Han Xiufeng thought that no matter whether he could capture it or not, there would be results in two or three days at most, but he didn't expect that this battle would be fought for more than two months. After all, there are so many fellow villagers in Shanghai, it is not good to hold such a big wedding without invitation, but people are busy attacking the city every day, and they really can't take time to eat and drink.

The only good news is that although the bungalows next to the racecourse are not completely built, there are already many businessmen who want to rent the shops outside.

The shopkeeper before the Shanghai branch of "Rishengchang" has been uncertain and has not heard from him, and Wu Quan, who has just received a letter from the general number to serve as the shopkeeper, introduced a few merchants who have known him before and are good people. Yesterday the lease was just signed, and those merchants took their men to clean up today, and they could open for business in ten and a half months at most.

Han Xiufeng took Su Jueming, who had just healed from the injury on his buttocks, to go around, and as soon as he returned to the mansion behind Qichang Foreign Bank, the big head ran out and said happily: "Fourth brother, Master He is here, if you don't come back, I will go to find you!" ”

"Which Master He?" Han Xiufeng asked subconsciously.

"Zhixing, who else but me?" He Heng walked out of the hall, looked at Han Xiufeng with a fist smile and asked, "I didn't expect it to be me, didn't I expect me to come, right?" ”

"Junjie, why are you here!"

"I can't stay in the capital, so I'm here to join you."

"I can't stay in the capital, don't joke!" Han Xiufeng was really excited when he met his old acquaintance in a foreign country, and he greeted him and asked eagerly: "When did you arrive, how did you come over?" ”

He Heng followed him into the study, sat down and said with a smile: "I arrived yesterday afternoon, I took the sea route, and the dock on the shore seems to be not far from you." It's just that I didn't know you lived here at that time, so I went straight to the camp in the north of the city and stayed at Liu Cunhou's for one night, and he sent someone to send me here early this morning. ”

"You're alone?" Han Xiufeng asked.

"There are two other family members, my cousin, whom you recognize."

"What about them?"

"I have to leave early tomorrow morning, so I didn't let them come with me, they are looking at the luggage in the camp north of the city right now."

"Tomorrow, where are you going?"

"Go and meet Xiang Shuai."

Han Xiufeng reacted and subconsciously asked, "Junjie, so you went to the Jiangnan camp to serve?" ”

He Heng nodded slightly, and then said with an embarrassed face: "I'm not afraid of your jokes, I see that your official fortune is more prosperous than the other, and this official is promoted faster than the other, so I asked Huang Yushi for a guarantee and went to the Jiangnan camp to serve." ”

Han Xiufeng can understand his feelings, after all, he is from a better background than Liu Cunhou, not only is he a fake man, but also a cabinet secretary before he came here, and he is a serious Beijing official, but after thinking about it, he can't help but remind: "The times make heroes, if you want to make contributions, now is really a good time to make contributions." It's just that leading the troops to fight is too dangerous, and you must think carefully about such a big event. ”

"I know that suppressing bandits and quelling chaos is not child's play, I have already thought about it, and when it is time to fight, I have to go out and fight!"

"Since you have made up your mind, then I can't stop your future, but you don't need to be in such a hurry, why don't you stay in Shanghai for a few more days."

"Others don't know that you know, I've wasted so much time, I really don't want to wait any longer." He Heng didn't want to talk about this, so he simply took out a stack of letters from the package beside him: "These letters are from Huang Yushi, Master Ji and Master Ao entrusted to me, as well as letters from your old man to the guild hall from your fellow villagers, and Lord Duan gave you a letter." ”

"I haven't received a letter for half a year, but once I received it, there were so many, thank you!"

"I can't thank you for the effort."

Thinking that the fellow villagers who had reunited after a long absence, they would leave early tomorrow morning, Han Xiufeng didn't rush to read the letter, but asked with a smile: "Junjie, Huang Yushi and Master Ji, did they ask you to give me anything?" ”

"The words are all believed," He Heng picked up the teacup and pretended to smile lightly: "But I usually talk about you a lot, they are a little worried about you as the current official, saying that your top boss Yang Nengge is not easy to get along with, and also saying that negotiating with foreigners is not a good errand." ”

"Yang Nengge is really not easy to serve, and the dealings with foreigners are really not very easy to fight, so they are worried about me."

"But I look okay, I don't believe you look in the mirror, your face is radiant, why don't you look like a bad luck person."

"I have a big heart, and those messy things won't go to my heart."

"So it's really hard for you to be an official now?"

"It's not just that it's hard to do, but I don't know how many more days I can do." Han Xiufeng sighed lightly, and said helplessly: "The matter of tariffs is that the imperial court is urging Taiwan at two ends in three days, and the control of Taiwan is far away in Changzhou, and it can only urge Taiwan and Yang Nengge, and Futai and Yang Nengge are unwilling to negotiate with foreigners, so they urge me every day, if you don't come today, I will go to visit the foreigner consul later." ”

"Every day?"

"Almost, you don't necessarily believe it, the consulates of England, France and the United States in Shanghai are up and down, and there is no one I don't recognize. If I didn't go one day, they would be surprised. No matter what you say, I, Han Si, am also a court official of the fifth grade, but now I not only run errands every day like a messenger, but also eat people's closed-door soup every day, and as a result, those adults still think that I, Han Si, am incompetent and ineffective. ”

Through these three words, He Heng could understand Han Xiufeng's situation, and couldn't help but sigh: "Zhixing, it's hard for you." ”

"It's not that hard, at least it's better than going into battle." Han Xiufeng smiled self-deprecatingly, and then said: "Isn't it just running errands, even if it runs for another year and a half, I want to see who can't carry it first!" ”

He Heng asked solemnly: "Zhixing, are you saying that if Yang Nengge can't bear it, he will let you take the blame and use your top flower feather to explain to the court?" ”

"Nine times out of ten, after all, whether it is the imperial court or the lord of Taiwan, he will only look for him first, not me directly."

"And what are you going to do?"

"Waiting for him to join me, isn't it a loss of office, in fact, I don't want to be an official for a long time."

Seeing Han Xiufeng's casual appearance, He Heng finally breathed a sigh of relief, put down the cup and said with a smile: "It's not a secret, Huang Yushi and Master Ji don't worry about anything else, just worry that if you can't resist, your head will be hot, and you will agree to the conditions proposed by the foreigners in a daze." If you really agree, it will not be as simple as losing your official position, and you will be punished if you don't do it. ”

"You can rest assured that I can still figure out which is more important."

……

At the same time, Yang Nengge, who had found a new government office, was looking at the emperor's edict from Yiliang, the governor of Liangjiang, with a gloomy face.

It is said that "the guns and cannons go off in gold and ten thousand taels", attacking and suppressing Changmao requires silver, and the party in Shanghai wants silver, and the imperial court spends money like running water, not only the food and salary of the Jiangnan camp and the Jiangbei camp can no longer be diverted, but also the use of the palace must be reduced, and the taxes owed by the merchants of England and France will be returned to the capital, not to mention that the Beijing officials have a bad year, and even the emperor has a bad year.

Yang Nengge knew very well that it was not so easy to recover the tariffs, but he knew even more that he could not delay it any longer, and he had to give an explanation to the imperial court no matter what.

Yang Nengge was silent for a long time, then raised his head and asked, "Tell me, what should I do now?" ”

Master Chen realized that he couldn't hide, and said solemnly: "Dong Weng, if you can't drag it on, you have to find a way to drag it out, if you push Han Xiufeng out like this, what if something else happens in the future?" ”

Master Wang disagreed with Master Chen's point of view, and said in a deep voice: "Dong Weng, in the opinion of students, the top priority is to pass the current hurdle first. As for the future, Da Ke asked the imperial court to send another person to act as the superintendent of the Jiang Customs. ”

"What if the emperor orders me to be the superintendent of Jiang Customs?" Yang Nengge asked in a low voice.

"It depends on how the excerpt is written, and the students feel that as long as the excerpt is written well, it is not difficult for Dong Weng to be the superintendent of Jiang Customs."

How could Yang Nengge not hear the meaning of his friends, to put it bluntly, he emphasized that the county seat of Shanghai has not been recovered for a long time, and he, the sub-patrol Su Songtaidao, who has added military ranks, is busy quelling the chaos, and he really doesn't have the energy to concurrently serve as the superintendent of the Jiang Customs, but this means that Xu Naizhao will be impeached together, and impeaching Xu Naizhao is not a trivial matter.

Yang Nengge was not afraid of Xu Naizhao, but he didn't want to make enemies for no reason, so he picked up the official document sent by Yiliang, the governor of Liangjiang, and weighed it for a while before saying coldly: "It seems that this can only be the case, please draft an excerpt first, this matter is not trivial, and it must be carefully considered." ”

"Don't worry, don't worry, you know the severity of your late life."

Master Wang stood up and bowed down, and then began to draft the recital in front of the owner. felt that doing so was equivalent to cutting off the back road, and would offend Master Chen, who was originally innocent and hateless, so after thinking about it, he got up and sharpened the ink, and after grinding, he held a pen and thought about it for a while and drafted one.

Yang Nengge waited for them to finish drafting, looked at it carefully word by word, and then picked up the pen and circled five or six places on the fold drafted by Master Chen, and added a few more to the side after the circle.

"Dong Weng's words are really the finishing touch, and I admire them in my later life!"

"Don't compliment, just transcribe it like this, and use it after transcribing it."

"Yes."

Thinking about how to get through the current level, Yang Nengge raised his head again and said, "Mr. Chen, I bother you to help this official draft another letter for a few friends in the Metropolitan Procuratorate." Although the surname Han is a donor, as far as I know, he had done the first thing in the Chongqing Association before he came to Jiangsu, and he has a wide range of contacts in Beijing, and there are some things that we have to guard against. ”

How could Master Chen not hear the meaning of the owner's words, after all, if he didn't die when he beat the snake, he was bitten by it, and now since he wants to push the surname Han out to take the blame, he has to let the surname Han never turn over, and hurriedly picked up the pen and said: "This is planned for the later life, and then ask Dong Weng to look at it." ”

Thinking that Han Si had held the Wanfu Bridge, beheaded more than 400 long hairs, had made military exploits, and there were people in the court, the emperor would not necessarily believe the words on the fold, Yang Nengge weighed it, and said to the door: "Ding Gui, prepare a sedan chair." ”

"Master, it's almost lunch, where are you going?" Ding Gui asked cautiously at the door.

"I'll eat lunch later, and I'll go with my lord to visit Lord Gilhanga first."

"Obey the order, the little one will go and call the sedan chair man."