Guo Songtao actually came to Europe earlier than Wu Jianzhang. www.biquge.info However, at first, he took a shortcut, first to the Red Sea, then disembarked and hired a caravan to cross the land, to the Mediterranean, and then to France by ship.

There were several foreigners accompanying him, led by a man named Howard, who was originally a British soldier, who was captured by the begging army during the attack on the Humen Fort, because he was afraid of being executed, and under the temptation of Feng Yunshan's salary of 20 pounds a year, he, like dozens of other British officers and soldiers, joined the Holy Kingdom and served Feng Yunshan.

The other foreigners were not captured by the British soldiers: a French merchant and two Prussian merchants were all half-forced and semi-voluntary at the request of Feng Yunshan to accompany Guo Songtao and several generals of the Nanyang Company to Europe, but all of these generals of the Nanyang Company were turned into deacons of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Guo Songtao and his entourage first rushed to Paris, France, and under the recommendation of the accompanying French merchants, at the price of five hundred taels of silver, they quickly hooked up with the guards of the French Emperor Napoleon III, and helped to report to the French Emperor that the representatives of the rebel envoys from the east had arrived in Paris.

Napoleon III Bonaparte was very interested in the expansion of French power in the Far East, and he learned from the French minister that the leader of the rebel army of the Qing Kingdom was a branch of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and also believed in God and Catholicism, so Bonaparte attached great importance to the envoys sent by this rebel army. It just so happened that not long after he ascended the throne, the Qing people completely ignored him and ignored him, but they didn't expect this rebel army to come. He was a little pleased, and directly handed over to the Foreign Minister to assist Guo Songtao in building the consulate of the Holy Kingdom in France.

However, considering that the Holy Kingdom had only had a fierce conflict with Great Britain, in order to accommodate the feelings of this most important ally for France at present, Bonaparte still did not directly decide to establish diplomatic relations with the Holy Kingdom, but only agreed to let Guo Songtao establish a consulate in Paris. But in fact, it is no different from the establishment of diplomatic relations, but it is not the same as external propaganda.

With the opening of the French emperor, Guo Songtao established a consulate in Paris very smoothly, rented a western-style house, and spent more than a month to change the room to an antique Chinese flavor, and hung up the big characters "Consulate of the Holy Kingdom in France" written in Chinese characters.

According to Feng Yunshan's request, Guo Songtao left 20 of the students in Paris, and entrusted the French businessman to arrange for them to study French in a language school in France first, and then arrange for them to study at a French university after the language was understood. At the same time, Guo Songtao also asked the meticulous work and the students to pay attention to collecting all kinds of intelligence information in France, such as politics, military, commerce, industry, education, scientific and technological inventions, people's livelihood, etc., and left 100,000 taels of gold worth of silver, which he asked to serve as the vice consul in Paris to make friends with government officials and purchase scientific and technological materials and technical drawings.

After arranging everything in Paris, Guo Songtao and the rest of the people came to London, England, to prepare to establish a consulate first, just like in Paris. But unexpectedly, British Foreign Secretary Cleradern, who was originally preparing to establish formal diplomatic relations with the Holy Country, suddenly changed his tune and avoided Guo Songtao.

Guo Songtao investigated everywhere, and after many inquiries, he learned that it was the British consul in Shanghai, Ali Guo, who had brought the Manchu envoy to London. The British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary began to lean towards the Manchus, and were ready to support the Manchus and deal with the Holy State together, so they were no longer ready to establish diplomatic relations with the Holy State.

If it weren't for the accommodating British businessmen who followed Guo Songtao, Guo Songtao doubted that he would have been captured by these British people as enemies. However, the British businessman swore that Britain is a country with a legal system, and even if it is the prime minister, he doesn't care about the chaos, so Guo Songtao relieved himself.

Guo Songtao was about to give up the idea of establishing a consulate in Britain and go to Prussia instead, but he did not expect that the carriage he was riding in would crash into a person he did not expect.

knocked people unconscious, and at first glance it was a person from the Manchu Qing Dynasty with a whip, Guo Songtao naturally unceremoniously ordered someone to search it, and found the newspaper and Su Shun's secret order to Wu Jianzhang. Only then did Guo Songtao realize how lucky he was, he actually bumped into Wu Jianzhang, an envoy sent by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and knocked him unconscious!

What surprised Guo Songtao the most was the newspaper, the news on it was so ecstatic! Through the translation of the general affairs, Guo Songtao learned that the soldiers of the Holy Kingdom actually captured the Manchu city of Beijing, directly frightened the Manchu emperor into fleeing, and died halfway through.

Guo Songtao knew that in this way, the entire Manchu Qing Dynasty would be basically finished, and the rest of the provinces, as long as they sent a large army, supplemented by surrender, could be pacified in one fell swoop. The world is already a holy country!

Later, when he saw the Holy King directly announcing his ascension to the throne as emperor in Beijing and the establishment of the Chinese Empire, Guo Songtao was even more excited, but unfortunately he was not there, what a great and exciting moment it should be!

After finding out the details of Wu Jianzhang and directly surrendering him, Guo Songtao suddenly remembered an idea. He was going to have people pretend to be Wu Jianzhang's entourage, follow Wu Jianzhang closely, let Wu Jianzhang continue to act as an envoy to the Manchus, and inquire about the attitude of the foreigners towards the Chinese Empire.

From Wu Jianzhang's mouth, it seems that these British will not send troops to the Far East for the time being until the end of the Crimean War. But once that war was over, it was likely that a large number of troops would be sent to the Far East to the detriment of the Empire, and Guo Songtao had to send the news back to the Empire.

In addition, Guo Songtao began to attach great importance to the Crimean War, and he tried his best to even send personnel to the battlefield to find out the situation of the war. Only by knowing the progress and outcome of the war can we prepare in advance.

He began to collect the latest newspapers, and sent people around the Parliament and in the bars and other places near the docks in London to inquire about the news.

The day after letting Wu return to his apartment, Kwok suddenly received an invitation from British Foreign Secretary Cleradern, saying that British Prime Minister Sir Palmerston wanted to see him.

Coming to the Hanjin White Palace, Guo Songtao felt a burst of disdain in his heart, this foreigner's palace was far worse than the palace in his hometown.

He felt a little strange that Palmerston wanted to see him, but after a little thought, he immediately understood: it must be because of what was published in the newspaper! The empire has defeated the Manchus and is about to occupy the whole of China and replace the Manchus, and the foreigners, even if they have not given up the idea of supporting the Manchus, at least on the surface, they dare not openly oppose the empire.

After all, the ports and concessions opened by foreigners are under the control of the empire, and if he is openly hostile to the empire, he will suffer a loss in front of him.