Chapter 74 Section 74 Inside Story of the Treaty of Yantai

The next day, the sky over Yantai was clear. Five large warships built by the Fujian Shipping Bureau gathered at the dock. The officers and soldiers on board were dressed in new clothes and stood in line on the deck to accept Li Hongzhang's review. In the name of celebrating the Longevity Festival together, Li Hongzhang invited all the ministers from various countries to Yantai to watch the navy drills together.After the rehearsal, Li Hongzhang invited the envoys of various countries to drink on a military ship, as if the imperial court asked Li Hongzhang to come to Yantai not to negotiate with Wade on the Margaret case, but to watch Cao drink.

During the reception, Li Hongzhang talked to the American Minister to China Xihua for a while, and then raised his glass and walked to the side of the Russian Minister to China Buce, and talked in a low voice.Li Hongzhang's mysterious behavior made Wade annoyed.Mei Huili, Wade's Chinese translator, ran around the cabin like a ghost in order to hear something. According to Li Hongzhang's prior instructions, Guo Songtao accompanied Wade and Hurd to discuss the date and participants of the formal meeting.Through the reception, Li Hongzhang found out the dissatisfaction of the ministers of various countries towards Wade, and the indignation expressed by Wade's monopolization of interests.He decided to use the dissatisfaction of the envoys of various countries to promote the success of the peace talks and avoid provocations.

After the formal talks with Wade, Li Hongzhang still used all his spare time to invite envoys from various countries to drink and drink tea, which caused Wade's extreme anxiety.Wade Ma felt lonely, and his tone gradually eased. At this time, Xue Huan and Li Hanzhang, who went to Yunnan to handle the case, also notified the results, claiming that Margaret, the translator of the British embassy in China, was indeed dead, but it was not the local people who killed Margaret, but savages; The government has arrested and is currently interrogating. Although neither the governor of Yunnan, Cen Yuying, nor the local government of Tengyue have anything to do with this matter, in order to eliminate the resentment of the British people and consolidate diplomatic relations, the imperial court should also dismiss the governor of Yunnan, Cen Yuying, and the local government of Tengyue.

Witomawan did not expect Xue Huan and Li Hanzhang to find out such a result in Yunnan, which not only annoyed him, but also made him angry.During the negotiation, he slammed the table loudly and insisted that the Prime Minister's Yamen arrest Cen Yuying, the Tengyue magistrate and the so-called wild men he had captured, and he would interrogate them himself. Li Hongzhang remained calm, and waited until he had vented enough before asking back: "If Minister Wei does not believe our country's investigation results, Minister Wei can produce evidence to prove that Margaret was not killed by a wild man."

Wade shouted: "This minister will show you Li Zhongtang the evidence within a month! There are savages in the majestic Qing Dynasty! Only ghosts believe it!" Li Hongzhang still smiled at Wade, because Li Hongzhang did not believe that Wade could really produce any evidence.The evidence Wade said was the written text that Bai Lang sent over quickly from Bamo. Bai Lang's testimony was submitted to the negotiating table by Wade, and Li Hongzhang still said: "General Bai Lang only saw a group of people. How can he be sure that these people are not savages?" Wade shouted: "If you don't bring Cen Yuying and other local officials to Beijing for interrogation, how can this minister believe what you say?"

Despite his tough tone, Wade showed no signs of breaking.The talks lasted for four months, and the two sides finally reached an agreement, which is known as the "Yantai Treaty" in history. In addition to the deletion of the article "Arrest and interrogation of officials such as the governor of Yunnan and other officials in Beijing" proposed by Wade, the treaty added that the original ten ports were reduced to four in Yichang, Wuhu, Wenzhou, and Beihai, and the compensation bank was reduced from 20. Ten thousand taels was reduced to 150,000 taels, and other terms remained unchanged.

When Li Hongzhang presented the treaty to the imperial court, he also recommended Guo Songtao as the imperial envoy to apologize for the mission to Britain, Xu Qian as the deputy minister, and suggested Li Shuchang as an attache. Li Hongzhang finally suggested: "After the apology, set up a Qing embassy in the country in the country and stay in the country for a long time, so as to observe their movements." The "Yantai Treaty" discussed by Wade adopted Li Hongzhang's proposal to establish a legation in Britain, and at the same time proposed the candidates for the minister after the establishment of the legation in Britain: Guo Songtao was appointed as minister, Xu Qian was appointed as deputy envoy, Li Shu Chang was the counselor, and the rest were selected and transferred by Guo Songtao.Guo Songtao happily took Xu Qianshen back to Beijing in advance to prepare for going abroad.

With the repeated efforts of Li Hongzhang, the Qing Dynasty finally established its first embassy abroad. Li Hongzhang did not return to Tianjin, but rushed to Shanghai by boat. He still had to go to a foreign company to discuss the matter of borrowing money to buy a ship, and by the way he also had to deal with the life case of the Songhu Railway with Wade. Within a few days of Li Hongzhang's arrival in Shanghai, Sheng Xuanhuai signed a loan contract with foreign firms in the United States, France and other countries, and presented the draft contract to Li Hongzhang for review.Li Hongzhang reviewed it and thought it was feasible, so he delivered the loan contract to the Zongli Yamen by express horse, hoping that the seal would take effect as soon as possible.After leaving Shanghai, after careful consideration, Li Hongzhang gave the imperial court the "Please Show the Book to Protect Distant People", and attached the "Please Order the Officials to Pay Attention to the Treaty" after the paper.

What Li Hongzhang said was nothing more than the hope that the imperial court could learn the lessons of the Ma Jiali case, and ordered the local government offices to post notices to tell the local people to try their best to protect foreign tourists with passports, and not to cause troubles for the imperial court by causing negotiation incidents. Although these petitions were approved by the Empress Dowager Cixi and sent to the provinces by the Prime Minister's Office in conjunction with the Military Aircraft Office in the form of imperial mail, most local governments in the provinces still did not seriously handle the matter.

In the next few years, people from all over the world in China became more and more arrogant and almost unscrupulous because of the Qing court's edict as a talisman.As a result, incidents of people destroying churches and angrily killing foreigners still happen from time to time.The Qing court spent nearly one million taels of silver every year to compensate foreigners for this matter. In September of the second year of Guangxu (AD 1876), the British mission, under the leadership of Guo Songtao, left Beijing for Tianjin, transferred from Tianjin to Shanghai, and hired a ship from Shanghai to go abroad.The Minister of Mission is Guo Songtao, but the Deputy Minister is not Xu Qianshen, but Liu Xihong, an alternate member of the Ministry of Punishment.

Li Hongzhang was very surprised when he heard the news.What's going on here?It turned out that after Liu Xihong came to Beijing to introduce him, the Empress Dowager Cixi felt that Liu Xihong had done a great job in keeping Wade in Yantai, and felt that Liu Xihong's return to the place was a bit of an overkill. He's a good one. Liu Xihong was naturally full of joy, and when he was introduced, the empress dowagers of the two palaces gave him good looks, and the empress dowager Cixi even praised him a few words, which made him feel that his future was boundless. Go to the position of a bachelor in Wenhuadian, and make good use of foreigners. But he lived in Beijing for half a year. Not only did he not become a real shortage of candidates, but he also spent all the money he had on hand, and he gradually became deprived of food and clothing.Liu Xihong was forced to have no choice but to seek advice from Xu Tong with a sad face. Xu Tong naturally sympathized with what happened to him, but there was nothing he could do except to send a few words of comfort.Liu Xihong didn't know the hardships of being an alternate and the difficulty of being a Beijing official until this time.At this time, the "Yantai Treaty" was signed, and Guo Songtao was ordered to be the Minister of Envoy and Xu Qian as the Deputy Minister to travel overseas to England to apologize and set up a legation by the way. After Liu Xihong heard the news, his eyes lit up, and he thought: "Guo Songtao is a second-rank official, so I can't compare him, but what is Xu Qian himself? Besides following Li Hongzhang to curry favor with foreigners, he can also do what?" Liu Xihong believed that he had merit in persuading Wei Tuoma to stay, so he decided to squeeze Xu Qian out and go to the West Country by himself, and it would be worthwhile to be a man. He made up his mind, and went to visit Xu Tong that night, and asked Xu Tong to give a recommendation to his superior overnight, asking him to go to Xiguo to see what happened in person, find out the Achilles heel of Xiguo, and prescribe the right medicine to manipulate foreigners after returning home. Xu Tong didn't want to let him leave the capital, fearing that he would change his mind once he arrived in the Western Kingdom, and he would no longer be the former Liu Xihong.When Liu Xihong heard this, he fell on his knees and swore to the sky: "If you go to the Western Kingdom and change your heart, you will throw your head into the sea to feed the bastard!" Seeing that Xu Tong couldn't stop persuading him, he had to use his brains and wrote a secret security note. After the Empress Dowager Cixi saw Xu Tong's excerpt, she immediately passed Prince Gong in, and said, "It wasn't Xu Tong who submitted the excerpt, but I forgot about Liu Xihong. Liu Xihong is a capable person, and this time Wade will stay in the In Yantai, Liu Xihong has made great contributions. Let’s just let Liu Xihong be the deputy minister of the British envoy, and after the establishment of the legation, he will act as the deputy minister. Xu Qian is still young, and it will not be too late to go out after a few more years of experience. " Prince Gong hurriedly said: "I report to the Empress Dowager, I think you should ask Guo Songtao about Liu Xihong's deputy envoy, right?" The Empress Dowager Cixi said with a sullen face: "The attendant can let him choose the post. You can't let his temperament mess around with the post of deputy envoy." Upon hearing this, Prince Gong nodded quickly in agreement. Prince Gong told Guo Songtao about Liu Xihong's appointment as deputy envoy that day. Guo Songtao just didn't listen to it, but when he heard it, his face, which was originally fine, suddenly turned gray and black.He played the imperial court overnight, pointing out that there are three things that Liu Xihong should not do as a deputy envoy, saying: "This person is too inexperienced in Westernization, one thing; Westernization is hard work, you should first get rid of your spirit, Liu Xihong is too reserved, two things; his life is good To be rigid but not to achieve the ultimate truth is the third thing.” These three points that Guo Songtao pointed out are exactly the three most deadly points of Liu Xihong. Guo Songtao has been in the officialdom for a long time, and he has a thorough understanding of Liu Xihong. After seeing Guo Songtao's paper, Empress Dowager Cixi said something like this: "This is Prince Gong's idea to Guo Songtao again! Deputy envoy Liu Xihong is really determined!" Guo Songtao's excerpts were naturally not published by Empress Dowager Cixi, but the contents of the excerpts were passed on.Liu Xihong was almost cut off from his fortune, so he naturally hated Guo Songtao to death. The night before he left Beijing, he deliberately ran to Xu Tong's mansion, gritted his teeth and said: "This time, the official accompanied Guo Yueyang, and he didn't bring anything with him. He only brought the memorial documents. Once Guo Songtao has traitorous behavior, he must let him go." nice!" Li Hongzhang sighed after hearing the news: "Sending envoys is a major national event, how can the court be so rash? If someone like Liu Xihong is appointed as a deputy envoy, I'm afraid Yunxian will not be able to serve as an envoy for long!"