Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 413: Flirting with the Blind

"Has the delegation arrived in Lisbon?" asked King Zheng Guohui of Chu.

How about Portugal?

It has been wealthy and glorious in history. It was one of the earliest European colonial powers to colonize the world. It once shared the world with Spain. It was absolutely awesome.

But now it's gone
Portugal in the 19th century was a disaster on level three. It quickly declined and became a marginal player in Europe today. It barely relies on the rich colonial wealth left by its ancestors to stand on the edge of the world's third-rate powers.

Looking back at history
Shortly after French Emperor Napoleon ascended the throne in 1804, the first thing he did was to attack Portugal and launch the glorious journey of conquering the Iberian Peninsula, which also marked the beginning of the suffering of the Kingdom of Portugal.

In 1808, the Portuguese mainland on the Iberian Peninsula was almost entirely occupied by France. The Portuguese royal family of the Braganza dynasty at the time had no choice but to move the capital to Rio de Janeiro in the colony of Brazil, which was a huge disgrace.

From 1808 when the Portuguese royal family and most of the Lisbon nobles fled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, until 1821, Rio de Janeiro became the "new capital" of Portugal. It was the only capital of the European royal family that was not located in mainland Europe at that time.

Only after the capital was finally moved back did the catastrophic changes facing the Portuguese royal family begin...

In August 1820, the Liberal Revolution broke out in Portugal, which triggered a "major earthquake" in Portugal's political situation. As a result, the Kingdom of Portugal lost its largest colony, Brazil, and Brazil became independent.

As the saying goes: A poor couple has many worries.

The loss of Brazil, the largest colony, seriously affected the strength of the Kingdom of Portugal. The kingdom's finances shrank significantly and became so poor that it could not make ends meet.

After getting used to the good life, it is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality.

The starving Portuguese nobles blamed each other, arguing over the smallest matters and feeling resentful.

Under internal and external troubles, Portugal experienced a civil war between 1828 and 1834 due to conflicts between the two factions. The two factions fought each other to the point of exhaustion, which really damaged the country's vitality.

Anyway, Portugal and Spain, a pair of brothers in distress, had a bumpy life in the 19th century. By the middle of the century, they were in an increasingly difficult situation and anyone could come and bully them.

The foundation of the founding of the Chu State was to seize the Spanish colony of the Luzon Islands, which led to its unstoppable rise in the South Pacific and its growing strength.

At that time, the Spanish Kingdom was embroiled in civil wars. Queen Isabella's incompetent rule angered the people and she was forced to abandon the throne and flee to France to seek asylum. That was truly unprecedented.

The Chu State occupied the Luzon Islands, and the Spaniards didn't even say a word, just gritted their teeth and swallowed it.

The current King of Chu, Zheng Guohui, is no longer the same as he was ten years ago. The kingdom's power has expanded rapidly, its industrial economy and colonial industries have flourished, and its external expansion has achieved a series of remarkable achievements, attracting the attention of the world's powers.

Therefore, King Zheng Guohui of Chu no longer blindly advocated war and slaughter, nor resorted to brutal force to plunder foreign colonies. Instead, he was more calm and composed. He planned to adopt a more gentle and tolerant attitude and send an embassy to Lisbon to discuss the colonial disputes between the two countries.

The State of Chu now has plenty of money. There is no need to complain about problems that can be solved with money. King Zheng Guohui of Chu is very concerned about the country's image.

If we can't reach an agreement, it's not too late to beat him up.

When the King of Chu asked about this, Prime Minister Li Hezhang smiled confidently and replied:

"This diplomatic mission to Europe is led by Deputy Foreign Minister Zheng Yulan and plans to visit various European countries, with Lisbon as the first stop.

Calculating the time, it should have arrived in a few days.

Holding the letter personally written by Your Majesty, you should be able to meet the King of Portugal smoothly. If my prediction is correct, good news will come soon.

The only people we are worried about are the British."

Upon hearing Li Hezhang's words, King Zheng Guohui of Chu frowned unconsciously, as this touched the heart.

The British are arrogant and difficult to deal with, especially the current Conservative cabinet, led by Sir Benjamin Disraeli, a shrewd Jew and a fanatical colonial expansionist, who is quite difficult to deal with.

Now, because of the East African Company incident, the British Foreign Office sent another special letter of inquiry, with a strong warning tone in the words, and it was obvious that they were dissatisfied with the Chu State's everywhere.

The Horn of East Africa is not within the British sphere of influence, and the British have no sense of presence in this arid and barren African land.

In any case, the Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea was basically under the British sphere of influence, including the area on the northern coast of the Red Sea from Yemen to Jeddah, which was nominally owned by the Ottoman Empire, northwest to the Kingdom of Jordan, and the Kingdom of Oman in the east, all of which were British protectorates.

The area extending along the Persian Gulf to Kuwait, including Iraq and southern Iran, is all under the British sphere of influence, which can be said to cover about 70% of the entire Middle East.

Even if it was not a direct colony, it was a protectorate under the wings of Britain, including part of the Kingdom of Iran, and its influence radiated a very wide range.

However, the arid and extremely barren Horn of Africa region was not within the British sphere of influence.

Even so
In accordance with the Prime Minister's intention, the British Foreign Office Secretary Lord Derby sent a diplomatic letter to the Prime Minister of Chu with a severely accusatory tone, demanding an explanation of the intention of intervening in the Horn of Africa and the scope and impact of the East African Company's expansion.

The British, deeply suspicious of this, demanded that Chu publicly pledge that the East African Company's actions would not affect the open and free passage of cargo ships between Europe and Asia, that it would not illegally intercept cargo ships under any pretext, and that it would provide non-discriminatory maritime rescue, pilotage, and supply services to all European countries. Failure to do so would result in Chu's withdrawal from the Horn of Africa.

Such an aggressive and tough attitude made the king and his ministers of Chu feel embarrassed as if they had eaten a fly, but they had no way to deal with it.

I could only hold my breath and patiently explain things.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu said:
"In today's world, Europe is always at the core of the world stage, with the British, French, Germans and Russians as the leading actors, and this situation will not change in the next 50 years.

I can't afford to offend the British, so I can only let him run rampant for a while and wait and see what happens in the future.

At this stage

On the international stage, you should play a supporting role and be patient, but you can't steal the limelight from the protagonist.

As the old saying goes, don’t bully the young because they are poor.

In international relations, this old proverb also applies: time is on our side, and the best strategy now is to accumulate experience.”

"I understand. I should give careful instructions to the diplomatic mission going to Europe via overseas diplomatic mail." Li Hezhang replied solemnly.

British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli had a very negative impression of the Chu State. Years earlier, he had strongly criticized William Ewart Gladstone's previous Liberal Party cabinet for its lack of foresight, its disregard for the interests of the British Empire, and its indulgence in allowing a small Southeast Asian nation to grow recklessly, even extending its reach into Australia...

In February 1874, the British Conservative Party won the general election. Disraeli, at the age of 2, was ordered to organize his first Conservative Party cabinet. The hard days for the Chu State had really come.

For more than a year and a half, the Chu State has made almost no major moves in foreign colonization because it is afraid of being targeted.

Just as comfortable as the previous British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone was during his time, he now feels as cramped and uncomfortable as ever, feeling restricted in every way, and all he hears from London are all kinds of criticism and accusations.

Ecuador and Honduras in Central America have been riddled with holes infiltration by Chinese immigrants, and King Zheng Guohui of Chu has not been able to break through the last layer of window paper.

The reason
That is because we did not get the support of the UK, and we were really worried about the British's ambiguous attitude, so we simply put it on hold for a while.

British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli's brilliant operation in the Suez Canal acquisition battle this year won him widespread acclaim at home and abroad, and his reputation was on the rise.

Any motion proposed by the government at this time would easily be passed by Parliament.

Based on these concerns, King Zheng Guohui of Chu had to respond carefully. He did not want to suffer another comprehensive blockade by the British Royal Navy, which would deal a major blow to the Chu economy.

A good man will not suffer a loss in front of him, which is a true reflection of the mind of King Zheng Guohui of Chu.

The Suez Canal was opened to navigation in 1869. This route was entirely developed jointly by the French and Egyptians. The French made huge contributions, and Napoleon III supported this grand century project despite criticism.

After the canal was opened to navigation, the huge income it brought made the British immediately greedy and they were eager to get involved.

This year the opportunity comes

In early 1875, Ismail Pasha, the Governor-General of Egypt, which nominally belonged to the Ottoman Empire, encountered a financial crisis and planned to sell his canal shares. He first contacted the French.

But the French were greedy and planned to lower the price further, preparing to take over all the shares of the canal from beginning to end and monopolize the benefits.

After Disraeli heard the news, he privately borrowed money from the Rothschild family overnight and bought all of Egypt's stocks at a low price of 400 million pounds, accounting for about 45% of all shares in the canal. Together with some small stocks influenced by Britain, Britain controlled the lifeline of this east-west sea transportation.

Once this news came out, the whole country was excited.

Actually

The State of Chu also received news of Ismail Pasha's canal equity transfer, but after careful consideration, it had to reluctantly give up this huge investment with extremely high returns and deliberately show goodwill to the British.

The result is that the British took the benefits, took all the benefits, and then turned their backs on us. They are really not good people.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu's painstaking efforts to show goodwill were like flirting with a blind man.

400 million pounds is not a shocking figure, and the Chu royal family can still come up with it if they grit their teeth.

The key point is that this will completely disgust the British, and they will be on their mind from then on. This hot potato cannot be held and will eventually have to be handed over.

Fortunately, the Chu royal family has been purchasing Suez Canal shares in the European market for many years, and has accumulated more than 80 pounds so far, which is almost 3.77% of the shares and has a voting seat on the Suez Canal board of directors.

I will continue to acquire some in the future and just keep more than 4% of the shares, which will at least make me the third largest shareholder.

(End of this chapter)