The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 276: Planting a Few Landmines for the Foreigners (Part )
Following them came the French Acting Minister to China, Lupin, the German Acting Minister to China, Bellow, the American Minister to China, Conger, the Russian Minister to China, Resar, the Austro-Hungarian Charge d'Affaires to China, Rosston, the Italian Minister to China, Savage, and the Japanese Minister to China, Jutaro Komura.

The French ambassador to the Qing Dynasty at that time was Bisheng, but Bisheng fell seriously ill during the siege. Due to the appearance of Teng Yuzhao, Cixi's attitude changed somewhat. Some time ago, when allowing the besieged foreigners to communicate with the Allied Forces, Ronglu had secretly allowed Bisheng to disguise himself and sneak out of Dongjiaomin Lane. Now he has been sent to Shanghai for treatment.

Lu Ban was the previous Minister to the Qing Dynasty, but he had been traveling around since he left office. He was scheduled to return to Beijing soon this time, but he happened to arrive at the siege of the embassy area. Since Bi Sheng was away for treatment, he temporarily took over the post of Minister to the Qing Dynasty.

After the German Acting Minister Bellow introduced himself, Teng Yuzao walked forward and extended his hand to the somewhat surprised Bellow. Bellow was a little at a loss, but still extended his hand and shook hands with Teng Yuzao.

"Mr. Bellow, I deeply regret what happened to Minister Klind. Although this is a tragedy that should not have happened, please believe that this is just a sad misunderstanding."

Not only Bellow was stunned by Teng Yuzao's attitude, but diplomats from other major powers also looked surprised.

Although the country is now in a state of war, Teng Yuzhao always believes that he would never accept the killing of diplomats. You know, the Qing Dynasty also has diplomats stationed in Europe, and even the Qing Dynasty's diplomats in Germany have not been physically attacked.

After the Russian Minister Resar's final self-introduction, Dounal pulled over the Western man with a well-groomed mustache who had been standing behind him and said.

"Dear General, please forgive me for being so presumptuous. This is not my translator, but Morrison, a reporter from The Times. He is very impressed by your military achievements and wants to meet you. I brought him in as your translator."

A reporter from The Times!
This surprised Teng Yuzao, who nodded and said, "It's okay, thank you very much for your honesty. It's exciting to meet a reporter from the most famous newspaper in the world."

As he spoke, Teng Yuzao extended his hand. Morrison was extremely surprised and stretched out both hands to hold Teng Yuzao's hand tightly. He said excitedly, "Dear General, your achievements are amazing. I think you are the greatest general of the Qing Dynasty, and I admire your generosity even more. I really hope to interview you."

Looking at Morrison's excited expression, Teng Yuzao was very excited. He didn't expect that he now has a foreign fan.

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Morrison. I can't meet your request for now. I'm afraid I'll have to wait for a chance in the future."

"Why?" Morrison asked back, somewhat disappointed.

Morrison's disappointed expression made Teng Yuzao laugh again.

"Mr. Morrison, we have an old saying, 'Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.' It means that a general commanding a battle must not only know all the troops under his command, but also know everything about the enemy, including the number of troops under his command, their combat effectiveness, and even everything about the enemy's generals."

"If I accept your interview, your coalition generals will know me very well. This is very unfair to me, don't you think?"

Teng Yuzao's humorous answer made Morrison stunned at first, and then he couldn't help laughing out loud.

"Okay, respected General, we have a deal. Please give me the opportunity to interview you when you think it's appropriate." Since Morrison was not a translator but a reporter, it would be inappropriate to let Morrison stand all the time, so he had to ask someone to bring a chair and put it next to Dounale.

Wei Jinghai said, "Marshal, there are three Dutch envoys headed by Knobel, the Dutch envoy to Qing, who are still with the captives because they think we have violated their property and refuse to come in."

Teng Yuzao did not care about envoys like the Dutch minister, especially the Netherlands, which had repeatedly attacked his own country a hundred years later and even cooperated with the Americans in refusing to sell lithography machines. Teng Yuzao was too lazy to pay attention to envoys from such an ignorant small country.

Teng Yuzao nodded, motioned Wei Jinghai to sit next to him, and then said to Russian Minister Resar, "Mr. Resar, I think I can answer your protest now."

Teng Yuzao looked at these diplomats from the great powers and said, "Although you were forced to defend yourself, no matter what, whether you were forced or took the initiative, since you commanded the soldiers in the embassy area, your diplomats, and ordinary church members to take up guns and fight, your status as diplomats no longer exists."

"At least until this war is over, you are no longer diplomats."

Seeing that several foreigners seemed dissatisfied with his words and wanted to refute, Teng Yuzao added.

"Gentlemen, please note that you are not using individual means of self-defense, but commanding others to fight. This is a military engagement and can no longer be defined as self-defense. I think you will have no objection to this, right?"

Dou Nale and others looked at each other, communicating information with their eyes, but none of them spoke.

"Since you are no longer diplomats, you are all captives who surrendered to me. It is my kindness to keep an appropriate amount of wealth for the captives. I think, gentlemen, you should not have any other extravagant demands, because even in Europe, the property of captives will not be respected."

"Moreover, I am sure that none of you came to the Qing Dynasty with much money. As for the property that Mr. Bellow claimed he brought with him, most of it belonged to the late Minister Klind. We have taken this into consideration and have not confiscated his property."

"Besides, the confiscated property is the money you paid for your lives. The Boxers are not going to let you go. They killed and injured many people. These properties are compensation for them. Otherwise, they would not have followed my arrangements so smoothly."

Teng Yuzao smiled bitterly and said, "I think you all should know that they will not completely obey my command."

After Teng Yuzao finished speaking, his eyes swept across the faces of these ministers one by one. These ministers avoided his gaze. If it was Teng Yuzao who took away their property, they would still argue, but if it was the Boxers who were bent on killing them who took it away, then there would be nothing to say.

As for whether the Boxers would obey Teng Yuzao's command, they could not draw a conclusion yet, and for the time being they had to agree with Teng Yuzao's statement.
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(End of this chapter)