A series of unequal treaties in the late Qing Dynasty, the humiliation of our nation, although it has passed for a long time, but it has always lingered in our minds, has been deeply engraved in our memories, imprinted on our tenacious self-esteem. At that time, there was such a person, some people said that he was a "traitor" and was pointed out by thousands of husbands, and some people said that he was the "king of the cave repair" and "scapegoat" of the Qing Dynasty. In these mixed evaluations, history slowly presents such a figure in front of us, who is Li Hongzhang.
Background to the Treaty of Simgou
The signing of this treaty marks that China has been controlled by the great powers in the true sense of the word, and marks China's defeat in the war. The cause of this treaty was because of the Empress Dowager's declaration of war against the world, and although we do not know why she had such boldness, we can be sure that these decisions she announced brought fatal damage to this land and also shook the foundation of the Qing dynasty's royal court. Of course, these are not the most ridiculous, the ridiculous thing is that the actual ruler of this country, after poking such a mess, not only did not take the initiative to take this responsibility, but at the first time let his minister Li Shaoquan communicate with these emotional foreigners holding steel guns. What they don't know is that these foreigners want not only money, but also the heart to completely enslave this ancient nation, and they want to completely crush the self-esteem of these corrupt princes, so that they can plunder and invade the land that Yanhuang once ruled here.
Although the Chinese people were facing these well-equipped coalition forces, they did not have the slightest timidity, whether it was the former boxers and other civilian organizations, or the soldiers of the Qing Dynasty, they were desperate to throw themselves into such a war, what they wanted to protect was not this dynasty that disappointed them everywhere, but the inch of land under their feet, their childhood memories. However, in the face of the sophisticated soldiers of the great powers, although they had senseless hearts, they could not defeat these realistic and highly lethal firearms, and in the end, the gates of Beijing gradually lost control with the attack of a sound of artillery fire, until more and more foreign soldiers poured in, and people slowly accepted the fact that Beijing had been captured.
Subsequent processing
After hearing that the foreign soldiers had invaded the city of Beijing, the first to panic was the empress dowager, who was invincible and particularly arrogant at that time, and she immediately fled from the other entrances of the Forbidden City with the emperor and her personal retinue, because she knew that if she was controlled by the foreigners, she would face their punishment, so she could not be controlled, only if she was not controlled, it was possible to negotiate with these powers. At this point, she is smart and sensible.
After the empress dowager fled with the emperor, she asked Li Shaoquan, who had the most diplomatic experience at the time, to negotiate with these people, and the advantages of this were at least twofold:
First of all, it is to prevent the opportunity of direct contact with foreigners, to a certain extent, to continue to retain the face of the royal family, and can give Li Shaoquan a lot of room for circles, after all, the leader of the dynasty is not there, she thinks that she can use this to deal with foreigners.
Secondly, the empress dowager chose a certain degree of circumvention, which could actually exempt herself from the humiliation of directly signing the treaty, and even escape the punishment of the Eight-Power Alliance. You must know that at that time, in order to scare her, these foreigners deliberately put her name in the first place among the war criminals, although the empress dowager may not have a concept of such a word as a war criminal, but she must know what it means to be placed in that first place, that is, to be blamed, that is, to be humiliated, and may even endanger her life, becoming the first empress dowager in the Qing Dynasty royal family to be killed by the "barbarians" in their eyes, so she did not want to suffer such humiliation.
Li Shaoquan signed a "Su" in the back
After all, this is a treaty symbolizing humiliation, and he only signed a Su on this treaty, and there are two theories: some people say that this word is written from top to bottom of Li Hongzhang's name, and some people say that this is the title of "Su Yibo" that he has had before, and the word "Su" is taken from here.
The reason why he signed it in this way was because he did not want his name to appear on this treaty, because he did not want to become a sinner of the Chinese nation, and he did not want to be the "back cooker" of this dynasty all the time.
It was precisely because of this that he did not explicitly sign his name on that treaty, but chose to sign it in this way.