Prince Gong and Erjin, the representative of the foreigners, negotiated with the Imperial Court to negotiate the signing of the "Treaty of Beijing" proposed by them.

As expected by Prince Gong, the attitude of the foreigners was quite arrogant, and there was no room for bargaining at all. Prince Gong tried to negotiate the content of Yang Xiaoshan's proposal, but Erjin refused.

Forget about the arrogant attitude of the foreigners, their translator and staff officer Gong Banlun was not respectful to Prince Gong at all, and kept smiling evilly, constantly giving ideas to the British and French, and making things difficult for Prince Gong in every possible way.

Speaking of this Gong Banlun, his father is a very famous Gong Zizhen, and his very famous sentence is "I advise Tiangong to be vigorous and reduce talents without sticking to one pattern". Gong Zizhen is knowledgeable, talented, and noble, and wants to be a good official to serve the court, but unfortunately the Qing court officialdom is dark, and good officials can't survive, so he has been squeezed out and depressed.

Gong Banlun is Gong Zizhen's eldest son, and his talent and knowledge are not below his father, and his father's experience makes him despair of the officialdom of the Qing court. So he became bohemian, thought his father was too stupid, and gave up the imperial examination for life. He named himself "Ban Lun", which is to say that he has no way of monarchs and ministers, fathers and sons, husband and wife, brothers, and friends, and only loves a concubine.

Prince Gong was really anxious by this Gong Banlun, so he scolded: "Your Gong family is favored by the country, how can you act for the tiger, do things for foreigners, and be a traitor?" ”

In this era, such accusations are already very hurtful from the mouth of Prince Gong, and ordinary people are shameless and skinless when they are accused like this.

But Gong Banlun had already put everything down, his face was full of disdain and happiness, and there was no lack of anger, he scolded Prince Gong back: "We are good people, the road to progress was blocked by you, and we were also exploited by corrupt officials, and we had to beg for food and foreign countries, today you scolded me for being a traitor, I think you are a national thief." ”

Gong Banlun's words choked Prince Gong dumbfounded, and he couldn't say a word for a long time.

So the negotiation couldn't be resolved, so Prince Gong invited Yang Xiaoshan to replace him for the afternoon negotiations, and then sulked and went back to the palace to sort out his mood.

Yang Xiaoshan learned about the negotiation situation, and took advantage of the lunch break to quietly meet this Gong Banlun alone.

"Mr. Gong." Yang Xiaoshan knew that this person was proud of his talents, although he was the prince of Zhenguo, but people would not care about this, and he had to have an equal attitude, so he greeted him first.

"You are?" Gong Banlun was a little curious, looking at Yang Xiaoshan's official uniform, he was also a member of the imperial court, and he actually greeted himself, a civilian, first, which was unprecedented.

"In Xia Changshan, I came to negotiate with the foreigners instead of Prince Gong." Yang Xiaoshan smiled.

"Changshan? Is it the son-in-law of the monk king? I've heard Wei Heng talk about you. Although Gong Banlun is arrogant and uninhibited, he still wants to reform the government and learn from the West. So he and Wei Heng and these reformists can talk very well.

"Oh? Are you also a friend of Wei Heng? Yang Xiaoshan was a little pleased, it was much easier to talk about an acquaintance in the middle.

"Gong doesn't have many friends, Wei Heng counts as one." He and Wei Heng are also considered to have the same fate, their fathers are dedicated to serving the country, but unfortunately they can't be reused, and they are excluded and killed.

"I heard what Mr. said to Prince Gong just now, Chang admired, and Mr. really dared to say it." Yang Xiaoshan understands such a person very well, there is no place to stay here.

"It's just a moment of righteous indignation, blurted out." Gong Banlun arched his hand and said modestly.

"I love the Qing Kingdom, but who loves me? What Mr. said, Chang can understand, in fact, Mr. has blocked a catastrophe for the Qing Dynasty, and the foreigners did not rob the Forbidden City, it should be blocked by Mr. Yang Xiaoshan remembered the words in Lao She's "Teahouse", which can very well represent Gong Banlun's mood.

Gong Banlun was stunned for a long time before he said: "No wonder Wei Heng admires Chang Gongzi so much, I suddenly feel like a confidant when I meet today, no one in the world understands me at all, I didn't expect Chang Gongzi to be the person who knows me best." ”

"We all hate the imperial court for iron and steel, but in any case, we are all Chinese, and the land to be cut is not the land of the imperial court, but the land handed down by our ancestors for thousands of years as Chinese. This land can't fall into the hands of foreigners under any circumstances, right? Yang Xiaoshan said bitterly.

"Does Lord Chang not want the British to take the land of Hong Kong and Kowloon?" Gong Banlun's words changed.

"That's exactly what it means." Yang Xiaoshan stared at Gong Banlun tightly and cut the railway.

"I'm afraid that the Qing Dynasty has no strength to bargain now." Gong Banlun snorted coldly, he still had a lot of feelings about the Qing court.

"Whether you can keep Kowloon or not is not in the Qing court, but whether you are willing to help or not. My suggestion is that the land should not be ceded and that it could be leased to the British as a concession. I am not asking you to do me a favor, but I am asking you to do this favor on behalf of all Chinese. "Yang Xiaoshan knows that once it is cut off, there will be no sovereignty, although this lease is temporarily lost, but the situation will change in the future, and he can come back. Isn't this how Hong Kong returned in the previous life?

Gong Banlun was silent for a while, then looked at Yang Xiaoshan's firm eyes, and said with a sigh of relief: "I can only try, whether it can be done, I dare not guarantee." ”

There was no progress at all in the morning negotiations, and the representatives of both sides of the negotiations in the afternoon were very tired, but fortunately, Gong Banlun did not get in the way of the morning, but actively lobbied Ergin, and the negotiations progressed quickly, and many details of the treaty were finalized one by one.

Yang Xiaoshan also hoped that the negotiations would be concluded as soon as possible, and that the treaty would be signed, and that the foreigners would harm the people for one more day if they stayed in Beijing for one more day, but the territorial issue could not be retreated, and the most difficult thing was the territorial issue.

It was always said that it was dark, but Erjin always refused to give up Kowloon, insisted on ceding it to the British, and refused to recognize the sovereignty of the Qing court north of the Heilongjiang River, and did not want the Qing court to be used.

This is also very understandable, people are the victorious country, why do you sign according to what you say?

Although there has been considerable progress in the negotiations, there are differences on key points and no negotiations have been reached.

At the end, Gong Banlun gave Yang Xiaoshan a hint: "The position of the foreigners is not very firm, whether they can talk about it depends on whether the Qing court can exert more pressure." ”

This hint is very important, the British did not attach so much importance to territory, not necessarily to cede Kowloon, his greatest hope was trade and compensation for military spending. The Qing court agreed to these two points, and the key was that Yang Xiaoshan wanted to use razing to control razing and keep all the territory from being lost, which was very difficult.

There is a contradiction between Britain and France and Russia, but why should others help you?

Yang Xiaoshan left the Imperial Court and reported the results of the afternoon's negotiations to Prince Gong.

According to Prince Gong's intentions, the result is already very good, and it is best to sign the contract as soon as possible, but Yang Xiaoshan still insisted on his own point of view, first, he could not cut off Jiulong, and second, he had to let Britain and France stop the Aihui Treaty and maintain the sovereignty of the Qing court north of Heilongjiang.

"I can only give you another half a month, the emperor can't keep hunting in the north, how many major affairs in this country have to wait for him to come back to deal with, the country can't be without a king for a day." Xianfeng also put a lot of pressure on Prince Gong, and Prince Gong could only buy so much time.