Britain is a-stirring stick, and Europe has been in chaos for more than 200 years since the Thirty Years' War, and they cannot accept the emergence of a hegemon on the European continent that threatens Britain's security, so they always unite the weak and attack the strong, calling it the continental balance policy. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Now Britain is already the world hegemon, and their continental balancing policy has also expanded into a world balancing policy, and they have begun to implement a balancing strategy around the world.

On the small side, they divided and disintegrated the princely states in India, so that these princely states could not contain each other, fight each other, and in the end they could not do without the British, and could only be colonized by the British.

On the East Asian continent, they also hope to maintain the balance between the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Ming Dynasty, and do not want any country to unify this continent.

But for this kind of balance, the British are not willing to implement it at any cost, if the interests are sufficient, they can also accept it, for example, they allow the United States to dominate the Americas, because the cost of interfering in the regional hegemony of the United States is too great, and they must go into battle in person, because they really can't find a qualified thug in the Americas to fight against the United States.

The current Ming Dynasty in East Asia is obviously not strong enough to be strong enough for the United States in North America, at least it has not yet seen the Ming Dynasty show the strength to crush the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but the more this is the case, the more Britain should intervene, because they also do not want to see the emergence of an uncontainable regional hegemon in East Asia like North America.

Zhu Jinglun knows very well what the British are worried about, at this time he doesn't want to mess with this-stirring stick, he can't get cheap, not to mention, and it's easy to get!

"Tell the British that our aim is to get the Qing court to allow us to provide relief from the disaster, and according to our calculations, this famine is beyond the ability of the Qing court to deal with it, and the whole region must work together to survive this disaster. If the British can help us convince the Manchu court, we are willing to touch the blockade of Tianjin. At the same time, it can also officially state that the Ming will not take this opportunity to seek to change the current territorial scope. ”

Isn't the British afraid that the Ming Dynasty will take the opportunity to attack the Manchus and unify this continent, so simply declare in advance that this time is only for disaster relief, no territorial ambitions, dispel the concerns of the British, and under the balance, I believe that the British will try their best to persuade the Manchus, because this is the cheapest way to maintain the current balance, and it does not cost the British.

After receiving the reply from the Ming Dynasty, the British really expressed their benevolence to the Ming government, and at the same time said that they would try their best to persuade the stubborn Qing court to accept the assistance of the Ming Dynasty, and also hypocritically said that the British Empire was also very sympathetic to the famine in northern China, and was very willing to participate in the joint disaster relief operation, and was willing to launch an appeal for assistance to the Manchu Qing region together with the Ming Dynasty.

This is an unexpected gain, it is true that the British are making international image points for them, but why can't the Ming Dynasty use this to establish the image of a civilized country, and the most important thing is that the joint action with the British will help improve the status of the Ming Dynasty in the world, once the British are in the dark, in order to get the greatest attention in the world.

So Zhu Jinglun instructed the Foreign Affairs Department to actively cooperate with the British government, the biggest purpose of the Ming Dynasty is only to save people, and Britain's international influence is obviously supported by mobilizing international public opinion and international political forces. The famine of hundreds of millions of people, Daming can save a country, and it will be very difficult.

The benefits of the alliance between Diplomatic Hill and the British soon became apparent, and the British really made an initiative to the countries of the world, and at once the whole world attracted attention. In order to increase exports in this era of the Great Depression, the U.S. government said that the U.S. government was willing to donate $1 million for disaster relief, but asked to send people to join the international rescue team composed of Ming and Britain to go deep into China's disaster areas to provide disaster relief, and also said that it would exempt all tariffs on grain exports to China during the famine.

France, which is actively restoring its status as a great power and re-establishing its voice in the world, has also promised to provide a million dollars in aid, but this money will be paid for in kind, and it is clear that they also want the French grain merchants operating in Vietnam to earn this money.

Germany, which made a windfall in the Franco-Prussian War and had established itself as a world power that would not lose to France, also responded to the initiative of the British Empire, and they also donated a million dollars, and also said that they would pay with grain, Germany is a grain importer, and they plan to go to the United States to buy grain, and then use German merchant ships to ship it to China.

Not to be outdone, Russia said it was willing to provide at least $3 million in food, including $1 million in free aid, and they also asked to join a joint rescue team to go to the disaster areas in China.

The north, where the disaster area of China is located, especially Shanxi, is the hometown of the Jin merchants who traded with Russia, and it is clear that entering Shanxi will help to develop Russian interests, and they must have a conspiracy.

Western countries, large and small, have expressed their desire to join the rescue team, and churches in various countries strongly support this plan, and the governments of small countries have no intention of actively participating except for churches, but they have also given some assistance, ranging from tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands.

What is surprising is that the Japanese even announced that they would come to aid, and their own country had not yet been sorted out, but they wanted to help the Qing court, obviously the drunkard did not mean to drink, but intended to show his face in the international community, and countries like Vietnam and Siam did not have the Japanese mind and no intention of bailing out their nominal suzerain.

The intervention of the international community made the Manchu court extremely frightened, a Ming Dynasty let them be like a man, and the foreigners have always made it difficult for them to sleep and eat, and now the foreigners of all sizes have come with the Ming Dynasty, and they can't help but think of the story of the six countries in the world in history, so that the Qi country is in chaos.

Prime Minister Yamen was instructed to painstakingly dissuade other countries from dispelling this idea, and to show everyone that the Qing Dynasty could handle the problem of disaster relief.

As with any diplomatic activity, the sparring began again.

The Ming Dynasty couldn't afford to wait for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and if it didn't take a day, countless unjust souls would die.

Therefore, while Daming joined forces with other countries to formulate disaster relief plans, he had already started disaster relief operations on his own.

The two railway lines started construction at the same time, it is close to completion, only a few bridges have not been completed by the Guangjiang Railway, the group of technicians trained by the Guangjiang Railway has come in handy, the Ming Dynasty has mastered the right to build two railways for ten years, although the construction has not started, but the terrain has been explored many times, and the approximate route has long been worked out.

The railway from Qinhuangdao leads directly to Datong, and from Qingdao it goes to Zhengzhou.

The detailed route has not yet been formulated, at this time these technicians are divided into three batches, the survey is the first to set off, according to the general line began to formulate a detailed plan, measure and draw accurate construction drawings, civil engineering personnel organize labor to quickly level the land, build the roadbed, track laying technicians followed, just like the march of the army, while measuring, while construction, while opening to traffic.

Zhu Jinglun is most worried that the common people will use violence to obstruct the construction of the railway, it turns out that Zhu Jinglun is too worried, the progress of the railway is quite smooth, because of the outbreak of large-scale eating in Shandong and Hebei, the landlords have long been frightened birds, they are too late to guard against the homeless, have no heart to fight with the Ming, the local officials do not want to provoke the Ming at this time, the Manchu court is very panicked, for fear that the Ming will take this opportunity to make trouble, they never believe that the Ming will not be moved by this picturesque country, always thought that the Ming Dynasty was just looking for an opportunity, so they couldn't give the Ming this opportunity, so the Qing court sternly admonished the officials along the line, asking them not to conflict with the Ming construction team, otherwise they would be severely punished.

Therefore, the railway company asked the landlords along the line to requisition the land, and most of the landlords agreed to sell it, took four times the land money and took refuge in the city. In addition, there is still a lot of land that does not even reach the owner, and only a large number of hungry people can be found wandering around, and the landlord has already run here, and the granary of the landlord's house has long been looted by the hungry people. In this case, the railway company reported directly to the local government and then started construction directly, while the hungry people in the vicinity recruited to work on the railway, and in this case, there was no one to fight at all.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty was not the only country that built railways on the land of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Russians did not know what their mentality was, and they did not know whether they were affected by the sudden rush to repair these two railways by the Ming Dynasty, and the Russian government also began to speed up the construction of the Kyakhta-Dalian railway in the name of disaster relief, and like the Ming Dynasty, a large number of laborers were recruited at a low price in the disaster areas of China, and the construction speed was greatly accelerated.

But the Russians' argument is obviously untenable, the railway built by the Ming Dynasty was carried out directly in the disaster area, for example, Shandong is the first province to break out of famine, but Shanxi and Henan, which are the most serious famine in history, have not yet fully broken out.

The Russians basically did not pass through the disaster area, and Liaoning, which barely had a little disaster, was able to solve the famine here by the Qing government under the stabilization of low local food prices.

Therefore, the Russians made a new proposal to the Qing government, they hoped that the Qing government would agree to build a branch line to Shanxi, and told the Qing court that this would be more convenient for the Russian disaster relief operation, and they said that as long as the Qing government agreed, they were willing to add 3 million US dollars of wheat and barley to support the disaster area.

However, the Russian proposal was opposed by Britain and France, who believed that by the time the Russians built the railway to Shanxi, the famine would have been over long ago. They still did not want Russia to take advantage of its geographical advantages to expand its interests in China, so they secretly supported the Qing court's refusal of this request.

Of course, the Qing court was unwilling to accept the Russians to build a railway into their hinterland, and they did not even want to open Zhangjiakou, let alone Shanxi.

With the support of Britain and France, the Ming Dynasty strictly rejected the proposal of Tsarist Russia, but there was no way to build a railway for the Ming Dynasty. Because the Ming Dynasty's plan to build a railway was also supported by Britain and France, because the ports controlled by the Ming Dynasty were shared with Britain and France, whether it was Qingdao, Qinhuangdao or Dalian, they were all **** customs and even directly managed by the British.

In this case, the construction of the railway by the Ming Dynasty into the Manchu Qing Dynasty will only expand the interests of Britain and France, especially Britain, in these ports, and will not be damaged, but the Russians will build the railway from Kyakhta to Shanxi, and it is obviously impossible to share the Kyakhta port with the British, and it is impossible for British warships to drive to the grassland, and there is no possibility of opening up there itself.

That's why they support the Ming Dynasty and oppose Tsarist Russia.

Another reason is that the tacit understanding between Britain and France to contain Tsarist Russia in the Pacific Ocean has finally begun to take shape. Historically, in order to block the expansion of Tsarist Russia in the Pacific region, Britain formed an alliance with Japan, and now I don't know if they will choose Japan.

The Tsarist Russia's proposal to build a railway to Shanxi was rejected, and they continued to woo the Qing government, proposing to build a branch line to Tianjin, but the Qing government vetoed it on the grounds that Tianjin was close to the Gyeonggi stronghold, the gateway to Beijing, and it was inconvenient to be disturbed by the railway, and then they proposed to build a railway to Zhangjiakou, this time they were hard at it, claiming that they could build a road north of Zhangjiakou and never build a railway south of the Great Wall, and assured that they could permanently abandon any request to build a railway in the area within the Great Qing Pass. In the end, Tsarist Russia also proposed to the Qing court to jointly suppress the rebellion in the northwest Xinjiang region, and as long as the Qing government agreed to build a railway, they would send troops to help the Qing government recover the territory of Xinjiang.

Finally, under the pressure of the Russian envoy, the Qing court agreed to extend the Kyakhta Railway to Zhangjiakou, but could not enter the customs. At the same time, under the rational judgment of a leading minister, the Qing court did not accept Russia's proposal to jointly suppress the rebellion in Xinjiang.

Stimulated by the southward movement of Tsarist Russia, the British immediately announced that they would immediately start building the Yunnan-Burma-India Railway, and after France received British support, they also forced the Qing government to agree to their construction of a Yunnan-Vietnam Railway from Vietnam to Yunnan.

History has changed so much that the partition of the Manchus by the great powers seems to have begun ahead of schedule, marked by the construction of the railway.

The difference is that the conditions have undergone some changes, and the countries have not raised the issue of the right of way, which is the precedent role established by the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty did not ask the Manchus for the privileges on both sides of the railway ten years ago, and other countries are not easy to ask, even if they want the Manchus, they do not want to give, plus after all, the power of the great powers has not yet reached the strength of the time when the world is divided, and it is not easy to get to the power of railway construction, and the power to mine and garrison troops on both sides, don't do it.

Another difference is that Germany, the vanguard of the later division of the world, did not have the ability to carve up the world at this time, and under the suppression of Bismarck, the German navy was only second-rate in Europe, and its outward expansion was very weak.

So at present, Germany has not joined, and Bismarck is also actively supporting Russia's expansion in the East, hoping to divert Russia's attention from Europe and allow Germany to gain safe space.

As a result, Russia penetrated from the north and Britain and France from the south to the Manchus.

In the face of this weakened version of the Great Powers carving up the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was powerless, and it couldn't be blocked at this time, and it couldn't be snatched away.

can only bury his head and hurry up to build a disaster relief railway, it seems that he is too peaceful in this feast of partition, and he does not take the opportunity to make trouble and join the ranks of the partition.

But the Ming Dynasty did not take the opportunity to make trouble, but the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was restless, Li Xiucheng saw the opportunity of the northern Jiangsu to enter the famine, and launched the fourth Northern Expedition of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, Chen Yucheng and his last Northern Expedition.