In the 59-episode TV series "Toward the Republic" broadcast by the Central Radio, people saw that after the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang almost raised a gun to commit suicide. Indeed, in the days after the fiasco in the Sino-Japanese War and the total destruction of the Beiyang Fleet, which he had personally founded and painstakingly managed for thirty years, Li Hongzhang, the "Lord of the Middle Hall," also fell into a trough in his life: his two most prominent positions were directly subordinate to the viceroy and minister of Beiyang, and now the viceroy of direct subordination has been removed, and the minister of Beiyang has also been demoted to "minister of trade and commerce." However, since he is still a "minister", he still has to go to work, but the place of work is no longer the governor of Tianjin, Yamen, but the "General Administration" of Beijing, that is, the prime minister's office for state affairs. After arriving at the post, he sat in an inconspicuous corner and did not say a word, "the snake is only in and out" (Wang Bogong's "Essay on Curling Up"), that is, perfunctory socializing, just mixing up the days. The minister in charge of the General Administration at that time was called Zhang Peilun, who was both li Hongzhang's son-in-law and the grandfather of the later famous female writer Zhang Ailing, but unfortunately he was also unable to give any substantial help to the old man in the trough. To be sure, Zhang Peilun does not have much diplomatic talent; what about his deputies and subordinates? Worse, they are all "food companion" personnel, to put it bluntly, that is, indiscriminately filling up the numbers, accompanying the goods to eat dry rice.
Li Hongzhang (February 15, 1823 – November 7, 1901)
Suddenly, one day, the French minister came and asked in a menacing manner: "The guns, ammunition, etc. ordered by your office have been agreed upon with our country and are about to be signed. If you don't believe it, it will seriously affect the diplomatic relations between China and France, and even provoke because of it, which is not our responsibility in France! Isn't the so-called "provocation" a naked threat of war? Zhang Peilun was stunned, who dared to defend! Don't say that at present, our Great Qing Dynasty has just suffered a crushing defeat to Little Japan, and it is already a mess, let's say that during the Sino-French War a few years ago, Zhang Ren, as the minister of the Fujian Provincial Administration, was unable to take measures, resulting in the fiasco of Mawei, the collapse of the Fujian Marine Division, and his own dismissal and replenishment of the army, which can be described as a huge pain. Now this minister is also an arrogant and rude Frenchman, and Zhang Renyan can not be spared! And his deputies and subordinates, although they also bear the title of "QingGuo Minister", are like Zhang Fei looking at mice one by one--only with big eyes and small eyes, they dare not be angry. As a result, the French minister became more and more powerful, compared to his hands and feet, spitting, and talking non-stop, and even forced them to make a decision on the spot: to buy French arms.
Zhang Peilun (24 November 1848 – 4 February 1903)
At a time when he was frozen and stunned and could not be reconciled, Li Hongzhang, who had been watching coldly, could not bear it, and he stepped in front of the French minister and slowly swallowed: "Your Excellency, calm down, there is something to sit down and talk slowly." First of all, you are mistaken, our country orders guns and ammunition from other countries, this is a business, what does it have to do with diplomatic relations? The so-called buying and selling, for the buyer, under the premise of similar quality, of course, to choose a low price seller. At present, the price of the third country is indeed lower than that of your country, so our country has changed to ordering from a third country; if at this time it is found out that there is a fourth country whose price is cheaper than that of a third country, our country will change to order from a fourth country, and the third country also has no right to ask questions, because this is the legitimate right of the buyer and a normal phenomenon in trading. Secondly, the reason why our country has consulted with a third country to revise the agreement is because it has not yet signed a treaty with your country, but only verbally negotiated and negotiated, and in nature, it can only be attributed to empty words. Since it is empty talk, how can it forcibly involve the diplomatic relations between the two countries? ”
Although the words are swallowed slowly, they are reasonable. At this moment, it was the turn of the French minister to open his mouth and be stunned, so he scratched his ears and scratched his cheeks, barely prevaricating a few words, and had to go away.
Map of the Battle of Horsetail
Not long after, as the two special plenipotentiaries sent by the Qing court to Japan for peace talks were returned to China by Japan on the grounds that they were "insufficient in full powers," Li Hongzhang was appointed as a special plenipotentiary minister and went to Japan to sign the "Sino-Japanese Maguan Treaty." Regardless of the evaluation of Li Mou's performance when he contracted, objectively speaking, he has gradually come out of the trough of his life and re-entered the decision-making body of the Qing court. Because at that moment, the Qing court knew some foreign affairs and could handle diplomacy, and there was really a shortage of talents.