In the reception room of Buckingham Palace, the Queen's words fell. Russell coughed lightly with a little embarrassment: "Your Majesty, now that we are fighting with France for the controlling stake of the Suez Canal, and the previous assassination of His Majesty Napoleon III, although it can be temporarily consistent in the Far East, it may not be easy to get His Majesty Napoleon III to approve of launching a joint expedition again." As for Russia, in recent years we have been trying to contain the double-headed eagle, the ink of the Paris Peace Conference has not yet dried, and it may be very difficult to unite Russia to wage war against the Far East. ”

In fact, since 1857, Britain and France have been engaged in an open and secret struggle for control of the Suez Canal Company, and now it is a white-hot stage, and at the same time, in 1858, an Italian named O'Hineti dropped a bomb on Napoleon III, when it was discovered that Palmerston had links with Italian refugees in London, and it was also discovered that the explosives used to make the bomb were made in England, and Palmerston even resigned as prime minister for a year under the influence of this incident. As a result, the French and the British had a lot of dirty things behind their backs, and although they were able to maintain a certain degree of cooperation in the Far East, the relationship between the two countries was far less close than when the expedition was launched.

As for Russia, not to mention, after the Crimean War, Britain has always regarded Russia as the number one potential enemy, whether in the West or the Far East, the policy towards Russia is containment, and this policy has continued in later generations, and Britain even supported Japan as a proxy for the Far East to contain Russia, so it is more difficult to cooperate with Russia.

Queen Victoria smiled slightly and said slowly: "You are all excellent politicians who have experienced a lot, and you should understand the principle of putting the interests of political affairs first. It is true that we have irreconcilable contradictions with the French and Russians on many matters, but in the Far East we can agree on interests! ”

Prime Minister Palmerston pondered for a moment. Quite in favor of the Queen's novel suggestion, he added: "Gentlemen. Her Majesty is right when she says that in the Western world, we do have many conflicts of interest with the French and Russians, but in the Far East, our interests at the present stage have been harmed, and it can be said that the interests of the Far East are the same for the time being. ”

Secretary of State for War Sydney. Herbert agreed: "Since Mr. Wittuma has described in detail the present strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and that they can mobilize a large number of troops, our expeditionary force will need to be supplemented by equally strong Russians and French, so that we may guarantee superiority on land." ”

Foreign Minister Russell was still a little worried and said: "But if the Russians join." Once their power develops in the Far East, it will be very difficult for us to contain it. ”

Her Majesty looked at the ministers and said: "Previously, our idea was to support the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as an agent for the Far East to contain Russia, but it turned out that the Western King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was not a controllable figure, and he and the country he established had fallen out of our expectations, and their declaration of war on our British Empire this time was the best example. And now, it is no longer the Russians who are harming the interests of our British Empire in the Far East, but the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and we must first solve this problem. Then think about how to contain the Russians next, and maybe it would be a good idea to re-establish a country. ”

Palmerston nodded, "I agree with Her Majesty's opinion, launching an expeditionary force to retaliate requires Russian and French troops, and the last expedition has already requisitioned too many troops from India. It will be difficult for us to complete the formation of the expeditionary force alone. As for the expansion of the Russians in the Far East, after we have completely subjugated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there will be another option. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a country that was too big and populous, and it was not a good choice. ”

Finally, Her Majesty the Queen said very sternly: "Gentlemen. Take my word to heart, and get permission to go to war. The fundamental question is not in public opinion, nor in Parliament, but in the feasibility of facts, and if you cannot agree with the French and the Russians, even I will not approve of another expedition! ”

After this brief meeting at Buckingham Palace, Palmerston and others immediately began to act, and Foreign Minister Russell summoned the French and Russian ministers to Britain, and at the same time sent instructions to the members of the British missions in France and Russia, hoping to start negotiations with France and Russia to launch a joint expedition to the Far East.

On the other hand, Palmerston and others began to actively prepare for the interrogation and parliamentary debate of the two houses, and there was no way to do it, for a country under the British system, democratic debate and decision-making are indispensable, so the long and arduous interrogation and debate of the two houses began.

On the third day of his return to England, he told all the deputies of the two houses of parliament the whole incident in detail, and the opposition parties asked in particular in detail, because the last expedition, the main goal of the Anglo-French alliance was to fight the Manchu government, but why the Taiping Diet finally declared war on Britain and France was indeed a nonsensical thing that seemed to outsiders.

When questioned by the Parliament, Wittoma was rather vague about the cause of the war, and he was narrating it against his will, according to the words prepared for him by Palmerston, so that the reason for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to start the war was described as a sneak attack by a group of ignorant and barbaric people to seize the interests of the British Empire, and the Battle of Beijing and Tianjin was even described as an undeclared war.

But just a day after Wittoma concluded his questioning in both chambers, the British newspaper media broke the startling news, and The Times published a lengthy front-page review the next day titled "Who's Lying". In this news commentary, The Times revealed the real reason for the declaration of war between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Britain and France, that is, Sir Ergin of the Far East, when his troops were in Beijing, cooperated with a Qing rebel army without authorization, and even raised the banner of establishing a separate Manchu government, which led the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to regard it as a signal for Britain and France to intervene in their civil war with the Manchus, so the reason for the outbreak of war was laid.

At the same time, the Times also revealed in detail several points in time when the war broke out, from when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom completed the encirclement of Beijing, to the negotiations with Britain and France in Tongzhou, and made the last effort for peace, to the time when the war was declared and the first shot to break out in the battle was fired by the reconnaissance unit of the British army. Finally, The Times directly pointed out that someone manipulated the envoy returning from the Far East to lie in the statements of both houses, directly deceiving the citizens of the entire British Empire!

The Times news is nothing less than a bombshell. It ignited the dissatisfaction of the families of the soldiers who participated in the war, and it has been until now. They still couldn't get any concrete information about their loved ones, and the answer Wittoma gave was that they were almost wiped out. Some were killed in battle, some were captured, but which ones were killed and which were captured, Wittoma had no answer. These families and many of the British in the middle of the day staged an even larger anti-war march, during which one of their representatives made an impassioned speech: "Until now, the British are healing the wounds of tens of thousands of soldiers who died in the Crimean War, and many girls in the convent have chosen to become nuns because they do not have suitable husbands." But now, once again, Palmerston's cabinet is acting as the executioner. They have 18,000 British lads left in the Far East, their fate unknown, and how many families have been torn apart? What we need is not another revenge and war, we need the children to come home! ”

At the same time, the marchers also loudly scolded Ergin and Wittoma, saying that one of them was a brainless person who did things without thinking, and the other was a despicable and shameless liar, and some even excitedly shouted extreme language that would put them on trial.

Amid accusations and abuse, Wittoma's body was found in his apartment a few days later. He committed suicide by swallowing large quantities of opium, and before he died, he left a suicide note in which he explained that he could not bear the condemnation of his conscience and admitted that he had lied to the parliament of both chambers. He also pointed out in his suicide note that when he returned, he brought with him many letters from compatriots from all walks of life in the Far East, some of which were unfavorable to the current cabinet, and were directly withheld by the cabinet and not made public.

Wittoma's suicide note was the second bomb. The Palmerston cabinet government was directly reviled by the people as a shameless thief who betrayed the British, and a large number of people gathered in Downing Street and other places to demonstrate every day. Demand that Palmerston and his cabinet step down immediately.

The evolution of events caught Palmerston and others a little off guard, after the Times revelations. They also looked into the incident, but they found that the Times and many newspaper outlets had received similar messages, and it looked as if there was an invisible hand behind the scenes. Next, Wei Tuma's suicide is even more suspicious, because the police can't find the source of the opium used by Wei Tuoma to commit suicide, and the handwriting of the suicide note is also quite suspicious, it seems that this qiē is deliberately done by someone behind it.

While Palmerston was still ordering his men to continue to investigate the two matters, the two chambers first began to question Palmerston's cabinet. In the debate in the House of Lords, the opposition party sharply scolded Palmerston: "This old liar has finally achieved the great goal that his shameless ambition has long pursued, and he has secretly ordered Ergin to do the stupid thing of intervening in the civil war in the Far East, and the result is irreparable!" ”

At the same time, the Tory leader, the Earl of Derby (a former Whig who became a Tories and became the leader of the Tories and served as Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1852, 1858-1859, and 1866-1868) introduced a motion in the House of Lords condemning government officials in China for their unauthorized use of force and involvement in the civil war. His delusional hope that he would be able to install another Manchu government to control northern China, which led directly to the outbreak of war, and his stupidity and ignorance dealt a fatal blow to British trade in China......"

Gray of the Tories said, "Gentlemen, you are taking risks. You know, the supply of tea cannot be cut off, this thing is our daily necessities and the main source of national income. I build yì and immediately recall Sir Ergin. "John of the Tories. Russell even spoke of justice, humanity and conscience, arguing that it was not legitimate for Elgin to intervene directly in other countries' civil wars by force, saying: "I am ashamed of my country. I think our current government has gone too far and has tied itself to arrogant control when dealing with a country that fully recognizes international law. ”

While the House of Lords was denouncing the Palmerston Cabinet and Elgin, the House of Commons was doing the same. Elgin's old friend Cobbton submitted his denunciation and announced that he had broken off his friendship with the "twenty-year-old friend." He believes that the Beijing-Tianjin incident was too bad, and Ergin made a mistake in handling this matter, or at the beginning, Ergin received a domestic order to directly intervene in the civil war in the Far East by force!

The good thing about democracy is that it can fully express everyone's opinions, and the disadvantage is obvious, that is, it takes a long time to decide a thing, so the time passes slowly in lengthy debates and questions...... (To be continued......)