Remember [New] for a second,! The thoughts of Count Roche and Bourbron are very simple. Since you said that you are a vassal state that invites the court, no problem, then you are also a country. The vassals have no diplomacy?

You now have it!

When you signed the "Ryukyu-French Trade Treaty" with us before, why didn't you say that your vassal had no diplomacy? From the moment you sign the treaty, you are included in the diplomatic realm of world imperialism plus capitalism.

No matter what you say now, sign the contract to me first. Can I go back and let the Qing court admit that it is our business in France and has nothing to do with your Ryukyu Kingdom.

France, which had just fought a battle with the Qing court and successfully ended its confrontation with Emperor Xianfeng and Prince Gong, knew very well that the Manchu Qing could not care about the Ryukyu Kingdom far abroad. The French only need one horizontal navy, and even if the Qing army is one million, it will not be able to reach the shore of Ryukyu. In this regard, the Qing court was not as good as the Tokugawa shogunate.

At least whether it is the standard plane or the historical plane, the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji government behind it have been chasing the trend of the development of the world navy. In a few years in history, the Tokugawa shogunate purchased ironclad ships from the Americans. However, the Qing court was still hesitating whether to buy new Western warships or old wooden sailboats.

With the support of Bulbronn and Earl Roche, Gu Si went to Shuri King City again, within a three-day period, and asked King Shang of Ryukyu to give a clear answer.

Seeing that the French are aggressive, there is no way to delay. Whether it is the Ryukyu Shang family on the island or the Shimadzu warriors, they only have to accept their fate.

In late October 1858, France forced Ryukyu to sign the "Shuri Treaty", taking the Naha Concession and France's rights in the Ryukyu Islands. Including but not limited to garrison, mission, police, royal guardianship, etc., to name a few.

The flustered King Shang of Ryukyu immediately dispatched Mao Fenglai to the Qing Dynasty to ask for help from the Qing court of the suzerain. The Shimadzu clan who stayed behind in Shuri immediately sent people back to Kagoshima to make an emergency to Kagoshima.

For the time being, let’s put other things down, except that Mao Fenglai, the Ryukyu minister who took the boat to Fuzhou, informed the local officials of the Qing court in Fuzhou that France was forcing the signing of the treaty. When the officials of the Qing court heard that it involved France, they were afraid to avoid it.

Immediately shirk the blame and ask Mao Feng to come and go to Shanghai to meet the Minister of Commerce of the Five Ports, and the commissioner in charge of foreign affairs will handle the matter. When Mao Feng came to see the officials of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, he was afraid of foreigners like ghosts, and said that negotiating with foreigners was like a "ghost", and he had a bad premonition in his heart.

The officials of the Qing court, without seeming, are unwilling to have relations with foreigners, and are unwilling to negotiate with foreigners. But if the Qing court did not negotiate with foreigners, who else could save the country for the Ryukyu Kingdom?

The impatient Mao Fenglai had nowhere to ask, and could only hope that the five ministers of trade and commerce at this time would have a person who could rely on him.

Fortunately, the Manchu officials in Fuzhou hoped to get him out of the way quickly, so they hired an American merchant ship for him, and they traveled all the way to Shanghai to meet the current Minister of Commerce of the Five Ports.

who?

He Guiqing!

He Guiqing (1816~1862), courtesy name Congshan, nickname Genyun, was a native of Kunming, Yunnan. In the 15th year of Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty (1835), he was a scholar, and he was appointed to the governor of Liangjiang and the prince of Taibao. The Taiping army escaped from the abandoned city in Changzhou during the second battle of the Jiangnan camp, and was finally beheaded by the Qing court in the abandoned city at the mouth of the capital's Caishikou.

Here we might as well interject, the governor of Liangjiang in the Qing Dynasty managed the old land of Zhili in the south of the Ming Dynasty and was stationed in Nanjing. But now that place is called Tianjing, and Hong Xiuquan, the third child of Jehovah's family, is sitting there. Therefore, He Guiqing had no way to work in Nanjing, and could only find another place in the Liangjiang District.

Emperor Xianfeng attached great importance to the extermination of the Taiping Army, and demanded that the ministers of all thieves should be kept separate. People are in the city, and the city is broken and people perish. A more typical example is Wang Youling, governor of Zhejiang, who hanged himself after the city of Hangzhou was destroyed. There was also Jiang Zhongyuan, governor of Anhui, who drowned in the city of Luzhou and threw himself into the water.

Without Nanjing, He Guiqing had few options. Yangzhou was sometimes in the hands of the Taiping Army and sometimes in the hands of the Qing Army. Besides, there was Hechun in Jiangbei, and he was not willing to go. Suzhou has the governor of Jiangsu stationed, and Shanghai has Jiang Customs and Shanghai Road. Don't look at Jiang Customs as just a customs, but Te Niang's customs in the Manchu Qing Dynasty are all servants of the upper three flags of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

You are a Han Chinese governor, I'm sorry, but you can't compare to the emperor's slave. When he went to Shanghai to protect the inconsistency, who would command who, so He Guiqing had to command the war in Jiangnan, and he had to be free from control, so there was only one choice left.

Wujin County, Changzhou.

So all the way to Shanghai, Mao Feng came to ask him, where is the Minister of Commerce and Trade of Wukou, and everyone told him that Lord He is in Changzhou City, you can go look for him.

go with? how to get to? Jiangnan was a mess, and the river was full of ships of the Taiping Army and the Qing Army. The entire Jiangnan was beaten into a mess. Don't you get arrested or fill the ditch if you don't get to Changzhou.

The Americans who sent him to Shanghai were kind enough to remind Mao Feng to say something. The Yangtze River is indeed very dangerous, but there are also safe trails in the most dangerous places.

British ships, as long as they hang the rice flag, can sail smoothly on the Yangtze River without hindrance. Both the Qing Army and the Taiping Army needed British guns, ammunition, and food supplies. British merchants were also very happy to make a fortune in the war, selling all kinds of munitions to the warring sides.

Therefore, if you want to arrive at Changzhou City smoothly and safely, you can only take the British ship. Anyway, He Guiqing is responsible for defending the land, and it is impossible to leave Changzhou and come to Shanghai. uukanshu. com you choose.

What else could he choose? Mao Fenglai could only go to ask the British envoy Prouss, and the special envoy Elgin also returned to China with the "Tianjin Treaty" to sign for Her Majesty, so he was about to set off.

Normally, a person of unknown origin would definitely not be able to see the British envoy Prouss. But Pruss suddenly heard the attendant say that the visitor claimed to be the envoy of the Ryukyu Kingdom, and he had urgent business and asked to see him.

Ryukyu?

Elgin, who had worked in Japan for two years, told him that Ryukyu was the lock and key between Japan and Taiwan, and the Empire signed the "Ryukyu-British Friendship and Trade Treaty" with them. Now that people are here, let's meet.

After signing a treaty, does the empire have any interests in Ryukyu? Prouss and Elgin sat and chatted. It didn't take long for Mao Fenglai to be brought in.

He immediately fell to his knees and asked the British envoy, Pruss, to send him a small boat to **** him to Changzhou to meet He Guiqing, the Minister of Commerce of the Five Ports.

"Sir, even if you beg like this, there must be a proper reason." Prous frowned.

"The State of France forces my king to cede Naha, and our country is in danger of being slaughtered."