The senior generals were rewarded with knighthoods, and many middle and lower-level officers were promoted, and even ordinary soldiers were rewarded with this month's double salary.

The pension of those soldiers who died in battle has also been doubled, and when the disabled soldiers can no longer serve and retire from active duty, the military also promises to give them more retirement benefits, and at the same time will help them arrange jobs, such as arranging for patrols or working in major factories.

It's a pity that these soldiers are not highly educated enough, otherwise they can be directly arranged to serve as section members at all levels.

Although the Chinese army has begun to eradicate literacy to a certain extent, the soldiers are still very few words, and they only know a few hundred commonly used words.

Because there are only a dozen or twenty section members in a county, they are either middle and low-level officials left over from the former Qing Dynasty, or students who were raised after the imperial examination, and a very small number of students who came out of the new-style school.

Although this section member is only the lowest-level officer, the requirements are also quite high, and ordinary scholars can't pass the exam, let alone ordinary soldiers who only recognize a few hundred commonly used words.

After all, there are so many affairs in a county, it is impossible to rely on only one county order and a dozen section members to complete the management, and there will be some employees of various names below, in addition to these, they can also be arranged to work as workers in major enterprises, and these soldiers who have undergone strict training once they are professional, their perfect discipline is the best industrial worker in this era.

After the big bounty. Lin Zhe held a medium-sized state banquet in Nanjing in late August, after all the high-ranking generals who had commanded operations in Shanghai arrived on naval warships. This state banquet can be regarded as giving enough face to the generals and greatly satisfying their vanity. And these generals don't care about satisfying their vanity, but they still like to run to the side of the civil officials.

This made many civilian officials who accompanied him very unhappy, could it be that the victory of this war could be achieved only by you Qiu Ba?

If it weren't for us people who were tired and tired in the back, what would you Qiu Ba do to buy guns and ammunition, how would you fight?

Qi Xuanhao, the Minister of Finance on the side, was quite unhappy, in order to raise military funds for the military, his hair had turned half gray in the past six months, and he often woke up at night thinking about how to raise money.

Not only him, but most of the other civil officials were not happy. Jiang Daoquan looked at the smiling military generals on the opposite side, and couldn't help but snort coldly: "A group of guys who drink water and dig wells!" ”

However, Song Guanqian, the co-organizer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, walked up to the two of them with a smile on his face and said: "Don't be angry, two old brothers, it's been how many years have been this, and it's not that I don't know that they are all people with these temperaments!" ”

Seeing Song Guanqian laughing again, Qi Xuanhao and Jiang Daoquan were even more unhappy, I think those Qiu Ba in the military are unhappy, but I see you are even more unhappy, why don't we have a knighthood one by one, and you can be the first to get a knighthood with a co-organizer. And he is also quite a viscount.

In fact, before the war in Shanghai was decided, as early as after the first battle of Wusong in June, Song Guanqian was awarded the title of viscount, why?

Because he successfully negotiated under various pretexts. The Anglo-French forces were held back for more than half a year, so that the Chinese army had enough time to complete the preparations for the war.

Last year, Lin Zhe promised him. As long as he can delay the Anglo-French army for more than three months, he will be made a baron. If he can delay for more than half a year, then he will make him a viscount.

And for a variety of reasons. The Anglo-French forces did not officially land in Shanghai until June, and although it was not all due to the effect of Song Guanqian's diplomatic negotiations, Song Guanqian did play a key role in this matter, and Lin Zhe naturally did not break his promise.

After all, Jun has no jokes, saying that if you give him a viscount, then you will give him a viscount.

So in June, Lin Zhe officially rewarded him with the title of viscount, becoming the second official in the civil service system to receive a knighthood.

Moreover, I heard that he returned to Nanjing from Shanghai this time because His Majesty was ready to make him Minister of Foreign Affairs, with full authority over foreign affairs.

There are so many ministers in the inner government, when it comes to qualifications and ability, there is one who is worse than him Song Guanqian, but he has become the second civil official in the civil official system to receive a knighthood, which makes many ministers envy and hate Song Guanqian more than those generals.

After all, since the founding of the Chinese Empire, the awarding of titles was mainly for rewarding military merits, and civil officials generally had little chance of obtaining noble titles.

Moreover, there is a difference between civil and military, anyway, both sides are not the same system, and no matter how many people in this military have won the title of nobleman, it has nothing to do with them, and they don't even see each other on weekdays.

However, Song Guanqian, who was also in the civil official system, was made a viscount, and he was also the second civil nobleman since Prime Minister Bi Yutong, which made them somewhat unbalanced.

Of course, all kinds of complaints in their hearts must not be directed at His Majesty, so they can only look at Song Guanqian unpleasantly.

Song Guanqian could guess a little bit about their thoughts, but he just smiled at this, he had reaped such a big benefit, and it couldn't be said that it didn't make people envious and jealous.

After a state banquet, Song Guanqian was summoned by Lin Zhe again!

"Let you come back this time, the main thing is to tell Aiqing about the negotiation, about the follow-up negotiations, Song Aiqing, what are your regulations?" Lin Zhe didn't have too much politeness with Song Guanqian, he had limited time, and when he finished meeting Song Guanqian, he still had to go to the strategic meeting in front of the emperor, so as soon as Song Guanqian came in, he asked his own questions straight to the point.

Song Guanqian said: "Back to the emperor, before the minister returned to Beijing, the British Bao Ling and others had returned to the trade area, and had two contacts with the minister, judging from their negotiation tone, they should not be able to continue the war, trying to end the battlefield completely, and then the two sides resumed the previous business exchanges!" ”

Song Guanqian continued: "In this regard, we have taken the initiative in the negotiations. In this regard, Wechen feels that the conditions proposed before can be improved. For example, if the opium trade is completely banned, customs duties will be completely withdrawn. Abolish many of the foreign business facilities in the trade zone, especially consular jurisdiction. ”

Lin Zhe nodded after hearing this: "Yes, this idea is good, the advantage of this negotiation is the sacrifice of tens of thousands of imperial soldiers, I don't want their sacrifice to become worthless, this time the negotiation will definitely not allow any loss of power and humiliation of the country, and strive to take back Hong Kong." There are also related war reparations, and we must try our best to fight for them! ”

Song Guanqian said: "Weichen understands! ”

Lin Zhe didn't let Song Guanqian stay longer, and after discussing the negotiation matters in detail for more than ten minutes, he just waved his hand to let Song Guanqian go out.

The victory in the Battle of Shanghai this time can be said to be beyond Lin Zhe's expectations, originally he thought that it would be very good to be able to draw with the British and French forces, as long as the offensive of the British and French forces could be blocked, then the follow-up will be dragged down until the British and French are tired of the war and give in at the negotiating table. But what he didn't expect was that Shi Qingxuan brought him a huge surprise.

The Battle of Shanghai was not only won, but it was also an unprecedented victory, and only 4,000 or 5,000 of the more than 20,000 British and French troops who came to attack fled back. The remaining 20,000 were killed, 10,000 were killed, and nearly 10,000 were taken prisoner, plus the 2,000 prisoners of the previous battle of Wusong. Today, the Chinese Empire has more than 11,000 British and French prisoners, including the commander of the coalition army, Count Ergin.

Such a big victory completely changed Lin Zhe's original intention. Since the other side has been completely defeated militarily, there is no need to be polite at the subsequent negotiating table. Get as much benefit as possible.

Some of these provisions, which were detrimental to the interests of the empire, must be abolished, and the power of customs duties and consular jurisdiction must be abolished, and if necessary, the port of Hong Kong can be recovered, and then perhaps the more than 10,000 prisoners in their hands can be used to obtain some war reparations.

However, with the urine nature of Britain and France, it is estimated that they would rather continue the war than pay the so-called war reparations.

One of them is the world boss and the other is the hegemon of Europe, even if they suffered a defeat in the Far East, it does not mean that their national strength has been weakened, as long as necessary, in fact, they can draw more troops to fight in the Far East, but the cost and gain are disproportionate.

Moreover, the matter of reparations is a matter of national image, and the leadership of Britain and France will not dare to pay even a penny of war reparations to a backward country in a hundred guts.

This is the same as a backward African country in later generations that accidentally arrested hundreds of Americans, and then asked the United States for war reparations, and the Yankees will give you reparations? I must turn around and mobilize troops to fight a full-scale war to destroy the country.

Even if it was the living expenses of the prisoners negotiated between the Chinese Empire and the coalition forces before, the two sides did not even have any textual treaty, and the coalition forces gave living expenses privately, and they would never admit that it was a war reparation, and the money was only for the prisoners to maintain their living needs.

For the Chinese Empire, as long as it can abolish the many unequal treaties signed by various countries in the pre-Qing era, it has been basically satisfied, especially the tariffs and the prohibition of the opium trade, the harm of the opium trade is needless to say, and the tariffs, as long as they can control the tariffs themselves, then it has great strategic value for the subsequent industrialization of the Chinese Empire.

Relatively speaking, other conditions are irrelevant, such as reparations, people are unwilling to pay, and the little money paid is useless, after all, even if people pay, it is impossible to pay you tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, in the second Opium War in history, China paid only a few million reparations to the coalition forces.

There is also Hong Kong, which is best if it can be recovered, but if it cannot be recovered, Lin Zhe does not intend to force it, and for the development of domestic industrial strategy and military development, the Hong Kong issue can be put aside for the time being.

Now that the Chinese Empire has not even unified China, the top priority now is to end the war with Britain and France, and then turn around to destroy the Qing court and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, as well as the Zhenhu army and the Hunan army.

The big deal is that when the time comes, after the country is reunified, it is enough to find an excuse to fight another war with Britain, and then take the opportunity to take back Hong Kong, and there is not much difference between a few years earlier and a few years later.

With Lin Zhe's instructions, Song Guan got on a steamer the next day, and then rushed to Shanghai, before going to Shanghai, his title had been changed to Minister of Foreign Affairs, and he was fully responsible for negotiations with Britain and France.

When Song Guanqian returned to Shanghai, Lin Zhe also held several successive strategic meetings to discuss the next strategic direction of the Chinese army after the Battle of Shanghai.

Now that the Anglo-French forces have been repulsed, and in the foreseeable year or even two or three years, there should be no large-scale war with Britain and France, and the next affairs with Britain and France are diplomatic negotiation affairs, which have little to do with military affairs.

Therefore, the Chinese army needs to turn its attention back to the country, and it is time to go north to destroy the Manchus and move west to pacify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. (To be continued......)