For this grand wedding, the Li family invited famous chefs from the outer buildings of Hangzhou City Tower to help, and also invited musicians and dancers to come to the mansion to add to the fun.

Since the island in the center of the lake and the Li Mansion could no longer accommodate guests, Chen Tianhua rented out a high-end inn and sold it to the guests attending the ceremony.

Today's main wedding banquet was all concentrated on the island in the middle of the lake. Ninety-nine tables were set up. The ones in the front hall were for the distinguished guests, and the others were on the lawn.

The weather was early summer and the outdoor temperature was suitable in all aspects. Even the wedding ceremony was arranged on the green lawn, which looked spacious and grand.

The wedding took place for three days, namely April 5th, 6th and 7th. The wedding ceremony was held on April 6th.

Starting from April 7th, your British consular officials, Sheng Xuanhuai and others, all said goodbye and left. They were all on official business.

From the afternoon to the 8th, a large number of wedding guests, relatives and friends had dispersed.

Those who stayed on the small island in the middle of the lake were Chen Tianhua's mother, two sisters, and of course Ah Hua.

After seeing off the guests, relatives and friends, Chen Tianhua was very tired. After dinner, he was about to ask his servant to take a bath and relax, but he was stopped by Sun Yong, "Third aunt, your Excellency has invited me, we are in Dongyuan."

He drove over by speedboat from the official residence pier.

Hearing that his father-in-law wanted to discuss something with him in the Dongyuan study room, which seemed to be a serious matter, Chen Tianhua jumped on the speedboat and followed Sun Yong without saying a word.

From the small island in the middle of the lake to the official residence, it is equivalent to crossing the entire West Lake, and it only takes five minutes by speedboat.

When Chen Tianhua entered the Dongyuan study room, in addition to Li Cunzhi and Li Jingfang, the two of them were discussing issues with serious expressions.

Uncle Li Jingfang's relatives in Shanghai all live in the official residence, and it seems that they haven't left yet.

Chen Tianhua went in and bowed to each of them, then sat down.

"Hua Zhi, when Mr. Zhang Xiangshuai left today, he gave me a letter to pass on to you. I opened it for you and took a look. It was actually written by the Governor."

With that said, he handed over a cowhide envelope.

"Zhang Xiangshuai's autographed letter, is it for me?" Chen Tianhua asked in surprise as he took the cowhide envelope.

Zhang Xiangshuai is Zhang Zhidong, which is his nickname, just like Li Hongzhang's nickname is Zhongtang, which is also a nickname.

He is the first-class Duke of the Qing Dynasty, the crown prince's Taibao, and the first-class Governor-General of Huguang.

At the end of last year, after the death of Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, he assumed the position of governor of Huguang and supervised the governor of Liangjiang. He is currently a hotshot figure in the south.

Zhang Zhidong can be called the pillar of the late Qing Dynasty. After the death of Li Hongzhang, he is a veritable leader of the Han people and the only remaining Westernization figure.

He had many similarities with Li Hongzhang, including running foreign affairs, building a new army, developing railways and minerals, setting up schools, building a navy, etc.

But unlike Li Hongzhang, who devoted his life to the Qing Dynasty, he stayed away from the center of the Qing Dynasty in Beijing for a long time after gaining power and took charge of the south.

He served as governor of Guangdong, Guangdong, Liangjiang, and Huguang. Among them, Huguang served the longest term. He turned Huguang into his own independent kingdom.

"Read the letter first, and then discuss it after reading it," Li Cunzhi said.

In fact, he was also very surprised.

He and Zhang Zhidong never interacted with each other in normal times. Zhejiang had long been under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang, and there was no overlap in government affairs.

The key point is that there were many intrigues between Li Zhongtang and Zhang Zhidong when he was still alive, and the relationship between the two was not harmonious.

One served as the Zhili Governor and Minister of Beiyang in the DPRK, while the other lived in the south and served as Minister of Nanyang Commerce.

This time, when Chen Tianhua and Li Shuzhen got married, Zhang Zhidong actually sent a military adviser to attend the wedding with a generous gift, which was really rare.

The content of this handwritten parting letter is very brief.

First, he heard that Chen Tianhua was committed to developing national industry, running banks and building coal mines. He was young and promising and was a pillar of the country. He felt comforted and wanted to see Chen Tianhua in Jiangning Mansion soon.

It seems that he is a drunkard who is not interested in drinking.

"My father-in-law, uncle, and son-in-law think he is here for the mining of Niutoushan coal mine." Chen Tianhua said after reading the letter.

The Governor-General of Liangjiang governs Jiangsu Province, Jiangxi Province, Anhui Province, and Shanghai, and the Niutoushan Coal Mine is located in Anhui.

"I thought the same way at first. After discussing it with your uncle, it seems that the problem is not that simple. Let's listen to your uncle's analysis later." Li Cunzhi said.

"Nephew-in-law, you don't know much about Zhang Zhidong, but my father Li Zhongtang knows him well, and Lord Sheng Xuanhuai has interacted with him a lot in the mining and iron works in the past two years, and knows a lot about him."

"I'm afraid this invitation letter has a lot to do with his personal ambition, which is to separate the Jiangnan provinces and cooperate with the Oriental people."

Li Jingfang took over Li Cunzhi's topic and said to Chen Tianhua.

"What do you say? Uncle!" Chen Tianhua was shocked when he heard this. He didn't know much about these facts in later generations, and his face became solemn.

"As the pillar of the country, Zhang Zhidong has a close relationship with Japan. His attitude towards Japan has changed from being contemptuous and hostile to Japan at the beginning, to being dependent on Japan later. Now in the two years after my father's death, his relationship with Japan has entered a new stage.

Secret Moon Period.”

Li Jingfang took a sip of tea and slowly told Chen Tianhua about the situation that was not known to the outside world.

Before the Sino-Japanese War, Zhang Zhidong, like many Chinese people, had a deep sentiment against Japan. This can be recalled from the Ming Dynasty.

Regarding its neighbors with the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government believed that the Japanese country was weak, lacked resources, and could not withstand any storms.

The Northern Bear Russia is powerful, has a vast territory, rich resources, strong national power, and is very barbaric.

Therefore, the Qing Dynasty ceded the Ryukyu Islands to bribe the Japanese people and invite Japan to fight against Russia.

But I didn’t expect that the Japanese country was a wolf in the mountains. How could his ambition be as small as Ryukyu?

After fully accepting and occupying Ryukyu, Japan made further progress and extended its wolf claws to North Korea and Northeast China.

It completely lured the wolf into the house, and the Northeast became a piece of meat that Japan and Russia competed for.

As Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated, Zhang Zhidong despised Japan and became more hostile to Japan. This was reflected in his firm support for war with Japan in a memorial on the eve of the war.

The Qing Dynasty was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War, and it was a complete defeat. This severely shattered Zhang Zhidong's dream of enriching the country and strengthening the people by pursuing Westernization.

After the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, he felt bitterly that the Qing Dynasty was corrupt and incompetent and the country was weak, and he had developed the mentality that Westernization alone could no longer save the Qing Dynasty.

As the situation at home and abroad has changed in recent years, this mentality has turned into an alliance with Japan to separatize Jiangnan!

After hearing these remarks, Chen Tianhua was in disbelief.

Zhang Zhidong was recognized by later generations of historians as a capable, good, and upright official in the late Qing Dynasty.

But if you think about it carefully, being an upright official and a good minister does not mean that he has no ambition.

Chen Tianhua learned from later history books that after the Meiji Restoration, Japan formulated a "mainland policy" to destroy China. The plan was to first conquer the three eastern provinces and divide them into several regions within the pass to establish an independent kingdom.

Therefore, after the Sino-Japanese War of 1884-1894, the Japanese actively sought collaborators and agents in the Qing Dynasty.
Chapter completed!