Wittoma was a clear centrist, and he did not support Midile's unrestrained tilt towards the Taipings, nor Clifford's unrealistic delusions, but he still agreed with Elgin's approach of installing a Manchu puppet regime in the north, and then Britain providing weapons and funding, so as to delay or prevent the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's strength in the Far East to the greatest extent. It's a pity that the political wisdom of the leadership of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom seems to be no worse than theirs, although the Western King and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Heavenly Kingdom have been perfunctory with Britain and France, but they have already understood the actions of Britain and France, so there is a scene of war under the city of Beijing, which completely disrupted the strategic layout of Britain and France, and the sudden declaration of war made Britain and France feel at a loss. So at this time, Wei Tuma is also thinking about other ways out, as a neutral person at the moment, after listening to the construction of Midil and Alexander, it seems that this construction is the best.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom now has a large population under its rule, and its mobilization ability is quite terrifying, and Wei Tuma also believes that even if Britain and France send another 100,000 expeditionary forces to the Far East, they will not be able to defeat the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's army, but the navy is different, they can attack the long coastline of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for a long time, any port may be attacked by the coalition navy, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom cannot defend the port for a long time, which will seriously affect their economy. In order to create this situation, the coalition forces must destroy the navy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so as to completely eliminate the will of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to resist the coalition forces at sea. Then Britain and France would be able to negotiate with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with dignity, so as to end the war, at least to ensure the interests of Britain and France.

At the same time, Wei Tuoma also agreed with Midile's opinion that after the elimination of the Taiping navy, it would be the best time for peace talks. If this opportunity is missed, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will be ruthless. Desperately put some mines in various ports to blockade the ports and completely cut off absolute foreign trade. That is also what Britain and France do not want to see, so in the negotiations at that time, Britain and France may as well give up some demands, not to mention that there are still more than 9,000 British and French prisoners of war in their hands.

Therefore, Wei Tuma agreed with Midile's opinion, and he took the lengthy letter of construction from Midile, and said that he would definitely report it back to China according to the truth. The two then discussed the situation in the concession, and Midile believed that the Taiping army would not capture the concession, they would only besiege the concession, so Midile built yì in addition to the soldiers and necessary diplomatic personnel. All other civilian businessmen should retreat back to Hong Kong.

After the two reached an agreement, they immediately made an appointment with Tao Enpei and explained the British and French wishes to evacuate the civilians in the concession. Tao Enpei, the old man, listened with a smile, a pair of seemingly dim eyes made the two of them drumming in their hearts, and finally the old man said with a smile: "The two of you want to turn the British and French concessions into a large military camp, but our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom doesn't matter, once all the civilians in the concession have retreated, the artillery department of our martial arts academy is ready to use the concession as an artillery training ground, and there will be live-fire artillery drills every day." Presumably, the two of them won't have any opinions. ”

Wei Tuma and Midile looked at each other, and they could not imagine that the old man would be so openly threatened, if the Taiping army carried out indiscriminate shelling of the concession, all the houses and facilities that the British and French had worked so hard to build in the concession would be wiped out. Midile persuaded a few words. Wei Tuma thundered and counter-threatened, but Old Man Tao did not enter, and in the end the two had to give up.

After a few words of deliberation in a low voice. The two finally proposed to Tao Enpei to remove the old and weak women and children in the concession, and the list and number were provided by Britain and France. Tao Enpei smiled and bowed slightly. It was basically agreed that only the old and weak women and children should be removed, but the list and number of people did not have to be provided by Britain and France. Tao Enpei showed a somewhat lengthy list, which was actually a list of people in the British and French concessions, and Midile was surprised after reading it, and he didn't think that this list was more detailed than the one in his hand, which showed that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had been collecting all the information in the concession for a long time, and the Chinese in the concession did not know how many of them were spies.

In the end, Wittoma and Midile had to check the list one by one and identify the people who needed to be evacuated, and Wittoma hoped to get several important businessmen to evacuate with them to ensure their safety. Tao Enpei readily agreed, but he proposed that Clifford could not stay in Hong Kong, he had to return to England and be replaced by a clear-minded person, and such a clear-headed person staying in the Far East would only damage the interests of the Rothschild family in the Far East.

Midile was also willing to send the plague god away, and his favor for Clifford had long since been minimized, and Wittoma did not object, for it seemed to him that Clifford and Alexander were at odds with each other, and Alexander did not want the young master to remain in the Far East.

The two sides initialed an exchange agreement, and the Taiping army began to pick up and drop off the evacuated old and weak women and children the next day, and the two sides handed over at Wusongkou.

When Clifford knew that he was going back to Hong Kong, he immediately asked Midile to find his wife, who was still in the Xujiahui Cathedral. Midil was not willing to do this, but he could not withstand the request of Alexander of Jardine Matheson, so he had to be cheeky and ask Tao Enpei to send someone to find him.

Tauenpei did the same, and he sent a missionary to the cathedral to look for it, but in the end only brought back a letter to Clifford. Previously, Clifford had also received a letter from Li Xuanji to bring back from the British soldiers, which only said that she was unwilling to return to the concession, and now this letter is even more desperate, Li Xuanji said in the letter that she only wanted to stay and engage in a charitable organization with Nightingale, calling for an end to the atrocities of the war, and unless Britain and France and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom ceased war, she would not return to Britain for life.

After Clifford read the letter, he angrily tore the letter to pieces, he blushed his face, and beckoned a few armed employees of Jardine Matheson to break into the rental industry to find Li Xuanji, but fortunately Alexander stopped him, otherwise these people were afraid that they would be beaten into a sieve by the Taiping army opposite.

Alexander finally persuaded Clifford to return to the reception room of the foreign company, poured him a glass of whiskey, and said: "Sir, Madame does not want to come back because her status is embarrassing, her home country is now at war with Britain, and if she returns, it will not only be difficult for you to deal with, but will also affect you." It would be better for you and for her to let Madame do the neutral charity work. In the future, when the war is over, she will definitely come back, I know the virtues of these Chinese women, they will always start from the beginning and will not betray lightly. ”

Clifford was a little relieved after hearing this, took the wine glass and drank it all, Alexander sat on the sofa and said with a smile: "Don't worry, the war will not last forever, as long as you go back to England and try your best to persuade Parliament to make the right decision, I think it will greatly shorten the course of the war, so that the war can be ended as much as possible, and Madame can return to England a day earlier to reunite with you." To tell you the truth, you can't do anything if you stay in the Far East, and we can only wait for news from home in the current situation. ”

Alexander spared no effort to persuade Clifford to let this hot potato leave, having him in the Far East would only be bad, and if he returned to England, there would be people from the Rothschilds to take care of him, and it was best that the Rothschilds could send other sober-minded people to the Far East, or not send any more people, so that it would be in the best interest of him Alexander in the Far East.

After some persuasion, Clifford reluctantly agreed, and Alexander breathed a sigh of relief, but Clifford asked Alexander to write to him every month, and he wanted to know Li Xuanji's movements in the Far East. Although this request was a little more difficult, Alexander agreed anyway.

The next day, more than 1,000 people from Clifford and the Anglo-French Concession were transported by merchant ships of the Taiping Army, and joined the allied transport ships that met at Wusongkou. Midile still had to return to the concession, with him he should be able to handle a lot of affairs, and Wei Tuma also gave him a power of attorney from Ergin, authorizing him to handle the affairs of the wartime concession, including military operations.

After completing the task, and at the same time getting the opinions of the merchants in the concession, after returning to the berthing area of the coalition navy at the mouth of the Yangtze River, he immediately met with Ergin and others on the flagship.

After detailing the attitude of the Midile and merchants in the concession towards the war, Wittoma made it clear that he also thought that the construction of Midile was the most reasonable. After listening to the construction of Wittoma, Admiral Massimogli and others also agreed, the navy is not suitable to attack the port without landing forces, the Anglo-French forces in the Far East in the Crimean War have done such a thing, they went to attack the military port in the north of the Russians under the condition that the army is not enough, and the result is a big defeat, plus the previous Wusongkou fiasco, which also proves this, and the navy is happy to destroy the military power of the Taiping army at sea first.

Ergin also agreed to this plan, but he decided to withdraw the whole army to Hong Kong for a period of rest and recuperation, and then the navy would be reorganized and resupplied before heading north to find fighters. At the meeting that day, Ergin decided that several officers and representatives of consuls and merchants would return to England with Wittoma, and report in detail to the domestic parliament, the prime minister, and the queen on the situation in the Far East, and the navy would send three warships to accompany him.

The next day, Wittoma boarded three fast-sailing warships and headed south, and before leaving, Ergin instructed: "It is not in our interest to expand the war and to compromise everything, and decent peace talks are what we need, and the prime minister may wish to consider uniting the Russians to exert pressure on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, although this sounds a little ridiculous, but it is not a bad way, and even to support Japan, but the shogunate of that country seems to be even more corrupt than the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it is difficult to work in the short term." As for the attitude of the Americans, they do not need to pay attention to it, the situation in their country is becoming more and more chaotic, the contradictions between the north and the south are intensifying, and it is difficult to take care of the Far East. ”

In the end, Ergin said that no matter what, it was best to make a decision as much as possible, and once the Taiping army seized this half year to speed up the pace of unifying the whole country, and waited for the Taiping army to complete the reunification and free up troops to deal with the Manchus, the British and French forces would face greater difficulties. After the explanation, Wittoma left Shanghai.

A few days later, as the coalition fleet returned south, Ergin stood on the deck overlooking Shanghai, muttering: "I don't know if the next time I return here, I will ...... as a victor or a vanquished" (to be continued......