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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 740: War or Peace

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    No one thought that the second expedition of the British and French coalition forces would end like this. An army of more than 60,000 people, a huge fleet of hundreds of ships of various types, and an elite and experienced general command had carefully prepared for more than half a year.  Finally, they circled half of the world and rushed to the Far East. As a result, all 60,000 army troops were annihilated in less than a month.  This defeat was described in Britain as the Saratoga defeat in the Far East, and in France as the Waterloo of the Far East.

    The British Palmerston cabinet collapsed, and more than ten senior officials in France resigned. Demonstrations against the Far East War broke out in both countries to varying degrees.  Businessmen marched holding signs that read, "We need Far Eastern trade, we need Far Eastern markets." Soldiers' families held up signs that read, "Let the children go home, we need fathers, husbands, and sons." Others held signs that read, "We need Far Eastern markets."  Peace we can no longer bleed for the Far East" were marched with signs.  Major media in Europe also rushed to report on this incident. The domestic media in Britain and France fully criticized this stupid war launched by the government and the army, while the foreign media mostly took pleasure in the misfortune.

    On the fifth day after the news of the defeat of the British and French Expeditionary Forces came back to Europe, Prussia announced in a high profile that its diplomatic relations with the Taiping Rebellion in the Far East had been upgraded to the ambassadorial level. The two sides exchanged ambassadors and began negotiating a new trade treaty to expand the scope of trade between China and Prussia.  .  Then Austria-Hungary, Italy, Norway, Sweden and other countries also did the same thing as Prussia, making Britain and France feel as uncomfortable as eating flies.

    Since Britain and France have failed, what about the Russians?  You must know that this expedition was participated by three countries.  The European people did not wait long. A few days later, several newspapers and media in the Ottoman Empire exposed the failure of the Russian army in the northeastern Far East.  The Russians' 30,000 elite Cossack cavalry were annihilated, and Chita, Nerchinsk and other places were lost one after another.  Including the Russian defenders in these places, the Russians lost a total of more than 50,000 people.

    This time, the last fig leaf of the Three Kingdoms Allied Forces was torn off.  The news of the Russian defeat was due to the inconvenient transportation and lack of information in the Northeastern Far East, and the Russians deliberately concealed it. Therefore, the people of Europe did not know the news until the news of the defeat of Britain and France came.

    ??Well, the expedition operations of the three countries have all come to an end, and Britain and France still have their Far East fleets to support the situation. The question before Britain, France, and Russia arises: war or peace?

    After the collapse of the Palmerston cabinet, after several days of fierce debate in the two houses of parliament.  Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, the 14th Earl of Derby, once again came forward to form a cabinet. Stanley was the leader of the British Conservative Party. Through this war, the Conservative Party finally overthrew the Whig cabinet and regained control of Britain.  political arena.  At the beginning of taking office, the primary issue placed before the new British cabinet was how to end the war in the Far East.

    The British were still unwilling to give up their tall and dignified face issue at the beginning. In the debate in the two houses of parliament, the first bill put forward by the new cabinet was the bill on the continuation of the war. Stanley's plan was to continue the war in the Far East through the naval fleet.  The blockade and attacks on various ports finally forced the Chinese Taiping government to surrender.

    Of course, this bill was completely refuted when it was discussed in the House of Lords.  What does the new cabinet want?  If this bill is passed, what's the point?  Does the UK still need a market in the Far East?  Do you want those captured soldiers to go home?  Do we still need control of other colonies?  The strongest opposition was from the business group, who had suffered huge losses during the two years of war.  Moreover, other European countries began to take advantage of the war between Britain and the Taiping Rebellion to work hard to expand their trade in China.  If the war continues, British businessmen will be squeezed out of the Chinese market.

    At the same time, some lawmakers also refuted this plan from a military perspective.  China has thousands of kilometers of coastline and numerous port cities. How many ships do the coalition forces need to use to achieve a blockade?  All right.  Even if Britain really blocks the Far East, it will inevitably bring strong protests from other countries.  You no longer do business, but others will still do it.

    And now that the American Civil War has begun, Britain does not want the northern government represented by the advanced American industrial groups to win. Then there will be a powerful industrial country in the Americas competing with the United Kingdom for the American market. Therefore, the United Kingdom must withdraw from the Far East as soon as possible and strengthen its control.  intervention in the American Civil War rather than sinking deeper into the Far East.

    As a result, Stanley's first bill was vetoed, and then the cabinet members could only sit down and discuss a more realistic plan, through the United States to conduct peace negotiations to end the war, but the interests of the United Kingdom could not be harmed, and the Taiping Rebellion  We must ensure that the pre-war situation is restored and strive to obtain some war reparations. Even if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom does not pay them because of the failure of the war, there cannot be reparations from the British.  The guarantee for all these negotiations is the blockade of the Far East by that huge fleet. If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom does notIn response to this peace treaty, Britain will tentatively threaten to block China with its fleet.

    Well, although this bill is still a bit crazy, it at least sees the dawn of peace, and the arrogant majority of British people also agree with this proposal to end the war decently, because they still have the final guarantee, which is  The navy has a powerful fleet.

    France's solution is similar. They plan to follow Britain and pick up what's ready. They have no guarantee, because Napoleon II is now sitting on the crater, and major domestic changes may break out at any time. How to end the war? France follows Britain.  That's right behind.

    The Russians are the most ridiculous. Tsar Alexander II said that Russia can bear the temporary defeat. Russia has blocked the advance of the Taiping Army in the northern Far East and will organize a counterattack later.  All European countries sneered at this. Russia said this because it believed that China could not threaten their European land.  It wouldn't be a big deal if places like Chita and Nerchinsk were lost. Russia is vast and rich anyway, and Muravyov's Far East Army still has four divisions of troops, so it's not considered a complete defeat. Let's just waste it like this.  chant.  What stopped the Taiping Army was actually the severe cold, but the Russians believed that the Taiping Army was unlikely to dare to penetrate deep into the Russian hinterland.

    After more than a month of debate, the British Parliament finally sent instructions to Lord Collington, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Far East.  That is, Prime Minister Stanley's second bill has only three core contents.  The first two sides ended the war and returned British prisoners of war.  second.  Restore all British pre-war interests in the Far East.  Third, in turn, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was asked to pay certain war reparations.

    More than three months had passed since the failure of the Battle of Guangzhou. It was already in the spring of 1862 that Sir Collington received instructions from the country. When he received the instructions, Sir Collington did not know whether to cry or laugh.  , because other things happened in more than three months.

    The first is that after the severe cold passed, the Taiping Army continued to launch offensives in the northern region, the day before receiving domestic instructions.  Lord Collington received intelligence from the Americans that the Russians had suffered another major blow in the north.  The Russian army's largest stronghold in the Far East, Yakutsk, was captured by the Taiping Army. Four divisions of the Russian army were wiped out. The Russian Governor of Siberia, Muraviev, was made a prisoner.  The last bit of Russian military strength in the Far East has also disappeared. The Taiping Army and the Mongolian cavalry are galloping freely in the vast Siberian land. The Russian power is almost driven east of Lake Baikal.

    The second is the coalition fleet. Although the Taiping Navy is weak, they have joined forces with pirates in the Far East to launch an unrestricted sea attack on the coalition fleet. Any lone British ship will definitely be attacked.  The scope of the attack even expanded to the Strait of Malacca.  Admiral Dundas had to send a fleet to escort merchant ships and supply ships, so the two sides broke out several naval battles in the South China Sea. Although they all ended in British victory, the number of ships in the fleet would decrease each time.  The Taiping Army only lost some red single ships or armed merchant ships converted from large merchant ships. This piecemeal tactic caused a headache for the coalition fleet.

    Then there is the blockade of Hong Kong Island by mines and the shelling operations on Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon Peninsula. The coalition forces have never had a good way to deal with these mine-laying boats that appear at night.  There were times when the coalition forces became ruthless.  A fleet was sent out at night to drive away these small boats, and then the fleet of six warships was guided to a reef area by those small boats.  Because they ventured to sail at night, the British navy did not pay attention to this trap.  Although they sank most of the small boats, they were finally trapped in this sea area and were subsequently annihilated by the main force of the Taiping navy that came upon the news.  From then on, the British navy no longer dared to pursue those mine-laying boats. Once they heard any movement at night, they would just fire their guns to drive them away. Then at dawn, they would have to send ships to clear the mines on the waterway, otherwise Hong Kong Island would not be able to get ships.  Supplies, I'm afraid they will become chaotic soon.

    Therefore, Sir Collington felt that the instructions given by the country were very inappropriate. He threatened to block all the ports of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and asked the other party to agree to the conditions he set. Didn't they understand who was defeated?  Now Sir Collington still has a huge worry, that is, the enemy may attack from the Kowloon Peninsula one day. If Dundas's fleet is not still struggling to support Victoria Bay, once the fleet withdraws from these waters,  It is believed that the Taiping Army assembled on the other side will cross Victoria Bay and invade Hong Kong.  Once Hong Kong Island falls, the British army will lose its best foothold in the Far East, and blockading the enemy's coastline will require a large number of supply ships to follow.  And because the Marines and Army have been completely lost, the Navy may also seize any port as a supply stop, because as soon as the British land on the mainland, what awaits them will be the enemy's human sea tactics.

    But domestic instructions had to be implemented. Sir Collington could only meet with the American minister and proposed that the United States would mediate.Stop plan.  The American minister was very happy at first, thinking that the British finally understood and were willing to restore peace in the Far East. However, after hearing Sir Collington's subsequent request, the American minister immediately darkened his face and said: "Please pay attention, your Excellency.  Once Britain dares to block the Far East coastline, we in the United States will never agree, we need China's trade!"

    Sir Collington certainly knows what the Americans want. The northern government of the United States now needs to trade with China to earn military expenses, and it also needs some material support from China. The United States will definitely not block China's coastline, and other countries will not agree.  .  But Sir Collington could only say: "Your Excellency, Minister, I hope that negotiations can begin and then we can work together for peace."

    Sir Collington said a lot of words, and finally the American minister understood Sir Collington's difficulties. In any case, he first revealed the information to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that the British were willing to sit down and negotiate. As for the final result of the negotiations, God knows.  ¡­(To be continued¡­)
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