Paris, France, inside the royal palace of the French Empire.

Emperor Louis Napoleon Bonaparte summoned Foreign Secretary Valevsky, pointed to a thick stack of secret newspapers on the table, and said: "Valewski, my brother, your great father, my uncle, what he said has now been fulfilled!" ”

Foreign Minister Walevsky exclaimed: "Yes, Your Majesty! The Lion of the East has woken up and taken the whole of the Far East and the East Indies into his domain, and the invincible British have brazenly sent troops to lead to a crushing defeat! However, this is extremely beneficial to our French Empire! It is believed that the trade between the Chinese Empire and the West will reduce the trade volume of Britain, and our French Empire will be able to share more. ”

The emperor nodded, a smile full of schadenfreude: "Not bad! I wanted to send troops to occupy Indochina, and even scrape some flesh off this eastern lion, but when I learned from Burblon that the eastern lion had woken up, I dismissed this idea. It was a great country, with untold wealth and vast land, and importantly, a population base of more than 400 million, which was an astronomical amount, more than ten times the population of the French Empire, and even more unbearable than England. Moreover, those Chinese were completely different from the Indians, they were brave and tenacious, and they were well-armed, and it was very unwise for the British to go on an expedition thousands of miles away. The most important thing is that there is a wise and martial leader in that country, and their emperor Feng Yunshan is an outstanding commander, and the outcome is naturally predictable, so I did not agree to their request to jointly send troops in the first place! ”

"But, Valewski, you are the Foreign Secretary of the Reich, and I would like to hear your opinion on the aftermath of the war, and how the French Empire should treat this lion of the East?"

"There is no doubt that this fiasco of the British Expeditionary Force will have a great impact on its Cabinet Government, and those opposition will certainly take advantage of the opportunity, and Sir Palmerston will probably have to give an account of this," said Walewski. However, with what I know about Sir Palmerston and the Whigs behind him, their strength and pride make them not tolerate this defeat, and most likely will take revenge on the Chinese Empire! In addition, didn't Russia take the opportunity to also send troops to attack the Chinese Empire, the Crimean War made them not recover, the domestic economy was even more depressed, and they would definitely withdraw their troops when they heard the news of the British defeat. However, it is unknown whether the lion of the East and their emperor will let the Russians retreat peacefully. ”

"As for the French Empire, by virtue of our recognition of its rise in domestic economic and military power, and the fact that we can now wipe out the British Expeditionary Force, they are fully qualified to speak to the French Empire on an equal footing. Moreover, we worked very well together on the joint capture of Mexico. I think that we in the French Empire could have maintained a more intimate relationship with each other. Walefski suggested.

"But Walevsky, the Chinese Empire and Prussia had good relations, and according to reliable sources, they had secretly formed an alliance in the early years, and the two sides were in constant trade and helped each other. The Chinese Empire provided financial support to Prussia, and Prussia provided the Chinese Empire with industrial and military support, as well as human resources. The French emperor frowned: "You know, Prussia unanimously wants to unify Germany, in a vain attempt to replace our French Empire as the master of this European continent. In this respect, their ally, the lion of the East, is still an enemy of our French Empire! ”

"My Majesty, we all know now that this Eastern Empire has risen to the fore, and the price to pay to defeat or control it is too much for us to bear. Therefore, it is better to have more to gain by maintaining trade than to make friends. After all, they are in the far east, and the east is not our overseas focus in France. Walevsky said: "And he is friendly with Prussia, and we cannot make a bad deal with him, and push this lion of the East into the arms of the Prussians." Your Majesty, I think we should cooperate with them with greater sincerity and make them fall to our French Empire. ”

The French emperor lowered his head and pondered for a while, then sighed: "What you say makes sense. In this case, you will personally come forward and go to the East on behalf of the Emperor of the East. It is estimated that it will not be long before the British will come to our door and let France come forward to help them mediate with the Chinese Empire. The British will not be able to wage another large-scale overseas war in the short term, but their tens of thousands of captives have been held in the East and must be rescued, so negotiations between the British and the Chinese Empire will inevitably begin, and you can go there to mediate for them in the name of my envoy plenipotentiary. ”

Valevski nodded, and then said: "But the Italian side ......"

"Later, the French Empire will declare war on Austria, and I will personally lead the army into Italy." The French emperor was stunned and explained: "The interests of France in the eastern Mediterranean and on the Aegean coast must be fully guaranteed!" On the side of the Holy See, there must also be an explanation. ”

.......

Saint petersburg.

Tsar Alexander II stared at the news in his hand with a look of disbelief on his face, and only after a long time did he sigh heavily.

Who would have thought that the most powerful and invincible empire at sea, a powerful expeditionary force composed of hundreds of warships and tens of thousands of soldiers, would be completely wiped out by the Eastern Empire in just over a month of fighting.

This is the expeditionary force of Britain, the world's largest military power!

Even Alexander, who was confident enough, knew that with his current strength in Russia, he could not match the British, although Russia had many more soldiers than the other side, as evidenced by the Crimean War. Moreover, Britain has always had the most powerful navy. But this powerful British joint expeditionary force was completely annihilated by the Eastern Empire.

It seems that the only way to withdraw the troops is gone! The Eastern Empire has risen strongly, and it has become difficult to bite a piece of flesh off him.

"Give the order to go down and let the Cossack troops in Siberia retreat! The British Expeditionary Force had already suffered a crushing defeat, and if it attacked the Chinese Empire again, it had lost the best opportunity, and the gains outweighed the losses. "Tsar Alexander II bit his lip and simply issued the order.

......

Berlin. Zonz See.

Prince William looked at the news in front of him excitedly, and his mouth exclaimed: "God! It seems that this ally of our Prussia has surpassed us in military strength! ”

King Frederick of Prussia. William IV was insane, and Prussia was presided over by Prince Regent William long ago. When he received the news of the disastrous defeat of the British expeditionary force against China, he was sad and a little happy.

On the one hand, the military strength of the Chinese Empire can be so strong, and Prussia is of great help, especially the soldiers of the Chinese Empire, many things are trained by Prussian officers. This shows the military capabilities of their own country. At the same time, the victory of the Chinese Empire allowed it to rise strongly, and as Prussia's largest overseas trading country and distant allies, his strength was undoubtedly something Prussia was happy to see.

On the other hand, the strength of the other party and the development of national strength made Prince William a little sour. Poor Prussia is not even capable of developing its navy, let alone expanding its overseas power. Of course, Prince Wilhelm never forgot the Prussian mission, which was to unify Germany. Today, even the students of Prussia have become so powerful that they not only unify the whole country, but even begin to expand rapidly, and have a faint tendency to occupy the entire Far East, which undoubtedly makes them very envious and jealous. If only Prussia had such a vast territory, abundant resources, abundant wealth, and a large number of citizens.

"Order Prince William to make a quick trip to the Chinese Empire to congratulate our allies on their victory on behalf of Prussia. At the same time, when the British negotiate with them, come forward to witness the peace talks and work for the benefit of our Prussia. Of course, the most important thing is to further strengthen the closeness with our allies and enlist more support from that emperor. ”

.........

Feng Yunshan, who was far away in the Shengjing Imperial Palace, didn't know that so many people in distant European countries were shocked by the war that had already passed for a long time, and he didn't know that someone had already hurried to the east and came to hug his thigh.

He had been waiting for the British response.

Finally, three months after the end of the war, the British Viceroy in India, Canning, sent a special representative requesting negotiations with the Chinese Empire to discuss the aftermath of the war.