"What weapon?" Listening to the words of the Prince, British Prime Minister Henry . Temple asked.

"See for yourself." Prince Albert handed the photograph to Henry. Temple.

After looking at the photo, Circle was already seventy-seven years old, but Henry. Temple was still startled, and after looking again and again, and when he realized that it was indeed true, his eyebrows immediately furrowed tightly.

"What do you think?" Prince Albert asked.

"Your Highness." Henry. Temple gently put down the photo, "Judging from the photo alone, it's not sure yet, we ......"

"Don't kid yourself." Prince Albert waved his hand, "Let me ask you, is the size of the Russian expeditionary fleet?" ”

"Nature is not small."

"But this large fleet was annihilated by the Chinese at sea." "That's enough," said Prince Albert. And, here's a photo, you know? You can only record the real things, not the painter painting, but also play by yourself. Also, don't you see the references above? That's deliberate, just to give us a clear contrast, so, I believe it's true. ”

"Well, even if it's true." Henry. Temple nodded, "But how can China have such a strong military in such a backward place?" If we had such a strong army, no, even if it was only one-fifth, we would not have won so easily. ”

"That's where I'm weird, too." Prince Albert nodded, "It's also a place that you need to investigate." ”

"Yes, Your Highness, I will find a way." Henry. Temple nodded, "Still, I'm reminded of a rumor. ”

"Rumors, what rumors?"

"It is said that this new Chinese emperor is secretly supported by the Americans." Henry. Temple Road. "It is rumored that he was with an American priest when he was very young, and was taught by that American, and then his arms and supplies were also provided by the Americans, but it seems that it is not the government, but a secret organization, and he knows so much about our affairs, so I suspect that it may have something to do with the religious community."

"You mean, you suspect that the Presbyterians are supporting him?"

"I'm not sure yet." Henry. Temple shook his head. "But it should have nothing to do with the Council of Presbyterians in the United States, at least they won't be ignorant. Otherwise, with China's strength, we will not be able to manufacture these things at all, and in other places, we will not be able to produce so many arms in Europe, and if we can really produce so many weapons, we will not send them to China. How good it is to use it yourself.

So if you count it, there is only one place left, and that is the United States, but even the United States. It is impossible for so many arms to be produced without any rumors, and it is impossible for the US Government to not know any clues. And there is also the problem that the United States is now in a civil war. Even the weapons of your own people are not enough, if you really have the power to produce so much equipment, why not use it on your own people first? ”

"yes. Why? ”

"Thinking about it, I can only think of one possibility."

"What is possible?"

"That Chinese emperor is a puppet propped up by the Americans, and they want to turn China into their colony."

"If so, then why are the Chinese attacking the United States?"

"This proves my guess even more." Henry. Temple said, "The Americans who support the Chinese are just big capitalists who are not in the same mind as the US government, and they let the Chinese fight the US in order to overthrow the US government that oppresses them so that their own people can come to power." ”

"This ......," Prince Albert frowned, then shook his head, "logically it still doesn't make sense, if that's the case, wouldn't it be better for them to support the south directly, so why bother." ”

"Southerners are not easy to control, and no matter how strong the South of the United States is, how can it compare with China." Henry. Temple continued, "Although China is poor, it has a large number of people, at least 400 million people, more than Indians, and it has a single ethnic composition and is more cohesive.

To sum up, China is a large country with a large population, and at the same time it is a slave country with backward and uncivilized ideas.

I think that the Americans must have seen this, so they tried their best to support an agent to come out and let him fight for China's control and power, but I didn't expect that in the end they really succeeded and really raised a Chinese emperor to come out.

It is said that the emperor of New China is only fifteen years old, how many true skills can he have at such a young age? How is it possible to rule a huge empire in such a short period of time?

So I think that behind the new Chinese emperor, there must be a lot of Americans who are helping him with advice and providing him with weapons and equipment, and after a long time, the Chinese emperor will become a puppet of the Americans.

Alas, a mistake, we should have discovered this situation earlier, and it would have been better to personally support the Chinese earlier, or intervene earlier, such as supporting the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, otherwise it would not have been like this. ”

"All right, my Prime Minister." Prince Albert shook his head, "It's useless to say this now, the fact is that the Chinese have been reunited and have a very strong force, we are powerless to interfere with them, instead of being annoyed by the past, we should think about how to deal with the current situation." ”

Speaking of this, Prince Albert picked up the letter again and looked at it: "According to the letter from the Chinese emperor, he hopes that we can cooperate with them and intervene in the American Civil War.

Specifically, he wants us to send our navy to blockade the coast of the United States in the name of mercenaries or volunteers, and he wants to send our army to land in the western part of the United States and occupy the western part of the United States. In addition, he can also supply arms to the South to help the South against the North, but he lacks enough sea vessels, so he also needs our fleet to provide sea transportation.

He said that if we agree to this cooperation plan, he will formally establish diplomatic relations with us at the ambassadorial level, exchange ambassadors, and sign a new treaty that will benefit our relations. ”

"Treaties? What treaty? ”

"It's written in it, too." Prince Albert raised his letter, "This says that they are the new government, so all the treaties we negotiated with the Qing government in the past must be counted, and they must be renegotiated." As for the situation of the resumption of talks, it depends on the sincerity of both sides.

The Chinese emperor said that if we agreed to his terms of joint intervention in the American Civil War with them, especially by sending a fleet to help him transport men and supplies to the United States, then he agreed to talk to us on the basis of the following three points.

First, we recognize each other as the most favored nation in trade, and reduce or even exempt taxes on some goods; Second, we can also recognize each other's intellectual property rights and protect each other's patent rights. Third. The consular jurisdiction and the concession must be abolished, but the original concession residents will not be expelled, but the concession will be divided into a special zone, and the special zone can form a special zone government, the top chief executive of the special zone must be Chinese, and the garrison and police must also be Chinese, but the relevant officials can be our people, and they can also implement some systems that we Westerners are accustomed to, in short, to engage in a sovereignty in China. The policy was in favour of the special concessions of the West. For example, in Hong Kong, he will set up a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which will be a duty-free trade free port with special special zone administration. ”

"It's kind of interesting." Henry. Temple. "How do these methods look like the handwriting of the Americans, a Chinese can think of these, and it must be inseparable from the Americans behind them."

"It's all right." Prince Albert smiled and gently tossed the letter in his hand. "The question now is how we should reply to the other side. The other side said that if we choose not to cooperate. They would forcibly expel all our troops in China, forcibly take back the concessions, take back one of the privileges of our merchants in China, impose heavy taxes on our merchants, and even rule out the plan of sending troops to India. ”

"Send troops to India?" Henry. Temple frowned.

"Yes, that's what he said." Prince Albert said, "He said that if he can't interfere in the American civil war, then in order to prevent the United States from becoming strong and difficult to restrain in the future, he has no choice but to expand in Asia to increase his living space, and India will probably be the first choice at that time." ”

"It's not a small tone." Henry. Temple snorted.

"If the picture is true, then he does." Prince Albert sighed, "If nothing else, if the 500,000 army is to hit India, do you think India can stop it?" ”

"Five hundred thousand? How can it be so easy. "Henry. Temple shook his head, "Although there is a land connection between China and India, the road is difficult to travel, 500,000? How to guarantee logistics? ”

"He said he would build the railroad." Prince Albert looks like Henry. Temple glanced at it, "Look closely at the letter he wrote, and these pictures, oh, and here are a few pictures of the road construction scene." ”

Prince Albert pulled out a few photos and put them on the table: "Look, this is the scene of the Chinese building roads, look at that scene, there will be no less than half a million people." ”

"Oh?" Henry. Temple put his glasses back on, looked carefully at the picture given by Prince Albert, and after reading it, frowned again.

"See." "The emperor said that he was now overhauling the railway, and that the number of people building the railway is currently half a million, but in the future it will certainly exceed a million, or even more." Millions of road builders, if he really did this, do you think he would have a problem attacking India? Not for a year, two years, three years, and he will win eventually. ”

"But where did he get so many rails?" Henry. Temple put down the photo and said, "There are indeed many Chinese, I don't deny this, but where did he get so many rails?" Where are so many locomotives and carriages? Moreover, so many people build railways, even if the Chinese are cheap, but this financial pressure will still be great, where will he get the money? ”

"Didn't you say it all, the Americans supported him." Prince Albert said, "Instead of answering your questions, you should tell me where these ironclads came from, don't you think that a group that can make so many ironclads will not be able to make railroad tracks?" ”

"These are all speculations on our part." Henry. Temple said, "Maybe it's just a trick done by the Chinese, just like their Chinese magic, which looks magical, but it's actually just a trick." ”

"Then you mean to reject the conditions of the Chinese?"

"No, that's not what I meant." Henry. Temple shook his head, "Actually, I also agree with interfering in the United States, and I also think that it is best for the United States to be divided into two countries. To this end, I also proposed to send additional troops to Canada. So I'm in favor of interfering in the United States. It's just that if the Chinese want to intervene, the nature will be different. ”

"What's the difference?"

"Because there are too many of them, Your Highness." Henry. Temple said, "Your Highness, the Chinese wanted to attack the western part of the United States, and he obviously wanted to acquire the western lands of North America, and then consolidate the occupied territories through guò immigration. But in this way, the whole Pacific Ocean is in their arms, and it will be a big problem in the future. ”

Speaking of which. Henry. Temple paused slightly, and then continued: "Your Highness, if it is only Chinese, then I am not worried at all, China has nothing but a large number of people." But with the support of American capitalists, the situation is different, because they have access to enough weapons, and a bunch of barbarians have the weapons of civilized people. That would only be a disaster.

Therefore, the Chinese are a group of disasters, these people are not strong now, they already have such ambition and attack power. Once they are given time to develop, it is a big threat to the whole world, and we must prevent it early. ”

"So how do you want to prevent it? Now another war with the Chinese? ”

"Of course not, it's obviously not a good idea to go to war now." Henry. Temple. "But at least we can't let them get their way, at least we can slow down their development.

For example, we can sponsor the Qing people in Northeast China. It can fund Indochina in the south of China, Japan in the east of China, in short, it can support China's neighboring countries, let them make trouble for China, and slow down the development of the Chinese. ”

"I'm afraid you can't do that." Prince Albert shook his head, "If the Chinese really have the strength in the photo, then our funding is useless, but will create an excuse for the Chinese to annex these neighboring countries." ”

"Even if we don't fund those countries, does Your Highness think that the new China will let those places go?" Henry. Temple shook his head, "The Chinese will definitely attack these small neighboring countries, the difference is only a matter of time and before and after." If we fund these countries in advance, we can at least slow down China's expansion. ”

"Funding? Do we have that much money to fund it? ”

"Of course it's not for free, we can sell arms cheaper."

"We'll talk about that later." Prince Albert shook his head, "The question now is whether we should agree to the conditions of the Chinese emperor or not. But they said that if we don't agree, we will cancel our privileges in China, and they will also send even half of the troops that originally interfered with the United States to India, even if it is only half, it is not something we can bear, or even if we can stop it, the loss will not be small. ”

"Of course you have to say yes." Henry. Temple, "Not only must we agree, but we must do our best to help the Chinese emperor intervene in the United States." ”

"Oh? How so? ”

"Quite simply, this Chinese emperor is too young and arrogant." Henry. Temple smiled, "He thought that as long as there were more people to fight, he didn't know that the more people there were, the more logistics supplies were needed." It is not difficult to transport 500,000 people to the United States, but how to maintain the survival of these 500,000 people in the United States is a big problem.

From China to the United States, even if you just go to the western part of the United States, it will take at least two and a half months to walk by sea, and the western part of the United States is a desolate and barren land, and all kinds of materials are very scarce, and it is difficult for us to provide logistical support for an army of 500,000 troops to such a distant place, let alone China.

That is, in the beginning, we can prioritize the transportation of their personnel, but in terms of supplies later, we can get stuck.

Once we jam their sea transportation lines, it is equivalent to grasping the lifeblood of their overseas legions, and if properly regulated, it can greatly reduce the strength between China and the United States, and at that time it will not only divide the United States, but also make China suffer a great deal of vitality, at least in a short period of time, it will not be able to form much attack power, and it can be convenient for us to calmly arrange. ”

"That is, you agreed to cooperate with the Chinese to intervene in the American Civil War?"

"Yes." Henry. Temple nodded, "But for the time being, it is inconvenient for us to interfere in the name of the state, we can continue to form a volunteer army or directly engage in mercenaries, that is, we are nominally employed by China, let the Chinese take the lead, we can just watch from the side, and we can also disclose the news that the Chinese want to interfere in the United States at the appropriate time, so that the United States can take precautions in advance." (To be continued......)