Three days later, Zhao Weizhong arranged all the affairs at home, bid farewell to the crosser, and came to Dagukou. The crosser prepared the ship for him was the Sea Dragon torpedo destroyer, which originally belonged to the Beiyang Navy, and sent twenty soldiers from the Beiyang Navy to escort Zhao Weizhong south to Shanghai.

The Hailong sailed fast and traveled day and night, so he only stayed on the boat for one day and arrived at the Shanghai Pier the next afternoon.

As soon as Zhao Weizhong got ashore, he was greeted by those who were sent by Li Hongzhang to the dock waiting. After both sides informed each other of their identities and origins, the people sent by Li Hongzhang immediately asked Zhao Weizhong to board the carriage that had been prepared and left in the dust. The crew members who escorted Zhao Weizhong were treated with special people.

The carriage pulled Zhao Weizhong to Li Hongzhang's mansion in Shanghai in one breath, in front of the Dingxiang Villa. The family guarding the door immediately came up, picked up Zhao Weizhong from the carriage, and led it into the gate.

When he arrived in the house, Zhao Weizhong discovered that there were five people in the house. Li Hongzhang was sitting in the middle of the sofa, and Zhou Fu and Sheng Xuanhuai were sitting upright on the Li sofa on both sides. Behind Li Hongzhang, there was one person standing on the left and right. The person on the left head was slightly short and slightly fat, about 45 or 6 years old. He looked quite smart, while the person on the right head was thin, about fifty years old, and looked like a scholar.

Both of these two people were known to Zhao Weizhong. The slightly short and slightly fat man on the left was Li Hongzhang's eldest son Li Jingfang. He was originally the son of Li Hongzhang's sixth brother Li Zhaoqing, and later adopted Li Hongzhang as his eldest son. After becoming an adult, he followed Li Hongzhang to engage in major domestic and foreign affairs. Later, he served as the US minister and the previous Japanese ministers on missions. He basically engaged in diplomatic activities and was also a good diplomat. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, he assisted Li Hongzhang in negotiations with Japan, mainly acting as Li Hongzhang's assistant.

The person with a thin body on the right is Li Hongzhang's son-in-law Zhang Peilun. He was a Jinshi from the Xinwei Certificate in the tenth year of Tongzhi (1871). He was a member of the Qingliu Party in his early years. He was known as the Four Kampuaries of the Qingliu Party together with Zhang Zhidong, Chen Baochen and Baoting. He was good at criticizing current problems, discussing political affairs, and storing ministers. At the beginning of the Sino-French War, Zhang Peilun strongly advocated fighting against France, was ordered to handle Fujian's maritime affairs, and also appointed the Minister of Shipbuilding, responsible for Fujian's military affairs. The Battle of Majiang was defeated, the Fujian Navy was destroyed, and the Mawei Shipyard was destroyed. Zhang Peilun was also sent to the military Taiwan for dereliction of duty to serve as atonement, and sent to the Harcha Hantuoluhai, Zhangjiakou and other places. Three years later, he returned to Beijing for full crimes and joined Li Hongzhang's court, in charge of documents, and his original wife was dead. Li Hongzhang cherished Zhang Peilun's talent and married his daughter Li Juou to Zhang Peilun as a successor. After that, Zhang Peilun no longer became an official and only worked under Li Hongzhang's court.

Zhao Weizhong stepped forward a few steps, bowed to Li Hongzhang respectfully, and said, "I have met the Lord Zhongtang." Then he greeted the others one by one.

Li Hongzhang looked down and said, "Weizhong has worked hard all the way, sit down and talk."

When Zhao Weizhong heard this, he was quite flattered. The four people present were all Li Hongzhang's confidants, and they all had a considerable proportion in the Qing court. Zhao Weizhong could only look up to him. It was not easy to see one before. He could not sit and talk to them, so he hurriedly thanked Li Hongzhang and sat down on a chair next to the sofa. However, he did not dare to lean against the back of the chair, but sat respectfully and upright.

Li Hongzhang said: "This time the chaos in the north is so great, it is not easy for you to keep your safety. Are all your family okay? I remember you have a daughter."

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly bowed on the chair and said, "Report to Master Zhongtang, Master Zhongtang remembers it well. He does have a daughter. He asks Master Zhongtang for his blessing. Although he was frightened, he finally had a family of peace."

Li Hongzhang sighed and said, "The state affairs are so difficult. Although I am in Shanghai, I am still worried about the current situation and state affairs day and night. Yesterday, the court called me again to urge me to go north and negotiate with foreigners. But the situation is so deteriorating now. Is it so easy to negotiate? If the court had heard me say something, the state affairs would never have reached such a level. Now I have left such a mess and let me clean up. What can I do if I asked me to do?" Li Hongzhang's voice was choked.

When Zhao Weizhong heard this, he couldn't help feeling so sad. He looked at Li Hongzhang again, and felt that the Lord Zhongtang was old and had a sick look on his face. He hurriedly said, "Lord Zhongtang, please take care of yourself more and more."

Li Jingfang also advised: "Yes, father, now in the crisis of national affairs, the safety of the world lies with his father. The court still hopes that his father can turn the tide, so he asks his father to take care of his health."

Li Hongzhang smiled bitterly and said, "What's the point of turning the tide? It sounds nice. It's just selling my old face to complain to foreigners, protecting the court, and being able to cut less land and paying less money is good. 'There is no clown after Yang San, and Mr. Li Er is a traitor.' I'm afraid I can't take off my infamy."

Zhou Fu and Sheng Xuanhuai stood up at the same time and said, "Master Zhongtang."

Li Jingfang and Zhang Peilun also said, "Father (father-in-law)."

Zhao Weizhong also hurriedly stood up from the chair, stood with his hands down, lowered his head and said nothing.

At this time, Li Hongzhang also realized that he had lost his composure, so he waved his hand and said, "Sit down, everyone is your own, so don't be detained."

After everyone sat down again, Zhang Peilun said, "Father-in-law, I think the situation is not necessarily unbearable at this moment. A group of overseas Chinese want to return to China, and foreigners suffered a great loss in their hands and even lost Tianjin. It can be seen that God really blessed me, China, will not perish." Then, he glanced at Zhao Weizhong again and said, "Didn't Weizhong come from Tianjin? I heard that he still has some friendship with this group of overseas Chinese, but I don't know if it is."

Zhao Weizhong hurriedly said, "My son-in-law is good. He does have some relationship with these overseas Chinese. For more than a month, people have been with them. This time, the father and daughter were lucky enough to survive. Thanks to these overseas Chinese, and this time, they came to Shanghai, and they also asked someone to greet the Lord Zhongtang on their behalf."

In fact, I just talked about this and everyone was waiting for Zhao Weizhong's words. Li Jingfang immediately said: "Weizhong, do overseas Chinese have anything else to tell their father besides greetings?"

Zhao Weizhong shook his head and said, "Report to Da Gong, no."

Li Jingfang asked again: "Then do you want to send your father a letter?"

Zhao Weizhong said: "No, either."

Li Jingfang was stunned and couldn't help but be surprised. It turned out that after receiving a telegram from Zhao Weizhong, he knew that he was coming to Shanghai, the whole Shanghai was immediately alarmed. Consuls from various countries and Qing officials from Shanghai were all looking forward to waiting for Zhao Weizhong to arrive. Because everyone believed that Zhao Weizhong must have come to Shanghai with some intention of this group of overseas Chinese this time, so through Zhao Weizhong, we can understand the purpose and next plan of this group of overseas Chinese, and it is also possible to test whether this group of overseas Chinese has the intention to negotiate with various countries.

Li Hongzhang and others even believed that Zhao Weizhong must have brought letters or oral letters from overseas Chinese to express their intentions to Li Hongzhang. It was just that it was difficult to ask directly, so they talked about so much nonsense. Everyone even complained that Zhao Weizhong was too ignorant and why he had not come to the main topic for a long time, so they had to beat around the bush and touched the overseas Chinese, but they got such a plan.

At this time, everyone was stunned and stunned, a little at a loss. Even Li Hongzhang was surprised. What was this group of overseas Chinese going to do? He sent Zhao Weizhong to Shanghai, but he did not let him bring any comments.

Li Jingfang was still a little unwilling to give up and asked again: "Did they really not have a word for you to convey?"

Zhao Weizhong raised his head and said, "Reporting to the eldest son, before he left, he also asked these overseas Chinese, but they clearly told people that they did not have any words and letters to send them to the central hall."

When Li Jingfang heard this, he was very disappointed and said, "So what did they ask you to come to Shanghai?"

Zhao Weizhong was stunned and said, "When people were about to leave, they had seen one of the leaders of overseas Chinese. The man was named Qin and his official name was political commissar. He told people that overseas Chinese were all things that could not be told. After a person came to Shanghai, the person would answer whatever the Lord Zhongtang asked. There should be no concealment, nor any decorations, and all answers."

Hearing this, Li Hongzhang raised his eyebrows slightly. After all, he was a person who had been in the officialdom for a long time. At this time, he finally understood the intention of this group of overseas Chinese. They were waiting for foreigners in Shanghai to send people to Tianjin to talk to them, or wait for the foreigners here to first propose a ceasefire negotiation.

Handling diplomatic negotiation affairs was one of Li Hongzhang's main tasks when he was the Minister of Beiyang and the Governor of Zhili. Although in this era, diplomatic negotiations were a thankless thing in China. Because of the signing of a large amount of compensation for land cedes, Li Hongzhang was infamous for a traitor, it did allow Li Hongzhang to accumulate a lot of experience in diplomatic negotiations.

In diplomatic negotiations, there are two important principles. One is to enter the negotiations in the area controlled by the party, so that this party is the leader of the negotiations and the strong party; the other is that the party first proposes a request for a ceasefire negotiation, which means that this party is at a disadvantage and is actually ready to give up. This group of overseas Chinese obviously hopes to let foreigners take the initiative to propose negotiations and send people to Tianjin for negotiations, so that overseas Chinese can occupy a dominant position in the negotiations. Zhao Weizhong's role is just to connect the overseas Chinese and Shanghai, so he will naturally not bring any slander.
Chapter completed!