It took several days to finally escort the British envoy to Macao, and it took another two days for Liang Pengfei to finally rush back to Guangzhou to pay the order.

Under the propaganda of intentional or unintentional publicity, those officials in Guangzhou looked for excuses to go to Macao every now and then, so the British envoys were distressed to find that if they stayed like this, they would no longer have pocket watches to see the time, even the scholars' glasses had become souvenirs, and their pockets were rapidly deflated, not to mention gold coins, even small denominations, which became the objects of looting by Qing officials who liked Western novelties.

This forced Staunton, an agent of the East India Company, to temporarily borrow money from the British merchants in Macau, as well as some Western gadgets to deal with the greedy officials.

And the four priests, as Liang Pengfei expected, ignored the efforts of the British to keep them, insisted on leaving the embassy station, and went into the church in Macao and never showed up again. The four interpreters originally shelved by the envoys and summoned by Liang Pengfei for them became their mouthpieces in dealing with Chinese officials, and one of them also took the place of Father Li, patiently teaching the little Stang Dong the concept of Chinese culture and art, in fact, trying to prevent this little kid who could understand Chinese from disturbing them with ulterior motives, and from time to time mixed with the translation of some necessary things.

The more the members of the British legation interacted with the Qing officials, the more obvious the contempt for the country became, and the political apparatus of the country treated foreigners with contempt from top to bottom, and their ignorance of foreign power made them overly believe in their own power, believing that the mission was only a sign of allegiance, which made Macartney and others feel extremely absurd and ridiculous in addition to anger.

Moreover, with the help of the interpreter, the Major General Ford was fortunate enough to sneak to the camp of the Daqing Water Division near Macao and saw the ordinary life of the Qing Naval Division, which raised the Major General Ford's understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Qing National Naval Division to a new level.

"Rubbish, it's a pile of rubbish, I'm sorry, Your Excellency, though I don't mean to be so rude, but I think that's the only term that suits the soldiers of this empire." Ford's Qing costume has not been taken off, but the hat on his head has been removed, revealing his typical Western face.

But at this moment, this face is full of contempt and contempt, as well as ridicule and resentment, in short, it is like a big man driving a BMW Mercedes-Benz who is looking at an unlicensed, unlicensed and assembled tractor that dares to run parallel to himself on the highway.

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"Didn't they find you? Although I admit that your outfit makes you look closer to those Qing people, you can tell the difference at a glance. Macartney looked curious, although he was tired of dealing with the endless torture of the Qing officials these days, but he was still very motivated, because the more he came into contact with it, the more he knew about this country full of arrogance and arrogance.

It's just that he really didn't expect that a boring idea of Rear Admiral Ford would succeed with the help of a translator, and a military location like a naval base.

"You know what? The guards there were not at all vigilant, they wandered idly, either in groups of three or five to drink, smoke, or gamble, and, even when they saw us, they did not come to stop us, not even to look up. Major General Ford took a sip of black tea and explained.

"The soldiers inside the barracks and the guards outside are doing the same thing, I even saw an officer in the barracks listening to a play in the barracks, and there were even vendors selling things inside, my God, I almost thought I was wandering around the bazaar in Macau, how could such a soldier defend his country?"

"It seems that the members and gentlemen of the Imperial Congress are too careful, and perhaps we should send a fleet instead of the envoys." Next to him, an army lieutenant colonel shrugged his shoulders and smiled lightly. "Such an army, even if there are a million, as long as I can give me five thousand, nay, three thousand colonial troops, I have the confidence to occupy this country."

"Lieutenant Colonel Rooney, be careful about your words and deeds," Macartney glanced warily at the lieutenant colonel who had just spoken, straightened his wig, and continued to enjoy the black tea produced in that ancient land, "In the past two hundred years, we have sent at least fifteen missions to Europa to try to establish formal foreign relations with this ancient and vast empire, but without success, and now, our British Empire has the strength to establish equal trade and diplomatic relations with this empire. And the task of our envoys is to make this huge and ancient empire understand that in the west of this world, there is a powerful country whose territory is almost the whole of the world, and they need to face it squarely and treat it as an equal. ”

"You know, I'm just an ambassador on a mission for peace, and I don't have the right to declare war like Lord Dundas, Chairman of the East India Company's Board of Overseers," Macartney said, putting down his teacup and walking straight to his room on the second floor.

The Lieutenant Colonel Rooney shrugged his shoulders helplessly: "When tea time is over, I should also go and see if the soldiers are infected by the laziness of this country." ”

Major General Ford frowned, and after a while, his eyes lit up, and the moment he raised his head, he saw Staunton, who was sitting opposite him, which was also full of a sudden expression, and the two couldn't help but look at each other and smile, and raised the teacup in their hands.

"It's really an afternoon tea that will be very memorable." Major General Ford laughed, and both of them drank the fragrant tea in their cups.

After the family reunion, after a celebration, Liang Pengfei found his subordinates and asked about the women who made him think about it, but the news he got was frustrating, the combined forces of the Shi family and the Mo family had just captured Lantau Island, and she needed to stay there to deal with the follow-up affairs.

In addition, Xu Sanyan, whose strength was damaged, but who escaped with the main battleship, had already arrived in Annan and surrendered to Zheng Lianchang's command.

At least Maria, since she left Xin'an, she has followed Shi Xianggu's side, and now I am afraid that she has not received the news that she has returned to Guangzhou, and Pan Bingjie has already returned to Guangzhou, but she accompanied her eldest mother back to her mother-in-law's house yesterday to save her relatives.

Before Liang Pengfei could feel sorry for himself, he received information from Macao from the four interpreters he had lent to the British mission.

"My lord, I don't think the intention of these foreigners is simple. You look at their list of personnel, there are so many people in one breath, even if you deduct the guards and some miscellaneous labor, there are still a lot, their navy, army, and this doctor, painter, scholar, and this mapper......" Sun Shijie put the list on Liang Pengfei's desk and said.

"Hmph, of course it's not simple, in addition to the mission, they are also responsible for surveying the geography of the Qing Kingdom, the coastline, the port, as well as the combat effectiveness of our soldiers, and even the composition of the troops." Liang Pengfei smiled coldly.

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"My lord, what do you mean, could it be that they actually want to travel thousands of miles to use force against the court?" Sun Shijie was so frightened by Liang Pengfei's words that he gasped.

Liang Pengfei's fingers tapped lightly on the table: "What do they dare not do?" Tianzhu you should know, that is, the current India, in the past, it was a big country comparable to our country, but now, it is a semi-colony controlled by a British trading company, and those local kings can only lower their eyebrows when they see the British now, I am afraid that it will not be long before there will be listed as their colony by the British. ”

"In this way, they are really bold enough, for the sake of profit, they actually ......" Sun Shijie couldn't help but shake his head, and had to admire the greedy adventurous spirit of these Westerners.

"They don't have this kind of adventurous spirit, the world is still a pool of stagnant water, I'm afraid that we China, I don't know how many years behind the other party, will find that originally, we have already become frogs at the bottom of the well." Liang Pengfei smiled bitterly.

Sun Shijie didn't speak again, although he was also a scholar, he didn't have the pedantic spirit of a scholar, and after following Liang Pengfei around, seeing the weapons and equipment of those Westerners, and understanding their colonial history, the last trace of pride was also put down.

"Still, that's fine." Liang Pengfei stood up and looked out the window, where a young branch was stretching out from the gray branch of a dead tree. "If you don't experience wind and rain, how can you see a rainbow, originally I was still worried, but now, I wish those heroes were a little bolder, let the Chinese people open their eyes first, take a look at the world, it has begun to change......"

The drum should be beaten with a heavy hammer, perhaps, it is a good thing to let those British people open the gate of the East in advance and wake up the people. Wicked, let those British do it, only when the time comes, the reaction of the Chinese people may wake up, and then guide them themselves, it is better.

"Young Master, Miss Pan is here." At this moment, there was a call from outside the door, Liang Pengfei's serious and heavy expression disappeared without a trace in an instant, and he threw all the things to Sun Shijie with a smile, and walked towards the front yard in a hurry, seeing the black line on the face of Sun Shijie, who was full of relief for his proprietor and worried about the country and the people.

(To be continued)