I Became The Crown Prince Of The Mexican Empire - Chapter 103



Only Noblemtl

Pacific Fleet (4)

July 1841.

After fierce, back-and-forth negotiations with Britain, a secret agreement was reached.

“Hehe, when I first brought it up I didn’t mean for it to turn into this, but somehow things got bigger.”

Ambassador Pakenham said with a haggard face.

Ambassador Pakenham appears to have lost quite a bit of weight, perhaps due to the stress of months of mediating negotiations between Mexico and Britain.

I probably never intended to enter into such an agreement, but I seized this opportunity as if I had been waiting for it.

“Thank you for your hard work. Thanks to your efforts, Ambassador, the cooperation between the Mexican Empire and the British Empire will continue, and you have accomplished a great thing.”

I gave some lip service.

“···Your Majesty, I feel that my efforts have been rewarded when you say so. Thank you.”

“Then, please sign.”

I said that and wrote my name first.

Swish swish-

Ambassador Richard Pakenham also signed his name.

The contents of the secret agreement (Acuerdo Secreto) are as follows:

—————

Article 1

The Mexican Empire recognizes the supremacy of the British Empire over the African continent, India, Indochina, and Oceania, and undertakes not to engage in any political or military intervention in these areas.

Article 2

The British Empire recognizes the supremacy of the Mexican Empire over South America, the Caribbean, Japan, Korea and the Philippines, and agrees not to engage in any political or military intervention in these areas.

Article 3

This agreement shall not be made public and confidentiality between the two parties is essential. The contents of this agreement shall be known only to authorized representatives of the two governments and shall be kept strictly confidential in all other cases.

—————

Britain persistently tried to insert an advantage in China, but I refused to the end. The conditions are already quite favorable for Britain. If China is included, the balance of the agreement will be completely broken.

In the end, all sensitive areas such as China, Oregon, the Middle East, and the island regions of Southeast Asia were excluded. It is regrettable, but this is still a great achievement.

In Britain, when I did not back down, they showed signs of giving up on the negotiations, but I persistently persuaded them and brought about an agreement.

This was possible because my persuasion that Korea and Japan would be raised to check Russia worked well with Britain.

‘I have no intention of really containing Russia.’

Anyway, that was an ambiguous word to include in the agreement, so it wasn’t included.

Ambassador Pakenham and I shook hands and parted ways.

***

After about two months of negotiations, a long-awaited report arrived from the Pacific Fleet.

It was about the situation in the Philippines.

“Ha, you British bastards, you made me waste my time by not checking this.”

“That’s right. You can just say no.”

“I guess you want to kill time.”

According to Admiral Navarro’s report, as they approached the Philippines, an unidentified fleet fired cannons from a distance to warn them.

It was a fleet that included no less than two battleships.

Of course, the Pacific Fleet’s power could have easily defeated them, but it is said that they retreated for the time being because they thought that the only countries in Asia that had fleets including battleships were the European powers.

Since there was no flag, I thought it was the British or Dutch East India Company, but that was just a guess and I couldn’t be sure of its identity.

The report was delayed because they were gathering information to avoid diplomatic friction, assuming that Britain or the Netherlands had taken over the Philippines, but the identity of the fleet was completely unexpected.

“The governor appointed by Spain is still in office···.”

“Seeing that he was holding on to the fleet that was ordered to be sent from his home country, I guess he must be a man with a great thirst for power.”

“He must have been greedy. He must have known that Spain was in decline, and he thought that if he could just get his hands on the fleet and soldiers, he could become the king of the Philippines.”

“How foolish. Even if it weren’t for us, it was obvious that other great powers would intervene at some point.”

Two battleships are a powerful force in Asia, but they are nothing compared to imperialist countries. How could they leave alone someone who has taken over a not-so-small country without any legitimacy?

Spain had not yet officially given up on the Philippines, so they left it alone, but it certainly could not have lasted long.

“Greed clouds your vision. It makes me mad that Filipinos are dying because of that greedy guy who doesn’t even know what he’s doing.”

“Now that that is over, a truly independent nation will be born. In return for helping Mexico achieve independence, we will be permitted to trade.”

He proposed an independent Philippine nation, even though he was not born in the colony. Naturally, this was not going to work, and he was clashing with local independence forces who wanted to create a nation for the Filipino people.

We will help that independent force.

***

“I was wondering how the Mexicans moved like that, and this must have been it.”

“No, so you’re saying Mexico has been using the electric telegraph for six years? And extensively? Does that make sense?”

“Well, in the US, the invention happened three years ago, so it’s not that different.”

The United States, which had dramatically increased its defense budget, naturally thought it would be able to wipe out the indigenous people, including the Comanche.

That belief was brutally shattered in just six months. Apparently, even when they gave him a revolver, as the Mexicans had said, he couldn’t win.

“How can you possibly stand a chance against a similar number of Comanche cavalrymen with revolvers?”

“···I don’t quite understand either.”

It was the Americans who tried to attribute their victory over France to good luck in building new ships.

The news that the U.S. military was defeated by the Comanche despite a full-scale operation was enough to shock the Americans.

The shock of the American people led to a sense of crisis among politicians, and the U.S. government began to stake its life on building up its national defense capabilities.

“It’s a rear-loading rifle! It’s not as good as the ones the Mexicans use, but it’s not much different.”

After the revolver, rifles with far superior performance were introduced, and as they gained experience, they began to win battles, but the Comanche tribe began a guerrilla war without suffering major losses.

The war became protracted because they knew that if they pursued the Comanche tribe, who were fleeing to the ends of the earth, they would be caught in a trap.

Meanwhile, a man named Samuel Morse heard the news and made a proposal to the army.

“If we install this telegraph widely along the border, we will be able to respond to their guerrilla warfare.”

“This is it! This is it!”

The power of the telegraph was beyond imagination. It was able to successfully defend several villages that were easily breached due to the lack of soldiers compared to the vast border.

The Comanche raids were halted, and the Comanche began to feel as if the United States had mobilized a huge army of soldiers, just like Mexico.

It was only natural that wherever we went to loot, American soldiers would start to occupy the area like ghosts.

After several months of this, the Comanche tribe exhausted their stockpiles of food and began to starve.

A nightmare from the past resurfaces.

It was enough to traumatize the Comanche tribe, causing them to make the worst decision they could.

“The Comanches are starting to gather!”

***

November 1841.

The British army displayed overwhelming force and easily crushed the Chinese defenders. After capturing Shanghai, the British seized the Grand Canal and blockaded Nanjing, the second largest city in the Qing Dynasty.

Just as Japan accepted the demand to open its ports without even thinking about fighting when the sea in front of Edo was blockaded, Nanjing and the Grand Canal were such strategic points for China. Nanjing served as the economic capital of China.

The blockade of Nanjing and the Grand Canal meant that the Yangtze River economic zone was cut off from the capital Beijing, and it was grain from the south of the Yangtze that supported the population of North China, including the capital Beijing.

If the British had only maintained the blockade, tens of millions of Chinese would have starved to death, and the Qing would have completely lost the will to continue the war.

[Britain brings the Oriental giant to its knees!]

[The British Empire’s Victory! China’s Opening of Ports and the Cession of Hong Kong!]

[The dirty war is over.]

Western countries expected a British victory, and their media revealed their attitudes toward Britain.

When news of the Treaty of Nanking was heard, many European powers demanded negotiations with the Qing. They realized that the Qing was a paper tiger. They thought that in the immediate aftermath of the war, the Qing would not be able to refuse the demands of the great powers, and this assumption proved to be true.

The Qing government accepted the negotiations, rationalizing that it could use other powers to check Britain, and the Mexican Empire also joined in.

“You have a ship stronger than Britain? Are you just bluffing?”

“You won the war against France, didn’t you?”

While such rumors were circulating, negotiations with Mexican diplomats began.

The Mexican Empire, while accepting the usual conditions of opening Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Shanghai to Mexican traders and demanding extraterritoriality and fixed tariffs, made one unusual condition regarding Joseon.

“This last part seems difficult. Joseon is a vassal state of our Qing, but we leave internal affairs and foreign affairs to Jaju.”

“Think carefully. Russia on land, Britain and France at sea are all eyeing the Qing, so do you think it would be of any help to the Qing to fall out with our Mexican Empire? This is something that has been agreed upon with Britain as well.”

“···All right.”

“Good idea.”

The Qing official swallowed tears of blood inwardly.

***

The news of Qing’s miserable defeat was also spread to Joseon and Japan.

“It was a good thing that we opened the country early without fighting.”

“Yes, the Qing Dynasty has also fallen, so there’s no way we can do anything.”

The Japanese, who were vaguely aware of the power of the Western powers, accepted it relatively calmly, but Joseon was different.

It was a shock that truly shook my worldview.

Even the Qing Dynasty, which was defeated immediately after the war, did not bother to tell Joseon, and Joseon had no exchanges with the outside world, but strangely enough, the rumor spread quickly.

“Tell me again, are you really saying that the Qing lost?”

“That’s right. They even ceded Hong Kong. They even granted extraterritoriality. It must have been a terrible failure.”

My younger brother, Jo In-young, who had gotten the information from somewhere, spoke calmly, perhaps because he was shocked in advance, but his expression was not good either.

“···”

“Yeah, that would be surprising. I was like that too.”

“···So does that mean the letter was true?”

I remembered the letter from the Mexican crown prince that I had thrown away, cursing him for sending such a letter.

It was a thought that occurred to not only Jo Man-young, but also to all the officials present at the time, including Kim Jo-geun.

I got goosebumps all over my body.

A series of shocks.

In that situation where I felt like I was going crazy, another shocking piece of news came.

A letter has arrived from the Qing Dynasty.