"Can I summarize it this way? The United Kingdom wants us to pay 300 tons of gold as compensation and surrender two warships to the United Kingdom. Most importantly … the United Kingdom wants us to write this clearly in the contract, "China's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Lv Cheng, said very seriously.
The British Foreign Minister knew that this request was difficult to accept. The British cabinet's attitude towards this was "the treaty cannot be shaken." In terms of substance and face, the United Kingdom wanted to have both. The Foreign Minister asked, "Mr. Ambassador, do you understand the reason behind this?"
"The United Kingdom wants to maintain its image as the world's hegemon," Lv Cheng said the truth in a very offensive manner.
The Foreign Minister hated to hear this. At this time, he could only reluctantly say, "Since your Majesty has repeatedly said that he respects the British Empire and is willing to maintain peace and friendship with the British Empire, this is the time to put this friendly attitude into practice."
Lv Cheng also did not like to hear this. The Military Governor Of Vaize did say this, and the Military Governor Of Vaize did say this. But in Lv Cheng's opinion, this is more about the United Kingdom's peace and friendship with China. "
"There is no explanation of the outcome of the war in the contract. This compensation is only to compensate for the huge losses suffered by the United Kingdom in the war." When the British Foreign Minister said this, he also felt like his heart was bleeding. When would the British Empire publicly admit that it had suffered huge losses in the war? If they wanted to maintain their image as the hegemon, they had to swallow it. If they did not know that China would never accept the loss of the war, the United Kingdom would actually want China to make a friendly gesture of "compensation after the defeat."
"Is this the bottom line of the British side? Including the division of the territories occupied by the two sides, can be solved on this basis? "Lv Cheng still made the decision to favor peace talks. No matter how ridiculous the conditions seemed, Lv Cheng could still feel the United Kingdom's helplessness. To be honest, the territories occupied by China were all rotten lands. They were either mountains or deserts, tropical wastelands or northern ice fields. China had never touched the essence of the warm and humid climate and the large population. These were the territories that the United Kingdom entered on its way to the rest of the world. Even the British themselves did not have the intention to manage them. When China showed that it could really destroy the British colonies, and China repeatedly expressed its willingness to negotiate, coupled with the British economic crisis and internal instability, the United Kingdom could not afford to offend the British. The opportunity to negotiate had just appeared. If these conditions changed, this opportunity might really be lost.
"Ceylon is not part of this negotiation," the British Foreign Minister said. Ceylon's strategic position was too important. The British would never let it go so easily.
"I will relay this matter to the country," Lv Cheng said seriously.
The first reaction in China was that the British had opened their mouth too wide. 300 tons of gold, why didn't they just rob them directly? But no one objected to buying land. The profits from the deal with Russia were too great. China's gold army found several gold mines in the area north of Mohe. As for the sandy areas along the river in Alaska, the Gold Troops had already built more than a dozen large strongholds. Over the past few years, more than 400 tons of sand gold had made the 100 tons of gold paid to Russia a small joke.
The 300 tons of gold was not taken out. From the perspective of future profits, the land bought with 300 tons of gold would definitely make a lot of money. A few years ago, Vézé had used the huge credit he had accumulated to force the sale of 100 tons of gold. Now, a few years later, Vézé's credit had exploded because of this.
"I think this price can be negotiated. 250 tons of gold, and the other 50 tons will be shipped to London as a deposit for us to get pounds from the British bank." Vézé was too lazy to discuss so much. The rotten land in the eyes of others was not only not rotten in Vézé's eyes, but it was also shining with gold. The profits from the "gold rush" in the north gave Vézé the confidence to pay so much gold. Even if the amount of sand gold mining began to decrease, the 400 tons of gold that had already been obtained could be considered as a free profit.
The 6th Army did not have any objections. It was very difficult to station troops in a place like Canada. After the advent of peace, the pressure on the garrison was greatly reduced, and the 6th Army's precious budget was much more generous.
It was the navy who had objections. Lin Jiajun, the naval commander, asked nervously, "Commander-in-chief, if we transfer two ordinary cruisers to England, the naval technology on these two ships will allow the British to improve very quickly. To put it bluntly, our technology is limited. Barrel recoil guns and smokeless gunpowder can account for almost half of it. Commander-in-chief, please reconsider. "
Vézé thought to himself, Let's not undervalue ourselves, okay? When welding technology improved, they could open warships with the concept of armor boxes. In Vézé's eyes, ordinary cruisers were probably iron toys. At that time, China's backward ship-building technology could only build such things. If the British really treated this design as a mature design, it would definitely be good news for China.
Vézé could not say such dark thoughts out loud, so he could only come up with an explanation. "If two people want to coexist peacefully, one is holding a sharp nine-ringed golden scale machete, and the other is holding a pedicure knife. Do you think the one with the pedicure knife can be at ease?"
This analogy was a bit sinister, and many comrades in the Military Commission could not help but laugh.
Vézé continued, "If the British replace the pedicure knife with a kitchen knife of the same craftsmanship as the machete, the British will stop before they build their own machete. People have to have something to look forward to. Only those without something to look forward to will take risks. And we don't really have to worry about England. England has dominated Europe for hundreds of years, and there are many countries that want to overthrow England. At this time, what England needs most is to quickly stabilize the situation. It'll take a few more years. "
The Military Commission was also very clear about the contradictions between the European countries. If England really wanted to stabilize the situation, they could only fight a few wars. Once the war was fought, they would not have to worry about England's crazy counterattack. More importantly, Vézé's attitude of wanting to negotiate peace with England was very clear. Since China had not suffered any losses so far, peace was completely acceptable.
At this time, England was eager to solve its internal problems, and there was no irreconcilable conflict between China and England in South Tibet. The agreement was completed in February 1882. On February 14, two ordinary China cruisers with all their weapons removed sailed into the rebuilding port of Bombay. These two famous golden ships loaded with 300 tons of gold were very likely to appear in films and literature in later generations.
The British stock market soared with the news. If it was not for the gold standard that the pound had a fixed exchange rate with gold, the pound would have soared. In the eyes of the European countries, even though they had failed, England still suppressed China and made China pay war reparations to England. Although some countries had their own assessment of this. Those countries that were not prepared to challenge England's hegemony also regained a lot of confidence in England.
On the way back to London, England fully studied the performance of the Chinese warships. The Royal Navy's evaluation of the two ships was medium. After the two ships returned to England, they were immediately dismantled to a certain extent. The technology of these two all-metal warships might have been amazing ten years ago, but ten years later, it could only be said that it gave the British some new ideas.
Composite steel armor and triple expansion steam engines were now the standard equipment for England. Seeing that China had adopted the same technology, the British Navy was very pleased that they were on the right path. The most helpful thing to England was the design drawings of the gas-liquid recoil mounts provided by China. The British finally understood why the cannons on the Chinese warships could fire at such a high altitude. With England's industrial strength, they were able to imitate the same product in a very short period of time.
The same was true for smokeless gunpowder. The British artillery obtained the powerful gunpowder that they had been dreaming of. England believed that in a few years, they would be able to design an invincible cannon, which was powerful enough to sink a warship of the Chinese Navy.
Just as the British Navy was discussing in a small circle whether to go to war with China after the completion of the new warships, China was also carrying out an orderly clean-up operation in Ceylon.
Second Lieutenant Qi Rui led the troops to escort a large group of Tamils to the coast. The local people of Ceylon were Sinhalese, and the Tamils were brought to Ceylon by the British as servants. Since the British and China had put aside the issue of Ceylon, it was impossible for the Min dynasty to keep these tens of thousands of Tamils. In private negotiations, the British firmly refused to accept the China sending these Tamils back to India. They also publicly stated that if China invaded India's territorial waters and sent the Tamils to India, it would be an invasion of India, and the British would definitely react strongly.
Peace was not easy to come by, and the Min dynasty did not want to waste this hard-earned peace. Therefore, the Min dynasty made a special trip to the semi-autonomous Kyushu in Japan to invite a group of experienced people who had good cooperation with them to help deal with these tens of thousands of Tamils.
Second Lieutenant Qi Rui did not know about the order given by his father, Vézé. He was rather tired as he drove the Tamils to their destination. To be able to effectively capture these people, the Liberation Army had contributed a lot, but the local Sinhalese had also contributed a lot. In the eyes of the Sinhalese, the Tamils were foreigners. It was a very happy thing to be able to drive these foreigners out of their sight. The Chinese did not even have to do it themselves. The Sinhalese took the initiative to form teams to lead the way for the Chinese team, and even to capture the scattered Tamils who had escaped into the jungle.
The Tamils formed a team of a hundred people, and they all tied their left arms with a rope, forming a long string. More than twenty boats that could accommodate a hundred people were anchored in a small fishing port. The Sinhalese told the Tamils that these boats were to send them home. The Tamils did not show an optimistic expression. The Tamils also believed in Hinduism, but they did not have a high position in Hinduism. They followed the British to Ceylon to grow tea. They had originally wanted to get rid of their oppressive position in India. The British were fierce and cruel, but working under the British, they were oppressed equally and given food equally. There was only one oppressor above their heads, which was much better than their fate in India.
The Japanese brought the Tamils onto the boat, then immediately pulled the anchor and set sail. The boat sailed out of the limits of vision on the coast and turned south. On the way, the empty boat sailed to a small fishing port in the south. They planned to rest for a night and continue north the next day for the next round of processing.
Behind the boat, the turbid surface of the Indian Ocean appeared dark red. To serve their old customers, the Japanese samurai were very thorough. The red tide rolled along with the current and dissipated not long after.
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