Of course, the panic was still spreading, and the pride and prejudice of the British themselves made them much more powerful than the Gallic roosters at scaring themselves with rumors.

According to the news that the fleet that had escaped from the Strait of Malacca was transmitted to Buckingham Palace as soon as possible, Prime Minister Palmston went to see the Queen Victoria, and he saw a surprising scene, Her Majesty the Queen, who was usually graceful and luxurious, angrily whipping the chief of the guard next to him, Lyme.

According to "reliable" sources, Lyme is Her Majesty's favorite male favorite, because he can best withstand Her Majesty's special habit of whipping others, and it is said that someone went to peek at Lyme taking a bath in order to confirm this news, saying that he saw dozens of obvious whip marks all over his body.

Looking at Queen Victoria, who gradually calmed down her anger, Prime Minister Palmston couldn't help but swallow her saliva, although Her Majesty was thirty-seven years old, but she was very well maintained, and her face and skin were like a gorgeous young woman who had not yet reached the age of thirty, it must be a wonderful thing to be able to become her courtier.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, how could that damned whipping nation win over our army? In particular, the defeat of the Royal Navy made me feel extremely ashamed, that it was that barbaric, backward, and ignorant country that actually defeated us? Queen Victoria spoke louder than she spoke.

Prime Minister Palmston wiped the sweat from his forehead, but did not speak immediately, knowing where the Empress's anger was coming from.

Since the defeat of Britain by the United States in North America in the late 18th century, no country has won a complete victory over Britain. Strictly speaking, the Crimean War was not a victory, and it consumed almost sixty percent of the empire's revenues this year.

Although the Treaty of Tongzhou was signed with the Qing State, they paid a huge amount of money to ransom the captured soldiers. This means that the expenses of the royal family will be greatly reduced. In such a grim situation, the battle against the Qing State, which was expected to increase fiscal revenue, failed incredibly? Then it is inevitable that the expenses of the royal family will be reduced next year, and the money bag in her hand will dry up day by day, how can the empress not be angry?

"This time, the general of the Qing [***] team is called Lin Haijiang, and it is rumored that he also studied at my country's naval school, and compared with other backward Orientals, his thoughts are closer to us and he knows us better! In addition, the equipment of the Qing soldiers was not backward, but more advanced than that of our country and France, and it was said that tens of thousands of soldiers were equipped, and judging from the captured guns, there was a clear Prussian craftsmanship. In addition, the ironclad ships used in the fleets that were at war with the Empire were also produced in Prussia. General Wilhelm can attest to this. ”

Empress Victoria sighed and looked surprised: "Prussia cooperated with the Qing State? Why don't we know at all? ”

Prime Minister Palmston shook his head: "I also do not understand this, this kind of cooperation is likely to be limited to small arms sales, Your Majesty, this is not the most important thing at the moment. In the Battle of Malacca, it is likely that more than 10,000 soldiers were captured. Before I came, I met with the French ambassador, and he asked the two countries to jointly put pressure on the Qing to release the captured soldiers and compensate for the losses of the fighting. ”

With the precedent of the previous time when the coalition failed but succeeded in the negotiations, Prime Minister Palmston was quite confident that the pressure would be exerted this time.

"I heard there's your nephew in there? Rest assured, the captives must be rescued. Victoria glanced at him meaningfully and said: "This is a matter of the prestige of the British Empire, and in addition, at all costs we ask the Qing State to remove the general named Lin Haijiang, and the failure of our army to attack the Qing State twice has already shown the terrible thing about this Oriental man." ”

"What about reparations?" Palmston asked cautiously.

"The de facto ruler of the Qing State is the Emperor of the Reading Talents, and winning once will not make his self-confidence swell enough to ignore the pressure of the two powerful countries, tell the French ambassador to form a fleet and go to the waters of the Qing Kingdom to swim a few laps, the Qing people do not understand our determination, as long as they feel threatened and oppressed by everything, it will be fine."

"Your Majesty, our finances are no longer sufficient to support a large-scale war in the near future, if we ......"

"Don't worry, the fleet only serves as a deterrent, letting the Qing know that we have the ability to defeat them at any time, but the empire does not want to harm innocent people, as long as they agree to our conditions, the fleet will leave."

On the orders of Her Majesty the Empress, Palmston went to meet with the French ambassador again and decided on the matter, and on the French side, Napoleon III unexpectedly had almost the same intention as Queen Victoria, and the two countries quickly drew their own warships to form a combined fleet.

But instead of going to the Far East to punish the Qing state, this fleet went to protect the routes between Hong Kong, Singapore, and India.

At this time, Lin Haijiang, who had returned to Guangzhou, was making a move that was enough to stunned Britain and France.

"Let's deal with this batch of British troops first in the next two days." Lin Haijiang laughed proudly.

Today, a large open space has been cleared of the naval battalion, and nearly 10,000 British soldiers and more than 4,000 French soldiers captured in the naval battles of Tianjin and Malacca are imprisoned here in the open air.

In Guangzhou, which is close to May, it is still a little warm during the day, but at night the light rain and the night breeze also make these people shiver, and two or three people huddle together to keep warm.

Quilt warming?

Lin Haijiang scoffed at the request made by Major General Mitchell of the French Army, as a prisoner, he dared to ask for this request and that? It's good that you didn't take off the clothes on your bodies and drag them naked [***] to the streets of the British Concession. In the face of the roar of many British military officers, he directly asked Wang Dongxu to lead these people to the French prisoner camp for a turn, this thing was directly wilted, thinking that compared with the French, the treatment of our British army is still noble.

The Nanyang Naval Division fought twice with the French, and many of its soldiers were killed or wounded under the guns of the French army. This time, some French naval officers and sailors were also captured from Tianjin. In the French prisoner camp, Lin Haijiang asked Wang Faren to command his subordinates to take the lead in beating French soldiers under various pretexts, which was called physical exercise.

Pull them out to only a pair of underwear, wake up with cold water every morning, and then call a batch to go to the mountains outside the city to carry big stones to repair the city wall, two meals a day, and eat worse than the dogs raised in the camp of the water master. In the middle of the night, from time to time, Wang Faren put in a group of hungry wild dogs, or a few small snakes, which could not kill people but were enough to make them tremble.

According to Lin Haijiang's meaning, these captives can be tortured as much as possible, but none of them are allowed to be killed, and they can be of great use.

While the British and French prisoners of war were happily undergoing physical training, three French warships sailed into the port of Guangzhou, and the official British and French negotiators finally arrived.

As soon as he heard the news, Lin Haijiang was very interested, and asked Wang Faren to lead a detective team to block the port, and no one on the warship was allowed to come down, and no one was allowed to go up.

Since this trip was a diplomatic negotiation, out of the usual law, the soldiers on the ship were extremely lax, Lin Haijiang gave Jiang Rong'er a chance, and effectively played her strengths, more than 30 people went in and out without even making a sound, until someone accidentally met a crew member who got up to go to the toilet in the crew cabin, and then had to knock out this unlucky guy, and then carefully stunned everyone with incense one by one.

The guns, swords, belongings, and clothing were all looted by these men, and the things that looked a little valuable but could not be taken away were thrown into the sea, and they also entered the bridge, and destroyed the inside, and then swaggered off the ship.

The next afternoon, with a shrill soprano scream, the people in the warship began to wake up one after another.

"Damn, are there eunuchs in France too? It's a harsh sound! Lin Haijiang, who had been waiting in a small teahouse in the port for a long time, covered his ears and frowned, secretly complaining in his heart that Jiang Rong'er's gang was too heavy in the incense, so he waited for a long time.

"My lord, you've brought all the dishes you wanted, and they're still hot." At this time, several soldiers walked in with colorful boxes in their hands and brought out hot dishes.

A camp leader next to him smelled the fragrance, couldn't help but swallow his saliva, and said enviously: "My lord, the first dish of Dongfu Building, I heard that a plate of steamed mushrooms costs ten taels of silver." ”

Lin Haijiang took a bite of the dish, and then laughed: "Blessed and shared, this official promises that after today, he will charter Dongfu Mansion to let the brothers drink and eat meat to their heart's content." ”

Everyone praised it, since the first few battles, everyone's relationship has been pulled in a lot, and Lin Haijiang has rarely put on an official show in private, this is a friendship that has been fought with his life, and there is no way to express it clearly in words.

After a while, Wang Dongxu walked into the teahouse slowly, saluted, and said, "My lord, someone on a warship shouted and said that you should come on board and talk." ”

"Talk? Say what? Lao Tzu is the victor who won the battle, if they want to negotiate, let them go to Yanjing to talk with those princes, and if they want to talk about the issue of prisoners, let them understand that this is Lao Tzu's territory, Lao Tzu's territory, Lao Tzu's territory, Lao Tzu is in charge! ”

Wang Dongxu looked at Lin Haijiang's angry face, thinking to himself that you gave the order yesterday, don't you know the reason why these French hairs refused to get off the boat? Thinking of last night's order, he couldn't help grinning: "My lord, my subordinates will ask again." ”

After a quarter of an hour back and forth, I saw Wang Dongxu leading a Frenchman in, and everyone burst into laughter, this thing really dares to dress like this, and it is not ashamed to dare to dress like this in France.

Belly pockets?

Seeing the small red belly pocket on the Frenchman's upper body, as well as the colorful shorts on the lower body, the food in his mouth immediately squirted out, damn Wang Dongxu, he actually found a woman's underwear, it doesn't seem to be a serious person, it is estimated that it was taken off by a good person in the courtyard.

The second secretary, who had all his clothes stolen during the night, was surprised by the laughter of the crowd, but ordered to be there, and after a lot of rambling, he was translated into Chinese by a translator, roughly the French representative Dumont. Rosseff and the British representative Dalhousie invited Lin Haijiang to the warship to discuss the release of the hostages in detail.

To Dumont. Rosseff, Lin Haijiang has no impression, his knowledge of the French in this period is limited to some vague historical information, but Dalhousie is a very famous figure, he is the British governor in India, according to the time, 1856 is the time of his resignation, I can't imagine that I can see this celebrity in Canton now.

The Earl of Dalhousie, in fact, is a hereditary Scottish title of nobility, and has been enshrined since 1672, and today the Earl of Dalhousie is exactly the tenth generation. He was an absolute power figure in the British Department of Internal Medicine, entered Parliament in 1837, and became Minister of Commerce in 1845, and was known for his high administrative efficiency. In 1847, when he became the Viceroy of India, he acquired a large number of territories by both hard and soft means. Although he laid the foundation for the administrative divisions of modern India by annexing the provinces of India one by one, his greatest achievement was the integration of these provinces into a modern centralized state. He also developed a modern transportation system and carried out social reforms. He left India in 1856, but his controversial annexation policy is attributed to the Indian National Revolt (1857).

It is not an honorable thing for such a brilliant person to be transferred to be the negotiator of the losing side of the war, but the fact is that in this part of Asia, there is really no one with enough weight and strategy, and it happened that the post of governor was resigned, so Dalhousie took the initiative to take it, in order to make his political career more glorious, but also to return to England and have enough capital to benefit the children and nephews in the family.

A British hereditary earl, but now he stayed naked in the warship and did not dare to get off the ship, Lin Haijiang laughed out loud when he thought of that scene.

"Dirty, filthy, shameless Oriental pig ......" A short, middle-aged man slammed his chair against the hatch with a loud bang, and after doing so, he sat on the cramped bed and gasped.

This is the "former" Viceroy of India, Dalhousie, who has been bullied among the children of the nobility since he was a child because of his thin stature and frailty, but he has also developed his own unique surname, and a series of achievements since then have given him great psychological satisfaction.

Although he was given the title of Marquis for the British during his reign in India, he was actually forced to leave India. In the past two years, especially this year, Britain's income from India has been greatly reduced, and there have been small-scale Turkish uprisings and mutinies in various places, and its jurisdiction over the Indian Sea has gradually weakened, resulting in piracy in the seas.

The British ruling class believed that Dalhousie's deterrent power was declining and that a new governor needed to be replaced, so they used Dalhousie's previous illness from exertion as an excuse to let him resign.

During his nine years of rule in India, Dalhousie thought he knew the Orientals well, whether India or China, and he did only one thing, and that was to get the best out of the British.

A full 20,000 British elite soldiers, and the most advanced battleships in the Empire, a full twenty-six, such a fleet enough to sweep across Asia has almost magical wings in the Strait of Malacca? Even the destination has not yet arrived, and the losses are extremely heavy, and the British officers and soldiers killed and missing in the battle have not yet been counted.

Dalhousie scolded these people as a disgrace to the British Empire, if it weren't for the domestic public opinion, and the large number of aristocratic officers in the captivity, I'm afraid no one would pay attention to these guys. Admiral William, he is quite eloquent.

Yesterday three warships sailed into port, and Dalhousie and the French representative, Dumont. Ruseff discussed how to give the hateful Qing people a dismount, but he didn't expect that in just one night, all the people on the three warships were stripped of their clothes, and the valuable utensils such as the letters, seals, and power of attorneys were also missing, and the terrible thing was that the bridge of the warships was also seriously damaged, and it was said that the entire rudder was missing?

Burglar? Stolen? Stripped naked on the so-called mobile land of warships? Dalhousie felt extremely terrifying when he thought about it, how bad the law and order in the East was?

What thief has the ability to sneak into a warship and make hundreds of people faint on three warships? To accomplish this move without anyone noticing? The event itself is a legendary story!

Dalhousie was the first to think of Ye Mingchen, the governor of Guangzhou, and Lin Haijiang, the rumored and very powerful commander of the Nanyang Naval Division, so he sent a second secretary to get off the ship to find someone, but an hour later the soldier came back and said that the naval commander Lin Haijiang had set up a banquet in the best restaurant in the city, and invited the representatives of the two countries to the banquet.

Fidgeting Dumont on another warship. Rousseff had already heard the news, and came by small boat between the two warships, and when he saw Dalhousie, he did not say hello, and hurriedly opened the box, and let the latter curse secretly, what a nouveau riche, no etiquette at all.

Dumont. Born into a wealthy French merchant family, Rosseff had a territory in Vietnam that belonged to him, opened up a base for the French army in the territory, and at the same time financed most of the French army's funds in Vietnam. When he learned of the defeat of the French army in the neighboring Qing Kingdom, he realized that his opportunity had come, in high society, merchants were always merchants, and in front of the real nobles, he always kept his head down and whispered, there is no doubt that as long as he succeeded in rescuing the hostages, he would at least be a viscount after returning home.

"What the hell are you going to do with all these damn clothes?" Dumont picked up a piece of fabric that resembled a "table cloth" and asked the others, he vaguely remembered that similar clothes were sold in some shops in Vietnam, but how could he, a distinguished Frenchman, care about this, he pointed to a second secretary who had been sent off the ship: "You, take it off and put it on again." ”

Blame Lin Haijiang for his lack of morality, seeing that Wang Dongxu's behavior was really dirty enough, he made up his mind to let him search for a whole fifty sets of costumes with special significance that can represent the country's diplomats, but he didn't expect this guy to say with a shy face that it had been prepared a long time ago.

At a glance, all the camp officers felt a little familiar, it turned out that their good looks were also among them, so angry that the surrounding camp officers caught him and wanted to beat him violently, shouting that this guy is a silver thief, so many belly pocket suits, it must have ruined the reputation of a lot of good families, and everyone stripped off and went to dip in the pig cage after the fight.

caused Wang Dongxu to beg for mercy, and also wrote a guarantee that he would take care of the food and drink in the next few days, which eliminated everyone's anger.

And the warship on the Dumont. Rosseff and the others put on this backless top and shorts, feeling uncomfortable, and Dalhousie's physique is not good, the weather is slightly cool now, and the sea breeze is blowing, this kind of dress makes him a little shrunken, he looks at the black backless top on his body, and then looks at the big red on Dumont's body, and secretly feels sorry for this guy's weird habits.

For the so-called costumes with serious humiliating elements, Dalhousie and others also dared not speak out, after all, it was better than naked, so in the hands of the ingenious British, the curtains became cloaks, tablecloths, and bed sheets became waist groups, and Indians wore clothes like this.

Dalhousie gave himself a seemingly good excuse.

(To be continued)