Negotiation is a face-to-face game, it is very necessary to test each other at the beginning, if you can test the depth of the other party at the beginning, then you will be able to gain the upper hand in the next negotiation, of course, weak countries have no diplomacy.

Xiao Yungui's brushing away was a kind of temptation, he had already learned from the intelligence what the Manchu rebels had done, and at the same time he probably understood what the Manchu conservative nobles led by Mianyu, Ronglu and others wanted to do, they just wanted to overthrow the rule of the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was too different from history, and then use the power of foreigners to row the Yellow River with the Taiping army to rule, in order to achieve a respite. And Xiao Yungui's use of Rong Lu and Gong Cheng's identities to go crazy was a kind of temptation, and he was testing how far the British and French would support this rebel army.

Xiao Yungui ignored Ergin's roar behind him, venting his anger to no avail, this minister should be thinking about how to deal with the problem given by the King of the West, without any negotiations with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom on the war in the capital, it is obviously unrealistic to turn his face with the Taiping army because of the identity of Rong Lu and the two.

So, when Xiao Yungui was leisurely sipping tea in another tent, the members of the British and French envoys urgently began consultations. Britain and France spent huge sums of money to wage this war, the original intention was to bring the Manchu government in the north to its knees, and then Britain and France established a pro-British and French regime in the north, and then confronted the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so that they could achieve the goal of maximizing their interests in China, and at that time, whether it was the Manchu Qing or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Britain and France could be left and right, as long as the war continued. The demand for arms and other materiel on both sides will not be reduced, and the export of arms and other materiel will be controlled. Britain and France can better access the valuable resources and markets of both parties.

However, the presence of the Taiping army on the outskirts of Beijing almost shattered this good wish of the British and French, and the expedition that cost a lot of money was aborted because of this. Then the British and French cabinets at home will collapse in an instant, and the war will be unsustainable. Therefore, Ergin and Gro must weigh the current situation, and it may be a good choice to retreat and occupy Beijing jointly with the Taiping army, as long as they can preserve a certain amount of power of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, then the British and French will have more options, and if they start a war with the Taiping army now, the probability of defeat will be very large.

The only way to achieve what the military cannot achieve is through negotiations, but at the moment negotiations cannot continue because of the identity of the two people. As a wise and sophisticated diplomat, he naturally knows how to choose. So after calming down, Erjin and Gro reached an agreement to let Rong Lu and Gong Cheng, two people who were "hated" by the king of the west, withdraw from the negotiations.

Half an hour later, King Xi returned to the negotiation table again, Xiao Yungui smiled with satisfaction, he already knew where the bottom limit of Britain and France was, and the Manchu rebels were not indispensable to them, so the next negotiations would be easy to handle.

At the beginning of the negotiations, Britain and France still assumed their usual boss posture. The Taiping army was required to abandon the military operation against the capital as compensation, and after the war, Britain and France could give a part of the war reparations of the Manchu Qing Dynasty to the Taiping army as military compensation.

For this unreasonable demand. The Chinese personnel represented by Xiao Yungui naturally scoffed, and the Taiping army repeatedly stressed that the ultimate political goal of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was to overthrow the corrupt Manchu government. A multi-ethnic state headed by the Han nation was re-established, and the Taiping Army was on its own territory. It had the power to strike at any Qing army entrenched anywhere, with the Manchu capital as the most important target. It was impossible for the Taiping army to abandon the attack on Beijing.

The two sides argued over their own words, and finally the British and French ministers became angry and threatened that if the Taiping army did not give in, Britain and France would impose sanctions in the Jiangnan area, including the withdrawal of capital from construction projects under construction and about to be built, as well as the withdrawal of all technical forces and personnel, and the imposition of a trade embargo.

Xiao Yungui naturally knew the consequences of the British and French blackmail, but he still said with a smile: "Before you British and French goods and those so-called industrial forces, the people in this land lived very well, we are not afraid of embargoes, we are not afraid of divestment, we are not afraid of technological restrictions, the diplomatic strategy you believe in is that the axiom is only within the range of the cannon, since this is the case, we don't want to talk about any trade embargo, we just fight a war to decide what to do?" ”

Erjin and Gro were stunned for a while, the name of the West King's fortitude had already been famous, it was evident that he insisted on not agreeing to withdraw the Taiping army from the north, but he didn't expect him to say such things in such a calm tone at this moment, obviously he was not an impulsive language, but already confident.

If the current problem can be solved by simple warfare, Ergin and Ge Luo will not sit here and argue with Xiao Yungui, and the current problem is that the British and French expeditionary forces have the ability to defeat the Manchu army and capture the capital, but to deal with more than twice the Taiping army, Ergin and Ge Luo have no bottom in their hearts.

Even the Manchu army with backward weapons was able to show very tenacious combat effectiveness in the previous engagements, and as an assessment, the Taiping army, which could defeat the Manchu army, although its combat effectiveness may not be as strong as the British and French armies, but at least there was not much difference, and the 20,000 expeditionary forces had to deal with more than 40,000 elite soldiers who were known as the first army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the British and French commanders knew that the battle would not be easier than the Crimean War.

Xiao Yungui This is the second time he has tried it, he is testing the bottom limit of the British and French alliance, and he is also showing his attitude that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will not agree to the British and French to occupy the capital alone. But he knew that since the British and French were willing to sit down at the negotiating table, it meant that they would not start a war lightly, and sure enough, this time he expected it again.

Ergin and Gro both turned pale, and the British and French military attaches accompanying them were also calmly analyzing, the military attaches who followed them this time were all officers of the General Staff, and one of their very important duties was to observe the combat effectiveness of the Taiping Army that they could see. From the moment they entered the Taiping army's defense line, the officers noticed the Taiping army's weapons and equipment and the soldiers' mental outlook, they used hot weapons, and basically did not see the broadswords, spears, bows and arrows equipped with the Manchu army. There was also a lot of artillery in the barracks, of all types, and there were even rocket mounts, which the British were familiar with, and it was very similar to the Congreve rocket.

As for the morale and plainness of the soldiers, it is not to mention that the barracks are full of shirtless soldiers carrying supplies, they are strong, full of spirit, and high morale, which is definitely not comparable to those old-style armies of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Wu Shili had heard many soldiers shouting slogans, "Hit the capital and destroy the Manchus!" It can be seen that the soldiers of the Taiping Army are very enthusiastic about capturing Beijing, and anyone who dares to stand in front of them will definitely be torn to pieces.

After a brief assessment, Wu Shili and other officers of the Anglo-French staff all agreed that this Taiping army was not easy to deal with, in other words, the Anglo-French army was not sure of victory. When discussing the negotiators before, Wu Shili had a brief exchange of views with Erjin and Ge Luo, and war was the next policy.

However, for the sake of political negotiations, Ergin did not give in lightly, and still exaggerated the fact that Britain could send a fleet to attack any port of the Taiping army, and could send troops to land at any point along the long coastline south of the Yangtze River defended by the Taiping army.

In the end, Xiao Yungui said slowly: "The people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom hate war but are not afraid of war, we are not weak Manchu Qing, although the British fleet is very strong, but we have a complete local village soldier system, and we also have a complete military garrison, I believe that our army and people will destroy an enemy who dares to land in the interior!" If Britain and France go to war with us because of Beijing, then the first thing you have to consider is how to get the allied soldiers from Tongzhou to Tientsin and Dagu to withdraw safely from their ships, and I believe that once the war starts, these armies will be wiped out in a very short time! ”

It was still a tough response, without the slightest hint of backing down, Ergin and Ge Luo were very frustrated, but they obviously downplayed the actual content of Xiao Yungui's words, thinking that his remarks were just false words and intimidation, because at this time they had not yet realized what a people's war was, and after the Taiping army had effectively ruled Jiangnan, it already had the basis to launch a people's war.

In the evening, after a full day of negotiations, no substantive progress was made, and the two sides adjourned, after which the envoys were separately arranged for dinner and rest. After dinner, the envoys gathered in Elgin's tent to discuss countermeasures.

Pashali thought it was time to teach the people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom a lesson, and although it might have caused losses to the British merchants in the Jiangnan region, it had to be done. Wu Shili believed that caution should be exercised, and it would be very unwise to start a war without military superiority.

Ergin was silent, only listening to the quarrels and discussions among his men, and finally Lord Gro said: "Gentlemen, perhaps we should try to change the tactics of the negotiations tomorrow, and we should be practical and discuss with the Taiping army the possibility of jointly occupying Beijing." ”

Sir Ergin said with some depression: "Your Excellency, the ultimate goal of our occupation of Beijing is different from that of the Taiping Army, and there is a very big gap in the middle, they want to eliminate the Manchu regime in Beijing, while we want to support a new government in the north, and the gap between them makes it difficult for us to reach a consensus on jointly occupying Beijing. ”

Lord Gro said: "Since we are talking to the Taiping army about joint occupation, then we have to make some concessions, and they also have to compromise some things, such as their occupation of Peking, and we take over all the royal family and officials of the Manchus, and then we can escort them to the northeast and re-establish the government, which can also achieve our desired goal." ”

Wu Shili agreed with the idea, but Pashali was silent, and Sir Ergin was a little moved, and finally he saw Rong Lu standing behind him, and asked, "What does General Rong think?" ”

Rong Lu still smiled so gloomily, shook his head and said: "According to my understanding of the King of the West, he will not let go of the Manchu royal family, let alone those officials, we should still consider the matter of starting a war, there is no other way." With that, Rong Lu smiled and turned his head out of the tent. (To be continued......)