The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 503 Go with the flow
Yang Shixiang said with admiration, "The Marshal's words, 'Wherever the truth is, I will go even if there are tens of thousands of people!' are so heroic and can be called a famous saying that has shocked the world since ancient times! Such courage is far beyond the reach of ordinary people. Shixiang admires it very much."

"If the imperial court wants to investigate this matter in the future, I am willing to follow you and go through fire and water."

Yang Shixiang's words made Teng Yuzhao laugh.

Teng Yuzao stood up, walked quickly around the room a few times, suddenly stopped, and spoke in a resolute tone.

"There is no need for the Lotus Mansion to do this. You still need to remain useful and do great things."

"As for the future, even if I, Teng, really have to be blamed for this, or even lose my life, I will not hesitate! For the country and the people, I have no regrets!"

After saying this, Teng Yuzao's face was full of determination. He walked quickly to the desk, picked up a wolf-hair brush on the desk, dipped it in thick ink, walked to the wall, and wrote quickly on the wall.

Soon, a couplet with not very neat parallelism appeared on the wall.

"I have no regrets about joining China in this life, and I will be a Chinese in the next life!"

This poem, which is full of infinite love for China, is naturally a plagiarized work by Teng Yuzhao, but it is appropriate to the time and situation, and it is the right time to use it to elaborate on the topic.

As long as this poem spreads, it will prove that the imperial court is plotting against Teng Yuzhao, a great hero who serves the country and the people, making him feel endless sadness and grievance.

From then on, he will gain the sympathy of countless people. Of course, those people who sympathize with him will be even more dissatisfied with the court. Even if he becomes really arrogant and domineering in the future, or even does more horrific "treasonous" things, no one will call him a "thief who stole the country" anymore.

There will even be many people cheering.

Even some loyal people would probably find it difficult to blame him. Most would attribute his behavior to the treacherous officials in the court who forced him to this point.

It was with such thoughts in mind that Teng Yuzhao wrote furiously with "sadness and anger" and then threw the pen on the table.

Although Teng Yuzao's action was a bit too contrived, the three people in the room were shocked beyond words by the tragic couplet written in ink on the wall.

The three of them recited the couplet silently. Although there was no sentence representing the Qing Dynasty in it, Huaxia and China were the names of this country since ancient times!
Gradually, the eyes of the three men became moist, and even Yan Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang seemed to have something in mind. They couldn't help but look at each other, and the moment their eyes met, they quickly looked away!

Although Teng Yuzao was filled with grief and indignation and wrote this couplet angrily, to Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang, both of whom were born as Hanlin scholars, the meaning of the couplet was self-evident. They could all guess that Teng Yuzao was extremely dissatisfied with the court. It was precisely because of this thought that no one noticed Teng Yuzao's slightly unnatural expression.

After a long time, the three of them turned their eyes away from the couplet on the wall, but they remained surprisingly united, and no one praised Teng Yuzhao's couplet which was full of heroic spirit.

Yang Shixiang, who seemed quite excited, spoke first.

"Marshal, I think that although you were plotted against by the imperial court in this matter, it is not a completely bad thing for you. It may even be a godsend opportunity. You can just follow the trend."

"Now that the Marshal has led the vanguard army to a series of great victories, the whole country is excited. If the Marshal publishes this memorial in the newspaper, he will surely be respected by everyone in the country and his reputation will soar."

"Especially, once the peace talks have a good result, even if we cannot meet all the conditions suggested in the memorial submitted by the Marshal, as long as we meet a few of them, we can win the support of the people of the world."

"At that time, even if the imperial court wanted to harm the Marshal, no one could shake the Marshal's position!"

"If the court acts forcefully, it will definitely cause uproar in the court and the country." "Therefore, Shi Xiang believes that although this matter is risky, as long as it is handled well, it is very likely to become something that is extremely beneficial to the Marshal!"

What Teng Yuzhao thought was just as Yang Shixiang said. This incident would definitely greatly increase his reputation.

Xu Shichang thought for a moment and nodded.

"The Marshal is willing to take such a risk, and the benefits are obvious. The court has always suffered losses in signing treaties with foreigners. Just as the Lotus Mansion said, as long as several of the Marshal's points are achieved, or even just one or two, it will be of great benefit to the Marshal's reputation!"

Xu Shichang seemed to have completely broken through some shackles in his heart.

He solemnly said to Teng Yuzao, "This is a bad thing, Marshal, it's worth doing!"

"Ok!"

Teng Yuzao waved his hand fiercely, "Okay! In that case, let's do it this way."

"Juren, I'm sorry to bother you with this matter. Please write an article immediately. Not only should you include the contents of my memorial, but you should also include the plan of Zhili to vigorously promote Westernization, including the plan to rebuild Tianjin City."

"It should also be written that the rebuilt Tianjin city will no longer have city walls. It will be a large port city like Shanghai and Guangzhou, and even the largest international city in Asia, which will be more attractive to foreigners this time."

"Then, you will rush back to Yongqing immediately and hand the article to the reporter of the Ta Kung Pao in Yongqing, and tell him that the article must be published as soon as possible, even in a separate special edition."

Teng Yuzao said disdainfully, “Then we just ignored everything else.”

"I still say the same thing. What we cannot get on the battlefield, we cannot get at the negotiation table either. We just need to concentrate on fighting the current battle. Let the foreigners make their own decision on where to go next."

The next day at noon, in the study of the Zhili Governor's Office in Baoding.

Although, starting from Li Hongzhang, several governors-general of Zhili had worked in Tianjin all year round, and there were also officials from the governor-general's office who stayed in Baoding to do their work in the spacious and elegant Zhili Governor-general's Office in Baoding, no one dared to use the governor's office and residence in the Governor-general's Office without authorization.

Even Zhou Fu and Shen Jiaben, who had already moved back to Baoding with all the civil officials of Zhili, had to stay in their own yamen to work.

However, Li Hongzhang was indeed qualified to move into the Governor-General's Office.

Not only because Li Hongzhang once served as the Governor-General of Zhili, but also because Li Hongzhang is now theoretically the top civil servant in the court. Although Li Hongzhang was just the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi and was still a local official, even if we ignore Li Hongzhang's qualifications, just the two titles of Prince Taifu and Grand Secretary of Wenhua Palace on Li Hongzhang's head are unmatched in the current court!
Therefore, when Li Hongzhang came to Baoding, he moved directly into the Zhili Governor's Mansion, and even occupied the residence and study that should have belonged to the new governor-general Teng Yuzhao.

In the study, Li Hongzhang, with an expressionless face, had just listened to Yang Shixiang, who had rushed back from Langfang, talk about his meeting with Teng Yuzhao.

According to Yang Shixiang, after reading the secret telegram, Teng Yuzao immediately decided that he would be the one to publicly express his proposal for peace talks. In addition, Teng Yuzao had already begun attacking Langfang, and the current battle situation was relatively favorable. He had gradually compressed the more than 100,000 coalition forces in Langfang to the vicinity of Langfang.

To paraphrase Teng Yuzhao, if there is an opportunity, the vanguard army will destroy the coalition forces in Langfang in a short period of time, prompting the foreigners to start peace talks as soon as possible.

Then, Li Hongzhang put on his reading glasses, took the article handed to him by Yang Shixiang, which was written by Xu Shichang and reviewed by Teng Yuzhao for publication, and read it carefully.

(End of this chapter)