The most important thing in the house, Bai has always kept in the small box under her bed. Like those calligraphy and paintings, house deeds, silver tickets, Guan Zhuofan's correspondence with Libin, and those gift lists, they are carefully packed in every time and locked with a small lock. However, as things got more and more, there weren't enough small boxes, and there were no bigger boxes under the bed. He said that he put it in the cupboard, and he was not at ease when he slept, and he had been worried about this little thing for several days, until Túrin, with a few personal soldiers, shouted a trumpet, and carried a large iron cabinet into the inner courtyard with a red face.

"What is this?" Bai had never seen this thing, and asked suspiciously. The Ming family and Xiaofu also came around to see the rarity.

"This is called a safe, it is specially used for you to put things, there is no password, no one wants to open it." Guan Zhuofan smiled and said, "It was given to me by a foreign devil." ”

"Foreign devils?" Bai's eyes widened, "The foreign devil sent you something?" ”

"This foreign devil is not much different from others," Guan Zhuofan was afraid that she would think of the Indian soldier, so he hurriedly comforted him, "He is our official of the Qing Dynasty." ”

The more you talk about it, the more unreliable it becomes, how can a foreign devil be an official of the Qing Dynasty? Bai shook his head, not convinced.

"It's not just an official, it's also a fourth-grade product." Guan Zhuofan said with a smile, "It's the General Tax Department, called Hurd." ”

The Bai family and the Ming family were so surprised that they couldn't speak, and after a long pause, they held back a sentence: "The one who collects taxes is the worst!" ”

"He only manages the customs tax, and collects money from foreigners." Guan Zhuofan guessed that the Bai family and the Ming family in the past probably did not suffer less from the tax collectors, so they had to explain to them, but they regretted it in their hearts - I just said that the safe is not over, what kind of foreign devils? If you continue to ask like this, what is 100,000 for you, how can there be no end.

"What is Customs?" Sure enough, I started to ask again.

"It's that foreigners want to bring in and sell goods, let's set up a card and collect their taxes, and Hurd is doing this."

"This is good, the wicked have their own wicked grinding!" The two women came to a conclusion.

Guan Zhuofan laughed and laughed, but think about it, what they said is not unreasonable, the wicked have their own wicked grinding, isn't this "razing to raze"?

"What does that Hurd look like?" Ming had never seen a foreigner, so he was very curious, "Is it red hair and green eyes?" ”

"He's got black hair, blue eyes, just not a lot of hair, a little bit of a." Guan Zhuofan couldn't help but laugh, and said while recalling, "But this person is very powerful, he is very familiar with the etiquette of the imperial court and the customs of China, and he knows everything about the affairs of the world." ”

"Better than you?" Bai asked unconvinced.

"This ......" Guan Zhuofan was speechless for a while. If he didn't come back in time, but was born in the same era as Hurd, then he would probably not be as good as him. He didn't want to be bullied, but he wanted him to admit that he was not as powerful as this foreign devil in front of the Bai family and the Ming family, and he was even more unwilling. After thinking about it, he finally thought of a statement.

"His Chinese is not as good as mine."

*

*

The history of customs, Guan Zhuofan is too familiar. The history of the modern world is nothing more than a history of religion, a history of war, and a history of trade. As a graduate student in the history of the world, trade is a compulsory course.

The establishment of customs by the imperial court was really forced. The original policy was to ban the sea, that is, the so-called "no piece of wood is allowed to go to the sea", since there is no foreign trade, there is no need for customs. It was not until after the Opium War, when some treaty ports were opened and foreign merchants began to pour in, that there was a need to set up checkpoints.

This checkpoint belonged to the imperial court, but the British proposed that the British should manage the customs, and "the merchants who came and went would be bound by intentions", and the taxes collected would be used to pay war reparations. When the imperial court heard that there was such a good thing in the world, it was overjoyed and hurriedly agreed-to pay foreigners with foreigners' money, thinking that they had taken a huge advantage.

It is fair to say that the British did not play tricks on the accounts of the customs. The tax revenue of the customs was not only used to pay indemnities, but also soon became the most stable and reliable income of the imperial court, and this year, that is, the second year of Guan Zhuofan's crossing, this income reached 5.5 million taels of silver. On the other hand, if the imperial court itself were to manage the customs, it would be questionable whether the incompetence and corruption of officials, big and small, would be able to reach half of this figure.

What the imperial court lost was "governing power" - when the power of a country, such as customs, postal services, and railways, was in the hands of foreigners, it was not difficult to imagine what the fate of the country would be, but at that time, no one realized this.

Hurd has been in China for seven years and will stay for another thirty years. His current status is the position of "Acting General Taxation Department", and he is awarded the title of prefect from Sipin. He is a China expert, not only familiar with this set of officialdom, but also extremely enthusiastic, wearing a four-grade official uniform all day long, hanging with morning beads, and wandering between the yamen. He and Guan Zhuofan met at the Prime Minister's Affairs Yamen.

Hurd naturally knew that Guan Zhuofan was a popular person now, so he was willing to accept it. And Guan Zhuofan also regarded Hurd as his potential prey, and was careful. So, two people with their own ghosts, for different purposes, actually came together.

Of course, it would be unfair to say that the two of them are purely using each other. For Guan Zhuofan, after a long time in this era, it is a pleasure to be able to talk to someone like Hurd. As far as Hurd is concerned, there is actually an official in the imperial court who is fluent in English and has extraordinary knowledge, and his admiration is also sincere. When the two of them talk, sometimes in English, sometimes in Chinese, they can talk happily every time.

"He still speaks official language?" Bai was taken aback.

"Not only can I speak, but I also slip away." Guan Zhuofan smiled bitterly. In fact, Hurd's official language, which is basically unaccented, speaks better than most court officials.

"This 'safe' he gave must be very expensive, right?" Bai Shi touched the thick iron wall and reminded Guan Zhuofan: "Zhuofan, you have to be careful of what bad intentions he makes. ”

"Bad intentions don't have any. He wanted to slap me up and let me speak well for him in front of the prince. ”

"Say something nice? Does he still want to be promoted again? ”

"Who doesn't want to be promoted?" Guan Zhuofan said with a smile, "He is now the 'acting chief tax department', and he wants to remove the word acting." ”

Hurd's predecessor, Li Tai, was also an Englishman, and because he was frightened by the Taipings, he found an excuse to slip back to China, so Hurd was able to act as the chief tax officer. He is a scheming person, and he wants to take this opportunity to turn the acting into a true division, and he knows that Guan Zhuofan can speak in front of King Gong, so he also asked him.

"Can you help him, then?"

"Naturally, he has to help, but he has to do something for me first." Guan Zhuofan patted the safe, "Just sending a safe, that's not enough." ”

Since Guan Zhuofan said that he wanted to help him, Bai thought to himself, this Hurd didn't seem to be a bad person, so he let go and pondered the safe sent by Hurd with Ming.

"How can I open the door without a key?" The two women searched for a long time, but did not find the keyhole, and there were only two small discs on the cabinet door, and the scale on them was in Chinese.

"It's called a combination lock, look at it-" Guan Zhuofan turned the two discs left and right, clicked, and opened the cabinet door.

"Ahh Bai and Ming were startled at first, and then they both showed surprises on their faces.

Guan Zhuofan taught them two more times, and said to Bai: "You set two sets of numbers, I will help you set them, and this will be the password in the future." ”

"Oh, oh." Bai understood, and after chirping with Ming for a long time, he made up two sets of numbers, took pen and ink, and wrote them on a piece of letterhead.

Guan Zhuofan smiled secretly in his heart, ignored it, helped them set the password, sat aside, watched the two of them transfer the contents of the small box to the large safe one by one, turned the password disk, clicked the lock, and looked at each other with satisfaction.

"It's good this time, you don't have to be afraid of anything." Bai said proudly, "If you forget the 'password', there is still this piece of paper." ”

"It's good, I don't know where to hide this piece of paper?" After Guan Zhuofan finished speaking, Ha Lu Ha Da smiled and went out by himself. Leaving Bai and Ming, they looked at each other, looked at the letterhead with the password in their hands, and became worried.

*

(Xie Lu Xie life, for a while, chopping wood, very handsome reward~)