In the Chinese Imperial Palace in Nanjing, a small Frenchman was talking, surrounded by a group of Westerners who looked at him fanatically.

"These are two different things. One is just a ceremony, in which the head of state is saluted by high-level state figures. The other is a country specifically designed to make foreigners grovel. In my opinion, no matter what kind of customs a country has, as long as it is the courtesy of important state officials to the head of state, foreigners will not be ashamed to follow suit.

Different countries have different customs, and in England, you kiss the king's hand at the court, which would be considered ridiculous in France, and whoever does it will become a laughing stock of the public. But the French ambassador did not feel undignified when he went to England with such a courtesy. In England, if hundreds of years ago, the king had people kneeling to serve, and this kind of etiquette still exists in Spain today. In Rome, you kiss the pope's toes, but it's not unseemly either.

When a person goes to another country, he should follow the customs. Whatever courtesy Lord Magalny applied, as long as it was the courtesy of a high-ranking official to the Chinese Emperor, it was not decent. You say that he is willing to do the same courtesy to the Chinese emperor as he is to the King of England, but you have no right to send men to China and tell them that because of a certain etiquette that England uses, they must follow it. As a hypothetical example, if the English custom is not to kiss the king's hand, but the king's buttocks. Do you want the Chinese emperor to take off his pants too? ”

At this time, a voice from behind the crowd sounded: "It's a hassle for us to take off our pants!" ”

When the people saw this voice, they immediately gave way and stood rudely on both sides, some bowed, some were French, and some took off their hats in greeting, and this was English.

The person who came was none other than Zhou Lang, the current emperor of China.

He walked up to Napoleon: "Hello, Emperor of the French! ”

He greeted Napoleon.

Napoleon bowed slightly: "Hello, His Majesty the Emperor of China." If you call me that, I'm afraid it will cause unnecessary diplomatic trouble. Because I have been abolished by some non-French countries! ”

Zhou Lang said: "I am greeting the emperor of the French, not the emperor of France." At least you're still an emperor among the French here. ”

Napoleon smiled: "Thank you! ”

Zhou Lang asked, "What were you talking about just now, why did you mention the pants?" ”

This was the welcome dinner held by Zhou Lang for Napoleon, but Zhou Lang arrived late and did not hear the conversation between Napoleon, the consuls and the guests present.

Napoleon smiled and said, "I just talked to our English friends about Chinese etiquette, and about Magalny's visit to your country's former dynasty. ”

The British consul said, "Yes." We consider the etiquette practiced by the former Tatar emperor of your country to be very uncivilized, so I think Lord Magalny was right that he did not fully comply with it. ”

Napoleon said: "Why do you go to the court of the Ottoman Empire and wear the robes of the Arabs? What about visiting the Chinese court and refusing to bow down according to the etiquette of the Chinese ministers to meet the emperor? You British people always like to impose your stuff on other people's heads! ”

The consul said: "I think the Chinese have the most say in the ancient etiquette, and they have now carried out reforms, which is enough to show that the Chinese have realized this." ”

Napoleon said: "So you are not respected as much in China as the Dutch. Because the Dutch were willing to do things according to Chinese etiquette, even if it was a fish rewarded by the Chinese emperor, they would bow respectfully before they dared to eat it. And you, it's hard to even see the emperor. As far as I know, even if China changes their etiquette, you still refuse to follow it. Chinese ministers and nobles would give thanks to the emperor before they were rewarded and appointed. And your envoys met the Emperor of China for the first time after the change, and still refused to salute. ”

Zhou Lang watched with great interest that Napoleon and the British consul exchanged words, the British were obviously not as eloquent as Napoleon, although Napoleon had a strong accent, but he spoke quickly and clearly.

The British consul snorted: "What about you, what kind of etiquette will you use when you meet His Majesty the Emperor of China?" ”

Napoleon paused: "As for me? Just now His Majesty the Emperor has recognized that I am the Emperor of the French people, I'm sorry, I don't know what kind of etiquette should be used in China when two emperors meet? ”

Zhou Lang smiled: "Anyway, it's not about taking off your pants." Well, that's all for your arguments. Please come here, first, to receive the wind for His Majesty Napoleon. Second, I am going to announce that I will invite His Majesty Napoleon to reside permanently in China. I have no intention of interfering in the political affairs of Europe, I only want to be more just to an emperor. That's all! Now let's celebrate, drink and dance. ”

The music sounded, and the Chinese pipeline was paired with European dance music, which had a unique taste.

Zhou Lang's answer displeased everyone.

The British consul did not attend this banquet to show respect for Napoleon, on the contrary, he was full of hostility, and he would not have attended it if it were not for knowing why the Chinese rescued Napoleon.

There was a group of Chinese workers on the island of St. Helena, who came here to open up their business under the employment of the British government. In the original history, there were Chinese coolies here, and after Zhou Lang opened up immigration early, there were more cases of Chinese being employed by foreigners, but the Chinese government supervised that every hired Chinese labor worker must be registered, and no one cares about life or death after being taken out by foreigners. Zhou Lang even personally worked out a detailed management method for labor export.

The anti-slavery movement of the elite in Britain had been going on for many years, and at this Congress of Vienna, the British established the principles of abolition. Since then, the main force of the slave trade has changed from European countries to the emerging Americans and Brazilians.

Chinese laborers began to replace blacks as the main labor force for exports.

The main population of the island was even Chinese, and then there was a British army, and one day a fleet of Chinese African companies raided the place, seized the port, surrounded the town, and the Chinese laborers protected Napoleon from the British army.

In fact, no one thought of harming Napoleon, who had too much influence to waste resources on the island of St. Helena if the British were willing to kill him. The exile of his resources almost caught up with the investment into Australia.

In the end, due to the strength of the Chinese African Company, they sent tens of thousands of men, and the British army was less than a thousand, in this case, the British army chose to compromise and allow them to take Napoleon.

In this way, Napoleon went to China, and Britain also knew that he was taken by the Chinese.

The two sides have already started negotiations on this issue, and Britain has threatened to take a tough stance on this matter and not hesitate to start a war. The British navy was enough to destroy the Chinese navy, but the army was weak, and the British had already begun to form an anti-Zhou coalition in Europe, hoping that those countries threatened by Napoleon would send troops.

Correspondingly, it is France that has now returned to the rule of the orthodox dynasty, Louis XVIII of the Bourbon dynasty, in fact, it is France that fears Napoleon the most, or the Bourbon dynasty, which represents the legitimate power of France at this time. However, Britain did not accept the French proposal to send troops to participate, because Britain felt that the arrival of the French army was tantamount to sending reinforcements to Napoleon, and turned around.

The nascent Kingdom of the Netherlands could act with the British under pressure, but the Netherlands could not provide much of an army; Prussia, which had just eaten a lot of money at the Congress of Vienna, was ambiguous about the question of sending troops and lacked interest in military operations outside Europe. Austria, which had fallen out with Britain at the Congress of Vienna, was even less interested in using troops abroad.

Russia is busy with the civil war and simply cannot afford to send troops, and if they recover, their first choice is not to send troops to fight China, but to turn around and destroy Poland first.

The major powers were reluctant to send troops, and the British were unable to do it alone, and they began to prefer to use diplomatic means to solve the problem.

Therefore, it is important to find out the purpose of the Chinese emperor.

Negotiations between Britain and China on other fronts have continued, and the Nanyang negotiations have basically reached a conclusion.

In the Anglo-Dutch Agreement of 1814, the Netherlands accepted to form an alliance with Britain against Napoleon. Britain returned Java and Malacca to the Netherlands, and the Netherlands ceded Sumatra to the British.

In this way, the Nanyang power became a triumvirate of China, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The boundary between Britain and the Netherlands is very well demarcated, in fact, Britain annexed here, and the Dutch were not able to resist, but in order to support the Netherlands, Britain still returned most of the Dutch colonies, and retained an ally on the European continent, and also retained a chess piece.

When the Dutch regained control of the Java colony, they could also serve as an ally of the British against China. Unfortunately, the Dutch did not seem to have any intention of confronting China, and during the Napoleonic Wars, the Dutch lost control of the area and trade links to Europe. The British then occupied the area, but implemented a free trade policy, as a result, Chinese merchants have monopolized the trade in this area by virtue of geographical and capital advantages, and the annual trade between Nanyang and China has reached the level of thousands of ships.

After the Dutch regained control of Java, they were not willing to squeeze out their biggest customers, they actually did not have the ability to keep it, and they did not want to become cannon fodder for Britain to confront China, and in the Napoleonic Wars, their lessons were so tragic that they really didn't want to try it again.

So the Dutch soon signed a trade agreement with China, changing the trade system in Java and abolishing the monopolistic trade policy of sending him according to China's demands. It also recognizes that the Chinese on the island of Java have the same political status as the Europeans. The Dutch also sold all the ports and commercial facilities they had built on the coast of Borneo to China for 5 million guilders, recognizing Borneo as a Chinese sphere of influence.

The Dutch traded these conditions for a promise that China would not make territorial claims to Dutch colonies such as Java.

After the Dutch made significant concessions, Britain was the only one left to face the pressure from China.