光绪二十五年(一八九七年)十二月,李鸿章来到广州署理两广总督。身为“太子太傅文华殿大学士一等肃毅伯”(相当于首相)的李鸿章,是继曾国藩之后,在清政府中权势最大的汉人。他为什么会突然远离京畿谪官两广?此中不无远近原因。李鸿章被誉为“夙建殊勋,早为元辅,受两朝之重寄,驰四裔之高名”。当年他靠淮军起家,充当镇压太平天国和捻军的刽子手,这笔账不去算了,就是后来成为洋务运动的首脑以及办外交的主角,也是很受非议的。一方面,他作为红极一时的清末高级官 Twenty-five years Guangxu (1897) December, Li Hongzhang came to Guangzhou governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. Li Hongzhang, who became the “First Prizeless Prince of China in Taiping Wenhua Hall of Prince Edward” (equivalent to the Prime Minister), is the most powerful Han Chinese in the Qing government following Zeng Guofan. Why did he suddenly stay away from Gwangju? Li Hongzhang was hailed as “Jian Jian Shu Xun, as early as Yuan Fu, re-sent by the two Koreas, gallop four high name ”. He relied on the establishment of the Anhwei Army to serve as the executioner of the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nien Army during that year. This sum was not neglected. It was also a source of criticism that he later became the head of the Westernization Movement and the protagonist of diplomacy. On the one hand, he was a prime minister in the late Qing Dynasty