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The British Minister to China, Sir Bonham, left the Imperial Chinese Foreign Office in a state of despair. The lion of the Chinese Empire opened his mouth, which made Sir Bonham a little difficult to accept. 20 million pounds, which is a third of Britain's fiscal revenue last year. Paying so much ransom at once, the British can't bear it! Of course, judging from the wealth accumulated by the British Empire over the centuries of dominating the seas, such a small amount of money is only a small matter. However, it is not cost-effective to hand over these people to the future enemies of the British Empire in vain! But what if you don't give it? The Chinese Empire has now seized the life of the British Empire! The longer it drags on, the worse it will be for the British Empire!

After returning to the Embassy, Sir Bonham sent the contents of today's negotiations and the attitude of the Chinese side to London, asking for guidance from the London side. Such a large amount of money is obviously not something that Sir Bonham can decide.

When London received Sir Bonham's telegram, it also exploded. Twenty million pounds, the Chinese Empire really dares to open this mouth. This is already a huge amount of money for the British Empire! Although the British government tightened its belts and scraped the colonies, it was able to scrape together so much money. But isn't this an enemy? The more ransom the British Empire paid, the stronger the Chinese Empire would be in the future, and the more difficult it would be for the British Empire to defeat the Chinese Empire. Therefore, after the deliberations of the cabinet ministers, Sir Bonham has been asked to reduce the price as much as possible, and this amount can never be agreed! The British Empire though had money. But that's not how money is spent!

When Sir Bonham received the telegram, he was also very speechless. The British side only asked him to lower the price, but what is the bottom line? If you can't talk about it. I'm afraid the negotiations will break down this time. This does not do any good to the UK.

While Sir Bonham was struggling with his nerves, Lin Zihao, the Foreign Minister of the Chinese Empire, was reporting to Long Yufei on the results of the negotiations.

"Your Majesty, the British are not willing to pay for the Indian natives, they are only willing to redeem the British. It seems that all those indigenous Indians are outcasts, and the British do not pay attention to them at all. Lin Zihao said.

"Hmm. This was expected by me. Since the British don't want to ransom those Indian natives, send them to build roads and mines! Myanmar's infrastructure construction should start earlier. Settlements could be built in the plains of central and southern Myanmar first. After the immigrants have passed, they can move in directly. Long Yufei said. The British have always regarded no one other than their own countrymen, especially the colonies. He was used as a slave. Not to mention. Anyway, India has a large population, and these more than 200,000 Indian natives are nothing to the British, and they can easily recruit more natives, so it won't be distressing to lose them all. Now the government of the Chinese Empire is organizing emigration to Burma, planning to emigrate 10 million to the plains of central and southern Burma. The targets of immigration are mainly mountainous areas such as the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. This is conducive to protecting the fragile ecological environment here, and can also allow more Chinese to live a good life.

"陛xià. For the more than 80,000 British prisoners of war, I offered 20 million pounds. But. Most people in the UK won't accept this price. Lin Zihao said. In fact, whether it was 30 million pounds before or 20 million pounds later, it was a figure that Lin Zihao said casually. If the British agreed, it would have been the best. The Chinese Empire will not be afraid of too much money. Of course, as long as the British didn't get their heads caught in the door, they wouldn't have agreed so happily. After all, this money, in this era, is already an astronomical amount.

"Twenty million pounds? The British will not agree. As long as they were willing to pay ten million pounds, they would return the prisoners of war to them. Anyway, keeping those prisoners of war is just a waste of food. Long Yufei said. 10 million pounds, converted into Chinese dollars, is also 40 million Chinese dollars. The most powerful 'Western Zhou-class' warship in the Chinese Empire's navy cost only two million Chinese yuan each. 40 million Chinese dollars, enough to build 20 ships. Of course, this ransom will be used to pay for the war and preparations for the decisive battle against the Manchus.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I will take 10 million Chinese dollars as the bottom line and strive for more benefits for the empire as much as possible! Lin Zihao said.

"Well, this matter is done, Lord Lin is a great achievement! Prepare for a trip to Europe in a few months. When the time comes, you go with me! Long Yufei said. The original plan for a trip to Europe was to depart from Guangzhou in September. Later, when the war with Britain broke out, someone in the cabinet decided to postpone the trip. After all, the British have just been beaten up, and it is inevitable that the British will not retaliate. At that time, Long Yufei will be in danger. However, Long Yufei has nothing to do with this. The British Empire, as the hegemon of the world, should not have driven out such a thing. Besides, this time Long Yufei was visiting on the most powerful 'Western Zhou-class' battleship of the Imperial Navy, and it was not so easy for the British to attack Long Yufei even if they wanted to. What's more, this visit was at the invitation of France and the Kingdom of Spain, and the two countries were supposed to be prepared for Long Yufei's safety. The British probably wouldn't have jumped over the wall to this point.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Lin Zihao nodded. Lin Zihao is very excited to be able to visit Europe with Long Yufei. If he wants to become the prime minister of the empire, he must have the support of Long Yufei. This time accompanied Long Yufei on a trip, this is a good opportunity to get closer.

The next day, the British Minister to China, Bonham, came to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire again to negotiate a ransom with Foreign Secretary Lin Zihao.

"Your Excellency the Foreign Secretary, yesterday I communicated with the Cabinet and we cannot accept your country's demand for a ransom of 20 million pounds." Sir Bonham said. Twenty million pounds, that's too much.

"So, how much can your country accept?" Lin Zihao asked.

"Twenty million dollars! Your Excellency the Foreign Secretary, this is our bottom line. We are willing to pay 20 million Chinese dollars, that is, 5 million pounds, to redeem the more than 80,000 soldiers who were captured! Sir Bonham said.

Lin Zihao shook his head, five million pounds, and the bottom line of the Chinese Empire is too big.

"Your Excellency, we are willing to give a step! Fifteen million pounds. More than 80,000 prisoners of war, if you count it in this way, it is less than two hundred pounds per person. It's already a very cheap price! Lin Zihao said.

"No, Your Excellency the Foreign Secretary, fifteen million pounds, this price is still too high!" Sir Bonham said. Although it was a one-time reduction of five million pounds, it was still no longer acceptable to the British Empire.

"Your Excellency, we are already very sincere! If the British Empire insists on it, then we can't do anything about it! Lin Zihao continued to insist, anyway, if it drags on, the more bad it will be for the UK. It is also the British who should be in a hurry.

The two sides did not dwell on this issue for long, the main thing was that the British were running out of ideas. Every day in London and other British cities there were demonstrations against the government and calls for the rescue of the captured soldiers back to their home countries, and the British government was so miserable that it could only put constant pressure on Sir Bonham.

After some haggling, on the ransom of the prisoners of war, the Chinese Empire and the British agreed. Britain paid 12 million pounds sterling to redeem the captured soldiers. However, in paying these ransoms, the British made a demand, and that was to demand that the Chinese Empire promise not to invade India. This amounts to a guarantee.

The Chinese Empire did not hesitate to answer this question and directly agreed to this condition. Although, this commitment is to be written into the agreement. However, such an agreement is the most non-binding, and when the time comes, it can be torn up by just making an excuse. As the so-called biggest role in a treaty agreement is to tear it up.

However, the Chinese Empire also made a demand, that is, Britain should no longer provide loans and sell weapons to the Manchus. In order to contain the Chinese Empire, Britain has been providing loans and weapons to the Manchus to arm the Manchus as much as possible, and use the Manchus to deplete the strength of the Chinese Empire. The Manchu government was able to raise a new army of millions of people, and the British were indispensable. Most of the military spending and all the weapons came from the British. Of course, if the Manchus had lost the war, the British would not have been able to recoup these investments.

The British agreed to the demands of the Chinese Empire without even thinking about it. For the current Prime Minister, Earl Stanley, supporting the Manchu Qing to contain China, is the key to John. Sir Russell's Cabinet set the course. Now, it seems, it's not much use anymore. The strength of the Chinese Empire could not be stopped by a decadent and backward Manchu Qing Dynasty. This investment will obviously be wasted. In this case, there would be no need for Britain to throw any more money into it. The more you invest, the more you lose. Once the Chinese Empire had fallen to the Manchus, it was clear that they would not recognize the debts owed by the Manchu government.

On May 7, 1845, the Foreign Secretary of the Imperial Chinese Empire, Lin Zihao, and the British Minister to China, Sir Bonham, on behalf of the two countries, signed the "Memorandum of Understanding on the Sino-British Burma Conflict" in Guangzhou. Now, the misunderstanding has been cleared up and the two countries have reconciled. The Chinese Empire promised not to invade India, and the British promised not to support the Manchus again! (To be continued......)