This meeting was quite successful, because it was the first time to meet, so both sides maintained a certain degree of restraint, and there were no too difficult requests to be made. On the contrary, more consensus was reached on the treatment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, one was the decision to tighten the arms embargo on Jinling, and to affirm to foreign merchants that once the ordnance to be smuggled to Changmao was seized by the officials and soldiers anywhere, after it was confiscated, the consul would not bear the responsibility to recover it. Second, it was decided that if Li Xiucheng wanted to avenge his son and attack Shanghai again, he would still jointly resist according to the terms agreed upon by the original "Sino-Foreign Conference Defense Bureau."

At the end of the meeting, the consuls and attachés of various countries in the east hall left one after another, but Guan Zhuofan could not leave yet, and in the west hall of the hotel, there was another meeting to attend.

In the Shanghai Concession, in addition to the consular corps, there was another authority called the "Bureau of the Ministry of Industry". The Consular Corps is the representative of the Authority, while the "Ministry of Works" is an autonomous body elected by all tenants, and is not under the jurisdiction of the Consular Corps. In fact, the municipal and day-to-day management of the concession was carried out more by the latter, which can be seen from the English name of the Ministry of Industry Bureau -- Shanghai Municipal Committee.

Waiting in the west hall at this moment were the seven directors of the Ministry of Industry Bureau, Guan Zhuofan was still accompanied by Wu Xu and Yang Fang, and met with them. This time, however, there was no need to be as formal and restrained as just now, firstly, because the Ministry of Industry itself represented more of the interests of foreign businessmen and was not considered an official meeting, and secondly, because among the seven directors, there were acquaintances.

The "general director" of the Ministry of Industry Bureau is the Englishman Maddos, who is Libin's teacher during his time at the Mohai Press. He was a priest. He is also a sinologist. Although I have never met Guan Zhuofan. But I've heard too many beautiful words from Libin's mouth, so it's a "long-term friendship". Liu Yulin, who had his hand cut off during the attack on Chuansha, was also treated by Maddox in the church hospital he founded.

Another acquaintance is Jin Nengheng, in Guan Zhuofan's opinion, this is not only an acquaintance, but also an insider.

However, although the atmosphere was relaxed, it was easy to talk about things. But he is much more serious than the consular corps, what to say, even Jin Nengheng is actually a one-eye, not at all like an "insider".

The first thing is donation. The Ministry of Industry and Bureau expressed considerable doubts about the tax that Xuan Jun was going to levy.

"We have already paid the customs duties, as well as the miscellaneous items of 'returning to the public' and 'using', and now we have to collect taxes, which is a heavy burden!"

There is nothing wrong with the words. However, Guan Zhuofan has already thought of a reason to resist: "The donation is not only for foreign businessmen!" Moreover, the money donated was used to pay for Wall's foreign guns. Protect Shanghai. Both sides are responsible, and the original military expenses, foreign merchants have not paid, and they all rely on the gentry in Shanghai to raise them. Now let them pay a little, I don't think there is anything that shouldn't be. ”

This reason was tenable, and the directors had nothing to say, so they reluctantly agreed, but then a new request was made.

"The financial situation of the Ministry of Industry Bureau is very bad, and it has already overdrawn 1,800 yuan." Maddox said seriously, "The salary of the patrol house has been paid half of the salary for the past few months. Therefore, it is necessary to ask Guan Fantai to call the shots, and transfer the 500 yuan monthly allowance originally promised from Shanghai County or Wu Daotai. ”

When Wu Xu heard this, his face was embarrassed, and he scolded in his heart: "Dead foreign devil, I was still talking about hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a moment ago, why did I suddenly talk about this matter of a few hundred yuan in a blink of an eye?" ”

Guan Zhuofan saw Wu Xu's appearance and knew that it was true, and he also felt funny in his heart: Which foreign businessman in the concession is not worth tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands? The salary of the patrol house can't be paid, and if you donate a little bit of silver, why don't you come here to cry poverty, and you won't be ashamed?

Then I thought in my heart: when foreigners do things, they are nailed and riveted, which is a strength! Have you been in the officialdom for a long time, and you have contracted the bad habit of making everything big and careless?

Don't forget, before I crossed over, I only earned less than 8,000 yuan in the whole summer vacation, which is about 30 taels of silver when converted into the current silver. And after crossing by himself, when he entered Beijing from Bali Bridge, he only carried the twenty taels given by Lao A and Lao Cai......

He was still there introspective, but Maddox kept talking.

The Ministry of Industry Bureau's funding comes from the 50 yuan monthly fee paid by the merchants in the concession. With the construction of roads, bridges and other facilities, there are more and more places to spend money, and the income and expenditure cannot be balanced, so there is a feeling of being stretched. The patrol house is subordinate to the Ministry of Industry Bureau, and the funds are all funded by the Ministry of Industry Bureau, and the big river has no water and the small river is dry, so the salary has become a problem.

There were a total of thirty-one patrols in the British and American concessions, all of them from the west, and the chief inspector was a senior police officer from England named Clifton. The originally agreed salary was 150 yuan per month, but because he had no money, Zuihou reduced it to 100 yuan, and the remaining 50 yuan required him to take two other errands in addition to his own policing duties, and he could only be paid - one of which was to be in charge of the roads and docks, which was counted as twenty-five yuan; The other is to be responsible for the work of issuing lists and bookkeeping for the board of directors, which is also 25 yuan.

So this poor senior police officer came to China thousands of miles away, and he had to do the work of three people to barely maintain a decent life. Guan Zhuofan thought to himself that if Daniel Zhang was replaced to be the "police chief" and did not get a few thousand taels of extra money every month, he would not be considered a person who came out of the infantry army.

"Guan Fantai, you can ask Forrest about these things, he went from the patrol room to your Xuan army." After saying solemnly, McDox took out two more pieces of paper, "This is a memorandum of our talks with Wu Daotai in August last year, which clearly states that the Shanghai local government should give the Ministry of Industry a monthly allowance of 500 yuan. ”

You robbed our place to make a concession, and you want us to give you a subsidy, although the amount is small, there is no such reason. Guan Zhuofan didn't need to ask Wu Xu to know that this was another bad problem when Chinese officials dealt with foreigners -- Yujian couldn't force him to do anything, so he arbitrarily agreed, and when others demanded it, he used the officialdom to delay until Zuihou had an accident and suffered a big loss, and then spent ten times and a hundred times the price to pay for the settlement.

Neither knows the other nor knows himself, can neither judge the situation nor taste the courage of lying on the salary, how can such a court be invincible?

This money, it seems that it is going to be given, but I always feel that I can't be reconciled, and after thinking about it, I suddenly remembered an idea.

"Sir Mak, since it's a patrol in the concession, I don't know why I need some money from Shanghai?"

"This is because there are also many Chinese in the concession, and it is completely reasonable for the local government to share some of the costs of maintaining law and order."

"So, why do you have to use the West Catch? The concession is getting busier and busier, and there are always more people to patrol the house, since there are many Chinese, isn't it logical to recruit some Chinese to patrol and arrest? Guan Zhuofan said with a smile, "A western catcher, the salary is thirty taels, and a Chinese catcher, ten taels of silver." Honest, obedient and capable Chinese, there are! If this is the case, the 500 yuan per month on our side will be converted into Kuping, about 380 taels of silver, and we will pay the same amount when we go back, and we can also give 1,500 taels to the Ministry of Industry and Bureau at one time. ”

This proposal is very good, the seven directors of the Ministry of Industry Bureau moved their hearts together, and discussed in a whisper for a while, and Maddox said: "Guan Fantai, we think this is a good suggestion, but these Chinese arrests, it is best for you to recommend them, so that you can rest assured."

Guan Zhuofan snorted: These foreigners don't take China's officials too seriously. He smiled, didn't speak, and his demeanor turned arrogant.

"Lord Guan is an important minister of the imperial court, how can he do such a thing?" Yang Fang helped on the side, "It can be guaranteed by the local gentry who are well-worthy." ”

"Well, that's fine." Maddox nodded and said, thought about it, and added: "It must be reliable, obedient, and capable." ”

Don't worry, Guan Zhuofan said in his heart, I will definitely find some reliable, obedient, and capable ones for you.

I heard that there are many such people in the Green Gang.

*

(Xiexie friends.) ）

*(To be continued......)