Chapter 470 Haiti and Dominican Republic (Part 2)

The news that the Austrian Empire recognized the Dominican regime did not cause any waves in Europe, because it itself did not have any significant significance.

Or in other words, the great powers did not care about the fate of this small country, but it caused an uproar on the island of Hispaniola.

The church's charlatans naturally took the credit for themselves, while Juan Pablo Duarte's supporters felt that it was the personality charm of their leader that moved Austria, a European power.

But no matter what, the entire Dominican Republic was in a sea of ​​joy. The locals felt that with the support of the great powers, defeating those black ghosts was just around the corner, and many people hoped that Austria would send troops as soon as possible.

Of course, it was actually impossible for the Austrian Empire to really send troops to Hispaniola. Whether it could win or not was not mentioned first, the cost of this expedition alone was unacceptable.

Juan Pablo Duarte was a little troubled, because he was afraid that the Austrians would nominate him as the king of the Dominican Republic. After all, Austria itself was a monarchy and had no reason to support a republic.

But at this time, the Dominican Republic was in internal and external troubles, people could not even eat, and there was a risk of being destroyed at any time. Perhaps he should ascend the throne first, and then give up the status of dictator like Washington.

Juan Pablo Duarte's supporters believed that being a king was better than being a president, because it was more powerful and more beneficial to their followers.

Of course, some people saw opportunities in it. General Pedro Santana performed well in the battle against the Haitian black warlords with his fierce style and won the trust of the soldiers.

In fact, no matter what the character of this general is, as long as he can win every battle, he will win the respect of the soldiers.

But such people may not be favored by politicians and capitalists. Duarte was very disdainful of Pedro Santana and turned a blind eye to his bravery in battle, which also made the latter firm in his ideas.

In fact, the opinions of the two sides were not in harmony, so Pedro Santana's letter had been sent to Austria before the Austrian envoy arrived.

Pedro Santana and Tasan Anna actually had similar experiences. Both of them liked coups, cockfighting, finding mistresses 20 years younger than themselves, and selling out their country.

It's just that the former is more cunning than the latter, and is capricious and difficult to control. Although this person has also served as a guide for the Spaniards, he is a hungry wolf that can never be fed if he asks too much.

Franz doesn't want to fall on the colonial issue, so he must be very careful in choosing a "partner". In addition, Austria's unilateral "action" did not cause Britain and France to follow suit.

Because France was deeply involved in the Moroccan War at this time, and Britain had just dealt with external problems, and the internal Chartists and workers (mining) strikes made Robert Peel anxious.

Austria is a little different. Its development is in an upward period; although the speed of this rise is a bit fast, in general, except for some parts of Transleitania, the advantages of the reform and industrial era are gradually showing.

Overseas colonies are also relatively stable, and there have been no large-scale riots or separatist governments.

The black natives in West Africa did launch several uprisings, but the damage they caused was limited.

And Franz did not intend to directly intervene in the internal affairs of the Dominican Republic and its war with Haiti. At least not now.

Hong Kong, 1844.

As soon as Qiying, the governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi and the imperial envoy of the Qing Dynasty, landed, he was warmly welcomed by the British envoy Pottinger, because the two had a good relationship.

Qiying was very respectful to the British envoy Pottinger, changing the previous arrogant attitude of Qing officials towards foreigners, and even adopted the latter's son as his adopted son.

At the same time, in order to show his uniqueness, Qiying also gave Pottinger a gold bracelet and exchanged photos of his wife with him.

This was a big news in the East, where men were generally valued over women at the time. Thanks to this relationship with the British envoy, he also became the Qing Dynasty official with the highest appearance rate in British newspapers.

The reason why Qiying made this trip was nothing else but to persuade the British to send troops to wipe out the remnants of the Nanyang rebels.

As for asking Britain to send troops, it was the military minister Mu Zhang'a who reminded Emperor Daoguang, which is the so-called "borrowing a knife to kill the enemy". This Lord Mu Zhang'a was the most powerful minister in the Daoguang Dynasty, and it was his handiwork to dismiss Lin Zexu.

However, when sending Qiying to persuade the British to send troops, Mu Zhang'a did not give the former a bribe of one or two taels of silver, but only gave a letter of credence, but it was not a cession of land or a trade agreement, and even the subject was not the Qing Dynasty.

It was a letter of credence presented by Lan Fang to the Qing Dynasty, which contained the content of offering land to the Qing Dynasty and being willing to be called "minister" rather than "vassal".

Then a letter of credence from the Qing Dynasty was attached, which roughly meant that if Britain was willing to send troops to eliminate the Southern Ming rebels, the Qing Dynasty was willing to give Lan Fang to the British Empire to make eternal friendship.

What is the ultimate logic behind this outrageous strategy? For Emperor Daoguang, who once proposed to Britain to take Queen Victoria as a concubine, even the most outrageous proposal would not make the Whitehall gentlemen feel outrageous.

But it was not that Mu Zhang'a and others did not want to pay bribes, but Daoguang was a stingy guy.

As a military minister, Mu Zhang'a naturally knew the emperor's character, but the matter had to be done, so he thought of this plan to kill three birds with one stone, "strong barbarians", "rebellious Ming", and "troublesome people" in one fell swoop.

When he heard that it didn't cost money, Emperor Daoguang immediately praised "this plan is very good!", and other military ministers saw that His Majesty had made the decision and naturally ended it with "my emperor is wise".

But it was not so easy to deal with Qiying, the governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi and the imperial commissioner. This guy was actually afraid of foreigners.

Moreover, he had dealt with "foreigners" many times, and he knew very well that the empty-handed tricks in the officialdom would not work in front of foreigners.

So after receiving the imperial edict, he immediately summoned the wealthy merchants and big families in the two provinces and asked them to pay donations. As for the reasons, it was nothing more than training troops and repairing river embankments.

The rich families also knew what this gentleman was thinking, but they were just wondering why there was one more donation this year than in previous years.

So Qiying came to Hong Kong Island with hundreds of thousands of taels of silver and his own "accumulation" for many years. He knew very well that if this matter was handled well, he would be successful in the second half of his life, and if it was not handled well, he would be dismissed from office, investigated, and exiled.

But this time he was wrong. When the British Minister Pottinger heard the translator explain the contents of the two letters, his eyes lit up.

This was a very good gift for Britain, because they knew very well that the current Southern Ming was just a country established by some Qing people who couldn't survive and went to Southeast Asia to make a living.

With this letter, it was equivalent to the Qing Dynasty admitting that it would give West Borneo to the United Kingdom, which would undoubtedly greatly weaken the local people's will to resist.

More importantly, the fleet stationed in Hong Kong would soon go to Kalimantan Island. In fact, Sir William Hawke had suggested it to the East India Company before, but it was not until the Southern Ming army attacked the port of Mala that he made up his mind.