As early as last summer, when the Chinese army had just entered Nanjing in the west and established the capital in Nanjing, it had already begun to negotiate with foreigners from various countries, especially Britain and France.

The first of these conditions was that the Chinese Empire should recognize a series of treaties signed between the Qing court and other countries before 1856, including the Treaty of Nanking during the First Opium War and subsequent subsidiary treaties, such as the statute of the Shanghai Trade Zone. The second point is that Britain demanded the legalization of the opium trade, and the third point was that Britain and France and other countries demanded that China open more treaty ports. The fourth point is that Britain and France want to set up embassies in Nanjing.

In addition, there are also requirements from the Chinese Empire, for example, the Chinese Empire requires changes to the relevant tariff treaties and adjust the tariff rates of imports and exports on its own.

The second point is to demand that all countries abandon the policy of neutrality, officially declare the recognition of the Chinese Empire as the sole legitimate government of China, and at the same time no longer restrict the citizens of all countries from serving in the military of the Chinese Empire because of the neutrality policy (mainly retired officers of various countries serve as instructors of the Chinese Army), and allow China to purchase the required ordnance and materials on its own, mainly hoping to import more large-caliber artillery and advanced warships.

The third point is the key point, that is, to change the Nanjing and other treaties, to remove some foreigners' privileges, such as consular jurisdiction and other extraterritoriality, and to supplement and change the details of the treaty of commerce.

The fourth point, which is also important, is to ban the opium trade!

The demands of the countries and the demands of the Chinese Empire were intertwined, and there was a great contradiction between these conditions, and it would have been impossible to negotiate them successfully if they had only been normal.

Precisely because of the difficulty of negotiation. Therefore, Song Guanqian, co-director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Shanghai, and the consuls of various countries have been unable to make practical and effective progress in the negotiations.

Lin Zhe also knew very well that it was difficult to get back the benefits he wanted through the negotiation table, and even more so when Britain and France realized that they could not get the benefits they wanted through negotiations. They will not hesitate to start a war.

In this regard, Lin Zhe did not have much hope for the Shanghai talks as early as last year. He just asked Song Guanqian to delay as much time as possible.

And Song Guanqian did not live up to his expectations, in Shanghai and the consuls of various countries to and fro, it has been delayed for half a year, because the negotiations have not ended, so at that time the consuls of various countries to the Chinese Empire is to adopt a more restrained neutral policy, as early as November arrived British and French troops did not rush to launch an attack on Guangdong, but waited for the results of the Shanghai negotiations.

During this time, Lin Zhe was also actively preparing for the threat of war between Britain and France.

Among them, the training of the Sixth Infantry Division is the most direct. The most obvious means was that Lin Zhe stationed more than 20,000 heavy troops in the Shanghai area to prevent the British and French from landing directly in Shanghai, and the construction of the Wusong Fort was also to prevent the British and French fleets from entering the Yangtze River and threatening Nanjing.

It's just that after half a year's delay, Song Guanqian can't drag it on forever, and now it is obvious that the consuls, especially the British, are tired of the Shanghai negotiations, which have been unable to make progress for a long time, and may even guess that this is only a delaying policy on the part of the Chinese Empire.

For this. The British Minister to China did not hesitate to use the threat of war to get the opportunity to come to Nanjing to meet Lin Zhe, so he had a direct interview with Lin Zhe, and gave Lin Zhe the most direct advice: either make concessions and negotiate to allow Britain and France to obtain relevant benefits, or bear the war from Britain and France!

For the threat of the package. made Lin Zhe, who had not been angry for a long time, angry!

His anger did not come from the damage to any national interests, but that this Englishman dared to come to Nanjing and then issue an ultimatum to war directly in front of him. What did this take Lin Zhe for?

Could it be Daoguang and Xianfeng's father and son?

In the past few years, Lin Zhe has changed very much. If only in 1853 he was just an ordinary person, an ordinary person with ambitions in his heart. But to this day in 1858. Five years later, Lin Zhe has become a veritable emperor, who has been at the top of power for a long time, and is accustomed to seeing his subordinates respectful and even frightened him, but today a foreigner suddenly appeared to point fingers and even threaten him.

I have to say that this made Lin Zhe's self-esteem greatly trampled!

He is the supreme commander of hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops, the emperor of the loyalty of hundreds of millions of subjects, so he absolutely cannot bear the insult of a mere British minister!

The highly centralized imperial dynasty is not good at this, the emperor is angry, and blood is splashed for thousands of miles!

After Bao Ling left, without waiting for the reply of the Chinese Empire, he left Nanjing by ship and went to Shanghai, Lin Zhe immediately convened a strategic meeting in front of the emperor.

It's just that unlike the previous meetings to discuss military affairs such as the Northern Expedition or the Western Expedition, the content of this meeting is to discuss how to fight in the event of a war with the British and French forces. Will you be able to win? What does it cost?

When the senior generals attending the meeting learned that Bao Ling had issued a threat similar to a war ultimatum, Shi Qingxuan, the commander of the Sixth Army, said angrily: "Even a small barbarian country dares to threaten my country in Greater China!" ”

As he spoke, he stood up, and then said, "Your Majesty, please go to Shanghai to lead the army to defend against the enemy, they want war, we will give them a war!" ”

Seeing Shi Qingxuan stand up excitedly, Lin Zhe, who was sitting at the top, didn't say anything, in this kind of occasion, Lin Zhe needed to maintain the emperor's prestige, so he didn't even open his mouth, his fingers didn't move, he just continued to look at the other generals on the rectangular table in front of him.

At this time, Chen Yuntao, chief of the Joint Staff, also spoke: "I don't think it is appropriate to start a war immediately, at present our army's expansion plan has just begun, and the new troops in the 1858 expansion plan are only organized into a mixed brigade in Fujian, and the five infantry divisions and other units in the plan have not yet been launched." With a serious shortage of troops, it is difficult for us to send more troops to reinforce the front line along the line when we continue to fight the enemy in northern Jiangxi, Anhui and North China at the same time! ”

At this time, Lin Mailan, the commander of the Guards Division, said: "Our army has more than 20,000 soldiers in Shanghai, and all of them are officers and soldiers of the Royal Army, and their combat power is not inferior to any Royal Army unit, and it is easy to block a foreign army of thousands of people!" ”

"Although the foreigners are thousands of miles away, the British and French forces will draw troops from the nearest South Asian region, even if we block the attack of thousands of them, what will happen when they are reinforced to 10,000 or even more?" It was Fei Qunyang, the new chief of the Military Training Department, who spoke.

The high-ranking generals of the Chinese Empire were not those who sat in the Manchu court to watch the sky, but they knew that although Britain and France were thousands of miles away from China, in fact, the training troops of Britain and France were not drawn from the mainland, and these Anglo-French troops were actually drawn from the colonies in South Asia and India, and the British troops were mainly drawn from India, and a considerable part of them were actually Indian soldiers, while the French army was drawn from the French Indochina region.

Therefore, if China is at war with Britain and France, the so-called distance of 10,000 miles is a false proposition, because people do not need to draw soldiers from their own territory at all, just colonial soldiers in South Asia are enough for China to feel uncomfortable.

Otherwise, how do you think Britain controlled the world in the era of sailing, Britain is at war with a certain country or region on the earth almost all the time, if it is too late to draw troops from the mainland, Britain in this era is basically stationed extensively around the world, in Africa, in the Middle East, in South Asia, in East Asia, in the Americas and the Pacific, etc., you can see the British army almost everywhere.

The sun never sets on the empire is not called for nothing!

The clearer we understand the contemporary world situation, and the clearer we understand the formidable strength of Britain and France, the easier it is to feel fear and despair about the threat posed by Britain and France.

Lin Zhe listened to the discussion of many generals who had been decentralized, and these generals were all military generals, and the voice of this voice was becoming more and more excited, and the generals who supported waging war and supported maintaining restraint in order to accumulate more strength were-for-tat.

If it weren't for the Imperial Council today, and Lin Zhe didn't sit on it, I'm afraid these high-ranking generals would be noisy.

However, because of Lin Zhe's presence, although they debated very excitedly, they would still maintain the most basic interests, but no one dared to lose their honor in front of the king, but the content of their words was already sneering and sneering, and the tone of each other's targeting was becoming more and more mean.

When Shi Qingxuan said that Chen Yuntao was afraid of the enemy like a tiger and tried in vain to ignore the interests of the empire, Lin Zhe, who had been silent, finally raised his hand lightly.

When the senior generals below saw Lin Zhe raise his hand, they immediately closed their mouths one by one, and then sat down again, as if the argument that had been in place for more than an hour had not happened.

Lin Zhe opened his mouth and said: "Whether it is war or peace, we must be ready!" After that, he looked at Chen Yuntao and continued: "Go back to the staff department and hand over the relevant regulations!" ”

After that, he just got up directly, and when the many generals below saw Lin Zhe get up, they immediately got up and bowed down to send Lin Zhe away!

Lin Zhe knew that he would probably not be able to hear any constructive remarks if he continued to listen, and it was not interesting to listen to this quarrel, so it was better to let them quarrel first, and when they finished arguing, they would naturally hand themselves a relevant plan.

As soon as Lin Zhe left, there was an instant debate in the conference room, and these high-ranking generals who were usually high in the sky were salivating, insisting on their own views one by one.

After leaving the conference room, Lin Zhe was a little bored, and immediately did not think of going back to the office to continue working, but walked away from Pingren Hall and then returned to the apse. (To be continued......)