Time flies, and three months have passed in a blink of an eye.

The Ministry of Rites Examination has already been released, and the ranking of the palace examination has also come out early, and none of the candidates from the prefectures and counties of Chongqing Prefecture, including Ren He, have failed to perform Chinese style, thinking that next year, the imperial court is likely to open Enke as usual, and many candidates have not returned to their hometowns after they have fallen behind.

During this time, two major events took place.

First, the children of those adults who received and delivered the "slips" during the Shuntian Township Examination last year were all sent to Xinjiang to do hard work. When those delicate and expensive sons and brothers heard that they were going to the deserted land, they were very frightened. Their Lao Tzu is even more active, one after another, blaming himself on the one hand, and asking for silver donation to atone for his sins.

And what the court lacks most now is silver, and the emperor weighed them several times, and finally let them go and allowed them to spend money to eliminate disasters. Chen Qingsong, the imperial historian, was a little ignorant of current affairs, and said that "the atonement is too sudden" and "the law is too light", which made the emperor very unhappy, and the excerpt was "left behind", so it was over.

The second is that a peace treaty was signed with Xiyi last year, but there was only the emperor's royal approval, and there was no royal approval from the British, Buddha, Mi, and Russian lords, so the British, Buddha, Mi, and Russian envoys wanted to come to exchange the treaty this year. With the emperor's permission, the envoys of the Russian Yi came to the shore from Beitang and were escorted to Tongzhou by the local officials of Tianjin, and then received into the city by the officials of the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Court, and placed them in the places where they had been prepared in advance.

In short, the envoys of the Russian Yi have arrived in the capital, but the specific terms of the peace treaty signed by the imperial court with the Russian Yi last year, not to mention the people of the world, even the directors of the various ministries and courts know very little, and the princes, military ministers and officials of various ministries and courts who know the inside story are very secretive about this, so that many people know that the imperial court wants to exchange contracts with foreigners, but they can't say what kind of contract they will exchange.

The new governor of Zhili, Hengfu, and the political envoy of Zhili, Wen Yu, have arrived in Tianjin one after another, and Chonghou, as the envoy of Changlu Yan, has to listen to the use in front of the platform and the domain, so Han Chen has been helping the Yamen of the Yunsi for more than two months, not only knows everything about the exchange of contracts, but is also nervously making final preparations for how to deal with the British, Buddha, and Mi Sanyi envoys coming to exchange contracts.

In the morning, I went to the government office to discuss with Shi Zanqing for nearly an hour, and hurried to the salt merchant's house where the master of the platform was staying, and chatted privately with Xue Huan, who came to visit the platform on the order of the monk king, and then ate a few mouthfuls of dry food, and then rushed to a village in the west of the city with his family non-stop.

Usually there are not a few outsiders in the village, but today there are two soap officers guarding the entrance of the village, and when they saw Han Chen coming, they hurriedly stepped forward to pay a visit.

"Have you arrived from the capital?"

"Master Han, all the guests have arrived, and those who arrived last night did what you ordered, and let them borrow the nineteen people's houses where Bao Zheng and Jia Chang spoke in the morning. The leading masters stayed in the courtyard of the salt merchant Master Chen. ”

"Okay, take me to see."

"Obey, Master Han, please."

In fact, Han Chen didn't need soap to lead the way, because he had been to this humble village several times, and even hoarded enough food for three hundred people in the village to eat for two months and a dozen stones of salt.

The courtyard of the salt merchant surnamed Chen is in the north of the village, because he does not come to the countryside to live, the house is not luxurious, just a courtyard with three entrances inside and outside, but compared with those low and dilapidated houses in the village, it can really make people feel the grandeur of a large family.

There were two men guarding the gate, and although they were neither armed nor wearing uniforms, they could tell at a glance that they were not ordinary people.

Soap Li ran up to report, and the two hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

Han Chen nodded slightly, and followed them into the mansion, only to see Yongxiang and Wang Hedong discussing something with a few generals and foreign commissioners who were also wearing short coats, around the map on the table of the Eight Immortals.

"Han was late, so a few people waited for a long time."

"Master Han, what are you talking about?" Yongxiang didn't dare to put up a stand in front of Han Chen, so he hurriedly asked the general manager and the foreign committee to go out first, and then invited Han Chen to take a seat, and said: "Master Han, the fourth master ordered the humble and Lao Wang to bring the brothers over first, and he can only come when the affairs in the capital are properly arranged." ”

"The fourth master is also coming?" Han Chen asked subconsciously.

Without waiting for Yongxiang to speak, Wang Hedong arched his hand and said: "Master Han, what kind of friendship do you have with the fourth master, and you know best what kind of person the fourth master is, but something big is going to happen in Tianjin, how can he rest assured if he doesn't come to see it with his own eyes." ”

"That's right." Han Chen nodded slightly, looked at the two of them with a smile and asked, "Two brothers, how many people have you come here this time?" ”

"Master Han, this time I brought a total of three hundred and eight people, including a dozen grooms and a few Mongolian doctors." Afraid that Han Chen would be worried about their coming to Tianjin, once the news spread, he would not be able to explain to the new governor of Zhili, Hengfu, Yongxiang turned around and took an envelope: "This is the official document of the fourth master ordering the lowly rank and others to come to Tianjin on an errand, and it is stamped with the big seal of the Internal Affairs Office. ”

Han Chen didn't care whether they had official documents or not, so he put them aside and said straight to the point: "Brother Yongxiang, we are not outsiders, let's talk about business." ”

"Master Han, please speak!"

"Your grain, Han and Lord Chonghou have already helped to prepare it, so they will be hoarded in the village, and you will arrange for someone to accept it later. Eighteen stones of salt have been prepared for you, enough for you to eat. If you want to buy some fruits and vegetables or buy some chickens, ducks and fish to reward the brothers, you can only find a way by yourself. ”

"Master Han, what are you talking about, you and Lord Chonghou have already done us a great favor, we have the money, and when the fourth master asked Wang Qianli to give us three thousand taels!"

"If only there was silver." Han Chen nodded slightly, then took out a letter from his sleeve, and stared at the two of them very seriously: "This is an urgent report sent by Liu Shanyang to Lord Xue, to be precise, this was copied later, the original is in the hands of the monk king, Han feels that the two of them should also take a look." ”

"Master Xie Han takes care of it, let's take a look at it first."

I don't know if I don't see it, I'm really shocked when I see Yongxiang!

The two British and Buddhist not only sent envoys to exchange the treaty, but also sent a large army.

There were 20 gunboats and gunboats sent by Yingyi, including a large steam ship, called "Chesapik", which was equipped with 51 large and small guns, and there were more than 520 foreign soldiers on the gunboats, including shipwrights and sailors; There were six steam-mounted ships, including the "Gao Fei", "Cruiser", and "Magician", with six to twenty-one guns and 90 to 240 troops.

Eleven steam gunboats, including the "Coromandel", "Shelter" and "Butler", were also dispatched, in addition to a troop carrier called "Assistance" and a baggage ship called "Hasper". Foyi sent only two steam gunboats this time, one called "Diescher" and the other "Norzagara".

Yongxiang silently calculated for a moment, and said solemnly: "There are more than 2,000 soldiers, and there are more than 220 cannons, and there is one cannon for every ten people!" ”

In the past year, Wang Hedong has done a lot of homework in Nanyuan, and even studied the model of foreigner gunboats more than once. ”

"Those cannons that hit far can't go ashore, but they can reach the forts!"

"The two of you should have heard the fourth master say, the five forts on the north and south banks of the large and small copper and iron cannons add up to fifty, among which the only ones that can hold the foreign gunboats are probably the dozen or so foreign cannons transported from Fujian, although the monk has made a lot of preparations, but if the battle is really unpredictable, the two should have a number in their hearts."

"Dare to ask Master Han, what preparations did the monk king make?"

"I can't say it clearly for a while, if you really want to know, you might as well go to the fort and have a look."

"Shall we go?"

"I'm going to deliver salt later, and you two can go together disguised as my attaché."

"Master Xie Han is complete." Yongxiang arched his hand, thought about it and said: "Master Han, I still want to go to the city to have a look, and I want to take the brothers to see the city wall. ”

"This is easy to do, I'll go back and tell Shifutai, and he will order his family to accompany you."

Thinking of the words that the fourth master said before coming, Yongxiang said again: "Master Han, there is something that I almost forgot to report to you, and the fourth master said that the reason why the emperor ordered the Russian envoys to go ashore from Beitang and then escorted to Tongzhou by Tianjin officials was that he did not want the Russian envoys to peek into the arrangements of the imperial court on both sides of the Haikou River, and the same was true for the British, Buddha, and Mi envoys. ”

"I know a little bit about that." Han Chen said in a low voice.

"But there's one more thing you don't know."

"What's the matter?"

"The fourth master said that the emperor didn't want to let the arrogant and unreasonable British and Buddhist envoys enter Beijing, and wanted them to exchange contracts with Lord Guiliang in Shanghai. It is said that he also gave an edict to the monk king, and the edict said that the matter of the exchange of contracts must be handled by Gui Liang himself. ”

Han Chen reacted and muttered, "No wonder Xue Huan went to visit the platform early in the morning, it turned out to be because of this." ”

Wang Hedong smiled bitterly: "Last year, I said that I would let the foreigners come to exchange the contract this year, but now I regret it." And the foreigners are quite unreasonable, if they see that we do not allow them to go ashore from the mouth of Dagu, and when they see that the monk and the king do not have a letter about the exchange of contracts, they will definitely break through and even bombard the forts on both sides of the Haikou, so this battle cannot be avoided. ”

Listening to what Yongxiang and Wang Hedong said, Han Chen realized that this battle was inevitable, and he was silent for a while before he raised his head and said: "What does it mean that foreigners are called exchange contracts, but they send so many soldiers?" Since they are not sincere, they can only fight. ”

"Master Han, what you said is that they are not sincere first, so don't blame us for being insincere."

"It's not sincere, don't talk about it, there's still a lot of things in the yamen, I'll go back first. If you want to go to the fort to have a look, if you want to see the Tianjin city defense with your own eyes, you can go to the Yunsi Yamen to find me at any time. ”