"I will give you 1,000 taels of silver as a deposit first. As long as you can ask a consul or a chamber of commerce representative to come to me, what is 400 dan of opium? I can even return the three opium restaurants in Huizhou to you." Zhao Kuoshe smiled like a snake.

Huizhou is not far from Hong Kong. Relying on his former businessmanship, Zhong Jialiang knew many foreign businessmen and even consuls. In order not to lose all his money, this young man had no choice but to work for the traitor Zhao Kuo and entered Hong Kong.

A few days later, to Zhao Kuo's surprise, a Hong Kong "commission" came, including 20 foreigners, including the three major consuls and representatives of the three chambers of commerce. Many people were just visiting monkeys.

"There is no right to speak without investigation." This is a famous saying by the great great men in later generations, but for the Western powers, they would ask: "How could you speak without investigation?"

As soon as Zhao Kuo entered Guangdong, merchants and consuls from Britain, France and the United States began to collect what this guy did. Many foreigners with high identities even ventured into Zhao Kuo's territory. For example, the British Consul in Guangzhou sent his secretary and translator Smith to Huizhou to collect information and intelligence.

In history, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had no rejection of foreigners, because they believed that these people were foreign brothers.

However, because of the ignorance of knowledge, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing were still the Confucian idea of ​​the emperor ruled the world, believing that foreign countries should surrender to him, just like the Qing Dynasty saw Ryukyu Korea and Vietnam. Will the great powers swear you? Moreover, because the great powers had a little too high their belief in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they were even more disappointed after investigating what they did, and thought they were inferior to the Qing Dynasty.

But there were many foreigners in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom territory serving and working for them, and even fighting wars, such as Mr. Lingli, who wrote "The Personal Experience of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" in later generations.

However, in that era, those who came to the backward areas of the Far East were definitely not all businessmen and politicians who worked part-time as scientists and military strategists. There were many poor people who came to the Far East to make a living.

Some foreigners were even arrested by officers for stealing an oil cake or fruit from a Chinese vendor. This is a very normal phenomenon in Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Almost all the foreigners who worked for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom belonged to this category, just working for money. British people like Linli who knew that worshipping God's religion had no one except him.

Therefore, all kinds of strange foreigners were wandering around Zhao Kuo's territory, including rich, poor, merchants with straight suits, and sailors who were drunk in the cheapest brothels. Zhao Kuo turned a blind eye to them and even found some brokers to search for some arms in Hong Kong. In short, his strategy was: in addition to the part of the gentry and opium merchants that threatened him, other things, such as small merchants and farmers, should be killed, and the lives of foreigners were best maintained, and the activities of foreigners were the same.

Also, because Huizhou Prefecture was originally bounded by Guangzhou Prefecture and Hong Kong, there was no Qing Dynasty blockade between Shanghai and Nanjing, the information came very relaxed. However, as various intelligence flowed into the circle of powers in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, Zhao Kuo's behavior actually showed two completely contradictory manifestations.

After receiving repeated sincere invitations from the wealthy businessman (member of the Tiandihui), pastor (Luo Xiaoquan), and businessman (Zhong Jialiang), etc. commissioned by Zhao Kuo, the three major consuls decided to visit Zhao Kuo in person from Hong Kong.

Of course, the political nature of this action was minimized.

No one wants to annoy the Qing government before confirming the situation, and it doesn't matter if it annoys it.

Sun Jiewen, a reporter from Guangzhou Records, who accompanied him (this newspaper is a Chinese newspaper published by foreigners in Guangzhou. This reporter was a British. At that time, foreigners who lived in China liked to give themselves Chinese names, such as the famous Luo Xiaoquan, Li Taiguo, Ma Shi, etc. From then on, we can see which of the two cultures is more learning and progressive.) reported the situation of this meeting:

"….. Pingnan Hou of the Taiping Army was a very young Chinese. He wore a gorgeous robe and wrapped in their iconic headscarf. Compared with the dark skin of his fellow countrymen, he had fair skin and a low figure. As a big man in the eyes of his soldiers, he rarely had no beards and had very fair teeth. From his appearance, he might be the cleanest Chinese person I have ever seen. He was burly and powerful, quick to move, and very energetic.

"... The prince of the Taiping Army is definitely good at speaking fluent English. Although he obviously has the accent of the slums of London (sorry), and although we have heard it before we go, it is still shocking to hear the rebels of the Chinese emperor who came out of the poor villages of Guangxi that can speak this language...

"..... He has a cheerful personality and a sense of humor. We often laughed happily during the meeting. For example, the president of the British Chamber of Commerce asked what the shrine-like high platform in the middle of the living room was used for. Of course, we all guessed that Pingnan Hou usually sat on this platform to work, but Pingnan Hou said that because he searched half of Guangdong, he could not find a desk with drawers, so he had to sit on the platform to work. Guangdong did not produce desks except for a cigarette couch...

“…………In terms of his personal elegant speech and extensive knowledge, although there are people in Guangzhou City and Hong Kong who call Chen Pingnanhou a bandit, it is undeniable that even if he is a bandit, he is a new type of bandit that has never been seen in the Far East before….

“…. The good news is: Regarding the British Consul’s issue of free trade, Pingnan Hou, who had just entered the Protestant Church, promised that on his territory, every inch of land, he would protect the rights of merchants from all countries to trade freely….

“…bad news: Americans left the Marquis speechless for at least one minute, and not once…”

The meeting that day was unexpectedly unexpected to Zhao Kuo. The first half was unexpectedly good, and the second half... was extremely miserable.

Zhao Kuo did very little image project for this group of guests who were in control of their destiny. He guessed that the other party was prepared and did not have enough information. It was not so easy for foreigners to come out, so he ordered everything to be the same, just to let his subordinates clean the living room.

After a group of foreigners came, Zhao Kuo took out the attitude of a company in later generations to entertain large customers. He just nodded and waited at the door, shook hands one by one and greeted each other, and then personally introduced them to the living room.

At this time, he would never be so stupid as to climb the five steps to reach the position of the mountain god. If he had to do this, he would rather hang a rope on the tent and hang it directly.

In history, foreigners have to bear the unfairness. First of all, they will never kneel. When Luo Xiaoquan just went to Nanjing, when he saw Hong Xiuquan, a group of guards beside him yelled and "kneeled", but they were scared and knelt down. Soon they found that it was not God who was kneeling but Hong Xiuquan himself, and they were furious! In this way, the powerless and powerless priests were scared by Hong Xiuquan and knelt once and were all caused to be a great humiliation in their lives.

Second, we must be equal, especially during diplomatic seasons. The British, French and American ministers personally took warships to Nanjing to observe, but because of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's habit of kings and princes sitting on high platforms, although many kings and princes had seen them, almost a successful negotiation was not carried out. The ministers clearly demanded that you should not sit higher than me, we should negotiate equally. But those old farmers, Hong Xiuquan, his family and relatives, did not understand this? They were just barbarians. They thought I was a king and I just wanted to be domineering.

The Qing Dynasty was not much better than the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but they were better than the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Because they were beaten up by the great powers, the Qing emperor was embarrassed in order to avoid the other party not kneeling when he met the minister and was equal (the barbarians thought they were in the throne of the heavens), so he simply went to "cultivation escape" - if you don't kneel down, I will not stay in Beijing when I go to the Summer Resort, so you can't see me, so you won't kneel down, you haven't seen me, hahaha, our Qing emperor is smart.

Zhao Kuo sat in his subordinate's seat, with the first chair in his left hand, and Zhong Han, Zhu Qingzheng and others lined up side by side. Finally, the "unlucky profiteer who was unscrupulous and surrendered to the enemy" Zhong Jialiang was the last seat.

A row of foreigners sat opposite them, arranged in English, French and American orders.

This is very equal. Foreigners are really satisfied with this sorting, and everyone has a smile on their faces.

Then he started talking. At the beginning, Zhao Kuo ignored the national dignity and spoke in English. As expected, the foreigners seemed even more satisfied and shocked as they exclaimed.

But later, the language of the venue soon became Chinese again.

Because the British minister saw Wallace Chung, Zhu Qingzheng and others had no idea what both sides were saying, so he took the initiative to translate it into Chinese. You must know that the awareness of foreigners learning in the late Qing Dynasty was not covered, so he really said something. Two-thirds of the people in this mission lived in China for a long time, and all could understand Chinese, and one-third could speak fluently.

But Zhao Kuo couldn't do it. His spoken language could only deal with daily "had you eaten" things. He was stunned when talking about trade, military, and even product names.

However, this level is a hundred times better than Zhong Jialiang. Before the Opium War, the Qing government strictly prohibited Chinese people from teaching foreigners Chinese, which led to a group of foreigners sent to trade, who were secretly hired a Chinese teacher to study Chinese hard in a small warehouse outside the Thirteenth Foreign Company outside their Guangzhou city. The Chinese spoke English, all of which were mutated English. At that time, the Thirteenth Foreign Company was doing business with traders, and there were thin brochures in Chinese stores to teach the guys to speak English. For example, the "Western Wind" marked "Witwin", and the "one, two, three" marked "Win, Tu, Terry" (

This is probably the homonym of Cantonese. When communicating, it is a foreign language, and Cantonese is mixed, but both sides can understand it! For example, when the wealthy businessman Wu Hao (Wu Bingqian) reported in advance that a Chinese official was coming to ask for a large bribe, he helplessly said to a young American businessman, "man-ta-le, sendee, one, piece,chop,he,come, tomollo,wantee, two-lac,dollar". In this Martian language, everyone understands what he means!

So, if Zhong Jialiang doesn't study hard and speaks classic "travel English", Zhao Kuo actually doesn't know what he is saying. Even before he successfully recruits the delegation, he has been wondering whether he has deceived himself into English in Vietnamese.

Soon the conference language changed back to Chinese, but Zhao Kuo had already obtained the impression points he wanted!

The American consul did not say much, just stared at Zhao Kuo and saw him being furious. The British and French consuls were extremely interested in Zhao Kuo's beliefs and asked about this question for a long time.

These questions are easy to answer, but what Zhao Kuo didn't expect was that it was the American who gave him a fierce blow to the head.

When answering the question about trade, Zhao Kuo took out all the future Tianjin treaties and fed them to foreigners as bait. He said: "As long as you can remain neutral in the affairs of the Chinese, I guarantee free trade; I guarantee that citizens of various countries can enter the mainland with passports; I can also guarantee freedom of missionary preaching at trading ports...."

Zhao Kuo was not worried about throwing these things out. First, if he didn't say it, when he was finished, the Qing Dynasty would sign it like this. Moreover, those barbarians were much stupider than him. At least they wouldn't be fooled by the Russians to sign the Treaty of Aihui. Second, in history, at least before the late 19th century, these great powers from the ocean valued trade, not like neighboring Russia and Japan, and at this moment, the economic level of barbarians, can anyone buy foreign cloths? Can anyone afford it? The farmers who account for the majority of the population are not much different from beggars who are about to starve to death, and the manufacturing industry is 100% handicrafts. If you want to impact my market, you can't even impact it.

As far as literacy is concerned, how many people know about your missionary preaching? Yes, the people flocked to the streets to listen to your sermons, but most of them watched the fun; Yes, the people flocked to grab your booklets, but these illiterate groups were 100% used as straw paper, which was more comfortable than muddy, right? And they could get two books and never get one, although the contents of the two books were the same except for the cover color, who told you to be free?

Those who can read, those who can understand will spit in front of you and make up bad words and rumors behind your back. This group of people is a Confucian scholar group. Who sees your external evil deeds? The only one who reads - Mr. Hong, not because he understands it, but because he has a dream, he has created a cult that has nothing to do with Christ. Besides, who rebels every day, isn’t he the only one in the past century?

Therefore, Zhao Kuo almost smiled and threw out the bait that these foreigners valued, but in fact they were baits that were just drawing cakes to satisfy their hunger. Of course, they could not play with all the false things. He also played with real hands: "I am not as untrustworthy as the Qing Dynasty. I am a civilized person who only recognizes treaties. If I occupy Guangzhou, I promise that I will immediately move the consulates of various countries into Guangzhou City!"

This is because although the Nanjing Treaty stipulates that the great powers could set up consulates at trading ports, the Qing officials, these Confucian elites, were afraid, hated and looked down on foreigners from the bottom of their hearts, and did not want them to enter the capital Guangzhou and to touch the Confucian emperor. They have always had policies and countermeasures from the top. Ye Mingchen just played the famous "drag" technique in the officialdom - I didn't say that you wouldn't move the consulate from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, but this... that... so... I'll talk about it in a few days.

The great powers recognized the treaty and knew the Qing Dynasty's officialdom worse than the Chinese people, so they believed it again and again, and were repeatedly fooled and stupid.

So at this time, ten years have passed since the First Opium War, and the consulates of the great powers in Guangdong are still living in Hong Kong!

It was not until 1857 that their consulate moved into Guangzhou City at least.

So as soon as this proposal was made, the three consulates immediately whispered. This was indeed a temptation, but the situation changed. If Zhao Kuo occupied Guangzhou and the consulate entered Guangzhou, it would be equivalent to the great powers recognizing the legal status of the Taiping Army and establishing diplomatic relations. Therefore, in Hong Kong, they now have the advantage of waiting and choosing.

Zhao Kuo was eager for them to come to Guangzhou, even if he paid for them to build a consulate, not to mention the benefits of diplomatic relations, at least he had a meat shield in his hand! There were foreign hostages! How dare you attack Guangzhou by the Qing Dynasty?
Chapter completed!