The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 546 After the Peace Negotiation
On the issue of the withdrawal of Russian troops in Northeast China, the focus of the dispute between the two sides was mainly on the document that the Russians induced Shengjing General Zeng Qi to sign.

The Russians insisted that the agreement they signed with Shengjing General Zeng Qi was valid, while Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang believed that the Russians tricked Zeng Qi into signing it.

Moreover, Zeng Qi was only the Fengtian General, a local official, not a representative sent by the court, and had no authorization from the court. Therefore, the documents he signed with the Russians had no legal effect, and the Russians had to withdraw from the Northeast.

As a result, the two sides were deadlocked for nearly half a month and the negotiations were terminated for a time because of the Russians. During this period, the two sides also had serious exchanges of fire in Shanhaiguan. In the end, the two Russian divisions that attacked the front were defeated by the vanguard army with superior forces.

The military failure and the resolute opposition of Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Italy, Austria, Japan and other countries to Russia's occupation of the Northeast put enormous pressure on the Russians, and they finally agreed to a conditional withdrawal.

To this end, the Treaty of Transfer of the Three Eastern Provinces was signed with the Russians. The content of the treaty is as follows.

First, the three northeastern provinces remained under the jurisdiction of the Qing Empire and governed by Qing officials, just as they were before the Russian army occupied them.
Second, if there are no more disturbances and no other countries' actions can hinder us, the Russian army will withdraw from the Northeast in three phases within a year and a half;
3. Before the Russian army withdrew, the Qing Dynasty did not train any more troops in the Northeast, and only the original troops outside the Great Wall remained;

Fourth, after the withdrawal, the number of troops stationed in Northeast China should be informed to Russia at all times;

5. After Russia returns the railways from Shanhaiguan to Yingkou and Xinminting, the Qing Dynasty should pay compensation;
6. All vanguard troops were withdrawn to Zhili, and Shanhaiguan was also handed over to the Fengtian Green Camp for management.

Teng Yuzao originally strongly opposed this agreement, but Ronglu sent a personal letter to Teng Yuzao, persuading him to accept the Russians' unreasonable demands.

He even hinted that the Queen Mother was already on her way back to Beijing and was eager to reach peace talks as soon as possible, and asked Teng Yuzhao not to obstruct this hard-won agreement.

The United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, which were also eager to end the war as soon as possible, also brought in Japan and France to sign a guarantee with Ronglu that they would supervise the withdrawal of Russian troops. If the Russians showed any hesitation on the issue of withdrawal, they would intervene with force to force the Russians to withdraw from the Northeast.

Although Teng Yuzao knew very well that the Russians would never give up the Northeast easily, and the guarantees from Britain, Germany, the United States, Japan and France were only on paper, and that in the end only Japan, which also intended to get involved in the three northeastern provinces, would fight with the Russians, and the other powers would only provide financial and weapons assistance to the Japanese, he had no way to stop it.

Even if Cixi gave him the right to veto the contract, he would not dare to use it at this time. Doing so would make both the government and the public think that he, as the president of the vanguard army, was self-centered and did not take the court seriously. This would certainly make the radical generals in the vanguard army support him more firmly, but it would also lose the hearts of some stubborn people to a certain extent.

Teng Yuzao always believed that a relatively peaceful transition, without the use of force to conquer the old and young people in various provinces, would have the least impact on the country's future. To achieve this goal, he still needed some preparation.

Moreover, there are Russians outside the Great Wall and Japanese in the future, and the vanguard army will have to face a major war in the Northeast. It is really not appropriate to cause any changes at this time.

After weighing the pros and cons for many days, Teng Yuzhao finally had no choice but to accept the Russians' delaying tactics.

After the withdrawal of troops was discussed, other problems were easily resolved. Although there were disputes over the release of prisoners and compensation, after negotiations, the two sides quickly agreed to pay 10 million taels of silver to Zhili, and Italy and Austria each paid 1 million taels of silver.

After being persuaded by Britain, France, the United States and Germany, and after the Americans lent money to the Japanese at extremely low interest rates, the poor Japanese gritted their teeth and accepted.

In exchange for Teng Yuzhao's decision to stop pursuing compensation from the Allied Forces for the huge losses caused to Zhili, Britain, the United States and Germany all made great efforts to achieve their goal.

It is said that the one million taels of silver each from Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were given by Britain and Germany.

Regarding the issue of compensation between the great powers and the imperial court, Ronglu agreed to the demands of the great powers and the matter was to be discussed separately between Ronglu and the great powers.

Although Teng Yuzao knew that the so-called renegotiation would most likely result in the court being the one to suffer in the end, given that Tongzhou and the capital were not under the jurisdiction of Teng Yuzao, the Governor-General of Zhili, as they were under the jurisdiction of the Tianfu and the court, it would be difficult for Teng Yuzao to interfere, so he could only give up.

The remaining issues were even less of a problem. The great powers removed the clause prohibiting the sale of arms from the contract and agreed to renegotiate relevant navigation treaties, but this still needed to be discussed with the court in the future.

Regarding the three customs offices in Beiyang, the great powers believed that if Teng Yuzao agreed, they could send personnel to supervise the execution of the repayment of previous mortgage loans undertaken by the three customs offices, and they would not object.

Teng Yuzhao also agreed to this one.

His influence over the customs outside the Beiyang region could not extend that far for the time being. As long as the imperial court still appointed Hart as the Commissioner General of Customs, even if an agreement to reclaim them was signed, the customs would still be controlled by the great powers.

On the issue of concessions, the great powers also agreed with Teng Yuzao's plan, but required Teng Yuzao to guarantee that only police officers could maintain public order in the concessions. Teng Yuzao had no doubt about this.

Teng Yuzhao was just trying to push for the implementation of a police system in Zhili and even other provinces in the country when he received this proposal from the great powers.

The powers also agreed to remove the stationing of troops along the line from Beijing to Tianjin and Dagukou, which was originally proposed by the great powers, but they required Ronglu and Teng Yuzao to make a guarantee that no incidents that would endanger the personal safety of foreigners in the country would occur again.

Regarding the construction of churches, the powers finally agreed to comply with Teng Yuzhao's request within Zhili, and the other parts of the territory should also be discussed separately.

Although Teng Yuzhao was very dissatisfied with this result, he was also well aware of the intentions of the great powers and the court to negotiate separately, but he had no choice.

He is now only the Governor-General of Zhili, and it is really inconvenient for him to interfere too much in the affairs of the court.

As they were eager to develop trade with Zhili, the withdrawal of the powers this time was carried out very quickly. By October, the powers had withdrawn all their garrisons in Zhili.

Since the indemnity that the seven countries of Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy and Austria promised to pay to Zhili was to be used to purchase equipment and supplies from the four countries of Britain, France, the United States, Germany and Germany, this would be spent as purchase money in these powers when the procurement of equipment began. Therefore, Teng Yuzhao released the prisoners of war from these countries without any difficulty.

Although Italy and Australia also have to contribute one million taels of silver, their silver is provided by Britain and Germany, so the money will be counted on these two countries. When purchasing supplies and equipment, they only need to contribute an additional one million taels of equipment, supplies or weapons.

Even these prisoners of war were evacuated back home along with the last batch of troops from these countries.

Of the remaining prisoners of war, only more than 70,000 Russian and tens of thousands of Japanese prisoners of war had not yet been released.

The Russian prisoners of war were not released because the Russian army insisted on not paying compensation and even dismantled and transported away all the equipment of Dongjuzi when they evacuated. Naturally, Teng Yuzhao would not release these people.

Although the Japanese agreed to pay Teng Yuzao 10 million taels of silver in compensation after borrowing money, there was no equipment that could be imported from Japan, so Teng Yuzao finally agreed that Japan should compensate with their rice at a discount.

After conversion, including shipping costs, Japan needs a total of 9 million koku of rice.

Japan said it would pay such a large amount of rice in one lump sum after the autumn harvest, so the Japanese prisoners were not released for the time being. Shanhaiguan was taken over by the Green Camp soldiers under the former Shengjing General Zeng Qi, and Zeng Qi himself was dismissed from his post as Shengjing General because he signed a so-called agreement with the Russian army. He stayed in the area temporarily to handle affairs.

Although the domestic people reacted strongly to the court's handling of Zeng Qi, the good news that came one after another soon overshadowed it and no one mentioned Zeng Qi anymore, which allowed Zeng Qi to escape the disaster temporarily.

Before all the foreign troops withdrew, Teng Yuzhao submitted two memorials, requesting the establishment of a Ministry of Education and a Ministry of Police respectively.

On the pretext that if we were to independently develop and produce guns, warships and promote Westernization, we must set up new schools to train talents, we requested that the Ministry of Education be reopened to be responsible for promoting new schools throughout the country.

In the name of relocating and disbanding the Green Camp and other old armies, and setting up police in the Tianjin Concession to maintain local public security, a General Police Headquarters was added to the Six Ministries to manage police in various places.

The Minister of Education recommended Sun Jianai, the former Minister of Personnel, Associate Grand Secretary, and the first Minister of Education, as the Minister of Education. Sun Jianai, who had returned home to recuperate in anger because he disagreed with Cixi about her house arrest of Guangxu, was appointed as the Minister of Education.

Although the post of Minister of Education was established during the Guangxu Reform, it was only a part-time position held by Sun Jianai, the Minister of Personnel, and this Minister of Education was only responsible for managing the Imperial University of Peking. This time, the Ministry of Education was truly going to manage the new education in the entire country.

Teng Yuzhao recommended Sun Jianai to be the first Minister of Education, not only because Sun Jianai participated in the preparation and subsequent management of the Imperial University of Peking and had experience in running new schools.

It is also because Sun Jianai believed that in order to revitalize China, we must not only focus on Western learning and develop industries, but also believe that if the country wants to be rich and strong and the nation wants to prosper, the first thing to do is to open schools.

At that time, Sun Jianai put forward the idea of ​​"taking Chinese learning as the main focus and Western learning as the supplement; Chinese learning as the body and Western learning as the application".

It was planned that the Imperial University of Peking would have 10 main subjects and 10 supplementary subjects, with the requirements: "to cover the past and present, both China and foreign countries, to integrate the general theory and practice, and to integrate the fine and coarse..."

He also advocated the establishment of medical schools, military academies, and accelerated training schools, and urged all provinces to set up more middle and primary schools.

Moreover, in Teng Yuzhao's memory, Sun Jianai's descendants later set up many schools in his hometown of Shouzhou.

Although Sun Jianai was still somewhat conservative, he was much better than other court officials. At a time when no one was qualified to be the Minister of Education, Sun Jianai was a good choice.

Regarding the candidate for the Minister of Police, Teng Yuzhao did not recommend anyone, but only recommended Xue Qian, the commander of the Cavalry Brigade, as assistant.

Not only did Teng Yuzhao want Xue Qian to leave the Vanguard Army and find a suitable place for him, but also because Xue Qian had little experience, it was obviously unsuitable for him to serve as a minister.

Cixi approved both memorials very quickly.

There was no problem with setting up the Ministry of Education and the appointment of Sun Jianai, but Cixi made some concessions on the Ministry of Police. Although she agreed to set up a police force, she downgraded its rank and only agreed to set up a Police Department under the management of the Ministry of War.

Tie Liang, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, was transferred to the Ministry of War as assistant minister and concurrently the director of the Police Department, responsible for the reorganization and changes of the Green Camp of the capital and Shuntian Prefecture, with Xue Qian as the co-director.

At the same time, he ordered Teng Yuzao to arrange for Xue Qian to go to the capital as soon as possible, and also asked Teng Yuzao to assist Tie Liang in setting up the Police Department and the Beijing Police Yamen.

After obtaining Cixi's reply, Teng Yuzhao not only immediately arranged for Xue Qian to rush to the capital, but also sent Li Yaoting to contact Tie Liang and help Tie Liang set up the Police Department and the Beijing Police Yamen.

During this period, Yuan Shikai and the new Shandong Governor Zhou Fu, who rushed to Shandong with Pan Jinshan's Sixth Regiment, left Shandong with his Wuwei Right Army after handing over government affairs. Duan Qirui led the newly expanded Wuwei Right Army to Shuntian Prefecture, responsible for guarding the capital. Yuan Shikai led the remaining two newly expanded regiments to Henan and took over as Governor of Henan.

Li Hongzhang, who had been seriously ill for a long time, also died on November 7, just as in history.

This forced Teng Yuzao to rush to Baoding in advance with the special guard squadron and a battalion specially selected from Liu Bingyi's guard town.

After Teng Yuzhao arrived in Baoding, he helped Li Jingfang deal with Li Hongzhang's funeral, and then arranged for a sentry in the Weikou Town in Baoding to accompany Li Jingfang to escort Li Hongzhang's coffin back to his hometown of Hefei, and then stay in Baoding to wait for the arrival of Cixi.

Although the peace talks took place much earlier than in history, Cixi's return journey was still slow. She did not arrive in Baoding until November 20th.

According to what Zai Yi said privately to Teng Yuzhao when he accompanied Cixi back to the palace, Xiao Dezhang told him that after Cixi received the report of Li Hongzhang's critical illness, she was very concerned and shed tears.

Cixi also said: "The overall situation is still uncertain. If something unexpected happens, who will share this heavy burden?"

The next day, when the news of Li Hongzhang's death came, Cixi was "shocked and grief-stricken", and the entourage "all looked around in astonishment", as if "the beams were collapsing and the buildings were broken, and they had suddenly lost their support."

Because of Teng Yuzhao's suggestion, Xiao Dezhang has now been bribed by Zai Yi, and many of the things around Cixi were passed on to him privately by Xiao Dezhang.

Teng Yuzao believed that Xiao Dezhang's retelling of Cixi's shock at hearing the bad news was still credible.

Over the past few decades, Li Hongzhang could almost be said to be the backbone of Cixi. Even if Li Hongzhang did not have to appear in person in all the affairs of the Qing Dynasty, he would have been involved. Now that Li Hongzhang has passed away suddenly, it is not an exaggeration to say that Cixi is inexplicably grief-stricken.

After Cixi arrived in Baoding, she immediately issued an imperial edict to commend Li Hongzhang, ordered Prince Gong Puwei to go to Hefei to offer sacrifices, bestowed on him the title of Taifu, promoted him to the first-class marquis, posthumously named him "Wen Zhong", and granted him 5,000 taels of silver for funeral expenses.

Li Hongzhang was allowed to be enshrined in the Temple of Worthy and Talented People, and temples were built to commemorate him in his hometown and the province where he made great contributions, such as Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Jiangning, Tianjin, etc.

In the capital, a special shrine was built and officials from Shuntian Prefecture held regular sacrifices.

Cixi treated Li Hongzhang with great honor!

However, Teng Yuzhao understood clearly that all these honors given to the deceased were given by Cixi for the sake of these provincial governors.

After staying in Baoding for two days, Cixi finally set off and took the train back to Beijing.

(End of this chapter)