Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> Taiping blood

Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 742: Difficult Negotiations

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    On May 1862, the Chinese Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the British Empire, and the Second French Empire began peace talks in Shanghai to end the Far East War. The United States, Italy, Prussia and other countries also participated in the negotiations as mediators.  £¤f. The Chinese delegation is headed by Wang Kaiyun and assisted by Li Hongzhang and Shen Baozhen. The British and French delegation is composed of Sir Collington, Sir Elgin, French Minister Blomble and others. Others include American Minister Burlingame.  , Italian Minister Casapa, Prussian new Minister to China Lifus and others also participated.

    The meeting was held in the banquet hall of the Shanghai International Hotel. This hotel is an American property and has just been completed. It can be regarded as one of the few emerging landmark buildings in Shanghai.

    The negotiations seemed extremely difficult from the beginning. After Burlingame briefly said a few words, China, Britain and France began to express their opinions. Of course, they mainly expressed that they were the victims of the war and the other party was the party that started the war.  Negotiation is to find the other party's bottom line through mutual testing, and then exert pressure on the other party from various aspects, thereby forcing the other party to meet one's own requirements.

    So far, Britain and France are still unwilling to admit defeat. Whenever the Chinese people mention the word defeat, Sir Collington always stands up very excitedly and says that the coalition forces have not been defeated. Their navy is still fighting. If there is no peace,  At dawn, they will mobilize more troops from the colonies and mainland to the Far East battlefield.

    The largest colonies of Britain and France are in India and Africa. At this time, places such as Canada and Australia were far from reaching the level of World War I and World War II. The number of soldiers that could be recruited was very limited. India had just experienced a major uprising, which could not be quelled.  For several years, the British were busy maintaining stability in the area, but were unable to mobilize troops from these places.  The troops that can be mobilized from the African colonies have been withdrawn in the last two expeditions. France has recruited the largest number of North African regiments, and these people are now in the prisoner-of-war camps of the Taiping Rebellion.

    At this time, Britain and France¡¯s control and influence over the colonies was far from reaching the level of World War I and World War II. They were still coercing the colonies, indeed in World War I and World War II.  Both Britain and France mobilized a large number of colonial troops to participate in the battle, but it took them nearly half a century of training to achieve this effect. The current colonial Britain and France are still working hard to digest it.

    The period from 1825 to 1875.  With the exception of Britain and France, the activities of European countries to conquer new colonies have basically stopped, replaced by the movement of immigrants to overseas colonies.  As far as the situation in the UK is concerned, the words of former British Prime Minister Disraeli in 1851 can be said to be the best summary of Britain¡¯s attitude towards the colonies during this period: ¡°The colonies are a heavy millstone hanging around our (Britain¡¯s) neck.  ".  Take the two British colonies in Gambia and the Gold Coast in Africa as an example. Their commercial taxes are far less than their administrative expenses.  The British Parliament several times recommended reducing the size of the colony or abandoning it entirely, but it was only because the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron needed to establish a naval presence in the Gulf of Guinea that Britain finally retained both areas.

    The Chinese personnel participating in the negotiations have received special training before. Through the information collected by various countries and the information introduced by Hong Yun'er, the historical encyclopedia, they already have a general idea of ??the current overall strength of Britain and France.  Indeed, as Britain and France said, once they are fully mobilized, their potential as an industrial power is indeed very strong. However, national mobilization or entering into wartime economic operation is very fatal to the country's own development.  It is absolutely impossible for Britain and France to be stupid enough to mobilize their entire country and give up their own economic development to fight a trade war in the Far East. Therefore, Chinese personnel are always aware of this kind of intimidation from Britain and France.

    So Li Hongzhang stood up and spoke for a long time. He made an analysis of the situation in the British and French colonies. Apart from that, he did not mention a single word of rebuttal, but everyone who understands knows what the Chinese side means, and that is yours.  There is no basis for intimidation. The situation in your colony is so bad that you are simply unable to recruit a large-scale army.

    I saw that the two sides were a bit fierce outside the crooked building.  Burlingame could only cough lightly and remind both parties to return to reality. He listed the trade losses of various countries since the outbreak of the war in the Far East. Although various countries did not stop commercial activities under the protection of the "Wartime Far East Trade Treaty", the war has always been  It had a huge impact on commerce in the Far East.  Among them, the trade volume between Britain and France he listed has been even more appalling in the past two years.  Finally, Burlingame said: "Gentlemen, it is time to end the war. What the Far East needs is a peaceful free trade atmosphere, not war. I hope that the participating countries can be more pragmatic."

    ? ?Okay, the topic returns to the negotiation itself.  Both sides put forward their own outrageous conditions and started a new round of disputes, but in the end there was no result.  The first round of negotiations lasted for three days. Both sides refused to give in to each other's disputes. Burlingame and other ministers were helpless, so Burlingame's quarrel on the third dayChina suggested that both sides adjourn the meeting for one day and restart negotiations on the fifth day.

    On the day of the adjournment, Sir Collington was allowed to inspect the British and French Concessions, where he saw a desolate scene.  All the valuable things in the concession have disappeared, and it was not caused by Taiping Army robbery. The Taiping Army still only sent troops to blockade the concession. They did not enter the concession, and anything valuable in the concession was used by the British and French people in the concession.  The exchange for food, medicine and other necessary supplies for life was spent.

    When Sir Collington saw the people who had been holding on to the concession, the British and French people in the concession burst into tears. In fact, they could not withstand any attack by the Taiping Army. They were just a group of prisoners trapped in the besieged city.

    Sir Collington saw Midile, who had lost a lot of weight. The British consul in Shanghai could already be described as haggard. The only thing Midile said repeatedly to Sir Collington was, "For God's sake."  For our sake, end the war and get them out."

    Sir Collington was greatly shocked. In the afternoon, he visited the Allied prisoner of war camp in Shanghai. These prisoners of war were Allied soldiers captured in the Battle of Shanghai and the Battle of Zhoushan. The number was not large, only more than a thousand, but they  Also repeating Midile's same words.  In response to these people's requests, Sir Collington could only solemnly promise that the country had not forgotten them.

    The Shanghai prisoner-of-war camp was only the smallest camp in the Far East where allied prisoners of war were held. The larger ones were in Guangzhou and Beijing. Sir Collington saw that although they were not abused, as prisoners of war, they lost their freedom and had to work every day to receive  The food, the scene was very bleak.

    Sir Elgin told Sir Collington that the treatment of most officers and above was slightly better, while the treatment of soldiers and ordinary people was much worse. Sir Collington was very dissatisfied with this.

    So when the negotiations resumed on the fifth day, Sir Collington strongly protested from the beginning that China used captive soldiers to work.  In this regard, Li Hongzhang from China only retorted: "They are all invaders. Our country has never been polite to invaders and unfriendly people! Their treatment has been calculated. Are you interested?"  You can go to the north and see what life is like for Russian prisoners of war!¡±

    Sir Collington was still protesting loudly, which resulted in the day's negotiations ending in vain. Finally, Burlingame asked the Chinese to stop using prisoners of war to work. The Chinese were very easy to talk to, but they requested that the coalition forces must stop working prisoners of war every day.  Pay the living expenses of more than 35,000 prisoners of war until the end of the war.

    Sir Collington could only hold his nose and admit it. He paid 100,000 pounds in advance for living expenses. The Chinese simply stopped the labor of prisoners of war immediately, but it seemed that the food was still at the original level and there was no improvement.  In the words of Chinese personnel, these are just exchanges for them not having to work.

    Negotiations are still continuing, and the two sides have finally started some more practical contacts. The first thing to be determined is war reparations. The British and French proposed not to admit defeat, so they refused to pay war reparations, but they could pay ransoms for prisoners of war.  The two sides did not exchange prisoners of war. In the two years of fighting, Britain and France did not capture a single Taiping soldier. The navy did capture some crew members after the ship sank in the naval battle, but they found that most of these people were pirates, and their numbers were only insufficient.  Five hundred people were barely a fraction of the number of prisoners captured by the coalition forces. Even after the prisoner exchange, the coalition forces still had nearly 35,000 people waiting to be ransomed.

    As for the price of ransoming prisoners, officers and soldiers are naturally different, officers and generals are different, and the ransoms of white British and French soldiers and colonial soldiers are also different.  The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom offered an average of one thousand pounds per soldier, which was indeed a sky-high price. Thirty thousand soldiers was thirty million pounds, not counting officers and generals.  Britain and France were quite dissatisfied with this, but the Taiping Rebellion personnel also said that the price could be lowered, so let's talk about war reparations first.

    Therefore, for the sake of face, Britain and France basically agreed to increase the ransom in exchange for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom giving up the war reparations requirement. In the end, after several discussions between the two parties, a ransom of 28 million for soldiers and prisoners of war was determined. In addition, the ransom for officers and generals was 7 million pounds.  .  Well, the face of Britain and France has been saved, and the money from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been obtained. No matter what the name is, it is considered real when real money and silver are obtained.

    Next is the issue of revising the previous unequal treaties. This is not a big obstacle. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is indeed more pragmatic and open than the Qing Dynasty. They also need international trade and open markets, although they have taken back the security rights and consular jurisdiction of the concession.  However, Britain and France got what they wanted. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom continued to open northern ports and markets, and the trade volume further increased.  Lord Collington believes that the domestic parliament will not be obsessed with the loss of two unimportant powers. What they value more is the expansion of the trade market.

    Finally, there is the issue of Hong Kong. The British did not agree to the exchange, and the Taiping Rebellion insisted on returning it.The two sides were at loggerheads.  The two sides struggled with this issue for three days. On this day, when Sir Collington and Sir Elgin were still discussing how to make the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom surrender in the apartment where they were staying, the Americans brought bad news. The Russians  They made peace with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom alone. They signed the "Sino-Russian Ili Treaty" and the Russians privately withdrew from the war (To be continued.)
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report