Reborn Ming Dynasty as Emperor

Chapter 542 "Traitor" Prince Edward

Article [-]: Ceded the Isle of Wight to Ming Dynasty, and Ming Dynasty withdrew its troops stationed in London and its surrounding islands.

Article [-]: The English Stuart dynasty must open Grace, Manchester, Liverpool, Eastbourne, and London as treaty ports, allow Ming to send consulates, allow Ming businessmen and their families to live freely, and are not subject to English Restricted by laws and regulations, England does not have extraterritorial power over the Ming Empire.

Article 2100: Yingjili compensated Daming with 600 million silver dollars, of which 1200 million silver dollars were used as compensation for the burned opium, 300 million silver dollars were used as compensation for Daming’s military expenses, and [-] million silver dollars were used to compensate merchants’ debts.The payment should be paid in two years. If the payment is not completed on time, it will be determined that one hundred yuan should be added with interest of five silver dollars per year.

Article [-]: Free trade between Ming merchants and English merchants is permanently allowed, and the English government has no right to unilaterally decide to prohibit trade in one or more categories of goods with Ming Dynasty.

Article [-]: The taxes paid by Ming merchants for importing and exporting goods must be negotiated between Yingji and Ming, and Yingji has no tariff autonomy over Ming's trade.

Article [-]: Ming and England release each other's soldiers and civilians, but war criminals such as Cromwell and Tom must be handed over to Ming for severe punishment.

Article [-]: Ming enjoys the most-favored-nation treatment of England, and Ming is also eligible to enjoy the rights and preferential treatment signed by England and other countries.

There are a total of seven articles, each of which is like a sword killing Prince Edward's heart, but Yang Sichang has already said that none of these seven articles can be reduced, and the entire draft treaty can only be increased and cannot be reduced.

Therefore, even if Prince Edward is unwilling, he cannot have any objections.

Yang Sichang slid the jade ring on his finger indifferently, and did not speak again. As a representative official of the emerging bourgeoisie in the Ming Dynasty, all the terms he proposed were for the maximum benefit of the Ming Dynasty, and could effectively guarantee the interests of the businessmen of the Ming Dynasty. .

Although this is too much for Edward, the representative of England, and none of them can be accepted by himself, but for Yang Sichang, in order to maintain the relationship with the Stuart dynasty as much as possible, it is not too much to weaken the Stuart dynasty. The strength of the dynasty made it impossible to quell the domestic rebellion, and he has been kind enough to take the initiative to reduce a lot of more excessive content.

But these seven items must never be reduced.

In Yang Sichang's view, as a strategic official of the military system, he naturally knows the importance of the military strategic value of the Isle of Wight, and if Ming wants to control the entire English trade and even the entire situation in Europe with the least amount of armed force, he must occupy a hub In this way, it can not only threaten London, but also go south to threaten Paris, or go west to threaten Germany, and can also go to sea to directly attack the Netherlands and France.

Therefore, Ming must own the Isle of Wight.

And these trading cities, as the most developed material transfer points in England at present, must allow Daming to do business in this area, because this area is the main business store of Daming's opium trade.

However, the Stuart dynasty wanted to block trade for their own rule, and could block other cities, as long as these places were not hindered, this was considered a huge concession by Yang Sichang.

Secondly, regarding the issue of compensation, Yang Sichang did not open his mouth too much. He obtained the result based on the income of the Stuart dynasty provided by Jin Yiwei. will perish as a result.

Prince Edward had no choice but to agree to the draft in the end. His character was inherently cowardly, and now that Yang Sichang directly said that he could not change it, he couldn't say anything more. He just laughed and said, "Your Excellency may have considered it over and over again, and I don't care about it." Objection, but I still can't explain these terms to my king."

Yang Sichang saw that he was hesitating and hesitating, and he didn't have any principles, so he decided to offer some benefits to lure him to make up his mind to sell his own national interests.

Therefore, Yang Sichang said: "Your Highness should know that I am in charge of the Ministry of War, that is, the military affairs of the entire Ming Empire. I have the final say on half of the military affairs of the Ming Empire. I also know that your country is suffering from the rebellion against the Scottish rebels. There has been no progress in countering the rebellion. I can sign an agreement with His Highness in private to sell you a batch of high-quality weapons, and only to you. Then you will sell them to your country’s military. Your Highness must You will benefit a lot from this, and you can even control a certain amount of military power because of this, the king of your country will no longer dare to do anything to you, and you will not lose your head in front of those emerging nobles."

Yang Sichang made it clear that he was bribing Prince Edward, and he intentionally wanted to bind Prince Edward's own interests with those of Daming, and let him be a lackey of the Ming Dynasty in a down-to-earth manner.

To put it another way, let him, Prince Edward, be an English traitor down-to-earth.

Prince Edward is not a stupid person. He naturally knows what Yang Sichang means. He also knows that once he has the exclusive agency right to import Daming weapons on behalf of England, it means that as long as the relationship between Daming and England does not deteriorate, he can always rely on this. Make a fortune, and you can also control the import of weapons from the English military. After all, the best weapons are in your own hands.

It's just that, in this way, he and the whole of England will be subject to Daming.

Prince Edward weighed it again, but his rich self-interest still made him determined to sell the country's long-term interests. After all, he didn't want the power of traditional farmers like himself to be gradually deprived of power by emerging nobles. Cromwell's anti-smoking campaign The radical behavior shown not only annoyed foreign forces such as Ming Dynasty, but also irritated them, the diehards of the Stuart dynasty.

"Then add a clause to this clause, the ores and weapons of the Ming Dynasty will not be required to pay customs duties when they arrive in England." Prince Edward suddenly mentioned this sentence, and he took the initiative to ask for the abolition of the tariffs on the trade of ores and weapons. It is not really for the Ming Dynasty. The money may have won the favor of Daming for him, but if this is the case, the cost of Yang Sichang's promise that his Edward family will be the exclusive agent of Daming's weapons will decrease, and he will earn more profits from it.

Yang Sichang didn't care. It was His Majesty's proposal to sell a batch of domestically eliminated weapons, but selling them to the local government and local families is the same. Now it's just a way to give Prince Edward a little sweetness.

Yang Sichang was very happy to see him so forthright. In fact, from the very first time he saw Prince Edward, he was sure that this person was the best candidate for negotiating, in order to expand the extent of Ming's interest in the Opium War today. .

"Since this is the case, the content of this negotiation will be finalized. I suggest that I go to my battleship 'Yu Qian' of the Ming Dynasty to sign this treaty tomorrow. By the way, I will also entertain Your Highness." Yang Sichang is now very friendly. This made Prince Edward feel like a spring breeze, and hurriedly agreed.

　I got off work late, so I can only update one chapter, sorry.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)