Many people also scolded him because the Qing government was corrupt and incompetent, and the large number of unequal treaties signed by Li Hongzhang as his representative. Another reason is that Li Hongzhang is too "rich".

Liang Qichao once expressed his admiration for him, and Zeng Guofan also praised him to a very high position. This person is Li Hongzhang .

Someone praised him, saying that he was a natural resource, and that his life stain was just because he could not help himself. Many people also scolded him because the Qing government was corrupt and incompetent, and the large number of unequal treaties signed by Li Hongzhang as his representative. Another reason is that Li Hongzhang is too "rich". Some people compare him with the Heshen of the Qianlong Jiaqing period. Both of them are unparalleled in power and ability, but Li Hongzhang is obviously smarter than Heshen. In the dark period of the late Qing Dynasty, it was easy for Li Hongzhang to make some money with his power. Among them, Li Hongzhang could make a lot of money by , the Westernization Movement .

The late Qing government's annual finances were only 90 million taels of silver, but Li Hongzhang's property was conservatively estimated to reach 50 million taels of silver, which was really rich enough to rival the country. Although Li Hongzhang was greedy, the greedy people were generally very capable of doing things. The late Qing government was like a dangerous building. In this stormy national crisis, a group of pillars needed to stand up and support this sky. Zeng Guofan is one, and Li Hongzhang is one. From a macro perspective, Li Hongzhang did a lot of bad things and good things. The Qing government without Li Hongzhang might have fallen early. If you want to blame, you can only blame Li Hongzhang for giving birth to the wrong era.

Qing At the end of the dynasty, national strength gradually declined. Western powers began to act recklessly against the Qing government and forced the Qing government to sign many treaties that were worthy of power and humiliating. Some of the signers of the treaties were often Li Hongzhang. Why did Li Hongzhang sign his own names on these unequal treaties? In fact, all this is far from as simple as people imagine. Li Hongzhang was an important official in the late Qing Dynasty. He can be regarded as an amazing figure in modern China. He is also a controversial figure. His merits and demerits cannot be concluded yet.

His life made many contributions to the Qing Dynasty is worthy of recognition.

First, he established the Westernization Movement, and many companies and factories were first in China. Here is a reference to the Shipbuilding China Merchants , which Li Hongzhang vigorously established. Shipbuilding China Merchants is probably the earliest joint-stock enterprise in Chinese history, and it has also set a precedent in history. In the 1760s, China was in a state of dire straits and internal and external troubles. There were still a group of stubborn elements within the Qing government who were still unrestrained and adhered to the "laws of ancestors". However, Li Hongzhang had long known that only by learning advanced Western technology could the country become prosperous and strong. Regardless of the original purpose of establishing Westernization , just by establishing military-industry enterprise in the early modern Chinese and modern civilian enterprises, his achievements are still worthy of recognition. Because it was he who promoted the development of modern capitalism in China.

Second Li Hongzhang develops education and sends overseas students. He had long discovered that just studying the Four Books and Five Classics and Writing Eight-Legends of the Country is not a prosperous country. If a country is strong, it requires a large number of military and technological talents.

The third is to fight for the rights of overseas Chinese workers. At that time, 100,000 Chinese workers went to work hard overseas and ate tree bark, and life was difficult. It was Li Hongzhang who fought for their rights. The envoy of Peru at that time was very surprised, surprised that his ministers could be so tough in an invaded country.

Li Hongzhang's political skills are very powerful, which is also what makes him superior to Zeng Guofan. Like Heshen, he is extremely good at playing with power in his hands and observing words and expressions. This is one of the reasons why Empress Dowager Cixi asked him to take office on diplomatic matters.

However, Li Hongzhang was also called a traitor because he signed many unequal treaties on behalf of the Qing government and Western powers. However, in 1895, Li Zhongtang tried hard to reduce the amount of compensation for the country at the negotiating table, and even cried and begged the Japanese leader at that time Ito Hirobumi . It can be said that he faithfully implemented the Qing court's telegram: "Every point is beneficial to win", but the Japanese were unmoved at all, and even claimed that if they did not sign, they would capture Beijing city . Li Hongzhang was forced to sign the " Shimonoseki Treaty ".

At that time, when the Eight-Nation Alliance hindered Beijing, Beijing fell, Cixi took Guangxu emperor fled to Xi'an all the way. Looking at the entire late Qing court, Cixi could not think of a second person who could deal with these great powers, so on the way to flee to the west, Cixi sent a telegram asking Li Hongzhang to go to Beijing immediately to clean up the mess with Prince Yili.

At that time, the Qing government had no room for bargaining in the Eight-Nation Alliance. The representatives of the Eight-Nation Alliance had to claim 1 billion taels of silver. After Li Hongzhang persuaded him many times, it was barely reduced to 450 million taels. The national conditions at that time, if they had not signed this unequal treaty, the land of China would definitely face war again. In order to survive, Cixi, no matter how much taels he had to pay, as long as he could coax these foreigners away, he would have offered a sky-high price of 1 billion taels of silver. This old Buddha would probably agree. At that time, Li Hongzhang had no choice but to do so. In the end, the price could only be cut to half. When "Xin Chou Treaty" was signed, the signer of the treaty was Yi Li, but Li Hongzhang told the prince that you are still young and will have a great effect in the future. I will recite this eternal infamy. So he took Yi Li's pen and signed his own name on the treaty. Li Hongzhang's idea is actually easy to speculate. He signed these unequal treaties by himself, and he was the only one who was scolded. Why bother one more person to be scolded?

and Li Hongzhang is in China, Japan's compromise on the North Korean issue and signing a China-Russia secret treaty. This is really a failure in his life. In diplomacy, he only knows how to use the trick of union and horizontal connections in the ancient Warring States Policy , but cannot distinguish the world situation. When he was in his seventies, he was still confused and signed a secret agreement between China and Russia, but it turned out to be a big mistake. In order to resist Japan, he secretly made friends with Tsarist Russians and allowed Russia to build railways in the Northeast. As a result, he introduced the more greedy Tsarist Russian forces into the Northeast, causing the tragic situation in which Japan and Russia jointly encroached on the Northeast. Some in history books say that he took the Russians' ruble . If this is true, it would be a shameful thing to be safe in the evening. Also in the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, 1894-1895, hiding the war, delaying the opportunity to fight, and actively abandoned Pyongyang in land war, causing the war to burn into the country, Lushun Dalian to be lost one after another, and the Beiyang Navy, known as the first Asian fleet, which was built heavily in the naval battle, was wiped out, and Li Hongzhang had to bear the corresponding historical responsibilities.

After Li Hongzhang's death, he left over as many as 50 million taels of assets. Among Li Hongzhang's descendants, three billionaires also emerged.

However, we still have many things worth discussing and studying about the extraordinary life of Li Hongzhang, a famous diplomat and reformer in the late Qing Dynasty. I believe that through research, we will definitely be able to have a deeper, more correct and more comprehensive evaluation of it. Finally, I want to end this article by borrowing a passage from Mr. Liang Qichao's comment on Li Hongzhang. "I respect Li Hongzhang's talent, I cherish Li Hongzhang's knowledge, and I am sad about Li Hongzhang's encounter."