The last time was more than 20 days ago, when the coalition forces captured Tianjin, and the US minister Levielian took the US warship Minnesota to follow the coalition navy, and the Americans actually wanted to follow Britain and France to gain more benefits. Unexpectedly, a few days later, the Anglo-French army was blocked in Tongzhou, and the Taiping army stopped in front of the Anglo-French army like a divine soldier, and did not allow the allied army to take a step forward in the Manchu capital.

Although Britain and France attacked their enemy the Manchus, everyone knew that Britain and France would not help the Taiping Army to destroy the Manchus, on the contrary, once Britain and France occupied the capital and reached a new treaty with the Manchus, they would strongly support the Manchus to continue the civil war.

So, feeling that the situation was unclear, Levie returned to the Minnesota, and sure enough, he didn't wait too long, and recently got the shocking news, the Taiping Army declared war with Britain and France, and then in the next few days, the British and French forces were defeated, and yesterday the last warship of the British and French Navy left Dagu Pass and retreated south, and Lieweilian guessed that the British and French forces that landed should be completely annihilated.

When the British and French navies retreated, Admiral Massimogri, commander of the British Naval Expeditionary Fleet, persuaded Lieweilian to go south with the fleet, but Levilian refused, his reason was very simple, the United States and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not declare war, there was no need to retreat south with Britain and France, so only the American warship Minnesota was left in the waters off the mouth of Dagu.

Later yesterday, the Taiping Army reoccupied Dagukou and sent personnel to contact the U.S. warship. Then the Taiping army brought orders from the king of the west, and they invited American friends to call at the port. Ask Lie Weilian to go to Tianjin to meet with the king of the west.

Realizing that the opportunity had come, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom seemed to have declared war on Britain and France in a hurry. However, after all, the three sides have a lot of cooperation projects in Jiangnan, and neither side should want to continue the war, and the United States, as a neutral country, can appear as a mediator, which is an excellent opportunity for the United States to expand its influence in the Far East.

So, this afternoon, Lie Weilian rushed to Tianjin with a group of entourage. Order had been restored to the city, and a large number of prisoner-of-war camps had been built outside the city to hold British and French prisoners of war, while the city was a busy scene. Citizens and soldiers of the Taiping Army were busy carrying all kinds of supplies, and the Taiping Army opened the granaries to distribute food to the ordinary people to compensate for the losses they suffered in the war of aggression of the British and French forces. Along the way, Lie Weilian found that the people in the Jintang area were not afraid of these rebels, on the contrary, they regarded the Taiping Army as a great benefactor who rescued them from the hands of "foreign devils".

"The rebels have gained the approval and support of the local population for resisting foreign aggression, and it seems that they will soon gain a foothold here." Lie Weilian secretly slandered himself. Soon came to the location of the original headquarters of the coalition forces in Tianjin. This was originally the location of the Tianjin Government Office, which was previously used as the headquarters of the coalition forces, and Lie Weilian came here at that time, but he didn't expect that the owner had changed here in a short period of time.

King Xi's personal soldiers brought Lev Weilian and a deputy and an interpreter into the inner hall. The rest of the entourage rested in the side hall, and after entering the inner hall, Lie Weilian was surprised to find that there were several acquaintances sitting inside. Sir Elgin of England and Sir Gro of France were present, as well as several of their deputies and interpreters. On the side of the Taiping army, there were King Xi, Qianjiang and others.

Aren't Elgin and Gro supposed to be prisoners? Why are you still sitting here? Before Lev Weilian could figure it out, the King of the West had already gotten up and opened his mouth to explain his confusion: "Sir Ergin and Sir Gro are diplomats. They will continue to carry out their duties of diplomatic negotiation if they deserve courtesy. Mr. Lev Wai Lian. Nice to see you. As he spoke, King Xi politely stretched out his right hand.

Lie Weilian hurriedly took off his hat and shook hands with the king of the west, and then bowed, Lie Weilian sat down, his seat was on the side of the Taiping army representative, across the long table and Erjin and others.

King Xi sat back on the throne and said with a smile: "Since the people are here, let's start." I think everyone is surprised by the war between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Britain and France, but our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also has the obligation to safeguard the territorial integrity of the country, so the military operation of the British and French expeditionary forces to the north completely broke the bottom limit of what we could bear, and at the same time, during the military confrontation between the two sides, we first sent reconnaissance teams to attack our camp, so the war broke out. ”

Hearing that the King of the West was defining the war, Sir Ergin said very dissatisfied: "Your Royal Highness the King of the West, please note that when the British and French expeditionary forces went north, they informed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and we did not hide anything, and we also invited you to participate in this military operation together, but unfortunately you refused. You have never protested or objected to anything before, and there is nothing wrong with the scout's actions being routine reconnaissance. Your Royal Highness the King of the West, don't put all the responsibility for the war on our heads! ”

Sir Gro agreed, and Lev smiled knowingly, saying nothing, as a neutral country, we should not take a position lightly, nor should we take sides, this is the basic requirement.

King Xi was not angry, he smiled and said: "Sir Elgin, there has been a local conflict between Britain and our Taiping Navy in the Wanshan Islands before, and there is no perfect solution to this incident, and the negotiations between the two sides have lasted for a long time, and that time it should be the British warship that fired the first cannon attack on us." ”

In the Wanshan Islands incident, Britain has not promised to pay reparations and apologize, so it has been dragged out and not resolved, but Ergin has always felt that this does not affect anything, because the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has not strongly protested, but Britain has been delaying with negotiations, but I didn't expect that the king of the West has been thinking about this matter.

Without waiting for Ergin to speak, the King of the West continued: "In fact, what Britain did at that time was an act of war, and we have endured it until now!" And when your expeditionary force went north, the advance report was to coerce the Manchu government to conclude a new treaty, and it did not say that you would occupy Beijing, the capital of the Manchu Dynasty! Our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wants to overthrow the tyranny of the Manchu government and complete the unification of the whole country, and your intention to occupy the capital is to seize the place that our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom should be able to occupy in the near future, which threatens our sovereign integrity! At the same time, when our Taiping army has completed the siege of the capital, your British and French expeditionary forces are still delusional about negotiating the intention of occupying the capital together, which we cannot tolerate. ”

At this time, Qian Jiang interjected: "Sir Ergin, we have made this point clear many times in the Tongzhou negotiations before, but the British and French troops ignored it, so the war broke out later!" At the same time, the Anglo-French alliance cooperated with a rebel army of tens of thousands of Manchus, which violated your own statement of neutrality and intended to intervene in our civil war by force, which our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could not tolerate, so it was you who started the war. ”

Sir Ergin and Sir Gro immediately opened their mouths to quibble, but their quibbles seemed very pale and weak, Lieweilian secretly laughed in his heart that the British and French were deflated, the Taiping Army seemed to be legally defensible except for sneak attacks in military operations, if the British and French expeditionary forces were only for their own interests, they sent troops north to force the Manchus to sign a contract, this was no problem, but the bad thing was that they cooperated with Ronglu's rebels, and they also clearly played the banner of representing the political tendency, to overthrow the current Manchu government and set up a new Manchu government, This is a clear intervention in the civil war, they have given up their neutral position, and naturally broke through the bottom limit of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the United States would do the same.

Thinking of his country, Lieweilian's heart tightened, now the domestic situation is very unstable, Lincoln, the Republican leader who opposes slavery, will participate in the presidential election, and the Southern delegates have already made out their words, once Lincoln is elected, the South will take countermeasures. This is a hidden danger of civil war, and it is possible that the United States will also have a civil war like China in the future. And if a civil war breaks out in the United States, and any country of Britain and France blatantly sends troops into the United States, this is an act of war, and it seems that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can endure until now is the limit.

Thinking from this, Levalian did not feel that Britain and France had been wronged by the sneak attack, but as Caucasians, Levalian had to bite the bullet and say: "Your Excellency the King of the West, Elgin and Sir Gro, please listen to me speak on behalf of the United States. So the two sides quickly quieted down and stopped arguing for the time being.

"First of all, we in the United States are sorry to see the outbreak of war between the two sides, which will inevitably affect the trade activities of every country in the Far East, and we, the United States, as a neutral country, hope to mediate this war, and that the two sides can be sober and restrained, and then return to the negotiating table to start peace talks, end the state of war, and restore order in the Far East," Lie. Gentlemen, we have no regret medicine, what happened is in the past, there is no point in investigating the causes of the war, and the problem we need to solve is how to defuse the current crisis. ”

Xiao Yungui secretly sneered, Lie Weilian said it beautifully, shifted his attention to negotiations, and did not dwell on the causes of the war, which was a bit biased towards Britain and France, but he did not break it, and the resumption of negotiations was what he needed.

Then Lev cleared his throat and continued: "But I would like to remind Your Excellency the King of the West that although Elgin and Sir Groh are diplomats, they are now under the control of the Taiping Army, and they have lost their independent and free bodies, and although they are still exercising their powers, the results of such negotiations will not be recognized by the two governments. Therefore, I would like to suggest that you first return the members of the diplomatic corps and then change the venue of the negotiations to our American warship, the USS Minnesota, so that it is completely in line with the internationally accepted jurisprudence. ”

Lie Weilian's intention is very clear, the person is in your hands, so the result of the negotiation will naturally not take effect, this is a kind reminder to the king of the west, and at the same time, he also hopes to rescue Ergin and the others first, at least on the American warship, they will be equivalent to regaining their freedom and no longer being prisoners.

Xiao Yungui asked Lie Weilian to come because he wanted to figure out that the United States would release the diplomats and politicians first, so Xiao Yungui agreed without hesitation, so Ergin and Gro and their party were released on the spot, and the two sides agreed to resume negotiations on the US warship Minnesota two days later. (To be continued......)