Chapter 152 Treaty of Beijing

Even if Tang Ning took over the mess of the Qing Dynasty, it was not so easy to clean up, the ignorant foreign policy of the Qing Dynasty had already broken into a catastrophe, 20 of the 39 detained diplomats were unloaded, and the other 19 were left with half a life, the news spread, the whole Europe was shocked, and public opinion severely rebuked the inhumane idiot of the Qing Dynasty. The French generals had found an opportunity to scold the 30 or so Qing people who worked for the Windsor consortium, and regarded them as targets.

Jon saw with his own eyes the fate of the 39 people who were imprisoned in the prison of the Ministry of Punishment, and this time he had no confidence, he was scolded by the French so much that he was bloody, sweating profusely, and he had no temper at all.

At this time in history, it was time for the British and French commanders to argue about how to take revenge, whether to burn the Old Summer Palace or the palace. No one mentioned the burning of the Old Summer Palace, and no matter how angry they were, they couldn't burn the garden protected by the East India Company, so the French army focused on burning the palace to teach the Qing Kingdom a permanent lesson.

Jon said weakly like a little daughter-in-law on the side: "This is up to you, I only received orders to protect the Old Summer Palace......"

Wouldn't it be possible to loot the palace again? Maybe there are even more treasures in the palace! The French generals were excited again, this is the so-called thief's heart is not dead.

When the French army was enthusiastically discussing the plan to smash and loot, the herald came to report: "The brother of the Qing Emperor, Prince Gong, who has been entrusted with the important task of peace talks, is here!" ”

When the British and French forces occupied Beijing, Prince Gong was not stupid, he hid in a temple outside the city, he did not know the ferocity index of the coalition army, he did not dare to show his head, the Russian minister broke a big stone on his chest and took himself as a hostage to ensure his safety, Prince Gong was still cautious, hesitated again and again, at this time, the holy decree arrived, this is Prince Gong has never seen for so many years of his emperor brother issued a wonderful holy decree. There is no limit on the amount of compensation when the treaty is reset, the modification of foreign medicine and consular jurisdiction is unclear, and the auction of the Old Summer Palace is even more groundbreaking.

What is even more incredible to Prince Gong is that Emperor Xianfeng also got a radio artifact that can send holy decrees and plays tables thousands of miles away, such radical Westernization, Prince Gong is extremely surprised, he has long heard of foreigners' wireless telegraphs, but it is really unheard of to send Chinese with a seal, is this thing reliable? That holy decree should not be wrong, the handwriting of Jiao Youying, the Shaoqing of Taifu Temple, and Xianfeng's autograph, are very familiar, the only strange thing is that the eunuch's face is a little unnatural, but at this very time in this country, no one's face is normal, and he is scared enough.

When the 39 diplomats were released into hatred, Prince Gong tried to use the "Chinese table machine" to send a request oracle with his own seal, and not long after, the holy decree came, ordering Prince Gong to immediately come to the door to apologize in person, and was ready to accept any harsh conditions from the other party, and also pointed out that it was really not possible, Emperor Xianfeng would make an exception and personally go to Britain and France to apologize to the other party's queen and emperor in person, and Prince Gong would stay in charge of the country at that time!

Prince Gong? took this ** exploding holy decree and looked at it over and over again, and respected Emperor Xianfeng, this is the state of the sage and the son of heaven, the imperial brother should have been instructed by some master.

Having received the holy decree, he had to venture to the Old Summer Palace to meet with the commander of the British and French forces, and they established the Beijing command center in the Taihe Baohe Hall of the Old Summer Palace.

The translator for Prince Gong was the man assigned to him by Downing who had instructed him to use the Chinese telegraph, and he also graduated from the London International Academy, spoke standard London English, and spoke almost better than General Grant, who had been overseas for a long time.

The Russian ambassador came with Prince Gong this time in order to compete for the merit of mediation and to further expand Russia's interests in China.

Prince Gong, the sixth prince who almost became the emperor, was scolded for half an hour by the French commander who deliberately found fault, and his translator relayed the scolding words in the original way, which made Prince Gong, the leader of the peace faction, have a blue and white face, and secretly hate his translation is too dutiful, do you want this translation to be so expressive?

In fact, even the translator hated the Qing government for being too brutal, and took the opportunity to scold and scold to satisfy his hunger.

Hey, it's a pity, how good would it be if Prince Gong scolded us? Now that Prince Gong has been ordered by the emperor to pretend to be his grandson, the French can't attack, how can they find an excuse to rob the palace?

I couldn't find an excuse, so I had to say it directly, and Montauban said to the translator: "We are going to burn down the palace to vent the hatred in our hearts." ”

The translator was shocked, and relayed it to Prince Gong as it was.

Grant estimated that he would not burn in the end, but he was also angry, too lazy to say anything, and watched coldly.

Jon sighed inwardly, unable to say anything helpful.

Prince Gong could only say a lot of good things and admit his mistakes, and offered to increase the amount of compensation. The French insisted on burning the palace, and then negotiate peace, giving the Qing Dynasty a little face, so that the Qing Dynasty would never forget the "kindness" of the foreign adults.

Prince Gong really couldn't say that he asked the Qing Emperor to go to Europe in person to apologize, and today's negotiations between the two sides broke down, and Prince Gong left in a languid manner, but his personal safety was no problem, and he put down a big stone in his heart.

The commander of the British army and the commander of the French army were still arguing about whether to really burn the palace, and Prince Gong was helpless here, and asked the emperor brother who was brainy about what to do. The current Emperor Xianfeng really made a decision to kill, and soon a holy decree came, called to compensate the 39 diplomats, especially to ask Britain and France to take 39 treasures from the Old Summer Palace to auction, and all the proceeds were used to compensate 39 foreigners, and the top 20 with high prices were compensated to the 20 people who were killed, and the original 2,000 taels of silver per person were still paid in full.

When Prince Gong went to consult again the next day, Jon had been informed that he had ordered the British and French generals to take 100 items for auction, of which 39 of the most valuable were to be used for compensation, and the rest of the proceeds were given to the British and French officers and soldiers in recognition of their high grace and good manners for not destroying the garden.

After receiving this instruction, the soldiers were discussing whether the business was worth it, the treasures of the royal gardens should be worth a lot, how much money would we get in the end? They are hard-pressed soldiers, and they haven't seen much of the world, they only know that if they are snatched, they may not be worth a few dollars when they sell them on the black market, and they estimate that no one in the Royal Forbidden Garden will dare to buy them, and these 100 treasures will be auctioned separately, and someone must know the goods. These are all the treasures of the Great Qing Kingdom.

Jon told the British and French soldiers to choose 100 pieces at once, lest they bring in treasure experts to pick up the leaks, which would be a big loss. The rough soldiers had no choice but to pick some pleasing ones to gather together, and a series of things were connected, which shows that the emperor of the Great Qing Kingdom really established some kind of connection with the Duke of London, otherwise how could Prince Gong and Jon carry out the emperor's intentions so consistently?

A soldier got a white jade seal, at this time, the head of the internal affairs office committed suicide by throwing himself into the river because the Old Summer Palace was invaded, and Prince Gong sent a new chief steward, seeing this, said: "This is the seal of the Old Summer Palace, you can't take this." The soldier impatiently changed one, this one is more valuable and more heart-wrenching, and the manager said: "This is Baohe Taihe Yin...... The soldier glared at him, and said to the translator: "Aren't you letting us take it at will?" How can there be so many rules? I think you're breaking the rules! ”

The soldier was furious, and the translator advised the chief manager: "Forget it, it seems that you can indeed take 100 pieces at will, and quickly collect this Old Summer Palace seal." ”

Prince Gong carried out the spirit of the peace faction to the end, and did not say a word on the side, he felt that the whole garden was packaged and sold anyway, and there was no difference between selling a little earlier and selling it later. The Yuanmingyuan, a super garden that Kangxi rewarded Yongzheng and personally mentioned the name of the garden, has been carefully built and maintained by several generations of emperors such as Yongzheng, Qianlong, and Jiaqing, and its importance is even above the palace. What's the point of losing some rare treasures, it's terrible to lose a country.

The emperor's brother came to negotiate in such a low voice, the French really couldn't burn the palace, even if they didn't give face to the Qing Dynasty, they would give face to the Duke of London, this face is not something that can be given or not, it must be given.

However, the matter of reparations must be dealt with ruthlessly, and the British and French officers and soldiers all said behind the back of the plenipotentiary negotiators, the British minister Earl Elgin, and the French plenipotentiary Baron Groh: "A little more!" A little more! ”

He said that he was a plenipotentiary, but in this era of telegraphy and global communication, it was always necessary to report to the French Emperor and the British Prime Minister, and after some consultations, it was finally decided that Britain and France would ask for a huge compensation of 10 million taels of silver, and the treacherous British demanded that it be paid off in gold. They wanted to force the Qing Dynasty to adopt the gold standard system in order to facilitate international settlements, which was actually the financial direction that Tang Ning wanted to set for the Qing Dynasty, and it had already begun to be implemented in Japan.

When it came to the terms of the tariff, the ghostly figure of the vampire duke appeared again, and Emperor Xianfeng instructed that the customs could hire the British to help with the tax, and it was okay to draw five out of 100, but the Qing Dynasty could make adjustments for certain taxes. （http：／／.)。 The introduction of the Bank of Zurich as a third-party guarantee guarantees the settlement of indemnities and the adjustment of customs duties as long as two of the three parties agree.

Damn, it's the all-pervasive Duke again. But what reason did Britain and France have to oppose this plan? Are you worried that the Bank of Zurich will break the contract? This is impossible, the current Bank of Zurich is incomparably stronger, guaranteed by the shares of the British Telegraph Company and the British Steel Company, which in the eyes of some people is more creditworthy than the Bank of England, who does not know that both companies are large families with annual revenues of n million pounds?

Downing also had to use tariffs to build a liberal market for the Qing Dynasty, so this piece could not be completely controlled by the British, otherwise some policies could not be implemented.

The British especially wanted to allow foreign merchants to recruit Han Chinese to work abroad as cheap laborers, this was put forward when they were in Tianjin, but Xianfeng was particularly opposed, and now Tang Ning took the Beijing Treaty to Emperor Xianfeng, who had settled in Rehe, he still objected, because the Chinese people particularly scandalized the foreigners and abused Chinese workers, besides, labor trading is a matter of your affection and my willingness, and I went across the ocean to find food to eat when I couldn't go on in the Qing Dynasty, didn't I let people go to let people stay in the Qing Dynasty to rebel? Emperor Xianfeng still has a little love for the people, but his opposition is invalid, Tang Ning explained that it is not so terrible for foreigners to hire Chinese workers, and urged Emperor Xianfeng to sign. People are swordsmen, I am fish and meat, Tang would rather explain to him a few sentences, even if it is good, Emperor Xianfeng has to sign the name with hatred.