Seeing that Qin Zheng agreed to his arrangement, Huo Bilan was also very happy, thinking that his goal had been achieved, so he said, "Then do you have any other requirements?"

Qin Zheng pondered for a while before he said: "During this time, we hope that we have the right to move freely in the Shanghai Concession, including participating in various activities, organizing banquets, press conferences, etc., of course, we will also respect your opinions and arrangements on security issues." Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

Huo Bilan nodded and said with a smile: "Of course, all your actions in the concession are free, and we will do our best to cooperate with all the activities you organize." ”

Qin Zheng said: "Okay, then it's decided, the matter of the football game will be negotiated between Mr. Wang Hailong and you." ”

Huo Bilan got up and said, "Since we have reached a unified opinion, then this meeting is all over the place, let's all go down to meet the guests, I think they are probably all in a hurry." ”

So everyone got up one after another and came to the banquet hall downstairs, and the welcome banquet officially began.

Qin Zheng also made a speech in public, which basically meant that the negotiating team came for peace this time, hoping to reach peace agreements with other countries, and let China end the war as soon as possible and settle down from now on.

Huo Bilan also officially announced the new arrangement of the negotiation time, the time of the football game, and said that every guest present can get a free ticket to watch the game.

Originally, this football match in Shanghai has been a hot topic, on the one hand, because there are not many entertainment activities in this era, after the Song Dynasty, the Keju sport in China is weakening day by day, to the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, Keju is almost extinct, so the football game in China is definitely a new thing, naturally aroused the interest of many people, coupled with the countries deliberately strengthen publicity, now almost the entire Shanghai concession knows about this game; on the other hand, this game also vaguely contains the meaning of China and foreign countries to fight, foreigners naturally hope that Britain will win, so as to breathe a sigh of relief for their defeat on the battlefield, and although the Chinese in this era do not understand football, they also want to see how overseas Chinese beat foreigners through this game.

In order to light another fire in this game, Huo Bilan also deliberately found Martinez and Wang Hailong together, introduced the two of them as the heads of the football teams of both sides to the guests, and also let them speak.

Martinez first spoke: "Ladies and gentlemen, as we all know, football is a sport invented and pioneered by the British Empire, the level of football in the British Empire is the best in the world, and our Royal Navy of the British Empire is also the best navy in the world, we are invincible on the battlefield, and we are also invincible on the football field, so the winner of the game on February 8 must belong to our British Empire, and the honor will always belong to the empire on which the sun never sets." ”

After Martinez finished speaking, there was a round of warm applause in the banquet hall, even if he was not British, he applauded Martinez and cheered him on. Huo Bilan also showed a smile on his face, obviously very satisfied with Martinez's speech.

And at this moment, Wang Hailong burst into laughter, immediately interrupted the applause, and everyone's eyes immediately focused on Wang Hailong's body, waiting for him to speak, sure enough, Wang Hailong said: "Everyone, just now Mr. Martinez said that football was invented by England, and I doubt that his history class in school was taught by a physical education teacher." ”

Speaking of this, Wang Hailong paused, and sure enough, there was a burst of laughter in the banquet hall, and Martinez looked iron, after all, this sentence is not difficult to translate, and anyone can hear it, this is a sarcastic sentence.

This is exactly the effect that Wang Hailong needs, and continued: "Now I will make up a lesson for Mr. Martinez and all foreign friends who play again, as early as more than 1,000 years ago, China already had football, but in China it is called Keju, I think the Chinese present should have seen [Water Margin], the high captain Gao Taiwei in it was able to make a fortune because he kicked a good ball, I don't know if any foreign friends have seen [Water Margin]?"

After Wang Hailong finished speaking, there was a sudden sound of discussion in the hall, Chinese people have naturally seen [Water Margin], and there are indeed some foreigners who have read [Water Margin] because of their interest in Chinese culture, so they know that what Wang Hailong said is indeed not wrong, in this book does record the story of a person who can play football, although this book may be fictional, but it shows that in the era of this book, there is indeed a sport similar to football.

In fact, according to the football history compiled by FIFA in the old time and space, Keju is defined as classical football, China can only be regarded as the birthplace of classical football, and the football invented by Britain is modern football, so Britain is the birthplace of modern football. But FIFA will not be established until 4 years later, and there is no distinction between classical football and modern football, so no one can refute Wang Hailong's words.

Wang Hailong then said: "So football is actually a sport that our ancestors have played for a long time, and when our ancestors played football, the British Empire didn't know where it was, and you were still far behind! As for the game on February 8, it is useless to say more now, and on that day, you will know the winner and loser on the field." ”

At this time, foreigners who had already seen [Water Margin] told Martinez, so Martinez really had no way to refute Wang Hailong, if it was for other Chinese, Martinez might be able to use the victory against Chunting in the past few decades to redeem for a while, but this trick was useless to Wang Hailong, first, Wang Hailong did not belong to Chunting, and second, overseas Chinese did currently have a military advantage. So Martinez could only say: "Okay, let's not talk about it now, we'll see you on the pitch." ”

The gunpowder conversation between the two actually aroused the emotions of most of the guests present. It also made Huo Bilan secretly happy in his heart, because the higher the influence of this game, the better, so that after Britain wins, the better the effect will be achieved.

But the heat is almost here, after all, this is a banquet to welcome the overseas Chinese negotiation team, it can't be too hot, in case it starts at the venue, it will not be good, but Huo Bilan is a veteran in controlling the situation after all, and immediately raised his glass and said: "I believe that the game on February 8 will be a very exquisite game, and it will be a game that will go down in history, so let's raise a glass and toast to this game first." ”

When everyone heard this, they all raised their glasses and said, "Cheers, Cheers." At this time, the band also played relaxed and beautiful music, so the atmosphere of the whole banquet also changed, and everyone staggered and drank heartily.

Since this banquet is in a European-style semi-self-contained form, everyone can walk around the venue at will, and mix them at will, so after three rounds of drinking, everyone has formed a small group, or a group of three or five, or a group of five or seven, to talk together.

Qin Zheng, Li Sanjie and other key members of the negotiating team also participated extensively in talking with the gang of Chinese businessmen. Because this trip to Shanghai is not only for negotiations, but also to promote the political ideas and governing ideas of the traversers, on the one hand, to expand the influence of the traversers, and on the other hand, to win the broad support of people from all walks of life.

The ultimate goal of the traversal group is to overthrow the Qing court and re-establish a brand-new modern state, but this is certainly not enough to rely on the more than 6,000 traversers of the traversal clique, and at the same time, it is also necessary to win the broad support of all strata of Chinese society in this era, peasants, workers, handicraftsmen, petty bourgeoisie, national bourgeoisie, and enlightened landlord class, and do their best to win everything they can to establish a united front in this era.

Except for a small number of Manchu nobles and royal families who were loyal to the Qing court, the vast majority of people of insight, social elites, gentry, including a considerable number of officials, did not have much confidence in the Qing court, although they would not take the initiative to rebel and overthrow the Qing court, but if at this time, a force with a new political concept and a certain degree of strength rose to the top, it would be easy to get the broad support of all social strata.

In the old time and space, it was only ten years later that the Xinhai Revolution completely overthrew the rule of the Qing court, and in fact, the real strength of the revolutionaries who launched the Xinhai Revolution was not strong at all, and it could even be said to be very weak, but the Qing court was really unpopular, and the political ideas put forward by the revolutionaries were indeed much more progressive than those of the Qing court, and as a result, the Qing court collapsed as soon as it was pushed.

However, although the revolutionaries overthrew the Qing court and put forward progressive political ideas, because the actual strength of the revolutionaries themselves was too weak and they did not have enough ability to realize their political ideas, the Xinhai Revolution finally completed the task of overthrowing the Qing government, but did not establish a new state, on the contrary, it also pulled China into a turbulent period from then on.

What the group has to do now is to seize every opportunity to do its best to propagate its own political ideas and ideas on governing the country, so as to show that it is different from the Qing court, to win broad support, and to establish a united front. When the Crossing Group is strong enough to not only overthrow the Qing court, but also to rule the country stably without causing the country to enter a period of turmoil, it is time for the Travelers to take action.

This trip to Shanghai was the first step for the traversers to establish a united front in this era.