According to the previous agreement, the officials in Canton agreed to send troops from other provinces to other places to ensure the freedom and safety of the British troops in Canton, but after the British troops suffered a military defeat, they hurriedly called the troops back without informing the British side.

However, he also forgot that he had ordered the execution of all diplomatic envoys from Guangzhou, which could not be notified even if they wanted to.

However, according to the current situation, there is a strong and warlike Chinese army in the direction of Sanyuanli, and there are tens of thousands of troops in the city of Guangzhou, and the military pressure on the British side has suddenly increased a lot.

Commander John couldn't help but be confused in his heart, since the Chinese army had such a strong strength, then it would have a great chance of winning in an upright fight, why bother to show weakness all the way, and even pretend to make peace after the British army bombarded the city of Guangzhou, and then let his own side attack Sanyuanli?

After this calculation, the Chinese army did achieve brilliant results, destroying more than 4,000 British troops, but the price was too great.

After thinking about it for a while, Commander John suddenly understood that the price paid by the Chinese along the way was not large, and the original promise of six million taels of silver was not sent at all, and the real loss was only to let the British army fire a few rockets into the city at the four-sided battery, which was almost negligible compared with the brilliant results of destroying thousands of British troops.

"The commander of the Chinese must be a cold-blooded animal who is frighteningly calm. Commander John realized this, and suddenly felt a chill.

In any case, those who dare to come up with such a profound plan are not to be underestimated.

"I always feel that things are not so simple, and there should be a lot of contradictions between the Chinese troops in Sanyuanli and Guangzhou. The original British consul shook his head and said.

Since the cousin who was the commander of the expeditionary force didn't know the life and death of Sanyuanguan, Yilu was depressed a lot, and he also knew in his heart that after experiencing so many setbacks, no matter whether he won or lost, his life after returning to China would definitely be very difficult.

"This is all a trick of the Chinese, which makes us think that the Chinese army has started infighting, has a contemptuous heart, and then takes the opportunity to attack us." John stood by his judgment.

"In any case, we can't be as blind as we are now, we know too little about the Chinese military.

We should send someone to contact the commanders of the Chinese army in Canton and Sanyuanli respectively to find out what is going on. But the law of righteousness offers a different view.

"You're a diplomat, you can try to solve problems on a diplomatic level.

But, with all due respect, Your Excellency, I don't think your efforts will be of any practical significance, and at most they will yield lies intended to deceive us. John shook his head, not very satisfied with the proposal of the law of righteousness.

In any case, as long as John did not explicitly oppose diplomatic efforts, the matter could go ahead.

Yilu immediately arranged manpower to contact the upper echelons of Guangzhou and Sanyuanli, but the news fed back from both sides was strange and confusing.

Officials in Canton were overjoyed at the resumption of dialogue between the British, repeatedly assured that all previous events had been misunderstood, and even said that the Chinese troops on the Sanyuanli side were actually rebels, not government troops.

This is not enough, these officials also revealed some intention to borrow troops to quell the rebellion, hoping to join forces with the British to attack the Chinese army in Sanyuanli, or to attack a small city called Foshan in the northwest of Guangzhou.

The envoy sent by Yilu politely refused the request for joint use of troops, and sneered in his heart, and when the Chinese army suddenly attacked when the troops were united, the British army was in danger of total annihilation, and no British commander who had any wisdom to spare such a request would not grant such a request, especially after the British army had been pitted several times by the officials in Canton.

In short, even Yilu, who had great hopes for diplomacy, believed that the officials in Canton were as strange as ever, and that there were ulterior motives hidden under the appearance of kindness, and the evaluation of the danger of these officials skyrocketed, not to mention John and others.

As for the envoys sent to Sanyuanli, they were extremely fruitful, meeting with the leaders of the Chinese army and religion, exchanging opinions on the war, etc., and even bringing news of captured British officers and soldiers.

The commander of the Chinese army even said that captured British soldiers would be dealt with in accordance with international practice, that is, prisoners could be exchanged with each other, and the British would be allowed to ransom officers or soldiers after paying a ransom, which was seen as a great diplomatic achievement by Yilu.

However, the Chinese army had a very firm view of the war, and rejected the British side's proposal that the two sides conclude a peace treaty and settle the reasonable demands of the war near Guangzhou in accordance with the agreement signed between the British and Qi Shan and other officials, and said that the British troops must withdraw from the Guangzhou area, and even retreat from Humen and Hong Kong, before peace can be negotiated.

"The Chinese army will never sign any agreement in the event of the occupation of its own national territory. These were the original words of the commander of the Chinese army named Li Xian, and the envoy brought it back intact.

It was not a particularly surprising fact that the British envoy's request for opium to be paid the ransom of the captured officers was rejected by the commander of the Sanyuanli side, and that he reaffirmed the strict prohibition of the opium trade.

The British consul had also been in contact with Li Xian before, and knew that this person was the most fanatical anti-opium faction, and he had made such a proposal before, and there was more temptation.

However, Li Xian also made an interesting proposal, that is, trade could be reopened, and the British could be allowed to buy Chinese tea and porcelain and other light goods, of course, the British side would have to pay cash, not cheap opium.

As for the envoy who tentatively asked about the relationship between the Chinese army in Sanyuanli and Guangzhou, the commander named Li Xian frankly admitted that the Sanyuanli side belonged to the faction of Lin Zexu, the former governor of Liangguang, and was not close to the Qishan faction in Guangzhou, and there were many differences in political opinions, and expressed great contempt for the incompetence and weakness of the Qishan faction, and said that he would write to the emperor to punish Qishan and others.

When the envoy brought the information from both sides back to the British army's base camp, Yilu and the others analyzed the information as if they had obtained a treasure, and believed that this diplomatic activity was very fruitful, explaining many questions that they had not understood before, and of course it was inevitable that many new questions would appear.

According to the secret observation of the envoy, the Chinese army on the Sanyuanli side was at least four or five thousand men, and it seemed to be well-disciplined, all equipped with high-quality flintlock muskets, and the combat effectiveness should be very high.

Even more worrying is that this is only a part of the Chinese army, and there are many more Chinese troops in the monastery called Sanyuanguan, which is said to be in the tens of thousands.

After analyzing the analysis, John and Yilu believe that the Chinese side intends to boast about the majority, and the number of real regular troops should be about 10,000, and the rest are at most newly recruited soldiers.

However, such a military force was already considerable, enough to confront the British army, which had suffered many setbacks and had a total strength of only more than 9,000 men.