Looking out over the ancient city of Nanjing, Lord Wenhan thought back to the parliamentary resolution forwarded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Maintain strict neutrality, contact the rebels occupying Jiangning, and obtain more information, so that the rebels will strictly abide by the treaties signed by the Qing government with the British." Wen Han himself believed that either the rebels and the Qing court would be desperate for help from the British Empire, and the fact was that no matter which side the British Empire was on, it would be disastrous for the other side. Britain now seems to be manipulating the life and death of both sides, and it only needs to sit back and see which side can give greater benefits, and Britain should lean towards that side. But the decision made by those cowards in the parliament is damn neutral, and even the export of weapons has to be carried out in secret, which is really a waste of great opportunity.

The consulate secretary, Midile, walked up to him, bowed his head slightly, and said, "Your Excellency, I'm leaving." ”

Wen Han put away his divergent thoughts, um, the Midile in front of him is a Chinese expert, not only Chinese is very good, but also knows the character of these Chinese very well, Wen Han said with a smile: "These yellow-skinned rebels actually believe in Christianity, but their leader is a person who claims to be the king of heaven, who claims to be the son of God, Mr. Midile, I want to know what they think in their heads." ”

Midile smiled and said, "Mr. Minister, this is the habit of the Orientals, this is called arrogance, just like the emperor in the city of Beijing, who always thinks that he is the master of the world. ”

Admiral of the British Far East Fleet, Colonel Holber walked over with a pacing step, his shiny soft-soled leather shoes made a "creaking" sound, he patted the crocodile sheath short sword on his waist, and said loudly: "Do we need to send a few shots to let these yellow-skinned monkeys know what is called the majesty of the empire?" ”

Wen Han looked at this arrogant soldier coldly, and said slowly: "When the council authorizes His Excellency the Colonel to go to war, let's show the majesty of your empire, Colonel, what we need now is not this." After speaking, Wen Han ignored He Botie and turned away with a blushing face, and said to Midile: "You take six sailors first, and be sure to tell them our intentions, we want to know more about the strength of these rebels, so as to provide more references for future policies toward China." ”

Midile led six sailors to the dock in a small boat, and a group of guards in red clothes, red scarves and yellow uniforms lined up to greet them, and four palanquin men carried a blue tweed official sedan chair. Many of the Taiping soldiers who saw foreigners for the first time all stared at Midile with curious eyes. Midile got into the official sedan chair, and the six sailors did not leave an inch, and entered Tianjing together with the Taiping army guards.

Midil lifted the sedan curtain and looked at the streetscape, two months ago the Taiping army conquered Tianjing, the city wall was full of bullet holes and broken masonry, thousands of soldiers were repairing the city wall, half of them were women, both fourteen or fifteen-year-old girls, and half-aged in their forties, wearing short-sleeved trousers, or straw sandals or barefoot, doing the heavy work of carrying bricks and stones like men. Midile often saw women with bound feet in Shanghai County and Songjiang Prefecture, but there was none in the Taiping army. It is no wonder that the female soldiers are all from the countryside, and the foot-bound women cannot walk long distances, let alone march to fight. These female soldiers seem to be happy to do these heavy jobs, they chatter and laugh from time to time, unlike the women in the areas occupied by the Qing army, you must know that those women dare not talk much when walking on the street, and the appearance of these female soldiers seems to be more like a normal person.

He also saw a troop of boy scouts, armed with red tassel guns, patrolling the streets and alleys. Many of the walls were decorated with hair ties, no braids were allowed, and all men wore their hair in a bun and tied their hair on top of their heads with ribbons or strips of cloth, but women's clothing remained unchanged.

Escorted by British sailors and Red Turban Guards, Midile came to Hudou Alley on the west side of the Dazhong Bridge in Tongjimen, and stopped in front of a mansion that was originally the residence of Daniel Zhang, the Marquis of Jing, and after the Taiping army conquered Tianjing, it became the royal residence of Xiao Chaogui, the king of the West. Along the way, Midile saw many red turban soldiers patrolling back and forth, all of them were strong and powerful, and at a glance he knew that they were much stronger than the Qing soldiers in Shanghai who yawned and had sleepy eyes at the entrance of the Qing court.

Midile got off the official sedan chair, curiously looked at the black-bottomed gilt plaque on the door of the mansion, with three big characters of "Xiwangfu", a five-meter-high flagpole was erected in front of the door, and the flagpole floated with a striped yellow silk and white-edged flag, and the flag was embroidered with the words "Tianping Heavenly Kingdom Right Bi and Zhengjun Division West Wang Xiao", and thirty-two palace guards dressed in yellow silk and white-edged horse coats held spears and swords, standing majestically on both sides. Midil knew Chinese characters, but he didn't understand what "Right Bi Again" and "Zhengjun Shi" were, but he guessed that the owner of this palace was obviously not the legendary "Heavenly King", but probably the second or third person in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Before he could think about it, an official wearing a yellow silk scarf led him into the lobby of the North Palace.

When I came to the lobby, I saw a man in his thirties sitting there in the center of the hall, his face was dark, his hair was scattered and drooping, a standard Chinese face, a short beard under his chin, and a thick beard on his lips, a pair of big eyes like copper bells stared at the old round, his eyebrows were thick because of the pull of the Sichuan wrinkles between the eyebrows and close together, his cheekbones were high and his nose was high, and a light red scar on his left cheek was very eye-catching, and he was wearing a yellow silk scarf, and the turban was decorated with the word "King of the West" embroidered with gold silk. The shiny robe was covered with a yellow silk dragon and horse coat, and he sat upright in the center of the hall.

There was a woman sitting beside him, this woman was good-looking, also the same yellow silk scarf, wearing a red robe, and also wearing a yellow silk dragon and horse coat, looking like a female general. Midile secretly wondered in his heart, he had seen many oriental beauties, but he felt that the female general in front of him was the most temperamental one among the beauties he had seen.

Midile took off his top hat and bowed respectfully, and the King of Naxi stood up and asked, "Your Excellency is Lord Wenhan, Minister of England?" You are very welcome to come, I am the King of the West of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and this is my wife. Then he stretched out his right fan-sized right hand, signaling to shake his hand.

Midile understood Chinese, but was a little surprised that the seemingly vicious rebel leader in front of him knew the etiquette of shaking hands, because in China, both civil and official, it is a courtesy, even kneeling, and the subtle Chinese are not used to shaking hands with others. He was a little embarrassed, because he didn't introduce himself at the first time and let the King of the West misunderstand, he hurriedly shook the big hand of the King of the West, only felt that the hand of the King of the West was very strong, and hurriedly explained: "Your Excellency the King of the West, I am not the Minister of the British Empire, but the First Secretary of Your Excellency the Minister Midile. Lord Wyndham, Minister of the British Empire, was aboard the Halmis, and he sent his subordinate to contact the King of Heaven. ”

When King Naxi heard the words of the first secretary, he was also a little uncomfortable, and said with some disappointment: "It turns out that Mr. Minister is still on the ship, but he just sent a secretary first." ”

Midile heard that the king of the west was a little displeased, and it was also a little disrespectful on his side, so he did not explain to the Taiping army in advance that Lord Wenhan would not get off the ship for the time being, but they directly sent the supreme leader to receive him, and Midile became even more embarrassed, and hurriedly said: "I am helping Mr. Minister to agree on the meeting time first, after all, everyone is in contact for the first time, and further understanding and recognition are needed, please forgive Your Excellency the king of the west." ”

King Naxi straightened his face and said, "Do you believe what the Qing Demon said, we are all man-eating demons?" Or are you afraid that we will ask your envoy to bow down as he did to the Manchu Emperor? Midile was a little stunned, but he didn't expect that the seemingly rude King of the West in front of him would express Lord Wenhan's worries in a word, and when he didn't know how to answer, the King of the West got up and said: "You can rest assured that we are much more civilized than the Qing Demons, and we will not be more barbaric than them, and besides, we are all God's people, and we don't need to bow down to this king, oh, by the way, the Qing Demon I am talking about is the Manchu Qing." ”

Midile breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed that he had found the right person, and he also smiled and said: "Your Excellency the King of the West, thank you very much for your reception, I did find that you are different from the Qing army, I hope that our contact will be pleasant in the future." Midile's Chinese dialect has a foreign accent, and he bites his tongue, but the meaning is very clear.

The king of Naxi smiled, as if he didn't take the British disrespect to heart, and pointed to a Taishi chair and said, "Mr. Midile, let's sit down and talk, I believe that Lord Wenhan sent you here first to test us first, do you want to convey something for him?" ”

Midile didn't expect the King of the West to see the purpose of his trip at a glance, and it was true that Lord Wenhan didn't want to come forward in person as soon as he came, precisely because he was worried that this group of rebels would be even more barbaric than the Qing army, but now it seems that this King of the West seems to be more enlightened, and he pondered the words and said: "Your Excellency the King of the West, you are a wise person, and Lord Wenhan is indeed worried that you are as arrogant and rude as those officials of the Qing Kingdom, so he sent me first." Lord Wenham is a minister on behalf of the British Empire, please understand his position and some of the things that need to be maintained. ”

King Naxi laughed and said: "I understand, you have to maintain the dignity of your empire where the sun never sets, the first contact, those who don't know are not guilty, and this king can not worry about you." Mr. Midile, if you have anything to say, please say it. ”

Midile liked this straightforwardness of the King of the West, unlike those Qing officials, whose words flickered and went around, and immediately stood up and presented a document: "Lord Wenhan asked me to bring a copy of the Jiangning Treaty in Chinese, and asked me to convey the following words to His Excellency Tianwang, the head of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Your army is at war with the emperor's army. The British are friends of all Chinese and will not help the emperor's army to attack the army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, nor will they help the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to fight the emperor's army. We will remain neutral in your civil war and are willing to trade with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Our country had signed the "Treaty of Jiangning" with the emperor's government, and Lord Wenhan made a special trip to meet the Heavenly King Bixia to understand the political intentions of the Heavenly Government, and asked the Heavenly King Bixia to abide by the "Jiangning Treaty" signed between the British Empire and the emperor's government, and not to attack the five treaty ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Guangzhou, so as not to cause unnecessary misunderstandings. As for the specific matters, Lord Wenhan, Minister Plenipotentiary of the British Empire, will meet with the Heavenly King Bixia. I ask Your Excellency the King of the West to agree with the other heads of heaven on the time, place, and etiquette, and inform me, and I will convey it to Lord Wenhan. ”

King Xi's smiling face disappeared, he frowned and looked at the paperwork, he didn't pick it up, a person who looked like a master on the side took it on his behalf, King Xi said with some displeasure: "Mr. Midile, you don't have to give me this, I have memorized the content of the Jiangning Treaty by heart." I understand the British request, and we will consider it carefully, but you are just a secretary, and some things are better to discuss with Lord Wenham face to face, and I don't want unnecessary misunderstandings when I pass the word. In this case, you go down to the side hall to rest for a while, we will discuss it for a while, and we will give you an answer. ”

Midile understood why the King of the West was a little unhappy, after all, the Treaty of Jiangning was a defeated treaty for China, he could understand this feeling, and he also understood that the King of the West might need to ask the mysterious Emperor for instructions, so after bowing, a West Temple attendant led Midile and his party to the side room of the West Palace.