The Swedish merchant ship Vostok came to Xin'an on July 28, and the customs declaration materials for the loaded goods stated that it was machinery, but it was already night when they entered the port, and the Swedes used the excuse that it was easy to damage the machinery at night, so they asked for customs clearance the next day. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

But in the middle of the night, one after another fishing boats quietly approached the Orient, moved off the ship one by one, and left without realizing it.

During the day the next day, the machinery and equipment were cleared as usual without any accidents.

What no one knew was that the group of fishing boats carrying a cannon and some supporting equipment were transported to the fort overnight.

But these cannons and equipment were cleverly covered up by them, and the Dagu fort could be blocked with a straw curtain, not to mention a construction site like theirs.

The main body of the fort of Humen Fortress has been completely completed, even the gun mounts have been built, a total of 40 semi-enclosed gun mounts, these gun mounts used to place the main guns are very wide, 100 meters wide, 80 meters wide behind the platform, each gun mount can install more than 40 large and small fortress guns.

The whole body of the gun mount is built with huge granite masonry, but in the end it is not fixed with butterfly iron, but adopts the advice of local Chinese craftsmen, using camphor sap and lime, glutinous rice mixed with mud and sand as a binder, and the effect is not lost to cement after testing, for which Zhu Jinglun specially rewarded the old stonemason who provided this method with 100 taels of silver.

In addition to the artillery mounts, the ammunition depot is also a priority facility for completion, and the artillery mount and the ammunition depot are communicated through secret channels to prevent the soldiers carrying the shells from being bombarded by enemy fire.

As for the other peripheral facilities such as parapets, battlements, battle aprons, official halls, walls, city gates, stone ditches, and hilltop observation halls, they have not yet been built, but priority has been given to the construction of hilltop observation halls for each fort.

But since last night, there have been no workers near the gun mount, all the workers have entered the gun mount, and they are not allowed to leave, food and accommodation are in the gun mount, and there are soldiers with weapons outside to guard, which makes some craftsmen a little worried, I don't know if they think of the kind of tomb digging to kill craftsmen that often has in legends.

But the fort did not need to kill the craftsmen, so they were able to continue the work, under the command of the Swedish engineers, they took out the rails and installed them in the reserved places on the stone foundation, laid the tracks, smashed the iron nails, and the circular tracks were soon completed.

That night, a huge cannon was lifted in the sound of the trumpet, and it was really tiring to load the fortress cannon weighing 8 tons onto the gun carriage with simple tools such as a crowbar, but tonight they had an extra harvest, and Zhu Jinglun gave each of them a red envelope of one or two silver.

The red envelope was given out to celebrate because he couldn't set off a cannon.

At this time, the recruited Kowloon artillerymen and the old gunners of the Chen family urgently learned to operate the cannon with the newly arrived Swedish artillery consultant Goodman and others, mainly to learn aiming techniques, and there are these professional artillery professors, the way is absolutely formal, but it is a pity that their mathematical skills are too poor, and Western-style mathematics has no foundation, Goodman and others are very serious, but these people just don't understand.

Thinking that he had to make up for them a Western-style math course, Zhu Jinglun felt that time was even more urgent.

Finally, let them learn artillery operation during the day, and hire Swedes to teach them systematic mathematics at night, which does not require much, just learn those mathematical calculation formulas and principles.

The artillery operation is using those infantry guns, and at this time the cannons on the turret have been hidden, and the artillery mounts after completion have been sealed and guarded, and no one is allowed to approach at all, nominally for fear of destruction, but in fact I still hope to be able to keep it secret.

On the other hand, they continued to deceive the British, and asked when the goods from Jardine Matheson would arrive, and Zhu Jinglun's answer was a little surprised, because they were still confident that they would be able to deliver the goods before the end of the year. This made Zhu Jinglun can't help but wonder whether the British have not considered the reality of another outbreak of war or whether they do not plan to interfere in the arms trade of their own merchants at all, even if they are fighting the Chinese.

When you think of some perverted business logic in the West, such as the fact that when the Dutch were fighting Spain, the Spanish accounts in the banks of Amsterdam were still able to move freely in and out of their gold coins. And after the world war, Krupp was able to receive patent fees from the British because the British arms companies copied their weapons during the war, thinking of this, Zhu Jinglun couldn't help but worry a little about Jardine Matheson Co., Ltd. could really deliver the goods.

Zhu Jinglun didn't think of handing over one million taels of silver to them, to be honest, Zhu Jinglun only planned to buy these forty cannons, and the rest belonged to artillery, and Zhu Jinglun planned to cast them himself. The machinery and equipment brought by the Swedes, and the hundreds of technicians, were enough to ensure that Zhu Jinglun would soon be able to produce excellent artillery by himself, and where would he spare no expense to purchase the British.

For this reason, Zhu Jinglun made a conspiracy, he sent people to the British government in Hong Kong, telling them that he hoped that they could guarantee that the arms deal between Jardine Matheson and his own would not be affected by the war, because he was afraid that the British government would not know about the situation. The response of the British government in Hong Kong made Zhu Jinglun breathe a sigh of relief, and they said that they could not guarantee it. In other words, once the war breaks out, it is possible for the British government to detain this batch of artillery, so Zhu Jinglun can ask Jardine Matheson for liquidated damages.

Here, Zhu Jinglun was thinking about asking the British for liquidated damages, and the ******** monk in Beijing was still thinking about finding the British and French forces to compensate for military expenses.

Monk Lingqin didn't know where he heard a rule, saying that if a foreigner wins a war, he can pay for the military if he loses, and he thinks that he won the Anglo-French alliance once at the mouth of Dagu, and the other party has to give him military expenses.

Of course, the Anglo-French forces had already moved south, and Monk Greenqin was speaking to the Americans.

The American envoy successfully landed on the shore, but did not enter Beijing immediately, because the Qing government officials who negotiated with them did not give them a definite time at all, and they could only wait on the shore, but the Qing government sent some cattle and sheep to show goodwill.

In fact, Emperor Xianfeng was still waiting for Gui Liang, a man in his seventies, and his feet were not so fast, and he didn't dare to take a boat, so he could only walk slowly. In fact, as early as June, when the Americans set off from Shanghi, Hua Ruohan showed favor to Gui Liang and expressed the hope that Gui Liang would join him on the American cruiser Mississippi to enter Beijing together, but Gui Liang said that he did not dare to sit without the emperor's permission.

So Hua Ruohan could only wait on the shore, he actually didn't know that it was Gui Liang who was waiting, and he didn't know what the Chinese were delaying.

He didn't understand, Xianfeng didn't know how to deal with these Yi people who were unwilling to bow down to him, so he asked Seng Greenqi to drag it as much as possible, Xianfeng estimated that Guiliang would be able to get to Beijing until July 19, but Seng Greenqin had been delayed until the 20th.

The Americans finally hit the road, and according to the provisions of the treaty, all matters for foreign envoys to enter Beijing were prepared by the Qing government. This is what the Qing government has won, why, because in this way they can dress up at will, such as letting the people along the way see that the foreigners have paid tribute to our Qing Dynasty again. When Macartney met Qianlong, the Qing side still hung a sign on the bow of his ship with the sign of an English tribute envoy, and Macartney did not think that he had come to pay tribute.

For safety reasons, Monk Greenqin did not let the American minister take the main road, but took the Beitang trail.

The pay along the way was not high, and to be honest, the Americans were wronged at this time, because they couldn't sit in a sedan chair.

Whether to be a sedan chair or not, this is not a question of comfort or discomfort, but a question of status. The Americans knew very well that only officials could sit in sedan chairs in China, and in order to show his identity, Hua Ruohan personally hired two sedan chairs, intending to sit on one for him and one for the naval commander who came with him. However, the Qing court officials did not agree, and the Qing government always believed that foreigners were inferior, so foreigners were not allowed to sit in a palanquin, especially this time when they entered Beijing, and the people along the way watched it, how could the Chinese carry the palanquin for foreigners, and the face of the kingdom was still wanted.

Xianfeng actually didn't want to cause trouble at this time, he approved that Hua Ruohan could be a mule sedan chair, but Seng Lingqin felt that the Americans were easy to talk to, so he directly found a cart for Hua Ruohan and others, pulled by oxen, and there was not even a barrier on it.

In the end, I couldn't stand the bump anymore, so I simply got out of the car and walked a few miles.

But when he arrived in Beijing, Hua Ruohan still couldn't see Emperor Xianfeng, because for the sake of diplomatic etiquette, he couldn't talk to the officials of the Qing court's Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Rites asked him to kneel three times and bow nine times, Hua Ruohan of course didn't want to, he said that he only knelt ladies, and took the initiative to say that he could bow, and the Ministry of Rites did not agree.

Later, the Qing court officials thought of a compromise idea, put an offering table between him and the emperor, and let Hua Ruohan bend his knees when the time came, and the emperor couldn't see it, so he pretended that the other party knelt.

In the end, the conversation could not be reached, the emperor was already angry and wanted to expel Hua Ruohan, Hua Ruohan did not dare to insist on facing the emperor to hand over the letter of state, at this time Gui Liang had already arrived in Beijing, simply changed places, the two sides went to Beitang again, and completed the exchange in Beitang, and the Americans were the second to complete the exchange after the Russians.

When Zhu Jinglun heard these stories, it was already September.

At this time, the news of the Battle of Dagukou was transmitted back to Europe, and the British and French forces actually fought a defeat at Dagukou, and according to the report of the British and French forces, it was the ship that entered Beijing to exchange the treaty and was inexplicably bombarded by people's artillery.

The whole of the two countries exploded in an instant.

The French were indignant, feeling that the "great" French Empire had been insulted, and the newspapers vigorously flaunted the banner of national ideas, shouting "Honor of the French flag" and "The expedition to China should be unswerving". The third imperial government of Napoleon, who loved face like the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, immediately regarded the Dagu incident as an insult: the French flag was seriously humiliated, and the imperial government must take revenge!

The racism of the British is not at all weak for the French. The newspapers proclaimed: "Great Britain should attack the coast of China, occupy the capital, expel the emperor from the palace and receive material guarantees that there will be no further attacks...... We should whip every official who wears a python robe and dares to insult the national emblem of our country...... All of these people (the Chinese generals) should be regarded as pirates and murderers, and hung from the masts of British warships. It is a happy and beneficial scene to hang a dozen or so villains on the mast and let them flutter in the wind. In any case, terror should be carried out, and it can no longer be connived up! …… In any case, terror should be practised and can no longer be indulged...... The Chinese should be taught to attach importance to the British, the British are superior to the Chinese, and the British should be the masters of the Chinese ....... We should at least seize Beijing, and if we adopt a more courageous policy, we should occupy Canton forever after the capture of Beijing. We can keep Canton in our own hands, and we can turn Canton into the commercial center of our Far East, just as we now possess Calcutta, to resist the Russian power already gained on the borders of the three eastern provinces of China, and to lay the foundations for a new territory. "England, together with France, and even alone, if necessary, will teach these untrustworthy rabble a good lesson; To make the names of Europeans henceforth awesome (if not like) unimpeded guarantees of passage throughout their territory. ”

That's when war really became inevitable.