"Yes, keeping Nagasaki is equivalent to the Chinese army and China, which stuck Japan's throat." Li Hongzhang summarized the words of the Meng President, "Our best strategy is not to leave Nagasaki, but also to trade, just to trade! As for them, we say that we have too many troops, we will use the excuses that the Japanese are used to, saying that we want to protect overseas Chinese."

The cute CEO laughed, "It's right. It means using the methods of the great powers. From now on, we will also be the great powers."

Li Hongzhang smiled but said nothing. The strength of China is still far from becoming a great power. Naturally, Li Hongzhang, a foreign minister, has no problem. He can do as much as he has the strength. He is at a low level. No matter how powerful a politician is, it may not be of any use. A politician who is in a high position and can do nothing. As long as he is not a fool, he can still make money.

The cute president talked a lot with Princess Katrina Kaif and Li Hongzhang along the way, mainly about how to take root in Nagasaki.

After the Opium War, the Qing government was completely confused because there had never been such a battle in world history - the purpose of the war was neither to occupy land nor to plunder wealth and population.

The war in this era has only one purpose - that is free trade.

Looking back at the war between China and Western countries in modern times, there are only two battles, namely the Opium War and all the wars after the Opium War.

I opened a restaurant myself, and I don’t want you to come in for dinner. Even if you are the provincial party secretary, you can only stand aside.

However, this kind of transaction can only be carried out in the context of free trade, that is, if everyone in the entire Qing Dynasty did not want to do business with foreigners, then the Qing government would certainly have the power to say no.

But what was the situation at that time?

The entire China faces huge population pressure. Only by entering the global market can one gain room for survival for itself. What's more, the eastern and southern coastal areas of China have had a tradition of ocean trade since ancient times.

The Qing government's maritime ban policy was extremely unpopular.

The only thirteen companies that engage in foreign trade show their power and bully and exploit British merchants by relying on their official identities, which not only violates the principle of free trade, but also violates the most basic trade ethics.

If this were the United States, France or Russia at that time, maybe people wouldn't say anything. At worst, I wouldn't make this money and would never deal with China again.

But the Qing government forgot that it caused the Sun-Don't Setting Empire at that time, and Britain could not swallow this anger no matter what.

This was the situation that the Empire of Sun never set back then faced.

Didn’t the British Parliament vote to fight against China when it was voted that the votes for support were only nine more than the votes against?

That's right, but please pay attention to the specific incident. At that time, the content of the vote in the British Parliament was whether to fight against China, rather than whether to trade with China. Almost everyone had a positive attitude on the issue of trade with China.

So it is better to say that the British Parliament voted whether to fight or not, how to conduct trade with China.

The direct cause of the Opium War was that the "national hero" Lin Zexu burned the opium of British merchants.

In the Sino-British trade at that time, opium was not a contraband!

Opium trading is completely legal!

The reason why Lin Zexu opposed opium was not because opium was harmful to health, but because the large amount of imported opium from Britain caused a large amount of silver to flow out. Lin Zexu's idea was to grow opium widely in China, thereby increasing the treasury revenue of the Qing government.

In other words, according to today's definition, Lin Zexu's Humen cigarette removal should not be considered as a crackdown on the "flour" trade or the crackdown on smuggling crimes, but an anti-dumping operation led by the Qing government.

Should we follow the regular steps to combat anti-dumping?

Even if we do not follow today's regulations and the most basic trade ethics, we should first give the British a note, announce the cessation or reduction of opium trade, and then settle the previous accounts clearly. The two sides have discussed this matter in a harmonious manner, right?

But how did national heroes do it?

You can't play this way without free trade.

Today, if Apple exports a batch of 5s to China, all procedures are complete, and the price is 2ooo each. The Ministry of Commerce feels that the United States is dumping, so it confiscated and destroyed all the phones without saying a word. Do you think the US government will give up?

The Opium War broke out like this.

Of course, this is not to say that national heroes have done something wrong. Of course, opium should be banned. Allowing such things to be sold in China is itself a harm to China.

What we are talking about here is the cause.

If you know how to start everything, you can "resolve the bell, and you need the bell tied." Knowing how to untie it, it is not a solution to take the lead by war. This is something that the corrupt Qing ruling class cannot do. They do not have the ability to solve it, and it is inevitable to fight.

What’s funny is that every time the Qing court is stuck in his throat, and he can’t stand it anymore, so he takes action first.

The process of the Opium War is very interesting.

Faced with the massive invasion of Western powers, the Chinese people should resist bravely - at least they should avenge their invaders in their hearts.

But reality is disappointing.

In Guangzhou, because British merchants have been engaged in trade with China for a long time, the British left a good impression in the hearts of Guangzhou people.

On the one hand, based on the tradition of free trade, the British would often hire some locals to load and unload goods, and would also make various consumptions in Guangzhou City. The British did not pay credit and paid a higher fee, which was much better than the Qing government, which often made white slips. On the other hand, Britain publicly announced at the beginning of the war that the war was targeted at the Qing emperor, and Lin Zexu and others also beautified the war in order to whitewash the peace, saying that the British were wronged because they were doing business in Guangzhou, so the king sent people to sue.

In this way, the people of Guangzhou feel that, oh, this matter has nothing to do with us.

After the war, Lin Zexu was very angry at the "indifference" of Guangzhou people, but he forgot that he should bear full responsibility for the occurrence of this phenomenon.

Okay, the war is over, and it's time to pay compensation.

The final compensation was 210,000 silver dollars, including 120,000 military expenses, 30,000 opium money, and 30,000 yuan owed.

Think about what this is. The opium and debts that the Qing government wanted to destroy actually reached half of the military expenses of a war! It is one tenth of the Qing government's annual fiscal revenue!

It was not until this time that the Qing government woke up as if it were a dream and ordered the merchants of the Thirteen ranks to immediately return the owed money from the British merchants.

If the Opium War originated from poor information communication between the Qing government and the outside world, then after the Opium War, the relationship between the Qing government and Western countries was even more interesting.

We must first admit that the means of signing so-called unequal treaties between Western countries and the Qing government were unequal, but in terms of content, they were completely equal.

Some people say that the concession should be unequal, right?

At least in Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty, the concession was not occupied by foreigners themselves by force, but by officials of the Qing government begged foreigners to rent.

This is because foreigners have high consumption power, and various consumption outside the concession can effectively increase fiscal revenue. In addition, the concession has a relatively good public security and a relatively clean environment, which can save a lot of efforts from local officials.

In fact, at least before the 1890s, the environment provided by Western powers to China was relatively peaceful. If the Chinese government could make good use of these fifty years, it would be possible to jump up.

But the reality is that the Qing government never realized the value of this. Although there was the Westernization Movement, a lot of energy was still focused on internal friction. As some people pointed out above, many wars after the Opium War were caused by the Qing government's disregard for the content of the treaty and failed to abide by relevant agreements, which led to war.

This behavior can only be explained by "powerlessness".

It is by no means that all the Qing rulers were ignorant. There must be some people who are sober. The most important thing is to be sober. On the contrary, they are not as good as ignorant. The more they are sober, the more painful it will be.

Things like the concession are not only found in China, but also in Japan.

In 1858, Japan opened five ports in Nagasaki, Yokohama, Kobe, Niigata and Hakodate, and later Tokyo and Osaka. However, due to the Meiji Restoration, Japan quickly became westernized, and by 1899, Western countries returned all the concessions to Japan.

In contrast, China did not recover its last concession until 1999, and this century-long gap is thought-provoking.

If you can figure this out, you should be clear about why Western countries wanted to "invade" the Qing Dynasty, but the Japanese would erect the "Monument to Perry, the Admiral of the Navy of the United States of North America".

"The Art of War" begins with "Sun Tzu's Art of War" saying, "Weapon is a major event of the country, a place of life and death, and a way of survival and death, and must be observed."

For a country, unless it is absolutely necessary, it will never easily start a war. What's more, China during the Opium War was still a giant in the eyes of Western countries, and no country thinks it will have the strength to absolutely defeat China.

The Opium War was the result of decades of trade between China and Britain, and it was actually a contradiction between a pre-modern country and an industrial country.

Just like Lin Zexu's way of dealing with the problem, this understanding of trade based on different systems, even if it did not lead to war in 184o, it would inevitably explode in the next few years.

Some interesting things emerged in the Shanghai Concession in the late Qing Dynasty.

As we all know, one of the most important powers that Western countries have obtained in the concession is extraterritorial legal power, which has always been regarded as a symbol of national humiliation by our history textbooks and mainstream views.

But the interesting fact is that in the concession in the old Shanghai, extraterritorial legal power became a life-saving straw in the eyes of the people.

Because the Qing government officials at that time still followed the same routine on the TV screen when they tried the case, the complainant knelt down and complained, and the county master asked the case in court and gave a judgment.

There are so many unjust, false and wrong cases and the depth of judicial cases. I believe that anyone who understands the current situation in China will understand it.

However, the practice of the rule of law in modern times had begun in the concession. The residents in the concession filed a lawsuit, investigated a case, prosecuted a lawyer, cross-examination in court, and jury judgment. Although there may be unfairness, compared with Chinese law, its progress is self-evident - at least ordinary people can tell the judges about their grievances in court without having to kneel down.

If you are an ordinary person and you are cheated of your business, where would you choose to complain?

The answer is self-evident.

There are also some problems, that is, residents in the concession can naturally go to courts within the concession to file a complaint, and it will be difficult for residents outside the concession to enjoy this treatment.

There are always solutions. First, foreigners can report and prosecute the case on their behalf and pay a certain fee; second, try to drag foreigners in the concession into the water, so that their cases are related to those in the concession, so that there is a reason to file a complaint in the concession.

Abandoning the open reasons in history books, the choices of ordinary people may better illustrate the people's hearts.

When citizens of a country begin to distrust their judges, courts and laws, and are willing to live in a foreign legal system and cultural environment, it goes without saying what the real situation of the country is.

"To get Nagasaki permanently, in addition to the excuse of requiring a 100-year lease, we must also appear in a more civilized manner." The cute president told Princess Katrina Kaf and Li Hongzhang, "Murdering people requires judicial procedures, so the murder we just said should be changed to, arrest first and then kill! Those who violate the interests of China will be killed. We must let the Western powers and the Japanese see that our civilization is no worse than any of the great powers. What is civilization? Civilization is the level of justice."

Li Hongzhang heard the cute president telling the situation in the Shanghai Concession, which did exist. When the Chinese army went to Shanghai, Ningbo, and these trading ports, the first choice of the people was to escape to the concession.

It is not because the Chinese people are close to foreign devils, but because foreigners can really protect them, and foreigners will not kill people for no reason.

"The emperor said it well." Li Hongzhang was not flattering, but sincere.

The cute president smiled and said, "If Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing court could recognize these things at the beginning, the Qing court would still have a chance to leap! The Qing court was not hopeless, but it was too difficult, and their entire rule was rotten. If you want to reform, you must first have surgery on the princes and ministers. This surgery is too great. Therefore, the chance of the Qing court leading the entire China reform is less than one percent. China is a Chinese country led by the working class, with a success rate of more than 99%!"

"100%." ​​Princess Katrina Kaif smiled.

The cute CEO also smiled: "Yes, 100%.

Li Hongzhang echoed: "It must be 100%. Just because the emperor realized the essence of war, we have already won. We are not afraid of not knowing how to fight, but we are afraid of not knowing why to fight. Today's emperor's words also made Li Hongzhang enlighten. I will not be in vain if I can figure this problem out in my lifetime."

The cute president laughed and said, "This comment is too high. I just said the problem in simple language. It's not that you can't figure it out, but that the angle you stood before was the perspective of the corrupt rule of the Qing Dynasty. You have never thought about these problems and dare not think about it. The modern judicial system will create Bao Qingtian by itself. In the ancient feudal judicial system, the people could only rely on praying to gods and worshiping Buddhas, hoping that Bao Qingtian would come from the sky."

Li Hongzhang nodded.

After arriving at Xiaguan City, the cute president issued an order claiming that the US army had nothing to do with the United States and was purely a stateless pirate army, specializing in undermining China's relations and combating illegal activities of the Chinese army. Therefore, people related to this pirate army must be investigated and dealt with.

The Chinese army arrested people who had connections with Americans everywhere.

Who can have something to do with Americans?

Apart from the senior Japanese government officials and big businessmen, it is equivalent to attacking the entire Japanese upper class of Kyushu Island. Whether it is the power of Saigo Takahiro or the power of Emperor Meiji, they will all be cracked down on it and "do things according to the law"!

This has really made the whole world look at cute presidents. Not only is the reason high, but everything goes through modern judicial procedures. First arrest people, then present evidence, and then send them to Nagasaki Castle.

Of course, the most important thing is to confiscate property in this process.
Chapter completed!