When Wittoma came over in the evening to express the attitude of the British, Zhu Jinglun did not know whether to say that their judgment was accurate or that they were whimsical. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Wittoma went so far as to say that if there was a conflict between the local powers in Guangdong and the central dynasty, they would remain neutral and would not intervene in internal disputes in China, but they would need Guangdong to guarantee British interests in Guangdong under all conditions.

Zhu Jinglun was a little surprised, but he immediately reacted to why the British had such a miscalculation, because of that document.

Zhu Jinglun's original purpose in submitting that document to the British was only to prove his legitimacy to the British.

At the same time, he also told the British that he had sent a mission to Britain to carry out activities, and he only hoped that the British army in Hong Kong would exercise restraint and wait for the results.

But the British misunderstood.

They thought that Zhu Jinglun's current military operations were preparing for the War of Independence and that he was planning to break away from the Qing Dynasty and stand on his own.

First of all, the documents presented by Zhu Jinglun show that Zhu Jinglun has the support of the people, and the British maintain a kind of elite politics at this time, and the Jews only gained political power two years ago, and the working class still does not have any power, and there is no power to elect parliamentarians at all, and it takes at least two parliamentary reforms before the upper echelons of the workers can participate in politics. It was only after the First World War that all adult men and women over the age of 30 were granted the right to vote.

This gradual political reform in Britain was very successful, and without experiencing major upheaval, a state system was established to guarantee the rights of rendezvous.

But now, in the British people, especially the upper-class people like Ergin, only those big landowners and aristocrats can take on the responsibility of the country, and the people on the list submitted by Zhu Jinglun are all real estate owners in the most core area of the Pearl River Delta.

Therefore, in Erjin's view, this document is absolutely valid, and he now believes that Zhu Jinglun's government has obtained the authorization of more than 15 million people, but in fact, Zhu Jinglun only attached a letter of authorization to the end, and only authorized himself to negotiate with foreigners on behalf of those people.

Since he misjudged his own government as a new government that was being formed, he would definitely regard the mission led by Chen Zhiting as a mission to Europe for diplomatic operations. On the original document that Chen Zhiting brought, there was no such page of authorization, and Zhu Jinglun didn't take it seriously, it was just a temporary measure to facilitate his own negotiations, but it caused such a big misjudgment on the other side.

So what is the time to take advantage of this miscalculation.

Openly admitting that they are preparing to rebel is definitely not good, who knows if the British are unreliable, will they tell the Qing court the news of their rebellion to curry favor with the Qing government, after the Second Raven War, they changed their attitude of not interfering in the Chinese civil war, and sent active officers to help Li Hongzhang command the foreign gun team.

Therefore, Zhu Jinglun neither affirmed nor denied it, but just expressed his attitude to Wei Tuma:

"As for the treaties signed between the imperial court and your country, as long as they do not harm the interests of our Guangdong, we are willing to recognize them in principle. However, I hope that your country will take into account the special interests of Guangdong, and sign a rehabilitation charter with your province in addition to the formal treaty, so as to protect the interests of our province and at the same time to safeguard your country's interests in Guangdong. ”

Wittoma said that it was not convenient for them to negotiate with Zhu Jinglun's government in an official capacity, and that they hoped that Zhu Jinglun would issue a statement that he would immediately fulfill the provisions of the Treaty of Peiping concerning British interests and make a formal commitment.

Zhu Jinglun refused: "This is very difficult, you know that it is impossible for us to accept the cession of land." However, most of the contents of the "Beiping Treaty" can indeed take effect immediately, including your right to free trade in Guangzhou, and from now on, your country's merchant ships can pass freely on the Pearl River, but your country's warships still cannot sail into the Pearl River, so as not to cause unnecessary misunderstandings. ”

Seeing that Zhu Jinglun had agreed to most of the terms, but he was resolutely opposed to the land issue, he knew that this was the bottom line, and it was impossible to win it directly, and it might have to be resolved through negotiations, but he also had to solve other problems.

"Now that the treaty has entered into force, the new Annri Authority's cents should be cancelled immediately, or customs duties and sub-taxes should be levied at the amount of the tax specified in the treaty."

The Qing government's Qincha is really a bunch of stupid pigs, they let out too big a mouth, the tariff value is 5% out of 100, and the sub-mouth tax is half of the tariff to replace all the internal fighting taxes, the total is less than 8 percent, only 7.5 percent, which is probably the lowest tax rate in the world.

In the past decade or so, Britain has promoted the concept of free trade all over the world, but the tea tax is still 16 percent, and in previous years it was as high as 300 percent, accounting for 10 percent of their government revenue.

And Zhu Jinglun's bureau is 10 percent of the money, which is higher than the Qing government's tariffs, but in the past two years, in fact, all import tariffs have not been levied, because Guangzhou Customs has not operated at all.

Therefore, Zhu Jinglun only lost 2.5 percent of the tax rate on the condition of the British, and the impact was not very great, not to mention that such a thing as taxation, as long as you find a way, you can always be flexible, business is an economic chain, and any link in which link is taxed, in fact, it is taxing the entire chain, and the pressure will be transmitted up and down.

So it was too easy to change the way, after the abolition of the high tea tax in the UK, in order to make up for the lack of government revenue, they introduced a window tax, taxing every window in the country, and the people angrily scolded that in Britain they had to collect taxes even to enjoy the sun and breathe the air.

Therefore, Zhu Jinglun did not object: "We can stop collecting centi, but in the future, the levy of customs duties will still be the responsibility of the bureau, and the bureau will be reorganized into the Guangdong Department of Taxation." ”

Wittuma believed that this was the freedom of the local government in Guangdong, and they did not interfere, and they also felt that the tax collection bureau created by Hurd was probably more reliable than the Guangdong customs in Guangzhou.

In the end, Zhu Jinglun made a suggestion to Wei Tuma: "I personally make a completely friendly suggestion to you on the matter of cessing land, and I hope that you will be able to exercise restraint before the results of our mission's negotiations with your country London come out, and not cause unnecessary conflicts between our two sides because of the issue of land cession." ”

Wittoma has no right to decide: "I need to consult with His Excellency Ergin before I can decide. ”

Zhu Jinglun agreed: "Of course. At the same time, in order to enable your Government and Parliament to make a correct judgment on the Eastern question, I suggest that Mr. Ergin should submit to your Government a clear report on the present problems in the Orient. ”

Zhu Jinglun believes that the British government is most concerned about trade, so if they believe that they will once again fall into a protracted, headless conflict with China because of the land cession issue in Guangdong, which will lead to a state of trade stagnation, I believe that the British government will make a wise choice.

As for the terms they agreed with the Qing government, Zhu Jinglun believed that with the British style of eating people and not spitting out bones, if they failed to cede land in Guangdong, they would definitely use this as an excuse to put pressure on the Qing government in exchange for other benefits, or even a piece of land in other places, such as Weihai or Zhoushan.

But the British cut off the ports in the north, and the people of Guangdong will never care, and there is narrow localism in any country, and the United States is not about to break out into a civil war because of the inconsistent interests of various states.

As long as the people of Guangdong see that Zhu Jinglun helped them keep their land, so that the foreigners will not cede land in Guangdong, but run away to the north, they will only be grateful to Zhu Jinglun, not only Kowloon, or even more than Xin'an, but the entire Pearl River Delta region, as well as other areas of Guangdong that are more well-informed, although Kowloon is still far from the rest of the Pearl River Delta, but the slogans put forward in the anti-land cutting movement are alarmist, cut Kowloon today, may cut Xin'an tomorrow, cut Dongguan, etc., foreigners give up cutting Kowloon, It will give them peace of mind.

But once the Qing government is under this pressure and is forced to exchange land in other places for Kowloon ceded to the British, it will definitely be very dissatisfied, and it will definitely think that the Guangdong region has caused trouble for the imperial court, and their dissatisfaction will not be expressed to the British, but will put pressure on Guangdong, and it is very likely that Zhu Jinglun will be dismissed because of this, not only do they need someone to take responsibility, but more importantly, Zhu Jinglun has offended too many people, not that he doesn't know how to be with the light, but the interests of the bureau are too great, and he has almost monopolized it in the past two years. has long made a large group of powerful people dissatisfied, and these people must be happy to fall into the well.

At this time, the common people of Guangdong were grateful to Zhu Jinglun for keeping the land for them and getting rid of future troubles, but on the other hand, they saw that the imperial court had deposed Zhu Jinglun because of this, how would they be dissatisfied with the Manchu court? At the same time, how grateful is Zhu Jinglun? At this time, the people's hearts turned against Zhu Jinglun, and with some means to guide, a strong public resentment will be formed, although this popular resentment is not strong enough for the people to rebel, but at least it will make them choose neutrality between Zhu Jinglun and the Qing Dynasty, and begin to consider.

The people's will is very important to Zhu Jinglun, the resources in his hands are too shallow, if he is like the British misjudged, using these troops organized in his hands to rebel, Zhu Jinglun can be sure that most of those townsmen will not follow, even in the guarantee written by their clan, it is written that they will not betray the court and will not flee from the battle.

Only when the people's hearts are turned to him, at least if the people's hearts remain neutral, can Zhu Jinglun have the opportunity to launch a coup d'état, and then take Guangdong as the foundation, and then patiently maintain it for a year or two, and the people will completely support Zhu Jinglun.

The key depends on whether Chen Zhiting can convince the British government when he goes to the UK.

But Zhu Jinglun can't be idle at home, he has to make sound military preparations. (To be continued.) )