The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 346 He is clinging to the French master's thigh! (Please vote, please subscribe)

Li Hongzhang's ancestor's surname was actually not Li, but Xu. He changed his surname to Li after being adopted into a family with the surname Li.

Therefore, his paternal lineage has nothing to do with any of the Li dynasties.
But why did Mathilde suddenly ask this question? What was this French princess planning? Li Hongzhang thought to himself, "She wouldn't want to marry me, would she? In Europe, nobles always pay attention to marrying people of equal status. Royals must marry royals!"

Thinking of this, he looked at Mathilde again. This woman was not bad, a mature woman, plump and decent, but a little flirtatious. Not suitable to be a wife! Besides, he was already married and had a wife at home.

"Shao Quan, I, Alexander, want to ask you that your family also owns an army?" Seeing that Li Hongzhang did not respond, Mathilde thought that he had some concerns, so she asked again.

"Yes, but not many." Li Hongzhang nodded, "My army only has three or four thousand people, and the equipment is very poor. There are not many new muskets and artillery. The training is also poor, and the military pay is insufficient."

Mathilde laughed. "So you are a poor Chinese prince with only a small army, and you have to serve the Tatar emperor, the enemy of your family?"

Li Hongzhang quickly shook his head: "No, no, my family has no grudge against the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty."

But we dare not say that we have a grudge against the Qing Dynasty. Isn’t the Li Dynasty that has a grudge against the Qing Dynasty the Dashun Dynasty founded by Li Zicheng, the Emperor of Yongchang?
If this gets out, Li Hongzhang will become the descendant of Li Chuangwang. How can he still be an official like this?

"Oh, really?" Mathilde paused and whispered, "My dear, it doesn't matter if your family has a grudge against the Tatar emperor. I will still support you! Your army is small in number, so hire more! The equipment is poor, so buy it from France! You don't have money, but I do, and I can invest!"

In fact, Mathilde had already "voted" for an emperor before, that is, Napoleon III. Not only did she contribute her body to the restoration of Napoleon III, she also invested the 500,000 francs she got from her ex-husband.

Although Napoleon III became a "bad emperor" after he came to power and did not fulfill his promise to make Mathilde his queen, and took her away for free, he gave Mathilde enough rewards in terms of money!
The 500,000 francs that Mathilde invested in Napoleon III easily increased by 10 to 20 times!
She is now the number one rich woman in the French Empire! Otherwise, why did she give Li Hongzhang 5,000 francs so generously last time? That was a real "one cent"!
"Moreover," Mathilde continued to tempt Li Hongzhang, "Not only can I invest, but the French Empire can also invest! I can go and convince the emperor to support you to become king!"

Become a king?

Li Hongzhang's mouth twitched, and he thought to himself: "The French are trying to support a puppet emperor! I have to think carefully about this."

Thinking of this, Li Hongzhang said to Mathilde: "Princess, I am not clear about the domestic situation yet. My army is on the side of the Qing Dynasty. In the past few months, the Qing army has suffered major setbacks on both sides of the Yangtze River! Maybe I have nothing now!"

Mathilde smiled and said, "My dear, you won't be left with nothing. You still have me!" She thought for a moment and said, "How about this? I'll ask the people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to collect relevant information. How about we study it together tomorrow morning?"

"Okay!" Li Hongzhang also wanted to know more about the situation in the Qing Dynasty, so he agreed immediately.

After agreeing, he felt something was wrong.

What did he agree to do? To be Napoleon III's puppet emperor?
Paris, Elysee Palace.

When the morning sun shone into the bedroom, Li Hongzhang had already hugged the Frenchman's thighs, in a physical sense! Two not-too-long and a little thick white thighs were placed in Li's arms, and he could hug, touch and play with them at will. However, Li used these two thighs as a desk, spread a map on them, and looked at them intently.

The owner of these two thighs was lying lazily on the sofa, supporting his face with his snow-white lotus-root-like arms, looking at Li Hongzhang with a smile.

The map that Li Hongzhang was looking at was sent to the Elysee Palace by an official from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs this morning. It was a copy of the latest map of China's domestic situation, drawn by the French Embassy in Shanghai three months ago.

According to this map, the situation in Jiangsu was not good, with only Huai'an, Haizhou, Xuzhou and Shanghai left. However, the situation in Anhui Province was not bad. It seemed that all of southern Anhui was lost, but only Hezhou, a direct-controlled prefecture in northern Jiangsu, was completely lost. Li Hongzhang's hometown of Luzhou Prefecture only lost Wuwei Prefecture, a subordinate prefecture on the Yangtze River. The prefecture capital Hefei was not only safe and sound, but was promoted to the new provincial capital because Huaining County of Anqing Prefecture, a provincial capital on the Yangtze River, was lost.

As for Anqing Prefecture, in fact, it only lost Huaining County and Wangjiang County on the Yangtze River, and most of the areas were still in the hands of the Qing Dynasty.

"My dear, how is it? Do your army and territory still exist?" Mathilde's sweet voice rang out. "Yes! Still exist!" Li Hongzhang replied, "My hometown still belongs to the Qing Dynasty. As long as my hometown still exists, I can recruit troops from there!"

At this point, he glanced at Mathilde, then took a deep breath and said, "Princess, my ancestors are from the Longxi Li family, who once established the Xiliang, Tang, Later Tang, Southern Tang and other dynasties!"

As he spoke, he was thinking: When I get back, I will immediately ask my dad to look up the family tree carefully. If you look up the family tree carefully, you will always find Li Shimin!

"That's great!" Mathilde was already grinning from ear to ear, "You have an army, territory, bloodline, and the support of me and the French emperor. You can definitely establish a dynasty of our own!"

"We?" Li Hongzhang looked at Mathilde, "Princess, do you want to..."

"I just want to be a queen!" Mathilde laughed, "It's just such a small request, can you satisfy me?"

She just wants to be a queen or empress. It doesn’t matter who the king or emperor is!

Since Napoleon III was unwilling to marry her, and no emperor, king or crown prince in Europe was willing to marry her, she could accept finding a crown outside of Europe.

During the time of Louis XIV, China's image in Europe was still quite perfect!

Although China's image is not as good as before, it is still okay.

When Li Hongzhang said that his ancestors were from the Longxi Li family, he had already made up his mind that even if he was a child emperor, he would give it a try. Now he is just a "brother-in-law emperor", which seems okay!

The Qing Dynasty is in such a state now, and it is estimated that it will not be better in the future. This is the case that the Qing Dynasty has lost its power, and the whole world is chasing it!
Since the French are willing to invest, he might as well give it a try. What if he succeeds?

Even if it fails, it doesn't matter. It's Mathilde who has both family background and money, so Li Hongzhang doesn't seem to lose anything. As long as he doesn't take the rash step of wearing the yellow robe, it should be no problem for him to become a noble for generations.

"Yes!" Li Hongzhang nodded and took a deep breath, "As long as I can become emperor or king, I will definitely make you my queen!"

"Okay!" Mathilde smiled with her eyes curved, "Tomorrow I will take you to the Louvre to meet French Emperor Napoleon III!"

That afternoon, in another luxurious suite in the Elysee Palace specially used to receive foreign dignitaries, the Qing prince Sushun, Bai Siwen and Yuan Bao were meeting with the visiting French emperor's special envoy Walewski.

Since Bai Siwen and Valevsky both spoke fluent Russian, the two sides communicated in Russian.

"Your Highness, our country is currently preparing to join the war against the Russian Empire together with the United Kingdom. His Majesty the Emperor believes that if the Qing Dynasty can stand on our side and join the war, then our French Empire is willing to help you equip and train an army to participate in the war! The equipment of this army will be provided by France, the training will be carried out by French officers, and the military expenses can also be provided by loans from France."

Walewski spoke slowly and put forward a plan that was very attractive to Sushun, Yuanbao, Bai Siwen and others.

After hearing what he said, Bai Siwen said to Su Shun with a look of surprise: "Master Su, this Master Wa said that the French emperor is ready to give us a loan and foreign guns and cannons, and also plans to help our French officers train their troops on the condition that we help them fight the Russian Empire!"

"What?" Sushun was shocked. "Fight Russia? We can't even defeat Taiping, how can we fight Russia? Isn't this a bit embarrassing?"

(End of this chapter)