Zhu Jinglun appeased Wu Chongyao, dug up the first pot of gold in his career, and attracted the Wu family to set up a shop in Xin'an, which is equivalent to integrating Xin'an into the Wu family's business network, and more importantly, Zhu Jinglun found an opportunity to dig deep into the ruins of the Thirteen Elements gold mine. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The British dissolved the East India Company and gained jurisdiction over the whole of India, and Zhu Jinglun believed that he would be able to bring himself an empire by taking over the century-old public bank abandoned by the Manchu court and the thirteen signboards abandoned by merchants like the Wu family.

But not everyone has the capital to grab these inheritances, at least until Zhu Jinglun completely consolidates Xin'an, and the most important thing is to reach an agreement with the British to open up trade between Xin'an and Hong Kong.

Fang Shan, who was shouldering this heavy responsibility, had already arrived in Hong Kong and had not encountered any difficulties, Hong Kong had long been declared a free gang by the British in Hong Kong, and Fang Shan had hired a fishing boat alone, and he had no weapons on his body, so he would not encounter any trouble.

He was released by the Qing army in Guangzhou, and what he brought back was the goodwill of the Qing army, but when he returned to Hong Kong, Sima Migoli and Grant took Ergin's instructions and thought about using force, and did not accept the Qing army's overtures at all.

Unable to thread the needle between China and Britain, Hurd's status cannot be too high, when he was in Guangzhou, he was valued by Pasha, that is because there are too few foreigners in Guangzhou, and Hurd did show his talent, which was able to stand out, but there are not many foreigners here in Hong Kong, his own identity, but a second-class translator of Guangzhou Customs, a person like him, in Hong Kong, grabbed a lot, so the news he brought back from Guangzhou was not taken seriously, was thrown aside, almost forgotten.

Fortunately, Fang Shan is very good at finding people, and after a lot of effort, he contacted the head snake at the Hong Kong wharf, spent some money, and naturally got the news he wanted, and then sent someone to deliver a letter.

Hurd's life was not satisfactory, and this time was especially depressing, when a person has no way to realize his own value, he is likely to think that he has no value, and thus become depressed. Hurd was no exception, he also felt depressed, and hid in the staff apartments arranged for him by the British government in Hong Kong every day, and rarely went out. But he was not idle, he found a lot of Chinese books, and continued to read hard, just like when he was unsatisfactory in Ningbo, he was reading.

A letter was handed to him from a middle-aged woman who was cleaning the apartment, and Hurd read it by the dim butter lamp, and Hurd was immediately filled with enthusiasm.

On the rough dock in Hong Kong, in a teahouse opposite the Sailor's Beer House, Hurd met the man he was looking for.

After receiving the letter, Hurd knew that his opportunity had come.

After a quarter of an hour of hurried communication, Hurd hurriedly got up, put on his hat and said, "I'll figure it out," and then asked the person to say, "You wait for me for three days."

As for why he waited three days, because on the third day Hurd could only attend a drinking party, he had never been very keen on drinking parties, because at the drinking party, he would either meet a group of rude nouveau riche, which would make him feel out of place, or meet someone with a higher status than him or a real wealthy nobleman, and he would often be despised by others, both of which he didn't like, so he didn't like to participate in the party.

This time I made an exception to attend the reception, because there will be a person at this reception, the current highest-ranking official in Hong Kong, Elgin, to be precise, the highest ranking person among the British in China, he is the plenipotentiary representative to China, and it can even be said that here he represents the British royal family, and he represents Victoria.

It has been nearly 20 years since the opening of Hong Kong, but the Westerners who appear here are still mainly adventurers, nouveau riche and fugitives, and there are very few serious Western gentlemen, let alone aristocrats, so the second generation of nobles like Ergin generally rarely participates in the reception.

The standard of such a drinking party is not high, but because of Ergin's attendance, it has also become a popular place for Hong Kong's high society, and Hurd thought of a lot of ways to get an invitation to the reception.

At the cocktail party, he never got the opportunity to contact Ergin alone, and in the eyes of a big man like Ergin, there would be no Hurd. Hurd knew he couldn't wait, he didn't have time.

"Peace!"

As Elgin casually walked past him to look for the others, Hurd whispered in his ear.

"What?"

Ergin stopped and looked at Hurd suspiciously, he had no impression of Hurd, but he seemed to have seen it, even if there were not many British in Hong Kong, he was really not sure.

"I say peace, trade, prosperity!"

Hurd added.

Ergin wondered why Hurd was telling him this: "Who are you?" ”

Herd quickly said, "I'm sorry. My name is Hurd, and I am a second-class interpreter at the Guangzhou Consulate. What I want to say is that we need peace and trade. ”

Ergin smiled very gracefully: "We all know this. ”

Then he nodded lightly and was about to leave.

Hurd didn't want to let go of this opportunity: "I know their officials and I'm willing to negotiate. ”

Ergin, apparently losing patience, said as he walked: "Mr. Hurd, we will have someone to deal with peace and trade." ”

Apparently he wasn't interested in a small character like Hurd.

Hurd shouted behind him, "Forgive me for taking the liberty of knowing that I shouldn't have asked about these things, the problem is that they have come to me, and they trust me!" ”

Ergin paused, still looking unpleasant, but he did not refuse: "Come to my office at two o'clock in the afternoon, and I will give you twenty minutes to convince me." ”

The afternoon sun was beautiful, and Hurd thought so, because he persuaded Ergin to send someone to contact the GD officials.

Hurd is proud of his preparation, the opportunity is reserved for those who are prepared, although he has not gone out during this time, he has been studying, but he has not forgotten to care about the situation outside, he must read the newspaper every day, and he has also done some work, he counts the number of ships entering and leaving the port from the window where he can see the port every day, accurate data shows that the number of cargo ships entering and leaving Hong Kong is decreasing every day, and the trade volume has dropped significantly, In addition, the newspapers also used alarmist tones to tell about the continuous departure of Chinese, and if the Chinese left Hong Kong, it would put the foreigners here in trouble.

Mr. Hurd credits Mr. Hurd with his own detailed and powerful data that ultimately convinced Mr. Ergin to engage in initial contact with Chinese officials.

What Hurd didn't know was that Elgin was destined to be persuaded, and Elgin had been waiting for an opportunity to be persuaded by others, but unfortunately there was no suitable person.

After he returned to Hong Kong, the army could no longer bear to live in peace with the Chinese, and both the navy's Sima Migoli and the army's Grant strongly demanded reinforcements to attack Xin'an and Guangzhou. The fact that he is the British plenipotentiary for China does not mean that he can ignore political principles and completely work with the military, so a governor of Hong Kong is neither a suitable person nor a sufficient reason to convince the military.

Hurd's appearance made him see another way, and it might not be a good thing for a daredevil, like Hurd, who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, to stir it up.

What others will think, others will see that a daredevil stopped Ergin at the drinking party, and out of politeness Ergin gave him twenty minutes, and then he was persuaded to contact the GD officials, and this contact found that the differences between the two sides were not large, so peace was logical.

Of course, the army will have opinions, but they will focus their opinions on Hurd, not on his Ergin.

Of course, things can also be messed up, and Chinese officials really can't tolerate him in some ways, and if it doesn't work out because of this, the military will still need to be sent in at that time.

Therefore, Ergin is actually prepared with both hands, and he will not make the army dissatisfied until this diplomatic mission is completely and perfectly completed. Once the mission was completed, he didn't bother to look at these soldiers. So he was very willing to give a young man like Hurd a chance to pop up, and at the same time not refuse the participation of the army.

Fang Shan was very satisfied with the news he got from Hurd, and the British were willing to go to Xin'an first to make initial contact with Zhu Jinglun, and the two sides could talk about the resumption of trade, and Fang Shan knew that this was the result that Zhu Jinglun wanted.

Fang Shan returned to Xin'an to restore his life, and while bringing Zhu Jinglun the news, he also brought Zhu Jinglun a lot of various newspapers that he could buy.

Fang Shan's official feedback from Hong Kong and Britain did not seem to make Zhu Jinglun pay attention, but he paid special attention to the newspapers he bought back from previous issues and irregularities, Fang Shan didn't know what to look at about these newspapers, because he didn't know English, but he knew that many of these newspapers were shipped from Britain and India, and there were also local ones in Hong Kong, but there were very few.

"It's time. Inform Hou Jin and the black dog and let the army together! ”

The Hakka soldiers led by Hou Jin now also mastered the basic use of rifles.

Zhu Jinglun plans to let everyone practice together, and then leave a good impression on the guests.

Three days later, when Hurd and his party came to Xin'an City, Zhu Jinglun arranged a military parade for them.

Nearly 3,000 dressed in newly-made costumes, holding shiny rifles, marching in a neat and orderly manner, shouting a phalanx of trumpets, neatly entered the city from the city gate, and the momentum was still quite shocking. Finally, there are dozens of cannons from Marat, which leaves no doubt about the firepower of this unit.

Zhu Jinglun was also very satisfied with the effect of the infantry phalanx, although they had only practiced together for a few days, probably because the Chinese people had talent, anyway, Zhu Jinglun felt that they were better than the British infantry array.

What satisfied Zhu Jinglun the most was the slogans they shouted, "Serve the country with loyalty," "Serve the emperor with loyalty," "Defend the homeland," and "Fight to the end." These slogans were improvised by Zhu Jinglun, shouting allegiance and serving the country will not make political mistakes, and at the same time will not weaken the momentum of the short voice of this four-character idiom good phrase; Zhu Jinglun has always felt that this neat and even rhythmic idiom phrase in the Chinese Chinese language is a perfect match for the military parade, which can virtually enhance the momentum of the army by a large margin.

Zhu Jinglun believed that even the regular officers of the British and French forces would definitely think that this army was an elite unit with a firm will and high momentum.

If this force were to defend the city, how many troops would it take to take it? No matter how arrogant the British army is, I am afraid that they will not think that the same number of troops can capture the positions defended by these people, and a larger number of troops is not available in Hong Kong at present. This should dispel the fierce rhetoric in the newspapers calling for war, pour a bucket of cold water on the heads of the main fighters, and calm them down.

But in fact, Zhu Jinglun's soldiers are still silver-like wax guns, including those horse-drawn cannons, most of which are recently imitated French infantry guns in Foshan, which are of inferior quality and have nothing to do.

Therefore, this military parade was actually a military blackmail to a considerable extent, but the effect even exceeded Zhu Jinglun's expectations.

Some British officers who had come to Xin'an secretly reported that at least 10,000 troops would be needed to capture the defense of the defenders of Xin'an, and 20,000 troops would be needed to completely destroy this army, and it was a conservative estimate.

Zhu Jinglun missed one thing, that is, when the British army was in Shajing, he was deeply impressed by the local villagers' will to fight.