Li Hongzhang naturally had no objection to the change of location. Since he wanted to negotiate the delivery matters in Shandong, it would be better to hold talks in Shandong. From this, it can be seen that overseas Chinese still valued this talk very much. So Li Hongzhang immediately sent a telephone to Yuan Shikai, asking Yuan Shikai to go to Shanghai to meet with him, and then go to Qingdao together.

Three days later, Li Hongzhang received a call from Yuan Shikai. It turned out that Yuan Shikai also did not have Shanghai, but went directly from Jinan to Qingdao, and escorted the 100,000 taels of silver compensated to overseas Chinese in person, waiting for Li Hongzhang to meet in Qingdao.

In fact, Li Hongzhang also knew that it would be much more convenient for Yuan Shikai to go directly from Jinan to Qingdao, because it is about 700 miles from Jinan to Qingdao, which is almost half closer than from Shanghai to Qingdao. Of course, Jinan to Qingdao is all over the land, while Shanghai to Qingdao can take sea routes. Therefore, the two are actually basically the same, but it is more than 1,600 miles from Jinan to Shanghai.

Of course, Li Hongzhang asked Yuan Shikai to come to Shanghai to meet him, but he did not intend to mess with Yuan Shikai. Instead, considering that Yuan Shikai still has conflicts with overseas Chinese now, although Li Hongzhang estimated that since overseas Chinese agreed to let Yuan Shikai go to Qingdao, he would not do anything about Yuan Shikai, but letting him go to Qingdao alone would probably make Yuan Shikai worry, but Li Hongzhang wanted Yuan Shikai to go with him. Now that Yuan Shikai took the initiative to propose that he would go directly to Qingdao from Jinan, Li Hongzhang naturally would not have any objections, but he still appreciated Yuan Shikai's courage.

In fact, Yuan Shikai's decision was unanimously opposed by his aides. After all, the conflict between the two sides has not been eliminated yet, and no one dares to say how overseas Chinese will deal with Yuan Shikai. Of course, the aides will not object to Yuan Shikai's trip to Qingdao, but they must go with Li Hongzhang. With Li Hongzhang's sign blocking the front, overseas Chinese will definitely be a little worried and dare not dare to ignorantly harm Yuan Shikai. But now Yuan Shikai has to set up a separate departure and go from Jinan to Qingdao, which is dangerous. What if overseas Chinese send troops to set up an ambush halfway to attack Yuan Shikai? At that time, no one can say anything when it is pushed to the robbers.

However, Yuan Shikai still sidelined the opposition and insisted on starting alone and going from Jinan to Qingdao. This was also Yuan Shikai's own consideration. During this period, Yuan Shikai collected a large amount of information about overseas Chinese through various channels through his connections in Shanghai, and gained a basic and comprehensive understanding of the strength of overseas Chinese. Only then did he realize that the strength and scope of influence of overseas Chinese were so strong that the Huai system built by Li Hongzhang for half his life was far beyond his imagination. It was the Huai system that Li Hongzhang had devoted his life to building.

Compared with the current overseas Chinese, it is not enough to be compared with the current Chinese, and it is not something that they can compete with now. And more importantly, although Li Hongzhang's Huai clan was powerful, he was ultimately dependent on the court. The sphere of influence of overseas Chinese may not be as large as that of the Huai clan, but it exists completely independent of the court and can ignore the court and do their own business. Therefore, they can confiscate land, reform land, control county towns in Shandong without any scruples, and not even afraid of going to war with Yuan Shikai, etc.

After understanding these situations, Yuan Shikai couldn't help but feel scared and sweating. It was too overestimated to take care of overseas Chinese. Overseas Chinese will inevitably become an important independent force in China in the future, because even the court cannot control them, and will definitely be similar to the Three Feudatories in the future. Moreover, since they are descendants of the previous dynasty, the special identity of Yan and Huang in the same lineage, the influence of the Qing Dynasty must not be underestimated. Although in theory, the court must never allow independent vassal states to exist, Yuan Shikai is very clear that the current court does not have the ability to reduce vassal states at all. Therefore, if he wants to develop his career in his official career, he not only cannot offend overseas Chinese, but also needs to establish a good relationship with them.

If you want to repair your relationship with overseas Chinese, you want to establish a good relationship with overseas Chinese. It is not enough to rely solely on Li Hongzhang's handling, and Yuan Shikai also needs to come forward in person. So this time, Yuan Shikai insists on setting out alone and going from Jinan to Qingdao, which is to express his wish to make good friends with overseas Chinese.

In addition, according to the collected information, Yuan Shikai also has some understanding of the style of overseas Chinese, knowing that they are extremely rigorous and pragmatic in their work, and at present, they also hope to maintain a good relationship with the court. After all, he is a local official of the court, so it is unlikely that overseas Chinese will harm them. Moreover, Yuan Shikai was a person who came through the rain of bullets on the battlefield, so he still has this courage. Moreover, Yuan Shikai has also prepared several big gifts for overseas Chinese, and I believe that it can impress overseas Chinese.

Seeing that Yuan Shikai had decided on his own, it was difficult to persuade him again, but they asked to go to Qingdao with Yuan Shikai. On the one hand, everyone really wanted to see the appearance of overseas Chinese; on the other hand, this was also an opportunity to strive for a good impression in front of Yuan Shikai. At this time, Yuan Shikai had not many staff members, only more than 20, but they were divided into different levels. Yuan Shikai trusted the most were Xu Shichang, Zhao Bingjun, Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and others. These people followed Yuan Shikai for a long time, and they all started to work as soon as they were small-scale training, and each had its own talents, so they were most valued by Yuan Shikai.

The other staff members naturally wanted to squeeze into Yuan Shikai's confidant circle. Now is a great opportunity, because this time Yuan Shikai went to Shandong was a bit risky after all, so when he went to Qingdao with Yuan Shikai, he would definitely gain Yuan Shikai's trust in the future.

Yuan Shikai finally decided that during his departure from Jinan, Xu Shichang was taken over by Xu Shichang; while the Beiyang New Army was in charge by Wang Shizhen, which was also Yuan Shikai's routine. As early as when the small station was training troops, Xu Shichang and Wang Shizhen had acted as Yuan Shikai's responsibilities. Among the entourage, Duan Qirui led a battalion, Duan Zhigui led two cavalry troops, and Cao Kun led a personal guard, with a total of about 800 people. Although the staff advised Yuan Shikai to bring more soldiers, In case of an accident, you must at least bring two army camps and one cavalry camp, but Yuan Shikai easily took it with the sentence "Training more is useless". Because Yuan Shikai was very cautious. If overseas Chinese really wanted to attack him, it would be useless to lead any army. Therefore, it is better to be generous and just bring enough troops to prevent bandits and thieves along the way, and also show his courage to overseas Chinese. Although he was indeed admitting his defeat, he was not strong enough and he could not teach overseas Chinese to underestimate him.

As for civil servants, Yuan Shikai brought three people with Tang Shaoyi as his chief copywriter, and the other two were Cai Shaoji and Liang Ruhao.

These three people have a common characteristic. They are from Xiangshan County, Guangdong (now Zhongshan City, Guangdong), and are the third group of young children who went to the United States to study in the 12th year of Tongzhi (1874). Among them, Tang Shaoyi studied Columbia University in the United States, Liang Ruhao studied Stephen Institute of Technology, and Cai Shaoji studied Yale University. Although this time, the three and other young children did not complete their studies and returned to China early, because they were proficient in foreign languages, knowledgeable about Western France and good at negotiating, they all engaged in diplomatic work as an interpreter when they first returned to China. In the ninth year of Guangxu (1883), they served as a member of Mu Linde, a Chinese German adviser, and went to North Korea to prepare for customs work. They also met Yuan Shikai, then Minister of Commerce in North Korea.

At that time, Yuan Shikai was determined to cultivate his own team. At that time, the Qing court was in power. These three were all proficient in Westernization. Therefore, Yuan Shikai also deliberately made friends with the three. The three also hoped to rely on officials like Yuan Shikai to achieve their talents. During the "Jashen Coup" in North Korea, Tang, Liang and Cai helped Yuan Shikai quell the civil strife in North Korea and gave birth to a life-and-death friendship. It can be said that in North Korea, in addition to allowing Yuan Shikai to gain the appreciation of Li Hongzhang, getting to know these three was the second biggest gain. In the old time and space, these three people made great contributions to Yuan Shikai's career development in the future.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, Tang Shaoyi was sent by the Qing court as the Consul General in Korea and took over Yuan Shikai's original position. After Yuan Shikai was re-activated by the Qing court, he recommended Liang Ruhao as the director of the Railway Transportation Department within the Pass and was later promoted to the General Office of Beining Railway; Cai Shaoji successively served as Niuzhuang Customs Train and Tianjin Customs Train. However, due to the change of the Boxer State, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, and neither of them could do it in office, so they fled to Shandong to surrender to Yuan Shikai, and temporarily worked under Yuan Shikai's men; while Tang Shaoyi returned to China because his father lost his father to Ding You, and now he has just finished his filial piety, and has joined Yuan Shikai's disciples. Both of them have been valued by Yuan Shikai.

However, none of these three people had participated in the training station, and Liang Ruhao and Cai Shao basically had their own official positions, but because the situation was chaotic, they could not continue to work in office. Tang Shaoyi was the end of Ding You's term and was in a turmoil in the court and could not be reinstated, so he temporarily worked under Yuan Shikai. Once the court returned to normal, the three people would definitely be re-employed by the Qing court. Of course, once the Qing court returned to normal, Yuan Shikai was also preparing to recommend the three important positions to the court. After all, he still had to expand his power and could not only guard Shandong. Therefore, although the three people were still highly valued and trusted by Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai could not give them too important work responsibilities. The local positions among Yuan Shikai's aides were second to Xu Shichang, Wang Shizhen and others.
Chapter completed!