Ren Chao's declaration to Britain and France on behalf of the Chinese Empire appeared on the front page of major Chinese newspapers early the next morning, and then quickly spread throughout the world and caused huge repercussions. Countries around the world expressed alarm at the intransigence of the newly formed Chinese imperial government. However, the countries of the world also have to admit the fact that the gradually rising Chinese Empire is no longer the decaying and declining Qing government, and the Chinese Empire has the determination and ability to defend its sovereignty.

In the face of the so-called hardline attitude of the Chinese Empire at the expense of a war, the French government first succumbed. The French Empire, which had gradually declined, had a very limited strength in the Far East, and in 1883 it was still unable to defeat the rotten Qing government, and now in the face of a more powerful Chinese Empire, the French paper tiger could only succumb.

Of course, there are many reasons why France has succumbed so lightly, and although Europe is calm on the surface, it is turbulent undercurrent. The contradictions between the two major military blocs, the Russian-French alliance and the German-Austrian alliance, are becoming increasingly serious. France, once the largest power on the European continent, is now facing a huge threat. At this critical juncture, it was absolutely impossible for the French to provoke an overseas war for a few small leased lands, not to mention that even if it did, France would have no chance of winning. Moreover, in order to prevent the Chinese Empire from exploding the chrysanthemums of the Russians behind its back, Russia and France have been trying their best to win over Huaxia, hoping that Huaxia can join their alliance. It is undoubtedly very unwise to offend such a powerful enemy as Huaxia at this time. Especially when it was learned that the Germans and the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to China were running to the Chinese Foreign Ministry almost three times a day, France, which was afraid that China would join the German-Austrian alliance, was even more anxious.

What's more, today's China is vigorously developing infrastructure construction, all parts of the country are beginning to step up the construction of railways, all parts of the country have also set off a frenzy of mining and setting up factories, and China's inland is all open, providing a broader market for European and American countries, whether it is Britain, France, the United States and Germany, all countries have obtained huge benefits. It's just the construction of the railway. These European and American powers were able to reap huge profits by investing in shares. At the same time, the construction of railways requires a large amount of steel, although the Chinese Empire vigorously built steel mills throughout the country, and steel production is growing rapidly at a rate of almost doubling every year, but these are far from meeting the huge domestic demand of China, and China still has to import a large amount of steel from all over the world every year, and these steel can only be purchased through the United States, Germany, Britain, Russia and France. This alone is a significant source of income for countries, not to mention their investments in various places. From this point of view, offending the Chinese Empire is also more than worth the loss. So at this time, if the French offend Huaxia, it is purely a brain disease.

Subsequently, after negotiations, the representatives of Huafa finally signed the agreement. The treaty stipulated that France would return all four French concessions in China to China on New Year's Day in 1903, withdraw all garrisons in the concessions from China, and abolish France's consular jurisdiction and other privileges in China. However, France retains MFN status, but this is not the original one-sided MFN status. Because the French government has agreed to give the Chinese Empire the most favored nation treatment. This is also a manifestation of France's initiative to show goodwill to China. In addition, the Chinese side allowed French missionaries to preach in China on the premise of abiding by the laws of the Chinese Empire.

Before France capitulated, the imperial government of China had negotiated with the United States and Russia to remove all unequal privileges of the great powers in China. After the agreement between France and China, only the British were left to enjoy privileges in China.

And at this time, Britain, as the hegemon of the world. Although its position as the world's hegemon was being challenged by Yanzhòng, it was still the world's largest power at that time. And the current British are still as arrogant as ever. But even so, they did not dare to ignore the fact that such a powerful empire as China was gradually rising. Although the negotiations with the British did not go well, they faced the toughness of the Chinese Empire. The British were also deeply helpless.

Although the British did not believe that the newly established powerful empire could defeat the powerful British Empire, the strength of China in this Far East should not be underestimated. What's more, these concessions are in the territory of China, if there is a war. The Chinese Imperial Army was able to recover these places with ease. At that time, the British will not be able to go to war with China in an all-out way! Dealing with a bunch of Boers has already made Britain suffer enough, not to mention the Chinese Empire, which is dozens of times stronger than the Boers! No matter how arrogant the British were, they would not have thought that the British army would be able to bring the Chinese Empire to its knees. Just like the two Opium Wars brought the Qing government to its knees.

Of course, the politicians of the British government also doubted whether Ren Chao was bluffing, but after careful analysis, they came to a conclusion, that is, this Ren Chao is fundamentally a madman, and he dared to launch a coup d'état to seize power with only tens of thousands of troops, and even declared war on Tsarist Russia in an all-out way, from this point it can be completely seen how crazy this madman is. And now that Ren Chao has become the emperor of the Chinese Empire, the domestic situation has been relatively stable. With an army of nearly two million in his hands, Ren Chao, who has such a strong strength, is bound to be even more crazy and arrogant! Therefore, Ren Chao is definitely not bluffing this time, once the British refuse to hand over the lease and anger this crazy man, he will really go crazy to war with the British Empire. Such an outcome is definitely not what the British authorities want to see, so the British can only make concessions.

However, the British are the world boss after all, and they have to worry about face no matter what. In the course of the negotiations, the British side offered concessions, promising to return the concessions of Hankou, Jiujiang, Xiamen, and Zhenjiang to the Chinese Imperial Government. It is hoped that the three concessions in Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou can be temporarily retained.

However, the British concession did not satisfy Ren Chao, who categorically rejected the so-called compromise proposed by the British side, and directly issued an ultimatum to the British side, demanding that Britain must return all the concessions of the Chinese Empire by New Year's Day 1903. Otherwise, the Imperial Government of China would be forced to take drastic measures to force the British Government to give up its concessions and privileges in China. Moreover, Ren Chao pointed out that if the British side refuses, Britain will lose more than just those concessions.

In the face of Ren Chao's aggressiveness, the British government was deeply helpless, and finally had to make concessions again, return all seven concessions, and cancel the consular jurisdiction and other privileges in China. In response, the Chinese Empire made corresponding concessions, allowing the British government to enjoy one-sided most-favored-nation status, but this period was only five years. This can be regarded as saving a little face for the British. In addition, the customs, which had been controlled by the British for nearly half a century, were also successfully recovered by the Chinese Empire. (To be continued......)

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