Three days off was actually Sheng Xuanhuai's delaying strategy, because during the negotiations in the first six days, the tough attitude of the time traveler made Sheng Xuanhuai and Taikoo and Jardine knew that relying solely on their own strength could not suppress overseas Chinese. Moreover, the time traveler controlled the sea route from Shandong to Tianjin, which also made Taikoo and Jardine did not dare to turn against each other completely, so he could only introduce external forces to help.

On that night, Sheng Xuanhuai negotiated with the representatives of Taikoo and Jardine, demanding that they make a request to the British ambassador to China and protest to the Qing court, saying that the shipping rights demanded by overseas Chinese had harmed the interests of the UK, and demanded that the Qing court immediately cancel the shipping rights of overseas Chinese. Moreover, once the negotiations broke down, overseas Chinese blocked the sea route from Shandong to Tianjin, and the UK wanted to stand for the Taikoo. Jardine and Jardine had come forward to put pressure on overseas Chinese so that they would be scruples and dare not block the sea route. Sheng Xuanhuai made a decision to the Qing court, trying to count overseas Chinese in greed for the shipping rights, put forward various irrational demands, and triggered disputes between China and foreign countries, making negotiations unsustainable. He asked the Qing court to issue an edict to severely complain to overseas Chinese and ask overseas Chinese to put aside their indecent thoughts. In this way, China and foreign countries jointly suppress overseas Chinese, which would definitely force overseas Chinese to make concessions.

Jardinea's representatives were naturally willing to do it for Sheng Xuanhuai's Gulf, and they still had considerable confidence in the influence of the British government. Although the Eight-Nation Alliance failed, among the Eight-Nation Alliance, almost all other countries did not take it seriously, except for a few countries. It was Britain, because the most powerful British was the navy. In the Eight-Nation Alliance, Britain only sent a second-class battleship at the beginning and returned to Hong Kong after the Eight-Nation Alliance captured Beijing. Therefore, the British Navy did not participate in the battle with overseas Chinese. In the British psychology, the British Navy was still invincible. As long as the British Navy was still there, Britain would have enough confidence and strength to interfere in global affairs. It is of course normal to ask the British government to put pressure on the Qing court and support it. So Jardinea's representatives immediately agreed happily, so Sheng Xuanhuai said goodbye.

In fact, Sheng Xuanhuai knew very well that the Qing court had no power to restrict overseas Chinese now. He just had to rely on the great power occupied by the Qing court. He could only suppress overseas Chinese with the help of the power of foreigners. Although overseas Chinese defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance, Sheng Xuanhuai was proficient in Western Affairs and knew that the Eight-Nation did not actually send all his strength. Moreover, judging from the process and content of the negotiations in Shanghai, overseas Chinese were still very concerned about various countries, so it was still possible to use foreign power to suppress overseas Chinese. And this was the only way that Sheng Xuanhuai could think of.

From Sheng Xuanhuai's heart, he also wanted to establish good relations with overseas Chinese. After all, overseas Chinese are now a force that cannot be ignored in China. However, overseas Chinese demanded a share of the shipping industry, but Sheng Xuanhuai's cheese was motivated. Sheng Xuanhuai has more than a dozen Westernization enterprises in charge, but he only valued the most, one is the Telegraph Bureau, the other is the Steamship Merchants Bureau, and it is also the two companies that Sheng Xuanhuai has invested the most.

To be fair, Sheng Xuanhuai did spend a lot of energy and hard work to develop the Steel Ship Merchants Group. In the battle with Taikoo, Jardine and Qichang, they suppressed prices from each other, which led to huge losses from all parties. At the bottom of the slump, the only one was more than 10,000 taels of silver a year, and the stock value fell from 100 taels of silver to 28 taels of silver. Although the current Steel Ship Merchants Group won this battle and achieved good development, Sheng Xuanhuai was under tremendous pressure at that time. On the one hand, he had to try his best to raise funds to maintain the operation of Steel Ship Merchants Group; on the other hand, he had to face the accusations and questions from shareholders, courts, society, and Qingliu Party. It can be said that it is indeed quite difficult for the Steel Ship Merchants Group to have the current situation. Therefore, now time travelers are in the shipping industry, and Sheng Xuanhuai is naturally quite dissatisfied.

As early as when Li Hongzhang and the time traveler reached a secret agreement in Beijing and agreed to run shipping for the time traveler, Sheng Xuanhuai wrote to the court several times and wrote to Li Hongzhang that Li Cheng was inappropriate and asked the court to take back his orders, but the severity was as if the stone had sunk to the sea, and there was no news. Li Hongzhang only replied to him, saying that the general trend was irreversible, and asked Sheng Xuanhuai to take the overall situation into consideration.

However, Sheng Xuanhuai was still unwilling to give up. After successfully planning Southeast Mutual Protection, Sheng Xuanhuai's confidence soared. Since the court was unreliable, then he would do it himself. If he could successfully create Southeast Mutual Protection, he would definitely prevent overseas Chinese from getting involved in the aviation industry. It was the first step to attract foreigners to fight overseas Chinese, and the second step was Sheng Xuanhuai planned to recruit shareholders of the Ship Merchants Group and jointly write a letter to the court, not allowing overseas Chinese to interfere in shipping; if it still didn't work, Sheng Xuanhuai was ready to mobilize Southeast merchants to jointly put pressure on overseas Chinese.

Sheng Xuanhuai left the China Merchants Building and returned to his residence. When his family reported to him, Li Hongzhang had another letter. Sheng Xuanhuai hurriedly took the letter and opened it and felt a little cold. It turned out that Li Hongzhang warned Sheng Xuanhuai in a more severe tone in the letter and completed the shipping rights negotiations with overseas Chinese as soon as possible. Otherwise, if the court blamed him, he would not be able to protect Sheng Xuanhuai.

This letter was a very heavy blow to Sheng Xuanhuai, because Li Hongzhang even said what he could not protect himself, which meant that the situation was far from as optimistic as he thought. If he really insisted on stopping overseas Chinese, the court might really withdraw his position and change his own person to manage the China Merchants Steamship Corporation. Once he lost his official position, he was an ordinary shareholder and he was just holding more shares. However, Sheng Xuanhuai naturally knew how much power the shareholders of China Merchants Steamship Corporation can have. Therefore, he had to give up part of the shipping rights to overseas Chinese. In this way, although the interests of China Merchants Steamship Corporation were damaged, his power and status could still be preserved. Sheng Xuanhuai could calculate this account.

However, Sheng Xuanhuai was still a little unwilling to accept it. After all, he still had the last straw in his hand, which was a foreigner. If the British side could intervene, there should be room for recovery. So early the next morning, Sheng Xuanhuai urgently made an appointment with the representative of Swire and Union to ask about the British attitude. The British side's reply to Swire and Union was that the UK would work hard to negotiate with overseas Chinese, but did not want to see the negotiation break down, but that this negotiation would have a result that satisfies all parties.

It turned out that Sheng Xuanhuai was introducing external forces to interfere in this negotiation, and the time traveler was also doing the same. On the first day of the negotiation, the time traveler knew that if he wanted to use peaceful means to win the right of navigation, it was not enough to rely on this negotiation and had to put in a lot of effort outside the market. So Chen Jianning immediately fed the information back to Qingdao. The time traveler first made a solemn negotiation with Li Hongzhang, saying that Sheng Xuanhuai had no sincerity to negotiate the issue of shipping rights. This was a serious violation of the provisions of the Beijing secret agreement reached by the two sides. He hoped that Li Hongzhang could take measures to correct Sheng Xuanhuai's behavior immediately, otherwise Shandong would not respect the agreement on the canal transportation in the Beijing secret agreement.

After receiving the notice from the time traveler, Li Hongzhang was immediately afraid that the situation was serious. Sheng Xuanhuai had previously filed several refusals to the court to prevent overseas Chinese from involving the shipping industry. Of course, Li Hongzhang knew that, and he could understand Sheng Xuanhuai's mentality. In fact, Li Hongzhang also knew that the interests of shipping were extremely great. Distributing them to overseas Chinese would definitely cause damage to him. However, Li Hongzhang looked at this question from the perspective of the overall situation. The Qing court now cannot be dismantled anymore. In recent times, it must have a good relationship with overseas Chinese. Therefore, it is obviously cost-effective to sacrifice part of the shipping interests and maintain a harmonious relationship between the Qing court and overseas Chinese. However, Sheng Xuanhuai's pattern is still a little narrower.

Of course, Li Hongzhang also blamed himself for not considering it well. He did not explain the letter to Sheng Xuanhuai clearly before, nor did he expect that Sheng Xuanhuai was too entangled with the interests of the Steamship Merchants Corporation. However, overseas Chinese informed him first, instead of directly placing him to the court, indicating that overseas Chinese did not want to make a big deal, but just wanted to get the shipping rights smoothly, so there was still a lot of room for maneuver. So Li Hongzhang immediately generated electricity to Sheng Xuanhuai, with the verbs being quite stern. I believe that Sheng Xuanhuai should understand this time.

The traveler also knew that it would not be possible to only find Li Hongzhang for this matter, because it also involved the two ship companies of Taikoo and Jardine, and Li Hongzhang could suppress Sheng Xuanhuai, but he could do nothing to do with these two ship companies. So the East China government immediately warned Jin Zhang, the British Consul General in Tianjin. The actions of the two ship companies of Taikoo and Jardine had seriously infringed on the interests of the East China government and affected the cooperation between the East China government and the UK. Once the negotiations on shipping rights broke down, the East China government would prohibit the ships of the two companies from passing through the waters under their jurisdiction. At that time, I hope the British government would not negotiate.

After receiving the warning, Jin Zhang did not dare to neglect it, and immediately reported it to the British ambassador to China Dou Nale. After receiving this information, Dou Nale hurriedly sent someone to learn more about the details, and soon he figured out the whole story. It was nothing more than Taikoo. Jardinet and the two ship companies of Jardinet did not want another competitor to come in, so they joined forces with the Steamship Merchants Corporation to squeeze overseas Chinese out of the shipping industry. At this time, Jardinet and Jardinet also asked the British Embassy for help, hoping that the government could put pressure on overseas Chinese.
Chapter completed!