A few days later, Xiao Yungui met with Captain Martin introduced by the British Consulate in Shanghai, and received the secret letter, in which Xiao Yungui rewarded Captain Martin with 100 silver coins, and patiently listened to Captain Martin's indignant account of the barbaric acts of Master Manchu Qingshui, and finally comforted Martin a few words, and at the same time expressed great indignation at the Qing government's rentradition and treachery.

After Captain Martin left, Ali Guo could still be extremely gentlemanly, and he was not as angry as Captain Martin, "Your Royal Highness the King of the West, I believe you already know about this Bohai Bay incident, we have discussed with the French, in view of the Qing State's disregard for the treaty and compliance with the treaty, Britain and France will note the Qing State to terminate the five-party negotiations, we believe that only war can let the Qing government know how to keep its promises." ”

Xiao Yungui fiddled with the secret letter in his hand, the fire paint was still well sealed, Westerners have always attached importance to commitments, Captain Martin has not opened this secret letter, and Ali Guo has not read it, this advantage of Westerners is still worthy of appreciation. Therefore, Captain Martin's extremely angry feelings are also worthy of forgiveness, but Ali Guo's expression seems to be too calm, Xiao Yungui thought for a moment and said, "Mr. Consul, I want to know what else you want us to do besides not having to participate in the five-party talks?" ”

Ali Guo bowed slightly: "Your Excellency the King of the West is really wise, of course we hope that the Taiping Army can once again form an alliance with us to deal with our enemies, the Qing Army and their ignorant leader!" ”

Xiao Yungui touched his nose and smiled slightly: "Clausewitz, a Western Prussian military scientist, has a saying that war is a continuation of politics. Was the war between Britain and France against the Qing with the intention of destroying this regime? Or a limited blow to this regime. And to bring it to its knees? I'm sure you'll choose the latter. We, the Taiping Army, intend to completely overthrow the rule of the Qing government, and the two have different political goals, and we are destined not to become coalition forces. Otherwise, the hands and feet of our Taiping army will be limited to the constraints of the coalition forces. ”

Ah Liguo didn't seem surprised that the King of the West would say this, shrugged his shoulders and said: "This is the third time that you have refused to form a military strike alliance against the Manchus, you must know that although the Taiping army occupied Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi, and Guangdong; Jiangsu, Anhui, Hunan, and Hubei are all part, but on the map of China, the Manchus still occupy most of the territory, Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, Korea and other places still support the Manchus, and the population and number of troops are still twice that of the Taiping army. You need this alliance. ”

Xiao Yungui shook his head and said: "Our army has come to Yunnan, and the provincial capital Kunming will soon be conquered, Yunnan and Guizhou have always been multi-ethnic regions. Once the primary power of the Qing government here is dismantled, it is believed that these two provinces will soon be recovered, and the whole of southern China will be under the rule of our Taiping army, and then we will launch the Northern Expedition. Just like the expulsion of the Mongols by the Ming Dynasty at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Once again, we will recover the world of our Han people. We are going to launch a full-scale military operation, not just a coalition military operation around Jintang, and we are not interested in taking further action against Beijing too soon. ”

Ali Guo nodded and said, "Okay, my Excellency the King of the West, since we have very strict differences in military objectives, then the joint operation has to be abandoned. But we still wanted to make a temporary war agreement with the Taipings, who would have to remain neutral with each other while we were at war with the Manchus. At the same time, we give each other humanitarian assistance, such as encountering each other's injured or lost soldiers. Help must be given to the other person. and intelligence sharing on the military side of the Manchus, and so on. It can be said that this treaty covers everything that can be combined in addition to joint military operations, including battlefield medical aid, intelligence sharing, paid access to war resources, and even the rental of the Shanghai Ordnance Bureau as a place for the maintenance and repair of weapons of the coalition forces.

Of course, Britain and France were very aware of the current affairs and put forward reciprocal conditions, and the Taiping army also enjoyed the military resources of the coalition forces, and even included the use of coalition warships to transport soldiers and so on. This provisional treaty will automatically terminate after the withdrawal of the allied forces from China, and it can be said that although the Anglo-French forces and the Taiping army do not fight together, once this treaty is signed, military cooperation and understanding have been reached to the greatest extent.

Xiao Yungui looked at it and was noncommittal, but asked rhetorically: "Mr. Consul, I am very curious about the occurrence of this Bohai Bay incident, it stands to reason that the speed of Captain Martin's flying scissor merchant ship Tiehan is several times that of the Qing army's old-style Fu ship, why was it intercepted by three Qing warships at sea?" ”

A slight surprise flashed on Ali Guo's face, and then he said with a smile: "I think Captain Martin didn't expect the Qing Navy Master to be so barbaric, you must know that Captain Martin is a good person, he abides by the law very much, and he has no reason to refuse the Qing Army's request to stop the ship for inspection, and there is no reason to just drive the boat away." ”

Xiao Yungui scoffed, a good person would go thousands of miles away and use clippers to transport opium to northern China for smuggling? But he didn't break it, he smiled playfully, and said after a sigh: "But the other piece of information I got here is not described in this way, when Captain Martin was resting in the captain's room, Captain Martin was suffering from a fever and could not command the merchant ships, and the command was in the hands of the first mate Mr. Robinson, I don't know what this Mr. Robinson was thinking about, he ordered the ship to slow down, and finally even ordered the crew of the ship to lay down their weapons of self-defense." ”

Ali Guo shrugged his shoulders and said: "At that time, there were many sailors in the Qing army, and we British people would not joke with our lives, even if Captain Martin was in command at that time, I think he would have made the same choice as Robinson." ”

Xiao Yungui smiled faintly and said: "This is not Captain Martin's style, this captain and his Iron Man clipper ship have a long record of bad deeds in Shanghai Customs, including fighting against the Taiping Army's anti-smuggling ships by force, escaping pursuit, and so on. Although we have not been able to obtain evidence that he escaped, I believe that as long as he is truly caught by the anti-smuggling fleet once, I will make him unforgettable for the rest of his life. ”

Ali Guo said with some embarrassment: "I didn't know that Captain Martin had so many bad deeds, Your Excellency King Xi, you should know that I can't know what every Englishman in China has done. But I would also like to remind Your Excellency the King of the West that the British have diplomatic immunity in Shanghai, and if Captain Martin is caught, please hand it over to us in accordance with the treaty. ”

Xiao Yungui smiled and said: "Of course we absolutely abide by the immunity treaty in Shanghai, but unfortunately you know that Captain Martin likes to run to the open sea, if he is caught by pirates, he will naturally be dealt with in the same way as pirates!" ”

Hearing this, Ali Guo couldn't help but have a headache, the Xiwang couple exploited the loopholes and word games of treaties such as the Nanjing Treaty and the Wangxia Treaty once or twice, and they did not play cards according to common sense, the Taiping Army's anti-smuggling fleet in the open sea was formerly a pirate in the Ningbo Sea, and God knows what they would do to the captured smuggling ships in the open sea where no one was in charge.

But in order to protect the face of the British Empire, Ali Guo immediately protested loudly: "Your Excellency King Xi, please pay attention to your identity and credit, you are blackmailing and threatening!" ”

Xiao Yungui immediately sneered at each other: "I will spare no effort to crack down on smuggling, all smuggling ships that want to escape taxes will be ruthlessly attacked, Mr. Consul, please tell all your merchant ships and merchants in China to be more restrained, do not challenge the bottom limit of this king!" Xiao Yungui also ordered the shipyard to develop its own clippers or increase the speed of the ships.

Ah Liguo was taken by Xiao Yungui's momentum, so he had to say: "I will definitely tell our merchants, but please Your Excellency King Xi must abide by the provisions of the treaty!" In due course, I will strictly enforce the obligations of the customs authorities. ”

Xiao Yungui snorted and said: "Let's go back to the Bohai Bay incident, whether it is intentional or unintentional, I only hope that Britain and France did not deliberately provoke a war, especially in order to attack Beijing first!" ”

Ah Liguo's face froze and said, "Your Excellency King Xi, I don't understand what you are talking about. ”

Xiao Yungui said slowly: "We have a saying in China, it is called brothers who cause trouble to the Xiao Wall, so they will close the door and solve it by themselves, I don't want our war against the Qing Kingdom to change because of the intervention of Britain and France!" At the same time, I wonder if the British and French policies towards the Qing Kingdom were wrong. ”

Ali Guo was silent for a moment before he said: "Your Excellency the King of the West, you have been too worried, we have no territorial claims to the north, please rest assured of this, you should pay attention to the Russians who are ambitious and want to expand eastward. ”

Xiao Yungui nodded and said, "Of course I know this." Well, I will submit this note to the Ministry of Rites for discussion before replying, and there will be a reply in a few days. Ali Guo stood up and bowed slightly respectfully, "I hope it's good news, I'll take my leave first." ”

After sending Ah Liguo away, Xiao Yungui opened the secret letter, but found that there were several blank pieces of paper inside, and there was not a single word at all. Xiao Yungui was puzzled, and invited Bai Zetang's professionals to study this letter, that Bai Zetang's people were masters of writing secret letters, and they had written invisible letters in various ways, and they had studied this kind of invisible letters.

But the man used various methods, fire roasting, soaking in potions, and other methods to make a few pieces of white paper show handwriting, and finally he said helplessly: "Your Highness, either these pieces of paper are written in a way that his subordinates have never seen, or there are no words on them at all, and there are no invisible words, it is just a few blank papers." ”

Xiao Yungui was puzzled for a long time, and finally suddenly startled, and muttered to himself: "There must be something related to the murder of the person who sent the letter, is it ......" (to be continued......