the negotiation principles of overseas Chinese, at least he would not have to sign a treaty of land cede and compensation.

Li Hongzhang said: "Now we can only wait and see what changes are. We should not know these six negotiation principles issued by overseas Chinese. After the overseas Chinese announce them themselves, we will see how countries react."

Zhou Fu and Sheng Xuanhuai hurriedly said, "Yes."

Li Hongzhang said to Li Jingfang again: "Give power to Youqiao and ask him to go back to Shanghai immediately. Let's hear what his group of overseas Chinese are from."

It turned out that Zhang Peilun knew the origin of overseas Chinese in the telegram, but the process was broken down. The length was too long, so it was inconvenient to explain it in the telegram. After he returned to Shanghai, he would explain it in detail to Li Hongzhang. Now Li Hongzhang also hopes to learn more about overseas Chinese so that he can deal with them in the future. Moreover, Zhang Peilun's task has been completed, so there is no need to stay in Tianjin.

Sure enough, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the time traveler officially announced his six negotiation principles to the public with a clear code. Of course, he also had a very high attitude to say that he loved peace and opposed war, so he hoped that negotiations would be negotiated, and finally gave time limits, requiring all countries to clearly reply within ten days to negotiate.

The telegram caused another sensation because no one expected that overseas Chinese would fully disclose their negotiation principles. Although in negotiations, the later their trump card is revealed, the better, at some point, they would first explain their principles to the other party. After all, principles are not trump cards, and the principles to the other party may not be true trump cards. Generally, there will be a certain amount of elastic space to be used as bargaining. To a certain extent, this is also a negotiation skill.

But fully revealing one's negotiation principles to this way is not a negotiation skill, because once one fully discloses one's negotiation principles, it is equivalent to telling one's trump card to the opponent, and there is no room for recovery. Either you have an absolute advantage in this negotiation, and no matter what conditions are offered, the other party must accept it; or you clearly tell the other party that this is my condition, if you don't accept it, you will fight, and there is another one that you don't want to talk at all.
Chapter completed!