After appeasing the Guandao Gang and the Ningbo Gang for a few words, Xiao Yungui ordered Zhou Lichun and Tang Erniu to take everyone down to eat first, and said that he would then order someone to purchase a batch of pigs and cattle to enter the city to reward those gang congregations in the city. Since he couldn't think of a way to settle them for the time being, Xiao Yungui planned to stabilize these people first.

Sure enough, seeing that King Xi was very polite, Mu Guandao, Xie Yinglong and others stopped making trouble, and followed Zhou Lichun, Tang Erniu and others to eat first. After sending a group of people, Xiao Yungui cheered up and ordered someone to welcome the foreigners into the tent.

Among the foreigners who arrived, Wen Han and Midile were all old acquaintances, and it was the first time that the French minister Blomble and the American minister Marshali had met, and they each brought their deputies and interpreters, and the old acquaintance British officer Liszt and a few guards were also among them. Seeing such a large lineup of foreigners, Xiao Yungui knew that the comers were not good.

Sure enough, after a few words of greeting, Wen Han cleared his throat and said: "Your Excellency the King of the West, your army has captured Shanghai, and this time our ministers from several countries are here to talk about the treaty. ”

Xiao Yungui felt a headache when he heard the foreigner's treaty, as long as the foreigner mentioned the treaty in these years, there must be something unacceptable in the clauses, not agreeing is to set up an enemy for himself, and agreeing is to betray the country, what a dilemma. Xiao Yunguiqiang smiled and said, "Oh, the treaty, it can be discussed, Lord Wenhan will talk about it first." ”

Midile presented several texts, both in English and Chinese, and Xiao Yungui smiled slightly after taking it: "This king is not literate, so let's talk about it." ”

Wen Han scolded Xiao Yungui for being a scoundrel in his heart, but said quietly on his face: "There are a total of ten articles in this treaty, all of which were determined by the ministers and consuls of Britain, France and the United States after joint consultation. The first is that we ask your army to open Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Zhenjiang as treaty ports. The second paragraph is that our three countries request the establishment of consulates in Nanjing and Suzhou. The third paragraph is to ask your army to compensate for the recent losses caused by the war in Shanghai to the trade of various countries, a total of 700,000 silver oceans. The fourth paragraph allows missionaries from all over the world to preach freely in areas controlled by your army......" Wen Han spoke quickly, and Xiao Yungui's English was not very good, so he did not understand. Midile translates very slowly.

With a click, Xiao Yungui couldn't help but crush the teacup in his hand when he heard the fourth paragraph, and then without waiting for Midile to finish translating, he slapped the table and shouted loudly: "It can't be done!" What kind of treaty do you have? Are you the corrupt Manchu Qing when our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is?! ”

Xiao Yungui's broken gong voice almost lifted the top of the tent, and the people in the tent were startled, Li Xuanji, who was sitting on the side of the record, stopped writing and looked at King Xi with admiration, although she didn't understand diplomatic matters, but the terms that Midile said were clearly bullying, and she was also very angry. But seeing the majestic shooting of the king of the west and angrily reprimanding the foreigners, I felt indescribably happy.

Midile was startled, and hurriedly said, "Your Excellency the King of the West, please don't worry, if you have something to say, speak slowly." ”

Wen Han, Marshali, and the others were angry when they saw the king of the west, but they could not understand what he said. After listening to the whisper of the interpreter, Wen Han snorted coldly and said, "Your Excellency the King of the West." I used to think you were an enlightened person. You are not as idiotic as the Manchu government in terms of diplomacy, and now it seems that you are similar, the terms we put forward are all reasonable, and you actually refuse without listening, you are worse than the Manchu officials. ”

Xiao Yungui also snorted and said, "Lord Wenhan, you are here to talk about it." Why do you ask us to do that? What makes sense for you to tell me one by one?! ”

Wen Han said slowly: "Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Zhenjiang are all prosperous places for commerce and trade, and your army has trade with our countries in Shanghai before, if you can open these places as direct treaty ports, it will be of great help to your army's trade." ”

Xiao Yungui immediately retorted: "I'm sorry. These places cannot become treaty ports for the time being, I have made an appointment with Lord Wenhan beforehand, and the two sides abide by the "Jiangning Treaty" This is our greatest concession, and it is enough for Shanghai to continue to be a treaty port, Lord Wenhan, have you forgotten our agreement? ”

Lord Wenhan said without blushing: "Of course I haven't forgotten, but please note that once we give up our neutral attitude, it will break your army's advantage over the Manchu army, but if your army can show sincerity and open more treaty ports, I believe that our ministers have reason to put forward a bill to the parliaments and parliaments of various countries to help your army, and once the bill is passed, your army will get more support to defeat the Manchu army." ”

Xiao Yungui stiffened his face, and scolded Wen Han and the others angrily in his heart, this was clearly a naked threat, but since he chose to attack Shanghai, he had discussed with Hong Yun'er earlier, where was the bottom limit of the foreigners. Britain and France, the two strongest countries now, are busy preparing to fight with Russia in Crimea, the United States is still only a puppet power, before the completion of the civil war between the North and the South, the United States can only be regarded as a semi-slave and semi-capitalist country, the west coast of the United States has not yet been very developed, the United States just won the war with Mexico four years ago, and is far from having the ability to go on expeditions. Therefore, no matter what provisions and threats are put forward by these countries, too many of them are still intimidated.

Moreover, when Xiao Yungui's troops invaded Shanghai, the great powers sent mercenaries to participate in the war, but Xiao Yungui's tough attitude made those mercenaries withdraw from the battlefield, and at that time Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er saw clearly the paper tiger faces of the great powers, at least before the end of the Crimean War, it was impossible for Britain and France to give up their neutral position and burn a fire in the Far East.

At that moment, Xiao Yungui snorted again and said: "I hate the people who threaten me very much, long before entering Shanghai, the mercenaries of several of your countries helped the Manchu army, at that time, this king said, to be a friend of this king, this king is very welcome, but if you want to help my enemy, it is the enemy of this king and the kingdom of heaven, I don't mind destroying my enemy to increase my military honor!" Lord Wenhan, please think about it, Shanghai has been captured, I wanted to start resuming trade and some local construction immediately, if your country is still thinking about forcing us to sign some treaty, regardless of the immediate interests, I don't mind tearing up the previous treaty, after all, the concession was leased to you by Manchu officials, and now that the Manchus have been expelled from Shanghai, I can immediately send troops to recover the concession! Lord Wenhan, please consider that once you renounce the previous treaty, I will not have to abide by that treaty, and then we will have a good time fighting and then come to negotiate a treaty! ”

Wen Han's face became very ugly, now the British had less than 1,000 British soldiers in the Shanghai Concession, and there were only four warships, and he was really not sure that he could withstand the attack of tens of thousands of Taiping troops. Moreover, the British foreign minister has always demanded that he remain neutral, and as long as the rebels can maintain Britain's existing interests and abide by the "Jiangning Treaty", Britain cannot take the initiative to provoke trouble.

Wen Han's original intention was to strive for more interests for Britain and create more brilliant achievements than his predecessor Sir Pu Ding Cha, but the king of the West in front of him did not seem to be so easy to threaten, if he violated the decisions of the foreign minister and parliament without authorization, causing the loss of British interests in Shanghai, then what was waiting for him would be to return to China in gloom. Because Britain is now busy dealing with the growing tensions in the Crimea. At the beginning of July this year, Russia sent 80,000 troops to occupy the two Danube principalities, Moldova and Wallachia, which were dependent on the Ottoman Empire, and rejected the Sultan's demand for withdrawal. Britain has begun to prepare for war, and it is now the end of September, and the war will definitely break out in October at the latest, and the British Parliament will not agree to send troops to the Far East for an expedition at this time, so Wen Han does not have much confidence to play with Xiao Yungui.

On the side, Marshali looked at Wen Han very dissatisfied, in fact, Marshali wanted to see this legendary figure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom alone in the morning, but unfortunately Xiao Yungui returned to Suzhou later, and today Marshali and the British and French envoys came together because of helplessness, the United States' influence in the Far East is too small, and if you don't follow the two countries, you may lose a lot of interests, but now Wen Han is threatened by Xiao Yungui, and Marshali is both happy and worried that the arrogant British will mess things up.

Mashali immediately changed the subject and said, "I wonder what the scale of the resumption of commerce and local construction that His Excellency the King of the West is talking about?" We in the United States are very interested in investment and construction. ”

Wen Han glanced at Marshali dissatisfied, and secretly scolded these Americans who fell into the eyes of money, but he also heard about Xiwang's investment in the Atlantic submarine telegraph cable, he was both surprised by Xiwang's strong capital, but also felt a pity, investing in submarine cables? It is better to throw the money directly into the Atlantic, and when Mashali asked about the construction investment behind the King of the West, Wen Han still pricked up his ears and listened.

Xiao Yungui smiled and said: "Shanghai is an important commercial port, of course we must first resume trade here, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuxi and other places tea, raw silk and various commodities will continue to be transported, we will resume Shanghai's trade as soon as possible." As for local development, we already have several proposals, we plan to open some factories in Shanghai first, and even build railways and telegraph lines, etc., and later we will set up special trade and industrial pavilions to negotiate these investments with various countries. ”

Ministers of several countries have bowed their heads and discussed with their deputies, just the construction of railways sounds exciting, and now the United States, France and other countries are vigorously building their own railways, which brings investment, employment and future benefits are very considerable, not to mention other construction projects.

Xiao Yungui said lightly: "You don't need to discuss the terms proposed by Lord Wenhan, the war in Shanghai did bring certain losses to the trade of various countries, but then this king resumed trade, I believe that the trade and investment profits brought to merchants from various countries will quickly make up for these losses, which is more important, I believe you can calculate this account." ”

Just when Xiao Yungui was proud and thought that he had taken care of the ministers of several countries, the French minister Blomble, who had been silent, suddenly said: "Your Excellency the King of the West, other terms can be discussed, but our French Emperor Bixia thinks that since many of your soldiers believe in Christian doctrines similar to ours, you should accept the Holy See's declaration and let the missionaries freely preach within the control of your army!" (To be continued......)