Later, Zhu Jinglun acquiesced to this, but he never understood why Chen Zhiting would agree, in his opinion, Chen Zhiting, like other squires in Guangdong, has a very strong populist sentiment and is very conservative, but why would he agree to such a request that is obviously a concession. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Chen Zhiting himself knows very well that the Chinese have a Chinese world view, pay attention to the golden mean, and pay attention to impartiality, so although Chen Zhiting is very dissatisfied with the foreigners to cede the land of Kowloon, but he has a scale in his heart, that is, it is something that the imperial court promised, he does not dare to blame the emperor, the emperor is the son of heaven, blaming the emperor is morally impermissible, so he has always put the anger of the cession of Kowloon on foreigners, but the psychology has always understood that he came to the foreigners to reason, in some respects is justified.

Chen Zhiting believes that since the emperor ceded this land to foreigners, then this land is according to reason, it is the land that the emperor rewarded to Fanbang, and it is the same as the vassal kings of Mongolia, the Tusi of Yungui, and even vassal states such as Korea and Vietnam.

Since the other party promised not to cede this land, then it is a step back, the Chinese pay attention to a "let" word, leave a line in everything, the truth under the golden mean is not to do things absolutely, since the other party has made a step, he should also give a step, otherwise it is too unreasonable.

Secondly, Chen Zhiting seriously thought about the requirements of the British, he felt that it was not too much, first of all, they lived in Kowloon, built houses, and built factories, which is not completely unacceptable, just like the Portuguese in Macau, haven't they all been doing this for hundreds of years, as for managing themselves, the Portuguese are not just in charge of themselves, let the government take care of a group of foreign hair, those civil officials still feel that it is an insult to themselves, in the past, if the county magistrate of Xiangshan County saw that the foreigners in Macao were unruly, Generally, there will be no loss of identity to go directly to the foreigners, but directly arrest the governor of Macao and beat him up, reprimanding him for restraining his people well, as if he was caught from the countryside and taught a lesson to the patriarch of a clan.

Chen Zhiting never thought that his agreement to the British would be tantamount to giving up the judicial and administrative jurisdiction of the Kowloon area over foreigners.

Finally, I have to say that Chen Zhiting's visit to the United States and Britain during this period was definitely not without any touch, he not only read the Four Books and Five Classics in the hotel, but also did not want to accept the impact of those huge factories and strange railways brought to him by foreigners.

In the United States, he saw a large-scale iron factory, those rushing molten iron, the scorching temperature, it made him feel incredible, at that time compared with the iron workshop in Foshan, I felt that it was not comparable at all, but when I arrived in the UK, I knew that the British actually directly made large-scale steel, 100 refined steel, just so furnace by furnace, no wonder the British ships were strong.

For these technologies that he didn't understand, Chen Zhiting even thought of the words "skill is close to Tao", which was originally used to describe craftsmanship, but Chen Zhiting actually realized that the British people's large-scale machine production also achieved a certain skill to the extreme, almost Tao, but he didn't understand this kind of skill.

If you don't understand, he might as well know that the power of this skill is so great that he doesn't want to admit it but has to admit that the Qing Dynasty can't be the opponent of foreigners at all.

So since seeing what kind of way those factories are using to produce steel, weapons and ships, Chen Zhiting is a little weak in his heart, before he came, he was very courageous, he felt that leading the children of Guangdong at any cost may not be able to fight with foreigners, but after seeing it, he found that if he really started, I am afraid it is not a thing that can be done by playing with his life, he saw that there were actually a lot of foreigners, and the flow of people on the street was more than he had seen in any city in Guangdong, and he saw carriages, more palanquins than he saw, He saw more steamers than in Hong Kong, and they were bigger, and he even saw many steamers made of pure steel, without even sails.

These things he didn't understand hit his morale, and the confidence in his heart was gone, so he was naturally more willing to choose to compromise, not to mention that the other party's request was not too much, although if he was still in Xin'an, he would never agree to this request, but at this time, he didn't feel that it was wrong, as if he was going to agree.

After Chen Zhiting agreed to Wilson, the British government soon drew up detailed terms with him, and finally reached an agreement, the British government promised that now and in the future, there will be no territorial claims in Guangdong and the Chinese government in Guangdong, the Chinese clause is "never an inch of land in the future", Chen Zhiting, on behalf of the Guangdong government and local gentry, promised not to attack the British, to allow the British to permanently reside, do business, purchase land and open factories in Kowloon, and Hong Kong is specifically responsible for the management of British citizens in Kowloon, The government of Guangdong did not ask any questions.

Both sides intentionally or unintentionally ignored that even if the document submitted by Chen Zhiting allowed him to represent the twelve counties of Guangdong, only six of the fourteen counties of Guangzhou Prefecture were included, and it could be said that he could not even represent a complete prefecture, but the agreement they signed stated that it was the entire Guangdong Province.

But this did not prevent the significance of this agreement in history, and it was called the London Declaration of Guangdong, which became one of the landmark events of the beginning of the real opening up of Guangdong.

Because of Chen Zhiting's promise, the nobles of the House of Lords felt that their dignity had been taken care of, after all, in Kowloon Britain had obtained the right to administer justice over the local British, and also allowed the British to have all the personal rights they had in Britain, and all that was lacking was the right of local administration and military occupation, and for the bourgeois members of the House of Commons, they did not care at all, because they could go to do business, and the Cantonese would not interfere.

Of course, it took a lot of effort to get everyone to agree, many people are diehards, but the reason why the House of Commons was able to continuously expand their voice in parliament in the following decades, and finally turned the House of Lords into a retirement home, turned into an empty shelf, in addition to the fact that they used their right to speak to constantly promote the worldview of various bourgeois concepts, affecting the entire British, and even the aristocracy, in fact, the bourgeoisie is actually slowly assimilating these nobles in terms of identity, That is to turn the aristocracy into capitalists.

Among the nobles of the British House of Lords, there are more and more nobles who invest in industry and new industries, and the nobles who stick to the land are slowly going bankrupt, so there are also a large number of capitalists in the House of Lords in this era, but they still have old ideas in their heads, but there are new ideas, if there is no interest, they will definitely fight a battle to maintain their dignity, but they have great interests, and their dignity has been satisfied to a certain extent, so they tend to compromise.

Finally, the motion of the House of Commons was passed by a narrow margin in the House of Lords, and the declaration was passed.

After the declaration was passed, Chen Zhiting received a declaration signed by the British, and he believed that it was a guarantee, a guarantee that the land would never be ceded.

Then Chen Zhiting didn't want to stay in England for a moment, I don't know why, he hated this place, he hated the foggy London all day, he hated the smell of the air here, he hated the dense pedestrians on the streets here, and the affairs that he didn't understand everywhere.

He urged Wu Chongyao to help find a ship to return to China quickly, and he wanted to return to the place he was familiar with as soon as possible, his home.

But at this time, Wu Chongyao told him that the French invited them to visit France, or the French king personally invited them, this face is not good, Chen Zhiting has no way to hear it, the Qing Dynasty was fought by Britain and France together, in his opinion, these two barbarians are as powerful, and he can't tell that British industry accounts for more than half of the world, far stronger than France's comprehensive strength.

So Chen Zhiting could only agree to come down and let Wu Chongyao contact the French.

During the period when Chen Zhiting was negotiating with the British government, the rest of the mission was not idle.

For those businessmen, more and more people began to silence and start thinking.

The reasons for their thinking are varied, some are interested in industrialization and factory production, some are shocked after seeing the towering palaces and towering churches and other buildings in Britain, some are fascinated by trains, some wonder why steel ships can float on the water without sinking, and some see the wider world through the window of London, the original world is so big, above the earth, the Qing Kingdom is so small, and how is it no longer the center of the world.

In short, many people have begun to take an interest in this world, which is completely different from China, but still no one has any sense of worship, and the strong concept formed over thousands of years may need hundreds of years of humiliation to wear away, and it is obvious that they feel not much humiliation now.

In Britain, although not as friendly as the Americans, the world has opened its arms to them, and many people have become curious about them, and they look at these people who are wearing silk and satin, but very immoral in the West, and watching them spit and speak loudly, which inevitably makes the British criticized, from scholars to ordinary workers, are paying attention to this group of Chinese who haunt London.

At first, these businessmen's children thought that the foreigners were holding a reverence for them, but then they felt more and more that these people were completely treating them as monkeys, as if some of them were teenagers, who also looked at the foreigners in Guangzhou in this way, and were looking at the strange.

It was uncomfortable to be looked at like monkeys, and soon they got tired of London, when Wu Chongyao informed them that they were going to France across the Channel. (To be continued.) )