There was really more than one person who was troubled, and the British Minister Bao Ling, who was in Tianjing, was also very troubled, and he couldn't understand how Grant, a cautious person, could have a conflict with the Taiping army, and it was still at this juncture.

According to the treaty with the Taiping Army, Bao Ling only agreed to open the mouth of the Pearl River and agree to the Taiping Army's commitment to occupy Canton in exchange for the opening of a consulate in Tianjing and the favorable conditions of Tianjing becoming a treaty port. When the news of the conflict broke out, Bao Ling was still enthusiastic about setting up the British Consulate in Tianjing, and at that time he believed that it would not be long before the Consulate would become the British Embassy in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, becoming the first country to have an embassy district in China. Moreover, Bao Ling finally opened the way to China's inland golden waterway for the British Empire, and Tianjing's becoming a treaty port marked the golden waterway of the Yangtze River slowly opening its arms to Britain, which was the dream of the British.

Unfortunately, a conflict interrupted Bao Ling's dream, but in order to maintain the dignity of the British Empire, Bao Ling had to be tough, but Bao Ling was worried about angering the tougher King of the West, and then let Britain lose what he had gained overnight. After losing these things, Britain would have to wage a larger war to retake it, but would the Taiping army be as easy to deal with as the Qing army? The answer is obviously no, in Tianjing City, Bao Ling saw more fanatical soldiers and civilians, and he knew the strength of the Taiping army after dealing with the Taiping army for many years, although he believed that the British would win the victory, but the price would be very high, because China was too far away from the British.

Fortunately, the French minister, Bourbulon, was also in Tianjing, and the Frenchman enthusiastically agreed to mediate the incident. Nor did the French seem to want to see trade cut off because of war.

However, when Bourblon returned with dismal news, the King of the West was extremely tough, and in turn demanded an apology and compensation from the British. This made Bao Ling very angry. Originally, Bao Ling planned that if the King of the West had the sincerity to make the big thing small, he could reduce the amount of compensation a little, as long as the dignity of the British Empire could be preserved. But unexpectedly, things became more and more difficult to clean up, Bao Ling walked back and forth impatiently, and when he saw Bourblon's smiling expression, Bao Ling was shocked, and secretly thought that the French would not want to take this opportunity to expand or even replace the British position in the Far East. If Britain and the Taiping went to war, France could stay out of the way and wait until the war was over, whichever side won. France was not harmed in the slightest. If the British won, they could take advantage of the situation to stabilize the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and sign the same unequal treaties as the British to achieve greater benefits, and if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom won, the French could swagger to take the British place and continue to trade with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It then took the place of the United Kingdom.

Bao Ling clenched his fists. I thought that this kind of thing must not happen! But if you don't want to start a war with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, do you have to bow to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom according to the conditions proposed by the King of the West? They are still an unrecognized rebel group, where will the dignity of the British Empire and the glory of the navy go?

After much hesitation, Bao Ling decided to personally interview the king of the west, and the French could participate, but they could no longer take the lead, and it was better for the British to take the lead in the diplomatic negotiations. Bao Ling then submitted a negotiating note to the Ministry of Rites of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom through Burbulon, and the next day Bao Ling received the news that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had agreed to negotiate with the British to settle the dispute.

The negotiations were held at the Yamen of the Ministry of Rites, and the King of the West did not participate. Sitting opposite Bao Ling was the number three person of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zuo Zongtang, the prime minister of the left. In the eyes of foreigners. It is unanimously agreed that Xi Wang Niang is the second person in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom now, because this princess has different powers, and Zuo Zongtang is the third person, and Shi Dakai, the winged king in Wuchang, is the fourth person, just because Shi Dakai is far away from the administrative center of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and his influence on national affairs is too small.

The negotiations did not go well, and at the beginning the two sides engaged in a long debate about the cause of the conflict, in short, the public said that the public was right, and the British accused the Taiping fleet of being the first to hang the red flag representing the attack, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom accused the British of being the first to open fire on the Taiping warships. It's like a fight in the Plain Suri market, there may be mistakes on both sides, or misunderstandings on both sides, but in short, it's a slap in the face.

There was no substantial progress that day, and the next day Bao Ling changed his tactics and began to show off his force and threaten, and his accompanying Rear Admiral He Bo brazenly declared that he could lead the Far East Shanghai Detachment to destroy the Taiping batteries in Shanghai in half a day.

On the side of the Taiping army, Li Kaifang, who followed the negotiations, ridiculed Rear Admiral He Bo's defeat at Dagukou, and the British fleet could not even defeat the Manchu army, so why was he brave?

The enraged Rear Admiral He Bo was extremely angry, and the British and French detachment led by him was attacked by the Manchu army in the first battle of Dagukou, and suffered heavy losses, and he himself was seriously wounded. He has always been very taboo about others mentioning this humiliating defeat, so he immediately drew his sword and asked for a separate duel with Li Kaifang.

Fortunately, Bao Ling and Bourblon persuaded the grumpy rear admiral, and the negotiations ended the next day without any results.

On the third day, the British could not bear to issue an ultimatum after the most reluctance, and Bao ordered this to be the last effort to make an effort, if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom still refused to give in, he had to try to let Major Admiral He Bo give it a try, if Major Admiral He Bo's detachment could achieve a small victory in Shanghai, maybe he could force the Taiping army to give in. He didn't dare to heed the terrible and reckless advice of Rear Admiral He Bo and let Grant's fleet attack the Taiping fleet that was rushing from Fujian to Guangzhou, annihilate this fleet, and let the tens of thousands of troops transported by the Taiping Navy feed the sharks!

Bao Ling was not crazy to that point, he knew that if he really did this, the British might be able to gain a temporary advantage, but then they would have to bear the retaliation of the Taiping army, and the British who did business and lived in Shanghai, Ningbo and other places would not be safeguarded, and at the same time, a full-scale war would break out with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Bao Ling was not sure that he could completely defeat the army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Then an artillery battle broke out at the Wusongkou Fort in Shanghai, the result was a big surprise, the prepared Taiping Army Battery adopted the same tactics as the Manchu Qing Dynasty, hiding the gun position before the arrival of the British ships, and the real bombardment by the British ships were some fake cannons made of thick tree trunks, and the British ships that arrived at the end of the extended artillery fire were attacked by the Taiping artillery on the shore, one frigate sank, and the remaining two British ships escaped with wounds.

This time the British lost their temper completely, Bao Ling paid the price for his adventure, and both the French and the Americans participated in mediation, and this time the conditions of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were even harsher, and they demanded that the British recognize the power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!

Just when Bao Ling was at a loss, even more depressing news came from the country, that there was a very big crisis in the British economy, and the British Prime Minister and Parliament did not want a war scene in the Far East!

In 1857 there was a world-wide economic crisis, the first time in the history of capitalism that a general crisis of overproduction had the characteristics of a world-wide character. This is also the first crisis to begin in the United States, not in the United Kingdom. Since Britain had invested heavily in the construction of American railroads, the bankruptcy of American railroad speculation also caused a great shock to Britain. After the end of the economic crisis of 1847, the most important feature of the cyclical upsurge that began in 1850 was the rapid expansion of the world's trade, which doubled in the 50s of the 19th century compared with the previous 20 years. The development of the machine industry, the revolution in the transportation industry, the involvement of emerging countries and new sectors in the international flow of goods, and the discovery of gold mines in California and Australia all contributed to the rapid expansion of the world market.

Between 1848 and 1858, the United States built about 33,000 kilometers of railroads, more than all other countries combined. In the construction boom of the 40s, only 8,000 kilometers of railways were laid in Britain. The vigorous development of the railroad industry in the United States should logically lead to the great development of its metallurgical industry, but this is not the case. Moreover, during this period, the production of pig iron in the United States was stagnant for a long time, and the growth rate of the cotton textile industry was not fast. At the same time, imports of railroad tracks, pig iron, locomotives, cotton cloth, and other British manufactured goods grew rapidly, and the flood of the American market with British products hindered the development of important industrial sectors of the time, such as metallurgy and cotton textiles.

With the outbreak of the crisis, a large number of banks, financial companies and industrial enterprises in the United States collapsed. In 1857 alone, nearly 5,000 businesses went bankrupt. Food overproduction, falling food prices and grain exports, combined with fierce competition from British industrial goods, contributed to the deepening of the economic crisis in the United States. In turn, the economic development of the United Kingdom was hit by the crisis in the United States. The bankruptcy of American banks, railroads, and commercial companies funded by the United Kingdom has also caused a sharp decline in the value of securities held by British investors. The economic crisis in the United States quickly spread to Britain and continental Europe, triggering wave after wave of bankruptcies.

Britain was still suffering from the events of the Great Indian Uprising, and the prosperous trade in the Far East became the last straw to save the precarious economy of the British Empire, which is why the British were eager to recognize the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and establish diplomatic relations with it, and they needed the stable business environment brought by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!

Through the efforts of the French and the Americans, the situation did not deteriorate further, but the diplomats of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were very intransigent and had to declare that they needed to consult the Prime Minister and the Parliament in order to reply to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's demands. There was no way to do this, he only hoped for a miracle during this time, such as the suppression of the Great Indian Uprising, and the British Expeditionary Force was able to send a large number of reinforcements. Until the last moment, Bao Ling still refused to lower the high head of the British.

The result was naturally disappointing for Bao Ling, the British army in the Battle of Delhi in India was in a stalemate, there would be no progress in a short time, there were no reinforcements, and it was impossible to start a war, so Bao Ling had to send a message to the country and bring his resignation. (To be continued......)