The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 74 Response from Shenzhou

Amid the British people's anxiety and restlessness, time slowly came to the end of the year 1780 in the Gregorian calendar.

The Ming Expeditionary Force has temporarily stopped its operations in Canada, and the Quebec and Montreal areas can survive the winter.

Byron's mission also returned to London before the New Year.

King George III of England immediately summoned the representatives of the delegation headed by Lord Byron in private.

British Prime Minister Lord Rockingham, Home Secretary Earl Shelburne, and Foreign Secretary Fox attended as representatives of all parties.

This time, Byron took a bath before meeting the king.

King George III arranged chairs for Byron and his party so that they could sit and answer questions from the king and ministers.

The king was so pessimistic about the situation that he didn't really want to speak in person.

So the Prime Minister asked the question as the representative:

"What is the situation in India? There are reports from merchant ships returning from the Indian Ocean saying that India has been completely lost. Is that true?"

Byron sighed and nodded:

“When our fleet arrived in India, we had already learned the news that India had fallen.

“The southeastern territories were occupied by the Ming Dynasty, and the northern territories were all occupied by the Shun Kingdom.

"Because France was weak, it didn't get anything extra."

The Prime Minister had expected this, but he couldn't help but sigh when he heard the news:

"As expected, this is the result, but France did not gain any advantage...

"What about Qing? Did they reject our invitation?"

The Prime Minister subconsciously wanted to say that "Not being taken advantage of by France is good news amidst bad news."

But considering the current situation and atmosphere, let's forget about this kind of joke.

Byron stood up with a heavy heart and took out the imperial decree of declaration of war issued by the Qing Dynasty, along with the text translation provided by the accompanying translator.

Prime Minister Lord Rockingham took the imperial edict and the translation, took a look at it, and then handed it to the king.

King George III unfolded the imperial edict on the table, placed the translation on top of it and read it, muttering with an extremely painful and desperate expression:

"Sure enough, now even the air is against Great Britain."

Although the news of the Qing declaration of war was bad enough, no one at the scene, including the king and the prime minister, questioned Byron:

Why did he not only fail to persuade the Qing Dynasty to form an alliance with Britain, but instead brought back a declaration of war?

Because everyone at the scene is now numb.

The role of the European Armed Neutrality Alliance has surpassed that of the Qing Dynasty. As the saying goes, too many lice don't itch, and too many debts don't worry.

Moreover, the Qing Dynasty only made a few verbal remarks at most. They had no influence on the British mainland and at most interfered with the colonies in North America.

But most of the colonies in North America were occupied by the Ming Dynasty, so it didn't matter whether the Qing Dynasty was involved or not.

The most important thing now is the attitude of the Ming Dynasty and how the Ming Dynasty will end the war.

King George III sighed, closed the imperial edict, asked his servant to put it away as a collection, and asked the most crucial question himself:
"What about Ming? What are Ming's terms for a ceasefire?"

When the king asked this question, the prime minister and the other two ministers pricked up their ears.

Wait for Byron to list a bunch of conditions, and then analyze and discuss them one by one.

Then Byron said:

"The Ming Dynasty means that a ceasefire is possible, provided that Britain gives up all its overseas lands."

Foreign Secretary Fox asked subconsciously:
"and then?"

Byron shook his head weakly at first, then said with a little excitement:
"There is nothing else to do. This is the only condition offered by the Ming Dynasty. But isn't this one bad enough?
"The Ming want all our colonies, including Quebec and Montreal, which they still don't have, and Hudson Bay.

"According to the Ming Dynasty, we Great Britain can only retain our territories in Europe."

Fox was obviously stunned for a moment, as if he didn't understand why Byron was so excited:
"I think it's okay. The people of the more valuable thirteen colonies have already decided to be independent.

“The rest of Canada is of little value, and has no practical use except to exile criminals.

"We should not deliberately sentence people to exile for different opinions or various minor crimes." Fox was a radical congressman. He was so radical that as a British he supported American independence and even had contact with Jefferson and others.

For this reason, he publicly condemned the king and prime minister who sent troops to suppress the rebellion, and later supported the French Revolution and opposed the British government's war against France.

He advocated liberal political reforms, the removal of restrictions on Catholics, and in his later years pushed for the abolition of the slave trade.

As soon as Fox said this lightly, several other people at the scene glared at him.

The Home Secretary responded directly:
"Montreal, Quebec, and Hudson Bay are still in our hands, and the Ming cannot continue its offensive this winter.

“We could only maintain more than 30,000 soldiers in North America before, and the Ming Dynasty, which is more distant, certainly cannot maintain more soldiers.

"They have occupied a large number of islands in Central America, and their forces will certainly become increasingly dispersed, and they may not be able to capture Quebec and Montreal.

"Since they don't have the ability to seize them by force, we naturally can't just hand them over."

Fox sneered:
“The reason why the Ming expeditionary army did not capture these places is because they temporarily gave up these places and turned to collecting more inland land.

"Once the Ming expeditionary force has completed its sweep of the inland areas, it will surely lead the colonial people to begin besieging Montreal and Quebec.

"The Ming expeditionary army has established friendship with the colonial people. With their support, we will surely be able to capture these two isolated cities."

The Home Secretary wanted to continue arguing with Fox, but was stopped by the relatively more neutral Prime Minister:
"Stop arguing for now. Let's wait for Lord Byron to finish explaining the situation. It won't be too late to discuss countermeasures later."

We have already experienced a series of bad news in North America, and then we have also experienced the sudden alliance of the Armed Neutrality Alliance.

Now the psychological expectations of Prime Minister Lord Rockingham have dropped very low.

After calming down the two arguing ministers, the Prime Minister turned his attention back to Byron:

"Didn't the Ming Dynasty mention the European issue? Didn't it ask for places like Gibraltar or Jersey?"

Byron nodded:

"That's true. The Ming Dynasty only requires us to hand over all our overseas lands so that they can be distributed among the Ming Dynasty and other allies."

Fox immediately couldn't help but interrupt again:
“That would be great, we wouldn’t lose anything on home soil, we’d even be able to keep Jersey and Gibraltar.

"But why did the Ming Dynasty allow us to keep these two areas instead of helping their allies to get them back?"

Byron recalled his experience among the people of the Ming Dynasty and found an article from the Ming newspaper he brought back, along with a translation he had prepared in advance:

"The Ming Dynasty obviously does not regard Spain as an ally with similar interests. It just happens that Spain is also fighting with us.

"Ming merchants even regretted their alliance with Spain because it prevented Ming from seizing Spain's South American colonies."

The translation was circulated by King George III, the Prime Minister, and two ministers.

Fox couldn't help but start muttering after reading these articles:
"The battle between the Ming people and us has not yet ended, but some people are already thinking about fighting Spain. Wouldn't they want to form an alliance with us by then?

“The Ming Dynasty… seems like it can indeed become our ally, and our attitude towards the European continent should be consistent.

"The Ming Dynasty's goal is to establish a colony suitable for farming and immigration, and if we don't have such a colony, there will be no conflict between the two sides.

"On the contrary, Spain will be the Ming Dynasty's natural new target, as they still occupy the great plains of North and South America.

"We can use this possibility to force Spain to accept the current situation and give up the fight for Gibraltar."

The Prime Minister has had similar ideas, but he is more realistic than Fox:
“But the prerequisite for becoming an ally with the Ming Dynasty is to end the current war, and the prerequisite for ending this war is that the Ming Dynasty court is unable to continue the war.

"Lord Byron, what is the domestic market and economic situation in Ming Dynasty? What is the attitude of the people in Ming Dynasty towards the war?"

The economic situation determines whether the Ming Dynasty can continue to maintain the war, and thus determines whether Britain has a chance to hold its territory.

Byron was even more distressed by this question, and he produced a series of newspapers and translations:

"The market in the Ming Dynasty is quite prosperous, and most private merchants support the war..."

As the king and his three ministers passed the excerpts around, the king asked several very surprising questions:
"Why? Why didn't the Ming Dynasty's war affect the domestic situation? Why did their merchants generally support foreign wars?"

The Prime Minister has already made a judgment:

“Because the war has not directly affected the lives of Ming merchants, it has brought them potential benefits.

"Perhaps if the war continues and its scale continues to expand, it may affect the industry and commerce of the Ming Dynasty.

"But that's not the case now. The current situation is that we can't survive the Ming Dynasty."

(End of this chapter)