Before coming to China, the British Foreign Secretary had seriously studied his opponent, Yan Huiqing.

In September of the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897), Yan Huiqing entered the University of Virginia to study literature. During his university years, he demonstrated strong adaptability. In addition to completing the required courses in German, Latin, Mathematics, Economics, History, English Literature, Physics, and Geology according to school regulations, he also selected two courses he liked: History of Philosophy and International Law & Constitution.

According to reports by British diplomatic personnel, when chatting with Yan Huiqing in Saigon, Yan recalled his selection of elective courses back then lightly: "The number of required courses for the undergraduate degree was not large, and I had plenty of time, so I took two extra courses: History of Philosophy and International Law & Constitution." He also added that the latter was very helpful for his later diplomatic career.

In his spare time, Yan Huiqing also visited scenic spots in New York, Washington, and Virginia, sometimes visiting friends at the Chinese Legation in the US, and met embassy officials such as Wu Tingfang and Zhou Ziqi.

The British Foreign Secretary admired a "scholar-lord" figure like Yan Huiqing. Compared with the young diplomatic officials in He Rui's government, Yan Huiqing was calm and magnanimous, without strong nationalist sentiments. Britain never lacked nationalist sentiments, and the British Foreign Secretary understood such people well. They would stubbornly believe that any foreigner went to China with evil purposes and started their evil plans upon arrival.

This prejudice stemmed from a lack of knowledge. If the British Foreign Secretary were not forced to, he would not deal with such people. There was nothing to discuss with such muddle-headed fools.

After meeting Yan Huiqing, the British Foreign Secretary first asked, "Minister, is the speed of the Chinese withdrawal too fast?"

Yan Huiqing smiled, "Since 1922, our army has not stopped fighting for five years. Peace has finally arrived, and everyone naturally hopes to return to their hometowns and return to their loved ones to enjoy peace."

The British Foreign Secretary could not oppose such an explanation; Yan Huiqing was telling the truth. He Rui's Northeast Government declared war on Japan in October 1922. The mobilization and preparation work before the war took a year. Even if preparations began on January 1, 1922, it has indeed been exactly five years by today, January 4, 1927.

However, according to the previous agreement between China and Britain, the withdrawal of Chinese troops from Upper Burma required the participation of a British observer group. According to the report of the British observer group, the Chinese army retreated into the mainland like a tide, and the situation of full defense that Britain expected did not appear.

This actually disrupted Britain's plan. In the British plan, the British withdrawal would be carried out according to China's actions. It was estimated that most of the troops would not be withdrawn until the end of 1927.

The British Cabinet had even prepared the withdrawal budget. Now that the Chinese army withdrew so quickly, the British Cabinet was under pressure instead. If they withdrew according to the plan, it felt wrong somewhere. If they did not withdraw quickly, they would be criticized. British soldiers also wanted to go home early, and the Parliament would attack the Baldwin Cabinet for wasting public funds.

After thinking for a while, the British Foreign Secretary asked, "A group of prisoners of war have signed employment agreements with China. We would very much like to know if these agreements will continue to constrain the personal freedom of British subjects."

"After the war ends, the personal freedom clauses in the employment agreements will become invalid, and they are all free. The status of some British personnel who wish to remain in China requires an agreement on immigration and expatriates signed between China and Britain," Yan Huiqing said this but did not continue. China has not signed any agreements regarding personnel exchanges with Britain, France, or the United States at this stage. From China's perspective, or at least from the perspective of He Rui's government, this is not beneficial to China.

China needs a large number of high-quality personnel to come to China to work. Various universities and research institutes lack world-class academic leaders. If top talents from all over the world come to China, it will inevitably greatly promote China's economic development.

Precisely because it is beneficial to China, Yan Huiqing can only handle it according to political rules. If any expectation is shown, the impact will not be good. If following the rules, whether the governments of Britain, France, and the United States are willing to carry out such personnel exchanges depends on how the governments of these three countries view it.

After all, China has too large a population, more than twice the population of the United States, Britain, and France combined. These three countries are afraid of a tide of Chinese immigrants to their countries. France is the country with the best diplomatic relations with China at this stage, so the French diplomatic team publicly expressed concerns in this regard to Yan Huiqing.

But diplomacy emphasizes reciprocity. China must never make any concessions on reciprocity and must insist on complete reciprocity in immigration between the two sides.

The British Foreign Secretary also had a headache at this time. The prisoners of war hired by China were all high-quality personnel in the British army. These people had good backgrounds, and many even had titles. China's prisoner policy was greatly appreciated by this group of people. More importantly, these noble lords found business opportunities in China. China has a great demand for technology and also has many commodities that Britain needs. For example, the Earl of Glamorgan wanted to become the British agent for the new special tuberculosis drug 'Streptomycin' produced in China.

Several other noble lords had almost secured the sales agency rights for Penicillin in Britain. France, as a second-hand dealer in Europe before, made a lot of money by selling Penicillin. The British noble lords felt that it was finally their turn to earn this channel fee.

Noble lords are decent people. Naturally, they are unwilling to travel between China and Britain with some undignified identities, so the British House of Lords is very concerned about the personnel exchange agreement between China and Britain. This triggered a backlash from the House of Commons. Members of the House of Commons believed that it was not enough for the noble lords to lie in the House of Lords and receive high annuities; they stretched their hands too long for their own interests. Instead, they set up obstacles to the agreement on personnel exchanges between China and Britain.

The British Foreign Secretary finally felt that he still had to work hard. After all, the noble lords of the House of Lords hinted privately that if the Foreign Secretary could get things done, they would give him a seat in the House of Lords. After thinking for a moment, the Foreign Secretary suggested, "Can we sign a China-UK business personnel visa agreement first?"

Yan Huiqing naturally would not object. He discussed with the British Foreign Secretary for ten minutes and finalized the general framework for business personnel visas and study visas. Once these two settled the framework, the following work would naturally be handed over to the diplomatic teams of both sides for specific implementation.

After his seat in the House of Lords was confirmed, the Foreign Secretary was in a good mood and asked a relatively relaxed topic, "Minister, does your country's religious management violate the right to religious freedom granted to your people in your country's constitution?"

Yan Huiqing did not answer immediately. He also felt He Rui's nationalism in this matter. He Rui was ruthless towards those who served foreign concessions during the Unification War, followed only by foreign missionaries in China.

It cannot be said that all foreign missionaries in China were beasts; at least one or two out of ten were not. However, He Rui's methods were extremely cruel. As long as someone died in a missionary case, all religious personnel in the churches where the missionaries involved in the case had been were all hanged for murder.

There were also the so-called benevolent halls. After investigation, religious personnel in the churches abused children and even tortured children they didn't like to death. Therefore, all religious personnel related to these foreign religious institutions, as well as religious personnel who had sent children to these workhouses, were all hanged for murder and abuse.

Yan Huiqing knew that among these hanged missionaries, there were indeed a few whose crimes did not deserve death. But Yan Huiqing would not plead for these few foreign missionaries whose crimes did not deserve death, because He Rui and many people in the Civilization Party indeed believed that missionaries deserved to die.

Not only towards foreign missionaries, but the Civilization Party also had no tolerance for domestic religions in China. A clear definition was given in the interpretation of the Constitution of the Republic: all religions are 'commercial organizations'.

Personal belief in religion is the religious freedom of citizens. Money transactions within religious organizations are commercial activities. Engaging in commercial activities naturally makes it a commercial organization.

Yan Huiqing would not oppose these things even more. He even felt suddenly enlightened about the essence of religion after reading these. If it were just a group of monks and Taoists chanting scriptures in temples and discussing emptiness, it would naturally not matter. Religious belief should of course be free.

Once these religious figures control a large amount of money, they will have an impact on society and politics. The movements to exterminate Buddhism in past Chinese dynasties all arose from this.

Just like the Songshan Shaolin Temple bully gang that was wiped out a few years ago. If the great monks were just chanting scriptures, there would certainly not be such a result. However, Shaolin Temple was the largest landlord in Songshan. Local commoners rented land and had to offer their wives and daughters to the great monks. The great monks publicly told the tenants, 'Those with good wives farm good land, those with bad wives farm rotten land, and those without wives have no land to farm.'

Therefore, during the public trial, more than 100,000 local Songshan masses went to watch, filling the mountains near the public trial site.

When hundreds of bald thieves were publicly shot, the masses beat drums and gongs and cheered in unison. News reports wrote, 'The cheers of the masses were like mountains roaring and seas howling. Every time a bully monk was shot, the entire Songshan trembled slightly in the shouts of the local Songshan masses...'

So Yan Huiqing pondered for a while and suddenly smiled: "I heard that someone in your country suggested the separation of church and state? Is there such a thing?"

The British Foreign Secretary was stunned and had to answer, "There are indeed such madmen."

Yan Huiqing continued to ask, "If the King and God, one must be separated from the Church of England, I personally feel that the British King must remain in the State Church. What do you think?"

The British Foreign Secretary originally just wanted to ask about the missionary issue casually to see if the Chinese government was anti-missionary or anti-religion. Hearing Yan Huiqing answer like this, he knew in his heart, so he smiled and said, "The British Royal Family and the Church of England are one."

Seeing the British Foreign Secretary being so frank, Yan Huiqing also felt that the British Foreign Office, which fully maintained British national interests, could indeed be dealt with for a long time, so he picked up his teacup and echoed, "The British Royal Family and the Church of England are one."

The British Foreign Secretary and the Chinese Foreign Minister looked at each other and smiled, and both took a sip of tea.

The so-called State Church, no matter what school of theory is used, the core is the same. That is, the royal family of the country is the service object of the State Church. In a State Church where politics and religion are more closely combined, the royal family is God's spokesperson in the world.

In Britain, if the Royal Family and God can only choose one of the two, then the State Church must choose the Royal Family. As for God, it is that additional option.

Yan Huiqing understood this, and the British Foreign Secretary also understood this. He was also sure that He Rui wanted to protect China's interests, not the interests of religion. With this clear boundary, many things are easy to handle.

Putting down the teacup, the British Foreign Secretary said, "Minister, I will be leaving China in a few days."

"I will go to see you off," Yan Huiqing replied.

The Foreign Secretary said what he had not said all along, "Please convey the attitude of the British government to Chairman He on my behalf. We look forward to Chairman He visiting Britain at a suitable time."

"I will definitely convey the invitation of the British government to Chairman He." Yan Huiqing also felt very happy. It seemed that the trend of Sino-British relations improving was faster than he thought.