129 years ago today, August 2, 1896 (June 23, 1896 in the lunar calendar), weak national strength made Li Hongzhang's visit to Europe unsuccessful. Li arrived in England and landed at Southampton Harbour. (Illustration of London News Photo) In the 15th year after Guo Songtao stepped down from his post as ambassador to Britain and France, the Sino-Japanese War broke out and the Westernization Party suffered a crushing defeat. In other words, Li Hongzhang suffered a crushing defeat. He signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, just like he signed the "Sino-British Treaty of Yantai" and the "China-France Treaty of Vietnam" before, and just like the "Xinchou Treaty" that he would sign later. This man, whom Ito Bowen called "the only person in the Qing Empire who has the ability to compete with the world's powers," once again took the blame for the empire: he fell from the peak of power, and the shame of the entire country became the shame of Li Hongzhang alone. He scolded him for bringing disaster to the country and the people stabbed him as a "traitor." However, the Qing Dynasty, which entered the setting sun, could not do without him. In May 1896, coinciding with the coronation ceremony of Tsar Nicholas II, all countries sent envoys to congratulate him. Wang Zhichun, the governor who the Qing government originally planned to send, was suspected of being too small. Having no choice, the court had no choice but to invite Li Hongzhang to go to Russia as a "first-class imperial envoy" and visit the following seven countries, including Britain, France, Germany and the United States. Li Hongzhang's visit lasted seven months, traveled 90,000 miles, spanning most of the world, but what he brought back was nothing except a "China-Russia Secret Treaty" that handed over Northeast China to others and a comparison of this evening. It has any substantive effect. Among them, Britain is his sixth stop. The paragraph circulated on the Internet today,"Lafayette, foreigners are coming to build a railway for us", but in fact it has nothing to do with the United Kingdom. He talked about railways in the United Kingdom, but did not place an order, which made the British people disappointed. Lord Zhongtang, the British people welcome you. On August 2, 1896, Li Hongzhang crossed the English Channel from France to Southampton, England, and took a train to London. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom sent a special car to serve at the station. The British people lined the road on their left and right. When they saw the most important minister of the Qing Dynasty, they all took off their hats and shouted to welcome them. Li Hongzhang stayed in the UK for 21 days. Everywhere he went, he was treated with considerable courtesy. The local people competed to see his appearance, waving hats, handkerchiefs and other handy objects at hand. Interestingly, when the British envoy Macartney met with Emperor Qianlong, there was a dispute over etiquette issues. This time, discussions were also sparked among the British about what standards of etiquette should be used to entertain the middle hall adults. Some British media believe that "I hope that in the future, when all countries hear about the return of Chinese ministers from the west, they will repay everything, eliminate hypocrisy and respect truth, and be fair and honest, and refrain from arrogance and arrogance." They oppose excessive extravagance. The Times said it more politely,"Self-indulgence is like entertaining a good friend, and courtesy is excellent." However, we must not make others laugh like the flattery and flattery of Russia and Germany."Since we are good friends, we should naturally treat them well. However, we British people should have the dignity of British people and cannot compete to flattery like Russia and Germany. Make people laugh. However, I never imagined that HSBC hosted Li Hongzhang's grand banquet in the Crystal Palace was extremely luxurious. It cost more than 6,000 pounds in one night, which was equivalent to 36666 taels of China silver at that time. Li Zhongtang, who had no money for military pay, was deeply impressed that "a noble person can have a meal for ten years." In 1896, Li Hongzhang sat side by side with retired British Prime Minister William Grassstone. The Queen sent a wheelchair and the Crown Princess took photos. After Li Hongzhang arrived in London, he visited Windsor Palace the next day and went to Buckingham Palace in the Forbidden City in the United Kingdom. The Queen happened to be away and didn't see her. On August 5, I finally met the Queen and other members of the British royal family at Aspen Palace via Portsmouth. Before meeting with the Queen, the Crown Prince and others and the British ministers hosted a banquet in honor of Li Hongzhang in a room called the "Indian Zhai" in the Aspen Palace. It seems that Cameron hosted President Xi's Indian beer today. India, the British colony in the East, must have brought a lot of pride and legacy to the British people. In "The Story of Li Fu Xiangli's Appointment to Europe and the United States" written by missionary Lin Lezhi, who synthesized British reports and Li Hongzhang's diary, and translated by Cai Erkang and others accompanying Li Hongzhang, this scene of meeting with the queen is depicted as establishing the Ascension of the Emperor of China, but the eunuch who announced the decree was replaced by British Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Saltsbury. Li Hongzhang saw Queen Victoria,"sitting on a golden lacquer chair, wearing a black robe, wearing a white gauze on her head, a white belt on her left arm, and a gold box hanging under it." Her son-in-law, Prince Duwei De, the queen's husband, Prince Albert, had passed away at that time. The Queen placed a portrait next to it, and other royal members compared the titles of China's royal family one by one, such as Princess and Grandson, which was quite interesting to read. When the Queen saw Li Hongzhang, she "bent her waist to welcome him," while the China minister only bowed three times. After reading the eulogy, she bowed again and settled the matter. The British did not think about "revenge" and were confused about whether they needed to kneel down on one knee. After the hajj, for some unknown reason, Li Hongzhang wanted to meet the Crown Princess, so everyone took a boat to the Crown Princess's boat. The two of them bowed to each other. The Crown Princess also specially took a photo of Li Hongzhang and others, making Li Hongzhang feel greatly."An honor in life will come to its peak." However, the British royal family's "courtesy" to Li Hongzhang has not ended. According to Li Hongzhang's diary, on August 8, Prime Minister Saltsbury brought the Queen's gift: he asked a skilled craftsman to build two chairs for elderly use. In Li Hongzhang's description, these two chairs are full of magic and mystery. One has a small wheel on the back, which can rise and fall at will, and can ride and sit, and the other has a flexible wheel on its feet, which can come and go freely. After thinking about it, these two magical chairs made by skillful craftsmen are probably medical wheelchairs. Some people interpret it as related to the popularity of the name "sick man" in China in Europe and Asia, and they are somewhat afraid to judge others with malicious intent. At that time, Li Hongzhang was already 73 years old, only five years away from the end of his life. In the eyes of the Queen, this old man who carried the honor and disgrace of the Qing Dynasty on one shoulder should be more haggard than glorious. Coupled with the long journey and inconvenient walking, it is not an unexpected move to provide transportation tools with good intentions, so there is no need to think too much about it. However, the statue of Magu Fairy given to the Queen by Li Hongzhang gave the Queen a misunderstanding and she was very happy. There is a myth in China that Magu worshiped her birthday. Obviously, Li Hongzhang meant to wish the queen a long life. However, due to translation problems, the Queen mistakenly thought that Magu was the Virgin Mary of China style. Therefore, she was deeply in line with the British Empire's intention of spreading politics and religion and was very happy. Li Hongzhang took a group photo with senior British military officials. We talked about railways, but didn't place an order. Li Hongzhang's public travel around the world took two main tasks. One of them was to "form strong aid", which was Russia. The defeat of the 1894 - 1894 changed the Qing Dynasty's national policy from using barbarians to suppressing barbarians to ending and strengthening aid. They took a fancy to Tsar Russia. Li Hongzhang congratulated the czar on his coronation and negotiated an alliance with Russia to resist Japan. As a result, it was severely criticized by the Russians. The "China-Russia Secret Treaty" allowed the Russians to build railways in Northeast China and obtain many privileges, actually controlling Northeast China. After returning to China, Li Hongzhang was able to say to Huang Zunxian,"If you have nothing to do for twenty years, you can always get it. "As a result, within two years, the division craze came, which also laid the foundation for the subsequent Japanese-Russian War. When Li Hongzhang passed away in 1901, Huang Zunxian wrote four elegiac poems, in which he said,"Chixian County is divided into land, and the black wind is the raksha is the only boat floating." When I was old, I miscalculated to be close to jackals and tigers, but I promised to support them for twenty years." In fact, at that time, uniting Russia to resist Japan was the mainstream opinion in the DPRK and China, including the so-called conservative Weng Tonghe. However, there are many insightful people who realize that Russia is China's biggest problem. It cannot be said that it was indeed a mistake. If we compare the online paragraph about "foreigners want to build roads for us," the foreigners should also correspond to Russians. Although the British took the lead in building railways in China, they would have gone too early. Another task for Li Hongzhang is to lobby other countries to "increase taxes according to pounds." Previously, due to unequal treaties, China's tariffs were only worth 500%. The Qing government hoped that Li Hongzhang would get foreigners to agree to increase the tax to 10%. But whether in Germany or Britain and the United States, Li Hongzhang failed to do it-this in itself cannot be accomplished solely through diplomatic means. The general saying in British public opinion is that it is okay to increase taxes, but it must be more open and open up the mainland to let me do business. Li Hongzhang naturally disagreed. In Britain, Li Hongzhang also talked about railways. On many occasions, the British people have expressed a strong desire to deepen commercial exchanges. Li Zhongtang patted his chest,"Wherever I learned in Europe, my mouth will be open and my throat will be loud, and I will assist the Great Emperor and the entire land under his jurisdiction. Build railways with fair and proper methods, drive trains, and even in extremely difficult places, there are all roads in all directions to transport local products and facilitate pedestrians. This is the first thing your country has created and is extremely beautiful, and my Hua is following in its footsteps!" We just talked, but we didn't place an order in the end. But I believe these words are not all social words. In fact, China's own first railway, the Tangxu Railway, was completed with Li Hongzhang's painstaking efforts. Although the opposition was too loud, they had to settle for the next best choice. They only built railways instead of locomotives, but used mules and horses to drag the carriages forward. His obsession with railways was because he saw how the British Empire dragged Britain forward at high speed after building the world's first railway in 1825, so "following in its footsteps" was indeed Li Hongzhang's big wish. However, after returning home from this visit, Li Hongzhang did nothing but sign the Treaty of Xin Chou, and died of illness.