In Shimonoseki City, Japan, there is a Nissin Lecture and Memorial Hall, which records the signing of the "Maguan Treaty" here in 1894 after the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Naval Battle. When the treaty was signed, Li Hongzhang, as a representative of the Qing court, negotiated in Japan, was assassinated and shot, and before fainting, he said 7 words, and the Japanese listened to the reduction of 100 million silver.
The main reason for the signing of the "Maguan Treaty" was the defeat of the Battle of Jiawu, and the failure was not without reason, when the Meiji Emperor of Japan, in order to save money to expand military expenditure, ate only one meal a day and was hungry to set an example, and in the old calendar, on the eve of the beginning of the Battle of Jiawu, Empress Dowager Cixi in Beijing spent tens of millions of military funds originally prepared for the Beiyang Fleet in order to celebrate her 60th birthday.
After this battle, the Beiyang Fleet was completely destroyed, and there was an uproar throughout the country, including Cixi, and the qing court ministers knew that the Japanese had been planning this operation for a long time, and it was impossible to give up, and if they wanted to negotiate peace, they were bound to open their mouths and ask for benefits from China in a big way.
However, for Cixi, the loss was not too great, after all, the Japanese only wanted money and land, and her actual ruling power was not greatly affected, so she pushed Li Hongzhang to the front and sent him "with full authority to deal with peace talks with Japan." He said that he was not sick and hid in a palatial palace.
Li Hongzhang was well aware that he was on behalf of the Qing court to send an envoy to Japan for peace talks, and he was pushed to the top of the storm by Cixi, and this time when he went to Dongying, he would definitely bear the name of a traitor, and although he was more than seventy years old, although he had no choice, he still resolutely stepped on the ship to Japan and was determined to minimize the losses as much as possible.
Sure enough, after Li Hongzhang arrived in Japan in March 1894, he met with the long-awaited Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi at the famous Japanese restaurant Chunfan Building, and the two sides engaged in a fierce confrontation.
During the meeting, Ito Hirobumi put forward extremely harsh conditions, demanding that the Qing Dynasty compensate 300 million taels of silver and cede land such as the Liaodong Peninsula, the Penghu Islands, and Taiwan Island.
Terrified, Cixi hurriedly sent instructions to unconditionally accept the Price of the Japanese side, and Li Hongzhang was already like an ant on a hot pot at this time, because the two sides had been unable to reach consensus for a long time during the meeting, so the meeting was adjourned and the negotiations were held on another day.
When the haggard Qing mission was on its way back to its own inn, there was a sudden accident, a fierce Japanese suddenly blocked the way, and when everyone was stunned, he fired a shot at Li Hongzhang in the face, Li fell on the spot, bleeding profusely, the guards hurriedly subdued the assassin, and then turned his head to see Li Hongzhang, who was already weak.
Before Li Hongzhang fainted, he shouted seven words: "This blood can repay the country." As soon as the incident came out, both China and Japan were in an uproar, and after investigation, the assassin was an extreme right-wing Japanese member named Kozo Bongtaro, and the Japanese government of Ito Hirobumi felt very embarrassed and angry.
They admitted that "as a result of this violent change, the Empire had to stand in a very difficult position, on the contrary, the Qing State received the best excuse for the countries, and the Qing envoys may return to the country immediately." And when they complain to the nations, they will show their sympathy to them, and it is difficult not to turn to us under the pressure of their union. ”
In order to save his image, the Japanese emperor heard about it, personally sent doctors to treat Li Hongzhang, and stopped Japan's military operations during this period, the emperor's empress personally knitted a bandage, and let Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi bring to the door to comfort.
In the subsequent negotiations, the Japanese negotiated with Li Hongzhang, who was still wrapped in bandages, and felt a little bit of a loss, under the fierce debate between the two sides. Finally agreeing to reduce the three hundred and twenty million silver to two hundred million taels, Li Hongzhang used his own bloodshed to more or less recover the losses caused to China by the corrupt Qing Dynasty.