After Hong Yun'er's fluent English exit, except for Xiao Yungui, the rest of the people present were surprised, and everyone didn't expect that this heroic West Wang Niang could actually speak English.

Wang Minyun was stunned and lightly touched Zuo Zongtang, who was sitting beside him, and asked in a low voice, "How can the West Wang Niang speak Yihua?" What the envoy said, Xi Wangniang seemed to be very angry. ”

Zuo Zongtang shook his head and said: "I don't know, it seems that the West King and the West King Niang will have more than that." ”

The British present were very embarrassed, in an occasion of formal social negotiations, a diplomat on behalf of the British Empire insulted the other party, which was very undignified, if the other party did not understand it would be fine, but now the other party understood, and was also accused by a lady on the other side in person, which made this group of British gentlemen who flaunted the British gentlemanly demeanor very ashamed.

Although Xiao Yungui's English is not very good, he still understands the words yellow and monkey very clearly, and immediately knows that this is a curse, but this guy suffers from poor oral English, and he doesn't know how to say it, but Hong Yun'er, the best debater, reacts very quickly, and her fluent English crackles accusations, which embarrass the British.

After a few embarrassed snorts, Lord Wen Han smiled: "It's really surprising, I didn't expect you to speak English so well, Mrs. Xiwang, it seems that the language barrier we were worried about is gone, you are the most intelligent and temperamental of the Oriental women I have ever seen." ”

Wen Han wanted to compliment a few words to defuse Hong Yun'er's anger, but the four-eyed girl didn't eat it at all, she said directly in English with a cold face: "Lord Wen Han, please make a daoqian to what you just said, otherwise we feel that in the absence of mutual respect and trust, there is no need for the subsequent negotiations." ”

Xiao Yungui was originally very annoyed, but after hearing Hong Yun'er's words, he couldn't help but be a little worried, he was really afraid that Wen Han would just brush his sleeves away, but fortunately, Wen Han seemed to feel that he was really at a loss, or that he should not lose his demeanor in front of a lady, Wen Han coughed, stood up generously, put his right hand on his left chest, bowed slowly, and said: "Everyone here, please forgive me for my unreasonable behavior just now, this is just a misunderstanding, I hope you will forget the unpleasant thing just now, let's get down to business." ”

Seeing Lord Wenhan Daoqian, Hong Yun'er's tense face relaxed a little, and Xiao Yungui said slowly: "I hope Lord Wenhan will remember this lesson, don't underestimate us Orientals, there are many capable people in us." ”

After Midile translated, Wen Han smiled and said, "Please forgive me, maybe I have dealt with you Qing Dynasty officials a lot, and I think you are all the same." Well, let's not say that this is useless, Your Excellency the King of the West, I would like to ask you to understand that the observance of the Treaty of Jiangning is the basis for our negotiations with you, but our cooperation is not to recognize the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and so far, the Manchu government still occupies more than half of China's territory, and we do not yet feel that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is capable of overthrowing the Manchus. ”

Xiao Yungui smiled and said: "Lord Wenhan, I also want you to understand one thing, it has always been a matter of asking the new regime to inherit the claims and obligations of the previous regime after one regime replaces another regime and is recognized by other countries. ”

Lord Wenhan shook his head and insisted: "I am very sorry, Your Excellency, this is the bottom line of our British Empire, if your army cannot promise to abide by the Treaty of Jiangning and guarantee British interests in China, our government will consider supporting the Manchu government instead." ”

Xiao Yungui's face remained unchanged, but in a blink of an eye, he saw that Zuo Zongtang, Wang Minyun and others were already full of anger, and the British clearly put on a threatening tone, which was the arrogant posture of the suppression of the great powers. Xiao Yungui looked at Hong Yun'er, the two of them looked at each other, and they both nodded to each other, they have no way to deny the "Jiangning Treaty" so far, even if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom does not recognize it, Hong Kong is still in the hands of the British, the five-port trade port has been open for more than ten years, and the concession of Shanghai is still occupied by foreigners, all of this cannot be changed for the time being, and the Taiping Army has no ability to start a war at the same time with the Manchu Qing, Britain and other powers, Xiao Yungui is not the arrogant Cixi of later generations, dare to declare war with eight countries at the same time, All he needs to do is patience for the time being. But Xiao Yungui didn't want to be bound by this treaty, so he had to fool again.

After pondering for a moment, Xiao Yungui pondered the words and said: "Lord Wenhan, I think so, we really can't recognize the "Jiangning Treaty", but the actual benefits that the British have achieved in the treaty, our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can promise to maintain the status quo, until we overthrow the Manchu government, the British will come to negotiate with us to change the treaty, and then we will sign a new treaty, which will be fair to everyone, isn't it?" ”

Lord Wenhan understood that Xiao Yungui's meaning was very clear, officially, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would not recognize any "Jiangning Treaty", but the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could acquiesce in the interests that Britain now held, and when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom overthrew the Manchu Dynasty, Britain could formally recognize the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime and sign a new treaty at the same time. Lord Wenhan believed that even if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom overthrew the Manchus, it would not be a match for Britain, and Britain would definitely take the lead in signing the new treaty.

Lord Wenhan frowned and said, "Your Excellency King Xi, this promise of yours is very insecure, and I don't want my diplomatic efforts to be exchanged for an unsecured promise. ”

Xiao Yungui immediately sneered and said: "Lord Wenhan, my commitment is the same as your Britain's commitment to maintain neutrality, if both sides are bound by a treaty, I don't think it will be possible for both of us to do it, are you Britain willing to agree with our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the form of a treaty between countries to agree on our commitments between the two sides?" ”

Lord Wenhan was immediately speechless, once such a treaty was signed, it would be a disguised recognition of the power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which would cause harm to the relationship between Britain and the Manchus, which Britain did not want to see.

Midil suddenly spoke: "Otherwise, neither side will represent their own governments, but only sign a cooperation agreement in the name of the Xiwangfu and the British Consulate in Shanghai, so that the treaty can be guaranteed at a minimum, and it will not be too difficult for both governments." ”

Midile was indeed very quick, this suggestion gave the two sides of the stalemate a step, this kind of unofficial agreement binding is very weak, it can also be said to be something that can be torn up at any time, which can also be seen that the British do not want to remain neutral all the time, and at the right time they will definitely find an excuse to join the war in China, because where there is war, there will be interests.

Wen Han and Xiao Yungui laughed together, the two of them were like two hypocritical politicians, and at the same time said that Midile's method was very good, in fact, both sides did not want to be bound by any treaty at present, because there were too many variables behind.

Therefore, the two sides agreed that the king of the West would guarantee that Britain's existing interests in China would not be harmed, and although it was tantamount to a disguised recognition of the "Jiangning Treaty", the words "Jiangning Treaty" did not appear in the entire agreement.

Then Xiao Yungui talked about the third condition of the British: "Regarding the third clause put forward by the British, we regret that the Taiping Army will attack the Manchu army nationwide, and Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Guangzhou will definitely be the direction in which we will send troops in the future. ”

Wen Han immediately shook his head and said, "Your Excellency the King of the West, if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom attacks these treaty ports, it will inevitably cause losses to Britain's trade, and you just promised that it will not cause damage to Britain's interests." ”

Xiao Yungui smiled and said, "Lord Wenhan, you are wrong, continuing to let the Manchu army occupy these treaty ports will cause damage to British trade, and only our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's army can capture these treaty ports to help your trade." ”

Wen Han exchanged a look with Midile with some puzzlement, neither of them seemed to understand, once the war spread to these places, it would inevitably cause trade to stop, how could Xiao Yungui say the opposite?

Xiao Yungui went on to say slowly: "Britain needs a lot of raw silk, tea, etc., now our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupies the cities along the Yangtze River, the Yangtze River water transport channel has been cut off, the inland products can not reach Shanghai by water, can only be transshipped by land, this will inevitably cause an increase in the cost of inland foreign goods, and we are about to use troops in the Suzhou and Hangzhou regions, then Shanghai will be more isolated, if our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can not quickly capture Shanghai, then the stalemate will naturally lose British trade." Lord Wenhan, do you think the Manchus will be able to regain lost territory in a short period of time, open up the Yangtze River waterway, or resist our invasion of Suzhou and Hangzhou? Moreover, after the occupation of Shanghai, our Taiping Army will cooperate with the British in many aspects, so that both sides can obtain great benefits from it, after all, the Manchus are too conservative about some commercial activities. ”

Through the observation of the Taiping army in Nanjing, Zhenjiang and other places, Lord Wenhan has found that these rebels are much stronger than the army of the Manchu emperor, and there are many of them, he knows how sharp a new revolutionary Liliang is in the early stage, and he also knows that it is impossible for the decaying army of the Manchu Qing Dynasty to hold Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou, otherwise Wu Jianzhang of Shanghai Dao would not have asked the British ships to come forward to defend, and he would not have come to ask the Taiping army not to attack the treaty port. It seems that Xiao Yungui was right, if the Taiping army conquered the Suzhou and Hangzhou regions, after Shanghai was isolated, the trade routes would be completely blocked, and then it would cause huge losses to British trade.

What made Wen Han even more excited was the cooperation that Xiao Yungui said, as well as the huge benefits, it seems that the Western King felt that the Manchus were too conservative in trade, so what did they think was the unconservative way of cooperation? Wen Han seemed to be a little itchy.

After Wen Han and Midile discussed a few words in a whisper, Wen Han straightened his appearance and coughed lightly: "Well, if the Taiping army can control the situation in Shanghai and Suzhou and Hangzhou in a short period of time, ensure that the Yangtze River shipping does not affect trade, and at the same time lease is safe, we can give up the clause of not attacking Shanghai, but the Taiping army must stabilize the situation within three months." ”

Xiao Yungui smiled faintly and said, "Three months is enough time to attack Shanghai. ”

Then Wen Han asked impatiently: "I also want to have an in-depth understanding with the King of the West, after your army occupies Shanghai, what aspects will cooperate with our Britain?" What are the other areas of great interest? ”