In the center of the imperial capital, there is a green "island", this "island" is the palace of the Chinese Empire, and the Forbidden City in Beiping is almost no green, and the Nanjing Imperial City is full of nouveau riche luxury, this palace is in a quiet, clean, simple pastoral environment, nature-based garden, so that here is not so much a palace, but a beautiful countryside, winding paths instead of straight boulevards, manicured lawns into thick and lush grass, Forests that grow freely seem to have been created naturally. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

In the center of the 3.4 square kilometers of green space is the center of the palace, which is different from the old palace, this is a modern Chinese building, the Tang style palace shape and the concave and convex structure borrowed from the West make the hundreds of meters long building not look monotonous and dull at all.

According to Chinese etiquette, the "left is upper" His Majesty's official hall is on the left side of the palace, and His Majesty himself usually receives ministers in this public hall with an area of more than 200 square meters, although it is resplendent but elegant, and Li Ziyuan, who is sitting on the sofa, sits there waiting for His Majesty's arrival, as in the past.

"Your Majesty has arrived!"

After waiting for a few minutes, with the opening of the door and the voice of the attendant, Li Ziyuan hurriedly stood up,

"The minister has seen Your Majesty!"

In Li Ziyuan's deep bow, Zhu Yifeng asked with a smile.

"Li Qing, I hope you have brought me good news!"

Zhu Yifeng can naturally guess why he came here as the foreign minister, if nothing else, it should be related to the current situation, to be precise, it is related to Panama.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid I've disappointed Your Majesty!"

Li Ziyuan's answer made Zhu Yifeng's brows lock slightly, and his heart suddenly sank.

"It doesn't seem like it was what we first expected, did it?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, the attitude of the British can be described as extremely tough! Britain's decision to send a fleet to Panama will not change, and it is conceivable that they will not make concessions on the Panama issue! ”

"Indeed, after all, the main feature of Palmerston's foreign policy is toughness."

The minister's answer made Zhu Yifeng smile helplessly, and then said.

"The fleet is the main instrument of its diplomacy." Britain's toughness was backed by the world's most powerful fleet and the most developed industry, so Palmerston was often uncompromising in diplomacy, even ready to use force at any time. Like Don more than ten years ago? The Pacifico affair is a thorough and concentrated expression of the dominant ideology of Palmerston's foreign policy, and it seems that we have underestimated his resolve. ”

Zhu Yifeng's "Tang? The Pacifico Affair", which occurred more than a decade ago. During Easter 1847, a mob of Athenians attacked Don during an anti-Semitic riot. Pacifico's home, his family was tortured, his house was also burned by fire, and the police did not save him. Pacifico demanded compensation from the Greek government, which refused to take responsibility for the crimes of the rioters. Pacifico went to England for help, but the British House of Lords refused to accept him on the grounds that he was only a businessman of dual nationality. Palmerston turned to Palmerston for help, and in January 1850 Palmerston ordered a fleet to demonstrate in Athens to force force the Greek government to compensate Palmerston for his losses of £6,400. He gave a four-and-a-half-hour speech in the House of Commons to justify his actions: "The ancient Romans knew to protect themselves from insults from the time they would say that I was a Roman citizen. The English subjects, wherever he is in the land, should be assured that the wary eyes and strong arms of England will protect him from abuse and ill-treatment. ”

"The ancient Romans knew to protect themselves from insults from the time they would say that I was a Roman citizen. The English subjects, wherever he is in the land, should be assured that the wary eyes and strong arms of England will protect him from abuse and ill-treatment. ”

Repeating Palmerston's speech in the House of Commons, Zhu sneered.

"In Palmerston's eyes, British subjects are what Britain must protect, but what about the subjects of the Chinese Empire? Are we going to watch them being enslaved? Slaughtered? ”

Zhu Yifeng has long had enough of this kind of "imperialist" double standard, and of course this does not prevent him from hoping to use this double standard to restrain other countries.

"When they asked us to withdraw from Panama, they never thought about our interests! Having considered the dignity of the Chinese Empire, yes, the ancient Romans knew to protect themselves from insults from the time they would say that I was a Roman citizen. But they have apparently forgotten that "those who offend me will be punished even if they are far away"! The Chinese Empire will also protect its subjects from abuse and abuse with a vigilant eye and strong arms, and this will surely be understood by every Chinese courtier, wherever they may be! ”

After saying this, Zhu Yifeng walked around in this spacious audience hall, he walked in front of a globe, turned the globe, and looked at the red on the globe -- it was the world under British rule, and the world map published by Britain in this era marked the British Empire in pink, vividly showing Britain's hegemony on the whole world, and the international order under British hegemony was called "peace under Britain."

"The plains of North America and Russia are the cornfields of England, Canada and the Baltic Sea are the woodlands of the United Kingdom, Australia is the pastures of the United Kingdom, Peru is the silver mines of the United Kingdom, Australia is the gold mines of the United Kingdom, India and China are the tea plantations of the United Kingdom, the East Indies are the sugarcane, coffee, and spice plantations of the United Kingdom, and the southern United States is the cotton plantations of the United Kingdom...... This world ......"

Turning his head and looking at Li Ziyuan, who was standing there with his head down, Zhu Yifeng's lips were slightly raised, and he said in an indignant tone.

The world under the leadership of the British hegemony is dominated by the so-called "peace under Britain". As a rising star, it seems extremely difficult for us to have our place on this stage, to secure our place in peace under Britain......"

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Yifeng stared at the British Isles in the upper corner of the globe, with which Britain controlled the most extensive and rich colonies on the planet, and it was these colonies that nourished Britain and achieved its status as the world's first power.

"British politician Horace? In his comment, Walpole once exaggerated Britain's pre-eminent status as a great power: "It took three hundred years for the Romans to conquer the world, and we conquered the world only three times, and the present world is twice as large as it was in Roman times." ”

After saying Britain's luck, Zhu Yifeng looked at Europe on the map, and said with his finger tapping that area.

Britain's victory in the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 further consolidated its position as an international political and military power, and the Industrial Revolution made Britain an indisputable economic power, so after winning the Second Hundred Years' War in 1815, Britain began to call itself the "empire on which the sun never sets", and since then, the world has entered the era of "British rule". ”

Although His Majesty did not say it directly, Li Ziyuan still heard the meaning of His Majesty's words, Britain conquered the world through three battles, and the conquest was never polite, but bloody, but through war, in other words, any country that wants to become a strong country must go through war to be able to obtain the status of a strong country.

"Your Majesty, I think that appropriate concessions may ease the present situation, and perhaps, on the question of Panama, we can consider cooperating with Great Britain in exchange for British acquiescence in our occupation of Panama, as in the Suez Canal, after all, Britain is not necessarily willing to meet us in arms."

Although he understood His Majesty's intentions, Li Ziyuan still tried to persuade His Majesty to make concessions on the Panama issue, in fact, this was not only based on the strength and interests of the country, but also on personal interests - Africa, like most nobles in the Chinese Empire, his interests were also bound by Africa, which made it impossible for him to support making concessions in Africa, but Panama is different, where they have no interests, naturally they can be "sacrificed", and compared with "fighting each other", appropriate concessions, is conducive to ensuring that their interests are not compromised,

"Concessions?"

Shaking his head, Zhu Yifeng said.

"Now the British Empire has entered its heyday, but as an old empire, they know very well that at this time, other countries are also rising, and because of this, he will be wary of the impact that every rising star may have on it, so suppressing the rising star has become the core of its imperial strategy, and we are naturally inevitably the target of their suppression, whether it is Africa or Panama, but it is just an excuse, a reason, that is, our in Africa, in PanamaIn Hawaii, on all issues, concessions were made, but the answer was yes - the British would not give up on suppressing us because of our concessions! ”

If Zhu Yifeng's vision, which is a century and a half ahead of the world, tells Zhu Yifeng any answer, I am afraid that he knows very well that the status of a strong country has always been played, and the principle of a strong country recognized by Westerners is not simple - defeating a strong country on the battlefield can become a real strong country, and the rise of a strong country has always risen by stepping on the corpse of another strong country, and there is no other way to choose.

Looking at Li Ziyuan, Zhu Yifeng naturally knew what he was worried about, what he was worried about was whether the empire's interests in Africa would be damaged after the war was met, after all, there was a large gap between China's national strength and Britain.

"Of course, there is now a qualitative gap in power between us and Britain, but this gap is not impossible to bridge!"

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