Red Alert 1895 Chapter 122

Wang Guorui also had to submit to Li Hongzhang, because Li Hongzhang sacrificed one of his son's arms in exchange for Wang Guorui's promise that Taiwan would not be an independent country. If you think about it differently, if you have a son, can you sacrifice your son's arm and political future in exchange for someone else's promise that the country will not be divided? And Wang Guorui asked himself, maybe he didn't even know if he could do it, which made it impossible for Wang Guorui to know. However, Li Hongzhang chose to have Wang Guorui cut off one of his son's arms in exchange for Wang Guorui's promise that Taiwan would not be separated. This has to be said that Li Hongzhang still has a bit of patriotism. Therefore, it is not easy for Wang Guorui to continue to bully an old man.

"For us in Taiwan, because your mainland ceded Taiwan this time, it caused us huge losses. Not only in terms of financial resources, but also in terms of personnel, and even various emotional losses. The mainland must compensate us. We have sacrificed a lot to fight against Japan, we can't just give in vain, can we?" Wang Guorui said.

Li Hongzhang immediately asked, "How much compensation do you want?"

"Ten million taels of silver!" Wang Guorui said.

Li Hongzhang couldn't help feeling heartbroken, because ten million taels of silver was about one-tenth of the current annual fiscal revenue of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Although it seems that the Manchu Qing court can earn almost hundreds of millions of taels of silver every year, but their various military maintenance and the banner salaries of the Eight Banners directly went to about 30 million taels. After all kinds of expenditures, not only will there be no surplus in the finances. Instead, it is running a fiscal deficit. But now Taiwan is asking for compensation of 10 million taels of silver, which is obviously making things worse.

"The Japanese pirates only gave you two million taels, and it was in the name of soldiers' food expenses!" Li Hongzhang said.

Li Hongzhang was very helpless in his heart. The Japanese compensation to Taiwan was only two million taels of silver, which was obviously not enough for Taiwan's losses. However, Taiwan actually asked the central government of the Qing Dynasty to give them 10 million taels of silver. This is obviously extortion.

"We can't attack Japanese pirates, so we can't get too much from Japanese pirates. But, the court, you understand!" Wang Guorui hinted.

Of course Li Hongzhang understood that Wang Guorui was trying to squeeze a persimmon. Taiwan has no navy. It cannot threaten the Japanese mainland, and Japan does not have much money. So can't blackmail too much. But Manqing is different, Manqing is completely a soft persimmon, but also a fat pig, this kind of soft persimmon and fat pig does not take the opportunity to blackmail. That's really sorry for myself. Li Hongzhang also knew that Wang Guorui was bullying him, but what could he do?

This time, Li Hongzhang has been ordered to die by Cixi, whether it is soft or hard, it is to take back Taiwan. This time the imperial court finally had the opportunity to take back Taiwan, and if Taiwan was allowed to stand on its own, it would really be embarrassing for the imperial court. And if the imperial court can take back Taiwan, it can greatly boost the morale of the army, and at that time, the peacemakers of the Queen's Party will also be able to benefit.

Now the imperial party in the imperial court represents the reformers, while the latter party represents the conservatives. The reason why the Imperial Party criticized the Queen's Party was that the Japanese army was so "weak" that the Queen's Party actually abandoned Taiwan. This is the imperial party's biggest trump card. And because of Wang Guorui's resistance to Japan, a lot of butterfly effects were caused, and those people in the imperial party felt the opportunity. And many people saw how "weak" the Japanese army was. They were also very dissatisfied with the Houdang's compromise at the beginning. After all, the vast majority of low-level officials can't see the specific situation clearly, and many passionate young people have also begun to support the imperial party.

Those young scholars are either genuinely passionate, or they just want to take advantage of this attack to benefit the party and earn political capital. In any case, the pressure on the Queen's Party is strong enough now. They urgently need to "peacefully" recover Taiwan, so if Taiwan can be recovered relatively peacefully. These are all thanks to the party. At that time, the Queen's Party can completely brag about recovering Taiwan "without a single soldier". At that time, the Queen's Party can relieve a lot of pressure.

Li Hongzhang also had this idea, so he could not give Taiwan a chance to become independent. Now Wang Guorui in Taiwan actually took advantage of the weakness of the Manchu Qing court, and then tried his best to extort wealth, which made Li Hongzhang have no temper at all. Who made the current Manchu Qing court weak and unable to send a large army to Taiwan to put down Wang Guorui's "rebellion". Moreover, the Hou Party also needed to take back Taiwan to earn political capital, so Li Hongzhang had to compromise.

"Ten million taels, I'll give it!" Li Hongzhang said through gritted teeth.

Li Hongzhang then added: "The money is for the people of Taiwan, not for you, you should know!"

What Li Hongzhang meant was to compensate the local government of Taiwan with the ten million taels of silver, and then it would be easy to get it back when the time came. After all, in Li Hongzhang's eyes, if Taiwan's problem is solved, wouldn't the money be transferred from the left hand to the right hand, so that it can be taken back at any time? So he can't let Wang Guorui get the money into his own pocket, so that as long as it is in the accounts of the government office, the central government can get it back at any time. This is also Li Hongzhang's idea, which is really stupid and naive.

"Of course, the money is for the people of Taiwan, so you can rest assured!" Wang Guorui said.

Next, Wang Guorui took out a document and said, "This is our plan for the establishment of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region in the future. Please take a look! If you agree, then sign it. If you don't agree, then let's see how it works!"

After Li Hongzhang opened the draft of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region, he read a few articles carefully, and immediately became furious. Because this Taiwan Special Administrative Region is simply an independent kingdom, and there is no sincerity at all to return to the motherland.

And Li Hongzhang saw that the plan of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region has three independent legislative, executive and judicial powers, as well as an independent army, and even local diplomatic powers. And the draft of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region was completely copied by Wang Guorui in combination with the Basic Laws of the three special administrative regions of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in later generations. And the method of this special administrative region is actually absurd to the people of the Manchu Qing era, because the ancients paid attention to the great unification, whether it is the land or the political power, they all paid attention to the unification. However, the plan of this special administrative region is simply challenging the bottom line of the Qing mainland government's psychology. If this plan is really followed, then Taiwan will have its own army, have its own diplomatic rights one level lower, and be able to have independent personnel rights.

From then on, the central court of the Qing Dynasty could not issue any mandatory orders to Taiwan, and could only proceed in a deliberative tone. It is not even possible to send any officials, troops, or personnel from various government-controlled institutions to Taiwan to exercise their rights, and Taiwan officials are elected by themselves. The governor of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region is also elected by Taiwan itself, and then the central court of the Qing Dynasty formally took office after the last layer of nominal approval. In this way, the Manchu Qing court was unable to manage Taiwan, so Taiwan was at most a nominal Qing territory, and that had no other meaning.

This draft of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region is completely an open plan for separatism. If Li Hongzhang signed the draft of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region, I am afraid that Taiwan will be a reasonable and legal separatist party next, and the so-called "righteousness" of the central court of the Qing Dynasty will be completely gone. If you want to say what the advantage of the central court of the Manchu Qing Dynasty is, it is the aspect of "righteousness". Since ancient times, the central court has occupied this "righteousness" to survive, and because of the righteousness, those local princes will look up to them.

However, once the draft of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region is signed, it is equivalent to that the Manchu Qing has no righteousness at all. In the future, Manchu Qing's orders can be properly considered and implemented in Taiwan, not necessarily 100% unconditional. Moreover, Taiwan has its own right to choose officials, that is, it is not under the control of the central court, and the central court has nothing to do if Taiwan does not obey orders. Such a draft of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region is simply challenging the psychological bottom line of the Qing Dynasty.

Because the current situation in the Manchu Qing Dynasty is also very bad, and the governors of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are not very honest. If those governors see Taiwan like this, will they also demand the establishment of a so-called local special administrative region~www .mtlnovel.com~ Then the country might be torn apart.

"This is a problem!" Wang Guorui also began to think.

If this special administrative region treaty is signed, will the governors in the mainland take the opportunity to demand the establishment of a special administrative region? Those governors in the mainland are independent kingdoms one by one, and it is already difficult for the central government of the Qing Dynasty to control them. Once the plan of this special administrative region of his own was made public, the governors of the mainland in the Manchu Qing Dynasty also began to tear themselves apart from the central government. Now the governors of the mainland are still able to maintain their non-division because they have no strength and they don't have every "opportunity". If the draft of the Taiwan Special Administrative Region is made public, then maybe the governors of the mainland will also take the opportunity to demand that the Manchu Qing central government establish various special administrative regions, and the country will also face splitting. Although it has been secretly split at present, as long as the conflict between the central and local governments is not made public, then foreigners will have no problem.

Once there are many special administrative regions with various names in the mainland, then foreigners will know that China has fallen into a state of division. The reason why foreigners dare not enter China in large numbers is because China has maintained a superficial unity. If China begins to split openly, the foreigners will completely turn China into a colony. Therefore, the plan of this special administrative region is indeed not suitable for public signing. (to be continued)

Chapter end