October 19th, 1860, 10 AM.
In the hall of the government office in Jinmen.
As an experienced elder, the old Gui Liang stroked his white beard and represented the topic of the meeting.
"Count Erjin, Envoy Gro, I and my colleagues have been sent by the Emperor of our country to discuss the truce between the Qing, Gentleman, and Gaul. I hope that your country will obey the will of heaven and the will of the people, judge the hour and size up the situation, and do your best to restore the harmony between the two countries in the past without the disaster of war.”
Li Qing looked at his father-in-law who was talking non-stop and sighed in his heart."What a silly old man. He said a bunch of great principles, but none of them were useful. You might as well just casually say a few words.”
After Gui Liang finished speaking, Erjin stood up and introduced his entourage to the Qing side. Finally, he said," Your Highness, lords of the Qing Kingdom, please believe me. Our country and Gaul are both civilized countries. This time, we also came with the wish of being on good terms with your country. Finally, we sincerely hope to obtain a negotiation result that will satisfy all three countries.”
Not long after the meeting, the hall of the government office in Jinmen became noisy.
At the beginning of the negotiations, they could still be gentle and refined with each other, but when they got to the main topic, they were tit-for-tat, and no one was willing to take a step back.
"Your Highness 'conditions are truly unacceptable. Your country's one-sided ban on the import of Fushou cream was a decision that destroyed the freedom of trade. In 1842, the two countries suddenly had a dispute. The emperor of your country failed to learn his lesson and made the same mistake. Now, he had to use this as a threat. It was really regrettable.”
" The prohibition of Longevity Ointment was originally a good policy for the health of the people of our Qing Kingdom. Your country keeps saying that you are a civilized country, but you openly encourage your own merchants to dump Longevity Ointment on our country. Let me ask you, if other countries sell Longevity Ointment to your people, what would your reaction be? Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you. You know that it is harmful and you still sell it to other countries. How can you talk about civilization? If you insist on selling Longevity Ointment that your own country is unwilling to sell to other countries, how can you talk about free trade!”Li Qing replied.
Ba Xiali was equally tit-for-tat." Our Gentlemen Empire has the right to protect the interests of our people from being violated. Your country's ban on the sale of Longevity Ointment has already affected the interests of our Gentlemen Empire's merchants, so our government cannot ignore it. Moreover, the Longevity Ointment that our country ships to the Qing Kingdom is used for medicinal purposes. It's just that your country's illegal traders are using it for other purposes. Isn't this your government's responsibility?”
Li Qing sneered and did not say anything.
Baoyun continued," Hmph! The Earl's words were really funny. How much Longevity Ointment was used for medicinal purposes? Twenty years after Daoguang, your country dumped more than 30,000 boxes of Longevity Ointment to our country every year. Now, there are more than 300,000 boxes. In just twenty years, how could there be so much for medicinal purposes? Could it increase by nearly ten times? Now, you're pushing all the responsibility to our country? Who knows that it's those greedy British longevity cream dealers in your country who are colluding with the heartless officials!”
At this point, Li Qing did not wait for the gentleman to refute. He slammed the table and said," There's no need to argue about this matter. Let's first invite the gentleman and the Gaul envoys to listen to our country's conditions for this war.”
After saying that, Li Qing opened the file in front of him and recited in a clear voice,"Because the Great Qing Emperor and the monarchs of the various countries have explained the recent discord and put an end to the conflict, a permanent contract has been agreed upon. The Great Qing Emperor has specially appointed the Prime Minister of the various countries, Prince Gong Xin, the Head of the East Pavilion Grand Secretary Gui Liang, and the other ministers of the various countries, His Excellency Erjin, the hereditary viscount Aldrich, and the Gaul Kingdom Gro.”
"We will jointly review the orders given by the emperor and the orders given by the emperor to review each other. We will discuss and draft the following articles.
One: Later, the Great Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The monarch of the gentleman country will always be in peace, and the people of the two countries will be friendly and harmonious with each other. Those who live in other countries will be blessed with their own safety.
Second, the prime minister of the gentleman country, Napoleon III of the Gaul country, etc., forced the officials and people of the Great Qing Dynasty to do things unfairly, resulting in the dispatch of Gaul soldiers to provoke and invade the border. Now we have decided to pay 13 million taels of silver for the army and water as compensation. In addition, since September 24, the tenth year of Xianfeng, the soldiers captured by the Celestial Dynasty spent a total of five million taels of silver during their detention in the Celestial Dynasty. In total…"
Before Baoyun could finish reading, Erjin sneered loudly,""Hahaha!" His voice was filled with ridicule as he stood up and said,"Enough, Your Highness. From what your country said, it seems that you really think that we have won this battle?”
Li Qing deliberately asked," What do you mean? Could it be that the allied forces that your country had raised in Gaul were now all captured and disarmed by our country? If this still can't be considered a victory, then this king really doesn't know how to do it.”
"Please don't forget, Your Highness. They were not captives, but rather, both sides had voluntarily agreed to a truce. How could a truce be called a captive? Furthermore, the Prince might have been too busy to handle the situation. The allied army's armaments were exchanged for our warriors as ransom.”Erjin quickly explained.
"But just now, you admitted that our Tianjin Prefecture is under your country's occupation. Is this a truce?”
Before Li Qing could finish his words, Erjin was so angry that his limbs trembled.
Seeing this, Ge Luo said," Your Highness is too unreasonable. Let's not talk about your country's detention of the allied forces. We have more than 130 warships parked outside Dagu Port. We can bombard your coastal cities at any time, but we don't. Because we are a civilized country, we have sincerity. But now it seems that if the peace talks don't go through, it's your fault for not knowing when to retreat. You have only yourself to blame.”
After Li Qing heard this, he clenched his fists tightly and said to the two envoys,"If it's really like what Special Envoy Gro said, our country only needs to kill the 6,000 men of the Zhangjiawan Alliance Army as a sacrifice to the flag, then the soldiers and civilians of Gaul will deal with the Gentlemen and Gaul until the end!”
Ge Luo stood up." Your Highness, I hope that you will pay attention to the fact that you are talking to the envoys of the world's first and second strongest countries. Don't be arrogant.”
Unfortunately, Ba Xia Li's words did not make Li Qing yield. Instead of retreating, he said,""Please also remember the words of your country's Napoleon I. The Qing Kingdom is a sleeping lion. In the past, you could bully him without any scruples, but now such days are gone. This king can clearly tell you that this lion has awakened!”
As the two of them talked, the smell of fire became stronger. Their respective colleagues stood up and tried to persuade them from the side. The negotiation that had lasted for nearly six hours was also interrupted at the last minute.
They cupped their hands and went their separate ways. When they returned to the court room, Li Qing broke a teacup the moment he entered.
Wen Xiang, who was beside him, quickly said,"Your Highness, don't be angry!" I heard that Gladstone, who was sent by the Gentleman Kingdom this time, is a rare moderate in the Gentleman Kingdom's court. Why don't we see if we can get some information out of the envoys of other countries at tonight's banquet?”
"Your Highness, what if the Gentleman Nation refuses to agree to the negotiations tomorrow? Can we lower our demands?" Baoyun asked tentatively.”
Gui Liang sighed and said,"We have to live up to the king's orders. We'll slowly grind them down."”
Li Qing, who had already vented his anger, said disapprovingly,"How long will it take? In my opinion, we might as well use the stove reduction method! Let's see how long they can last."
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]