"I don't think the Qing Dynasty would reach some private agreement with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!" The British Consul Bashali stood up and shouted: "General Grant, I have no intention of offending, but just now when I bid farewell to the Qing Dynasty's negotiating minister, Prince Gong Yi, and his group, I talked with Yi for a while. Regarding the temporary suspension of negotiations by the Qing Dynasty, it seems to be a speculative mentality in the Qing Dynasty. ￡∝"

Sir Erkin became interested when he heard this. Previously, they hoped that through diplomatic means, the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Army could make concessions to maximize the interests of Britain and France. However, the sudden declaration of war by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the suspension of negotiations by the Qing Dynasty made them look dissatisfied, and the officers of the coalition forces expressed great dissatisfaction with this. At this time, they suddenly heard Baxiali say that there was something else in the suspension of negotiations by the Qing Dynasty. Sir Erkin felt that he had suddenly had a step to go down, at least not all of his previous diplomatic efforts were joked.

After receiving the instructions of Sir Erjin, Bashali cleared his throat and continued: "These days, the Qing Dynasty envoys and Taiping Army envoys have been inquiring about each other's negotiation limits in Tongzhou City. Before leaving, Prince Gong told me that last night he learned that the Taiping Army was about to declare war on the coalition forces. This change was beyond his expectations, so he decided to temporarily suspend the negotiations and return to the capital to discuss countermeasures with his court."

General Grant snorted and said, "These Qing people are more cunning than the Taiping Army, but according to common sense, once we and the Taiping Army break out, shouldn't they choose to join forces with us to fight the Taiping Army? Why would they choose to suspend negotiations? Shouldn't the enemy of the enemy be friends?"

Baxiali explained patiently: "When we negotiated with the Qing Dynasty, they also mentioned this incident many times, but our coalition forces had a heavy blow to the Qing army in the Jintang Battle. The Qing court's vigilance for our coalition was no less than that of the Taiping Army. At the same time, the looting behavior of some soldiers caused great harm to the people in the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the people and the Qing army still had great resistance to comprehensive cooperation with the coalition."

Grant spread his hands and said, "Since we and the Qing Dynasty cannot reach the level of mutual trust, it is impossible to attack the Taiping Army in conjunction with each other, so we have to retreat first."

Bashali shook his head and said, "Prince Gong assured me before leaving that he still felt that he should cooperate with us to fight the Taiping Army. After he returned, he would try his best to persuade the court to renegotiate with the coalition forces as soon as possible, and then reach an agreement to jointly launch a military operation against the Taiping Army. But the prince also said that if you want to reach an agreement, the least the coalition forces can no longer cooperate with the rebels of the Qing Dynasty. This is the basis for reaching an understanding."

Having said that, the officers in the tent all looked at Sir Erkin. Sir Erkin had been unwilling to give up their cooperation with Mianyu and Ronglu rebels, which was also the biggest obstacle for the coalition forces to reach peace talks with the Qing Dynasty. However, under the current situation, I don’t know whether Sir Erkin would still stick to his original intention.

This internal meeting of the coalition did not allow Mian You, Ronglu and others to attend. Sir Erjin pondered for a moment and said to Baxiali: "We can agree to the conditions of the Qing Dynasty, but we had a cooperative relationship with this army before, and there were tens of thousands of people. The coalition could not carry out military operations on them. We could only drive them away and terminate their cooperation with them. After that, whether the Qing Dynasty court surrendered them or wiped them out could only rely on the Qing Dynasty court itself."

All the coalition forces in the tent breathed a sigh of relief. Mianyou, Ronglu, the rebels, did nothing in the previous war. The help they brought were limited. Now that they have removed this burden, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. In this way, Mianyou, Ronglu and Hengfu were ruthlessly abandoned by Britain and France, and did not get any news as soon as possible.

Lord Ge Luo cheered up and said, "Since that's the case, we should act immediately and send people to continue to contact the Qing Dynasty. It is best to reach an agreement as soon as possible, and then our army can attack the Taiping Army's troops in the capital."

Baxiali volunteered: "I am willing to go, and I also need to bring Mr. Gong Cheng with me. We can disguise ourselves and then detour the west of Beijing into the city."

After some discussion, Sir Erjin finally agreed to Baxiali's plan. Soon Baxiali and Gong Cheng took a few Chinese followers to disguise themselves.

After Bashali left, General Grant continued: "Although it is possible to reach an agreement with the Qing Dynasty to attack the Taiping Army, our coalition has now penetrated the inland and its troops are arranged in a straight line, which is not conducive to our defense. Moreover, our troops in the south of the Yangtze River are weak, so we must dispatch some of the troops back to the south."

This time, General Montauban also expressed his support: "I agree with General Grant's statement. Before we launch a counterattack against the Taiping Army, we should focus on defending Tanggu and Tianjin. This is our retreat and no accidents can happen."

After hearing this, Sir Erkin and other politicians also expressed their agreement with the generals, after all, military strength was still their strength. So, after some discussion, the coalition command finally decided that the British General Michiel and French General Colino would lead 3,000 British troops and 5,000 French troops would return to Tianjin. After the 8,000 coalition soldiers would join with the two thousand soldiers of General Sutton who were originally left in Tianjin, they would leave 3,000 people to guard Tianjin, and 7,000 people would return to Tanggukou, leaving 1,000 troops there to strengthen Tanggu defense, and the remaining 6,000 people would be led by General Colino and Major General Michiel to board the ship and return to the south. The coalition navy divided half of the ships and returned to the south with Corlino and Michiel, and the remaining coalition fleets would siege the Dalian Bay, an important northern port of the Taiping Army.

The coalition forces left in Tongzhou will be reduced to less than 10,000, but Grant and Montauban are confident that defense is still not a problem. As long as the Qing Dynasty agrees to attack the Taiping Army in front and behind, the existing coalition forces will be enough to launch a counterattack. Although the Qing army was not strong in combat, they still left a deep impression on the coalition forces in the Jintang Battle. At least Grant and Montauban believe that the more than 100,000 troops of the Qing Dynasty would cause considerable trouble to the Taiping Army.

That afternoon, the coalition forces began to gather troops and make preparations before the strike. Fortunately, although the Taiping Army declared war, no troops were sent to attack the coalition forces in the Taiping Army camp opposite Tongzhou. Grant and Montauban were able to calmly mobilize their troops and arrange a defense system inside and outside Tongzhou. Grant and Montauban believed that as long as there was sufficient supply, the Taiping Army would not be able to capture Tongzhou defended by the coalition forces.

Gro and Sir Erkin were waiting for news from Bashali. They hoped that things would turn around and that this time God would stand on the side of the coalition, rather than continue to bless the man who claimed to be the reincarnation of Christ...

Yi? and others detoured the west side of the capital and took a lot of trouble to return to the capital safely. He was always worried that the Taiping Army would send cavalry troops to intercept their envoys. Fortunately, he went beyond everyone's expectations and left with the envoys early in the morning. I believe that even if the Taiping Army received news from Qianjiang, Tongzhou, there would be no time to send people to intercept him.

Yi? I don’t know if the news I received last night is accurate, but judging from the various abnormal signs of the Taiping Army, they did intend to use force against the coalition forces, because although they surrounded the capital, they had no intention of attacking the capital. When Yi? When he got the news that the Taiping Army was about to declare war on the coalition forces, he realized that the best opportunity for the Qing Dynasty was coming, but how to get the greatest benefit to the Qing Dynasty in this change was that he did not dare to make arbitrary decisions. After all, fully cooperating with foreigners would make the Qing generals such as Senggelinqin strongly opposed it. They formed too much hatred with the foreigners in Jintang, and there were also Mianyu and Ronglu, the rebels of Mianyu and Ronglu, so Yi? decided to return to the capital first, which caused a panic to the coalition forces, and second, it could also go back to the capital to discuss the matter with the empress dowager and the ministers, and third, it could prevent the Taiping Envoys from Tongzhou from sending back the news in time to let the Taiping Army send troops to intercept them.

It was already evening when we returned to the Forbidden City. Because of the detour and avoiding the Taiping Army’s post, Yi and his group wasted a lot of time, but at least from the fact that the Taiping Army was not very strict in the direction of the capital, it can be seen that the Taiping Army did not intend to attack the capital immediately. Several city gates in the west of the capital could still be entered and exited, and there were no Taiping Army on all roads.

After entering the Forbidden City, Yi went straight to Yangxin Palace to meet the Empress Dowager. In the East Nuan Pavilion, he met Xingzhen. After these days, Yi still had a trace of concern in his heart.

After sitting down through the screen, Yi? He poured a large pot of tea into the air and then told the matter. The person behind the screen was not surprised. She just uttered a little, and then said to herself: "This pseudo-Western King is really bold enough. He dares to declare war first. I don't know what excuse he is looking for."

Yi? wiped his sweat and said, "Sister-in-law, now you don't have to worry about the excuses of Changmao Changmao going to war with foreigners. Do you think we are joining forces with foreigners to attack Changmao?"

After the beauty behind the screen nodded softly, she seemed to be thinking about something and whispering something. Then she said, "This matter is of great importance. It is better to immediately call Seventh Master, Senggelinqin, Li Hongzhang, Guiliang, Peng Yulin and others, and we will discuss it together. By the way, Sixth Master has not eaten yet. I asked the imperial kitchen to get some food first, and wait while eating, and then discuss it after everyone arrives."

Yi? After rushing for a day, he only ate some dry food on the road. At this time, he was really hungry and grateful for her careful care. He responded immediately. Li Lianying sent someone out to summon the ministers, while Yi? He temporarily had a meal outside the East Warehouse Pavilion.

After the screen, Xingzhen leaned against the soft couch, rubbed her temples, and said to herself with a wry smile: "It seems that I am still jealous of a gentleman with a villain's heart. It turns out that you were planning to go to war with foreigners in the morning, or did the Qing Dynasty no longer pose any threat in your eyes? Well, let's see if I can make the last effort to help you." (To be continued, please search for astronomy, novels are better and faster!
Chapter completed!