"Liang Aiqing, how are the negotiations on the concession issue going?" Ren Chao suddenly asked.

"At present, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs is strengthening discussions with Britain and France. Among them, the British attitude is relatively tough, and the attitude of the French side has been somewhat relaxed, and it is estimated that it will not be long before we can successfully recover the French Concession. Liang Yan said respectfully.

A concession is a legal place of residence (nationalization of land) established on the territory of one of the countries for the other country with administrative autonomy and extraterritorial jurisdiction (consular jurisdiction) after two countries have agreed on a lease or a charter of concession. In Huaxia, it refers to the lease land that the imperialist powers forcibly acquired in China through unequal treaties in modern history, mostly located in port cities.

Since the Opium War, Britain and France and other Western powers have set up a number of concessions in China, which is definitely a sign of shame for China. The previous Qing Dynasty government did not dare to offend Western powers such as Britain and France, but Ren Chao was not afraid, and now the national strength of the Chinese Empire is thriving, and these stains on the Chinese Empire will naturally be completely erased.

At present, it is mainly the British and French who have concessions in China.

In November 1843, according to the provisions of the Treaty of Nanjing, Shanghai became a treaty port open to foreign businessmen. In December, Shanghai Daotai and the British consul drew the north-south boundary of the British concession on the Bund. In the 27th year of Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty (1847), the acting consul of the United States asked Su Songtai and Lingui to draw the Hongkou area as an American concession. In 1863, the British Concession and the American Concession merged to form the Shanghai Public Concession.

According to the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, Xiamen became one of the first five treaty ports to be opened. After the withdrawal of troops from 1845, the British acquired a piece of beach land along the coast of the Inner Harbor on the main island of Xiamen (Ludao) to build the British Concession in 1852.

After the Second Opium War, the British forced the Qing government to sign a series of unequal treaties in Tianjin and Hankow. Jiujiang, Guangzhou, Zhenjiang opened concessions.

In other words, so far, the British have opened a total of seven concessions in China.

The French followed suit and first opened the first concession in Shanghai in 1849. After the Second Opium War, the Qing government was forced to open two concessions in Tianjin and Guangzhou. In 1896, the Qing government was forced to open a concession in Hankou, when Ren Chao was not in charge of the government, and later, although Ren Chao was in charge of the government, Hankou was always under the control of Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, in order to win the support of the French. Zhang Zhidong did not prevent the French from opening a concession, so that the French successfully opened a concession in Hankow. As a result, France had a total of four concessions in China.

In addition to Britain and France, another concession in China was the United States. Some people who don't understand history have said that Britain, France, and other major Western powers have opened concessions in China, but the United States has not. This is a fart, except for the above-mentioned United States in 1847, when the Shanghai Concession was opened, in 1862. After Britain (1860) and France (1860), the United States was the third to establish a concession in Tianjin. The boundary site is: the right bank of the Haihe River (west bank) in the east, Kaifeng Road in the south, and Dagu Road in the west. Zhangde Road in the north, adjacent to the British Concession, covers an area of more than 130 acres (compared with more than 6,000 acres in the United Kingdom and 2,800 acres in France). It's really small). To this day, there is still a house called "American Barracks" preserved in the area. But it was in the aftermath of the American Civil War, and the United States itself was still in the midst of war. Unable to carry out large-scale development, the U.S. government announced in 1880 that it would abandon the concession, but the corrupt late Qing government did not accept it. However, after Ren Chao came to power, he directly recovered this concession land.

In true history, in addition to the above three countries, after the First Sino-Japanese War and the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Japan opened nowhere concessions in Tianjin, Hankou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Chongqing. After the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Germany also opened two concessions, Tianjin and Hankow. After the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Russia also opened two concessions, Tianjin and Hankou. In addition, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and even Belgium, a small country, also set up a concession in Tianjin. In addition, the Western powers also opened a public concession on Gulangyu Island, the Gulangyu Public Concession (Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden-Norway). It can be said that almost every Western power has left a mark of shame in China, and this is a blood debt. Of course, in this book, there is no invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, so these concessions do not appear in this book.

In this book, only Britain, France, and the United States opened concessions in China, of which two concessions in the United States, one merged with the British concession to form a public concession, and the other has been successfully recovered by Ren Chao. In other words, so far only Britain and France have opened a total of 11 concessions in China.

"Bang!" With a bang, Ren Chao slammed his fist on the table, thinking of this humiliating past, Ren Chao couldn't help but be angry.

"The emperor is angry!" Seeing that His Majesty the Emperor was suddenly furious, the cabinet ministers present at the meeting stood up one after another and said in fear.

"Sue the British and the French! These concessions must all be recovered by our Chinese Empire. Our Chinese imperial government is not a corrupt and incompetent Qing government, and our territory and sovereignty are sacred and inviolable. The 1.8 million officers and men of our Chinese Empire are not those Qing soldiers with poor military discipline, but a mighty and majestic elite division. They are willing to use their blood and lives to defend the dignity of our Chinese Empire. The 40,000,000 compatriots of our Chinese Empire are no longer ignorant, insensitive, and lambs to be slaughtered, but 40,000,000 patriots who are willing to contribute all their strength to the prosperity and prosperity of our Chinese Empire! You go and tell those arrogant British and French that our Chinese Imperial Government has the determination and strength to recover all the lost territory! We will not hesitate to fight for this! Don't be afraid of a war! Ren Chaoyi said loudly.

"Commandment!" The cabinet ministers had never seen Ren Chao make such a big fire, and they all said with sincere fear.

Ren Chao turned his head to look at the clerk in charge of recording next to him, and asked loudly, "You have written down everything I said just now, right?" ”

"Qi Xiang Xià, Weichen has written it down word for word!" The clerk stood up and said respectfully.

"That's good! Wait until tomorrow's major newspapers for what I have just said, and it will be on the front page, and not a word will be changed. I want the whole world to know that my sleeping dragon has woken up, and he will soar into the sky, and any enemy who stands in his way will be torn to pieces without mercy! Ren Chao said loudly.

"Commandment!" (To be continued......)