At Shanghai's Pudong International Airport, Zhu Yongfang, ambassador to the Qing Dynasty, walked down the ramp and was greeted by Li Shengan, the governor of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The two shook hands, and Li Shengan smiled: "Lao Zhu, you rarely come to Shanghai." ”

Zhu Yongfang's expression was a little serious and said: "If you don't come this time, you can't do it, if such a big thing happens, if the country wants to be held responsible, I am the first to take the blame, and you may even have to be affected by the governor." ”

Li Shengan also restrained his smile and said: "The British caught us off guard this time, doesn't the intelligence agency have a specific record of the meeting between Jiaqing and Macartney?" ”

Zhu Yongfang shook his head and said: "Jiaqing discovered the eavesdropping device in the palace a year ago, and then the sense of secrecy has increased a lot, he doesn't trust everyone in the palace now, and only a very few henchmen will reveal certain information." However, even if you don't know the specific details, it's not so hard to guess what the general situation is. ”

Li Shengan smiled slightly bitterly: "As soon as Jiaqing came up, he announced that he had signed a contract with the British for the purchase of weapons, and he didn't even inform us, which is too messy." I can imagine the expressions of the executives of the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce, and the military industry when they found out about this. ”

Zhu Yongfang also sighed: "So, an emperor without brains can only give us bad things." Without investigation and verification, he directly purchased 360 army artillery pieces from the British, which was enough to arm 20 artillery battalions in the Qing Dynasty, and also purchased 3,000 new British-made rifles from the British, and he did not consider the problem of logistics unification. ”

Li Sheng'an said: "For the emperor, this is just a matter of their likes and dislikes for a while. Maybe it's also a benefit fee to win over the British. From this point of view, the emperor's hatred for our Datang can be said to be bursting. ”

Zhu Yongfang continued: "This is not unexpected. In the previous 'exercise', we took away a large number of equipment from the North China New Army and the Praetorian Guard, many of which we had just sold to the Qing State, and those people in the military industry were too shrewd to offer to sell the captured equipment to Jiaqing again. Now that Jiaqing has a new choice, he will definitely be willing to buy British weapons. ”

Li Shengan said disdainfully: "British weapons are all scum." ”

Zhu Yongfang said: "I have read some reports in professional magazines, compared to our foreign trade weapons. Most of them are still somewhat competitive, especially when it comes to price. However, speaking of which, Britain is indeed not comparable to us in terms of equipment quality, so the two sides are also preparing for military cooperation and exchanges, and it is said that the British Royal Navy will visit the warships of the Qing Naval Division, and these eight achievements are to steal the division. ”

Li Sheng'an's face was cold, and he said: "This kind of thing must not be allowed to happen, and we must prohibit the British from going on board the ship to visit the key cabins on the grounds of equipment secrecy." ”

Zhu Yongfang said: "The warships we sold to the Qing State are the same as the ones that were modified for the British before. In fact, there is not much gap, and there is no loss in sight. It's just that. Just put Britain and Qing Guo together, how can it be unwilling. ”

Li Shengan asked: "Is there any pressure from the embassy?" ”

Zhu Yongfang nodded: "That's natural, but this Jiaqing is also very resolute at this time, I'm afraid that unless we repeat last year's scene, we can't change his mind." ”

Li Shengan was also slightly anxious: "Alas, I should have known that I should have pulled this Jiaqing off the horse and replaced it with an obedient guy." ”

"It's not so easy, if we have a new emperor, not to mention whether the Qing court accepts it or not, it will definitely be turbulent for a while, and it will be us who will suffer the loss. The president's message has always been clear: to settle the issue once and for all, to control the scale of discord until then, and not to let it end up in a difficult situation. In fact, if we think about it, we also know that if we engage in wind and rain because the Qing court and the emperor do not conform to our wishes, then many of our own policies will not be able to be maintained, and it will not be conducive to our immigration and development. ”

When the news of Qingguo's cooperation with Britain came back to Los Angeles, Bai Nan couldn't help but be a little surprised. Without warning, Jiaqing threw out a large order for military procurement, and Bai Nan was sure that the two countries must have reached some agreement in private, and this agreement was eighty percent unfavorable to Datang.

It's just that Bai Nan doesn't care much about this. The relationship between the Tang and Qing dynasties is basically in a broken relationship, don't look at the Qing State still honestly let the Tang people manage their customs, let the Tang people do business in the Qing State, and offer no less than one million immigrants every year, but the Qing ruling class has been full of distrust and hostility to the Tang Dynasty, although they are still afraid of the Tang Dynasty, but they are also looking for everything that will not touch the core interests of the Tang Dynasty, disgusting the Tang Dynasty.

This time, it was cut across arms purchases, and Datang suffered a dumb loss, and an arms purchase that originally belonged to Datang became British, and there was nothing to refute in principle. In this incident, the Qing cabinet did not stand on the side of the Tang Dynasty, and Bai Nan estimated that they lost face because of the previous incident of asking the Qing court to redeem the confiscated weapons. However, in order to get the order this time, the British can be said to have fought hard, and the prices of many weapons are extremely low. Originally, the profit from the sale of weapons in Britain was lower than that of Datang Military Industry, but this time it was even more in order to get this order, compressing profits to the extreme, and making no money. On the other hand, the arms dealers of Datang almost all make several times the profit. Although the profits of foreign trade have declined somewhat in recent years due to the rise in the value of the Tang Yuan currency and the decline in the price of gold and silver currency, the windfall profits from weapons can be ensured.

As for such a thing as Yingqing joining forces, Bai Nan was not particularly worried. Again, in the face of absolute power, any conspiracy is a joke. Bai Nan was more concerned about the reform and enhancement of the Tang Army. The total strength of the Tang Army is actually not much less than that of the Qing Army, not to mention how strong the combat effectiveness of the 7 divisions and two independent brigades of the regular Tang Army is.

The Qing state now has almost zero chance of confronting the Tang army head-on, and Jiaqing will continue to strengthen his military power. The Tang Dynasty also needed to further penetrate into the Qing Dynasty, including relying on the new economy to dismantle the old economic model and cultivating more pro-Tang talents through the opening of Tang-funded schools.

As for the UK, Bai Nan just sneered: "Since you want to make trouble behind our Datang, then don't blame us Datang for going to your Europe to do something for entertainment." (To be continued.) )