Because of the Margaret case, Britain was negotiating with the Qing court, with Wittoma as the plenipotentiary and the Qing court sending Li Hongzhang. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

Wei Tuma is the British minister to the Ming Dynasty, and the minister to the north is Fu Leisi, but Fu Leisi is only acting as a counselor, obviously in the current concept of the United Kingdom, the Ming is already a more important country than the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Under normal circumstances, Fu Leisi can handle the affairs of the Manchu Qing Dynasty with full authority, but when there is a major event such as the Ma Jia case, the Ming and Qing ministers will form a team to deal with it together, and the more capable Wei Tuoma will naturally become the plenipotentiary, and Fu Lei can only cooperate with Wei Tuma as a team member.

Wei Tuoma and Li Hongzhang first talked in Tianjin, but they never got along, and then they talked in Yantai, but they still couldn't get along.

As for the issue of the railway, it is not the focus of the stalemate, in addition to the beginning of the railway issue, after being sternly vetoed by Li Hongzhang, he rarely mentioned the railway issue again, obviously the British found that the Manchu Qing Dynasty resisted the railway too strongly, and Yunnan is not within the control of the British, and the British are not at ease to build the railway here, in addition, since the Ming Dynasty has reached an agreement with the British, the Ming Dynasty will build such a railway, the situation will be better.

The stalemate was mainly in trade and trade, and the British demanded too many new ports to be opened, stationing consuls in Yunnan and Sichuan, opening Fengtian Dagushan, Hunan Yuezhou, Hubei Yichang, Anhui Anqing, Sichuan Wanxian, Chongqing and Chengdu as ports, and also put forward new requirements for import duties, such as exempting centijin.

At this time, Li Hongzhang was no longer Wuxia Ameng, who only knew how to play ruffians at the time of the Tianjin teaching case, and he had a large number of advisers who were proficient in foreign affairs, many of whom were foreigners, so he already knew more about international law, and argued with the British on the basis of reason, and refutably put forward a request to increase the opium centigold.

Wei Tuma said that if the Qing government agreed to exempt the centi, and allowed imported goods to be taxed within the borders, and after receiving the half-tax bill, all toll taxes would be exempted, and the British could acquiesce to the Qing government's increase in the amount of opium centi.

Li Hongzhang also said that the opening of British consulates in Yunnan and Sichuan has nothing to do with the Margaret case and should not be included in the negotiations. Li Hongzhang also said that the opening of new ports can be agreed, and customs duties can be further reduced, allowing some British merchants to be exempted from taxes, and the issue of centiko can be put on hold for the time being.

Wei Tuoma asked the Qing court to send a senior official to Europe to apologize, but when he passed through India, he held commercial negotiations with the Indian governor, but Li Hongzhang refused on the grounds that it did not conform to the autocracy.

Just as the negotiations were in full swing, Prime Minister Yamen suddenly sent a message to Li Hongzhang that the Ming Dynasty had asked for the right to build a railway in Yunnan.

It is not the first time that the Ming Dynasty asked to build a railway on the territory of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and they put forward many requirements for building a railway when they occupied Beiqi, but after so many years, their railway has not even seen a shadow. Now that he wants to build a railway in Yunnan, Li Hongzhang is very unimpressed.

But he didn't dare to agree easily, last time because of the Taiwan issue, he had been scolded by too many people, and he didn't want to attract more scolding, so if he didn't have anything to do with Daming, he tried not to have anything to do with Daming, so as not to arouse suspicion.

Because the relationship between Daming and the Manchu Qing is extremely complicated, the two sides signed a friendship treaty to establish diplomatic relations, but after all, both countries are Chinese countries, there is a world-fighting relationship in it, it is impossible to become a normal diplomatic country, the Qing court has always regarded Daming as the biggest threat, the threat level is still above the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Li Hongzhang is also a minister who leads troops, if his identity is linked to the Ming Dynasty, it will give people a bad imagination, and if he doesn't get it right, it will ruin his future.

Daming just asked to build a railway, the Qing Dynasty could refuse, Li Hongzhang immediately replied to the Prime Minister Yamen, let them refuse Daming's request, told Daming, Yunnan has many mountains, no three feet of land, transportation depends on the horse gang, if the railway is built, it will make a large number of horse gangs lose their livelihood, for the sake of the people's livelihood, the Qing Dynasty has no intention of letting people build a railway in Yunnan.

Li Hongzhang, who was busy negotiating with the British, obviously did not pay attention to the request put forward by the Ming Dynasty, which caused him a big trouble for himself.

Unlike the British, the Ming had a good excuse to negotiate, there was currently no conflict between the Ming and Qing dynasties, and through the delivery of Taiwan, the Ming Dynasty ostensibly promised not to supply weapons to the Taiping army, but at the same time exported a large number of cannons of various calibers to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and on the surface, the relationship between the Ming and Qing dynasties was quite harmonious.

If there is no excuse, then it must be made, and Zhu Jinglun decided to teach a lesson to a Manchu literati like Li Hongzhang, who opened half his eyes, and let them know how cruel and unscrupulous the competition between countries in the age of capital is.

So the Ming Dynasty suddenly increased the fleet in Shanghai, and at the same time began to cruise the Yangtze River, cruising non-stop from Shanghai to Jiujiang. At the same time, 10,000 people were mobilized to deploy in Jiujiang, claiming to prevent the Taiping Army's Northern Expedition from the problem of rout and dispersion, but it made the Qing army on the other side of the river nervous, after all, the opposite of Jiujiang is Huangzhou Mansion in Hubei Province and Anqing Mansion in Anhui, and Jiujiang is located between Hankou and Anqing, if the Ming fleet cuts off the waterway here, Zeng Guofan's Hunan army in Anqing will not be able to get the support of Huguang.

At the same time, it was also reported in Yunnan that the Ming Dynasty had increased its army in Anting, the westernmost town in Guangxi, and in the name of suppressing bandits, it repeatedly entered the territory of Fuzhou in Guangnan Prefecture, Yunnan, ignoring the local garrison and almost breaking out into conflict.

Obviously, Da Ming is stirring up trouble.

Li Hongzhang became nervous at this time, the threat of the British is very great, the strength of the British is also very strong, although the strength of the Ming is not as good as the British, but Li Hongzhang always feels that the Ming is more dangerous, because the British sent troops to fight the Qing army, and the victory is not too much to benefit, but the Ming Dynasty is always likely to destroy the Manchu court.

Now the Ming began to provoke on the border of Yunnan, how to make Li Hongzhang not nervous, but what made him more nervous soon happened, according to the secret report of the secret agents within the Taiping Army, the Ming Foreign Affairs Department actually secretly began to negotiate with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, on the Taiping Army's ongoing Northern Expedition, to discuss the possibility of cooperation.

Although the Northern Expedition of the Taiping Army has been blocked, whether it is Wang Haiyang's offensive against Yangzhou, or Yang Fuqing's offensive against Chaoxian, it has been blocked by the Qing Army, although the two places are still in semi-encirclement, but Li Hongzhang has smelled the smell of counterattack, if the Ming Dynasty suddenly intervenes at this time, let alone counterattack, it is likely that the Taiping Army will make a breakthrough in the Yangtze River, really occupy Yangzhou and Chao County, and gain a firm foothold in the north of the Yangtze River!

What's even more dangerous is that if the two enemies of the Ming Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom unite, they may really be able to wipe out the Qing Dynasty in one fell swoop.

Li Hongzhang didn't dare to make his own decisions about this kind of important matter, so he immediately went to the court.

The Qing court was on guard against Zeng Guofan on weekdays, but when it was really dangerous in the end, they found that they had to rely on Zeng Guofan, so they consulted Zeng Guofan as soon as possible, asking if the Ming Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom joined forces, what was the chance that the Hunan army would resist their attack north of the Yangtze River, and Zeng Guofan replied very simply that there was no chance.

The Manchu court was really frightened, a group of princes and ministers quarreled endlessly, and many of them were unashamedly shouting that they wanted to destroy the Ming Dynasty and put down the rebels in one go, but if they really had this kind of ability, they would not let the Hunan army become bigger.

Cixi was really frightened, she was wary of Zeng Guofan, but she also believed Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guofan said that he couldn't stop the joint attack of the Ming army and the Taiping army, that is, he really couldn't stop it.

Not only Cixi, but Yixin was also scared enough, and immediately entered the palace to discuss with her sister-in-law.

Yi Xin reported the cause and effect of the incident to Cixi, and Cixi knew that there was a reason for the Ming trouble, and it turned out that it was because Li Hongzhang refused Daming's request to repair the railway, so that Daming began to do things.

Cixi couldn't help resenting Li Hongzhang and said: "Tell me, don't those southern barbarians (referring to the Ming Dynasty) just want to repair the railway, maybe it's really repaired, what kind of trouble does Li Hongzhang provoke them, let them repair it." ”

Yi Xin sighed: "Where the railway is built, the soldiers can drive there." Li Hongzhang was also worried that the southern barbarians would use the railway to transport troops, so he did not dare to agree. ”

Cixi couldn't help crying: "He repairs roads to transport troops, and if he doesn't build roads, the soldiers can't move?" said that if we go through the sky, we are still not angry, no matter how Zeng Guofan urges, he just won't save Chao County and Yangzhou. Our Eight Banners are good by themselves, usually the sound of the cowhide blowing on the mountain, as soon as I heard that I was going south to fight, I went up one by one to say that I was sick. Our Qing Dynasty, if we don't take our lives to protect it, is it really going to be handed over to the Han people? Even if it is handed over to the Han people, it can't be handed over to the Cantonese bandits (referring to the Taiping Army) and the Southern Barbarians. When the time comes, even if I take you one by one, don't live! ”

Seeing that Cixi was angry, in the court struggle, Yixin, who had long been cleaned up by Cixi, quickly knelt down and pleaded guilty again and again.

It was his idea to form a new army of the Eight Banners, and he personally grasped it, and he saw that Fu Zhuli trained those soldiers well, but a few days ago he planned to transfer troops south to reinforce Bao Chao, but he had just discussed it with a few princes, and before he could make a decision, those officers began to excuse their illness and resign, which really made Yixin lose his old face.

Cixi couldn't help but sigh when she saw Yixin kowtowing like pounding garlic.

"Well, you can't blame you for this. It's not a day or two that the Eight Banners are not angry, so let's practice slowly. You'll have to take care of this for me. You go back and tell Li Hongzhang that the Ming Dynasty wants to build a railway in Yunnan, so let them build it. They have been clamoring for how many years to build the railway, and it is impossible to determine whether they will repair it or not. Put out the fire under your nose first, and then think later. Don't criticize him, it's all for the court, and he is also loyal. You can appease me here, and go back to the will of a reward. ”

As she spoke, Cixi arranged all the follow-up questions, and Yixin had to handle them as agreed.

The Ming Dynasty soon received a reply, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty allowed the Ming to build a railway in Yunnan. At the same time, Li Hongzhang soon made concessions to Britain and concluded negotiations with Britain on the Margaret case.