The Tsar's attempt came as a surprise to many of his ministers, many of whom even privately believed that the Tsar was due to his first girlfriend, Queen Victoria.

But in the end, Prince Gorchakov's words dispelled everyone's doubts, and Prince Gorchakov believed that there were several advantages to cooperating with Britain and France at this time, one of which was that it could alleviate the contradictions with Britain and France, and agreed to jointly send troops to exchange for some economic and trade benefits for Russia; A year ago, Muravyov returned to China to report on his work but failed to get a single soldier to go to the Far East, and this time the Tsar generously sent the only reserve he could use to the Far East, which shows that the Tsar saw an opportunity, and he hoped to use the big advantage of the British and French forces to get back what he had lost in the Far East; Third, if the war in the Far East can be won, then Russia will begin to expand eastward, and at the same time, the victorious countries will get a lot of benefits, the East is rich, and when the time comes, even the war reparations will be able to make the empty Russian treasury full again.

The benefits of sending troops were magnified and exaggerated by Prince Gorchakov, and the Russian ministers began to prepare for negotiations with Britain and France, and their bargaining chip was to be able to send 30,000 Cossack cavalry, although the strength was not much, but the courage of the Cossack cavalry would have a great deterrent to the Taiping army in the Far East, especially in the vast and sparsely populated northeast region.

The enthusiasm of the Russians to enter the war was obviously beyond the expectations of the British minister, who immediately reported the news to the country, and then continued to discuss with the Russians the terms of sending troops and the distribution of benefits after the war.

Dealing with the Russians was also a surprise to Palmerston, who had thought that the Russians would be more difficult to speak than the French, but now he let go of this concern. Unfortunately, dismal news came from France. The French showed little interest in organizing an expeditionary force again, and their focus was now on the war with Austria, which had begun at the end of last year.

After entering the 50s. The Italian national liberation movement was on the rise again, and the big bourgeoisie and the liberal aristocracy tried to use France to recover the territories occupied by Austria. In order to achieve national unity. The French Emperor Napoleon III, on the other hand, used the "liberation" of Italy as a pretext to try to realize his territorial ambitions. In June 1858, the Prime Minister of Sardinia, C.B. Cavour, and Napoleon III concluded an anti-Austrian military alliance in Pronnbière, in which France promised to send troops to assist Sardinia and expel Austrian power from Lombardy and Venice on the condition that Sardinia cede Savoy and Nice to France. On April 26, 1859, Austria declared war on Sardinia. On the 29th, the Austrian army of about 170,000 men (with F. Giullet as commander-in-chief) crossed the Tisuno River and entered Piedmont. Then France declared war on Austria, and war broke out.

Of course, the French emperor was very dissatisfied with the total annihilation of the French army in the Far East, and when he met with the British ambassador to France, he scolded him, saying that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the Far East was a pseudo-clerical country, a country abandoned by God, and they used God's goodness to bring their sins into this world, and France would definitely teach them a heavy lesson when the time came!

The attitude of the French was clear: they were indeed not opposed to retaliatory warfare and to organize an expeditionary force again. But now is not the time, the war between the French and Austria is still going on, and it is necessary to wait until the war on this side of France is over to free up.

At that time, in addition to Austria as an enemy, France also had a rising Prussia to watch out for. This also gave the Emperor a headache. At the same time, France was also very unstable internally, and during the Second Empire, French industry developed rapidly. The fifties to the sixties. The Industrial Revolution was completed. The total industrial output increased almost 2 times compared to the forties, of which iron, steel, rails, etc., increased by 2 to 9 times. However. This is not the work of Napoleon III, but the result of the capitalists' concentration on personal enrichment. It is the result of "the bourgeoisie compensating for its political defeat with economic victories." In particular, the rapid growth of usury capital led to the later emergence of France as a usury country. By 1866, 14 countries had received loans from French banks.

The Industrial Revolution and the reactionary policies of imperialism deepened the class divisions at home, the class struggle in France intensified, and the bourgeoisie, who had made great economic progress, were no longer satisfied with the status quo and wanted to be the masters of the country and dominate the French regime. As a result, secret revolutionary organizations emerged one after another, and the assassination of the emperor was repeated year after year, with Italians dropping bombs on the Emperor and Empress last year, and attempted assassinations being cracked this year, and the Second Empire was in danger of overturning at any time. In order to consolidate the imperial system and keep the crown, Napoleon III repeatedly used his uncle's image, such as encouraging the staging of plays about Napoleon, and ordered the compilation and publication of the "Napoleonic Letters" as many as 32 volumes, and trumpeted the worship of Napoleon. At the same time, he actively waged foreign wars, hoping to divert the attention of domestic opponents, so France and Austria fought over Italy.

Palmerston was somewhat surprised by the attitude of the French, but he understood that the French needed to wait for the end of the war with Austria, but he hoped that the French Emperor would make it clear that he would participate in the Far East in the future, so that the British Cabinet would have the upper hand in the war debate.

After several consultations with France, the French Emperor also saw that Austria could not hold out in the war, and that negotiations might soon take place, and that French victory was in sight, and that he also needed to find the next target for the war. Originally, if it weren't for the Taipings, Napoleon III's next target would be Mexico after the war in Austria was over, but now he had a better choice.

Thus, in March 1860, half a year had passed since the Taiping Army declared war with Britain and France, and Britain, France, and Russia held a seven-day meeting in Paris.

France and Russia are still countries where the emperor has the final say, and there is no problem in preparing for war, except that France needs to wait for the end of the war in Austria, while the Russian Cossack cavalry is ready to sail to the Far East first, and the headache is Britain, although diplomatic efforts have led to the expedition of the three countries, but the British finally need the approval of the parliament.

So the problem turned back to England, and the lengthy parliamentary debate continued, but fortunately the French did not rush and the British still had time to complete the procedures they had to complete.

Before the vote on Prime Minister Palmerston's war proposal, the British people were not idle, and many people spoke against this proposal at the mass meeting: Elgin's actions in China were illegal, they rashly intervened in the Chinese civil war, stopped Sino-British trade, killed many innocent people, and the new taxes for this purpose were not only added to us, but also to the Indian people, can Cobbton and his friends agree to this war? The crowd shouted: No! Then there was a loud cry: Ergin's war history in the Far East had failed, after the Prime Minister forcibly dissolved Parliament so that the last expedition could be carried out, but now they do not review the heavy losses of Britain for their own mistakes, but continue to wage war! This is disrespectful to the British people as a whole! All kinds of qiē are not good for Palmerston. Because according to the rules of the game in the United Kingdom, only the House of Commons is elected by the voters, and the House of Commons must be accountable to the voters; The government must be accountable to the House of Commons.

If Palmerston loses in the House of Commons, according to the British Constitution, the Cabinet loses the support of the House of Commons and either resigns, or the Prime Minister asks the King to dissolve Parliament and hold a new general election to finally decide whether the Cabinet will stay or not. The last time Palmerston had already played the hand of dissolving Congress, but this time it was different, even if he forcibly dissolved Congress, in the next general election, the Whigs will inevitably not be able to obtain a majority of seats due to the great decline in popular support. The same method is no longer suitable for another time, so Palmerston's last hope is the Queen of England, he hopes that the Queen will fulfill her promise, and now that France and Russia have made it clear that they will go to war, he needs the Queen's support!

Before the final vote in the House of Commons, the Queen of England appeared in the House of Commons, which broke with the previous practice, and in the stunned eyes of the members of the House of Commons, Queen Victoria gave a speech to all the MPs: "The interests of the British Empire need to be maintained, and the maintenance of such interests cannot be obtained from groveling negotiations, and we must accept the enemy's prayers for peace as victors, so as to be in the spirit of our British Empire!" (cheers). Now it is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that has taken the initiative to declare war on us, and even if there are many reasons, it cannot change any outcome, and in the face of the declaration of war, as an Englishman. A brave Englishman should rise to the challenge with courage and a duty to do everything in his power to deal with these acts of violence, and to retaliate with force in exchange for the promise of peace (another cheer). If we do not agree with what we believe is the right measure, we will be betraying the trust of the people. If we ourselves were in the same situation, we would also think that it was our duty to take these measures, for the sake of interest and the dignity of the British Empire, please do not let the blood of the 18,000 heroic British soldiers before us flow! And don't let future children and grandchildren be disgraced by our decisions now! (cheers from the audience). ”

In a thousand words, the Queen of England has only one meaning, and that is that it is the duty of the government to protect its people and preserve the dignity of the empire, even if he is far away, otherwise it will be impossible for the government to do anything. In this regard, Marx commented on the third expedition to the Far East launched by Britain: "No matter how the people of England and the people of the world may be deceived by these rhetoric, the majority of the people will never believe that his words are true, but in the face of the test of national interests and dignity, no one is willing to show the slightest cowardice in front of the noble queen!" ”

The Queen's unprecedented speech in the House of Commons quickly became a household name, and the British people loved the Queen, and her words and deeds were enough to influence their decisions. There were only tears in their eyes, and they had nothing more to do than vote.

A few days later, on May 23, the result of the vote in the British House of Upper and Lower Houses was naturally the Prime Minister's proposal for war, and the British war planes began to work, and they waited for the French to prepare for war...... (To be continued......)