Chapter 10 Chapter 9: Prince Qing is dumbfounded

Please elaborate.Prince Qing asked Dou Nale for advice. With China's strength, it is difficult to compete with Russia, France and Japan.Their motivation to come to China is different from ours in Great Britain.They want to plunder, they want to cut off all the flesh of China, just like vultures tearing their prey, they want to put China to death.And we are stronger for it.China has been weak for a long time, and it is impossible to rely on itself alone, so it can only rely on external forces. Doesn’t China also have a poetic day: Like the wind, relying on strength, send me to the blue sky, relying on us will deal with those vultures!Prince Qing looked at the babbling Dou Nale in bewilderment, a little dubious.The lease of Weihaiwei is to deal with the German eagle.After they leased Jiaozhou Bay, did they just stop there?impossible.They will expand further.Who can stop them?Who can't let this insatiable eagle fly?It's us!It's our British Empire!As long as we station troops in Weihaiwei and sail our warships, they will not dare to expand rashly.Do you understand?

Prince Qing blinked his eyes in noncommittal. The same goes for the French, who don't have good intentions either.If Russia is a bear, they are a wolf.This French coyote bites even more viciously.What they want is your entire South China!Don't be afraid, with our British Empire here, we will send troops to Hong Kong to stop their expansion, but your Chinese side has to step up your cooperation with us, that is to say, the New Territories will be assigned to us smoothly... At that time, some people called Russia a bear, Germany an intestine, the United States an eagle, Britain a tiger, Japan the sun, and France a toad.Prince Qing looked at Dou Nale and thought of these folk sayings, he thought it was too true.The Don Nale in front of him is an out-and-out man of tigers and wolves. Just as the Chinese gave him food, he was still eating from the bowl and looking at what was in the pot. Dealing with them, he was really seeking skin from a tiger.However, although Prince Qing was angry in his heart, he did not dare to say "no" in his mouth.

He still answered Donale with a haha, hahaha... However, these haha ​​sounds seemed to have not completely dissipated, and Donale came to the door again, saying that the French had asked to lease Guangzhou Bay, and the British Empire Hong Kong should also be expanded.Negotiations begin. Dou Nale said, as I said, the reason why we urgently negotiate with the Chinese government is to defend Hong Kong, and it is also for you China... Yi didn't want to listen to Dou Nale's gangster talk anymore, so he agreed in principle to negotiate on the expansion of Hong Kong's borders.In order to stop the endless territorial demands of the British, Yi also brought up the topic of future cooperation. He said that China is in urgent need of development and construction, such as railways, post and telecommunications, industry and trade, etc. We can cooperate, you British You can also get huge profits from it, why do you insist on our territory?Can you make it clear that if we surrender the New Territories to you, you will no longer want our territory?

This time it was Dou Nale's turn to cheer up Prince Qing.His watery laughter drummed Prince Qing's eardrums again, and he could only laugh along with him, but his laugh was worse than crying. The next day, Dou Nale went to meet Li Hongzhang, a powerful figure in the Qing government.Li Hongzhang, a name that is difficult to bypass in modern history.He is from Modian Township, Hefei County, Anhui Province. In 1847, he became a Jinshi and was awarded the editorship of the Imperial Academy.At the beginning, he studied under Zeng Guofan and emphasized the study of managing the world. In 1853, he returned to his hometown to hold regiment training and suppressed the Taiping Army. In November 1861, ordered by Zeng Guofan to rectify regiment training and recruit recruits to train the Huai Army. In 1864, he led his troops to conquer Changzhou, and was rewarded with the post of captain of cavalry. He once led the army to capture Nanjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and was named the first-class Earl of Suyi, and he was rewarded with double-eyed feathers. In 1865, he was appointed Governor of Liangjiang.Xuan mobilized 60,000 Huai troops to Henan to suppress the Nian army, and replaced Zeng Guofan as the imperial envoy to suppress Nian. In 1867, he was awarded the governor of Huguang, and was rewarded with the post of first-class cavalry captain. In 1868, he was added the title of Prince Taibao, and then served as the governor of Huguang and co-organized the bachelor. In 1870, he served concurrently as the governor of Hubei. After Zeng Guofan, he was transferred to the governor of Zhili and the Minister of Beiyang Commercial Affairs. He was in charge of the diplomatic, military and economic power of the Qing Dynasty and became the leader of the Westernization Group. After 1873, he was awarded a bachelor degree, a bachelor degree of Wuyingdian University, and a bachelor degree of Wenhuadian University. In 1888, he set out to establish the Beiyang Navy, and since 1896 he has been in charge of the Prime Minister's Office of State Affairs.

After Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang was the most powerful and influential figure in the late Qing government. He started out by forming a private army.When he first learned from Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang was just a literati. He was a descendant of farmers in the countryside and a poor scholar. He relied on his perseverance and talent to see the blue sky through the thick fog.Of course, he is talented.He likes to use his brain, is good at adapting to situations, and is calm when things happen, and he is bold and courageous.Zeng Guofan was a generation of great Confucianists who rose up in the era he lived in, and he was a mountain range in the Han family.The Hunan Army founded by Zeng Guofan became an important force to protect the imperial court and consolidate national security in the late Qing Dynasty.The incomparably brave Eight Banners Army in the early Qing Dynasty could not withstand the erosion of the peaceful years, and it has long been a legend hanging in the mouths of the elders.The green battalion is also difficult to mention, and it has been repeatedly defeated in the military struggle against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.Only the Hunan Army, under the leadership of Marshal Zeng, went forward with perseverance and gradually became a military miracle to maintain the safety of the late Qing Dynasty. Zeng Guofan himself rose like a mountain. Even the emperor Laozi could know his strange weight.

Li Hongzhang learned a lot from Zeng Guofan, but what he cared most about was the army.The reason why the Hunan Army became successful shows that the strength of the Qing Dynasty was beyond its means.Everyone knew that this Hunan army was Zeng Guofan's private army, and no one else could command it.He has such an army, who can do to him?In this chaotic world, whoever owns the army will be able to gain a foothold, one can preserve his wealth and life, and the other can serve the country.It is difficult to use the pale and powerless words of literati in such troubled times.So Li Hongzhang gave up his leisurely work of writing and writing, returned to his hometown to practice martial arts, and formed the Huai Army.

The Huai Army followed the system of the Hunan Army, with the battalion as the unit, and each battalion was divided into four posts, each post being equivalent to a regular company.Each sentry has a sentry chief and a sentry officer, which is very similar to the company commander and instructor present.Zhengyong at each sentry is divided into 8 teams, with miscellaneous weapons such as carrying guns, knives and spears, and small guns.It can be seen that the army of the late Qing Dynasty had placed firearms in important positions.Knives and spears are cold weapons, and guns and small guns are all firearms, which are so-called hot weapons.The gun-carrying team has 12 Zhengyongs in each team, the spear and spear team has 10 people in each team, and each sentry officer has 6 guards and gangs, which is equivalent to the current guards, correspondents and cooks.There are 108 officers and soldiers per post.There are 432 officers and soldiers in one battalion and four sentries.The battalion officers have 6 teams of personal soldiers, special forces - the mountain artillery team, etc., plus four sentry officers and soldiers, a total of 504.In this way, the strength of each battalion is roughly the same as that of our current army battalions.The soldiers of the Huai Army come from the five elements and eight works of the people, whether they are local ruffians, whether they are stragglers or surrendered soldiers, they will all get a wonderful arrangement here. Surrender, followed by bandits, third by bachelors, fourth by veterans, fifth by illiteracy, sixth by scholars, seventh by five tributes, eighth by Juren, ninth by Jinshi, and ten by Hanlin.The secret of Li Hongzhang turning decay into magic is that he rooted the clan relationship in the flesh and blood of this army, just like the nerves in the human body that direct the limbs.Most of his generals are his relatives, fellow villagers, students and so on.Among his 15 generals, 12 are from Anhui, and only 3 are foreigners.The source of power he injected into this army was also a generous salary.Even the soldiers of the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion only pay half a year a year, and some even only pay two or three months.And Li Hongzhang is really a master at amassing wealth, his hands are like a rake for making money, even Zeng Guofan's army is not as well paid as his army.His soldiers can get three to five taels of silver a month, and nine months of salary a year, which is like a fantasy for other armies.During the Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang's small treasury privately saved for the Huai army reached 8 million taels of silver.The Huai army not only has a large number of soldiers and a large number of generals, but also has a lot of food and wages, and also has a lot of foreign equipment, which is what other armies can't match.Since Li Hongzhang ruled the army, he has made secret visits to foreign armies many times. He is familiar with the strong ships and guns of the foreigners, the new military codes, and modern warfare methods, and he really wants to learn how to use them for the Qing Dynasty.He believes that there is indeed a gap between China and foreign countries, which should be admitted, but the admission is not to be overly flattering, not to kneel down at the knees of foreigners and beg for mercy, but to put aside the airs for the time being and endure humiliation humbly, in order to learn from Westerners One or two secret methods will be used by me in the future, that is, to use barbarian skills to attack barbarian people.His army was the first to invite foreigners in to train soldiers, and it was also the first to use foreign guns.He said that one battalion of troops using foreign guns can be used as two battalions, so he asked the court to discard all the fowling guns that were originally used and equip 30,000 foreign guns.

The Hunan Army originally had 120,000 combat troops. In order to avoid slander, Zeng Guofan took the initiative to cut the troops by half, some were distributed to Zuo Zongtang, and some were sent to frontier defense.However, the Huai army is expanding day by day, with nearly 100,000 people, becoming the main force that the imperial court relies heavily on.Li Hongzhang also became the number one minister of the court after Zeng Guofan's death.Li Hongzhang received Dou Nale in Zhili Governor's Mansion.At this time, Li Hongzhang was no longer the iron-blooded man who was dressed in military uniform and led the soldiers roaring between the Jianghuai River and Huaihe River more than 30 years ago.He is old, his tall body is a little stooped, and his steps are heavy. His hair is completely white, and his goatee is sparse and sparse.There is a scar on his left cheek, although it is not big, it is particularly eye-catching under the sunlight of Chunyang.That was the impression he left when he signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with the Japanese in Japan.On the way to the end of the third negotiation, he was shot by a Japanese assassin on the road. The bullet penetrated the glass from a few meters away from the car and shattered his left eyeglass. under the eyes.Later, after treatment, fortunately there was no serious problem, but the scars remained on his face forever, just like Shimonoseki Treaty is like an incurable wound that will remain in the hearts of Chinese people forever.

The reason why Dou Nale visited Li Hongzhang was mainly to seek Li's support.Li Hongzhang was the leader of the Westernization Movement. He played for the Westernization Movement back then, so he naturally had close ties with foreigners from all over the world.Especially closer to the UK.After attacking King Zhong in Shanghai that year, the Huai army lived in Shanghai for a while, and the British were first hired as coaches to train the soldiers.Li Hongzhang himself had a closer relationship with the upper echelons of the British.Although Li Hongzhang had a close relationship with foreigners, he was not as obsequious to foreigners as ordinary bureaucrats were. He was not inferior to others, but he was well liked by foreigners.As for foreigners, because of their notorious evil deeds, Chinese people see them and hide them without realizing it. Who would take the initiative to get close to them?Anyone who hangs out with them is always a bad thing, this is what people thought at the time.Li Hongzhang proposed that the Qing court build railways, set up banks, build foreign guns and cannons, and establish a navy, all of which cannot be separated from a foreign word. From the perspective of today's people, Li Hongzhang is a far-sighted person, not a traitor. Words can be concluded.But more than a hundred years ago, Mr. Li did this. With a bureaucrat as big as him, doing such a thing would be risky.For example, in 1872, Yung Wing, an aide in Beiyang, proposed to select students to study in the West and study Western science and technology systematically.From 1872 to 1875, 120 poor and humble children aged 12 to 16, as the first batch of government-sent students studying abroad in the Qing Dynasty, crossed the ocean and arrived in the United States. They were scattered in 15 nearby towns and rural households in Connecticut. Come on, start studying abroad.When the children first arrived in the United States, they wore long robes and jackets, black brocade hats, and thick-soled satin shoes. Each of them had a black braid behind their heads, and they shook their heads when they talked. When they visited New York and San Francisco in the United States, they walked through the On the colorful Imperial Street, you are like visitors from outside the sky. Their dull eyes and ancient costumes have become living fossils for Americans to see through the culture of the Qing Dynasty in China.No one really admires those long braids from the bottom of their hearts, and no one appreciates their youth and maturity.They are more surprised and shocked.In the far east, an empire that is said to have a civilization of 5,000 years turned out to be such a group of people living like mayflies.

However, it didn't take long, not even more than half a year, that they changed and they no longer knew each other.Gone are the floor-sweeping gowns, and the braids have been cut.They changed into suits and parted stylishly.They began to laugh loudly, their bodies began to be strong, their stomachs did not reject milk and bread, and because of the improved nutrition, their faces began to turn rosy.Compared with foreign children of the same age, they are no worse than them.On basketball courts and football fields, they run like moose and gazelle.In terms of learning, they quickly narrowed the gap with the local children, and were deeply loved by the teachers for their perseverance, hard work, gentleness and humility.

Their changes are astonishing. This is an amazing nation.It has tenacious vitality and strong adaptability.There is nothing wrong with this nation, the only problem is the feudal shackles attached to them. In 1877, more than 50 of these children entered middle school, and 18 entered college. In 1880, more than 60 people were admitted to universities and vocational schools.Most of their majors are difficult to learn but urgently needed in China, such as transportation, shipbuilding, coal and iron mining, hardware manufacturing, mechanical engineering enterprise management, post and telecommunications, military industry, etc.An era is approaching an era bit by bit, and these overseas students are the tentacles extending towards the era of big industry. They are China's hope. They are the future of China. At the same time, the Japanese are also learning from countries such as Britain and the United States on the other side of the ocean.The famous Japanese Ito Hirobumi went to study in England alone in 1866.He was only five or six years earlier than this group of Chinese students, but the experiences of the two were quite different. Chinese students were originally scheduled to return to China one by one after completing their studies, but unexpectedly they returned halfway due to criticism from conservatives. Once, Chen Lanbin, the Minister to the United States, and Erliang and Wu Zideng, the foreign student supervision area, called the students to give lectures. When they appeared in front of the children, these students who had just eaten foreign food for a few days stood upright and did not kneel. flew into a rage.They reported to the court that they cut off their braids, forgot about the ancestral system, and grew into green-eyed and long-haired people. They are so adaptable and forgetful, even if they have expertise in learning, can they serve the Qing Dynasty? Li Hongzhang was shocked when he heard about it. After years of hard work, he was about to be wasted by these tongue-twisters.Empty patriotism is the best thing to save effort, keep everything as it is, do not go beyond the threshold, and call it the perfect Japanese system, improve without authorization is betrayal, foreigners are demons, foreign countries are barbarians, and learning from them is equivalent to To not love the country and the nation is to have a tendency to betray the country.Li Hongzhang was repeatedly attacked by conservatives.This time he advocated sending people to school, and it took a lot of effort to complete it. Seeing that half of the semester is over, these talents will be able to return to China in a few years and be useful. Who would have thought that someone would actually write a letter to the court, suggesting that they be recalled.He immediately dissuaded the Prime Minister's Office not to listen to the reports of one party. It is best to let all the students complete their studies, or leave half of them, otherwise hundreds of thousands of taels of silver will be wasted and they will be ridiculed by foreigners.In the end, however, the conservatives emerged victorious. Zongli Yamen rejected Li Hongzhang and decided to withdraw the overseas students.In this way, among the 120 overseas students, except for 10 students who refused to follow the order of the Qing court and refused to return, the rest returned home in three batches. Even so, these international students still became the earliest scientific and technological talents in modern China, such as Huang Yaochang, Chen Ronggui, Kuang Rongguang, experts in smelting and mining, Zhan Tianyou, a railway expert, and so on.There are also many people who participated in the founding of the Beiyang Navy and served as fleet commanders, navy vice-ministers and other important positions.In the Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War, Chen Jinkui, who died in the line of duty with Deng Shichang, was a student studying in the United States. However, most of them were not reused by the Qing government. They were squeezed out of the political and military circles and did nothing. They were only employed as translators by consulates and staff by foreign banks... However, Ito Hirobumi, who returned from studying in the United States, received great attention from the Japanese government. He served as the Daisuke of the Ministry of Industry at the age of 29, and was promoted to the Senate and Secretary of the Ministry of Industry when he was just over 30 years old. .Most of the members of the Japanese cabinet headed by him are people who have experienced like him. It seems that such different encounters will inevitably lead to different fates of the two countries... Li Hongzhang's mood in his later years was sad. In the Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895, his entire Beiyang navy was wiped out; when he went abroad to send him to study, he gave up halfway;The country is still so poor and weak, and most of its life has been miserable and futile.However, people are old.Only aging comes as expected.As a weak foreign minister, he felt physically and mentally exhausted. When meeting with Dou Nale, Li Hongzhang was dizzy.He didn't want to see him, but he didn't dare not see him.He no longer has enough energy and stamina to deal with them.He was tired, tired.In his work in charge of the affairs of various countries, his dignity and personality were absorbed by a series of unequal treaties.As a single person, compared with those envoys from various countries, he is full of wisdom and experience, and his face is full of vicissitudes. His eyes have been sharp and sharp, and his conversation is also humorous, but all of these are of no avail. There is a saying that a big tail cannot be lost, and there is a big and heavy tail behind him, that is, the poor and weak China and the corrupt Qing court.He has worked hard to try to change the country one or two times with his talent and mind, but he has not succeeded.He was a loser, and his staff also followed him in failure after failure: In 1875, Guo Songtao was appointed as the Minister to Britain and took office in Great Britain, but Guo readily obeyed, causing boos from the ruling and opposition parties.Guo Songtao and Zeng Guofan are relatives of sons and daughters, both from Hunan.Li Hongzhang had a close relationship with him, because he was a Jinshi of the same discipline, and because of the special relationship between Guo and Zeng, Li recruited Guo into his shogunate to assist in military affairs and make suggestions, and Guo was indeed talented and well-respected .Such a well-known person dealt with foreigners and became a character of the Six Types of Devils, which immediately aroused criticism from some friends.People from Hunan said that once he takes office, how will he be able to meet all the folks in the future?People and gods all over the world are attacking together, as friends, why should we confess to relatives and friends of future generations?The relatives were even more angry, saying that if he really wanted to leave the Yi country in the west, he would not kiss him, but he would burn the paper boat and burn his house to the sky, so as to completely draw a line with him. Guo Songtao left Yangguan westward amidst the scolding of the Manchu Dynasty.Later, he accumulated what he saw and heard during his mission to Britain, and wrote it as "Journey to the West", which was engraved and printed into a book after returning home.Who wants to be impeached immediately.Liu Xihong, his deputy on the mission, accused Guo of three crimes: first, he wore a barbarian coat because of the cold weather when he visited the British fort.Second, when they visited the King of England, they did not have the air of an envoy from a great country at all. When they saw the King of England, they stood up without authorization. Although they paid attention to personal etiquette, they forgot the dignity of the celestial dynasty.The third is to pretend to be a foreigner when listening to a foreigner's concert in Buckingham Palace. It seems that he admires Western music very much, and he repeatedly asks for music lists from foreigners.As an envoy of a big country, it is really a traitor's behavior to have such no status when he is an envoy to Yi.Due to the righteous impeachment and criticism of Liu Xihong and others, Guo Songtao finally resigned from the post of ambassador to Britain in 1879.His "Journey to the West" was ordered to destroy the edition, and it was forbidden to disseminate it in the court or among the people. Scholar scum, a national sinner, the hat of not too big and not too small is put on Guo Songtao's head.The reason why Guo Songtao was criticized was that his advanced thinking was difficult to be tolerated by his contemporaries.Guo Songtao once thought about the source and cause of barbarian disasters. He said: China can blatantly draw rules with barbarians, but China is always afraid.The barbarians must not be deceived, but they are blindly deceived.China does all kinds of things, the barbarians do their best, deal with everything according to reason, put an end to their rebelliousness, and don't stoke their anger, while China is blindly barbaric.He has feelings that can be speculated and reason can be subdued, but China is blindly stupid.Really helpless.These weeping and self-reflection words are really thought-provoking, coming from a person who has been almost named by modern history as the surrender of foreign countries. Guo Songtao, who was almost convicted by the Qing Prime Minister’s Yamen, and Guo Songtao, who was nailed to the pillar of shame by the Conservative Party of the Qing Dynasty, has not been pardoned by our nation until now, and people are still targeting him. Shooting arrows of injustice... Shenguang Temple is in Fuzhou City.One day, two Englishmen came to the city and stayed in Shenguang Temple.The lease period of these two Englishmen is half a year, and they will leave when they agree to expire.Unexpectedly, Sun Mingen, a scholar of the Imperial Academy, and others knew about this matter. They believed that Liu Yunke, governor of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, and Xu Jiyu, governor of Fujian Province, forced the people to follow the barbarians without expulsion. They reported to the Qing court that they openly favored the British. I don’t know what their intentions were. . Xu Jiyu believes that the two British people have no bad deeds, have no military and economic missions behind them, and have not lived for too long, so why bother to annoy them if they don't want to provoke the border?Just wait until they live long enough to squeeze them out.If they want to move away by force, first, the foreigners have a contract in hand, and second, they have the support of the British consulate.If you can't beat others in war, why bother to provoke them again?He advocated a way to calm things down.However, the expelling faction believes that Xu Jiyu's statement that slowness can lead to success and haste can lead to change is completely justifying his fear of foreigners.If two foreigners enter the city today, a few may enter the city tomorrow, and a dozen may enter the city the day after. This is a matter of principle.So they insisted on driving them out and not allowing the two Englishmen to rent the Shenguang Temple.If they don't go, then use abnormal means to drive them away. If the British come to fight and the warships come to attack, let them come. Xu Jiyu said that the war has been fought long ago, and it is not that there has been no move. China will only suffer losses if it fights with foreigners again, and it is impossible to take advantage.Everyone knows that when the enemy is strong and we are weak, we can only avoid contact with the enemy and not engage in armed conflict.We can only fight against them after we work hard and change the situation where the enemy is superior and we are inferior, and the enemy is strong and we are weak, and we can compete with them.Therefore, we can only welcome it and guide it, that is, the disaster will be stopped, and the ingenuity obtained will be used for me. The Shenguang Temple incident finally subsided after the foreigners lived there for half a year.The method adopted is according to what Xu Jiyu said.However, because Xu did not adopt an impassioned and tough attitude, and did not categorically express the fearless spirit of fighting the enemy to the death, he just stated the situation that the enemy is strong and we are weak, and he should not be dizzy. Xenophobia cannot achieve the purpose of patriotism.Xenophobia does not mean patriotism. A true patriot will never just put the country on his lips, but in his heart.But these did not save Xu Jiyu.Because the emperor has always listened to generous patriotic slogans, and whoever shouts loudly is a patriot.But Xu and Liu didn't call out, so they were dismissed from office. Based on the above failures, Li Hongzhang was unhappy and desolate in his last years. After listening to Dou Nale's request for the expansion of Hong Kong's New Territories in silence, he thought about it: If you are really for the safety of Hong Kong and China, and the scope of expansion is not large, I personally think it can be considered. A few days later, Dou Nale met with Li Hongzhang again, and showed Li Hongzhang the map of that small place.Li Hongzhang was taken aback.This is not a small piece of land. This is a land much larger than Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula. Li Hongzhang pushed aside the map shown by the British and said very angrily, I thought it was a piece of land much smaller than Hong Kong Island.As he spoke, he stretched out the little finger of his right hand and gestured.Unexpectedly, you want such a large piece, don't you feel embarrassed to do so? Doonale said, why be embarrassed?The Jiaozhou Bay leased by the Germans and the Luda leased by the Russians are both larger than the territory we asked for. Why can they do it, but our British Empire can’t? Li Hongzhang said, you already have Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, and we have just leased Weihaiwei to you. You have already obtained more things than the Germans and Russians. Now you have to extend your hand to the New Territories. This is too much right?