After Yu Lianyuan and Sheng Xuanhuai said goodbye to Li Hongzhang and left, Zhang Peilun and Li Jingfang immediately surrounded him. Zhang Peilun said: "Father-in-law, overseas Chinese have called back and invited Peilun to Tianjin again. I wonder how my father-in-law thought he should respond. ￡∝Dingdian Novel,..."

It turned out that after the end of the Qingdao Battle, Li Hongzhang generally judged the intention of the time traveler, so he immediately asked Zhang Peilun to discuss in his personal name to generate electricity for Tianjin and test the attitude of overseas Chinese.

Long before the Shandong Battle, Zhang Peilun had sent power to Tianjin and asked to visit Tianjin again. At that time, he wanted to deal with the peace talks between the travelers and other countries, but the travelers politely declined because the timing was unsuitable. Now Li Hongzhang recalled that overseas Chinese might have intentionally broken the peace talks, so that they could send troops to attack Weihaiwei and Qingdao with justification. It seems that they were far-sighted.

Now that overseas Chinese have achieved their goal, Li Hongzhang estimated that overseas Chinese should be preparing to negotiate with various countries to ensure the fruits of victory they have achieved on the battlefield. As the only group currently with direct contact with overseas Chinese, Li Hongzhang certainly cannot miss this opportunity to act as a contact between overseas Chinese and various countries, so as to strengthen his voice in both sides. In addition, Li Hongzhang also hopes to put the Qing court in the negotiations between overseas Chinese and various countries, and to make a tripartite talk, and take advantage of the victory of overseas Chinese to gain more benefits for the Qing Dynasty at the negotiating table.

The current situation in China has become a competition between overseas Chinese and various countries. However, the Qing court, the real owner of this land, has been marginalized. None of the overseas Chinese or the countries have regarded the Qing court as a matter for a while. Li Hongzhang tried his best to safeguard the interests of the Qing court.

After Zhang Peilun generated power to Tianjin, he only waited for one day to receive a reply from overseas Chinese. The overseas Chinese indeed sent an invitation to Zhang Peilun again, asking Zhang Peilun to visit Tianjin again.

Li Hongzhang was also very relieved after receiving a reply from overseas Chinese, which proved that his judgment was basically correct. It is estimated that overseas Chinese would hope to thread a needle and lead to negotiations between overseas Chinese and other countries this time.

However, whether Zhang Peilun can make a fortune depends on the attitude of various countries, and mainly depends on whether each country has the intention to negotiate with overseas Chinese. After all, overseas Chinese have snatched Weihaiwei and Qingdao from Britain and Germany. Britain and Germany are among the best powers in the world. Whether they can swallow this or have any negotiation conditions is still unknown. If they can't figure out these things, it will be useless even if Zhang Peilun goes to Tianjin.

So Li Hongzhang said: "Tomorrow I will visit the consuls of various countries, explore their tone, and then make a decision."

The next day, Li Hongzhang visited the consulates of Britain, France, the United States and Germany in succession. Although the consular attitudes of the four countries were different, the meaning of Li Hongzhang was roughly the same, that is, the country was discussing how to deal with overseas Chinese, and there was no conclusion yet, so there was no promise to Li Hongzhang. At the same time, Li Hongzhang was advised not to let Zhang Peilun go to Tianjin for the time being, and then talk about it when the countries reached a conclusion.

After receiving this briefing, Li Hongzhang had to ask Zhang Peilun to generate electricity to Tianjin again, and politely declined the invitation of the time traveler.

Of course, Li Hongzhang didn't know that the countries were planning to play the game this time, and began to seriously consider organizing the second coalition to expand the scale of the Chinese war to safeguard the interests of each country in China. However, increasing troops to China is of great importance and cannot be decided by just a slap in the head. Therefore, the countries also agreed that no country could contact overseas Chinese alone before reaching an agreement.

This time, the proposal to organize the second coalition and expand the scale of China's war was first initiated by Britain. Although Britain did not dispatch many troops in the previous Eight-Nation coalition, the British Empire was the hegemony for a century after all, and now the world's largest power, with extraordinary influence, so it still dominated the Eight-Nation coalition.

Although before this, Russia and Germany also yelled to increase troops to China and expand the scale of the war, they did not receive much response from other countries. Germany, at least, had the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and expressed its presence-like support, and Russia simply had no one to pay attention. Therefore, if Britain had not come forward, it would be impossible to organize a second Eight-Nation Alliance.

Although countries can still do their own things, the risks are difficult to control in this way. The German fleet is actually the product of Germany's own things. As a result, they were defeated by time travelers and destroyed. Although Russia sent troops to invade Northeast China, this move was strongly opposed by Britain, France, Japan and the United States, causing diplomatic isolation. Therefore, the risk of doing solo is extremely great, and it is often not worth the loss.

In fact, Britain does not want to expand the scale of China's war, because the Boer War in South Africa has not ended yet. Britain has invested nearly 400,000 troops and logistics personnel for this battlefield, and nearly 20,000 people have been killed and more than 70,000 were injured. Britain has spent more than 200 million pounds for this war, causing great difficulties in Britain's finances.

Moreover, the British enemy of South Africa, the "Boers" were originally descendants of the Dutch. Because they are both European ethnic groups, the Boers won widespread sympathy in Europe, which also caused Britain to be extremely passive in international reputation. European powers almost unanimously condemned Britain's policies in South Africa, believing that Britain bullied countries established by European ethnic groups in order to seek South African gold. France, Russia, Germany, the United States and other countries attacked one after another, taking advantage of the British's in war and having no time to take care of other opportunities to expand their sphere of influence.

On the other hand, the rise of Germany has caused imbalance on the European continent, which also put huge pressure on Britain. Due to the impact of the Boer War, Britain was unable to cope with Germany's competition and was forced to give up two islands in the Samoan Islands in the Pacific to Germany to ease Germany's pressure on itself. Under such a general situation, the British government is really unwilling to expand the scale of the war in China and avoid a new battlefield.

But the time traveler's fierce capture of Weihaiwei did anger Britain. Although Weihaiwei was not a key colony of Britain, as long as it was a colony of the British Empire, it would not be violated. The time traveler's behavior was tantamount to a slap Britain in the face. Since the Napoleon War, Britain has never encountered such a skeptical qualifier. Although the national strength of the British Empire is now weak, not everyone can kick it. Therefore, if Britain does not take tough measures, the British Empire's reputation for a century will be completely wiped out.

At the same time, the loss of Weihaiwei also involved political struggles in the UK. The opposition Liberal Party, the Labor Party used this as an excuse to strongly attack the foreign policy adopted by the ruling protection party, believing that the ruling party did not effectively safeguard the overseas interests of the British Emperor.

The British Prime Minister, Marquis Salisbury, certainly did not dare to be careless, and immediately started a discussion in the British Parliament. In the absence of both parties and the public, he passed the bill to "approve the British government to promote the formation of a coalition forces of various countries to expand the scale of the war to defend the interests of various countries in China" with an absolute majority.

Of course, the passage of this bill shows that the ruling protection party and British MPs still maintain a clear mind, because the passed bill did not allow Britain to expand its military power on the Chinese battlefield, but was led by Britain and organized an Eight-Nation Alliance. To put it bluntly, when Britain's own strength is insufficient, it fully develops Britain's international influence, uses the power of other countries to expand the scale of China's war and maintains Britain's global leadership. This is also the earliest skillful force.

After obtaining the authorization of the parliament, the British Prime Minister Marquis Salisbury immediately issued a power to the governments in the name of the British government, formally proposed the proposal to organize a multi-national coalition, expand the scale of the war, and defend the interests of various countries in China, and asked about their attitude towards this proposal.

The reason why the multi-national coalition forces were replaced by the name of the Eight-Nation Alliance was because the Marquis of Salisbury generated power not only the countries that formed the Eight-Nation Alliance, but also Belgium, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, etc., a total of fifteen countries. And so many countries are mainly hoping to find several countries to share military expenditures to make up for the lack of British financial resources.

On the next day, the German government was the first to send a round-trip call, saying that Germany fully agreed with Britain's suggestion and that Germany was willing to dispatch an army of 50,000 to join the Chinese battlefield, but it also showed that Germany's naval strength was insufficient and required the UK to provide sufficient naval support.

The second call was Russia, and Lao Mao also agreed with Britain's suggestion, but Russia suggested that the multinational coalition formed this time could be divided into two parts: north and south. The Southern Army was led by Britain and attacked China by sea, while the Northern Army was led by Russia and attacked China by land. The two groups attacked each other and advanced together, and they could win in one fell swoop.

Then Japan also called back. Although the Japanese government agreed with Britain's suggestions and was willing to invest more troops in the Chinese war, the Japanese government also proposed that this time, the multi-national coalition must have unified operational command, and any action must be agreed upon by all countries. No country can bypass the coalition forces and act alone, while respecting the interests of other countries in China.

Subsequently, other governments also called back to express their attitudes and positions.

The French government did not give a direct reply to the British suggestion, but only said that forming a multinational coalition and expanding the scale of China's war is of great importance and needs careful consideration. The French government is willing to negotiate with the UK to find the best solution.

The US government's reply also advised the UK to consider it carefully. It also suggested that negotiations with overseas Chinese first and strive to peacefully resolve China's war. If the negotiations fail, then consider the war. The US government also stated that it is willing to negotiate with overseas Chinese first. This is the only country that has proposed negotiation requirements with overseas Chinese.
Chapter completed!