Zhu Jinglun does not need to directly ask about the specific negotiation of the treaty, Rama V also does not need to care, after reaching an agreement, Rama V's whereabouts can be made public, he asked to visit Daming, under the arrangement of the Department of Foreign Affairs, focused on visiting the Ming arsenal, shipyards, and through the railway to Hangzhou, Quanzhou and other famous cities, but also focused on the Chaoshan area to visit, because this place is the hometown of most Siamese Chinese. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The Ming and Siamese newspapers also began to report on Rama V's itinerary in a big way, and the Ming reports made more people aware of the small country that was so close at hand, and public opinion generally welcomed the visit of the King of Siam because, to some extent, even at the literati level, such visits were seen as tribute to the kingdom.

While touring, King Rama V was concerned about the negotiations between the diplomats of the two sides, as well as the peace talks in Singapore.

The Ming Dynasty made various demands to Siam, mainly focused on strengthening economic ties, such as cooperation between the customs of the two sides, in the hope of reducing the procedures for Ming goods to enter Siam; The two sides impose no restrictions on the commercial operation of the other party's nationals and allow the other side's nationals to conduct a wide range of commercial and development activities in their own countries.

Generally speaking, the demands put forward by the Ming Dynasty did not hurt Siam much, because the Chinese were originally the largest business group in Siam, operating many commercial projects, and the successive Siamese kings did not restrict the development of the Chinese. The only thing that worried Rama V was that the Ming Dynasty had indeed made a request to build a railway in Siam on the grounds of strengthening economic ties, hoping that Vietnam would allow the Ming to build a railway from the territory of the Ming Dynasty to Bangkok, the capital of Siam.

The construction of railways has always been a problem for King Rama V, because not only the Ming Dynasty put forward a request to build the railway, but the British have also mentioned it before.

Rama V had no ill feelings about the railroad itself, but he could not do anything about how to ensure that the great powers did not use the railroad to encroach on the power of Siam.

The British were very eager to build the railway, although Siam shirked the past for various reasons, but once the Ming began to build the railway in Siam, I am afraid that the British would not be able to stop it.

Since the British built the Great Britain Bridge and the Great Asia Railway, the British Indian colonies have been linked to China, and many goods from India and even the British mainland do not pass through the Strait of Malacca, but directly enter the port in Yangon and Chittagong, and then be transported to China by rail.

Especially after the outbreak of the Ming-French War, there are fewer ships passing through the Strait of Malacca, and even the goods of other European countries have begun to pass customs on the Britannica Bridge, it can be expected that even if the Ming-French War ends, I am afraid that many cargo ships will not return to the Strait of Malacca, because no one wants to take a detour of more than 2,000 kilometers to the Strait of Malacca, for business, time is profit, or expensive cost, the railway built by the British, not only a shortcut to Kowloon and Shanghai, but also the British practice free trade, The ports at both ends of the railway do not charge re-export tax, and Daming has strengthened cooperation with the United Kingdom, adopting unified standards for customs clearance, and customs clearance is extremely fast.

This caused a sharp decline in the number of merchant ships passing through Singapore, which dealt a huge blow to the economy here, so the Straits Settlements, which managed Singapore, proposed that they must build a railway from Singapore to China in order to save some passenger traffic for the sake of the colony's future.

Passing through the Strait of Malacca to East Asia for trade, although not all of them go to China, but ninety percent of them are for the purpose of China, countries like Japan and South Korea, next to China, really can't attract the interest of Western countries, even if it is trade between these two countries, Western merchants are too lazy to open up their own trade, but directly in Shanghai for re-export, and Shanghai through the Greater Asia Railway, has been connected with India, from Calcutta and Dhaka to the west, through Myanmar Imphal and Myitkyina into Yunnan, It passes through Yunnan, Guiyang, Changsha and Nanchang and connects with Hangzhou and Shanghai.

Since it is convenient to reach Shanghai directly from the Indian Ocean, what reason do European cargo ships have to make a detour?

It was not difficult for the British to build a railway from Singapore to China, they only needed to go north along the Malay Peninsula and build the railway to Burma.

But the problem is that the central part of the Malay Peninsula is the land of Siam, from the Gulf of Siam to the Andaman Sea, blocking the land connection between British Malaya and Siam, once the British connect the two colonies by rail, who can guarantee that these Siamese territories will not be lost together?

So before coming to the Ming Dynasty, this railway was already a piece of Rama V's heart, not that he was cowardly, not that he was too worried, but he really saw that Siam had become an obstacle to the connection between the two British colonies, and now the two colonies had a strong need to be linked together, this obstacle was immediately highlighted, if there was any possibility, Rama V definitely did not want to become an obstacle on the way forward for the British, because the British would move away or even smash all the obstacles that stood in their way, Siam did not want to face the British sprint head-on.

But if you refuse to build the railway, why let the Ming protect Siam for ten years, there is no free lunch in the world, in order to seek the protection of the British, Siam handed over almost all the domestic mineral deposits to the British to develop, but want to let the Ming clearly protect themselves, even if the Ming agreed, but this kind of "protection" Siam can rest assured.

Therefore, Rama V knew that this railway could not be stopped, but he could not let Britain find an excuse to expand its interests in Siam, after thinking about it and racking his brains, he told Siamese diplomats to see if they could reach an agreement with the Ming Dynasty, since it was to strengthen economic ties, whether it was more appropriate for Siam to build a railway in Siam, and connect it with the Ming railway network, which could also achieve the purpose of strengthening ties. In order to facilitate the docking with the Daming railway network, Siam was willing to hire Daming technical consultants and entrust the railway operation to the Chinese.

In this way, he tried to give the Ming a real profit from controlling the railway, and at the same time retained the name of Siam to build the railway itself, without giving the British any opportunity to make any excuses.

The Ming were indeed easier to communicate with than the Westerners, and after consideration, they agreed to the Siamese suggestion, saying that the Ming had no intention of seeking privileges in Siam and was willing to support Siam's independent construction of railways.

Although no treaty had yet been signed, Rama V's activities in the Ming Dynasty had already begun to have an effect, and when he began to act in the Ming Dynasty, the pressure on the Siamese diplomatic team negotiating in Singapore immediately decreased, and France lowered its intimidation of Siam, began to show its sincerity in resolving the state of war caused by Siam's declaration of war on France, and abandoned its claim to the eastern territory of Siam, and only raised the issue of reparations.

As for Cambodia, Rama V no longer considered it, and only begged the French not to depose King Norodom and let this Siam-friendly Cambodian king remain on the Cambodian throne, which was Siam's only request.

When the French made a big concession and agreed to end the state of war with France for Siam at a cost of 20 million gold francs, and said that it would be tantamount to changing the status quo of the Cambodian throne, France and Siam quickly signed a peace treaty.

This made Rama V see that with the influence of the Ming Dynasty, Siam could really retain a certain amount of power in front of the foreigners, and strengthened his determination to establish a close relationship with the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, he intends to implement the railway issue as soon as possible, and start the construction of the railway as soon as possible after the signing of the relevant treaty with the Ming Dynasty, so as to strengthen the ties between the two countries in fact, as for the British side, he needs to block the British scheme.

The construction of the railway, nominally Siam's independence, in fact is bound to rely on the Ming Dynasty, Siam has neither the relevant talent reserves, nor the necessary financial support, these have to be obtained from the Ming Dynasty, but in order to maintain Siam's control of the railway as much as possible, Rama V needs to find a person who can rest assured and has enough strength to control the railway.

Rama V already has a goal in mind, that is, Zhang Bishi, who accompanied him to the Ming Dynasty, this person can contract opium tax revenue in the Dutch colony, can develop minerals in the British colony, and is also a diplomat of the Ming Dynasty, this person's identity background can definitely have influence in both Britain and the Ming Dynasty, and he also has strong financial strength, coupled with Rama V's brief communication with him, he thinks that this person is a trustworthy and peaceful Chinese who can communicate.

Rather than dealing with Britain and France, King Rama V was more willing to deal with the Chinese, at least the Chinese were reasonable by Eastern standards.

So Rama V approached Zhang Bishi and said what he thought.

It was hoped that Zhang Bishi would come forward to form a railway company to build railways in Siam, at least two, one from Bangkok north to Daming, and one from Bangkok south to the border with British Malaya.

King Rama V hoped that Siam himself would take the lead in building a railway on the Malay Peninsula, and that Zhang Bishi, a powerful figure in both countries in the Ming world, would come forward to run it, so as to block the British plan to build a railway in Siam on the Malay Peninsula, even if they still wanted to build it, Zhang Bishi could also intervene and the railway company would dock with Singapore, so as to exclude British influence from the Siam Railway.

Zhang was very impressed by Rama V's proposal, and he weighed the pros and cons, although he knew very well that with the British railway, linking the East China Sea and the Indian Ocean, it would inevitably lead to a decline in Singapore's status, but for the vast East Indies colonies, Singapore was still the closest channel to contact Chinese mainland, if nothing else, at least Chinese businessmen would definitely support it.

At the same time, through the railway, the products of Thailand and even the entire South Seas can be developed and transported to Daming, which will inevitably bring huge benefits.

Zhang Bishi was a very bold man, when the Netherlands had just allowed the Chinese to operate a reclamation company, he immediately put most of his property into it, and later opened a winery in Shandong, and even invested three million taels of silver at one time, he had the courage to gamble in the face of huge opportunities.

So he accepted Rama V's invitation in person, but the investment in building a railway was also an unbearable burden for him.