The telegram sent to Qingdao was very humble, saying that he had no intention of offending the time traveler. Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others acted privately, and they really didn't know it, but they also had a mistake in investigating it. Now, Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others have been executed by the law, and they are willing to compensate 100,000 taels of silver for the losses caused to overseas Chinese, and ensure that similar things will never happen again in the future.

At the same time, Li Hongzhang also generated electricity to the time traveler and decomposed Yuan Shikai. He hoped that the time traveler would not continue to hold Yuan Shikai accountable and ensure that Yuan Shikai would fully cooperate with the time traveler in the future to complete all work to hand over to Shandong. He also stated that after the negotiations with Russia were over, he would visit Tianjin with Yuan Shikai to negotiate the Qing court's return to Beijing and the delivery affairs of the Shandong region.

After nearly three months of Latin America negotiations, Li Hongzhang and Russian Consul General in Shanghai p.a. Dmitryev reached a general agreement on various matters of Russia's withdrawal from the three northeastern provinces.

In fact, at this time, in Russia, the Far East was mainly dealing with the Northeast of China. There were generally two factions. One was represented by former ministers Alexander Bezobrazov, Minister of Interior Viacheslav Plevi, Marshal of the Navy, uncle Alexeykseev, former former minister Alexander Mikhaylovich, nobles, Count Vorontov Dashkov, wealthy businessman Von Liarlyarsky and others. These people were basically from Russian aristocratic origins, or had blood ties to the royal family, and advocated a tough attitude towards China and Japan, and did not hesitate to seize Northeast China by force, without caring about the attitudes of various countries.

The other faction is mainly the Minister of Finance Sergei Vette, including Foreign Minister Ramsdorf, Minister Bapurov to North Korea, Minister Luo Xian to Japan, and the next Minister to China Resal. These people are basically Russian diplomats, who have received a relatively good education and have been in contact with other countries for a long time. Therefore, these people's experience, knowledge, and grasp of the general trend of the world are much more sober than other ministers in China. They believe that in today's international competition, conquering purely by force is a relatively low-level means, while the advanced means are achieved through comprehensive means such as diplomacy, economy, politics, and culture to ensure the maximization of their own interests. Force is mainly used as a means of power, and they should not start a war easily unless they are absolutely necessary.

In the Far East, because it involves many interests in Northeast China, countries will not allow Russia to easily annex Northeast China. If Russia forcibly occupy it by force, it will only make Russia isolated and passive by other countries. Therefore, it adopts the strategy of the Qing Dynasty to win the favor of the residents of Northeast China and gain some commercial benefits in Northeast China. Then, with economic means as the leader, supplemented by comprehensive means such as politics, culture, and diplomacy, gradually build pro-Russian forces in Northeast China. When the time is ripe, Northeast China will naturally become Russian territory.

The Russian Tsar was swaying between these two factions, and initially agreed with the proposal of the Witt faction. After the Sino-Japanese War, Russia, France and Germany created a "Three Kingdoms Interference and Return to Liao" incident, which really won the favor of many Chinese people. There were many ministers who strongly advocated the alliance with Russia to resist Japan. Under this sentiment, the [Secret Agreement between China and Russia] signed with Russia during Li Hongzhang's visit to Russia in 1896 was the result of Vitt's strong promotion.

But in 1900, the Boxer Rebellion broke out in the Qing court. The Tsar believed that the Qing Dynasty would fall into division, so he changed his mind and decided to take advantage of the civil strife in China to occupy Northeast China with force. As a result, although Russia did occupy Northeast China, it triggered tensions with various countries, because overseas Chinese emerged, first defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance, and then defeated the Russian army in the Battle of Shanhaiguan. Later, even held joint maritime exercises with Japan, with the momentum of the two sides joining forces to fight against Russia.

This time, the Russian army also felt heavy pressure. The troops in the Far East were seriously insufficient, the supply of logistics supplies was also very unfavorable, and the sea was more passive and the sea control power was lost. If overseas Chinese really joined forces with Japan to launch a war, at least the current situation would be quite unfavorable to Russia. In this case, Russia changed to the proposition of the Vitte faction and negotiated with the Qing court.

However, Russia made many unreasonable demands during the negotiations and proposed to Li Hongzhang that it is possible to retreat, but the Qing court must negotiate with Russia for the appointment and removal of officials in the Northeast; any loans made by the Qing court in the Northeast can only be carried out at the Russian Bank of China-Russia Daosheng; any railway or industrial lease right in the Northeast shall not be transferred to other countries without the consent of Russia, etc., attempting to monopolize the Northeast finance and all lease right.

But this time, Li Hongzhang was backed by overseas Chinese and Britain, the United States and Japan, and he was confident enough. He was a rare tough guy and refused all these demands made by Russia. The negotiations were once deadlocked. However, this time Russia did not have any tough bargaining chips, so Li Hongzhang's tough rejection did not hesitate to threaten the breakdown of the negotiations and had to make concessions.

In the end, the two sides signed the [Treaty of the Three East Provinces in Qing and Russia], with four general contents:

1. The three northeastern provinces remain under the jurisdiction of China and Chinese officials before the Russian army occupied the territory before it was occupied.

2. Within one and a half years, the Russian army was all withdrawn from the three northeastern provinces in three phases.

3. Before the Russian army retreat, the number and garrisons of the three northeastern provinces must be agreed with the Russian officers; after the Russian army retreats, China's troops in the three northeastern provinces should be increased or reduced, and should be notified to Russia at any time.

4. When Russia returns the railway along the Xinmintun, the Qing government should compensate 800,000 taels of silver, and no other countries can be allowed to occupy all areas that Russia has withdrawn.

Although he would eventually pay 800,000 taels of silver to Russia, overall, this was still a good result for the current Qing court. After all, Russia agreed to withdraw troops from the Northeast. Therefore, after receiving the draft of the treaty, the Qing court in Xi'an only had a day of discussion and fully agreed to accept the treaty in full and ordered Li Hongzhang to sign a contract with Russia immediately.

After receiving the reply from the Qing court, Li Hongzhang immediately signed a treaty with Russia. Only then did this basically bring an end to the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China. Other countries also breathed a sigh of relief.

For Britain, blocking Russia in northern China would have a much smaller threat to its interests in China, and it also created Japan. The two cards of overseas Chinese to contain Russia gave Britain a much greater room for strategic maneuver in the Far East; for the United States, blocking Russia's southward movement, but it expanded its commercial interests in China for the United States, because it could expand its commercial interests in northern China; for France, it finally curbed Russia's expansion momentum in the Far East, and could bring Russia's attention back to Europe, restrain Germany's power, and share France's pressure; for Japan, the Russian army withdrew from Northeast China, cut off its direct connection with the Korean Peninsula, so that Japan faced much less pressure on the Korean Peninsula, and it also reached a reliable ally that could fight against Russia. Therefore, all countries can be said to have gained something, of course, the premise is that the Russian army withdraws from Northeast China as scheduled.

Li Hongzhang also settled his mind. No matter what, this negotiation, he was so happy that no one would call him a traitor. However, Li Hongzhang also understood that his affairs were not over yet, and there was an important negotiation waiting for him next, which was a negotiation with overseas Chinese, which was also not an easy opponent to deal with.

Just the day after Li Hongzhang signed the [Treaty of the Qing and Russia to settle the Three East Provinces], he received a telegram from the Qing court asking Li Hongzhang to immediately negotiate with overseas Chinese on the Qing court's return to Beijing. Although the Qing court has decided to hand over Shandong to overseas Chinese, how to deal with Shandong and overseas Chinese, as well as Tianjin, Shanhaiguan and other places, whether overseas Chinese have other requirements, etc., of course, it is necessary to discuss.

This was long as Li Hongzhang expected, so Li Hongzhang immediately generated power to Tianjin and asked the time traveler to visit, of course, that is, to formally negotiate with the time traveler. At the same time, Li Hongzhang also suggested that he would bring Yuan Shikai to Tianjin together and could negotiate the delivery and handover matters in Shandong.

Since Yuan Shikai sent a power to Li Hongzhang, hoping that Li Hongzhang could help him deal with his relationship with overseas Chinese, Li Hongzhang also had this plan because he was still very optimistic about Yuan Shikai and believed that among the next generation of officials of the Qing court, only Yuan Shikai was expected to become a great man, and Yuan Shikai was also born in the Huai Army, and Li Hongzhang also planned to help him, which was also considered to be a supporter of his juniors.

However, if there is a conflict between Yuan Shikai and overseas Chinese, it will not be a good thing for Yuan Shikai's future career. Therefore, Li Hongzhang hopes to take Yuan Shikai to Tianjin this time to resolve the conflict between him and overseas Chinese. On the one hand, Li Hongzhang believes that he has some friendship with overseas Chinese, and the conflict between Yuan Shikai and overseas Chinese is not a big deal. As long as Yuan Shikai insists that it is the personal behavior of middle and lower-level officers, there will be a lot of room for maneuver, so overseas Chinese will also sell their face. On the other hand, Yuan Shikai is the current governor of Shandong. If overseas Chinese want to accept Shandong, they will inevitably have to deal with Yuan Shikai. If Yuan Shikai cooperates well, they can save a lot of trouble. Why bother against Yuan Shikai?

Through contact with overseas Chinese, Li Hongzhang knew them a little. These people were not like the Qing court. They talked about morality and had to be ashamed of everything. They focused on investigating things and were pragmatic in everything. Therefore, Li Hongzhang also believed that overseas Chinese would make the right choice.
Chapter completed!