The sun is setting, the sunset is full, the Huangpu River is still busy, all kinds of boats of all sizes are shuttling, the wide and flat road along the river is full of traffic, people come and go, and prosperity is still the same, but all this has become extremely strange in the eyes of Tony, John, and Davis, and they have a sense of despair that they have been abandoned. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

They were indeed abandoned, and all of a sudden, the sea that they had been familiar with became strange, and everyone was hostile to them, with undisguised disgust in their eyes, as if they were avoiding them like a plague.

Although they carried a lot of silver dollars and banknotes in their pockets, they could not enter any teahouse, tavern, restaurant, inn, not even ordinary shops, even small and inconspicuous grocery stores would unceremoniously evict them, the many food stalls in the streets and alleys would not sell them any food, even the simple big bowl of tea stalls and the cold water sold along the street with buckets.

What made them even more desperate was the few tails behind them that could never be shaken off, they were the people of the Xingqing Gang and the Faithful Society, ostensibly to protect their personal safety and property safety, but in fact they were spying on them, and after trying a few times, they found that even if there were no gang members in front of them, they couldn't buy anything, and they were completely disappointed!

"I can't believe there's a time when you can't buy anything with money." John let out a long sigh, "I don't want to keep trying. ”

Davis stopped and said, "I bet that when we go back to China and talk about this, absolutely no one will believe it." ”

"It's horrible." John said in a pessimistic tone: "If this continues, I am afraid that we will be starved to death." ”

"Let's go to the consulate." Tony said in a deep voice: "We must protest, otherwise we may starve to death in Shanghai." ”

Zhenhai Mansion, Changle Book House.

Yi Zhizu took a cigarette in his mouth and said in a relaxed tone: "In the past two days, how many shops and food stalls have the Xingqing Gang and the Zhongxin Society smashed? ”

Hearing this, Yan Shikuan hesitated for a moment before he said: "There are more than thirty of them, this is reported, and there should be a lot of people who have not reported." ”

"Send a few dollars and expel them from Shanghai." Yi Zhishu said slowly: "For those who don't listen to the greeting, there is no need to be polite. ”

"Understood." Yan Shikuan said tentatively: "If they don't bow their heads, the big shopkeeper won't really plan to starve all the foreigners, right?" ”

"The emperor is not in a hurry, and the eunuch is in a hurry." Yi Zhicontent laughed and said: "The ministers of various countries are not in a hurry, what are we anxious about?" ”

Cao Yougen, the secretary in charge of sending and receiving telegrams from the Zhenhai Mansion, walked to the door at this time and took a look, and Yi Zhizhi, who saw it, nodded contently before coming in to report: "The big shopkeeper, Tianjin, Yangquan, and Shaoguan have called, and the railways built by various countries have been suspended at the same time, and in addition, the train ferries being manufactured by the Jiangning Shipyard have also been suspended. As he spoke, he handed over a few telegrams.

After a few glances at the telegram, Yi Zhishu casually handed over the telegram and said, "Call back, it's rare to rest, so you should take a holiday." As he spoke, he asked again, "There is no news from Lushun yet?" ”

Cao Gensheng hurriedly said: "I didn't go back to the big shopkeeper, and there was no telegram from Lushun." ”

"Time waits for no one, so they urge the Beiyang Sailors." Yi Zhizhi said: "I didn't see the Beiyang Navy fleet converge in two days, so Xiao Mingliang set sail straight north." ”

"Yes." Cao Gensheng hurriedly responded.

Muravyov, the governor of Eastern Siberia, led 75 ships carrying 1,000 Cossack soldiers and broke into the Heilongjiang River.

It happened to send the fleet north to take the opportunity to uproot the Russian strongholds in Heilongjiang and Sakhalin, but in order to avoid arousing the disgust of the imperial court, he invited the Beiyang Navy fleet to go north together.

Cao Gensheng, who was waiting, left, Yan Shikuan said: "The railway is suspended, and the big shopkeeper is not worried?" ”

"What is there to worry about." Yi Zhicontent said in a relaxed tone: "How many years has the railway been built?" Even if there are no foreigners, we can build it ourselves now, are we still afraid of threats? They want to play bigger, let's accompany them, anyway, we owe a lot of foreign debts, what are we afraid of! ”

Yan Shikuan then asked, "What about the train ferry?" ”

The Yangtze River in Jiangning can not build a bridge, for the time being can only be solved by ferry, the British used the train ferry in Farne Bay in Scotland a few years ago, which is a large ship that can load several or even a dozen train cars at a time, and the supporting facilities are not simple, and must completely rely on Britain and France.

Glancing at him, Yi Zhizhi said: "The suspension of the train ferry is only temporary, do you really think that a mere minister in China can easily make a large company tear up the contract?" ”

"That is, this is intimidation?" Yan Shikuan smiled: "Let's intimidate them, and they intimidate us!" ”

"Not bad." Yi Zhizhi shook his head and said: "Now I can calm down than anyone." ”

"Then they won't be able to beat us." Yan Shikuan said with a smile: "Once the autumn is over, they can't cry. ”

Yi Zhixiang smiled and said, "Why wait until autumn, you can see it in half a month." ”

British Consulate in Shanghai.

Bao Ling put down the "North China Jiebao" in his hand, and was speechless for a while, "Beihua Jiebao" is an English-language newspaper founded by the British, but it is full of articles with fierce tone criticizing the terms of the treaty, he knows very well that if this situation continues, it will inevitably arouse the anger of all businessmen, sailors and sailors in China, and in the past two days, people have come to the consulate to protest one after another, and the situation is deadlocked, and more and more people will protest.

He took out his pocket watch and looked at it, it was already past twelve o'clock, he sighed secretly, got up and walked to the balcony and took out a cigar and lit it, so that the railway and train ferries under construction were stopped, this was already the last threat he could think of, if Yuan Qi was unmoved, what else could he do? You can't threaten with force, can you?

Besides, even if it is a threat of force, Yi Zhifen may not take it seriously, Britain and France are now at war with Russia in the Crimea, and Yuanqi's newspapers are publicly reporting it, Yi Zhifen will believe that Britain and France are at war with the Qing in the Far East at this time?

"Tuk tuk" knocked on the door, Bao Ling was overjoyed, and hurriedly returned to the office and said loudly: "Come in." ”

Ali Guo pushed the door in and said, "Your Excellency, more and more people are coming to the consulate to protest, and they want the government to bear all their losses ...... ”

Afford to lose? Bao Ling's face sank, this is not a smoking ban in Guangzhou, the Qing Kingdom did not confiscate any goods at all, people just don't trade with you, how to compensate for this loss? It is impossible for the Qing State to compensate, and it is impossible for Great Britain to compensate. It's not more than a decade ago when there were nearly 100 merchant ships in Shanghai alone!

Seeing that Bao Ling was silent, Ali Guo hesitated and said: "In the past two days, more and more people have come to the consulate to receive food, and the food we store may only last for two more days." ”

Bao Ling said in a deep voice: "There is no food on those merchant ships? After a pause, he continued: "I have sent a newspaper to Hong Kong, asking them to bring grain over, and buy it from them first." ”

It takes seven or eight days for Hong Kong to come, to borrow the words of the Chinese, that is called far water can not quench the thirst of the near, Ali Guo secretly slandered himself, at this time, there is food on the ship, who will be stupid to sell out?

The knock on the door sounded again, and Bao Ling hurriedly said, "Come in." ”

A counsellor pushed the door open and said, "Your Excellency, Mr. Ministers of France and the United States of America have come to visit. ”

Bao Ling felt anxious, and said softly, "Please ask them to come up." ”

The French Minister Bourblon and the American Minister Mai Lian both looked very bad, and there was no greeting when they entered the office, so Bourblon said directly: "This stalemate is not a way, we should hurry up and go to the capital of the Qing Kingdom to meet their Emperor His Majesty and start negotiations as soon as possible." ”

Bao Ling glanced at him and said, "Prime Minister Yamen won't let us go north!" ”

Mai Lian said: "What if the Emperor of the Qing Kingdom takes the initiative to invite?" ”

Naive! Bao Ling didn't want to bother more, Yuan Qi's big and small newspapers overwhelmingly criticized the terms of the amendment, and at this time, the Qing Emperor took the initiative to invite them to Beijing to negotiate? That's a lot of imagination! Can it be a little richer?

Seeing that he was silent, Mai Lian said persistently: "I'm sure that the emperor of the Qing Kingdom is absolutely happy to let us go to Beijing now!" ”

Bao Ling said in a deep voice: "Even if you are very willing, you don't dare to invite it publicly." ”

"Threat of force!" Bourblon said in a deep voice.

"The Qing Dynasty believes in our threat of force?" Bao Ling said impatiently: "Now that the Qing Kingdom is up, who doesn't know about the Crimean War?" ”

Burbulon said unhurriedly: "Excuse, we need to give the Qing Emperor an excuse to invite us to Beijing!" ”

Hearing this, Bao Ling's eyes lit up and he smiled: "I have to say, this is really a good idea." ”

In the afternoon of the same day, Prime Minister Yamen received a note jointly submitted by Britain, France, and the United States with extremely strong wording and a direct threat of war, and the entire Prime Minister Yamen immediately discussed it, after all, the Qing-British War triggered by the smoking ban in Guangzhou was not far away, and many people still remember it vividly, and this time it was not only Britain that was confronted, but Britain, France, and the United States, and even if they clearly knew that Britain and France were at war with Russia in the Crimea, many people were worried.

Wu Changqing copied a copy of the note and hurried to the Zhenhai Mansion, entered the study, handed over the note, then lit a cigarette, and smoked.

After reading the note, Yi Zhishu also lit a cigarette, it was clear that Britain and France were currently busy with the Crimean War and could not go to war with the Qing State in the East.

Wu Changqing slowly spoke: "How big is the scale of the Crimean War?" ”

"According to the war report, 60,000 or 70,000 Anglo-French troops have landed on the Crimean peninsula." Yi Zhizu said slowly: "However, according to preliminary estimates, troops will continue to be invested in the future...... All in all, this is definitely a war of unprecedented proportions. ”

He couldn't remember the total scale of the investment of troops on both sides in this war, but he remembered that Russia suffered heavy losses in this war, with more than 500,000 casualties, which directly led to the suicide of Tsar Nicholas I by poisoning, and the casualties of the Anglo-French army were not small, with more than 100,000 casualties.

After a pause, he added: "Until the Crimean War is not over, it is absolutely impossible for Britain and France to open a second battlefield in the Far East!" ”

"In this case, this note has something else in mind." Wu Changqing said, he was thinking about this matter carefully all the way.

Yi Zhifen encouraged: "If you have any ideas, just say it." ”

"The Crimean War, our newspapers have been reporting on it continuously." Wu Changqing flicked the ashes of his cigarette and said unhurriedly: "They should know very well that the threat of war is impossible to scare us, why do they still submit this strongly worded note?" ”

After a pause, he said in a deep voice: "It's very simple, this note is not for us to see, but for the imperial court!" ”

"They know that there is no room for negotiation with us, so they change their goal and want to talk directly to the imperial court!" Yi Zhishu continued: "This is to create an opportunity for the imperial court!" ”

Wu Changqing nodded and said, "The note has been forwarded to the Military Aircraft Department, if the emperor orders them to enter Beijing, we can't stop it." ”

It's a bit of a hassle! Yi Zhixiang pondered for a while before he said, "After dark, please come over." ”

After dark, a four-wheeled carriage stopped in front of the Zhenhai Mansion, and Bao Ling got out of the carriage and was immediately greeted by the porter who was waiting outside the door, a note made Yi Zhi's attitude change so much, but there was no trace of pride in his heart, it was obvious that the sudden change in the other party's attitude was to see their intentions, which made him have to be more cautious.

Seeing the lantern coming, Yi Zhizhi got up and walked out of the study, stood still at the door, and said with a smile: "I'm sorry to disturb Your Excellency the Minister so late." ”

"It's not easy to see His Excellency the Duke." Bao Ling smiled: "Even if it's night, it's an honor." ”

Yi Zhizhi smiled contentedly, stretched out his hand to be polite, and sat down in the room, he didn't go around in circles, and said straightforwardly: "There is a clause in the amendment clause, foreign envoys are stationed in Beijing for a long time, you are aware that you can obtain greater benefits by negotiating with the imperial court?" ”

Bao Ling pondered for a moment before he said, "Your Excellency won't give us a chance to negotiate at all. ”

Can you talk about the terms you mentioned? Yi Zhi was content and said: "Your Excellency has been in China for six years, and you can be regarded as a China expert, and you should be very clear about the current situation in my country..... After a pause, he continued: "Now the southeastern provinces, from Jiangsu to Guangzhou, to be precise to Java, are all Yuanqi's sphere of influence, Your Excellency should be clear. ”

Hearing this, a word 'King of the Southeast' popped up in Bao Ling's mind, and now the Qing officials privately call Yi Zhizhi the King of the Southeast, he has heard of this, but does this have anything to do with their negotiations? After all, the Qing Emperor is the legitimate supreme commander of the Qing State, and as long as the Qing Emperor makes a treaty with them, it will have legal effect!