Qin Zheng's judgment was indeed correct. On the next day, when Qin Zheng and Zhang Peilun met again, Zhang Peilun first told Qin Zheng that he had received a reply from Li Hongzhang. Li Hongzhang said that he could submit a memorial to the exiled Qing court and asked the Qing court to issue a formal order to confirm the identity of overseas Chinese.

In fact, after receiving Zhang Peilun's telegram, Li Hongzhang never thought about the problem of not having a program. After all, Qingting has been in this position now, so he has to take the airs of advocating and insisting on overseas Chinese to submit a report first and request to submit before issuing an order to receive the order.

Li Hongzhang saw this more clearly than Zhang Peilun. The so-called time is just an excuse, because now there are telegrams and the message transmission is extremely convenient, and it is not enough to take any time. In fact, overseas Chinese don’t care about the recognition of the Qing court. Now they have occupied Tianjin, Weihaiwei, and Qingdao, and it is said that they are quite popular. As long as they have strong enough force and are indeed the face of Chinese Han people. If they speak Chinese and do not have too harsh governance, it is not difficult to get support from Han people. Even if the Qing court does not confirm their identity, it is impossible to change this fact. Overseas Chinese still have to make this request, which is actually just to express an attitude to the Qing court, which is to tell the Qing court that they must follow the pace of overseas Chinese.

Of course, with the strength of overseas Chinese, it is impossible to make them obediently listen to the orders of the Qing court. Although it can be basically confirmed that this group of people is indeed descendant of the Chinese, they may be descendants of the Song people, or of the Ming Dynasty, but not of the Qing Dynasty.

But Li Hongzhang also knew better that the Qing court now had no capital to refuse, because overseas Chinese had become a hurdle that the Qing court could not avoid. The Qing court could not get rid of overseas Chinese and negotiate directly with various countries. Regardless of how much money they pay or how much land they cut, overseas Chinese now still occupy Tianjin. This is not only the gateway to Beijing, but after the canal transportation is changed to sea transportation, Tianjin is the necessary port for southern materials to be transported to Beijing by sea. Therefore, unless Qingting intends to move the capital, it cannot be avoided by overseas Chinese.

Since this is the case, it is better to handle the relationship with overseas Chinese from now on. After all, the Qing court is still a legal government on the land of China. Overseas Chinese are still willing to rely on the Qing court in fame. Moreover, Li Hongzhang does not believe that overseas Chinese have the intention to replace the Qing court, at least in a short period of time. After all, the number of overseas Chinese is limited and lacks foundation. The Qing Dynasty ruled for more than 25 years, and it is deeply rooted, so how can it be easily shaken.

Li Hongzhang estimated that the current purpose of overseas Chinese is to rely on the Qing court in the famous discussion, and gain a foothold on the land of China, and have considerable autonomy. Li Hongzhang believes that this condition is acceptable. After all, the most urgent task of the Qing court is to end the war as soon as possible and allow the empress dowager and the emperor to return to Beijing as soon as possible. In this regard, overseas Chinese are still of great value.

As for the future of overseas Chinese to achieve the "Three Feudatories", Li Hongzhang believed that it would be at least ten years or even twenty years later. Moreover, after the Qing court returned to Beijing and recovered its vitality, it could also slowly weaken the strength of overseas Chinese. With the Qing court's huge strength in the country, it was not impossible to do this. Therefore, Li Hongzhang decided to do that and immediately instructed Zhang Peilun to answer the request of overseas Chinese and take over the matter. According to Li Hongzhang's estimate, it was not difficult to ask the Qing court to issue an edict to recognize the status of overseas Chinese.

After receiving Zhang Peilun's reply, Qin Zheng did not have any happy expressions, because this result was long ago as Qin Zheng expected. Although he was not as complicated as Li Hongzhang thought, the requirements put forward by the time travelers are not strict now, and it is nothing more than making it difficult for the Qing court to live in terms of face. However, the history of the old time and space proved that the Qing court was not a dynasty that wanted to be face-saving. Things like "the emperor guarded the country" and "the emperor died in the country" could not be seen in the Qing court.

Qin Zheng just nodded and said, "It's good, but I wonder if the countries agree to let the court join the negotiations and resolve China's problems together?"

Zhang Peilun said: "Before Xia left Shanghai, Lord Zhongtang had negotiated with foreigners. The foreigners' opinion was that as long as you agree, they would not object. Of course, in the detailed form, after Xia returned to Shanghai, Lord Zhongtang would negotiate with foreigners again."

Qin Zheng said: "This is naturally. Regarding this negotiation, our preliminary principle is to do our best to safeguard China's sovereignty and national interests, and we must never lose our power and humiliate the country in this negotiation."

After hearing Qin Zheng's words, Zhang Peilun felt a little better. No matter what, overseas Chinese have always claimed that they are descendants of China. Therefore, in this negotiation, they will help the Qing court, at least they can make the Qing court pay less money and ced less land, so that Li Hongzhang can be cursed less.

Zhang Peilun knew very well that such negotiations with various countries were definitely thankless. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Qing Dynasty was beaten by Japan and the two armies were completely destroyed. The Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula were successfully formed by the Japanese army, forming a strategic control force against Beijing. The Qing Dynasty had no resistance and could only use Li Hongzhang to negotiate with Japan. As a result, Li Hongzhang was assassinated and shot in Japan. He almost died before signing the [Treaty of Shimonoseki], which generally preserved the Qing Dynasty's body. However, after returning, he was referred to as a traitor in the whole country. However, the Qing court said nothing about this and did not mention the [Treaty of Shimonoseki]. In fact, Li Hongzhang signed the treaty after being recognized by the Qing court.

Last time, he was just a country in Japan, and the only one lost was the Liaodong Peninsula and Shandong Peninsula. Daqing lost 230 million silver and also ceded Taiwan Island. This time, he fought against the Eight Kingdoms and even lost the capital. If the negotiations were made, he still didn't know how much money he had to pay or how much land he ceded to satisfy the foreigners. Li Hongzhang, who signed the contract this time, was not scolded to death. Therefore, if the Qing court could pay less money and ced less land, Li Hongzhang's daily life would be better.

At this time, Qin Zheng said again: "Mr. Zhang, I have to ask Li Zhongtang to handle the matters in Shanghai. In addition, we hope to set up the negotiation location in Shanghai. Do you see if Li Zhongtang can arrange a suitable location?"

When Zhang Peilun heard this, he also found it very strange because the time travelers did not set up the negotiation location in Tianjin or Qingdao, which they controlled, but Shanghai. Although theoretically, the power of foreigners is only effective in the concession, after decades of operation and the support and assistance of a group of Chinese comprador merchants, foreigners actually have a huge influence on Shanghai county towns and surrounding areas. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that Shanghai is actually the territory of foreigners.

Generally speaking, the negotiation locations are located in the control territory of the dominant party, and this group of overseas Chinese are the opposite, which makes Zhang Peilun very puzzled. However, setting up the negotiation location in Shanghai is a good thing for Li Hongzhang. After all, Li Hongzhang has his own villa in Shanghai and has been operating in Shanghai for many years. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is half of the owner of Shanghai. At least it can reduce the hardship of carriages and horses. Bijing negotiations are extremely exhausting, and Li Hongzhang is an old man in his 80s. It is naturally better to live in his own home. Therefore, Zhang Peilun said: "Okay, I will tell Li Zhongtang this matter."

Qin Zheng said: "There is another point. Since Li Zhongtang wants to represent the court to participate in this negotiation, how should we cooperate with Lord Zhongtang in the negotiation? It is best to communicate in advance. Therefore, we hope to meet with Lord Zhongtang before the negotiation and negotiate in person. In addition, it is best for all countries to send representatives to Tianjin to communicate with us on the negotiation matters. Of course, we can also send people to Shanghai to visit Li Zhongtang."

Qin Zheng's request is also very reasonable, because before negotiation, the two sides usually send some low-level personnel to contact and negotiate some process regulations during negotiations. Li Hongzhang also had a plan to visit Tianjin, firstly, negotiate negotiations with overseas Chinese; secondly, Li Hongzhang also wanted to observe the behavior of overseas Chinese close-up. After all, Li Hongzhang is also full of curiosity among overseas Chinese.

But now the situation has changed. Overseas Chinese demanded that the negotiation location be located in Shanghai. Is it necessary for Li Hongzhang to come to Tianjin? Zhang Peilun couldn't decide, so he had to say goodbye to Qin Zheng and ask Shanghai for a message.

This time, Li Hongzhang's reply was faster, and he agreed to the requests made by the time traveler in full, and he also guaranteed to arrange a good residence for the time traveler in Shanghai so that the time traveler could get a good rest during the negotiations. In addition, Li Hongzhang still decided to come to Tianjin in person to meet with overseas Chinese. Because Li Hongzhang considered that Shanghai is a foreign force after all, if it was inconvenient for negotiations with overseas Chinese in Shanghai, foreigners would definitely inquire about the details from multiple parties, so it would be much better to go to Tianjin to negotiate in Tianjin.

In addition, Li Hongzhang still hopes to serve the senior management of overseas Chinese so that he can better understand the attitudes of overseas Chinese. For such preliminary negotiations, overseas Chinese cannot send senior management personnel to discuss, so Li Hongzhang can only go to Tianjin. Therefore, Li Hongzhang plans to complete his visit to Tianjin before the New Year, so that after the New Year, negotiations can be officially started. Of course, if everything goes well, it is not impossible to start negotiations before the New Year.

The New Year mentioned by Li Hongzhang of course refers to the Lunar New Year, commonly known as the Spring Festival by the Chinese. The Chinese in this era still regard the Lunar New Year as the beginning and end of the year. The Lunar New Year of this year was February 19, 19o1, and there are almost two months left before now, so it is completely time-consuming.

In the afternoon of the same day, Zhang Peilun conveyed Li Hongzhang's reply to Qin Zheng, and also said goodbye to Qin Zheng that he would leave and return to Shanghai early the next morning.
Chapter completed!