The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 545 Competition before Negotiation

In response to the sudden and fierce attack launched by the vanguard army, the commanders of the Allied Forces in Tianjin immediately issued a statement in anger.

The coalition commanders who were caught off guard first strongly demanded that the vanguard army must immediately stop its crazy and provocative attacks and retreat to its previous garrison area.

They also threatened that unless the vanguard army withdrew to its previous base and stopped further military operations, the war in the Far East would inevitably expand indefinitely, and all the consequences arising therefrom would be borne by the vanguard army.

It was inevitable that the foreigners' threats of war would cause great indignation among the Chinese people.

You know, this is not the early stage of the war. The foreigners have broken through all obstacles along the way, and even Teng Yuzhao and his vanguard troops have to withdraw from Tianjin.

Now the vanguard army has won victory after victory, driving the coalition forces of 600,000 to 700,000 foreign powers out of the Taihang Mountains, and then chasing them relentlessly, not only driving the coalition forces to Tianjin, but also successively conquering Langfang and the capital, and even annihilating and capturing nearly one million coalition forces composed of the eight most powerful countries in the world.

Such a powerful coalition, not to mention an Asian country that has just been equipped with a small amount of modern weapons and even its domestic industrialization has just started, not to mention that it cannot produce warships and advanced artillery on its own, even the great powers including Japan that just defeated the Qing Dynasty a few years ago, such as world-class powers such as Britain, the United States, Germany, France, and Russia, no country dared to say that they could withstand the joint attack of all the other powers.

Although this time the coalition of the great powers did not and could not participate in the coalition with their full strength due to geographical and geopolitical reasons, it is still an absolutely powerful force.

However, this powerful force was defeated again and again by Teng Yuzhao and his vanguard army, a figure who had been almost deified as a military god. How could the domestic people not develop strong confidence from this?

Under such circumstances, not only the vanguard troops were in high spirits, but the people at home were also proud and in high spirits.

After the great powers threatened to expand the war, a large-scale wave of protests broke out in ports along the rivers and coasts such as Shanghai, Guangdong, Hankou, and Jiujiang. Foreign goods were burned in several port cities, and there were even physical attacks on foreigners in many cities.

Fortunately, these attacks did not cause serious incidents because local governments had already taken strict precautions.

However, such attacks still frightened officials from all over the country. While warning foreigners not to go out at will, they also sent out all the yamen runners and Green Camp soldiers they could to protect local foreign businessmen, missionaries, and their families.

Although the foreigners' threats of war caused strong reactions among the people, what is strange is that not only did the court remain silent about the threats, but even Teng Yuzao, who caused strong reactions from the great powers, did not say a word about the threats.

Just when everyone was puzzled, the next morning, the well-informed Ta Kung Pao suddenly issued an emergency special edition, publishing another explosive news.

In the early hours of the morning, a small group of elite troops first landed at Laolongtou from the sea under the cover of darkness. They were supported by a battalion of vanguard troops who quietly landed at Laolongtou by boat, sneaked into Shanhaiguan City and launched a successful surprise attack. With the internal and external attacks, they have now defeated the nearly 10,000 coalition forces occupying Shanhaiguan and successfully controlled four coastal artillery batteries and a railway station.

After occupying Shanhaiguan, part of the army went out of Shanhaiguan to the east. Before the time of publication, the army had successfully occupied Qiansuo, Sheshanwa, Malangtun and Songlingzizi line to the east of Shanhaiguan.

At the same time, tens of thousands of vanguard troops launched a surprise attack on Qinhuangdao at 10 a.m. They have now successfully controlled all important coastal locations such as Qinhuangdao ports and docks, and are currently clearing out the coalition forces along the line from Lutai to Shanhaiguan.

The actions of the vanguard army once again set off cheers in the country, and the sound of firecrackers in major cities once again rang out deafeningly. People took to the streets one after another, shouting slogans to completely eliminate the coalition forces of the great powers occupying Tianjin, expel all foreigners in the country's concessions, and take back the concessions.

Some writers even wrote articles calling for the vanguard army to fight their way out of the Great Wall, expel the Russians, and completely recover the three northeastern provinces!
Teng Yuzao finally stopped remaining silent and issued a statement on the same day, saying that the war would continue until the negotiations came to a conclusion. The vanguard army and the coalition forces had only temporarily stopped fighting for their own reasons, and there was no so-called ceasefire agreement.

Therefore, the attack launched by the vanguard army did not constitute a violation of the ceasefire. It was a normal continuation of the war and was completely normal and legitimate.

Teng Yuzao also expressed his willingness to resolve the issue peacefully and welcomed both sides to continue peace negotiations to end the aggressive war launched by the great powers as soon as possible.

But the negotiations must be conducted under the premise of fairness and justice and ultimately reach a reasonable result. He and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the vanguard army will never accept any humiliating agreement imposed on them by the great powers.

At the same time, Teng Yuzhao also said that he captured Shanhaiguan at this moment in order to respond to the coalition forces' war threats. He reported to the court that the vanguard army would be expanded to one million and actively prepare for war in order to deal with the possible expansion of the war by the great powers. He has now begun recruiting soldiers in various places in Zhili.

Teng Yuzao also said that if the great powers were determined to continue expanding the war, he would not mind letting the coalition forces pay the price of hundreds of thousands or even millions of casualties once again.

Teng Yuzhao's announcement of expanding the army immediately aroused support from all walks of life in the country. Under the organization of the Vanguard Army Support Associations in various places, young people from all over the country expressed their desire to join the Vanguard Army, and some even couldn't wait to rush to Zhili alone.

The statements from the coalition forces were a bit confusing. First, Alexeev stated in Tianjin that in view of the current serious situation, the Russian army would no longer abide by the requirements of the great powers to prohibit the Russian troops outside the Great Wall from crossing Shanhaiguan and entering Zhili. The Russian troops outside the Great Wall have begun to assemble urgently, preparing to recapture Shanhaiguan, march into Zhili, and open up connection with Tianjin by land, thereby rescuing the coalition forces besieged in Tianjin.

Seymour, commander of the British fleet in the Qing Dynasty, also issued a statement saying that he had led naval ships from various countries along the coast of the Qing Dynasty to form a joint fleet, and headed to the line from Dagukou to Shanhaiguan, ready to cooperate with the Russian army to attack Shanhaiguan at any time.

But in the evening, news suddenly came that the new British Minister to Qing, Sadow, who replaced MacDonald, together with the French Minister Bourdieu, the American Minister Conger, the new Japanese Minister to Qing Uchida Yasuya, the German Minister Bellow, the Italian Minister Savago, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's Chargé d'Affaires Rosston, the Dutch Minister Knobel and other ministers of the great powers to Qing, jointly sent a note to the court in Xi'an.

In the note, these envoys expressed that they were deeply anxious about the current situation and unanimously believed that the envoys of various countries to the Qing Dynasty should assume the mission of peace at this critical moment. They were willing to take over the negotiations with the Qing court and to start peace negotiations with the Qing court on the basis of fairness, justice and guaranteeing the interests of all countries in the Qing Dynasty. They hoped that Teng Yuzhao, Minister of Beiyang, Governor-General of Zhili and President of the Vanguard Army, would immediately order the Vanguard Army besieging Beicang to stop the attack and create a stable environment for peace negotiations.

Although the name of Russian Minister Resar was not on this note, the eight powers including the Netherlands were enough to represent the attitude of the great powers.

At the same time, these ministers also expressed that in order to achieve peace in the Far East as soon as possible, they hoped to start negotiations and resolve disputes as soon as possible.

The ministers said that in order to facilitate communication and reach a peace agreement as soon as possible, the venue for the peace talks could be set up in Yongqing. They were also very happy to negotiate with the Beiyang Minister and Zhili Governor Teng Yuzao, and hoped that Cixi could return to the capital from Xi'an as soon as possible so that relevant legally binding resolutions could be made as soon as possible. In response to this note from the ministers of the powers, Cixi, who was far away in Xi'an, responded very positively and agreed to hold peace talks with the ministers of the powers immediately. The relevant peace talks representatives were still led by the Imperial Commissioner Ronglu, who was about to arrive in Baoding, and Teng Yuzao in Yongqing, and the venue for the peace talks could be set in the capital.

Cixi also stated that the court, which was touring Xi'an, would return to the capital as soon as possible.

After the imperial court responded positively to the requests for peace from the ministers of the great powers, only half a day later, the Russian Minister Resar finally expressed that in order to achieve peace in the Far East as soon as possible, they were also willing to act in concert with the ministers of various countries and join the peace negotiations.

A few days later, Hong Kong newspapers disclosed that the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, German Field Marshal Waldersee, had no longer served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces due to health reasons, and was replaced by British Lieutenant General Gasley.

British Vice Admiral Seymour also went to Hong Kong for treatment and recuperation due to personal health reasons.

Both men were said to have been fired for their hardline attitudes.

The reason for Seymour's dismissal was not only his tough attitude, but also his lack of political acumen. He actually wanted to cooperate with the Russian troops outside the Great Wall to enter the Great Wall. This made the British Cabinet very angry, so they drove him to Hong Kong and asked him to return to the country as soon as possible to be questioned.

After Ronglu hurriedly rushed to Baoding, he rested only one night in Baoding before taking a train to the capital, where he immediately started peace negotiations with the envoys of the foreign powers.

Although Teng Yuzao still did not participate in the negotiations, Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang participated in the whole process. Not only was Teng Yuzao able to get the latest information on the progress of the peace talks every day via telegram.

Even some information that was inconvenient to send via telegram would be delivered to Yongqing by express horse.

In order to obtain information in a timely manner, Teng Yuzhao also dispatched headquarters communications soldiers to Tongzhou, Xianghe and Langfang, who were specifically responsible for transmitting confidential documents and requests sent back by Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang.

It is worth mentioning that during this period, British Minister Sadow, American Minister Conger, German Minister Bellow, French Minister Bessemer, the new Japanese Minister Uchida Yasuya, and Dutch Minister Knobel all made special trips to Yongqing to visit Teng Yuzao during the breaks in the peace talks.

Without exception, these ministers came to Yongqing for only two reasons.

On the surface, they came to discuss the concession in Tianjin, as well as customs management and tariff issues, but in fact, they came for the second thing, which was the major move that Zhili was about to launch to vigorously promote Westernization.

Of course, these ministers had different focuses.

The four people, British Minister to Zhili, American Minister to Zhili, German Minister to Zhili, and French Minister to Zhili, focused on the technical equipment that Zhili would need to introduce and the detailed exploration of joint ventures. They all hoped to buy more equipment from their countries. The British and American ministers even said that as long as Teng Yuzhao borrowed money from their countries, they could even provide Teng Yuzhao with a certain amount of preferential loans.

Sa Daoyi, Bellow and Kanger also discussed in detail with Teng Yuzhao the issue of rebuilding the Beiyang Navy.

What France and Japan were concerned about were the tariff issues of the three customs under the Beiyang government and the joint venture factories.

These two countries did not think that Teng Yuzao would choose to import machinery and warships from their country, because since the time of Li Hongzhang, the Qing people had been more willing to purchase weapons and equipment from Britain and Germany.

Therefore, France and Japan are more concerned about the level of customs tariffs and the detailed rules of joint ventures.

As for the Dutch Minister Knobel, he represented the Netherlands and Belgium in negotiating with Teng Yuzao about the Lu-Han Railway. They also wanted to continue building this railway.

This request of Knobel was naturally rejected by Teng Yuzao, but Teng Yuzao said that he would be responsible for repaying their initial investment.

Teng Yuzhao warmly received these ministers. He emphasized that as long as these people were willing to pay the 10 million indemnity and play a constructive role in the subsequent peace negotiations, he would welcome them to participate in the promotion of Westernization in Zhili.

Among them, they expressed great enthusiasm and welcome to Sadaoyi, Bellow and Conger.

In particular, the meeting with Kangge was more friendly, and Teng Yuzao even hosted a private banquet for Kangge.

Although no one knew what Teng Yuzao talked about with these powers individually, Teng Yuzao readily agreed this time. He could guarantee that during the peace talks, he would not launch any more attacks on the coalition forces in Tianjin.

During this period, Cixi finally returned to Beijing.

But this time he did not return to Beijing via Shanxi, but went through Tongguan and returned to Beijing via Henan.

Although Teng Yuzao had a good talk with the envoys of Britain, France, Germany and the United States, it did not mean that the peace talks in the capital would go smoothly. The negotiations were still very difficult.

The first issue on which they reached agreement was regarding war criminals and culprits.

The two sides argued for only half a day before they each took a step back and no longer insisted on punishing the relevant personnel. Instead, they stated in the contract that after careful investigation, both parties would punish the relevant personnel in accordance with the laws of each country.

Then there was the issue of troop withdrawal. There was no doubt about the withdrawal of troops from Zhili, but on the issue of the withdrawal of troops from the three northeastern provinces, there was a fierce dispute with Russian Minister Resar.
(End of this chapter)