That night, Guangxu issued an order to announce that Li Hongzhang would enter the palace and enter the right way. Because at this time, only Li Hongzhang was reliable, and only Li Hongzhang was invited to the palace alone to avoid any quarrels.

In fact, although Li Hongzhang has been sick at home, he knows what happened outside. To be honest, when he first heard about this, Li Hongzhang was also shocked. He didn't expect that overseas Chinese would quietly occupy such a large area in Henan. It turned out that Li Hongzhang estimated that overseas Chinese would take at least 20 years to seize the world. Because Shandong is too small, overseas Chinese need to unify the country with the power of Shandong Province, and at least two stages of expansion. One is to occupy Henan, Jiangsu, Hebei, etc. around Shandong to expand their strength, and the other is to occupy the south or north, and then unify the country. Each stage takes about 2-3 years to complete. After these two stages are completed, it will take at least 4-5 years to stabilize. In addition to other times, Li Hongzhang came to this period of 20 years.

But overseas Chinese obviously saw this, so after they stabilized in Shandong, they immediately expanded to the surrounding areas, and silently. When the court discovered it, it became a climate. It seemed that they had predicted that they had too much time. Overseas Chinese could be at most 15 years, at least 10 years, and they could probably rule the world. Of course, even for 10 years, Li Hongzhang thought that he would not be able to live at that time.

Li Hongzhang was also sure that the court would ask him for advice. After all, the few people in the Military Affairs Office are now, Li Hongzhang knew very well. It was tantamount to expecting them to make a decision. It was like asking for fish from a tree. When Rong Lu was there, he might be able to withstand a while. Now Rong Lu Ji is gone. Who else can the court rely on? Prince Qing is a good player to make money, but unfortunately, nothing else is useless. Zhang Zhidong's eyes are so beautiful that he is too exaggerated. Zhao Shuqiao only knows how to change the situation with the wind. As for Rong Qing and Tie Liang, he is completely unaware of the world, so he still has to find himself in the end.

After meeting Cixi and Guangxu, Li Hongzhang was confident. He gave Cixi two ideas. One was to immediately send someone to negotiate with overseas Chinese and ask what their intention was? If they needed territory, they could grant them 1 or 2 provinces to overseas Chinese. Although this could not completely satisfy the ambitions of overseas Chinese, it would at least allow overseas Chinese to stabilize for a few years, implement new policies for the court, and compile new military formations to make time. When the court's new policies are effective and the new army is trained, they can deal with overseas Chinese again.

In fact, Li Hongzhang's suggestion was to ask the Qing court to continue to pretend to be ostrich and cut his flesh to feed the tiger, but Cixi was a little moved. The reason was very simple. Cixi was also nearly 70 years old and felt that she had a few days to live. She could count on a day and count on a day. When she closed her eyes, she would not care about how the overseas Chinese were making trouble. Of course, Li Hongzhang also calculated Cixi's mentality and made such suggestions.

But Cixi also knew that this method was not easy to implement. Now the Manchus are very resentful towards overseas Chinese. The court not only did not punish them, but instead wanted to add a fief to them. That would have been a big deal. Although Cixi now controls the government and covers the sky with one hand, she cannot confront the entire Manchus class.

Another suggestion of Li Hongzhang was that if the court insisted on using troops to overseas Chinese, it would never ask countries to send troops, otherwise there would be endless troubles. Because countries may not be willing to send troops sincerely, most countries now have good friends with overseas Chinese. For example, Japan and Germany have established official relations with overseas Chinese. Therefore, the court did not give in to a major price, and it would be difficult for the court to invite countries.

In fact, it is not necessary for Li Hongzhang to say that Cixi also knew the harm of inviting various countries to send troops, which would make the Qing court completely morally lose hearts. Although Cixi did not want to care about the affairs of overseas Chinese, Cixi was very clear about what overseas Chinese did over the years. In fact, the biggest threat to the Qing court by overseas Chinese was not their military power, but the role of overseas Chinese dressing themselves up as a role of fighting against various countries and maintaining Chinese rights and interests since the landing. Of course, defeating the Eight-Nation Alliance, taking back the Tianjin Concession, taking back the Weihai, Qingdao and Guawa Overseas Chinese incidents also gave them this confidence. If the Qing court introduced other countries to deal with overseas Chinese at this time, it would only make the Qing court completely lose its righteousness, while overseas Chinese could call on the people of the entire Chinese region to oppose the Qing court. Rongqing and Tieliang were still a little too young and thought things too simple.

However, Li Hongzhang's suggestion is not only that it is not necessary to invite countries to send troops, nor to directly be enemies with overseas Chinese. After all, on the surface, overseas Chinese did not recognize their relationship with Henan bandits, so the court might as well pretend to be confused and concentrate its efforts to conquer Henan bandits. On the surface, it still maintains its relationship with overseas Chinese. Although overseas Chinese will secretly support Henan bandits, the competition is limited. If the Qing court successfully conquered, it will be equivalent to indirectly slapping overseas Chinese in the face, so that they will also restrain themselves in the future. If the conquered and suppression fail, they will not be able to break up with overseas Chinese, and both sides still have room for ease.

At this time, Guangxu interrupted, "If we want to conquer Henan bandits, who should be activated?" Li Hongzhang's reply was Yuan Shikai. Guangxu was speechless after hearing this, and Cixi then spoke and asked Li Hongzhang to retreat.

At this moment, the base area had completed the initial restoration after the war, and the two newly organized regiments were basically equipped, so they immediately began to implement the expansion plan of the East China government. The first goal was to complete the total occupation of the four prefectures, Guide Prefecture, Chenzhou Prefecture, Xuzhou and Weihui Prefecture. In fact, the base area has formed basic control over these four prefectures, but the city has not moved, and the countryside has been under the control of the base area. Therefore, it is not difficult to fully occupy these four prefectures now. In less than a month, all the cities in these four prefectures were captured. Local officials of the Qing court either fled or were captured.

After the news reached Beijing, the Qing court was shocked again. In the eyes of the Qing court, he lost four prefectures in a row. At first, Cixi was a little hesitant, but at this time there was no way, so she had to recruit Yuan Shikai to Beijing to discuss sending troops to quell the rebellion.

It was December 1903. Several events that had a significant impact on future generations were completed within the East China government. First of all, after several months of preparation and imported a large number of machinery and equipment from Germany, Gao Liu Automobile Company finally officially started production and planned to produce a sample car in 1904. This was also one of the world's most well-known car brands several years later. Before that, Shanghai held the first fashion show in this time and space, and almost all the well-known figures in Shanghai were invited to attend. Because the fashion show was unique and novel in the form and the use of a large number of sound and light effects, it achieved a very successful effect. The more than 50 clothes displayed at the fashion show also became popular. In less than a month later, not only did the more than 600 clothes made were sold out, but more than 500 orders were also signed, and soon became a benchmark in the Shanghai fashion industry.

In addition, a large number of Nanyang businessmen invested in Shandong, Shanghai, Tianjin and other places, which greatly promoted the economic development of the East China government. The fiscal revenue in 1903 was 8613,000 silver dollars, exceeding the mid-year forecast of 8000 silver dollars. Compared with last year, the increase was as high as 32%.

Moreover, in December, the East China government's financing plan also achieved great success, signing contracts with Germany and the United States respectively. In two batches, bonds with a value of 300,000 pounds were issued in two batches, with a time of 4 years, an interest rate of 10%, and interest payments were paid in that year. At the end of the bond time, the principal was paid in one go. This means that in the next two years, the East China government will receive a huge amount of 60 million pounds of funds for preparing and engaging in wars. Of course, the first thing is to ensure that the issuance of bonds can be sold in full.

However, the East China government is also very confident about this, because firstly, the interest rate of bonds is high. Generally, the bond interest rate is between 6-8% and the interest rate of 10% is quite considerable. Secondly, in the famous talks, the bonds were issued to deal with the Russian war, and the war will begin in early 1904. According to the experience of the old time and space, Japan fought quite smoothly at the beginning of the war. Although the East China government did not participate in the war in early 1904, the East China government and Japan are now in a cooperative relationship, so it will definitely be optimistic with the market conditions of the East China government, and there should be no big problems in the issuance of bonds.

Originally, the East China government wanted to issue a bond in the UK, but the British government could not issue bonds in 1904 on the grounds that the time was insufficient and the current economic recession in the UK was in a state of recession. If the bonds were to be issued in the UK, it could only be pushed to 1905. It turned out that the British government's wishful thinking was determined by the result of Japan's war against Russia in 1904. Japan fought well on the battlefield and did not need the help of the East China government. Then in 1905, it would find other ways to reject the East China government in case the East China government took advantage of the opportunity of this war to become a big shot. But if the war was not good for Japan and the East China government needed to send troops, then Britain would fully support the East China government to raise funds.

Of course, the East China government paid a lot of money. In the three years from 1906 to 1908, huge interest rates of 6 million pounds will be paid every year. In 1905 and 1909, 3 million pounds will be paid, with a total of 84 million pounds. This money can only be recovered from war reparations. If the war fails or if sufficient war reparations are not obtained, the East China government will be declared bankrupt. Therefore, it can be said that the East China government is also making a gamble for national destiny.
Chapter completed!