Lu Aozongguang is called "Minister of Razor". He has great ability in signing and amending unequal treaties, and is also an important figure in the history of modern Sino-Japanese relations. On March 19, 2009, Li Hongzhang and his party arrived in Shimonoseki, Japan. Li Hongzhang clearly realized that the possibility of losing on the battlefield and gaining something at the negotiating table is almost zero.
Li Hongzhang represented the Qing court many times, but this time it was different. On March 20, the first meeting between China and Japan, the two sides had a great dispute and ended without results. On March 24, the negotiations continued, and the dispute between the two sides was still very big. Li Hongzhang proposed to talk about it another day, and Ito Bowen agreed.
However, an accident happened that day, which made Li Hongzhang win a little initiative at the negotiating table. Li Hongzhang was shot in the face by Akio Toyoda on his way back to his residence. This sudden incident made Japan face great public pressure in the world, and Li Hongzhang decided to take advantage of it. /kloc-in April, 2000, Ito Bowen presented a showdown to Li Hongzhang, raising the issue of ceding land and reparations.
Ito Bowen's original words are as follows: "All the islands south of Fengtian and Taiwan's Penghu Islands were ceded to Japan; The compensation fee is 300 trillion liang. " Compensation of 300 trillion taels of silver is an astronomical figure. Li Hongzhang directly refused. "It is too expensive to check Japanese soldiers, no matter what China does."
On the issue of land cession, the focus of both sides is Taiwan Province Island. Li Hongzhang asked, "Lord Ito, do you have to cut fields?" Ito Bowen said with a smile: "nave's adult, although the amount of compensation can be slightly reduced, it must not be greatly reduced; If the land is ceded, both Fengtian and Taiwan Province Province must be ceded. " Facing the aggressive arrogance of the Japanese, Li Hongzhang made a widely circulated remark.
"Ito adult now you are a knife, I am a fish. If we really want to cede Taiwan Province Province, I think it will be hard to stop it in the Qing Dynasty, but you must think clearly about one thing. Once Taiwan Province Province is ceded, China and Japan will definitely become feuds, and the descendants of your must think clearly. " As for how Ito Bowen felt after listening to this passage, it is hard for us to know.
However, in Lu's diary, we saw Li Hongzhang's misery at the negotiating table. "Since Li Hongzhang came to Shimonoseki, he has never spared no effort to debate like today.
At first, I asked for a reduction of 50 million from the compensation of 22,000, but seeing that I couldn't achieve my goal, I asked for a reduction of 22 million. Even in the end, I appealed to Ito for a full charge and a little reduction as a gift for my trip back to China. This kind of holding is probably out of the meaning of "getting one point and one point". "
Finally, Li Hongzhang cried to Ito Bowen, which was very embarrassing. Li Hongzhang shook his head after seeing the last Japanese agreement. "I have handled Qing diplomacy for more than 20 years and have never seen such a harsh treaty!" Unfortunately, Ito Bowen was unmoved by Li Hongzhang's entreaties.