Germany was the first to abandon the proposal to invite the Empress Dowager and the Emperor back to Beiqi, because they got what they wanted, and the Emperor promised Germany to lease Nantong to Germany for a period of ninety-nine years. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

With Nantong as a base, Germany can penetrate into the Yangtze River basin, which is the fattest piece of meat in China, and Britain makes tens of millions of pounds of profit from here every year, and Germany also wants a piece of the pie.

The Russians insisted even more on the return of Cixi and Guangxu to the court, because they wanted the Manchus to agree to their request to garrison Mongols and build a railway from Kyakhta to Vladivostok.

Russia is not satisfied, Britain is not satisfied, they cannot accept the annexation of the Manchus by the Ming Dynasty, but now the Ming Dynasty controls the whole of North China, what is the difference between this and the annexation of this place.

And also controlled the Manchu Qing and allowed German interests in Nantong, isn't this let Germany come here to divide the interests of Britain, Britain must not see the Manchu court become a puppet in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, at least not a puppet exclusive to the Ming Dynasty, this government is destined to become a puppet, the British Empire also wants to be their master.

But they don't want to tear their faces and break the current fragile balance, it was Hurd who came to Zhu Jinglun to talk to.

Hurd vaguely expressed concern about the control of the Ming soldiers in the north.

"You think it's a soldier of the Ming Dynasty, no, you're thinking too much. Those were all militia groups formed by local youths, but they all served in the Ming Army. When Britain fought with Napoleon in 1812, didn't it also forcibly conscript Americans to serve, and it also caused a war with the United States. It is inevitable that there will be some complicated relationships between the same nation. ”

Zhu Jinglun denied that it was Da Ming who was controlling those soldiers.

Hurd didn't break it, but said worriedly: "It's just that the great powers may not see it that way." Moreover, the Qing court allowed Germany to occupy Nantong, which seriously infringed on the interests of the British Empire, and I am afraid that Britain will take action. ”

Zhu Jinglun said with a smile: "I think it's better for the British Empire not to take action, once the Qing court is forced to be in a hurry, it won't look good if they join Russia." ”

"United Russia?"

Hurd was silent for a moment.

This means that if Britain is forced, it is possible to force the Ming Dynasty to the side of Russia, so that in East Asia, there will be a situation in which Ming and Russia will fight against Britain, unless Britain can drag Germany into the war, but now Germany's appetite is satisfied, and it is impossible to cooperate with Britain for the time being, but to compete with Britain in the future, the Yangtze River has developed rapidly in recent years, and it has ranked second in the world after the British Empire, ranking second in the world's largest shipping country, and the Yangtze River, a golden waterway, is of great significance to Germany.

The Ming and Russia united against the British, Britain has no way to exert influence on this continent, at least for now, the major forces on this continent are still balanced, but very fragile, once the balance is broken, Britain has no strength to obtain the greatest benefits, will only let the Ming and Russia swallow the biggest cake.

And if the British didn't ask, the Ming and Russia would inevitably have clashed, and Hurd felt that it was better for the British Empire to maintain balance, which was his attitude, but the British began to seek a different outcome.

They could not tolerate the Ming Dynasty taking control of the Manchus, and in their plans, a complete partition of the Manchus was also an option. Establish the spheres of influence of various countries, completely carve up the Manchus, make North China a colony, curb the momentum of the rise of the Ming Dynasty, and replace it with a complex European balance, I believe that the British will still be able to play with the politics here.

Their only concern was that Hurd's notice said that the Ming Dynasty was forced to cooperate with Russia and work together to squeeze Britain's influence out of the East Asian continent, and without Russia's cooperation, Britain felt that they could not control the Ming Dynasty.

So Britain began to approach Russia, but the Russian appetite was too great, and they wanted the whole northeast.

Once Russia had taken control of the entire Northeast, Britain's policy of blockading Russia would be bankrupt, and Russia would become a nation that embraced the sea, an empire that extended land power to sea power.

The Germans also had a great appetite, and they wanted the whole of Shandong, at the cost of which they were willing to cooperate with Britain to counterbalance Russia.

France's appetite is not very large, they are not interested in gaining a foothold in the complicated situation in the Bohai Bay, obviously in recent years, although everyone does not know the secret treaty between France and Russia, but everyone knows that France must have reached some secret agreement with Russia. And Germany has been trying to sabotage this secret agreement, not only gave up the trade war with Russia, Wilhelm II also spared no effort to win over Russia, on the American issue, and this time on the Chinese issue, Wilhelm II took great care of Russia.

Britain suddenly found that they had the posture of being isolated by the continental countries, and the glorious isolation did not seem to make their position transcendent and become the object of competition among the European countries, but it was really possible for them to be isolated.

In the end, Britain found that only Japan was more obedient, but unfortunately Japan was weak, their army force was mobilized, only about 300,000 people, and the industrial level was backward. Neither Russia, which has a potential of 3 million troops, nor the Ming Dynasty, which has successfully formed an army of 6 million, is something that Japan can confront it.

After a round of turns, the British decided to calm down and listen to the advice of the Ming Dynasty, as long as the Ming did not completely annex the Manchus, as long as they allowed the British Empire to maintain sufficient influence in the Qing court, it was not unacceptable for them to control this puppet regime.

What is Da Ming doing at this time?

Nominal envoys were sent to various places, and Cixi and Guangxu issued secret orders to these governors, so that they could be closer to the Ming ministers.

In fact, these ministers have already become the emperors of various places, except for Hubei controlled by Zhang Zhidong and the three eastern provinces controlled by Yiketanga, the governors of various places have actually been appointed. Let these Ming envoys meet with local officials one by one, win over these local officials, and directly remove those who are hostile to the Ming Dynasty from the governor.

The Ming Dynasty was gradually removing the officials who rejected the Ming Dynasty in various parts of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and all of them were replaced by pro-Ming officials, apparently preparing for the unification of the country.

At the same time, he also controlled Cixi and Guangxu, and issued an edict to reform and change the law, requiring local governors to carry out local reforms according to the local situation. As a result, local governors have said that the current public order is chaotic, and a new type of police agency should be formed, and the past patrols and arrests are obviously no longer suitable. As a result, the soldiers controlled by the Ming officers who existed as militia groups in various places turned into police officers and completely obtained legal status.

Controlling the police is more significant to local politics than controlling the army, and it can be said that controlling the police means controlling local politics.

Later, the police reform implemented by France in Morocco caused strong protests in Germany, and almost led to a war between the two countries, because police was too important.

Britain sat back and watched the Ming Dynasty encroach on the Manchu regime step by step, but there was nothing it could do, because except for the Ming Dynasty, no country had the ability to penetrate to this level, and Russia could not do it.

The Ming Dynasty had already allowed Germany to occupy Nantong, seriously invading Britain's core area of interests, and Britain would not be able to balance the Ming Dynasty unless it was willing to join Russia.

However, Zhu Jinglun asked Hurd to negotiate with Britain on both sides, and it was necessary to ensure Britain's neutrality, and Hurd successfully completed the task, allowing the British minister to reach an agreement with the Ming Dynasty, which guaranteed Britain's special interests in the Yangtze River Valley, maintained a series of privileges obtained by Britain in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and promised not to directly annex the Manchu Qing Dynasty and merge North and South China into one country. Britain promised to join forces with the Ming to resist Russia's southward movement, and in the event of a war between the Ming and Russia, the previously agreed military aid would still be valid. At the same time, there is no objection to the Ming army stationed in the north, at least the Ming army is stationed in Zhili and the northeast, and the British Empire does not oppose it.

Obviously, this agreement cleared the temporary dispute between Britain and the Ming Dynasty, as long as the Ming Dynasty continued to implement this agreement, then the relationship between the two sides would not break down, and the situation of joint control of Russia would not change, and the time limit of this agreement was ten years, Britain used this to maintain the balance of the North China region for ten years, and the Ming Dynasty maintained an ally against Russia for ten years.

But does Daming really plan to wait for ten years, ten years before reunifying the country, no, Zhu Jinglun can't wait that long, as soon as next year, the slowest the year after, he will dominate the world, this kind of thing, the longer it drags on, the more troublesome it will be, he can't wait for the powers to infiltrate the Manchu Qing before he starts.

As for the UK, it is just a matter of stabilizing it with an agreement, letting Hurd operate this matter, and pitting Hurd and Britain together, there is no psychological barrier at all.

It's just that Zhu Jinglun is a little curious about Hurd's ability to persuade the British, such a complicated situation, even Zhu Jinglun feels a little headache to solve, they don't know how Hurd used to make Britain dispel their worries about the Ming Dynasty and support the Ming Dynasty against Russia.

When I asked, I found out that the raw material Hurd did not dispel Britain's worries about the Ming Dynasty, but it may have been aggravated, but it was very heavy, so heavy that Britain did not dare to break with the Ming Dynasty rashly.

Hurd told the British that India was far from Russia, but very close to the Ming Dynasty. Especially now that the railroad is connected, once Britain and Russia unite against the Ming Dynasty, it is unlikely that the Ming Dynasty will transfer its main forces to the north to start a war with Russia, but it is possible to enter India by rail, Hurd asked, is the British Empire really preparing to fight a ground war in India with a country that can raise an army of six million and fight hard for three years in the United States, a place more than 10,000 kilometers away?

This made the British understand that the balance they wanted to maintain on the East Asian continent was in fact the same as the balance they maintained in Europe, no longer to prevent any one country from becoming dominant, but to maintain a balance between the great empires that had been formed, so that the major empires would be enemies of each other, rather than concentrating the firepower of any one empire on Britain.

Just as they maintained the balance between Germany and Russia in Europe, they now want to play the balance between the Ming and Russia, and not fight a ground war with the alliance of these two countries and one country, and it will break out directly in India. Therefore, the British did not attract the Ming firepower to themselves, but diverted their attention to the north to compete with the Russian bear, so as to maintain the balance.

As for North China, this is no longer a territory that the British Empire can control, just like Eastern Europe, but should be an area of contention between the Ming Dynasty and Russia, and the British Empire had better withdraw from here, otherwise it will be involved in a tragic land struggle, and the British understand that from now on, they will only have commercial interests in North China at most, and no political interests.

Hurd's statement surprised Zhu Jinglun, which means that Hurd threatened the British Empire, and the threat succeeded, Hurd is really an Englishman, only he understands what the British care about most.

But the problem is that as long as the Ming Dynasty threatens India, then the foundation of cooperation between the Ming and Britain will be very fragile, just like when Germany began to develop its navy, the contradictions between Germany and Britain soon exceeded the contradictions between Britain and Russia that lasted for a hundred years, and the time for the Ming and Britain to break up will not be too far away.