At the end of April, the British envoy Watson and his entourage arrived at the Shanghai dock, and the British Consul General in Shanghai, Robert, prepared a huge welcome dinner for the envoy and his entourage. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info Senior officials from the Chinese side also attended the meeting, and after the ceremonial meeting at the port wharf, they expressed their heartfelt wishes to the special envoy and his wife for their next trip to China.

Many people should have expected that when Watson and his entourage landed in Shanghai, several members of the Chinese mission who had returned from Europe with them had already reported to Nanjing a lot of information that the Chinese government had not been able to grasp before.

"Your Majesty, the situation in Britain is very bad right now. Their contradictions with France and Spain are acute, and the countries of Northern and Eastern Europe have clearly expressed their opposition to their maritime supremacy. ”

"Russia, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, in the war that is about to begin, these countries are likely to be on the opposite side of the British."

The new round of fighting that is now breaking out in Europe only needs one Mars. The center of the feud was again the British and French. The two great powers, Prussia and Austria, remained neutral because their interests were on land, not on the sea. Italy, on the other hand, has no value at all.

Chen Ming was a little disappointed that he had not heard any news of Saratoga's victory from the members of the mission who had returned with the ship. This was the turning point in the North American War that he remembered, and now he couldn't even be sure if it had happened. Was it that this plane was butterflyed by his wings, and the long river of history flowed into a different fork at a certain point, or did the Saratoga Victory still happen, but it had not yet reached Europe?

These men also reported to Chen Ming the journey of the mission all the way west, the Indians, the Ottomans, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the French, and the British.

The Prussians were lukewarm to the Chinese mission, not as hot as Vienna, and St. Petersburg refused to talk to the mission when they left Europe with the ship.

Although China's power is strong, it is an intruder in the Western world with a knife in one hand and an olive branch in the other. The aim was to share the cake of the Europeans.

The Western world is secretly wary of China, not only of the sea powers, but also of some land powers.

"Tell me about the French, shall we? Franklin arrived in Paris in the second year, so he won't be idle in the next year or two, right? Chen Ming pinched his eyebrows with a little headache, he had this feeling when Gao Yanming set off from China with the fleet, and now it is true.

Good hopes are gone!

Although China is powerful, the distance between half the world is too far away in today's technology. This has greatly reduced the deterrent effect of the knives at hand in China. And most importantly, the white people, who have been shaking on their own one-third of an acre for two or three hundred years, obviously do not want to see a China that suddenly emerges on top of their heads.

Half the world has been 'discovered' by them, they have extracted countless wealth and profits in the Americas, although China is powerful, the Far East is only a corner of the world, much smaller than the white world. How is it possible to bow your head so much and admit defeat?

White supremacy, heaven and heaven......

This kind of 'pride' emanating from the depths of people's hearts is the biggest obstacle to future exchanges between the Eastern and Western worlds.

Although France is the country with the friendliest and most enthusiastic attitude towards Chinese culture, in terms of national interests and high-level political acumen, they are far less in line with China's interests than London at this time.

This is the interaction between countries.

"Franklin had a high reputation on the European continent, a good personal image and a seventy-year-old collar, and he crossed the Atlantic to France despite a serious illness, which fits well with the French definition of a hero. He was very popular in France with all walks of life, and some wealthy French families even had a popular way to decorate galleries with his portraits.

Whether in Marseille or Paris, Franklin was careful to raise funds, arrange ships to load and unload weapons, and skillfully handle cargo ships seized by armed French civilian ships.

He was good friends with many French thinkers, opposed to royal power and aristocracy, and at the same time did not exclude French aristocrats and royals who might help North American independence......"

"The emergence of Franklin is like a combination of fish and water in France for the upsurge of reaction in France."

"It is quite possible that France has now declared its recognition of the American ......"

"As for when they will enter the war, my personal opinion is that it will not exceed this year."

After several people went down, Chen Ming sighed with some sighs. The time was not well grasped, the British did not get the war situation in North America in the autumn when they set out from Europe, and now Chen Ming does not know whether the 'Saratoga Victory' still exists, which will have a great impact on the negotiations between China and Britain. It has emboldened the British, who have not suffered heavy blows, and made China's confidence unstoppable.

Is it all to blame for this butterfly flapping its wings?

Three days later, Chen Ming received Watson and his entourage in the palace.

According to Chinese etiquette, the envoy came to see Chen Ming, and the lady went to the inner palace to meet the queen, the former cabinet ministers were all present, and the latter queen concubine and several noble ministers were all shocked by the pair of magnificent murder weapons and the large face on Mrs. Watson's chest.

Completely taken aback, the entire palace was speechless.

For the Chinese of this era, this is too bold.

But compared to the meeting between Chen Ming and Watson, this little color in the inner palace is just a trivial anecdote. The Qianqing Palace is the real home field.

According to the previous rules of Western envoys to meet Chen Ming, kneel down on one knee, which is also the etiquette of the British when they meet the British king.

Although many ministers said that this was undignified for the Celestial Empire, kneeling down on both knees and bowing three times and nine bows was indeed an insult to the self-esteem of Europeans. In the end, there is still no real big war between the two sides. If there is no one superior in war, then don't expect one big country to bow down to another.

Therefore, this is a face-saving move for both sides.

Watson presented Chen Ming with a memorandum of agreement from the British side, agreeing in principle to China's proposal to purchase the British colony of New South Wales.

The people present were all important Chinese cabinet ministers, and after the documents were rounded in each other's hands, everyone smiled more sincerely at Wacente.

The British did not ask for a price, the memorandum did not even contain a specific request for the value of land in New South Wales, and the British also promised to sever all ties with Burma in this regard. Second, China should ensure that Britain's rights and interests in Bangladesh are not infringed upon. Third, China is not allowed to recognize any independent regime in North America.

These three points can be simplified, and they are all very easy things for China. At least as far as Chen Ming is concerned, he has not thought of moving the 'Bengal' piece of British cheese, which is just facing the British in India. The UK is now China's largest trading partner, and bilateral trade between China and the UK will naturally be normalized and stabilized. As for Lao Mei's admission, China is so far away from them, so there is no need to eat crabs for the first time.

However, this also indirectly proves the words of the members of the Chinese mission who returned with Watson: "It is very likely that France has now declared its recognition of the American ......."

It's time for the British to come under pressure.

They did not let China shout and kill France and Spain, nor did they shout for China to cut off trade between France and Spain. It's just that this requirement at the moment is very easy to agree on.

"The Kingdom of Great Britain is China's largest foreign trading partner, and any act that harms trade and commercial exchanges between China and Britain is a great provocation to China and a great threat to the vital interests of China and the Kingdom of Great Britain."

What Watson may not know is that China's determination to maintain trade between China and Britain at this stage is far greater than the British think. Because of the development in recent years, foreign trade has become a powerful part of China's economic development wave, and the United Kingdom is the largest customer at this stage. Chen Ming was absolutely unwilling to tear his face with the British at this time.

Before the Japanese and Indian markets are developed and matured, and before the Great South Sea strategy is achieved, hell, China will fight with the British.

In China, which is huge, the weight of foreign trade groups in the economy is gradually increasing, but there is no qualitative change in the foreign trade market.

It's still Korea, Japan, the South Seas, and Europe.

The war-torn North Korea is dying, although the four major ones are empty and everything is needed, but its spending power is limited;

Japan, on the other hand, is a poor man in its own right;

The market in Nanyang has expanded a lot compared to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, at least Siam has been fully opened to China, but the current foreign trade economy is much larger than the original foreign trade economy;

Finally, in Europe, the 'merchants', mainly Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal, occupy an increasingly high position in China's foreign trade system.

The time for China to go out is too short, and the 'reclamation' of India and Tianfang World, the two largest markets outside of China and Europe, has just begun, and the transaction quota still makes Chen Ming feel extremely painful.

At the very beginning of the negotiations, the focus was no longer on New South Wales, and compared to Wacent, who had enormous power, a small piece of New South Wales was not as good as the full set of technology for flying and cutting bow sailboats, let alone such a thing as a 'dragon bullet'.

"The Kingdom of Great Britain is in great need of a warship." When he said this, Watson secretly scolded Robert and Brontë in his heart, although the latter's status as the Earl of Norwich was older than his family title, but these two people have been in China for so long, neither negotiating a full set of technical deals in the open, nor secretly getting a full set of design drawings, this is their failure.

Don't you see the Royal Navy's predicament?

The Royal Navy, which has a shortage of combat ships, is now not only threatened by its naval dominance, but more importantly, because they cannot block the coastline of the thirteen North American states.

Franklin raised shipload after shipload of material and money from France and sent it back to North America. The constant flow of blood transfusions brought the British offensive in North America to a stalemate, which was a very bad sign.

"With this kind of high-speed sailing ship, the Royal Navy's interception capabilities will be a leap forward. Not to mention that no damn smuggling ship can get close to the North American continent, but it will definitely pay a much heavier price to the rebels and the support behind them......"

The corners of Chen Ming's mouth curled up with a smile, flying and cutting the bow, it is easy to do. In terms of the shipbuilding capabilities of the British, there was not much of a problem. The Chinese side will hand over all the technology to the UK, and it will only shorten the manufacturing time in the UK.

"Of course, China can hand over the full set of technology to the British, but I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that the shear-bow sailing ship is not suitable for pure warship." If it weren't for the rockets, Chen Ming would have used this thing as a warship to the hell.

Although the speed is high, the load is low, the stability is very poor, the safety is relatively poor, and it is not suitable for the period of changeable wind direction, nor is it suitable for loading too many cannons.

"But dragon bullets are absolutely not good." This thing is a bug that suppresses China's luck, and it can be kept in your hand for many years.

Chen Ming knew why the British were in a hurry, since the start of the North American War, the British played a naval blockade policy in the Western world, not only attacking the ships needed by the thirteen states, but also often robbing and searching for the ships of neutral countries, which violated the interests of Russia and other neutral countries. Therefore, the Russian Empress Catherine II issued the Declaration of Armed Neutrality just last year.

The basic contents are: first, neutral ships can freely trade with belligerents; secondly, the enemy's goods under the flag of a neutral country should be released and not violated; Third, only weapons, munitions and other items directly used for war purposes are recognized as wartime contraband; Fourth, in order to ensure the implementation of these provisions, Russia will send a strong navy to accompany the escort. Later, on the basis of the Declaration of Armed Neutrality, Russia signed other relevant treaties with the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and other countries, thus giving rise to the Armed Neutrality Alliance.

This put a lot of pressure on the British.

Chen Ming, who is not a good student of world history, did not know that his appearance had caused a lot of changes in Europe. At least this famous "Declaration of Armed Neutrality" in history was pushed out by the Russians who were under the same pressure a year in advance.

Now that the British have been slapped in the face, and ready for a 'long war', they have begun to seek the full range of techniques for flying and cutting the bow. This thing has been transmitted back to Europe before, and even includes some compositions, but those are the outermost visual drawings, and the reference significance for a sea ship is quite limited.

And the most troublesome thing is that the cycle of transportation links between the East and the West in this era is too long. It's just two information traffic on both sides, and three or four years have passed.

Even if it was the deal in front of him, it was added by Watson himself.

A flash of regret flashed on his white face, if the Chinese were willing to sell the technology of the fire dragon bullet to Britain, he would dare to hand over New South Wales to the Chinese free of charge.

But the Chinese emperor ruthlessly refused in the face of this 'deal'.

"Don't feel discouraged. This is a taboo subject that does not need to be talked about. But in order to express China's friendship and support for the Kingdom of Great Britain, all the shipyards in China will be more than happy to receive orders from the other side of the mainland. ”

Sell arms. What more violent trade in the world could be than the sale of arms?

Compared with the broken guns and cannons that were secretly sold to the Asan, selling warships to the British is the real big business.

With the current strength of the British, Chen Ming believed that they would not lack guns, but what about battleships? The construction of warships in this era is even longer than the era of ironclads more than a hundred years later. (To be continued.) )