Lawrence was speechless when asked, and what Qiao Zhiqing said was indeed true.Britain and France went to Beijing at the beginning, and they looted many treasures from the Old Summer Palace, and finally forced the Qing court to pay 8 million taels in compensation.A hundred years later, Britain plundered hundreds of millions of taels of silver from China through opium.Qiao Zhiqing opened his mouth for 10 million, and it is indeed not much to say so."
Mr.
President, I have to tell the Queen and Parliament about this before I can decide.Before that, can you agree to establish diplomatic relations with us?"
Lawrence thought about it carefully, but decided to tell the queen that everything was left to her.Of the 100,000 British troops who went on an expedition to India, only a few thousand of them returned back with a bumpy road, and the military families in China had already exploded.More than ten years have passed, and many old military dependents have passed away one after another, and they have not seen their relatives before they die, and the pain can be imagined.After Britain announced that it would negotiate the establishment of diplomatic relations with New China, relatives saw hope again, and people gathered every day to ask Parliament to find a way to get these relatives back.Both the queen and the parliament were under considerable pressure, and Lawrence felt that 10 million taels should be acceptable to the United Kingdom."
Well, there's no rush on this matter.You can negotiate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the establishment of diplomatic relations, I have no opinion" Qiao Zhiqing smiled and happily agreed to the establishment of diplomatic relations.Now New China needs to make its stand clear to the world, because New China loves peace, does not form cliques in diplomacy, and is willing to interact with any country."
Very good, Your Majesty the Emperor.God willing, our two countries will definitely become very good friends" Lawrence was so excited that he was going to die, this was his mission to New China, and it is estimated that he will never have such a chance to make meritorious contributions in the future.It would be a great achievement to be able to represent Britain and complete this diplomatic ice-breaking trip.Qiao Zhiqing chuckled and nodded, didn't say anything, got up and let people see off the guests.When Lawrence returned to the foreign hotel, he immediately shared the good news with the diplomatic envoys.Everyone cheered excitedly, they didn't expect things to go so smoothly.These people were all envoys stationed in the Qing court at the beginning, and when they came to New China this time, they were all shocked when they saw the earth-shaking changes.Beijing was backward enough to keep up with industrialization, but now Beijing's modernization seems to be even more advanced than that of Britain.When they walked down the street, they saw rows of cars.This kind of thing, which has just been developed in Europe and the United States, did not expect it to be so common in China.Moreover, the hotel has popularized telephones, and what services are needed can be solved with one phone call.The British ambassadors were stunned, they had always been proud of the development of Britain.After seeing the civilization of New China, the arrogance in my heart has now dissipated.The British are always pragmatic and powerful, and seeing that New China is so advanced and can establish good diplomatic relations with New China, it will definitely be of great benefit to Britain and will not do any harm.The next day, the British ambassador and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the new China quickly discussed specific diplomatic matters.Now that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has been served by Zeng Jize, the Zeng family has become prosperous again after the death of Zeng Guofan.After exchanging views, the two sides signed a diplomatic white paper the next day.New Chinese Premier Wei Guodong also issued a statement on the same day, announcing to the world the establishment of diplomatic relations with Britain.After Britain opened this gap, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries of the European envoy group successively established diplomatic relations with New China.After Lawrence completed this mission with honor, he quickly bid farewell to New China and hurried back to England to discuss the matter of the prisoners.This is what he hopes to solve most in his lifetime.Otherwise, when he sleeps, he dreams that the souls of the British army in India are looking for him.Not to mention the families of British soldiers in the country, from time to time someone threw bricks at his yard, and the glass on the windows was broken dozens of times.Now that Qiao Zhiqing has made conditions, things are much easier to do, and he only needs to ask for the consent of the queen and the parliament when he goes back.Nowadays, the speed of steamships is generally accelerated, and it took more than half a year to travel from Britain to New China, but now it only takes four months to arrive.On the day Lawrence returned to the British port, he was surrounded by journalists from all over the country.Britain has always been full of curiosity about this oriental country, so the diplomatic achievements brought back by Lawrence will definitely cause a huge sensation in Britain.Naturally, reporters will not let go of this news topic, and after the British mission left, the public paid more and more attention to this topic.After Lawrence came ashore, he did not disclose any issues, except to mention the possible release of prisoners in New China.He also did this in order to put pressure on Parliament, and if he gave the British people a little hope, they would soon be able to fight for it.Sure enough, the day after he returned.Immediately, there were constant gatherings of military families on the streets, holding signs outside the parliament, demanding that the parliament rescue the British prisoners as soon as possible.Parliament and the Queen of England have also received Lawrence's message, and none of them scolded Qiao Zhiqing for being obsessed with money, which was simply blackmailing Britain.However, public opinion is difficult to do, if these captives are not brought back.Not to mention that the common people are unhappy, even the army is certainly unhappy.They joined the army for their country, and in order to serve the queen, they went into battle to kill the enemy, but when they arrived in England, they did not care about anything, and let them suffer as prisoners.The Marquess of Salisbury, who has just run for the new prime minister, wants to do a few big things to show voters.The matter of rescuing prisoners from New China was taken by him as his first priority.Under his auspices, Parliament and the Queen soon reached a consensus.Agreed to pay 10 million taels of silver to New China in exchange for more than 40,000 British captives.Lawrence was reappointed ambassador for diplomacy and was solely responsible for dealing with the new China on the issue of captives.After a round trip from China, Lawrence returned to Beijing in the early summer of 1887.He came with a ship full of silver, and after interviewing Qiao Zhiqing, he quickly signed various treaties for the return of the captives.During Qiao Zhiqing's period, Lawrence was surprised that he agreed to personally send a warship of New China to load the British army back to China.When Lawrence arrived, he had only brought five or six cargo ships docked in the Strait of Malacca and did not come in, and he was still worrying about how to transport the British troops back along the way.With Qiao Zhiqing's commitment, this problem is much simpler.Of course, Qiao Zhiqing didn't have a good intention, and he never meant to just invest or make money when doing business.The purpose of letting the warships of New China personally transport the British troops back to China this time was to let the officers and men get acquainted with the British sea coordinates and go through this sea route in advance.When the time comes, ocean-going naval ships will be able to send troops to Britain immediately.Lawrence didn't think about it so much, he just thought it was Qiao Zhiqing's kindness, and felt that he had taken 8 million taels too much, and wanted to compensate Britain a little.He was also very confident that Qiao Zhiqing would not be able to attack Britain from afar and regard Britain as the enemy of New China
.
: