After the contract was made, he asked Fang Shan to stay behind and asked him to come over, just to let him keep an eye here, because Zhu Jinglun had to go back. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Reinforcements from the Anglo-French army arrived.

The British side sent 12,000 troops, Commander-in-Chief Grant, and Minister Plenipotentiary Elgin. The French side planned to send 7,000 troops, the commander-in-chief Montoban, and the plenipotentiary minister Gro.

At the beginning of June, these two armies all arrived in Hong Kong, which suddenly became lively.

However, the war did not break out immediately, and the naval fleets of the two countries went north first, with Britain attacking Dalian Bay and France attacking Dengzhou Port, trying to choke the throat of Bohai Bay from the south and the north, thus blockading Bohai Bay.

The Qing court's correspondence is particularly peculiar.

Xianfeng tore up the Treaty of Tientsin and demanded that the British and French ministers renegotiate with the Chinese side on the Treaty of Tientsin in Shanghai. After the two sides negotiated, they went to Beijing to exchange the contract. It is required that the exchange of contracts in Beijing should be carried out in accordance with the practice of the United States, that is, they should take a big bus to Beitang and enter Beijing under the supervision of the Qing army.

Xianfeng instructed He Guiqing, the governor of Liangjiang, to ask him to ask foreign envoys not only not to stay in Beijing for a long time, but also not to stay in other places for a long time; The military compensation demanded by Britain and France was offset by two million taels with the Qing army. First owed them two million taels, and then the Chinese businessmen paid them in installments. Travel to the mainland and the establishment of wharves on the Yangtze River will be cancelled as much as possible. Niuzhuang and Dengzhou are not allowed to open their mouths, and Chaozhou and Taiwan are opened according to the United States. At most, the United Kingdom is allowed to open the canton of Qiongqiong, and France to open fresh water. The defense of Dagu must not be withdrawn.

This was Xianfeng's reply to the British and French ultimatum of March 8, and asked He Guiqing, the governor of Liangjiang, to act as chargé d'affaires in Shanghai.

The reason why Xianfeng's attitude suddenly changed, and he had to spend inefficiently with Britain and France, the reason was that Monk Greenqin luckily sank several British gunboats at Dagukou and killed hundreds of people, Xianfeng felt confident, and stupidly thought that if he won the war, he would be able to get military compensation, thinking that if the Qing army won this battle, he would be able to offset part of the military expenses proposed by Britain and France.

Xianfeng didn't think at all that the "Tianjin Treaty" was an international treaty agreed upon by the two sides last time, and there was only one exchange of contracts left, and then he suddenly changed his hexagram, how angry would the foreigners be, and the open port that had been negotiated was suddenly not opened, which was to force the foreigners to beat him, and even the "Sino-US Tianjin Treaty" and the "Sino-Russian Tianjin Treaty" that had been renewed had not yet been implemented, which made the Americans and Russians depressed.

The root cause lies in the fact that Xianfeng monarchs and ministers have always regarded the signing of international treaties as a kind of delaying the army, just tricking the foreigners into withdrawing their troops, and then admitting whether they admit it or not depends on the situation.

This is definitely not Xianfeng alone, the Qing court is a collective decision-making, it is the courtiers' opinion, this is simply collective wisdom, that is, the entire court, there is no one who understands the international rules. It's still the same old thing that Chinese are used to, but the problem is that the world now is no longer the era of China, but the era of Westerners, and the times have changed, so it is a tragedy.

Zhu Jinglun knew that war was inevitable, he was concerned about the attitude of Britain and France towards Kowloon, historically, they had leased Kowloon long before the arrival of reinforcements, and Kowloon could be directly used as their logistics base, and now the Hong Kong government put forward a request to lease Kowloon, which was directly rejected by Zhu Jinglun, in history they signed a contract with Governor Lao Chongguang, and now they can't even see Bai Gui's face, there is a Humen fortress stuck, even if they want to go to Guangzhou, they have to consider it.

After Zhu Jinglun returned to Xin'an, he was immediately relieved when he heard that the British and French navy had gone north.

He was also worried that after the arrival of the British and French reinforcements, he would find a way to break through the Humen fortress and force his way into Guangzhou, and Bai Gui would definitely give in at that time.

Kowloon must not be ceded, this involves a question of economic discourse, ceding Kowloon, Hong Kong has a hinterland, this port will be completely alive, may not be as good as Shanghai, but there is no port in the Pearl River estuary can suppress him, which means that the economic center of Guangdong will move to Hong Kong.

Once Kowloon is not ceded, then the trade center of Guangdong will always be in the hands of Zhu Jinglun, who has always regarded Guangdong as his foundation and absolutely cannot afford to lose.

Now the British and French forces are heading north, which means that their eyes are always on Beijing.

Zhu Jinglun did not know that the spirit of the instructions given by Britain and France to the ministers was:

First, the British and French ministers should enter Peking, where they should be honorably received. The British government specifically emphasized that it was necessary to take the route that Bruce was going to take to enter Beijing, and it was necessary to enter Beijing in a sedan chair. Honor cannot be lost like U.S. Minister John Warren.

Second, whether the British and French envoys are permanently stationed in Beijing is to be discussed by the two envoys.

Third, the war should be fought as much as possible in the area north of the Yangtze River, and good relations should be maintained with the residents of other regions.

Fourth, the purpose of the war was not to overthrow the Qing government, but to prevent anarchy in Beijing. If the emperor in Beijing ran back to his hometown from Beijing, the Taiping army would grow stronger, the authority of China and Britain would decline, and the governor would be even more powerless to suppress the rebellion. Remember, our goal is to have a clearer and better international relationship with China.

The purpose of the British and French was still trade and commerce, and among the requests they sent to the minister, there was only one Zhoushan that explicitly stated the occupation of land.

The agreement between Britain and France provides that:

First, the Qing Dynasty paid 8 million taels of compensation to Britain and France. The amount of reparations in the Treaty of Tientsin was included.

Second, the joint occupation of Zhoushan in China as collateral.

Third, the Qing government apologized for the Dagukou incident and exchanged and fulfilled the Treaty of Tianjin.

As for Kowloon, it was a unilateral need of the British Government, and the demand to the Minister was to seize Kowloon without objection from France.

The French may not be opposed, but the current attitude of the French is definitely to give priority to the mission of fighting in the north, and then concentrate on reaching an agreement with China, and the French are still in a hurry to occupy Vietnam. Therefore, the Kowloon issue may have to be put to the last consideration.

What Zhu Jinglun didn't know was that in fact, the British were not in a hurry, but had deep concerns.

In the Hong Kong Governor's Palace, Bao Ling is reporting to Erjin.

Just as Zhu Jinglun has been collecting intelligence on Hong Kong, the British government in Hong Kong has never stopped investigating Guangdong, not to mention Xin'an, Zhu Jinglun dares to say that they are also very clear about the situation in Guangzhou, which has not been in direct contact.

At present, the most serious situation is naturally Zhu Jinglun's secret guidance, and the anti-land cutting movement led by Chen Zhiting's knife has made the entire Xin'an move, and even Dongguan, Xiangshan, Shunde, Panyu and Nanhai and other large counties along the Yangtze River have taken action, and the township warriors in each county are all armed, although there are no good weapons and equipment, it may only be a bamboo gun, a spear, or even a stick, but the incomparably large number of people is enough for the British to have a headache.

"How many troops do they have?"

Ergin frowned, he didn't expect that he would encounter such a troublesome thing as soon as he arrived in Hong Kong.

Bao Ling smiled bitterly: "It doesn't make sense to talk about the number of their troops at all, because they have as many troops as they have, and they are all armed." ”

Erjin said, "Then how many troops do you think we need to capture Kowloon?" ”

Bao Ling said: "It is not difficult to attack Kowloon, but it is difficult to face the extremely xenophobic Chinese, and once Kowloon is occupied, I am afraid that we must always station an army to maintain law and order." ”

Ergin sighed: "There is a problem with public security. ”

Law and order problems have always been a problem in Hong Kong, so much so that the British government has been controversial about Hong Kong's development, and some people believe that it is not worth investing in and is a waste of resources.

The law and order are so bad that even the Governor of Hong Kong cannot maintain his own safety.

A dragoon lieutenant who served in Hong Kong later described to his friend that Hong Kong was "the most terrible den of bandits in the world, and I dare say it's a den of thieves." For example, if someone goes for a walk on the street with a medal on his chest, the medal will definitely be snatched away by the time he returns...... I've never been to a place like this before and would never want to go to another place like it. ”

In 1856, when the war had just broken out, Ye Mingchen called on Guangdong to exterminate the Yi people, and Hong Kong was in chaos at that time.

The local newspaper carried a "record of Chinese atrocities", which included: "4 people were thrown Molotov cocktails; It is believed that three Europeans were briefly unconscious after drinking poisonous soup; A headless corpse was found; A fire broke out in the Queen's Road Central shack. ”

But this is nothing, the biggest impact, or a large-scale poisoning time, on January 15, 1857 a Chinese baker added a large amount of arsenic to bread, resulting in a large number of Hong Kong people poisoned, but because the amount of arsenic used is more than four times, but after a wonderful chemical action, the toxicity is not too serious, because this amount of arsenic becomes an emetic.

But there are still people who die, some people vomit nonstop, and the water and soil are not adapted, and those who are not in good health can't bear it, including Bao Ling's wife.

"In a few days, it will be your wife's memorial day. I'll go with you to offer her a bouquet of flowers. ”

When it comes to public security, Erjin thinks of Bao Ling's wife, and he actually admires Bao Ling very much in his heart for this matter.

The public reaction at the time was almost hysterical due to the widespread poisoning of the public, and even the local newspaper urged the Governor to "hang all the poisoned men at Yusheng Bakery".

According to the situation at the time, it was easy for Bao Ling to use the power in his hands, and he could kill Zhang Yalin, the owner of a Chinese bakery, and a group of men without even using power.

But Bao Ling chose the legal system.

He chose to let the court decide the fate of these people, and asked the judge to give them a fair trial, and the perfect legal system protected them, because it was impossible to determine who had poisoned the bread, and the jury acquitted the baker. But the bakery guys were later imprisoned, and 42 of them were imprisoned in a 15-square-foot hut.

The torture-like punishment calmed public outrage, but provoked protests from doctors who treated the poisoning.

Ergin knew that the cornerstone of the British Empire was to always adhere to its principles, such as Bao Ling, who clearly guarded a colony that was not favored by the government and had no future.

Zhu Jinglun also heard this story later, and he was also very emotional, a great nation and a great empire definitely did not rise out of thin air. He must have owned or forged his great people first, and then he could forge a great empire.

Zhu Jinglun never denied that the British Empire had a glorious greatness in its bones, but he would never be arrogant, and his goal was to make his nation and his country greater, even greater than any empire, because Zhu Jinglun firmly believed that his nation and his people would be able to educate themselves to become the greatest people in the world.

However, this kind of greatness is not the greatness of Confucius, that greatness is the greatness of a saint, not what ordinary people can do, a great nation under the rule of a great empire must be ordinary greatness, it is ordinary greatness, it is ordinary greatness, it is like Bao Ling, a person who will adhere to the principles of his country in any situation, why he insists on these principles, not because he thinks he is great, but because he agrees that the principles of his country are great, just, and should be implemented, implement these principles, Far more than his personal gains and losses.

It's just that people who have this kind of ordinary greatness, in the final analysis, are still ordinary people, and so is Bao Ling, he will also suffer and hate.

"I hate the Chinese!"

But he has always insisted on making peace with the Chinese, because it is in the best interests of Hong Kong, and he is the governor of Hong Kong.

Ergin agreed: "Yes! It is a terrible thing to live among the lower peoples, and since I have come to the East, I have seldom heard from them, men or women, a word consistent with Christianity. Whether Chinese or Indians, what connects them is hatred, contempt, atrocity, and revenge. We have to deal with irrational, cowardly and incompetent people who are ignorant of the subject matter and their own interests. ”

Bao Ling said: "Chinese are as inferior as Indians, but Chinese are more difficult to communicate than Indians!" ”

Ergin said: "This is the most difficult and unreasonable group of people in the world to communicate. ”

The two colonists sighed, they completely felt humiliated at this time, they endured this humiliation with a glorious spirit of sacrifice and dedication for the country, but they never thought that the Chinese never invited them to communicate, they forcibly communicated, and then they also felt that it was civilization's charity to ignorance, and the other party refused to agree, and they would feel humiliated and angry.

This is the colonizers, whose sense of morality is very different from that of the vast majority of the peoples of the world, and who think that they are the only right, as if they were their God, and who must believe in God, otherwise they should be burned to death.

Zhu Jinglun appreciates many excellent things in this kind of great empire, but he has never recognized this extremely self-centered spirit.