Chapter 124 Li Yi: Admit your mistakes and stand at attention when you are beaten!
Also, China in this era is not actually at a disadvantage in trade.
Although after the switch, there is a possibility of product dumping.
But at this time, China still has its own flagship products in foreign trade.
Commodities such as tea, silk, and porcelain are all monopoly commodities that are only produced by one company.
As long as the exports of these goods increase, it will be sufficient to make up for the possible trade deficit after the opening.
It is entirely possible to turn a possible deficit into a large surplus.
Historically, why did the British launch the Opium War to open the door to the Qing Dynasty?
Is it really because of those opium dealers?
Of course not!
The reason why the British launched the Opium War.
This is because the East India Company purchased large quantities of tea, silk, porcelain and other goods from the Qing Dynasty every year.
But the only commodity that Britain exported to China that was selling well was opium.
As a result, Britain had a huge trade deficit with the Qing Dynasty every year, and huge amounts of gold and silver poured into China through the port of Guangzhou.
To put it in an exaggerated way, although the British at that time seemed arrogant when they colonized the world, they were actually working for the Chinese.
Such a situation was certainly intolerable to the British Empire at its peak.
It just so happened that the Qing government banned opium in Guangzhou in an effort to completely cut off the sales of Britain's only flagship commodity exported to China.
Then, the Opium War broke out!
The British idea is to open China's door through a battlefield, expand the scale of commodity dumping, and thereby reverse the trade deficit between China and Britain.
But the effect can only be described as unsatisfactory.
The textile industry, the UK's main export product, has high shipping costs due to long sea routes.
As a result, costs have increased, and the biggest advantage of dumping, the cost advantage, has completely disappeared in China.
In addition, China at that time was a typical small peasant economy, the biggest feature of which was that men farmed and women wove, and they were self-sufficient.
The key point is self-sufficiency!
Almost every household weaves cotton cloth for their own use.
Even if the price of the British Army's cotton cloth is very low, you still have to spend money, right?
But what about the homespun cloth woven by the Chinese themselves?
But it only costs the price of one cotton, and the labor cost is almost negligible.
If it were you, would you choose local cloth or foreign cloth?
Therefore, British cotton cloth really cannot be sold in China.
This meant that although the trade volume between China and Britain did expand over the years with the implementation of the Five Ports Trade, Britain did sell a lot of opium in China.
However, the trade deficit between Britain and China has not only not decreased, but has tended to expand.
This also laid the groundwork for the subsequent Second Opium War.
In general, China in this era still has a large trade surplus in foreign trade.
Even if Li Yi turns on the switch, mainland China will not be affected too much.
The only thing that could be affected is the rule of the Qing Dynasty...
And this is actually a good thing for Li Yi.
What about opium?
Of course it’s non-smoking!
This is exactly the third thing Li Yi is going to do.
After all, even the Qing Dynasty knew to ban smoking, so it is impossible for Li Yi to be worse than the Qing Dynasty.
The fourth thing is to recover Hong Kong.
Whether it is to avenge his father or for the political significance of Hong Kong, the first piece of land ceded by China in modern history, Li Yi must recover Hong Kong.
……
The sun rose and the moon set. The next morning, Li Yi was having breakfast when he received another report.
"Grand Commander, the whole city has surrendered!"
Luo Dagang came up to Li Yi with a happy face and told him the good news.
Li Yi heard this and nodded slightly.
"Very good, pass the order down, let our army take control of the city, collect prisoners of war, and classify and sort out the surrendered Guangzhou Eight Banners."
"Men and women are detained separately according to gender, and children are with the women."
"Also, let our troops pay attention to military discipline and avoid disturbing the people. Anyone who violates this will be severely punished."
Luo Dagang nodded to show that he understood.
In fact, Li Yi never worried about the military discipline of the Restoration Army.
Because the soldiers of the Restoration Army were all allocated land.
Those who have stable property have perseverance. With fields and families to worry about, these soldiers of the Restoration Army are very honest and they never dare to disobey military laws and disciplines.
What he was really worried about were the Guangdong secret society rebels who had just surrendered.
To put it nicely, these people are secret societies; to put it bluntly, they are hooligans. Li Yi couldn't imagine what they would do if they were allowed to run wild in Guangzhou.
The Restoration Army had just captured Guangzhou City, and Li Yi didn't want any accidents to happen.
Luo Dagang left and returned to Guangzhou.
Li Yi was just about to continue inspecting the military camp when Li Liang came to report.
"Grand Admiral, the British in Hong Kong have sent another envoy, who is now outside the camp seeking an audience and wants to negotiate with our Restoration Army."
Hearing this, Li Yi curled his lips and said.
"Haha, now you want to negotiate?"
"What the hell were you doing this morning?"
Upon hearing this, Li Liang opened his mouth and asked.
"Grand Commander, how should I respond to the British?"
Li Yi thought for a while and then said.
"Bring the man to me!"
Although the Restoration Army has now begun preparing for the war to retake Hong Kong.
However, before actually taking action, Li Yi did not want to reveal his true purpose.
Therefore, he planned to have a feigned peace talks with the British first to paralyze them and make them relax their vigilance so that the Restoration Army could retake Hong Kong.
Soon, Bao Ling and Rodel were brought before Li Yi.
It was very obvious that after meeting Li Yi this time, the pride and arrogance on Rodel's face disappeared.
Instead, there was a touch of respect and a faint fear.
Facts have proved that when you speak nicely to foreigners, they will only think you are weak and can be bullied.
But when you beat them up, they will come and talk to you nicely.
Bao Ling took the initiative to step forward and spoke.
"British Consul in Guangzhou, Sir John Bowring, meets the Grand Admiral."
After the Restoration Army won the Battle of Guangzhou, the British automatically changed the title of Li Yi from "General" to "Grand Commander-in-Chief".
The British before were not unaware that Li Yi called himself the Grand Commander of the Restoration Army, but they did not care about Li Yi, so they were very casual in their address.
But now it’s different. They came to Guangzhou this time to ask Li Yi for something, so they will naturally be more rigorous in their address.
Li Yi nodded slightly, then crossed his legs, looked at Rodel with a half-smile and said, "Mr. Rodel, you never came back last time, and I have been looking for you for a long time, thinking that something happened to you."
"Now that I see you, you are safe and sound, aren't you? Why did you never come back last time?"
When Rodel heard this, his expression was somewhat awkward.
Bao Ling on the side began to explain.
"Grand Commander, the conflict outside Guangzhou was an accident. It was all my fault for believing the lies of the Qing people, which led to the conflict between Great Britain and your side."
"Rodel and I came to see you this time on the orders of the Governor-General, in order to resolve this accident and reconcile our two sides..."
Bao Ling took the blame on himself in an attempt to ease the situation.
Li Yi still smiled when he heard this.
"Accident? I don't see it, do I?"
"Don't tell me, the British are coming to Guangzhou with thousands of troops and a fleet for a spring outing!"
"It's winter now, so it's not the right time for a spring outing."
Li Yi's words made Bao Ling and the other man look embarrassed.
If Li Yi had dared to speak to them like this before, they would have retorted directly.
However, the situation is different now.
In the Battle of Guangzhou, the British army was defeated and a large number of British soldiers became prisoners of war of the Restoration Army.
In order to rescue these prisoners of war, let alone Li Yi being sarcastic to them, even if he slapped them a few times in the face, they could only continue to smile.
Seeing that the two were speechless, Li Yi continued.
"Whether this is a misunderstanding or not, you and I both know it clearly."
"There is an old Chinese saying: if you make a mistake, you must admit it, and if you are beaten, you must stand at attention."
"A war is a war. If you lose, you should admit defeat, pay compensation and apologize. Don't try to brush it off with a simple misunderstanding."
"Tell you!"
"My Restoration Army won't fall for your tricks!"
Li Yi was extremely strong at this moment, which was consistent with his current psychological state as he had just achieved a big victory.
Bao Ling couldn't help but twitch his mouth when he heard this, but he could only pinch his nose and speak.
"What the Grand Commander said makes sense."
"Rodel and I are here for peace talks and to return the prisoners of war."
After hearing this, Li Yi nodded slightly.
"That's pretty much it."
"We can negotiate, but you British must declare responsibility for this war, admit defeat, and then compensate our Restoration Army for the losses it suffered in this war."
If the British mainland was not so far away, and the Battle of Guangzhou was not a big defeat for Britain, Li Yi really wanted to give the Anglo-Saxons the same package of ceding territory and paying indemnities to them to let them have a taste of the saltiness of the earth.
Don't wait for Bao Ling to express his opinion.
Li Yi began to report the expenses.
"In this Guangzhou battle, in order to resist your invasion, our Restoration Army suffered more than 1,300 casualties."
"Among them, 465 were killed and 887 were wounded. In addition, the navy lost large and small warships, and consumed a number of gunpowder, shells, rockets and other weapons."
"You British people must compensate for these!"
"Among them, the dead must each be compensated with 1,000 taels of silver for funeral expenses, a total of 465,000 taels, and the wounded must each be compensated with 500 taels of silver for medical expenses, a total of 443,500 taels of silver."
"As for the loss of warships and gunpowder shells, I will not ask you for more. The total is one million taels of silver."
"Adding up the above figures, you British barbarians need to pay my Restoration Army war indemnity of 1,908,500 taels of silver. Let's round it off to 2 million taels."
After Bao Ling heard this, he immediately spoke in a somewhat heated tone.
"Grand Commander, this is absolutely impossible."
"Don't say that it is impossible for Britain to pay war reparations to you, even if it can pay war reparations."
"The Governor-General cannot agree to such an excessive figure from you."
At this time, Britain was at the peak of its national power, and the whole of Britain was filled with pride from top to bottom.
It is said that the Chinese of this era are so addicted to the beautiful dream of being the Celestial Empire that they are so arrogant and conceited that they don't want to wake up. In fact, the British are just as arrogant and care too much about face.
It’s just that the Chinese’s “Celestial Empire” is a thing of the past, while the British’s “Empire on which the Sun Never Sets” is a thing of the present, so the Chinese seem to be a joke.
However, things are changing. Although the British are arrogant now, after World War II, they will become the laughing stock who are obsessed with their past glory and refuse to wake up.
The British at that time could not accept Britain paying war reparations to other countries.
Not to mention such a huge figure, even a single pound in war reparations would not be enough!
If Wenhan and Bowring dared to agree to pay war reparations to the Restoration Army, they might be sent to the gallows by the angry British people when they returned to Europe.
Li Yi was not angry when he heard this.
Because he knew it was impossible.
The reason for bringing it up was just to put on a full show, paralyze the British, and pave the way for the Restoration Army to retake Hong Kong.
But even so, Li Yi still pretended to be furious and spoke in a cold voice.
"is it?"
"That's unfortunate. My Restoration Army will conduct a public trial and public execution of the prisoners of war captured in the Battle of Guangzhou."
"This Governor invites your Governor-General to come and watch the ceremony!"
What Li Yi said was not false, he really meant it.
When the British army marched north from Hong Kong, they burned, killed and looted along the way. I don't know how many Guangdong people suffered.
Now that the British troops have become prisoners of war, they will naturally have to pay the price for their previous atrocities.
Bao Ling couldn't help sweating on his forehead when he heard Li Yi's threat, but he still spoke.
"Is the Grand Commander preparing to go to war with Great Britain by doing this?"
"Grand Admiral, don't think that you can treat Great Britain as nothing just because you won a match."
"Once Great Britain gets serious, no country or force in the world will be worthy of being its rival."
Listening to Bao Ling's threat, Li Yi remained expressionless and continued to speak in a cold voice.
"I know that Britain is powerful, and I have never doubted its strength, but even if you have ten percent of your strength, how much can you use in the Far East?"
"Why, Europe doesn't want it? The Near East doesn't want it? The Middle East doesn't want it? India doesn't want it? Or America?"
"You British people should know better than me the cost of transporting troops across the ocean."
"If the Qing Yao had not surrendered voluntarily in the war that broke out ten years ago, it would have been hard to say who would have given up first if the war had continued for a long time."
To transport troops across the ocean, not to mention the wind and waves and injuries along the way, would be enough to cause a large number of casualties.
In addition, logistical support also requires a huge cost to maintain.
Of course, the Qing government was forced to surrender during the Opium War, not because they wanted to surrender.
However, the British army had already captured Zhenjiang and cut off the canal transportation. If the war continued, the Qing Dynasty might pay a greater price.
That's why the Qing Dynasty asked for peace.
But this did not prevent Li Yi from using this to refute Bao Ling, because the British also paid a considerable price to maintain the front line.
It is also quite difficult!
(End of this chapter)