During the Qing Dynasty, officials reached the level of making the taiwan, and in addition to calling themselves slaves in front of the emperor, they were already the masters of many people. The master is a bit temperamental, and the Jiangnan Taiwan civilization is no exception. As long as the official is smaller than him, even if there is a real lack of domain, if there is a disagreement, people will touch the nail, and it is common for the messengers under the opponent to drink and drink, light kicks, heavy horses and sticks. Of course, there are also some specific regulations, such as not listening to the bad return when eating.
On this day, the messenger received an urgent official document to be submitted to the document-making platform, and it was in the process of eating at the literary station. As soon as he heard the difference, he shrank back, but Wen Zhitai's eyes were sharp and he drank at him: "What's the matter?" The messenger said, "There is an urgent official document..." Before he could finish speaking, a slap was slapped. Hearing that the poor felt aggrieved, anyway, the beating had already been beaten, so he had the courage to say: "It is a foreigner..." Hearing the word "foreigner", the wenzhitai raised his hand and slapped it again: "Why don't foreigners return to their official business early?" ”
Officials from the three provinces under Jiangnan naturally followed suit. There is a Liuhe County in the north of Nanjing, where the Jiangnan System Office is located, and originally did not have much contact with foreigners, but the wind of the rise of foreign religion also blew liuhe. Once a person enters the foreign religion, he can run amok in the countryside, and with the protection of the foreign church, he will enjoy "extraterritorial jurisdiction" out of thin air. At that time, there was a parish who owed money to his neighbors and did not pay it back, and was picked up by the county order Mei Biaoren and beaten up hard. However, the foreign priests had no intention of sheltering this man, and Meixian ordered Yangyang to be satisfied and reported the matter. Wen Zhitai immediately issued a directive of "confusion and delusion", frightening MeiXian Ling not to eat well for three days, and struggling to find a remedy.
When someone beat a drum to file a complaint, the cause of the case was that the plaintiff Lu Da was knocked out of two front teeth by Ma Er for no reason. It was a minor injury, and the beater Ma Er lost some money and was finished. When Kemei County Ling heard that Ma Er was "teaching", he sentenced Lu Da to pay Ma Eryang 12 yuan. He also added fuel to the fire and added to the report, expounded it from the perspective of invigorating openness and maintaining foreign religion, and was promoted to Haizhou in less than three months.
Mei Biaoren had been a state official for less than a month, and he overheard that three foreign warships had come from the sea, which was not a small fright, and the state was in a mess. After discussing more than a dozen bags of cigarettes, it was agreed that the state judge would take the English teachers from the school to the boat to explore the way. On the boat, the instructor shook hands with the opposing officer, greeted in English, knew that the soldier was a lieutenant, this time passing by here, wanted to go ashore to hunt and play for two days, no other meaning...
Asking for clarification, Mei Biaoren also relaxed his mind, and immediately prepared a report on the arrival of foreign warships and how Honshu had listened to the news. When the station received the telegram, it also panicked for a while, and quickly returned the telegram saying: "Foreign warships have come from afar, and we must do our best to be a landlord." The governor of the people is Wu Yipin in our place, and he can control the town road, and the local civil and military leaders should go out to greet them, and you must also prepare a mansion overnight to invite them to come ashore to live. Subsequently, Wen Zhitai sent General Xiao to rush there with a warship.
After meeting with Mei Biaoren, Xiao Shan agreed to board the ship together to visit the foreign admiral. Although the English teacher repeatedly explained that it was okay to shake hands with a foreigner when he saw him, General Xiao could not help but bow his head when he saw the foreigners. Although Mei Biaoren behaved better, after returning, he also asked his secretary to collect the relevant archival materials of the state and the garrison of the army and report them to the foreign governor in the form of a handbook, and even the case file of the arrested thief who was imprisoned in prison to be brought to the Yang People for instructions and rulings. The English teacher said that this is inappropriate, but it is a matter of national sovereignty but foreigners must decide... Before he could finish speaking, Mei Biaoren rushed to say: "Sovereignty is not sovereignty, it concerns me, and the Taiwanese people have repeatedly stressed that 'I can't open it', so why should I offend my superiors?" ”
This is the truth, the highest principle of diplomacy in the Jiangnan officialdom is "provoking me not to open up," that is, foreigners who come to cause trouble will never shoot the first shot in the two rivers and the land boundary, and we must devote ourselves to solving it through "diplomacy." But what if the foreigners really want to shoot the first shot? Run! Provinces and provinces are like this, which has become the general outcome of diplomacy in the late Qing Dynasty.