What was the scene and ending of Guo Songtao after he returned to China?

Guo Songtao arrived in Changsha by boat on May 5, 1879. At that time, a conservative and anti-foreign trend was taking place in Xiangyin, and the situation was quite tense. Even the wooden boats towed by small Western steamers were blocked by Chinese people from Changsha and Shanhua counties. Slogans scolding Guo Songtao for "colluding with foreigners" were plastered all over the streets.

On the day of his mission, Guo Songtao was full of ambitions, hoping to use this trip to introduce Western ways of governing the country and make China stand erect among the nations of the world, but he had no choice but to return in vain. Guo Songtao went out as an envoy amidst the scoldings and returned home amidst the scoldings. He had lost the confidence to continue fighting and retired to his hometown after returning to China. Although Guo Songtao's official title as an imperial envoy has not yet been lifted, local officials from the governor level down are extremely arrogant towards him. After Guo Songtao's death, although some officials requested a posthumous title and biography as usual, they were all rejected by the Qing court.

It was not until 9 years after his death, when the Boxer Rebellion was on the rise, that some officials in the capital petitioned to open the coffin and whip Guo Songtao's body to express gratitude to the world. In his later years, Guo Songtao applied three times to open a shipping company, but all came to nothing. He is confident: "After it has been passed down for hundreds of generations and thousands of years, we will definitely know that this person exists in the world."