The smile on Yi Zhi's face soon stiffened, for he realized that what he was most looking forward to was the desire of the two countries to redraw the border, the Ajet Mountains, had been frustrated. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Sure enough, after talking about the railway, Puti Yating changed his words, "I wonder if my country can still buy land in Shanghai to establish a concession now?" ”

"Absolutely." Yi Zhi said with a heartfelt jaw: "However, the current land price in Shanghai is a bit expensive, so you might as well buy ....... after the outbreak of war after a while." ”

What he said was pure nonsense, the land from Shanghai to Baoshan is under the control of Yuanqi, and at the current stage of rapid development in Shanghai, the land price can only rise, and it is impossible to fall.

Putiatin did not understand the situation, but felt that this suggestion was very pertinent, and Jue Yi Zhizhi was content to put himself in their shoes, and after thanking them repeatedly, he tentatively said: "Your Excellency seems to have a strong confidence in the war that is about to break out. ”

Yi Zhixiang glanced at him and said, "If someone knocks on the door, you can only beat him hard!" As he spoke, he asked directly: "Is the agreement on the transfer of Alaska and Kamchatka ready?" ”

Seeing that he was not interested, Putiatin took out the transfer agreement and handed it over, and said softly: "Regarding the re-demarcation of the border between the two countries, there is a lot of opposition in the country...... ”

"It doesn't matter." Yi Zhizu waved his hand, unwilling to take the initiative to cede it, I sent troops to take it myself, it was nothing more than a little more effort, at least Eastern Siberia, he was determined to win.

The transfer agreement was written in Chinese and Russian languages, and after careful comparison and scrutiny, Yi Zhizhi signed it, and after pushing the agreement over, he said: "Before this agreement officially takes effect, I hope that your country can keep it secret, and besides, the news about the railway between the two countries must also be blocked for the time being, otherwise, your country may cause unnecessary war." ”

After waiting for Putiyating to say goodbye and leave, Zhao Wenlie couldn't help but say: "Big treasurer, the Russians will continue to build this railway without ceding the place east of the Altai Mountains?" ”

"Of course." Yi Zhi said: "This railway will not be built in ten or eight years, but it will not take a few years to take the territory east of Altai. ”

As he was talking, Cao Gensheng came in and reported: "The big shopkeeper, Jingshi, Su Xiang called." ”

"Read-."

"The emperor has decided to start with Mobei Mongolia and gradually relax and eventually lift all kinds of restrictions on Mongolia. Will the matter of Yuanqi banknotes make people misunderstand that the imperial court and Yuanqi have reconciled? ”

Yi Zhizhi said without thinking: "Call back, no scruples, no immediate priority is to stabilize people's hearts, avoid large-scale runs, and avoid triggering the depreciation of paper money." ”

Seeing Cao Gensheng's record, Lin Meilian said: "Big shopkeeper, no matter how good the reputation of our Yuanqi banknotes is, after all, it is still not as reassuring as real money, even if the imperial court designates Yuanqi banknotes as the legal tender of the Qing Dynasty, I am afraid that it will not be able to prevent the people from exchanging real money and silver." ”

Yi Zhixiang glanced at her and explained: "Yuan Qi is not worried about the run, what he is worried about is the depreciation of the banknotes caused by the run, because not every semicolon has enough cash to exchange in time........ ”

Speaking of this, he looked at Zhao Wenlie and said, "Huifu drafted a proclamation, and as soon as the imperial court issued an edict to establish the legal status of Yuanqi banknotes, it would be published in the newspaper as soon as ..... issued. ”

After a slight sigh, he continued: "Finance is the core of a country's economy, and banks are the lifeblood of a country's economy.

In order to maintain currency stability, promote currency circulation, standardize currency issuance, strengthen currency management, and strictly supervise currency exchange and payment, Yuanqi sincerely invites the well-funded bankers from all provinces to come to Shanghai to prepare for the establishment of the National Association of Banks, and jointly discuss and formulate various relevant rules and regulations to build a monetary system in line with the national conditions of the Qing Dynasty. ”

Speaking of this, he paused, "At that time, send a telegram to the household department and invite the household department to send a member to participate in the meeting." ”

After Zhao Wenlie quickly finished recording, he frowned slightly and said: "The big shopkeeper is trying to win over the provincial ticket number silver number money bank to prevent them from taking advantage of the chaos, but in this way, it is bound to share some benefits and go out....... will the gains outweigh the losses?" Yuanqi Bank is now a monopoly ...... the Qing Dynasty's money industry. ”

"Monopoly is a good thing, and it's not a good thing." Yi Zhizhi said: "There is no need for Yuanqi to monopolize the entire money industry of the Qing Dynasty, in fact, it can't monopolize it, what Yuanqi wants to do is the central bank of the Qing Dynasty - the bank of the bank." ”

Xianfeng did not delay, and the next day he issued an edict, specifying that the Yuanqi banknote was the only legal banknote in the Qing Dynasty.

This edict has almost no effect on ordinary people, Yuanqi banknotes have outstanding reputation, exquisite production, easy to carry, widely circulated, and can be exchanged for cash anytime and anywhere, whether it is legal tender designated by the imperial court or not, for them, it does not matter at all, and the coastal prefectures and counties, out of panic about the war, out of trust in real money, should be exchanged or exchanged, and will not be affected at all.

But this edict for the Qing Dynasty money industry, is tantamount to thunder, Yuanqi Bank is already in charge of the Qing Dynasty money industry, coupled with the legal status of paper money, Yuanqi monopoly of the Qing Dynasty money industry, is just around the corner! What's even more unfortunate is that those silver money banks that imitate Yuanqi to issue banknotes can be described as crying without tears!

The next day, the newspapers of all sizes published the announcement of Yuanqi's preparation for the establishment of the National Association of Banks, and when they saw this announcement, the proprietors of the provincial ticket number silver money banks were overjoyed, and they were busy sending a telegram to the headquarters of Yuanqi Bank, saying that they would go to Shanghai to participate in the grand event.

No one is stupid, let's not talk about whether it is good or not, this is the National Association of Banks, if you don't go, I'm afraid you won't be able to gain a foothold in the Daqing money industry in the future, of course, no matter what kind of thoughts you had before to run on Yuanqi, you also quickly extinguished the idea, a Yuanqi silver number is difficult to shake, and besides, no one wants to feel uncomfortable with themselves.

While Yi Zhizhi was busy preparing for the National Silver Trumpet Association, London, England, far away in Europe, blew up the sky, and with the resumption of Temasek's cable connection, Minister Bao Ling, the minister in China, reported a series of events caused by the 'Big Special Incident' one by one.

The commander of the East Indies and China Fleet, West Malaysia and China, led a fleet to bombard Humen in Guangzhou, and the Qing Emperor issued an edict to declare war on the British, and the Qing navy captured Hong Kong and forced the 3,000 garrison troops to surrender.

Immediately afterwards, the Nanyang Navy captured the three ports of Singapore, Malacca, and Penang in the Strait of Malacca, and the news that 25 warships of the East India Fleet were completely wiped out in the waters of Penang was also confirmed.

No one would have imagined that a 'big special incident' would trigger a series of changes, and no one would have imagined that such serious consequences would occur in the few months since the cable telegraph was cut off.

The Qing State had already declared war, and without hesitation uprooted all British strongholds in the Far East, even the East India Fleet was destroyed, and the attitude of the ministers and parliamentarians was also rare and unanimous, sending troops to the Far East and declaring war on the Qing State!

The day after the British declared war on the Qing state, the Governor-General in India, Inspector Les Canning, also arrived in London from Calcutta with a telegram for help, and the Qing army approached Calcutta by land and sea, and by land, 20,000 Qing Tibetan troops marched from Sikkim at the southern foot of Tibet, less than five days away from Calcutta. By sea, a huge fleet of more than 100 warships has reached the mouth of the Ganges River, and Calcutta with native soldiers, the defenders are less than 20,000, and they are in danger!

The telegram of the Indian Governor-General Inspector Les Canning caused a shock at the British level, and no one thought that the Qing State would dare to brazenly send troops to attack Calcutta, and it was by sea and land, and they were all a little dumbfounded!

India is the largest overseas colony of Britain, Calcutta is the center of the Indian colony, but also the British base camp in South Asia, is the second largest city in Britain after London, with a very developed textile industry and jute industry, if it is captured by the Qing army, what will be the consequences?

Palmerston was also a little dumbfounded, the East India fleet was destroyed in the Strait of Malacca, the Chinese fleet was forced to surrender in Hong Kong, more than 100 warships of the Qing fleet were at the mouth of the Ganges River, and the fleets of Australia and Africa were transferred to the past to no avail, so they could only transfer troops from all over India to take land reinforcements, the question is, how long can Calcutta hold on? Will you be able to hold out until reinforcements arrive? Also, will the Qing army cut off the cable telegraph from Calcutta again?

He faintly had a very bad feeling, now it seems that the Qing State sent troops to Tibet to capture the Gurkha and drive the Taiping army into Burma, it seems that they are all aimed at Calcutta, and the Qing State reacted too quickly to the shelling of Humen! Declaring war, capturing the Strait of Malacca, encircling and suppressing the East India Fleet, and sending troops to Calcutta, this link seems to have been premeditated.

What puzzled him was that the Qing people should know very well, especially the Nanyang Minister of the Qing State, Yi Zhi, who was extremely familiar with the situation in European countries, and was even more concerned about the Crimean War, they should know very well that they could not be the opponents of the British Empire at all, why did they provoke them so much? What is the purpose behind this?

Government House, Kolkata, India.

The British Commander-in-Chief in India, Inspector Les Canning, stood on the large balcony of his office and looked melancholy at the setting sun over the Hooghly River, along which the Portuguese, the French, and the British, had broken into the fertile land of the Ganges Delta.

In the end, the British East India Company gained the upper hand, squeezed out the Portuguese and French, monopolized Bengal trade, and then built a huge castle here, Fort William, as a base camp for the conquest of Bengal and the whole of India by force. Calcutta developed gradually with Fort William as the center.

In the more than 100 years of Calcutta's history, there is only one record of its capture, and that was in 1756, when the French captured Fort William during a conflict with the French.

Little did he know that exactly a hundred years later, Calcutta would face the threat of another fall.

This time, the Qing army seemed to be determined to win Calcutta, nearly half of the 20,000 Tibetan soldiers from Sikkim were Yuanqi's new army in the northwest, Yishi was equipped with Mini guns, the fleet from the sea was also more than 20,000 troops, and there were many steam gunboats, which were even more Yuanqi's elite, and it was impossible to hold on to the more than 10,000 poorly equipped defenders in Calcutta.

As the governor in India, he knows better than anyone that in the case of losing the right to control the sea, there will be no reinforcements to come in time to reinforce, hold on, there are only two ways waiting for them, one is the annihilation of the whole army, the other is defeat and surrender, there is no possibility of negotiation, after all, the Qing State has declared war on them!

He knew very well that the Chinese fleet's bombardment of Humen should have been instructed by London, and Bao Ling would not know that Humen was heavily defended, and he would still have to touch it hard, which was clearly London's dissatisfaction with the Qing State's intervention in Burma and preventing Britain from wanting to expand in Southeast Asia.

Now, once Calcutta falls, the British army in Burma will also be in an isolated and helpless situation, and he is sure that after the Qing navy captures Calcutta, it will inevitably go to Burma, and the other side will definitely not let go of such a great opportunity.

After suffering such a big loss, London will definitely not give up, and this battle in the Far East, I am afraid that the scale will not be smaller than that of the Crimea, but I don't know how long it will take?

"Your Excellency." An attendant walked in briskly and handed over a telegram: "A telegram from London." ”

There was only one line on the telegram - take the initiative to evacuate and abandon Calcutta. The inscription is Palmerston.

Charles Canning clutched the telegram tightly, and this was probably the wisest choice! Take the initiative to evacuate and preserve strength, it is impossible for the Qing army to stay in Calcutta for a long time, whether it is a Tibetan army or a Qing navy, it is impossible to garrison Calcutta, wait for them to evacuate, and then recover.

However, the price was too great, and he slowly turned around and looked at the city of Calcutta, a city that had developed from three small villages, and after more than a hundred years of development, it was now a famous commercial capital in the whole East, with a population of more than 300,000, and it was bound to be destroyed if it fell into the hands of the Qing army.

On the wide surface of the Hooghly River, the steamships are dragging the sail warships slowly upstream, the top of the mast of the battleship flutters a golden dragon flag, and there are many local people along the coast who come to see the excitement, for the local people, whether it is Britain or Qingguo, they are all invaders, and the two sides are fighting to the death, and they have nothing to do with them, they are happy to see the excitement.

Fang Weisheng stood on the deck and looked at the people on both sides of the strait with a telescope, secretly amused in his heart, and the communications officer quickly stepped forward to report: "There is a fast boat swimming down, flying the sea soul flag. ”

Fang Weisheng knew that this must be to convey information, and immediately ordered: "Bring someone from the boat to see me." ”

The man who was brought on board was a young man in his early twenties, who looked like a Han Chinese, and he glanced at the epaulettes on Fang Weisheng's military uniform, gave a neat military salute, and said, "Early this morning, the British troops in Calcutta began to evacuate to the west bank. ”