Lin zhibo
Li Hongzhang in history is by no means as humiliating and outstanding as beautified in Towards * * *, but a clown without integrity and good history.
In recent years, some TV dramas are very good-looking, with ups and downs of plots and great performances. The audience not only loved watching it, but also talked about it and praised it as a breakthrough masterpiece, such as Yong Zhengdi and Towards * * *. However, the serious historical view and ideological tendency covered by the wonderful plot have been ignored by people. For example, an autocratic tyrant who reversed the history, closed the country to the outside world, and built a literary inquisition in Daxing was touted by Yong Zhengdi as a virtuous gentleman who worked hard for the people, while Li Hongzhang, who compromised and betrayed the country and had bad records, was beautified by Towards * * *, and made great contributions.
At first I didn't know what Li Hongzhang's disgusting flattery meant. Later, I read the article "Modernization and History Textbook" and learned that the author is one of the planners of "Towards * * * and Harmony". Only then did I understand their ideological tendency and intention: all comprador figures who handle westernization, especially compromise with foreign countries, should be beautified, otherwise they will be vilified, so they will not hesitate to distort history.
In fact, Li Hongzhang in history is by no means as humiliating and noble as beautified in To * * *, but a historical clown with no integrity and no reward.
Beiyang fleet lost his teacher, Huang Hai.
Li Yisheng's greatest "achievement" was to do westernization, and the biggest westernization was to buy foreign ships and form the Beiyang Navy. For this Beiyang Navy, the Qing government spent a total of 120 million silver to equip the largest armored ship in Asia at that time, but the result was a fiasco. Li boasted that Beiyang Navy "attacked and defended in many ways to prepare for the Olympic Games" and "fired 16 shots, reaching 15", but the actual hit rate was extremely low. According to statistics, in the Yellow Sea naval battle, Japanese ships were shot at an average of1.17 rounds, while Beiyang ships were shot at an average of 107.7 1 rounds, and beiyang fleet's artillery hit rate was not as good as that of Japanese United Fleet19. The defeat of Beiyang Navy was attributed to Li Hongzhang's strategy of "abandoning war and protecting ships", and the essence of this strategy was that Li regarded the fleet as his own private armed forces. The stupid and selfish "abandoning the war and protecting the ship" not only failed to save the ship, but left the fleet to die in Weihai Port and was destroyed by the Japanese army. If it weren't for Li Hongzhang's stupidity and selfishness, the failure of the Sino-Japanese War would never be so tragic and shameful. Minister Wen of A Qing lamented angrily: Beiyang Navy "wasted money, but failed to fight".
After the failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, if Li Hongzhang and others had the courage, knowledge and determination, instead of making peace with Japan, they would have moved their capital to Xi 'an to fight a protracted war with Japan, and they would not have signed such humiliating and unequal treaties as treaty of shimonoseki. Because, after the consumption of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japan's national strength at that time could not fight a protracted war with China, and western powers would not sit idly by and watch Japan go deep into and monopolize the hinterland of China. In a word, China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War was inevitable, but it was so tragic that it caused such deep damage to China that Li Hongzhang could hardly apologize. Some people defended Li with the corruption of the Qing court and the weakness of national strength, but even in that era, Zuo made great contributions to turning the tide and pacifying Xinjiang. Therefore, Li's compromise and misunderstanding of the country cannot be completely explained by the limitations of the times and objective conditions.
Let's talk about Li's employment. In officialdom, Li focused on cultivating his son Li and his adopted son Sheng Xuanhuai, and their nepotism was almost undisguised. In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Li Qi used two fellow villagers, one was the commander Ye Zhichao, and the other was the navy prefect Ding. The two men, one of whom was afraid of death, fled at the cold feet, causing the Qing army entering the DPRK to fall into leaderless chaos; A mediocre incompetence who didn't understand the navy led to beiyang fleet's defeat in the First Division of the Yellow Sea.
"Prime Minister Hefei is thinner than the world"
So, what is Li's moral character? Many materials prove that Li made a fortune by westernization and became a big bureaucrat and comprador. Important westernization officials studying in the United States said that Li "had a private property of 42 million when he died", and it was widely rumored that "the prime minister was too thin for the world", which shows the poor reputation of Li among the people. 1895, Zhang Jian of the Hanlin Academy and others jointly wrote a letter to Li Hongzhang of the imperial court, revealing: "... Japanese ships were released, Japanese coal was transported to Kaiping, Japanese spies were captured, and guns stored in the armory for many years were often stolen and sold by guards. ..... There are millions of silver in Japan's Chashan Coal Mine Company, and Izz has opened a foreign firm in various Japanese islands ... "As a senior official of the imperial court, Li Hongzhang left Japan's aggression unchecked and only cared about making a fortune himself. Since Lee and his son are such people, it is no wonder that when Japan and China negotiated the Indemnity Treaty after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, they specifically asked to talk to Lee and his son and refused other candidates sent by the Qing court.
The most telling thing about Li Hongzhang's character is that when he went to Russia to congratulate the Russian emperor on his coronation in 1896, he signed the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty with China and accepted huge bribes. People who beautify Li Hongzhang have repeatedly denied this. The evidence is only a sentence in the memoirs of Russian Finance Minister Victor: "I must say that Li Hongzhang was bought by the Russian government. This rumor is groundless." However, the archives of the Tsar's East Palace prove that Victor didn't tell the truth, and it is true that Li Hongzhang signed the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty with Russia and accepted bribes. After the secret agreement was signed, Victor and Li Hongzhang made a private agreement. As long as the secret agreement can be implemented smoothly, Li will receive a reward of 3 million rubles (about 6.5438+0.9 million US dollars).
Some people in China were puzzled by Li Hongzhang's threats to the Qing Dynasty for Russia in the telegrams sent to the Prime Minister's Office at that time. In fact, it is not difficult to understand that Li has been bribed. How can he not eat inside and pick outside? According to the memoir of Dmitry Ukhtomski, chairman of China-Russia Daosheng Bank, "The Strategy of Winning the Qing Dynasty" records: "On the second day after the signing of the Sino-Russian secret agreement, romanov and Ukhtomski, directors of the General Office of the Ministry of Finance, signed an agreement with Luo Qitai, general manager, to pay Li Hongzhang. According to the agreement, the first payment of 6.5438 million rubles was made after the Qing Emperor ordered the construction of the Middle East Railway, the second payment of 6.5438 million rubles was made after the signing of the railway contract and the determination of the railway route, and the third payment of 6.5438 million rubles was made after the completion of the railway project. This protocol was not handed over to Li Hongzhang himself, but was collected by the Russian Ministry of Finance as a top secret document. " As a special fund, this money is deposited in the Sino-Russian Dawson Bank and managed by the General Affairs Office of the Ministry of Finance. The name is "Li Hongzhang Fund". According to records, Russia paid bribes to Li Hongzhang and Li Fangjing three times, one of which was paid to Li Hongzhang by the Russian minister Prince Wu Ke Tomu. According to the records compiled by the archives of the Russian Ministry of Finance, Li Hongzhang accepted the bribe of Tsar Russia 1702500 rubles (it is recorded that Li Hongzhang sent someone to pick up the deposit slip and withdraw money that day). As far as I know, according to Li-Beiyang Miscellanies, Li Hongzhang's son once complained that "Russians do great things with little money, and the old man got a lot of scolding for them, and ended up like a beggar".
In fact, in addition, Li Hongzhang also accepted another bribe from Russia:1On March 22nd, 898, Russia gave Li and Prime Minister Yamen Zhang a bribe of 500,000 yuan each (Zhang actually accepted 250,000 yuan), so as to urge China to sign the land lease treaty of Lvda and the subsequent land lease treaty of Lvda as soon as possible. Li Hongzhang completed the "task" within the time stipulated by the Russians, which actually made Liaodong Peninsula an exclusive colony of Russia. It can be seen that Li Hongzhang took bribes to sell state-owned multi-party ironclad evidence. Witt's denial is to cover up the disgraceful behavior of the Russian government in bribery, which is not credible.
Apart from other things, this single bribery and treason is enough to prove the corruption of Li Hongzhang's quality. In contrast, another official at that time, Xu Jingcheng, was in charge of the Middle East railway negotiations. The Russians promised to pay 65,438+05,000 taels of silver as office expenses every month, and they may withdraw it at will, so as to gain benefits from the Middle East railway. If you don't obey, Xu will hand over the sixty-five thousand four hundred and thirty-eight taels of silver sent to the yamen to the prefect. This incident shows two things: First, Russia is used to bribery tactics. It is not surprising that Russia still bribed Li Hongzhang, an important official, in order to gain interests in China. Second, compared with Xu and Li, they are like ice charcoal, like clouds and mud. With the three products, they learned to be patriotic and refuse bribes, and saved their own personality. As a minister of records, it is shameful for Li to betray the interests of the motherland for money. Qing court officials who knew Li's character were worried before he went to Russia. For example, Cecilia Cheung said in his memorial to Empress Dowager Cixi: "Li Hongzhang has no intention of resisting evil ... Li Hongzhang's trip will be entrusted to Russia." Unfortunately, the development of things was said to be correct.
As for life, some people tout Li Hongzhang's simplicity, which is also a untenable lie. On the contrary, Li is keen on enjoying foreign wine, coffee and high-end foreign goods. According to Liang Qichao's Biography of Li Hongzhang, Li "provided the essence of two chickens every meal, was examined by doctors in North Korea, and was often electrified." Even the director of "Towards Harmony" admitted that Li Hongzhang lived in luxury, and the water he drank was imported from the Netherlands.
Some people flatter Li Hongzhang, to put it mildly, holding chicken feathers as arrows and turtles as saints. This distorts history, deceives the audience and exposes the ideological essence of some people.
People's Forum (No.20, 2006)