As an important minister in the late Qing Dynasty, a veteran of ZTE and a well-deserved pioneer of China's industrial revolution, Li Hongzhang. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Meiji Restoration of militarism became the representative of civilization, but your Westernization Movement based on people's livelihood was denounced by China people as an attempt to maintain the decadent system. I don't know how you felt at that time.
With the decline of the feudal dynasty, China has long been out of the track of world development, doing centrifugal movement alone. How many souls are numb in helplessness? You call on advanced intellectuals to launch a vigorous patriotic movement. In the face of turbulent political situation, you could have gone far away, or died for a reputation of loyalty and patriotism, but you didn't. It means that you are too naive or stupid to "try to be brave" in the case of war.
Perhaps you know that death is of no help to a backward nation, and it is important to clear the haze of the nation. So you trained the navy, founded the beiyang fleet, and fought against weak foreign enemies, which started the process of China's military modernization. God has no mercy on you. The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 became your Waterloo, which messed up your voice. Soon, the imperial court needs you to appoint you as the "ambassador plenipotentiary for peace talks" and go to Japan to negotiate an agreement.
Don't you know that signing a treaty that humiliated the country will make you a "public enemy" of the people? The last thing you pay is to spit all over the sky, and the harsh "traitors" and "conquered people" scold you everywhere. In fact, at that time, the late Qing Dynasty was like a "broken house", and you were the paperhanger. You could neither tear down the broken house for reconstruction nor repair it. In the end, you still need to clean up the mess. Ask history, passers-by are in a hurry, how many people know you?
Liang Qichao commented that you said, "I respect Li Hongzhang's talent, I cherish Li Hongzhang's knowledge, and I mourn Li's encounter ... In short, Li Hongzhang is the only representative of China!" American President Grant called you the first of the four great men in the world at that time. I don't know your past, so I dare not judge you at will, but I know that the idea of making peace originated from Cixi, and the compensation for ceding land was approved by the court ... In the end, you have to bear such a deep responsibility.
Really, too much helplessness makes you a target of public criticism, and too many scars make you fragmented. Through the fog of history, you can still see your patriotism and loyalty. Is it an advantage or a disadvantage? Is it right or wrong? Or praise or belittle? Sad or happy? All this has already turned into smoke, but the starry sky of history has become tangled and beautiful because of you.