"Lao Qin, who is this Zhang Peilun? The telegram said that he was Li Hongzhang's son-in-law, so he should be somewhat famous in history. ”

Qin Zheng said with a smile: "Of course, this person is a little famous, in the early years, he was a famous 'Qingliu Silang' in Beijing, in fact, he was an angry young man with a good eye, during the Sino-French War, he was sent to the Fujian Governor of Haiphong Military Affairs, but he did not seriously deploy defenses, and was caught off guard by the French fleet, resulting in the annihilation of the Nanyang Naval Division, and the Mawei Shipyard was destroyed, so he was dismissed by the Qing court, and since then he has helped Li Hongzhang to do things, and has never been an official again, but his granddaughter is more famous than him, you should all know, it is Zhang Ailing." ”

Hearing Qin Zheng say this, everyone else was also a little surprised, of course everyone knew Zhang Ailing, but no one thought that she would actually have a relationship with Li Hongzhang, Wang Yunpeng said: "In this way, Zhang Ailing is still Li Hongzhang's niece." ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said: "But now Zhang Ailing has not been born, and it is difficult to say whether there will be Zhang Ailing in this time and space, after all, history has changed, and Li Hongzhang and Zhang Peilun are all involved with us, whether their future will be the same as the old time and space, it is not certain that in the old time and space, Li Hongzhang died of emaciation and illness during negotiations with the Eight-Nation Alliance, and now it seems that this possibility is not great." ”

Xia Bohai said: "Don't discuss Zhang Ailing's matter anymore, Li Hongzhang sent Zhang Peilun to Tianjin, is there any purpose?"

Qin Zheng said: "What other purpose, it must be for us to control the Tianjin tariff and increase the tax rate, everyone has seen the content of the telegrams from the consulates of various countries in the past few days, all of them are in this regard, it seems that this time we have really moved the cheese of various countries, and Li Hongzhang is also anxious, so Zhang Peilun was sent to Tianjin to test our attitude." ”

At this time, Xu Jichao said: "Our decision to withdraw customs and raise tax rates is a bit rash and ignores the attitudes of various countries." ”

Qin Zheng shook his head and said: "It is imperative to take back the customs and raise the tax rate, politically speaking, the withdrawal of the customs can show our ability and determination to safeguard the national interests, and can win the support of more people of insight; and economically speaking, only by raising the tax rate can we protect our national industry, so that our national industry has a space for development and growth, and at the same time attract national capitalists to invest in Tianjin, in addition, this is also to ensure that we have a stable source of tax revenue and increase fiscal revenue." ”

Xia Bohai also said: "The attitude of various countries, I think we should pay attention to, but we can't take it too seriously, in the final analysis, the world still relies on strength to speak, I don't deny that the strength of any country in the Eight-Nation Alliance is much stronger than ours, but the world is not only divided into China and foreign countries, each country itself has a lot of things, and the Eight-Nation Alliance itself is full of contradictions, Germany and France, Russia and Britain, Germany and Britain, Russia and Japan both have structural contradictions, which are fundamentally irreconcilable, so it is impossible for any one country to devote all its forces to China, and in this case, we do not need to worry about the interference of other countries at all. Just do our own thing. ”

Wang Yunpeng said: "No matter what, we have taken back Tianjin Customs and announced the tariffs, and it is impossible to change it now, but Zhang Peilun is coming to Tianjin, how should we treat him?"

Xia Bohai said with a smile: "Of course it is a warm reception for him, Li Hongzhang can send people to Tianjin, our goal of sending Zhao Weizhong to Shanghai has been achieved, although now is not the time for negotiations between countries, but it is completely necessary to establish an effective channel of collusion with Shanghai, and when the right time for negotiation comes, this channel will be useful." ”

At this moment, I only heard someone at the door: "Report." ”

Xia Bohai said: "Come in." ”

The door opened, and a guard walked into the office and said, "Report, De Xuanlin, director of the Tianjin Customs and Excise Department, asked to see our person in charge, and he said that he would not leave if he didn't see anyone this time." ”

Xia Bohai smiled: "He's here again, this is the third time." ”

It turned out that the customs traveler took back the customs and raised the tax rate, which did not make the consuls and businessmen of Tianjin countries do not expect that the traveler recovered the customs to nothing, but the increase in the tax rate did make the interests of businessmen from various countries suffer a great loss, the previous customs tax rate was only 5%, and after the foreign goods paid the tariff, there was no need to pay other taxes in China, and now the tariff has been increased to more than 15%, and there is income tax after paying the tariff, the tax rate has increased several times, and the businessmen of various countries naturally can't stand it.

But now the traveler is in a strong position, of course, the businessmen of various countries do not dare to go to the traveler to protest, so they have to go to their own consuls to complain, but the consuls of various countries can not do anything else except send news to the country, the Russian consul is because of the strong head, as a result of the overseas Chinese forcibly closed the consulate, and now the Russian consul is still nesting in the French consulate, and the consuls of other countries will automatically touch this mold.

However, if you don't do it, it doesn't mean that you can't instigate others to do it, and you can't use the tricks of "stupid little boys", the old imperialist countries are extremely skilled, and the stupid little boy who was chosen by the consuls of various countries is De Xuanlin.

Although De Xuanlin was a British-German, he was an official of the Qing court in name, and this status made his status in the Tianjin New Area quite outstanding, without the panic of consuls and merchants of various countries. Because the traverser is under the banner of returning to China, De Xuanlin thinks that this group of overseas Chinese will not embarrass herself. Moreover, after the traverser occupied Tianjin, the Tianjin Customs of the Qing Dynasty was not banned like the embassies and shops of various countries, which also made De Xuanlin feel good about herself. It's just that the traverser blocked Tianjin's foreign relations, and there were no merchant ships arriving at the port, so naturally there would be no customs and taxes, so Tianjin Customs had nothing to do.

However, De Xuanlin was not worried that it was impossible for overseas Chinese to block Tianjin's foreign relations all the time, as long as the overseas Chinese lifted the blockade of Tianjin, they would be useful, and took a step back and said that if the overseas Chinese were defeated by other countries, they would also be able to stand firm.

Although the overseas Chinese lifted the blockade of Tianjin, they also announced that the merchant ships coming to Tianjin must pay taxes to the maritime affairs department opened by the provisional government of Tianjin New Area before they can enter the Tianjin market, which is tantamount to emptying the Tianjin Customs.

This time, De Xuanlin naturally stopped doing it, he claimed to be an official of the Qing Dynasty, and he had no fear, coupled with the instigation of the consuls of various countries, so De Xuanlin came to Gordon Hall to protest to the traversers.

In fact, the traverser decided to take back the customs and raise the tax rate to seriously consider how to deal with the relationship between the Tianjin Customs, because this is actually the customs of Tianjin to the air, although the customs tax rate of the Qing court is not high, and it is controlled by foreigners, but it still belongs to the Qing court in name, and now the traversers are not to the point of tearing their faces with the Qing court, but Qin Zheng assured the executive committee that he has a way to deal with De Xuanlin, so the executive committee made the final decision.

De Xuanlin came twice, and the traversers didn't see him, they were collecting information about De Xuanlin, but De Xuanlin didn't know anything about it, and thought that the overseas Chinese were weak in their hearts and didn't dare to see themselves. That's why this time I released the words that I wouldn't leave if I couldn't see anyone.

Sure enough, after the messenger went in for a while, he came out and told De Xuanlin that Qin Zheng was going to meet him. Now De Xuanlin has a certain understanding of the situation of overseas Chinese, and knows that Qin Zheng is an important person who can be ranked in the top three among this group of overseas Chinese, and he personally received him, which shows that this group of overseas Chinese attaches great importance to himself, so he has a little more confidence.

After the two met, of course, they had a polite look first. Then De Xuanlin put away her smiling face and said with a straight face: "Mr. Qin, I think your behavior of setting up a customs without permission is very inappropriate. ”

Qin Zheng smiled slightly: "Mr. De Xuanlin, is there anything inappropriate?"

De Xuanlin said: "Since you think you are Chinese, and you want to return to the rule of the Qing Empire, you should respect the legal system of the Qing Empire, the customs is the foreign tax agency of the Qing Empire, representing the sovereignty and dignity of the Qing Empire, and your actions have seriously damaged the sovereignty and dignity of the Qing Empire, your private customs is a serious act of treason, I ask you to immediately stop the wrong behavior, abolish the Department of Maritime Affairs, and return the power to collect customs duties to the customs." ”

Qin Zheng said lightly: "Mr. De Xuanlin, we refuse your request. ”

De Xuanlin was stunned for a moment and said, "Refuse?"

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "Yes, Mr. De Xuanlin, you can go to the Qing court to report, but we will never abolish the Maritime Division, and we will not discuss customs and taxation matters with you again, if you want to continue to discuss, we can only ask you to leave." ”

De Xuanlin originally thought that throwing out the big hat of the Qing Empire could suppress this group of overseas Chinese, but she never thought that the other party's attitude was very tough, and she didn't bird the Qing Empire at all, and she didn't talk to herself about customs and taxation at all, so De Xuanlin was speechless for a long time, and after a while, she said: "You guys...... Are you trying to betray the Qing Empire?"

Qin Zheng smiled and said, "Say whatever you want, our meaning is already very clear." ”

De Xuanlin was stunned for a while, only then did he realize that he had indeed underestimated this group of overseas Chinese, Qin Zheng's tough attitude blocked all his words, of course he didn't dare to turn his face, so he had to say: "Okay, even if that's the case, I have nothing to say and say goodbye." ”

At this time, Qin Zheng said: "Mr. De Xuanlin, I have a matter that I want to discuss with you. ”

De Xuanlin was a little surprised, and said, "What's the matter?"

Qin Zheng said: "Mr. De Xuanlin, I want to discuss with you something about Kaiping Coal Mine. ”

When De Xuanlin heard this, her face suddenly changed greatly, and she lost her voice: "What?"