Jules Louise Ryttard, in an old French style, stepped forward and took Madame Grissen's hand and kissed her on the wrist. As soon as he bowed his head, his long gray hair spilled like water on the back of the young woman's smooth hand.

Gao Yi noticed that the collar of his clothes was brushed back and forth by his shoulder-length hair brush to be shiny, and there were still a few scalp crumbs on his shoulders, and his tie was also messy, but he didn't know if this was an informal celebrity style, or if he belonged to the shabby appearance of an old bachelor.

"It is a great honor to meet you, Your Excellency Consul General." Gao Yi shook his hand and said in French.

"Ah, young friend, I'm also very glad to meet you, I've heard of you many times, and from different friends." Although Rattard said it enthusiastically, his hands were cold and wet, and he slipped away from Gao Yi's hands as soon as he made contact.

Jules Louis Rettard was a veteran of the French diplomatic community, having temporarily assumed the position of French minister to the Kingdom of Hawaii twenty years ago, before it was annexed by the United States. But then he fell into obscurity, and it was not until the year before, in 1901, that he became Consul General of the French Consulate in Shanghai. He has a Chinese name called Ju Lai Da, Gao Yi knew that there was a Ju Lu Road in Shanghai in the later life, and the word 'Ju' in the road name came from his name, because this road was originally called Ju Lai Da Road, which was named after him.

However, it is not clear whether it is because he only achieved his ambition in his later years, Gao Yi always feels that he seems to be full of alienation from young newcomers like him.

At twelve o'clock, after a light lunch, a small fleet of "Patterson" and "Betssy" set sail, this time aboard De Gray's "Patterson".

It was no coincidence that Julaida would participate in this hunt, and it was arranged by Gao Yi specifically for Tod Gray.

Through many inquiries for nearly a week, Gao Yi has roughly figured out the ins and outs of the Gu family's military camp. At the time of the Gengzi Incident, in order to consolidate the garrison in East China, the French army was preparing to establish a standing military camp, and in order to avoid trouble, they entrusted the Public Board of Directors to find a garrison for them, and bought it according to civilian use, and then subleased it to the French military. The Public Board of Directors thought that in addition to serving the country, it was also a very good business, so it spent 76,000 taels to buy a total of 150 acres of land in the Gu family's house, which was far more than the area needed to establish the French military camp. Because they considered that this camp with nearly 1,000 soldiers would inevitably lead to the prosperity of the surrounding service industry, so the value of these pre-hoarded land would definitely increase significantly in the future.

However, no matter how full the ideal is, the reality is skinny after all, what they didn't expect is that due to the mutual protection of the southeast, the Gengzi incident can almost be said to have no impact on East China. The military changed its view, believing that an increased military presence in Shanghai was unnecessary and would only provoke contradictions with the British, who, although at the beginning of the incident welcomed the French army to share the military pressure, was already quite complaining about the fact that this army remained in its sphere of influence after the incident. So the abolition of this barracks is already a sure thing.

What is now ridiculous is that at that time, the French army and the public board of directors initialed a 15-year lease contract, and according to the contract, the public board of directors would receive an annual rental income of 5,000 taels of silver, so the public board of directors asked the French army to perform the contract as usual, as for whether they leased this land to garrison the army, it was their own business. However, after studying the contract, it was found that it was only a contract stipulating that the Board of Directors would not increase the rent of the land for 12 years, but it did not involve the clause that the French army must lease the land for 12 years.

As a result, the Board of Directors was divided into three factions, one was to reduce the price of the land as soon as possible, as long as the cost was recovered, because the rent of 20,000 taels had been received before, so as long as the land could be sold for 56,000 taels, it was enough; However, the other believes that if the 76,000 taels had been invested in the bond market, even if the most secure treasury bonds were purchased, there should have been an annual interest rate of 5 percent, and at least 15,000 taels would have been received in four years, so the land had to be sold for 71,000 taels in order to be regarded as being able to protect the capital.

The remaining group is the jurist who believes that since the consul took the lead in facilitating the deal, then all the losses should be paid for by the government. Although this faction is the smallest in number, it is a group of forces at the top of the French Concession, and they have long been uninterested in the diplomats who ride on their heads to make a fortune, and they are eager to take this opportunity to give some eye medicine to these guys who speak well in the French Concession.

As for the attitude of the consul general, Ju Laida, who only became the consul general in 1901, has nothing to do with this matter. The consul general Lu Ban, who had pushed for this matter, had already gone to Beijing to serve as the French minister to China, and the minister had no direct jurisdiction over the consulate and no personnel authority over the consul, so Ju Laida has always maintained a kind of attitude in this matter.

However, Gao Yi believes that it is this kind of attitude that makes Ju Laida's mind obvious, he is nothing more than waiting for benefits, he is not ready to play this game, but he has not yet waited for sufficient benefits that can arouse his willingness to play.

Gao Yi's idea was to promote the settlement of this matter according to the opinions of the first faction through Ju Laida, that is, he spent 56,000 taels of land to buy it. For this he was able to accept a bribe of ten thousand oceans, which was converted into twenty-five thousand francs. If Julaida wants more money, he will have to lower the price of the land accordingly.

Gao Yi now has a total of 120,000 yuan of the current ocean on hand that can be used, which is equivalent to about 80,000 taels of silver. This money is naturally earned from Na Ke Ding, Ding Ganren's price for pear paste candy is as high as two small yangs per piece, that is, two dimes, and the rebate for each piece sold is half of Gao Yi, that is, a dime, according to this calculation, 500,000 pieces of sugar are all sold out, and Gao Yi is only 50,000 yuan of income. However, Ding Ganren added traditional Chinese medicine to make a large piece of pear paste candy on the basis of Gao Yi's pear paste candy. The recipe he used originally had a very effective cough and phlegm effect, but the problem of traditional Chinese medicine is that the effect is slow, and now this short board has been made up by Na Ke Ding, so this new formula of pear paste candy can not only quickly suppress cough, but also effectively treat cough. According to him, since so many people can afford to spend an ocean to buy a big cigarette to smoke, there is no reason to get sick and can't afford to spend this dollar. For this kind of large pear paste candy, Gao Yi can also get half of the gross profit, that is, five dimes.

During the cold and cough season from March to May, they sold more than 90,000 pieces of small pear paste candy and about 60,000 pieces of large pear paste candy, with a total income of 80,000 yuan. However, at this time, the two of them had a disagreement, according to Ding Ganren's idea, it is obviously not cost-effective to sell small pear paste candy, and the remaining 350,000 pieces of Na Ke Ding candy should all be made into large pear paste candy, hoarded and sold slowly. What Gao Yi wants is to get the money as quickly as possible. In the end, the two discussed, and Ding Ganren used 100,000 oceans to buy out the remaining 350,000 pieces of pear paste candy, so he gave Gao Yi an additional 60,000 yuan in addition to dividing himself into 40,000 oceans.

Gao Yi's total capital reached 140,000 oceans, but 20,000 of them needed to be set aside to add new production equipment, so he could use 120,000 oceans, that is, 80,000 taels of silver.