The British minister's proposal surprised the Ming Foreign Affairs Department very much, and Zhu Jinglun also felt strange about this, because he was from a diplomatic background, and the outcome of the Ma Jiali case Zhu Jinglun was very clear: the Qing government apologized, paid reparations, punished the murderers, agreed to Britain to open up Indo-Tibetan communications, and allowed the British to travel to Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan, and other provinces. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info open up Yi, Wuhu, Beihai as treaty ports; and the expansion of consular jurisdiction.

The most practical of these was the opportunity for Britain to penetrate deep into the Chinese mainland, and the most harmful was for British influence to penetrate into Tibetan areas with weak Chinese control and bordering India, which led to the rupture of relations between China and India in the second half of the 20th century.

But remember that it doesn't include building a railroad.

However, the name British-Bridge reminds Zhu Jinglun, who remembers that in the second half of the 19th century, the Western powers had huge transcontinental expansion plans in Africa, such as Britain and Britain formulated the so-called "Second C Plan" from Cape Town to Cairo, planning to establish a colonial empire across the northern and southern continents of Africa. France has drawn up the "Two S Plan" from Senegal to Somalia, which plans to cross the eastern and western continents of Africa. Germany has a plan to cross the continent diagonally from East Africa to South-West Africa.

In fact, the great powers also had similar plans in China, such as the construction of the Jiaoji Railway by the Germans, which was to open a passage from the north deep into the Chinese mainland; The Russians built the Dongqing Railway, intending to seize the Northeast; The French built the Yunnan-Burma Railway to expand north from the Indochina colony to Yunnan and Sichuan.

Germany, France, and Russia all have plans to build railways to infiltrate China, and it is impossible for the British, as the world hegemon, not to have similar plans.

Historically, the British plan was to open up Hong Kong and India, and create a cross-ocean passage across Burma and South China, called the British-Bridge!

The impact of the great powers on the partition of Africa is very great, and the British's "Two C Plan" has become common sense of history for ordinary people through textbooks, but not many people know about the British Bridge Plan formulated in China, mainly because this plan did not succeed in the end, and it was not even really implemented, the biggest reason is not that it cannot be repaired, and there is no cause that the British Empire cannot afford in this era, and the main reason is because of the conflict of interests between France and Britain.

The British planned to connect the Indian colonies with their Chinese stronghold in Hong Kong through Burma and South China, of which Burma later became a British colony, and there was no problem in passing through Burmese territory, and if they really wanted, there was also a way to seize a railway from the Qing government, and the reason why Britain finally abandoned this plan was mainly because of the conflict with French interests in Yunnan.

At that time, France believed that Sichuan was rich in minerals and was bent on expanding north from the Indochina colonies to Yunnan and Sichuan, but in this way, the strategic interests of Britain and France intersected in Yunnan, and both sides wanted to control Yunnan.

At that time, the British colonized Burma, which was geographically adjacent to Yunnan, with the same waterway as the Ruili River, while the French invaded Vietnam, and the Red River waterway connected with Yunnan, so it can be said that Yunnan became the focus of contention between the two countries.

In the end, after all kinds of secret competition, contests and secret transactions, the British gave up the fight for Yunnan, and southwest China basically became France's sphere of influence, while Britain consolidated its power in the Yangtze River valley.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty absolutely could not guard the interests of Yunnan, this is a matter of no doubt, in Qingdao, Dalian Daming can still be blocked, but in Yunnan how to block? Those places in Qingdao and Dalian, which are only connected to the sea, are the best port selection, and the Ming Dynasty occupied those places, and the great powers could only develop around these places. But Yunnan is different, Yunnan not only borders Burma, which has been infiltrated by the British, but also communicates with Vietnam, which was colonized by France, and in this case, unless a Great Wall can be built in Yunnan, there is no way to stop two Western bandits with blood-red eyes in front of interests.

A robber Manchu can't stop it, let alone two ends, the Old Summer Palace was burned by these two hungry wolves, the Manchu high-level was deeply impressed, they definitely didn't have the courage to stop these two robbers from doing it at the same time.

Zhu Jinglun was very hesitant to preserve Yunnan's interests, and he learned in detail about the course of this incident, which was similar to the historical data in his memory, or that in order to explore a passage from Burma through southwest China, Britain excluded an expedition of 200 people headed by Colonel Brown, an officer, from the East Indies, through the jungle of the entire Burma, and arrived at the southwestern border of China.

Margaret, the interpreter of the Bei Consulate, traveled from Beijing across the Chinese mainland to Yunnan to pick up. Theoretically, the British should have been closer to Yunnan from Guangxi in the Ming Dynasty, but they sent Margaret from Shanghai via Hankou, Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan, and arrived at Xinjie in Burma on the 10th day of December, where he joined Brown and entered Yunnan.

Along the way, Margaret and his casual personnel carefully collected the geographical information along the way, and if his behavior was placed in Daming, it was very likely that he would be arrested as a spy.

But Margaret did not pass through the Ming Dynasty, obviously it could not be because he was afraid of being arrested, the reason is probably on Margaret's walking route, he passed from Shanghai through Hankou, Hunan, Guizhou to Yunnan, who dares to say that the British did not have the purpose of reaching Hankou and Shanghai from Yunnan through Guizhou and Hunan?

In their dealings with the more open Ming, the British could clearly state that they wanted to build a railway to Hong Kong, and then they would have more reason to build a railway to Shanghai, because Britain's interests in Shanghai were ten times greater than those in Hong Kong.

After analyzing the various intentions of the British, Zhu Jinglun couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, if Britain really did this seriously in history, I am afraid that China would be almost the same as India. The Japanese once believed that wherever the British built the railroad in India, the colonial rule would expand to wherever it went, so Japan was very active in building the railway, and they wanted to build it themselves, rather than letting the British build it.

Now the problem comes, Zhu Jinglun feels that he has figured out the purpose of the British, because Britain has never been able to expand its interests in China, and has little interest in building a super railway from India to China, but in this era, due to the rise of the Ming Dynasty, the foreigners actually have a larger scale of trade in China, and it is difficult to guarantee that history will not change, and Zhu Jinglun has to guard against it.

Japan's construction of railways was also defensive at the beginning, and later the Manchu government also discovered this situation, and tried its best to recover the rights of a number of railways, such as the Jinghan Railway, the Guangdong-Hankou Railway, etc., Zhu Jinglun now found that to block the British, it seems that the only way to stop the British is to build a railway, and this railway, the most important place, is the remote area of China's geography - Yunnan!

The Ming Dynasty took the lead in building a railway in Yunnan, so that in the future, whether France wants to go to Sichuan, or Britain wants to go to Hong Kong or Shanghai, they will rely on this ready-made railway, as for the possibility of building one themselves, the first is that the cost is too high, and second, Zhu Jinglun does not plan to give them this opportunity, he intends to demand the exclusive right to build a railway in Yunnan from the hands of the Manchus!

As for the possible interveners, the French are not significant, because they have to be busy inviting the German army out of France first, lest the Ming Dynasty compete with them for Vietnam in the East, and for the time being, they cannot take care of competing with the Ming for the interests of Yunnan, and the British may interfere, but didn't the British want to build a railway to Hong Kong? Then they will have to pay for it.

"The British were told that they intended to build a railway network to the Ming Dynasty, and we agreed. And tell them that in order to connect the Anglo-Indian railway with the Ming railway line, the Ming Dynasty needs to extend the railway to Yunnan, and we will propose to the Qing government to build a railway in Yunnan, hoping to get the support of the British! ”

This is an exchange of interests, if the British want to connect Hong Kong with India through the territory of the Ming Dynasty, they must accept the Ming Dynasty to build a railway in Yunnan, the so-called support, that is just a statement, as long as they do not object, the Ming themselves will find a way to get the power of this railway from the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Britain's interest is to connect India with Hong Kong, but what about Ming's interests?

Zhu Jinglun understands the historical trend of the next hundred years, so that he can see the farther future when doing things, he knows that in the 21st century, in order to build a railway to the Indian Ocean, China and the Indochina Peninsula Thailand, Singapore and other countries have a lot of skin, and now Britain has sent to the door to build this railway, in the long run, in fact, it is also building a passage to the Indian Ocean for China.

Therefore, if this railway is really built, it will not only be the British bridge from India to Hong Kong, but also the bridge between China and Greater China in the Indian Ocean!

Connecting India and Hong Kong was very important to British interests in China, so the British responded very positively, they expressed interest, they were willing to support the Ming to build a railway in Yunnan, but they made a request, the Ming in the process of building a railway in Yunnan, if financial and technical support is needed, must be considered the British Empire.

The reply of the British, Zhu Jinglun was desperate, at this time, the Ming Dynasty did not have enough capital and technical capacity to build the Yunnan Railway.