New Han Dynasty 1834

Staunton, in his capacity as special envoy, drafted a relatively formal statement in both Chinese and English.

Palmerston and Staunton signed their names, and then the two went up to the deck together, where they met Hong Huoxiu, the waiting squad leader of the Great Han Navy.

Staunton first explained their identities to Hong Huoxiu, then presented the authorization letter signed by the King and Prime Minister of Britain, and finally handed over the statement drafted by Staunton.

Staunton was unsure of Hong Huoxiu's identity and whether she was literate.

"I hope Your Excellency can make this suggestion to your superiors, namely the generals of the Han Navy."

"Arrange for higher-ranking officials to contact us, at which time we will present the letter from the King of Britain."

Hong Huoxiu comes from a second-generation militia family and actually knows most commonly used Chinese characters.

The militia command system established by Liu Desheng was organized with reference to the Ming Dynasty's garrison system, except that the rank of the chief commander was lowered from the third rank to the seventh rank.

It was not only established in relatively important locations, but was also established in prefectures, states, and counties throughout the country.

Most counties have at least one militia command post, and more populous counties may have two or even three.

In the Ming Dynasty, the garrisons had their own schools, and in the Han Dynasty, the militia command headquarters had its own public schools. As long as the children of the militia were willing to study, they had the opportunity to learn to read.

When Liu Desheng organized the navy, he required even the lowest-ranking officers to be literate, and he mainly recruited them from the children of second-generation militiamen.

Hong Huoxiu glanced at Staunton's explanation, and replied with a stern face, offering a reminder and warning:

"I would have reported it anyway, you don't need to remind me. Follow our patrol boat and don't raise the sails until I get back."

Even though the other party was a king's special envoy, the two leaders both had so-called noble status.

Hong Huoxiu was just a squad leader who could hardly be considered an officer, but he showed little respect to people like Ba Maizun.

They even instinctively looked down on them and shouted warnings.

In Hong Huoxiu's worldview, people like Ba Maizun are clearly barbarians. The emperor has already ordered them to be expelled, and anyone captured from now on will be a slave.

"Can barbarians be considered human?" This is a question that needs to be discussed in the new Han Dynasty.

Under such circumstances, Hong Huoxiu would naturally not pay much attention to the nobles appointed by these overseas kings.

Hong Huoxiu warned Palmer and the others, then took Staunton's documents back to report.

After watching Hong Huoxiu leave, Palmerston turned to look at Staunton beside him:

"Are all their soldiers as rude and unruly as him?"

Staunton paused for a moment, then answered and reminded Palmerston in a very serious tone:

"That's the case for most of them. In their eyes, everyone else is a barbarian."

"They don't care about barbarian titles and ranks."

"As I have said before, it is best that you do not confront the soldiers of the Great Han directly."

"They won't have much tolerance or respect for us..."

"Even ordinary soldiers might beat up official envoys of the king like us."

"However, compared to the time of Tatar rule, extortion has decreased significantly and is now rarely encountered."

"If you encounter this, you can also complain to their censors. If we have evidence, officials will handle it."

On the way from London to the East, Staunton had repeatedly reminded Palmerston to pay attention to adjusting his mindset.

Before Palmerston came to the East and personally encountered these ordinary people who looked down on him, he could hardly imagine what it felt like to be discriminated against.

Now that Palmerston has experienced it firsthand, he finally knows what that feeling is like:

"I... could feel disgust and loathing from these soldiers, a feeling I had never experienced before."

"It is absurd that we regard people outside Europe as barbarians, and the Han Chinese regard Europeans as barbarians as well."

"It seems that a real war is needed to completely defeat their country before they will learn to look at Europeans as equals."

In the history of the Opium Wars, the most prominent direct demand of the British was not any actual benefit.

Instead, it was an abstract demand that "the Chinese government treat the British government and navy with due respect."

It means that the Chinese should no longer regard the British as barbarians.

Historically, Staunton strongly advocated the use of force against the Qing Dynasty in Parliament, but now he has established a clear stance against the use of force.

Because Staunton knew the Qing Dynasty very well, and he also knew the situation of the Han Dynasty very well.

Upon hearing that Palmerston was inclined to use force against the large man, Staunton immediately reminded him to remain calm:

"Your Excellency, please be cautious. They have a population of four hundred million or even five hundred million."

"After they completely eliminated the Tatar rulers, they established local militia organizations throughout the country, much like in Napoleonic France."

"At that time, they had organized more than 20 million militiamen, which could be converted into at least 2 million regular troops at any time."

"Even if all of Europe united, it would be very difficult to defeat them in the East."

"We can only be thankful that most of their emperors did not have the idea of ​​conquering outside, and it must have been that simply managing hundreds of millions of people exhausted them."

Palmerston felt a headache coming on when he heard these words, and shook his head and waved his hands helplessly, saying:

"Your Excellency Staunton, please don't be nervous. I know what you're talking about. What I just said was just a hypothetical situation."

"Only by completely defeating them through a full-scale war can we earn their respect."

"But until then, we still need to exercise patience. It is not in Great Britain's interest to rashly make an enemy of this Leviathan."

Staunton breathed a sigh of relief:

"Yes, Minister, that is indeed the case. Now we should focus our efforts on resolving this trade crisis..."

Palmerston got really angry when he heard about this:

"These shameless merchants! The emperor forbids them from selling opium! Why won't they listen!"

"How much money can you make selling opium? Can it be more than tea, raw silk, or porcelain?"

"We were hoping to persuade the emperor to expand trade, but now even resuming trade is in doubt!"

Palmerston, grumbling and cursing, led Staunton back to his cabin.

Staunton first explained the situation to Lawrence, Davis, and Elliot, who were waiting, and then the group discussed how to handle the trade crisis.

The key question is what Britain is willing to pay for this, and what it can do to gain the approval of both the Han emperor and the British Parliament.

Guided by patrol boats, Palmerston's fleet slowly drifted toward Hong Kong Island with its mainsail lowered.

Activities at sea are very slow, especially in the age of sail before the engine was powered.

The next morning around 10 a.m., a fleet bearing the character "Han" approached.

Three small communication boats approached Palmerston's flagship, and Hong Huoxiu, the naval squad leader who had delivered the message yesterday, returned.

He brought with him the Director of the Bao'an Maritime Trade Office and the Vice Admiral of the Nanyang Fleet.

The two men met Palmerston, introduced themselves, and received the letter from the King of Britain to the Emperor of the Great Han.

The admiral requested that Palmerston's fleet cooperate and, under the escort and surveillance of the South Seas Fleet, head directly north to Tianjin Port.

The South Seas Fleet will arrange for a separate fast ship to carry the letter from the King of Britain northward quickly, to arrive in Beijing ahead of time to consult the Emperor.

If the emperor was willing to receive the British delegation, he would arrange for them to disembark in Tianjin and proceed to the capital.

If the emperor did not wish to see them, they would turn back and leave the country.

Palmerston and Staunton both felt this was the fastest and most reasonable arrangement and accepted the other's request directly.

If the emperor of the Han Dynasty's preferences are not too different from those of the previous emperors, they should be allowed to enter the capital.

After discussing the matter with Palmerston, the Director of the Maritime Trade Office of Bao'an and the Assistant Governor of the Southern Seas left.

However, they left Hong Huoxiu's team on Palmerston's ship to assist with navigation and temporary communication at sea.

Hong Huoxiu first politely watched the two top civil and military officials of Bao'an leave.

Then he turned to Staunton and made a demand:

"From now until Tianjin Port, we will stay on your ship, guide you, and relay messages."

"Give us a separate cabin right away. We won't stay with your sailors; they all smell terrible."

Staunton didn't argue with Hong Hoo-soo, but immediately agreed and then told Palmerzun what the other party wanted to do.

Palmerston had already been warned by Staunton and decided not to argue with Han soldiers like Hong Huoxiu.

Faced with this special request, Palmer immediately agreed and instructed the captain to prepare a deluxe cabin for Hong Hoo-soo.

But after Palmerston made these arrangements, he couldn't help but mutter to Staunton:

"The sailors' cabins do smell, but these men are just ordinary sailors. What right do they have to look down on our sailors?"

Staunton gave a helpless, dry laugh as he tried to appease Palmerston:

"Perhaps they do think our sailors are stinkier, after all, there are different levels of stinkiness."

"The taste of a sailor who has just set sail is probably different from that of a sailor who has been at sea for several months."

"We might not be able to tell, but they can..."

Palmerston was just complaining and venting his dissatisfaction; he didn't want to discuss the issue further. After he finished complaining, he went back to his cabin.

Hong Huoxiu thus traveled north with Palmerston's ship.

At this time, sailing from south to north was going smoothly, and both fleets were sailing very fast.

The letter from the King of Britain arrived slightly before Palmerston's fleet, on June 7th of the second year of the Tai'an era of the Great Han Dynasty, which is July 15th, 1834 in the Gregorian calendar.

Reports from the Bao'an Maritime Trade Office and the Nanyang Fleet were also delivered along with the shipment.

After handling his daily work, Liu Yulong first looked at the South Sea Fleet's report to find out what had happened.

Only then did he read the letter that was nominally written to him by the King of Britain.

Most of the letter was nonsense, with a large section dedicated to the king's title and small talk.

Then came a string of equally self-absorbed and fanciful ideas, which made Liu Yulong shake his head in disbelief:

"What do you mean by exchanging goods? Besides the gold and silver from your colonies, what else does Britain have that is worth importing by the Han Dynasty?"

"It's clearly almost a one-sided trade, but it's being made to sound like both sides have a strong need for it."

"As for hoping that the British director will try the cases of the British in the Han Dynasty, can we ask the Han people to try the cases of the Han people in the British mainland and colonies?"

"Don't you even know the custom of 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do'? If you're unwilling to accept the laws of the Han Dynasty, why did you come here?"

What does it mean to have a more open and free trade system? Is there any country in the world more open than the Han Dynasty in this era?

"Which of you Europeans doesn't engage in exclusive trade? Which of you doesn't engage in monopolies?"

"Can you British allow the French to trade freely on British soil? Not even on British soil, let alone in a colony, would you allow it?"

"Our Great Han is truly impartial. As long as you can abide by the rules of the Great Han, you can all trade freely in the Great Han."

When Liu Yulong saw the list of visitors in the letter, he couldn't help but frown and mutter to himself:

"Oh, so you've sent the team from the Opium War? What are you trying to do?"

"What would happen if I killed all of them? Would Britain then directly declare war on the Han Dynasty?"