After the public statement of the traversers, the Chinese region was once again shrouded in the clouds of war, and a new war seemed to be imminent, but at this time in the administrative building of the provisional government of the Tianjin New Area, it was still a stable and relaxed scene, although the flow of people in and out was still large, and they were as busy as ever, but the expressions of the vast majority of people were still normal, and they could still hear laughter from time to time, and they did not see the tension before the great war.

At this time, in a small conference room on the left side of the administration building, in the middle of a long conference table, there were two small flags, one was the five-star red flag still used by the travelers, and the other was the white, blue and red French flag.

On either side of the conference table, there were six or seven people sitting on each side, the traverser sat on the left side, all of them looked very relaxed and happy, in the middle were a few closed papers, and on the right side were naturally all French, and in the center was a woman in a light blue dress and a top hat, at this time she was lying on the conference table, signing something, and two strands of honey-colored hair hung down from the sides of her cheeks, scattered on the conference table. The Frenchmen to her left and right were staring at the pen in her hand.

After a short time, the French woman put down the pen in her hand, raised her head, and revealed the face of a delicate European Caucasian adult woman, her age was about thirty to thirty-five years old, with a pair of beautiful blue eyes, and her eyes flowed, bringing out ten thousand styles, with the aesthetics of the traveler, she was undoubtedly a very beautiful European woman.

The French woman closed the folder in front of her, and sent it to Li Yong, who was sitting opposite, along with the following copy, and said, "Mr. Li, it has been signed, please take a look." ”

Li Yong took the two folders, opened them and looked at them, he had already read the contents, and he could memorize them, now he only looked at the signatures to see if there was any problem, then closed them, handed one of them back to the French woman, and said: "Madame Josephine, this one is yours, I hope we can cooperate quickly." ”

Josephine took the folder and smiled slightly: "Mr. Li, to be honest, you are one of the most difficult negotiators I have ever met, but I also hope that our cooperation will be soon. ”

Li Yongdao: "At the negotiation table, of course, there is not an inch of land, but as far as I and my colleagues are concerned, they are very honored to be Mrs. Josephine's negotiation opponents, and I think we will have many opportunities to cooperate in the future." ”

Josephine's blue eyes flashed with infinite style, and she smiled and said: "This is the first time I have received a compliment from a Chinese, maybe this statement is a bit rude, but you are completely different from all the Chinese I have seen, except for the same appearance and skin, you and your colleagues are not at all like the Chinese I have seen before." ”

Li Yong also smiled and said, "Lady Josephine, please believe me, one day, all Chinese will be the same as us." ”

Josephine said, "Yes, I hope I can see this day come." ”

The two stood up and shook hands with each other, signaling the smooth conclusion of the negotiations. Although it is not the first time to shake hands with this French noblewoman, when the two shake hands, Li Yong's heart still can't help but swing, this French woman is not only a difficult opponent at the negotiating table, but also a charming stunner.

Negotiators from both sides then shook hands with each other to celebrate the conclusion of the contract. It turned out that the two sides had just signed a contract with a total value of 324,000 taels of silver, or about 1,330,000 francs. Josephine's firm was responsible for the purchase of a total of 145 sets of various machines and equipment for the traverser, as well as the corresponding transportation, installation, commissioning, training, etc.

Prior to this, the traverser had signed a purchase contract worth 237,300 taels of silver and a contract of $200,000 for the purchase of 102 sets of machinery and equipment in the United States, and signed a contract worth 121,000 silver for the purchase of 37 sets of machinery and equipment and 136,500 taels of silver for the purchase of 45 sets of machinery and equipment with the United Kingdom and Germany.

In addition, two days ago, the traverser had signed a shipwreck salvage contract with another company in the United States with a total value of 388,500 taels of silver and a dismantling contract of $310,000, and the company was responsible for salvaging all the wrecks at Dagukou. However, a bidding project, the renovation project of Tianjin Shipyard, due to the technical difficulty, the deadline for bidding has not yet arrived.

In order to negotiate with businessmen and business representatives from various countries, the traverser also organized a team of lawyers with rich experience in international business negotiations to join the negotiators to assist the traverser in negotiating and signing the contract. There are a total of 12 lawyers in the group, seven of whom are proficient in international law, familiar with international business negotiations, and contract lawyers, in order to deal with various disputes that occur in the project.

Although there is not as comprehensive international law in this era as in the old time and space, with these lawyers, they can basically do not leak in the draft contract model, because of the language and wording of the contract, but also word-by-word comparison, which makes the negotiators of various countries complain bitterly and do not think of it

Moreover, all contracts are in triplicate, in addition to the Chinese language and the national language of the signatory, there is also a contract written in the language of a third country, and when there is a disagreement between the two parties, the contract in the language of the third country will prevail. This is because among the travelers, although there are also people who are proficient in French and German, but this is ordinary daily conversation and reading, and they have not yet reached the level of being able to accurately prepare contracts, and only have the confidence to prepare a complete contract in English, so the third-country language contracts signed with France and Germany are in English. Although Britain and the United States have also signed contracts in the language of a third country, the travelers are confident that the English contract drawn up is impeccable, and the contract in the language of the third country cannot be used at all.

Li Yongjin, the negotiator of the time-traveler Chinese New Year's Eve is eight years old, although he is not a lawyer, but he is also studying law, because he is proficient in international law, and can speak English, French, German and Italian Chinese, in the old time and space, he is responsible for negotiating affairs, and in this era, his talent is also useful.

After the last machine purchase contract was signed, the first two tenders were closed. Originally, the traverser only planned to purchase more than 200 machines, but considering the time and cost of transportation, in order to meet the needs after the capture of the Shandong region in the future, more than 300 machines were added. By the time these machines are transported to Tianjin, the traversers should have gained a firm foothold in Shandong, and they should be able to use them.

The purchase of machinery and the salvage of the shipwreck cost a total of more than 1.2 million taels of silver, plus the upfront costs, as well as the payment paid by the traverser to De Xuanlin to purchase all his properties in Tianjin, with a total expenditure of nearly 3 million taels of silver, accounting for nearly half of the traverser's current silver reserves.

However, there are still some currencies of various countries in the crossing group, and the cost of purchasing machinery and salvaging the sunken ship is paid in installments and batches, not all at once, and the crosser has controlled Tianjin Customs and a number of other enterprises, and has obtained some stable sources of income, so the financial situation of the crossing group is still running well.

The biggest winners of the first two tenders were undoubtedly the Americans, who not only won the contract to salvage the wreck, but also won the second-largest machine purchase order, worth more than $500,000, which is a big deal in this era. The second is France, which has won the largest contract for the purchase of machinery, which is enough to rejoice, although the United Kingdom and Germany have also won a contract for the purchase of machinery, but the value is small, and it can only be regarded as better than nothing.

Of course, the results of the bidding are not purely from a commercial point of view, on the contrary, political factors account for the majority, on the one hand, because in this era, Britain, Germany, the United States, and France are the four countries with the highest level of industrial technology in the world, although there are differences, but there is only a difference between 95 and 98, there is no generation difference, and the machinery and equipment of that country are actually similar; and on the one hand, it is also because the traverser has set the United States and France as the first and second breakthrough targets for dividing and disintegrating the eight-nation coalition.

The United States and France do not have many interests in northern China, so there are not many conflicts with the crosser. Since it is the United States, it simply does not even have a concession in Tianjin, and mainly relies on the concessions of various countries to trade in China, and this can also be given to the United States. Although the tariffs set by the Traveler are higher, the Traveler's policies are more open and have more room for cooperation with the United States than Taoting.

Although France has a concession area in Tianjin that is second only to the British, due to the lack of French national strength and the fact that its interests in China are mainly concentrated in the south, it has not effectively developed the Tianjin concession. If you can have extensive business cooperation with the traverser, the benefits far outweigh the losses.

Britain has the largest concession area in Tianjin, and Germany also has a large concession area in Tianjin, and the next target of the traverser, Shandong, is to go to the concessions of these two countries, and it is obviously impossible to make up for the losses of the two countries with such a little commercial interest now, so these two countries cannot be used as a breakthrough point to divide and disintegrate the Eight-Nation Alliance. Give these two countries a small contract, just don't want to make it too obvious.

Among other countries, Russia and Japan did not participate in the bidding, of course, the industrial technology of these two countries is relatively backward now, so even if they participate in the bidding, it is estimated that the traverser will not be able to look down on them. But for the traverser, Russia is the country with the most contradictions with other countries in the Eight-Nation Alliance, and to a certain extent, it is also a breakthrough point for dividing and disintegrating the Eight-Nation Alliance, but this is not a division with commercial interests, and Japan is the country with the deepest contradictions with Russia, so it can also be regarded as one of the breakthroughs, just look at how to use it.

As for Italy, Austria-Hungary, Belgium and other countries, although they also participated in the bidding, they were all soy sauce goods, and they could basically be ignored.