In the past ten days, the European envoys have a general understanding of the diplomatic strength of the Qing State, and the most profound experience is that Britain and France, 20 years ago, the Qing officials, do not know what diplomacy is?

Today's Qing diplomats, one by one, proficient in several Chinese, familiar with many customs in the European and American world, that diplomatic means, even more pure, ten days of contact, European envoys, from the Qing diplomats to find out the news is extremely limited, more often, they are Qing diplomats, stepping stones to further growth.

Gladstone and Ferdinand of Britain and France, without even having to explore the internal strategy of the Qing State, knew that the internal strategy of the Qing State would not be weaker than that of Britain and France.

Stepping on the barge again, the European envoys were shocked again, this time the barge transporting them was a river gunboat with extremely fast sailing, although most of these gunboats were wooden, but the gunboat had two cast guns, and more than a dozen small guns were not ornaments, and such small gunboats were rare in Europe.

Nearly 100 small inland river gunboats, for the European envoys, is undoubtedly the first step of deterrence, with these things, the inland rivers of the Qing country, is impregnable, if combined with the shore batteries, European warships want to sail into the inland rivers of the Qing country, it is almost impossible.

This is not yet to Guangzhou! Many European countries involved in the naval war plan began to retreat, and warships drifted across the sea. It wasn't for the sake of establishing an outpost on the coast of the Qing Kingdom. The strength of the Qing Army. Tsarist Russia had already experimented with it, and it seemed extremely stupid to fight the powerful Qing army on its own soil.

The voyage, which lasted more than ten days, was opened in the shock of the European envoys, and unlike when they first came to the Qing Dynasty, the speed of this batch of river gunboats was very slow, and the Qing army's restrictions on the envoys of various countries were not so strict, and the journey when they came. Envoys from various countries were not allowed to go on deck, but this time European envoys were free to go on deck and watch the scenery along the coast.

After the boat went out of the Tonghui River and entered the real Grand Canal, the European envoys also began their journey of surprise, when they first passed through the Grand Canal, many things of the Qing Kingdom were like a horse for the European envoys, under the restrictions of the Qing army, many things. None of them can be seen.

This time it was different, since the gunboat sailed out of the Tonghui River. During the day, the speed of the ship decreases, and it decreases even lower every time it goes to a construction site or a place with a lot of people.

The factories that were being built or had already been built here and there did not arouse much interest among the European envoys, but what really interested them was the Qing people who came and went on the riverbank.

After a three-day journey, the hearts of the European envoys were filled with the inviolability of the Qing Dynasty, if nothing else, because of the prevalence of muskets in the Qing Dynasty.

During the three-day journey, the people they saw were not all equipped with guns, only those people who looked in a hurry, were equipped with long or short guns, and sometimes, a horn medicine barrel on the waist of the pedestrian could cause the exclamations of the European envoys, but as they saw more and more things, the envoys of various countries were also able to guess that in the Qing Kingdom, in addition to the regular army, there was another armed force, and the number of this armed force was definitely quite large.

And these people, some of them are farmers working in the fields, the ridges are like camping, the rifles are set up, everyone who sees them is frightened, and the Tsarist Russian minister Ignatiev regrets it, if the people of Tsarist Russia also have such equipment, I am afraid that the East European Plain will not fall so lightly.

Along the way, the European envoys became more and more frightened, and learned from the sailors and interpreters that those Qing people who wore guns, or farmers, or merchant groups, or militiamen guarding waterways along the way, these are not uncommon in the European world, but what is rare is that almost all of these people are wearing guns and swords in the wild, from Zhili to Shandong, from Shandong to Jiangsu, through Hongze into the Yangtze River, from the Yangtze River into Taihu Lake, through the tributaries of Taihu Lake and then into the Yangtze River, across the Yangtze River into Dongting, from Dongting into the Xiangjiang River, through the Hunan tributary waterway into the Pearl RiverIt took 20 days to send a group of European envoys to the city of Guangzhou.

The original ten-day voyage was delayed by Yang Meng for ten days, and during these twenty days, Yang Meng not only dragged down the people who followed him all the way, but also dragged down the information that European countries launched a naval offensive against the Qing Dynasty.

There is no need for Yang Meng's deliberate arrangement, as long as the fleet passes through the area where the Yang family firm and farm are located, the European envoys can naturally see a large number of Qing people wearing guns.

Inadvertent coincidence, so that the big men of European countries miscalculated the popularity of Qing rifles, from the initial one percent, to the final seven or eight percent, such a misunderstanding, what a beautiful misunderstanding for Yang Meng?

Although the guns worn by the people of the Qing Dynasty are eliminated goods belonging to the army in the eyes of military figures in various countries, but the rifle is a rifle after all, and its lethality is beyond doubt, the official population of the Qing State is 400 million, even if it is calculated according to the penetration rate of 30 percent, the Qing State also has more than 100 million rifles scattered among the people, which is definitely a disaster for European countries, this more than 100 million people, in the eyes of the Qing Emperor, are just the people, but in the eyes of the knowledgeable people, these are untrained troops!

More than 100 million troops, no matter how chaotic their age level is, and no matter how their combat effectiveness is, such an army is invincible, too many!

Thinking of this, the big shots, led by Britain, France and Germany, can only shed cold sweat at night.

The composition of the European envoys has given the European people the ability to distinguish the true from the false, and for the high-level leaders of various countries, they would rather not have such an ability, and the result of this ability is that along the way, the Qing people seen by the European envoys are all carrying out normal activities, and they are not arranged along the river at all.

In this journey, many unexpected voyages were pointed out by Bismarck, Ferdinand, and Gladstone, and the Duke Yang of the Qing Dynasty arranged them, and Yang Meng was also happy to meet such a request for the three of them, and all the waters navigable by barge were all within the Yang family's sphere of influence, and it was not uncommon for many people to carry guns.

For Yang Meng, these can only be regarded as a surprise, and the authenticity is far from good! It is not enough to really determine the situation in Tsarist Russia, the ironclad ships in Guangzhou are the things that really determine the overall situation, and with this batch of ironclad ships, we can really dispel the covetousness of some people.

When he arrived in Guangzhou, Yang Meng was not in a hurry to lead the European people to see the world, and the first thing he did was to take the big figures of Britain, France and Germany to meet with Milican Secretary of State Seward at the Millican Embassy.

At this time, Milliken's side has been beaten into a dog's brain, advanced weapons, advanced artillery, advanced ammunition, are all things that are lacking in the north and south of Millijian. Phosphorus. The bullet is also in Ding Taichen's manifest, but it just needs to be verified by the Tsarist side first.

After the British, French, American, German, and Qing figures sat down, Yang Meng also went straight to the topic for the first time, the price of the Dresser lower than the price of the ordinary Milicon rifle, the unlimited supply of paper shell bullets, and the new rear-loading gun, in the first time, aroused Seward's interest.

The purpose of Seward's trip is just to play soy sauce in the matter of splitting Tsarist Russia, to take advantage of it, who would have thought that Ding Taichen took out a Delaiser to let Seward stay in Guangzhou for nearly two months, although Seward is not a figure in the Millican military, but Delaiser is advanced, it does not need a professional eye to distinguish, range, firing speed, power, these are all things on the surface, two months is enough to make Seward familiar with Delaiser from top to bottom, from the inside to the outside.

With arms as an introduction, Yang Meng opened his mouth and put forward the conditions for Alaska to be transferred to the Qing Dynasty, and the price was a discount on arms, involving tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of arms transactions, and a little discount meant millions of taels of real gold and platinum.

Alaska, may be of some use to Canada, but for today's Milliken, it is really like chicken ribs, although Congress has a policy of God to bless Millican, but for today's Millican government, maintaining the unity of the country is the real first priority, at this time, because of an Alaska, giving up enough to turn the tide of the war of arms, is a choice that no politician will make, at most after the reunification of the country, through the means of war, to decide the ownership of Alaska, sometimes, the immediate interestsIt is not to be given up.

Without Millican's support on the Alaska issue, Gladstone, who had thought of doing something, also gave up that unrealistic idea, and now that the Qing State has the ability to occupy Alaska, the situation on the side of Tsarist Russia is more important to England.

Along the way, he also found the shortcomings of the Qing State, that is, the development time is not enough, which is also the main reason why the Qing State is now on the defensive in its policy towards Russia.

By now, Gladstone, Bismarck, and Ferdinand, the idea of the three has shifted from invading the Qing State to limiting the expansion of the Qing State through international treaties. (To be continued......)