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Volume 3: The Wind Rises in the South Chapter 78: Enter the Ambassador Plenipotentiary

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    Eight days ago, British Empire Consulate, Yangon.  "Mr. Gillings, let me introduce myself to you. My name is Arthur Balfour. This time I came to Burma under the entrustment of His Excellency the Prime Minister. As the plenipotentiary ambassador of the British Empire in Burma, I am responsible for handling all recent affairs. I hope that  I can get your cooperation!" Arthur Balfour held out his right hand to Gillings with great interest, looking at the young man in front of him who had caused big trouble to his uncle not long ago.  "It's an honor to see you here, Your Excellency Ambassador. For the benefit of the British Empire, I will do my best to cooperate with your work!" Gillings replied expressionlessly. In front of him was a beautiful young man of about his own age who was wearing a close-fitting hunting suit.  People's smiles made him feel very uncomfortable.  He stretched out his hand to shake Belfort's hand symbolically, and immediately took his hand back, as if this could avoid losing something!  "Okay, let's get started! Mr. Gillings, could you please introduce to me your fruitful work some time ago?" Belfort gestured and asked with a smile. It was not difficult to hear the sarcasm in his tone.  meaning.  Gillings nodded to Balfour as if he didn't hear it at all, then walked to the wall, opened the curtain on the map, pointed at the map with a wax stick and explained loudly: "After my respected  My predecessor and I have worked hard for a long time. In April this year, when the rainy season began in this country, a certain royal family member in this kingdom who was dissatisfied with the previous king launched a successful coup with the support of the British Empire and killed the previous king.  died, and seized the throne, thus giving the Empire an unprecedented opportunity to bring this territory about the size of three islands of Great Britain under the protection of Her Majesty. But unfortunately, the two children of the previous king were in.  With the help of members of the embassy in Mandalay, China escaped the pursuit of the coupers and successfully escaped to Chinese territory. After taking control of Mandalay, the coupers attempted to renege on their previous agreement and re-attach to the Chinese.  In exchange for the support of the other party, I used it as capital to balance the influence of the empire. So I had to take necessary measures to force the coup d'etat to give up this dangerous attempt-" "I'm sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Gillings!"  Balfour raised his hand and asked: "If I am not wrong, did you call the necessary measure to send people to attack the Chinese embassy in Mandalay?" Gillings seemed to have been hit unexpectedly.  With a straight left fist, his originally expressionless face immediately showed an expression of astonishment. He sent Duncan to bribe rogue soldiers to attack the Shunguo Protector's Palace and kill the Shunguo officials there. This has always been deep in his heart.  His secrets were cleverly concealed in his reports to Calcutta and London. The rogue soldiers involved were later secretly dealt with by him. Unexpectedly, this young man who looked like a young man was  The man grasped the truth so quickly, and he subconsciously replied: "Mr. Balfour, I think-" "Okay, I think I know what the truth is, Mr. Gillings, you can continue!  "At this time, the relaxed expression on Belfort's face has disappeared. It is obvious that he is now much more serious about Gillings and what he is going to say next.  "Yes, Mr. Ambassador!" Gillings nodded. He swallowed and whispered: "After that, the coup makers and I began to fulfill the treaty: the empire provided the other side with a batch of weapons to build a new army and sent out  Officers served as the backbone of the army and trained new officers; while the coup d'etat severed its affiliation with China, lowered tariffs on imported goods and exports of rice, sugar, teak and other products to the British Empire to 5%, and gave the British Empire  One-sided most-favored-nation treatment, extraterritoriality, and the rights of British citizens to travel, do business, and preach in Myanmar. However, the Chinese responded quickly and quickly formed a small but very capable expeditionary force with two of the former kings.  The child crossed the muddy jungle in the rainy season and quickly appeared next to Mandalay. The new king had to attack it with his untrained army. The Chinese won at Babu and occupied Mandalay.  The new king led the remaining troops to retreat to Bagan, where he began to recruit soldiers again, gather strength, and prepare to take back Mandalay! "Mr. Gillings! If I heard you right, the section you just crossed out.  It's all jungle. A Chinese team passed this road during the rainy season?" Belfort stood up and pointed to a red arrow on the map with a somewhat disbelieving expression, which represented China.  The marching route of the team.  "As far as I know, not entirely. The section from Wanding to Larong is fine. There are quite good sandy roads, but the road from Larong to Mandalay is not good. Once the rainy season comes, a lot of rain will turn the road into a  "That's why the coup will be scheduled in April, so that he will have five months to train the army and prepare for battle before the dry season!" Belfort interrupted.?His beautiful eyebrows wrinkled: "Mr. Gillings, I have to admit that the Chinese have a shrewd and capable general. He has seized time, the only irreparable thing in war!" "Yes, Ambassador  Your Excellency!" Gillings lowered his head. Deep down, he felt extremely humiliated and angry that he had to admit this.  "I roughly understand the following. After capturing Mandalay, the Chinese general took advantage of the victory to attack, defeated the unfortunate king again, and killed him. Now Bagan has fallen into his hands.  "No, the king was not killed by the Chinese, but by a close relative." "Oh! The king is always in danger. While resisting the sword from the front, you must also beware of the dagger behind you!"  Balfour shrugged nonchalantly: "But it doesn't make much difference. If he is defeated by the Chinese this time, he will be dead. At least he will no longer be able to live as a king!" "Yes, Your Excellency Ambassador!" Gillings agreed.  nodded: "But this time the empire has announced that the new king will be under protection, and sent gunboats to block the river, declaring the water to be a prohibited neutral zone, and the Chinese have broken this protection." "In my opinion,  "It's not the Chinese's fault!" "It's not the Chinese's fault?" Gillings could hardly believe his ears. He stared at Belfort in front of him with wide eyes.  "Of course, if I were in the position of the Chinese general, I would do the same!" Balfour replied: "You just sent three flat-bottomed gunboats and announced the protection of the king. This kind of protection is too cheap.  Well! If there is no guarantee of strength behind the words, it is better not to say it. " "Your Majesty, Ambassador, I don't quite understand what you mean!" Balfour stood up and said loudly: "Mr. Gillings, the reason for this is the promise of the empire.  The amazing effectiveness is not because Her Majesty the Queen has some mysterious power that can make the promise come true, but because the empire has strong force and is determined to use force to punish those people or countries that violate the empire's promise. In other words, if this is the case.  This kind of force no longer exists, and this protection will naturally collapse! "But the empire has enough force to punish the Chinese and has the ability to punish them!" Gillings retorted loudly.  "Yes, the empire has enough force, but that does not mean it has unlimited power." Balfour retorted coldly: "Mr. Gillings, your mistake is that you made a promise but did not show enough power.  To fulfill your promise, do you think that just empty words and three gunboats can stop the Chinese general? You know that this respectable enemy overcame such difficulties and defeated you cleanly not long ago. Obviously this is not a possibility.  Scare people with lies. Originally, if you sent four or five battalions from Rangoon to Bagan, you could scare the Chinese and make a decent peace with them, but now the empire has to invest more power.  To recover the damage caused by the broken promise, this is quite harmful to the empire's global strategy! " "You are right, Your Excellency, Ambassador!" Gillings's body trembled slightly, and the cold logic in Belfort's words made him uncomfortable.  Not admitting his mistake made him furious.  The young man in front of him had huge advantages in intelligence and power, which made him feel suffocated since he had been pretentious since he was a child.  "How many troops are there now?" Belfort asked after looking at the map carefully for a while, pointing to a small red square next to Bagan on the map representing the British Army.  "An advance team, about two battalions, and reinforced artillery units!" "Well, I'm afraid this is not enough. The Chinese have controlled Bagan for quite some time. I'm afraid their fortifications have been built quite well.  And the rainy season has been over for so long, and their large reinforcements from the country have already arrived!" Belfort had a solemn expression on his face.  "Yes, Your Excellency Ambassador!" Gillings whispered: "The latest letter from the advance team commander, Major Duncan, also mentioned that there was a fairly large-scale Burmese peasant riot in Central Myanmar. The rioters had quite good weapons.  , attacked them several times, and now even began to attack the estates of local nobles and monks, giving land and grain to Burmese peasants! "Oh! Jacgues Bonhomme!  It was an anti-feudal peasant uprising in France in 1358. It was one of the larger peasant uprisings in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Zaclay was the derogatory name given to peasants by French nobles at that time, and the uprising got its name from this.)" Balfour opened his eyes in surprise.  Eyes closed: "The situation has become more complicated now. I think we should increase Major Duncan's army faster and let him solve the problem before the situation becomes uncontrollable!"  "
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