The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 851 British-Dutch Note
On March 8, the 20th year of Guangde, the joint fleet of the British and Dutch East India Companies arrived at Zhifu Port in Yantai.

The fleet planned to blockade the Bohai Bay to prevent the rebels from supplying troops and food to the southern battlefield by sea.

On the 15th, the Dutch and British sent envoys to the Governor-General of Northern Zhili, Liu Tan, and ordered this royal family member who stayed in Northern Zhili to convey a message to the rebel leader, Princess Liu Yufei.

Stop the rebellion immediately.

In the name of their respective kings (and queens), the British and Dutch East India Companies demanded that the Princess Royal unconditionally accept the Guangde New Deal, withdraw all troops involved in the rebellion, and cease all hostile activities. They also presented the Princess Royal with a series of peace terms:

Allowing free trade among nations;

One country, one king, accepted the imperial edict of Emperor Guangde and obeyed Liu Kan's command;

Each state, capital, and county shall elect its own legislators within a specified period and accept their supervision;
Disband the Southern Expeditionary Corps, stop the invasion of Burma and other countries, and abolish the Songun Army Note;

Publicly disclose the property and salaries of officials in all prefectures and counties, and abolish their legal immunity;

Protect the legitimate property of individuals and do not deprive or infringe upon it in the name of the imperial court or the general situation;
Close down the Imperial Prison, the Imperial Uniform Guard and other secret agencies;
Abolish the imperial examination system and remove the privileges of scholars;
The law of burning books and burying people prohibits the spread of legalist thought such as Han Feizi and Shang Yang in Qi, and provides education and rescue to those who are poisoned by extreme circumstance and servility, and can physically eliminate them if necessary;

Allowing subjects to march, assemble, form associations, etc.
Stop the killing and expulsion of those who support the New Deal;

Stop the demonization propaganda against Emperor Guangde's new policies;
Stop the slander and forced return of European missionaries;
building churches;

The imperial court's monopoly on factories, mines, forests, salt, tobacco, oil and coal, rivers and lakes was abolished, and these were opened to the private sector.
Stop maliciously slandering European countries, Japan and other countries;

Foot binding was prohibited;

Adjust tariffs and reduce tax rates on goods from Europe, Japan and other countries;

Stop propagating the myth of Emperor Taizu Liu Zhaosun and crack down on the White Lotus Sect;

Returning power to the people, recognizing the military and guaranteeing the universal right of the subjects to participate in politics;
The "Da Qi Law" was changed to the "Da Qi Constitution", and the Da Qi subjects were changed to Da Qi citizens.

A total of 32 generals and 48 chief officers who participated in the rebellion will be severely punished. Princess Liu Yufei, King of Han Liu Qian and others will be exempted from punishment but must be expelled from the country.

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After the Battle of Yunyang, the rebels and the Qi army were deadlocked on the battlefield in Henan, and the rebels gradually lost their strength.

With the intervention of European forces, the rebels, lacking a navy, were attacked from all sides, and the balance of victory began to tilt towards Emperor Guangde.

In his early years, Liu Tan accompanied Jiang Liuer on a diplomatic mission to Europe and had a certain understanding of the British naval strength. He knew very well that the Tianjin Navy was no match for the Anglo-Dutch coalition forces, so in the face of the coalition's provocation, he did not even dare to organize a resistance.

He didn't even dare to report the long list of terms listed by the British and Dutch delegations to the princess.

Based on Liu Tan's understanding of Liu Yufei, if the princess knew this, it would definitely trigger her wrath.

By then, not only will the peace talks between the rebels and the imperial court come to nothing, but no one in the British and Dutch delegation sent to deliver the message will be spared.

Some of the demands put forward by the Red-haired Barbarians were even more excessive and heartbreaking than Emperor Guangde's new policies.

Not to mention the eldest princess, even a random northern gentry would not agree to these demands.

At this time, the eldest princess led a large army to linger in Henan, engaged in a tug-of-war with her brother's elite troops, and could not take care of the north for a while.

To Liu Tan's surprise, Henan's Tangbao was quickly sent to Tianjin.

The Princess, in a Tangbao report, questioned the origins of the Red Barbarian ships appearing at Tianjin Harbor. Liu Tan, forced to explain, made no mention of the East India Company's invasion. He simply explained that several Red Barbarian merchant ships bound for Nagasaki, Japan, had been blown to Bohai Bay by a storm and temporarily docked in Yantai and Tianjin. The shipwrecked Red Barbarians hoped to obtain supplies and fresh water, and to trade with coastal merchants, and would soon depart.

Such nonsense may be able to fool a three-year-old child, but it probably won't fool Liu Yufei.

However, things had come to this point, and Liu Tan had no choice but to try his luck.

While deceiving Liu Yufei, he sent his staff to deal with the British and Dutch fleets.

This member of the royal family of the Great Qi even spent a lot of money to bribe the red-haired barbarians and persuade them to leave their jurisdiction, even if they went to Jianghuai or Guangdong to cause trouble. As long as they left Tianjin, everything would be fine.

But the red-haired barbarians didn't buy it at all.

Even the red-haired barbarians understand the principle of taking advantage of someone's illness to kill him.

While Emperor Guangde was tying down the main force of the rebels in the south, the British decided to teach the eldest princess a lesson, which was also the best solution to end the rebellion in Da Qi.

Liu Tan's plan to divert the blame to the south soon fell through. After all, the truth could not be hidden. On March 29, Liu Yufei learned about this through the Jinyiwei.

The furious princess immediately dismissed Liu Tan from his position as governor, but did not execute him immediately because of his loyalty to the late emperor and his diligence.

Liu Yufei only allowed him to make meritorious contributions while serving his sentence, and at the same time clearly rejected the ceasefire request put forward by Britain and the Netherlands.

Not only that, the stubborn princess also detained all the British and Dutch envoys and imprisoned them in the Northern Zhili Prison.

The eldest princess once again warned the red-haired barbarians not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Great Qi, otherwise the East India Companies of the two countries and their nearly 100,000 employees would pay a heavy price.

The British and Dutch fleet ignored the Princess Royal's warning and continued to attack Tianjin Port.

As a result, the British and Dutch delegation sent to Tianjin was the first to pay a heavy price.

Because the rebel navy was blockaded by the British and Dutch fleet in the Bohai Bay and suffered heavy losses in ships, King Liu Qian of Han learned that the red-haired barbarian envoy had been captured, so he ordered the arrest of Ba Chunli and his 38 companions and handed them over to the Ministry of Justice for interrogation.

When two countries are at war, envoys are not executed. Liu Qian believed that such a rule did not exist. As the saying goes, "No punishment for an official, no courtesy for a commoner." The red-haired barbarians weren't even considered commoners, so not slaughtering them all was already a mercy.

So the officials of the Ministry of Justice ordered the thirty-eight red-haired barbarians to be imprisoned in a dark prison and let them live with the death row prisoners of Qi.

The jailers tied up the red-haired barbarians with thick chains and tied their hands and feet to beams, leaving them to be eaten by rats and bedbugs.

The London Times reporter Bayerby died mysteriously the day after entering the prison. His body was left to rot in the Beizhili prison and was discovered by the jailer three days later. It was thrown into Dagukou to feed the fish.

Captain Jacob's calf rotted and maggots grew. Seeing the maggots crawling all over his body, this brave officer of the Dutch East India Company finally had a mental breakdown and died after hitting his head.
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Originally, the British still had some illusions about the eldest princess.

After all, the highest authority in the British Empire is also a woman, and women generally don't make things difficult for other women.

Women are usually pacifists.

However, when the news of the envoy's arrest reached the fleet commander, the Anglo-Dutch coalition forces were furious when they heard that the envoy was detained for no reason and treated brutally.

They decided to teach this barbaric and cruel princess a lesson.

(End of this chapter)