"I won't hand over Gan Shaan!" Lin Fengxiang said seriously when he met Hei Chenggang again on the third day.

Hei Chenggang was not surprised, let alone dissatisfied. He replied frankly, "If this is the decision of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, I will bring this decision back to the Governor." But does the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have its own plans? ”

This is indeed the consensus of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's powerful faction meeting, Shaanxi may be slightly better than Guangxi, but in fact it is not much better. Shaanxi is much worse than Jiangnan. When they were driven from Jiangnan to Shaanxi, the army of the Guangfu Army surrounded the city of Nanjing, and the generals of the Taiping Army could only grit their teeth and admit it. Now the Liberation Army is still far from Chang'an City, and the conditions in Xinjiang are even worse than in Shaanxi. As Li Xiucheng said in the two-day meeting, "Even if we go to Xinjiang to open up the territory, where will we be sent by a sentence after that?" ”

Li Xiucheng said the hearts of the generals of the Taiping Army, even if they can't defeat the Guangfu Army, they can't let the Guangfu Army be so ravaged. Everyone is opposed to obediently admitting defeat to the Liberation Army.

Lin Fengxiang is not a masochist, and he is naturally unwilling to be driven by the Liberation Army. But now there is a problem, it is easy to refuse the request of the Liberation Army, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom really can't find its own future direction. In reality, if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wants to expand its territory, it can only develop in the direction of Xinjiang and Mongolia. But in those directions, the Gobi is thousands of miles, or the vast grassland. For the Han Chinese, there is really no merit in it. Moreover, the Guangfu Army has never mentioned the option of surrendering the Taiping Army until now, and it really makes the Taiping Army surrender honestly, and they really will not take the initiative to make such a choice before the mountains and rivers are exhausted.

Therefore, Lin Fengxiang was difficult to answer Hei Chenggang's frank question for a while. Hei Chenggang also saw some clues, he didn't embarrass Lin Fengxiang, and said directly: "King Zhang, I asked the governor if the brothers of the Taiping Army are willing to defect to our Guangfu Army." Du Du thought for a while before saying that he felt that the Taiping brothers were very backbone, and they might not be willing to choose this path for the sake of face. But that's what I think, we've fought together before, and the camaraderie is here. I just want to ask King Zhang if the brothers of the Taiping Army are willing to defect to the Guangfu Army. ”

Regarding such an aggressive attitude of the Guangfu Army, Lin Fengxiang could only sigh, but after a long sigh, he also thought about it. If the two sides change places, just the behavior of King Hong, I am afraid that it will not let the Guangfu Army get out of Nanjing. It also gave the Liberation Army several years.

Now the Taiping army knows that it can't defeat the Guangfu Army, but they know that they can't beat it after all, they haven't been beaten to the point of exhaustion. Even if some people have already thought of surrendering, they will not choose to surrender now. Thinking of this, Lin Fengxiang said: "Please tell Brother Sù Wei when you go back, I, Lin Fengxiang, always remember the favor he rescued back then." But the two countries have their own masters, and I, Lin Fengxiang, am a person from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so I will not follow the Young Heavenly King. ”

Hei Chenggang originally received the order to come and inquire about the situation, but now there are many internal problems in the Liberation Army, and at least before the construction of the basic railway network is completed, it is not yet the time to start a full-scale operation. Regarding Lin Fengxiang's words, Hei Chenggang just smiled, "What King Zhang said, I will go back and tell the governor." ”

At a time when there was a change in China's internal forces, the British Parliament also made a judgment on the China question, and their envoy rushed to Nanking to meet with Foreign Minister Zuo Zhidan.

"We have been informed that your country is preparing to attack the Dutch East Indies." The British envoy put it bluntly.

"Never!" Zuo Zhidan also said categorically. Some people say that diplomacy is talking nonsense to each other, and this may be the superficial state of diplomacy. Internally, truth and lies are only part of diplomacy in and of themselves. Misunderstanding the other side's thinking is a diplomatic problem. As long as you can accurately convey your thoughts to the other party, it makes no difference whether the truth is told or a lie itself.

Listening to Zuo Zhidan's clear answer, the British envoy believed that perhaps China had no intention of going to war with Britain head-on at this time. This is also the judgment made by the British Parliament. Knowing that China intended to annex the Dutch East Indies, the British Parliament did not see any moral problem with this. Britain has less than 300,000 square kilometers of native water in the true sense of the word, but it controls tens of millions of square kilometers of colonies. Colonies and other things are never brought to the table, and if they are discussed on the table, European countries can fight to the death every day.

What the British Parliament cannot accept is that China challenges Britain's global hegemony, and if China is only interested in a certain colony, it is completely capable of resolving conflicts through negotiation without touching the global hegemony of the British Empire.

After all, China's ironclad ships were sailing in the South China Sea, and this fleet did not collapse at the slightest touch in the face of the British fleet's attack, but resisted vigorously, and the gap in existing strength between the two sides did not give Britain any big advantage. For this alone, the British need to give China enough respect.

Maybe it was cultural differences, or Zuo Zhidan himself had some preconceived ideas, but after talking for more than two hours, Zuo Zhidan finally understood that the British resolutely did not accept China's strategy of annexing the Dutch East Indies by force. However, if China made "legitimate demands" to the Dutch East Indies at a conference chaired by the British, Britain did not care about fulfilling its duties as world hegemon. That is, to preside over a negotiation.

"How old do you think you are?" Zuo Zhidan scolded in his heart. This is the unique mentality of the founding soldiers who conquered the world. From a practical point of view, the attitude of the British can be said to be very friendly, and all they need is for China to recognize British dominance in the Western Pacific. The Dutch East Indies were so big, and there were so few Dutchmen there. China has ample manpower and strength worthy of the respect of the British Far East Fleet. The Dutch were afraid of the Chinese entering the Dutch East Indies and tried in every possible way to refuse the Chinese to open plantations and mines in the Dutch East Indies. Britain was not afraid of this, and the British Parliament even thought that if China was allowed to make some gains in the Dutch East Indies, it would promote Chinese recognition and respect for the British order in the Far East.

But Zuo Zhidan obviously does not think that this attitude is friendly at all, China is completely different from Britain, China does not need colonies, China needs territory. There are no advantages to allowing China to invest in the Dutch East Indies and to use the local land and minerals. As long as China occupied the Dutch East Indies, that power would follow. Therefore, Zuo Zhidan really cares about only one sentence, "Britain resolutely does not accept China's strategy of annexing the Dutch East Indies by force."

After the two sides had a frank exchange of views, Zuo Zhidan went to see Wei Ze to report the situation. To Zuo Zhidan's surprise, Wei Ze was very interested in the conditions offered by the British. This also complained that the two had different views, but Wei Ze knew the arrogance of the British and the low status of China back then. To be able to force the British to make such huge concessions on the Dutch East Indies is definitely a victory for national strength. Weeser thought that the British would mercilessly send the Grand Fleet to bombard Chinese seaports all the way.

Wei Ze originally wanted Zuo Zhidan and the British envoy to talk about this issue, but looking at Zuo Zhidan's "Heavenly Empire" style, he swallowed his initial words back into his stomach and changed his words, "I want to meet the British envoy." ”

The negotiations between the two men, who had a relatively accurate understanding of the whole world, were quite rational, and the two sides had quite serious discussions on the question of Britain's position in the Western Pacific.

The seizure of Borneo by China did cause displeasure among the British, and the fact that China had quickly gained a foothold in Borneo and was very unhappy with the large-scale exploitation of Borneo. But this is not enough for Britain to tear its face with China over this. The British had a very low level of development in their huge colonies, and they really couldn't find a reason to go to war with China for a single Borneo. All Britain needs is for China to respect British dominance in the Western Pacific. In other words, China's expansion ends there.

After confirming the attitude of the British parliament brought by the British envoy, Weese said frankly: "We are willing to respect Britain's position in the western Pacific. We are not prepared to continue to seek more land ownership beyond the Spanish islands in the Pacific. ”

Zuo Zhidan didn't have any special expression on his face, but he was a little smacking in his heart, Wei Ze gave everyone the impression that he was a very, very frank and honest person, and he never said nonsense to his comrades. However, when Wei Ze told nonsense to the British envoy, he was really sincere, if it weren't for Zuo Zhidan's deep knowledge of Wei Ze's attitude towards Southeast Asia and even Australia and New Zealand, he would have been deceived by the deep joy and sincere cooperation expectation in Wei Ze's tone.

After saying his assurances, Weeser continued, "I think our negotiations are going too late, and the British navy is strong, so let's worry that Britain will indiscriminately side of the Dutch East Indies. ”

Hearing this compliment, which was completely in line with the facts, a smile appeared on the face of the British envoy. Opposite him was the Emperor of China, whose throne was recognized throughout the world. There are only a few emperors in the true sense of the word, Elizabeth, the Empress of India and King of England, the Emperor of China, the Great Sultan of Turkey, the Tsar of Russia, the Emperor of the HRE, the Emperor of Ethiopia, and other countries are only considered kings even if they claim to be emperors.

More than half a century ago, during the Chinese trend, Europe had great expectations for China's social system, and the British civil service system was modeled after China's imperial examination system. So the British also knew that there was no blood relationship between the Chinese dynasties. Wei Ze can now be called the emperor of China, and naturally he has received corresponding glory.