On March 30, 1894, the day the armistice agreement was signed, Li Hongzhang proposed to immediately continue the peace negotiations. In order to force Li Hongzhang to sign the war as soon as possible, the armistice period given by Japan was only three weeks and 21 days. In other words, if there is no negotiation before April 20, Japan will continue to go to war.
Haggling is inevitable, and it's better to start talking as soon as possible. Li Hongzhang said, let's talk quickly, the doctors said that my gunshot wound has not healed, I need to recuperate, I can't blow the wind, I can't go to Chunfan Tower, if you don't mind, we can talk in the temple.
On April 1, the fourth round of negotiations began, and the venue was Chunfan Tower.
Li Hongzhang was unable to go out in person due to injury, and Li Jingfang appeared on his behalf. First, the negotiation process is discussed. When Hirofumi Ito saw Li Hongzhang's absence, he wanted to bully the juniors and proposed to discuss them one by one. Li Jingfang said that let's not play retail, or engage in wholesale, and all the terms will be negotiated at one time. Hirobumi Ito said, that's fine, but you have to reply within four days. Li Jingfang couldn't do this, and said that I would report back to the Minister Plenipotentiary before replying. In the end, the tiger father has no dog, and everyone knows that wholesale is better than retail bargaining.
Li Hongzhang said: It is better to talk about it at one time. So Ito Hirobumi sent someone to send the terms of the peace to the temple for Li Hongzhang to see.
Hirofumi Ito finally showed Japan's hole card, Li Hongzhang has always wanted to see this thing, although he has imagined many times how harsh this clause will be, but when he saw the clause, he was still stunned, his face was full of consternation.
There are four main contents:
1. China recognizes that the State of Korea is truly completely independent and self-reliant;
2. China cedes the southern part of Shengjing Province, the whole island of Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to Japan forever;
3. China compensated Japan for 300 million taels of silver in the military treasury;
4. In addition to the ports that have been opened in China, seven ports of commerce, including Tianfu, Shashi, Xiangtan, Chongqing, Wuzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, are also opened, and the goods imported into China by Japanese subjects are exempted from taxes and fees, and all goods may be manufactured in China.
Li Hongzhang had long expected that Japan would definitely open his mouth this time, but he still didn't expect that Japan's appetite would be so big that it was beyond the limit of his psychological endurance. In particular, Articles 2 and 3.
Take the indemnity as an example, the most of the treaties signed in the past did not exceed 10 million taels, but now it is 300 million taels, more than 30 times, and the Qing government's annual financial revenue is only 70 or 80 million taels, and it will take three or four years to make up this money without eating or drinking.
Taking land cession as an example, Britain has cut Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Division, which are very small in area, and Russia has cut more than 1.5 million square kilometers, all of which are remote areas. Not only does Japan have a great appetite for land cutting, but the opening is a peninsula and an island, and it picks all key places, Shengjing (including today's Liaoning Province and part of Inner Mongolia) is close to Beijing, and it is also the land of Longxing. Taiwan and Penghu are strategically important places in the southeast, isn't this another stab in the stomach?
This makes it clear that China will be put to death, not to mention the attitude of the imperial court, as long as Li Hongzhang is signed with three words on such a clause, there will be no suspense for 10,000 years. He can only bargain with this old life, and he has no idea what the effect will be. Li Hongzhang knew that Ito Hirobumi's gang was not easy to deal with, and the next negotiation road would be extremely difficult, and his body and mental strength would face a cruel test.
Japan pressed very tightly, stipulating that a reply must be made within 4 days, otherwise it will be invalid after the expiration date. In the afternoon of the same day, Li Hongzhang sent a telegram to Premier Yamen on the terms of the peace talks, and expressed his opinion in the telegram, saying that the amount of military expenditure demanded by Japan was too great for China to bear, that Shengjing (Mukden) was the hinterland of Manchuria and could never be ceded by all, and that if Japan was unwilling to reduce its military spending by a large amount and give up Shengjing's cession of land, then the peace talks would only break down and China would have to fight bitterly to the end.
After Li Hongzhang sent the telegram, he was recuperating from his injuries while waiting for the instructions of the imperial court. By April 5, the deadline for a reply had expired, and the imperial court's instructions had not yet arrived.
Neither Guangxu nor Cixi wanted to take this responsibility, so neither of them expressed their position. Several ministers of the central government had no choice but to sit down and discuss, but the discussion came and went to no avail, and the premier yamen was unable to reply to Li Hongzhang.
Without a will, Li Hongzhang had no choice but to resort to delaying tactics, and the specific method was nothing more than bargaining with Japan. Of the four items of Korean independence, land cession, reparations, and trade, he refuted the remaining three one by one, except for the first one, and wrote an opinion letter to Ito Hirobumi. It was a piece of cake for him. In the early years, when he was a secretary to Zeng Guofan, his writing was already famous all over the world, and after so many years of tempering, his brain and pen power have been perfected.
Mutsu Somitsu couldn't help but be amazed after reading it, what a good article! Because the rebuttal is so well written, it is difficult to refute Li Hongzhang from a logical point of view, which makes Ito Hirobumi very difficult. Mutsu Somitsu said, this is easy to do, since this is the case, let's not reason with him, just tell him the result. Hirofumi Ito gave a thumbs up, the hero saw the same thing, and just did it!
When you can't win reason, the best thing to do is to be unreasonable.
The winner is a sword, and the loser is a fish and meat, and can only be slaughtered. This is the essence of international exchanges. In this world, there are three places that have always only talked about winning and losing, and are unreasonable: one is officialdom, the second is casinos, and the third is the battlefield.
On April 6, Ito Hirobumi sent a note to Li Hongzhang, saying that this is a war, not ordinary diplomacy, and that if you lose the war, you will have to accept the slaughter, and there is no reason to talk about it. Ito asked Li Hongzhang to reply to the treaty article by article, whether he agrees or disagrees, and if he disagrees, he writes out the amendments and writes them according to the genre of the treaty, so that the final draft can be finalized.
The conditions are so harsh, it is a matter of the fate of the country and the nation, and it is not Li Hongzhang's decision to agree or not, he will also send a telegram to the Prime Minister Yamen, so that the imperial court can take the idea and give instructions.
The court discussed for 3 days, and the discussion came and went, but there was no opinion. Emperor Guangxu and others advocated abandoning Taiwan Baoshengjing, and some people advocated that Taiwan could not be cut, while Cixi thought that both places could not be cut, and she said that it was a big deal to call Li Hongzhang back and continue to fight. These people are very smart, although they know that they have to cede the land this time, but no one is willing to express their position, so as not to be scolded by future generations as losers and traitors.
Prime Minister Yamen is very embarrassed, not left and right, how to explain this meaning clearly to Li Hongzhang? It is not possible to say that it can be cut, nor can it be said that it is not cut and then beaten. After thinking about it for a long time, I finally came up with a strange article.
To be honest, this passage makes me look at the Prime Minister's yamen and his gang with admiration. You can think of this kind of bad move, can you say that they are a bunch of straw bales?
This passage is written like this: The two places in the south and north (referring to Taiwan and Shengjing respectively) are very important to the imperial court, and the palms and backs of the hands are full of meat.
Japanese troops attacking Liaodong
This is the first sentence, and there is another sentence below: Japan has a great appetite, and it will definitely not work if you don't agree to it all, and you, Li Hongzhang, as a minister plenipotentiary, can agree to which terms and which can't, you must boldly express your own opinions, explain the reason clearly with the Japanese, and strive for it on the basis of reason, and don't push the matter of land cession to the imperial court.
After reading it, do you see the mystery in it? Convincing or not?
Anyway, I'm completely convinced.
Where's the mystery?
Let's make a game of rewriting sentences, which everyone has practiced in middle school Chinese class, and everyone will understand after doing it.
Topic: Change the first sentence from a rhetorical question to a declarative sentence, and the meaning remains the same.
Answer: The two pieces of land in the south and the north are treated equally by the imperial court, although they are reluctant to give up, but when it comes to the last resort, the imperial court can still give up the pain.
Why does Prime Minister Yamen use rhetorical questions instead of declarative sentences?
What is level? That's the level. The charm of the Chinese Chinese language is here, and so is the learning. Different sentence structures have different effects. Declarative sentences have the same meaning no matter who reads them, but interrogative sentences are different, you can understand it as "forbearance to give up" or "not to bear to give up". Li Hongzhang, how do you like to understand, that's your business. The mystery is here. If we rephrase the second sentence as well, you will find it more interesting.
Topic: Rewrite the second sentence with the same central meaning.
Answer: Japan has a lot to ask for, and it is difficult to refuse all of them, so you should try your best to do your best. The matter of cutting the land, if it really doesn't work, you still agree to forget it, don't have to come out of the court to make a clear statement.
Connect the two sentences, and the meaning is very clear. What the imperial court means is that you try to fight for the matter of cutting the land, and strive to cut a little less, if Japan does not let go, you will agree to forget it, but don't say that this is the meaning of the imperial court.
Prime Minister Yamen knows that the Japanese may not understand this kind of word game, but Li Hongzhang must understand it, and the meaning of the imperial court is, to put it bluntly, that the land can be cut, and both the north and the south can be cut.
What do you call it?
To put it mildly, the court wants Li Hongzhang to carry the black cauldron, and hopes that he can take the initiative to come up and carry it, and at the same time, he is not allowed to complain.
The dignified court, such a style, makes people speechless.
On this day, Li Hongzhang finally realized what it was like to cry without tears.
At 4:15 p.m. on April 10, the fifth round of negotiations began.
The location is still in Chunfan Tower.
Considering the importance of this negotiation, Li Jingfang was still a little tender and was not Ito Hirobumi's opponent, and Li Hongzhang, who had not recovered from a gunshot wound, decided to personally participate in this negotiation.
It was Mr. Li's first negotiation since his injury, and he was dressed in a white hospital gown, with a pair of new reading glasses on his chest and a piece of ointment on his face, which doctors said would take at least a month to heal. This time, he still took a sedan chair from the Jieyin Temple to Chunfan Tower, but this time he did not take the "Li Hongzhang Road", but took the mountain road instead.
The time has come to decide the fate of the nation.
Ito Hirofumi brought the main points of the revised peace clause, and before taking it out, he said to Li Hongzhang, this is the final draft, and today you only need to say "allow" or "not allow".
Yes or no?
This is the tone of the robbers.
There are only two options and no bargaining. In Ito's view, there is really only one option.
This is bandit logic.
The main points of the clause are as follows:
All of China's subordinate territories are to be ceded to Japan forever:
1. The southern part of Shengjing Province, starting from the mouth of the Yalu River, traces the river to the mouth of the Anping River, and then draws a line to Phoenix, Haicheng and Yingkou, and the places named above are also in the territory of the concession;
2. The eastern shore of Liaodong Bay and the northern shore of the Yellow Sea are islands belonging to Shengjing Province;
3. The whole island of Taiwan and all affiliated islands;
Fourth, the Penghu Islands.
The indemnity was reduced to 20,000 taels of silver in Kuping.
Here are excerpts from the two key clauses of land cession and reparations, and compared with the first clause, Japan has made some concessions, which are exactly the same as what we see in textbooks today. The places that Japan wants to cede are the Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan, the Penghu Islands and their affiliated islands, that is, the Liaodong Peninsula and Taiwan Province. Compared with the first offer, the area of the land was smaller, and the compensation was less than 1/3, which was a big victory in Li Hongzhang's view, but he decided to fight again, so he refuted it one by one again.
Ito Hirofumi sneered on the side and said, if you don't get tired, just refute it, I won't change it anyway. The top priority is to sign the peace contract as soon as possible. The mainland is already ready to set out on Hiroshima, and 60 transport ships are ready to depart at any time, and from last night to this morning, 20 have already departed, presumably not far from Tianjin. It is still an armistice, and we will abide by the armistice, but once the armistice expires, we will not hesitate to go to war.
In 1909, Ito was assassinated in Harbin
If you agree, you have to agree, and if you don't agree, you have to agree.
If you can't win the battlefield, everything is equal to zero.
Zhongtang begged each other, the prime minister was as cold as ice, and in desperation, Li Hongzhang said such a sentence: You put the knife so hard today, are you not afraid that China will become strong in the future and settle accounts with you to take revenge?
It's like someone beating you up and taking your property, and in desperation, you have to say, don't do things too much, be careful that my son will seek revenge on you in the future!
As the saying goes, it's never too late for a gentleman to take revenge for ten years, which is very refreshing, but the premise is that the son has to fight for luck. In other words, the other party must think that your son will definitely fight in the future.
Obviously, Hirobumi Ito didn't think so.
Seeing that Ito Hirobumi was so tough, Li Hongzhang said that he still needed to ask Beijing for instructions, and he would give a reply at 4 p.m. four days later. After several days of exchanging telegrams, on April 14, the imperial court finally agreed to sign a peace treaty on the terms of the Japanese side of the fifth negotiation. The next day, the court sent the telegram again to show that it was correct.
Hirofumi Ito
On the afternoon of April 15, with only five days before the armistice deadline, the sixth round of negotiations began.
The opponents are still Li Hongzhang and Ito Hirobumi. According to the agreement, the negotiations were supposed to be held at 4 p.m. on the 14th, but in order to wait for the final reply of the imperial court, Li Hongzhang specially requested that it be postponed by one day. Ito readily agreed, as he was also waiting for this reply.
There were seven formal negotiations leading up to the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and I think the sixth was the most dramatic.
For example, let's say you go out to negotiate a project on behalf of the company, and the other company wants to buy your company, and the company has given you a reserve price for negotiation, but in order to reduce the company's losses, you still try your best to tell thousands of reasons, hoping that the other party can raise the price a little, but the other party is always indifferent and does not back down on the price, and this price is the bottom line that the company gives you. If someone tells you at this time that the other party already knows your company's reserve price, will you look up to the sky and sigh, regretting your lame performance just now?
In the sixth round of negotiations, Li Hongzhang was the negotiator of the acquired company, and Ito Hirobumi was the negotiator of the acquired company.
Because almost at the same time that Li Hongzhang received the telegram from the Qing government, Japan also deciphered the telegram and saw China's hole cards.
Of the seven negotiations, this one lasted the longest, from 2:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., a full five hours of talks, and did not adjourn until dark. For five hours, most of the talk was unnecessary nonsense, and only a few minor changes to the treaty were better than nothing.
Li Hongzhang walked out of the Chunfan Tower with tired steps, the bloody dusk had just passed, and what came was the boundless night, leaving only the stars and lights.
Farewell, Maseki
In the sixth negotiation, Li Hongzhang said a lot of things, and it was basically nonsense. Some people think that he doesn't need to say so much, the result is the same anyway, but Li Hongzhang thinks that it is one point to fight for at the last moment.
He knows that it is impossible to make a big change, and it can only be a small change, for example, he proposed that he hoped that the compensation could be reduced by 50 million taels, but Ito Hirofumi did not agree, he said that it would be 20 million taels less, okay? Ito Hirofumi still didn't agree, and Li Hongzhang said, how much less, just give it to me as the cost of returning home, okay?
If you can fight for 20 million taels, you can rebuild a Beiyang fleet, and if you can fight for a piece of land, it will be a major event for thousands of generations, why is it not necessary?
In the end, I guess Li Hongzhang made fun of Ito Hirofumi. If we savor his performance in this negotiation, we can see a more real Li Hongzhang.
Li Hongzhang seemed to be a little out of shape in this negotiation, making himself look like a flower child, and said to others to send a little, send a little! So many people still use this as a laughing stock, saying that he is spineless and classless. Is it really that funny? Put yourself in their shoes, and to be honest, I can't laugh at all.
Everyone in this world longs for the understanding of others, and Li Hongzhang is no exception. It was he who didn't want to fight at the beginning, everyone wanted to fight, and he was the one who led the troops to fight; didn't fight well in the middle, and he was the one who was scolded; Later, he defeated the demand for peace, and it was he who came to negotiate. He is indispensable for everything, he is the one who has been wronged the most, and he is the one who has been misunderstood the most. This world is like this, the more capable you are, the more tired you are, and the more you do things, the more unpleasant it becomes. Even so, Li Hongzhang did not complain or complain, at least in public. When he came to Japan to negotiate, a grandfather-level figure and a dignified bachelor, he should have enjoyed family happiness at home and enjoyed happiness in his old age, but he had to lower his eyebrows, swallow his anger, and even be shot and bloodied, risking his life, but he never gave up, he buried all his grievances in the deepest part of his heart, and fought until the end of the peace talks.
How many sad things, to whom to say?
An old man over 70 years old can do this, how many people can there be in ancient and modern China and abroad?
At 10 a.m. on April 17, Chunfan Building, the seventh round of negotiations.
There are still 3 days left before the armistice deadline, and the end is finally reached, and everything is about to be settled. Violence, threats, grievances, and shame will come to an end, and all ugliness will come to an end.
As the last negotiation, it was actually a signing ceremony. The Treaty of Peace between China and Japan, also known as the Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan, is customary to refer to as the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The treaty consisted of 11 articles, with five main articles, and textbooks usually only included four items: land cession, indemnity, opening up trade, and opening factories, and the first recognition of Korean independence was usually omitted.
1. China recognizes that the State of Korea is truly completely independent and self-reliant;
2. China cedes the Liaodong Peninsula, the whole island of Taiwan and all its affiliated islands to Japan;
3. China shall pay to Japan about 20,000 taels of Kuping silver as compensation for military expenses, which shall be paid in eight installments, and after the first indemnity is paid, the unpaid amount shall be paid at the rate of five per hundred per annum;
4. The subjects of Japan may be engaged in the manufacture of various crafts in the treaty ports of China, and they may import all kinds of machinery as they please, and shall pay only the prescribed import duties;
5. Shashi, Chongqing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou will be opened as commercial ports, and Japanese ships can sail into the above ports along the inside, take passengers and cargo, and so on.
The influence of the Treaty of Shimonoseki is not too much to say, and it is found in secondary school textbooks. There is a phrase that I think can be added, and that is that China has withdrawn from the great power stage, and Japan has risen rapidly to become a great power.
What I want to say is that every decisive battle at sea in the maritime era will profoundly affect the national fortunes of the warring parties, and this influence will last for maybe 10 years, maybe 100 years, maybe longer.
So I have to ask: 200 million taels of silver, how many Beiyang fleets can be bought?
The answer is 20.
In fact, this answer is problematic, because China's final indemnity is not 200 million taels of silver, nor 230 million taels, according to the research of Mr. Qi Qizhang, an expert on the history of the First Sino-Japanese War, 200 million taels plus the ransom fee and Weihai garrison fee, as well as silver consumption and pound loss and other disguised plunder, China actually lost a total of 259.7 million taels of silver, equivalent to 389.5 million yen. In addition, Japan also caught nearly 100 million taels of booty on the battlefield, that is to say, Japan directly reaped 340 million taels of silver, equivalent to 510 million yen, more than Japan's fiscal revenue in six years. As for those invisible losses, they will never be measurable.
According to the amount of compensation, the cost of buying ships for the Beiyang Fleet is nearly 10 million taels, so you can buy 30 Beiyang Fleet. The total cost of the Beiyang Navy is about 20 million taels, so it can purchase and maintain the operation of 15 Beiyang fleets. When I first ran the navy, I always said that I had no money, but now how can I have money in compensation?
Don't say 15, even if there are only two, how can there be the humiliation of today's Maguan?
Later, Japan used this money to arm the invasion machine, accelerate the expansion of armaments, and want to destroy China as soon as possible. Japan's largest steel mill, Yawata Iron Works, was financed by this indemnity, and Japan's compulsory primary education was also popularized with this money. 10 years later, their army, armed with this money, launched the Russo-Japanese War in northeastern China. Nearly half a century later, Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, which is like a robber who first bought a machine gun, stormed the villa next door, robbed a sum of money, occupied a room, and then used the money to buy a cannon to carry out a second robbery, and tried to occupy the entire villa.
The Qing Empire, which was unwilling to invest in the Beiyang Fleet and was unwilling to pay for national defense, finally tasted the bitter fruit of a huge and friendless one, and also pushed China to the edge of the abyss. This tells us a bloody truth: If a country is stingy with national defense, it will inevitably pay a heavy price. Li Hongzhang tasted this bitter fruit himself, and without him, the situation would have been even worse.
After the treaty was signed, Ito Hirobumi breathed a sigh of relief. Finally got what he had been longing for, and his face smiled like a flower. Li Hongzhang also breathed a sigh of relief, his face was bitter into a melon.
What a shame!
On April 18, 1894, the day after the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Li Hongzhang boarded the ship and set sail for China.
Before leaving, a friend in Japan asked him to write a few words for collection, and he wrote 4 words with a stroke of his pen - sad place. The moment he boarded the ship, he secretly made a poisonous oath in his heart: never to do it for life!
Two years later, an accident forced him to almost break this vow, but in the end he kept it with his wits and courage.
On the boundless, empty and vast sea, the fleet that once flew the dragon flag was like a yellow crane.
Farewell, Maseki!
I touched the wound and took only one bullet with me.