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Chonghou, the complete Yan clan, that is, the complete Yan Chonghou, the ancestor of the Fifth Emperor of Jin completed Yan Yong, and the Southern Song Dynasty's great fight with the descendants of the Jin Dynasty, Manchuria with yellow flags, the father was the governor of The River, and the brother was the Shangshu of the Punishment Department.
In 1879, three major events shocked the Qing Dynasty.
The first recital sent back from Russia. It immediately caused a sensation in the imperial court. Mentioned that in the previous year, he took a boat from Shanghai to Europe, passing through the South China Sea, Malacca, the Indian Ocean, reaching the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal, and finally landing in Marseille, walking 26,700 miles in 40 days.
For this situation, the officials of the Great Qing Dynasty were not surprised, because of the previous ambassador to Britain and France, Guo Songtao, they already knew the speed of European steamships.
The next thing Chonghou said really frightened everyone. Mention of the train ride in Europe. It took only one night to travel more than seven hundred kilometers from Marseille to Paris, and the eight hundred miles of urgent work known to the Qing dynasty were not completed overnight, and they also had to change horses at the station. What moved so fast, roughly close to the distance from Beijing to Zhengzhou, was incredible, and it was a shock to all who read the recital.
Before Rong Hong and Guo Songtao and others, they also mentioned the power of the train, but at that time, many people felt that they were not very reliable, and they would be suspicious. Now chonghou said the same thing, and everyone could no longer be calm.
The following story surprised the Qing officials even more. Paris met with Guo Songtao, ambassador to Britain and France, met with French Foreign Minister Wadenton, Russian Minister to France Aroff, British Minister to France Laiyangsi, etc. Ate and drank and continued to train to Berlin on the fourth day of November.
Next, he met with Li Fengbao, the ambassador of the Qing Dynasty to Germany, and later translated many German military books, especially a series of operation manuals on the Krupp cannon, which had a great impact on the time.
Later, he met with the officers and men of the Huai Army sent by Li Hongzhang to study in Germany, talked cordially with them, positively affirmed their achievements, and encouraged them to serve the motherland after completing their studies.
Before the outbreak of World War II, whether it was Li Hongzhang, Yuan Shikai or Chiang Kai-shek, they all studied under Germany, and the performance of the German army was obvious to all, but what surprised people was that the students it taught were really miserable. The Huai Army was the most effective in the Sino-Japanese War.
Then Chonghou began to hurry again, and in four or five days he reached St. Petersburg, Russia, more than 4,000 kilometers. This speed made the entire Qing officials stunned! It's like running back and forth from Beijing to Guangzhou, and everyone knows what it means.
This recital was read publicly and widely circulated, so that the officials of the Qing Dynasty, from Empress Dowager Cixi to the provinces, were all shocked and realized the great superiority of the railway.
Therefore, a year later, According to the biography of Liu Ming, who could not contain his excitement, he publicly played the request for the construction of the railway, which was stimulated by the reverence of this recital, as to why it was not done later, we said it before.
There are more unexpected. Guo Songtao once wrote a chapter to the imperial court, asking for personnel to attend the International Prison Conference, similar to early non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International today. Guo's reason is that this will give a better understanding of the public law of nations. By the way, the ministers at that time, including Prince Gong Yixin and Li Hongzhang, often mentioned international practices and public law when playing foreign affairs, and used this as a code of conduct.
And in the same year, the Qing Dynasty and Spain also signed a treaty to protect Chinese laborers in Cuba and fight for their rights.
If you want to find mistakes in the history books before 1840, it is basically a bone in the egg. In the later works, God knows who wrote them, it is simply full of errors, it is unbearable to see, and the contrast is probably political correctness.
If the lofty life had ended here, it would probably have been a glorious Western-style official in recent history, but what happened next was a big surprise.
Finish the face is reverent
The second thing that shocked the Qing Dynasty was the negotiations between Chonghou and the Russians.
Originally, Westerners looked down on the Qing Dynasty to the extreme, but because Liu Jintang played too beautifully in Xinjiang, Chonghou also received high-level diplomatic courtesy abroad.
When Chonghou arrived in St. Petersburg, the Russians, after determining their status as plenipotentiary, immediately held a grand welcoming ceremony, took a royal carriage, inspected the honor guard, and held a grand royal ball, which received Chonghou in full accordance with the standards of welcoming Western envoys. It seems that Zuo Zongtang's international status in recovering the Great Qing State in Xinjiang has been significantly improved.
Chonghou took a good hand of cards at this time, and his luck was bursting. Russia suffered heavy losses in the 10th Russo-Turkish War, the national treasury was empty, and most of the troops on the eastern front were transferred to the south, unable to start a war with Zuo Zongtang in Xinjiang. At this time, Russia was unprecedentedly isolated in the world, the British were looking for trouble at every turn, and they were also in crisis at home, and the humiliation of defeat had shaken the rule of Tsar Alexander II, and assassinations against him were endless.
In a good situation, Chonghou's brain was short-circuited, and he actually lost this deck of cards. Originally, Russia's bottom cards could be returned to Ili in their entirety, but the Qing government wanted to bleed 500,000 rubles, and as for other benefits, they could fight for it, and if they couldn't win it, they would not forget it. But the talks turned into partial return to Ili, compensation of 5 million rubles, along the line from Ili to Jiayuguan, the full opening of trade routes, the establishment of consulates, is this a little too big?
At this time, the Russians were also inexplicable, and at first they only asked for a price, but soon found that Chonghou would not bargain! The Russians said that it was okay to return Ili, and to question Xu Xuegong, the first criminal of the Russian business group who had previously been targeted in northern Xinjiang, and immediately after listening to it, he demanded that the country do the same, and as a result, the heroes of the militia regiment in Xinjiang were recovered, and the current Qing general Xu Xuegong was immediately dismissed.
This stunned the Russians, and suddenly found that the envoy of the other side had a bit of a serious IQ, so they decided to re-plan the content of the negotiations, so one by one more unreasonable demands were put forward, and Chonghou almost laughed at it. The most important thing is the famous GaoFuman Line, the new Russian Turkestan governor Gao Fuman proposed that the three sides around the city of Ili were almost all demarcated, leaving only a lonely Ili city and a only passage to the Qing Dynasty.
It is reasonable to say that Chonghou is, after all, a foreign affairs official, how much has he seen the world, recruited a foreign gun team, opened the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, and is also the first time to go abroad, how can he suddenly become so stupid?
Cause analysis of cowardice in the bones. Looking at the Tianjin teaching case, the French consul Feng Daye once shouted at Chonghou, and even pulled out his pistol and fired a shot at chonghou's back vase when his request was not met, and the fragments scratched Chonghou, but Chonghou actually did not break out. His ancestor was a golden vulture! Not bloody at all!
Of course, Chonghou's mission was to pick peaches, and at the beginning, the Manchu officials in the dprk, when they received a call from Chonghou and heard that Russia was willing to return Ili, were all elated, and in order to avoid being won by han courtiers, they also planned to skip Zuo Zongtang and send the Manchu official Xilun to receive Ili.
However, not long after, Prince Gong, nicknamed "Devil Six", found that something was wrong, and when he saw chonghou send back a report, almost all the Russians wanted, chonghou gave what he wanted, with years of diplomatic experience, old and spicy official intuition, Prince Gong knew that if this went on, I was afraid that something would happen. Hurrying to cut with reverence became his top priority.
As Chonghou sent back more and more telegrams, the beads of sweat on Prince Gong's forehead became more and more dense, and his heart became more and more afraid.
After thinking hard, he suddenly thought of a clever trick, collective decision-making, risk sharing, and taking the opportunity to get rid of the golden cicada. So he began to send a copy of every telegram sent back by Chonghou to Zuo Zongtang, asking him to take the decision, so as not to take responsibility for himself in the future.
However, in this way, it takes time for the telegram to be exchanged, and how long will it take to pass on the imperial court and then to the left marshal? The broccoli is cold!
Chonghou, who had not been clearly instructed by Beijing for a long time, had gone to the Livadia Palace in Crimea and signed a treaty between the two countries in the presence of the Tsar. The treaty was so humiliating that it was a defeat, and even Russian Foreign Minister Geers could not believe that it was true after it was signed.
When the treaty reached Beijing, public opinion in the government and the public immediately erupted, and the opposition was gathered from all directions like snowflakes to Cixi's desk.
Cixi faced unprecedented pressure, on the one hand, this was obviously a traitorous treaty, and it was absolutely not recognized. On the other hand, Chonghou is the minister plenipotentiary of the state, and what he says does not count? It is not untenable internationally, and if Russia becomes angry and goes to war against the Qing dynasty in an all-round way, it is not a joke.
Blessings are not double, and misfortunes are not alone. Something happened again in the east!
The third thing that shocked the Qing Dynasty, Little Japan jumped out again, and the Ryukyu Kingdom was about to be annexed.
He Ruzhang, the ambassador of the Qing Dynasty to Japan, sent an urgent telegram, and the situation was serious, and he asked the imperial court to quickly come up with an idea. At this time, a group of Ryukyu officials landed in Fujian and came to the Qing Dynasty to file a complaint, and the three Ryukyu officials Mao Jingchang, Cai Dading, and Lin Shigong were then sent by Fujian officials to the prime minister in Beijing, Yamen, and handed over the petition, saying that the lord of the country and Shizi had been captured by the Japanese, and asked the Qing government to uphold justice and send troops to Ryukyu.
In this way, when the shrunken-headed turtle can't do it, it must be given an explanation. The Great Qing Dynasty court quarreled again with the main battle and the absence of troops. Strategically speaking, Ryukyu is a barrier to Taiwan, and its strategic position is extremely important, and a few years ago, the Japanese sent troops to Taiwan.
The most important thing is to make Korea and Vietnam, which are also vassal states of the Great Qing Dynasty, feel cold, and make Mongolia and Tibet, which are directly under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, delusional, and the consequences of this matter are very serious, and the Great Qing State cannot but respond!
There is no navy in Ryukyu! So this matter is back to the previous dispute between coastal defense and land defense.
When it rained even when it was leaking, the matter of Ryukyu could not turn its face to the Russians, but this bitter fruit, Daqing really could not swallow. However, if you want to turn your face and deny the toughness of the treaty, then you will not be able to control Ryukyu, and the resources will be limited, then you will undoubtedly lose the majesty of the suzerainty, chill the hearts of the vassal countries, and let Japan gain inches and future troubles.
Cixi couldn't figure it out for a moment!
Switched to Romanism. To find out what happens next, and listen to the next breakdown!