Chapter 299: Brothers Are Here After All the Disasters

With the contract with Lucia in place and no objection to the compensation, it would be easy to plagiarize the great diplomat Gorchakov's idea and create a new contract.

How to help Queen Isabella II restore the throne was also quickly agreed upon.

For the sake of the Bourbon family and her mother's throne, Princess Maria resolutely agreed to her mother's suggestion of paying in advance to show her sincerity.

The main purpose was to quickly trap Shao Quanzhong and make it a foregone conclusion that Shao Quanzhong would help the queen to restore the throne.

Of course Shao Quanzhong is very handsome, which is also an important reason why Princess Maria agreed to the on-site advance payment. Her mother actually brought her here with this idea in mind.

Her original arranged marriage was to marry her cousin, the prince of Italy.

Because Spain had recently allowed Italy's independence, the King of Sicily, who was originally appointed by Spain, went into exile, and the Crown Prince also fell into poverty.

The Bourbon royal family felt very sorry for the two brothers and decided to sacrifice a princess to marry the crown prince as compensation.

This impoverished prince's brother is called Gaetano. He is honest and upright, and there is nothing wrong with his character. However, he is poor and suffers from epilepsy.

As a member of the royal family, it is the princess's destiny to marry for the family's benefit. Marrying a powerful and handsome man like Shao Quanzhong is much better than marrying her poor cousin.

As for following the oriental custom of becoming a concubine - at least my husband doesn't have epilepsy, right? Happiness is derived from comparison.

Shao Quanzhong and Rong Hui got on the bus first and bought the tickets later, and they gladly accepted it.

The Fat Mammy withdrew, and the next negotiation activity did not seem to require an interpreter.

Ping'er also left. Shao Quanzhong looked at his new mother-in-law and asked, "Why aren't you leaving yet?"
For the next item, we can just communicate with each other, there’s no need for you to watch and guide us.

Eh? Mother-in-law, what are you doing? Hey, I admit I'm a country bumpkin, I've never seen this!

Is this what European royal families are like?!

……

An important international treaty concerns a vast colony of the former British Empire and an indemnity of tens of millions of taels of silver. Generally speaking, the negotiation process is bound to be difficult and lengthy.

The final step of the secret negotiation behind closed doors took a long time. Ping Er personally delivered lunch and dinner, and was also responsible for the meals for the next day.

At noon on the third day, the negotiations were finally successfully completed.

Her Majesty the Queen walked out of the negotiation room with a satisfied smile on her face, and Princess Maria was as beautiful as a peach. It was obvious that the Spanish side had gained a lot of benefits in the negotiations.

Shao Quanzhong's steps were weak and his face was not good. It was obvious that this long negotiation without an assistant had consumed Shao Quanzhong's energy. For the sake of national interests, His Royal Highness had paid too much.

The Qing-Western Barcelona Treaty of Friendship, signed on the Nanyang Navy's flagship Zhendong, was transmitted back to Madrid and Beijing via telegram on the same day, and then notified to the world.

In view of the more than 300 years of good-neighborly friendship between China and Spain, the two sides decided to form an alliance and establish a close strategic partnership.

Shao Quanzhong personally invested 20 million taels of silver, to be paid in five years, to purchase the Spanish royal colonies of Puerto Rico, Equatorial Guinea, Guam, the Caroline Islands, the Marshall Islands, and the Mariana Islands as private territories.

Shao Quanzhong, Prince of Jingyuan Duoluo of the Qing Dynasty, married the Spanish Princess Maria Isabel Francesca de Sis de Bourbon.

The Bourbon royal family conferred the title of "Prince of Spain" on Shao Quanzhong, and awarded him the Order of the Golden Fleece, the Order of Carlos III and the Order of Isabel the Catholic, and the rank of Marshal of the Spanish Navy. The Luzon colony was given as a dowry by the princess, and Luzon became the private territory of Prince Shao.

Shao Quanzhong used a fleet worth 10 million taels of silver as a betrothal gift to support Spain's military construction.

Including two Wangfu-class battleships, two Johnson-class ironclad steam cruisers, five thousand-ton ironclad ships, and forty transport ships.

The fleet became the Spanish Royal Fleet, and was led by Liu Buchan and the officers and soldiers of all ships were transferred there as a whole, and stationed in the Cadiz naval port. It accepted the joint command of the Bourbon royal family and Marshal Shao Quanzhong, was loyal to Queen Isabel II, and was paid by the royal family.

The Huai Army sent a 200-member military advisory group to assist the Bourbon royal family in training a new mixed-division army to form the Spanish Royal Guard Division to defend Madrid. Shao Quanzhong provided the Spanish Royal Guard Division with 20,000 Enfield modified breech-loading rifles and sufficient ammunition for free, while the Spanish royal family purchased artillery from Britain.

The commander of the Guards Division is appointed by Her Majesty the Queen herself, and Zhang Zihuai, the former chief of staff of the Huai Army Guards Brigade, is appointed as the chief of staff of the Spanish Royal Guards Division, responsible for the specific command of the troops.

The friendly statement from both sides attached to the treaty stated that although there had been unpleasantness and conflicts between the Qing and Western sides in the past, that was all a thing of the past.

After all, we are friendly neighbors who have been neighbors for 300 years. Both sides should focus on the future, work together to create well-being for the people of both countries, and jointly promote world peace.

The difficult negotiations between Shao Quanzhong, the queen and the princess yielded fruitful results, and the Qing and the West became iron-clad allies and in-laws.

As the saying goes, brothers are there when all difficulties are overcome, and all grudges are forgotten when they meet.

This is definitely a mutually beneficial treaty of peace and friendship. Her Majesty the Queen will be angry with anyone who says it is not.

By this time, Shao Quanzhong had spent most of the wealth he had robbed in Japan and Spain, and this trip was basically unprofitable.

In reality, the looted items have to be sold slowly, which is why the payment has to be spread over five years.

After the treaty was signed, Shao Quanzhong immediately called President Johnson of the Federation. Because the Puerto Rico territory was too far away and unable to be managed by the Federation itself, the Puerto Rico territory was handed over to the Federation for free, with the first term of trusteeship being fifty years.

The trusteeship agreement will be formally signed when Shao Quanzhong visits the Federation, and both parties will renew the agreement at their discretion after fifty years.

After dividing the spoils with the Americans, Shao Quanzhong announced that he would accompany his mother-in-law, Queen Isabella II, to visit Madrid.

Shao Quanzhong brought a large entourage with him when he visited Madrid. All the marines of the Qing-US Joint Fleet followed him, including Shao Quanzhong's Guards Brigade, a battalion of the American Marine Corps, and 40,000 South American mercenaries.

At the same time, they made a big fuss about removing a 110-pound naval gun from a warship, claiming that it would be transported to Madrid by train to conduct joint military exercises with the Madrid garrison's allies.

The news here reached Madrid, and a mutiny broke out there that same day.

Five thousand rebel troops armed with flintlock muskets declared their allegiance to the queen, and the rebel leaders Prim and Serrano fled into exile in France.

In Spain, things were actually quite decent. The Regency deposed Isabella II, but did not kill her.

Now the queen has gained the support of her son-in-law to restore the throne and has let the two coup plotters go.

After all, among the two rebel leaders, Serrano was one of the queen's lovers.

That person is also a fellow of Shao Quanzhong. To explain, what is said here is that Shao Quanzhong is also ready to rebel against the Emperor Buddha of the Qing Dynasty at any time. The situations of both parties are similar...

As soon as the telegram of loyalty came, Shao Quanzhong announced that his schedule was a bit urgent and temporarily canceled his visit to Madrid.

However, he would send Zhang Zihuai to lead a military advisory group and 40,000 South American mercenaries to escort his mother-in-law back to Madrid to restore the monarchy.

Forty thousand mercenaries will be stationed in Madrid to temporarily protect the Bourbon dynasty until the Royal Guard Mixed Division trained by Zhang Zihuai is successfully organized.

The mercenaries' salaries during this period were paid by the wealthy woman Isabelle II, who had just received a huge sum of 20 million taels of silver.

The cannons that were being dismantled had not even started to be dismantled. This was basically the old trick that Shao Quanzhong used to scare away other Qing Gang members after he conquered Guazhou Hou Batian.

The Qing-American joint fleet waited in Barcelona for a day, and Zhang Zihuai led the Huai Army Military Advisory Group and the mercenary vanguard to escort Her Majesty Isabella II back to Madrid for a successful restoration.

This is the benefit of building a complete railway line.

The combined fleet unloaded the mercenaries, hoisted the sails, and left the Mediterranean with black smoke billowing out.

George Dewey returned with the American fleet, loaded with looted property, in triumph.

With only twenty sailing ships, he obtained the first colony for the Federation, became famous, and his path to promotion was bright.

The Nanyang Fleet split up in the port of Cadiz, leaving behind a quarter of the fleet and all the transport ships, and sailed lightly to London.

(End of this chapter)

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