Historically, because of the exchange procedure of the "Tianjue Treaty", China, Britain and France had different opinions, which directly led to the invasion of Tianjue by the Anglo-French coalition forces, and the outbreak of the second Battle of Dagukou, which was won by Seng Lingqin, but Britain and France sent new reinforcements and officially declared war with the Qing court, and the real war would begin. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In order to ensure that after the declaration of war between Britain and France, Zhu Jinglun's forts needed to be completed, but now there was no news from the Swedes, and this matter had now become the top priority for Zhu Jinglun.

In mid-May, May 16, 1859 to be exact, Pruss came to Hong Kong, this time bringing with him the original copy of the Treaty of Tianjue, which had been stamped by the British king, to exchange the treaty with the Qing court. This Pruss is the younger brother of Elgin, and they are all members of the Pruss family.

The signing of a diplomatic treaty has a certain process, first of all, the representatives of the two sides negotiate, after reaching an agreement, the two bilingual texts are sent to their respective supreme authorities, and then the signed or stamped texts of the respective monarchs are exchanged with each other, just like the future generations sign a contract, and after the two are signed, a copy will be sent back to the other party to ensure that the agreement in the hands of both parties is valid.

So this involves a question of exchange, now Pruth is holding the text of the treaty stamped by the British, he will exchange the text of the treaty signed by the Qing court in the hands of the Qing court, in order to ensure that the text has not been tampered with by the other party, it is often necessary to check and exchange face-to-face, so that it will take effect.

Pruth still couldn't go directly to the capital, and the last time his brother Ergin negotiated with Gui Liang and others in Shanghi, Gui Liang and others never agreed to the foreign envoy to be stationed in Beijing, so he did not hesitate to hint that China could completely abandon tariffs and allow foreign goods to enter freely.

Ergin also acquiesced at that time, and stipulated in the aftermath regulations that the British minister could be stationed in Shanghai, but if there was something to do, he could enter Beijing at any time. Theoretically speaking, they should enter Beijing in accordance with the constitution for such a major event as the renewal of the contract.

Therefore, on May 19, as soon as he arrived in Hong Kong, Pruss sent a note, expressing his hope to enter Beijing to exchange contracts. As a result, the Qing court replied that Gui Liang, Hua Shana, He Guiqing, and Duan Chengshi were already waiting in Shanghi.

Pruth couldn't, he could only go to Shanghi to negotiate with the four great Qincha first, but this time Gui Liang just didn't agree, Prussian arrived in Shanghi on June 6, and the next day, on June 7, the French minister Bourblon also arrived in Shanghi, and the three parties began to discuss the issue of changing the contract, and the British and French representatives hoped to go to Beijing to meet Emperor Xianfeng in person and deliver the credentials in person, but Gui Liang and others just didn't agree, and insisted that the foreigners were the same in Shanghi to exchange contracts.

However, at this time, the British and French representatives heard that the Russians first exchanged the "Sino-Russian Aihui Treaty" with the Qing court in the capital, in fact, where to exchange the treaty between Britain and France is not so stubborn, but why can the Russians exchange the treaty in Beijing, Britain can not go, France can not go, this kind of asymmetry is unacceptable to Britain, Prussian directly interrupted the negotiations with Gui Liang, and planned to forcibly go north to Tianjue. The British did not agree, and the French were not so easy to talk to, so they immediately decided to go to Tianjue with the British, take the troops, and go on a warship, not believing that the Chinese would dare not let them enter Beijing.

So for the boring procedural question of where to exchange the contract, the two sides collapsed, and the British and French troops led their troops north, and a major war was inevitable.

Zhu Jinglun has always been concerned about the affairs of the British and French coalition forces during this time, although he remembers very well what happened during this time, but who knows whether history will change, the current situation is very different from history, Guangzhou should have been occupied by the British and French forces was planned by himself to take back, Guangzhou has always been the largest treaty port, not only of great significance, but also very high status, Guangzhou City has undergone such a major change, who knows whether it will affect the historical process.

Zhu Jinglun's spies sent back information from Hong Kong every day, and learned that the talks between Prus and Gui Liang had collapsed, and Zhu Jinglun knew that the general trend of history had not changed, and that there would be a greater crisis waiting for him in the future, and whether he coped with it well or badly may determine whether he could fundamentally change the fate of the country and the nation.

In addition to caring about the progress of intelligence, Zhu Jinglun is dedicated to training, and he does not dare to guarantee whether he will fight, once the fight starts, Zhu Jinglun needs to have the power of self-protection, so during this period of time, let the soldiers practice with live ammunition, not to mention the countless bullet consumption, and more than 200 rifles have been damaged.

The news from Hong Kong has been passed back and forth for a long time, and most of them have no accurate news, and Zhu Jinglun has not heard the news that the British and French troops and the Qing army are fighting in Tianjue, but he unexpectedly got a news from Sweden.

A freighter bound for Hong Kong from Britain arrived in Hong Kong on June 25, and more than 30 Swedes walked down from the freighter, and they transferred to a Hamburg merchant ship from Hong Kong to Xin'an to rush to Xin'an.

The letter was sent to Zhu Jinglun through Hurd, and the letter was written by Adolf Campbell, and these Swedes were the Swedish consultants that Adolf had helped hire.

Zhu Jinglun and other Swedish advisers had already waited for him, but he was still curious that these people could come so soon, and reason told him that it was not very reasonable. He reached an agreement with Adolf Campbell last year, the other party wanted to return to Sweden, and then recruit people, and it only took more than half a year to send people over, and Zhu Jinglun was actually ready to wait for a year.

The first time I warmly received the Swedes, and by the way I asked this question, and I knew. After Adolf came from China, he rushed back to Sweden day and night, and it was also a matter of luck that the journey was smooth sailing, except for stopping at the necessary port for coal and water, Adolf basically did not delay any time.

As a result, they returned to Sweden at the end of February, and then quickly persuaded the Swedish government that if there is an official to come forward in everything, the efficiency will not be low, so this group of consultants left Sweden in early March, went to the ferry to buy the fastest ticket, went to India for a while, and took a clipper ship to transport crows, this kind of ship is famous for fast, originally designed for smuggling, and it is suitable for traveling, and the result is that they arrived in Xin'an before July.

In fact, Zhu Jinglun still greatly underestimated the potential of transportation in this era, when the Second Raven War had just begun, Ergin was ordered to rush to China as a plenipotentiary, set off in April, and arrived in Hong Kong on July 2, which was faster than the Swedes for more than half a month. It's just that this speed is the ultimate speed, a military need, and the Swedes use civilian ships, and they can only say that they are very serious when they can come so quickly.

Looking at the tall Nordic men, Zhu Jinglun's eyes were vicious, and he suddenly realized that these people were not ordinary people, from their inadvertent walking, sitting and lying, Zhu Jinglun judged that these people were all soldiers.

"Charlie?"

Zhu Jinglun said to the head of the advisory group who tried to maintain a natural demeanor in front of him.

"Yes, sir!"

Charlie, who was wearing a tuxedo with the smell of strands, nodded with a serious expression.

"You're an architect?"

Zhu Jinglun asked again.

In his letter, Adolf briefly introduced the basic information of the advisory group he had recruited, which did not mention that these people were military personnel at all, and obviously knew the situation in China better, and the Swedes were still a little worried, fearing that they would rule out the advisory group from being involved in the conflict between China and Britain and France.

It is even certain that if the news of the signing of the "Treaty of Tianjue" had not reached Sweden, the Swedish government would probably not have sent this advisory group, and as for their identity, they would definitely confess themselves, but it must be after confirming that the conflict between China and Britain and France has completely ended, after all, sending advisers with military backgrounds is an official friendship between Sweden, and they also hope to convey this friendship to the Chinese government, even if it is just a district local government.

"Yes, sir."

Charlie was still concise and to the point.

Zhu Jinglun did not reveal their identities, but deliberately asked: "Then may I ask, Mr. Charlie, architect, what can you help us with as a consultant?" ”

Charlie pondered for a moment and said, "I myself am an experienced architect, and I am confident that I can solve any architectural problems for you." ”

Zhu Jinglun smiled: "Is it any?" ”

Charlie said, "Any! ”

Zhu Jinglun said: "Including defensive buildings? ”

Charlie said: "Including! ”

Zhu Jinglun nodded: "For example, the fort? ”

Charlie said, "Yes. ”

"And what about you, Mr. William. Are you a mechanic? ”

After talking to Charlie, he asked about a person next to him, who was about forty years old, and had the color of a man who had lived by the sea all year round, and if he was also a soldier, then it was probably a navy officer.

"Yes sir, I'm a licensed mechanic."

William replied.

Zhu Jinglun smiled: "So what can you do?" ”

"I know how to cast, I can forge, and I can also use drills, grinders and other machines. ”

Zhu Jinglun said: "Is casting the process of making cannons?" ”

William said: "It's not just that. There are a wide range of types of casting, and almost all metal structures can be processed using casting, to be precise, casting is a technology for processing metals. ”

"And you, Mr. Vincent, are you a surveyor?"

"Yes sir, I used to work for a company that made maps, and I know how to survey."

Zhu Jinglun asked one by one, basically a group of builders, these people came to help Zhu Jinglun design the fort.

Zhu Jinglun didn't reveal their identities, and quickly said his request, telling them that the fort at the mouth of the Pearl River was destroyed in the war, and hoped that they could help rebuild it and build it according to the standards of Western fortress guns, as for what kind of fortress guns Zhu Jinglun didn't tell them, Zhu Jinglun believed that these people knew better than himself what kind of artillery would be installed in the fort in the future.

He also told these people that there were more pirates recently, so they hoped that they would be able to get to work as soon as possible, but these engineers did not refuse, and had no concerns about the actions of the British and French forces, so they immediately agreed, and only made some simple requests to Zhu Jinglun, such as finding them some small boats, and at the same time sending people to guide them.

They only had two days off and immediately got to work.

Zhu Jinglun was quite satisfied with the work attitude of these Swedes, and at this time he couldn't help but think of Adolf, who recruited these people. In the letter, Adolf said that he would try to come to China again within two months, hoping that Zhu Jinglun could help him procure enough goods.