The tariff introduced by Zhou Lang in Guangzhou soon spread among foreign merchants who feared that trade would be ruined this year.

The foreigners did not want to see Guangzhou's trade cut off, and put forward their own opinions on this tax rate, most of which were unwilling to accept it.

Although the tax collected by Zhou Lang is not as high as the various black and white fees of Guangdong Customs, the problem is that they are used to collecting taxes by Guangdong Customs, and now they have paid taxes to Zhou Lang, do they still have to pay to Guangdong Customs, if they don't pay, will the other party agree? In short, they believe that this is a civil war between two different regimes in China, and they do not want to affect their interests, and they will never accept double taxation.

So they elected Brown as their representative to negotiate and communicate with the Guangzhou government and Zhou Lang's fleet at the same time.

Zhu Jue is not as big as other officials, he is willing to meet Brown, and he listens carefully to Brown's opinion.

Brown said they weren't unwilling to pay taxes, but they couldn't afford to pay taxes twice. They were willing to continue to pay taxes at the rate of the Cantonese customs, but if the Cantonese government could not expel the troops occupying Whampoa, they would have to be forced to pay taxes to the garrisons, in which case Brown wanted the taxes to be paid to the Whampoa garrison to be deducted from the various expenses handed over to the customs.

After listening carefully, Zhu Jue told Brown that the matter of collecting taxes should go to Guangdong Customs.

The supervision of Guangdong Customs is not so easy to see, Brown can only express his opinion through Cai Shiwen, but the Guangdong Customs replied that not a dime is missing, and told Brown that this world is still the world of the Qing Dynasty, and the anti-thieves will not grow.

Brown also negotiated with the occupying forces outside the city to reduce the tax, and he could not accept a tax of 1,000 taels for a mast, saying that they could accept a total of 500 taels for a maximum of one ship.

Of course, Qiu Tong couldn't accept it.

The time has been in the summer, Guangzhou has a backlog of a large number of goods they ordered, but the merchant ships are stranded in Macao waiting for news, in the delay, more and more merchant ships will have nowhere to dock, summer is the sailing time to China. There are not so many ships that can dock at the port of Macao alone.

In recent years, the British have become the hegemon of Guangzhou's trade, and in addition to the East India Company, the British private trade has also grown rapidly, and the British have accounted for three-quarters of Guangzhou's foreign trade. So Brown was not so much representing all foreign businessmen as he was running for the interests of Britain.

When he saw that the negotiations were fruitless, he immediately sent someone to Fuzhou to negotiate with Zhou Lang. He hoped that Zhou Lang's fleet would at least be exempt from the taxes of the British East India Company, and at least some of them should be exempted.

But Brown didn't know at this time that the biggest threat to trade was not Zhou Lang's military action, nor was it a temporary tax collection. A few days later, Brown discovered that this year's trade in Guangzhou was likely to fail.

The governor of Liangguang went so far as to order the severance of trade, informed the 13 banks of Guangzhou not to engage in any trade with foreigners this year, and sent people to block the river outside Guangzhou, strictly prohibiting any ships from entering Whampoa.

Zhu Qi's actions really drove the thirteen merchants who were about to be unable to hold on, they had a bad year in the past few years, and they were extorted by Zhou Lang for tens of millions of silver dollars, and they lost more than half of the tea trade, all of which was caused by Zhou Lang, and they hated Zhou Lang to death.

Many commercial banks are supported by debts, and many of them are borrowed from Lianli Bank, which is supported by Zhou Lang, although the interest rate is much lower than that of the market, but there is no trade, let alone repayment, and they can't maintain their current life and connections with the government.

The merchants also took action, and they did not dare to lobby the occupying forces outside the city, not to mention whether they would be arrested, and they could not afford to be held accountable if the government held them accountable for fornicating with the pirates. They could only ask their general merchants to come forward and go to the Guangdong Customs to intercede, hoping to open up trade.

Customs supervision is also rising, Zhu Jue is inexplicably about to cut off trade, isn't this cutting off the financial route of the customs, there are no foreign ships coming, their income is going to drop sharply, and they don't care if the customs tax is not collected, but the income of the customs supervisor this year cannot be less, and the filial piety of He Shen and the adults is never discounted.

Anyway, Zhu Jue's action made everyone feel the pressure.

A large number of Guangzhou officials, including customs superintendents, went to Zhu Jue to plead for mercy, and behind each of them stood different interest groups.

But Zhu Jue just said a word, and resolutely refused to trade. The reason is very sufficient, he has the evidence that the illegal businessmen are secretly communicating with the thieves outside the city, and they are selling grain and grass to the thieves. Therefore, the purpose of blocking the waterway leading to Huangpu outside Guangzhou is to cut off the grain and grass of the thieves.

As for the issue of the Thirteen Elements, Zhu Jue's reasons are also very sufficient, the Yi people are secretly colluding with the thieves, and if they are allowed to trade with the Yi people, it is equivalent to being an enemy.

The big hat of the capital enemy is buttoned down, not to mention those businessmen, and the officials are also silent, no one can afford this crime.

As a result, Guangzhou's trade was cut off on this side.

Guangzhou's dependence on foreign trade has been formed, and tens of thousands of people rely on trade for their livelihood, and Zhu Qi doesn't care about these at all.

He is a very decent person, but sometimes this kind of decent person does things, which is really terrifying. In their hearts, as long as they face the right and noble ideas, they will be reckless.

Is Zhu Jue's blocking of trade really to prevent capital enemies? At present, the source of materials for the Huangpu occupation army is no longer Guangzhou, but Dongguan, Xiangshan and other places downstream, even if the materials cannot be purchased from here, there is also Fujian and Taiwan. Zhou Lang, who held the power to control the sea, could not be blockaded on land.

It is impossible for Zhu Jue not to understand these truths, but he only needs one reason, cutting off the enemy's grain and grass, it is just a reason.

The real reason has to start from when Brown asked Zhu Jue to lower taxes, and seeing the importance that foreigners attach to trade, Zhu Jue suddenly realized.

The Yiren ship is the key, and when the Haikou came to Guangzhou City, didn't they come for these fat Yiren merchant ships, didn't they just want to take a bite of meat from the Yiren.

In this case, if you don't trade with the Yi people, the Yi people's ships won't come, and then the Haikou won't be able to get money, and they won't be able to take Guangzhou, so it will be impossible to rely on them and not leave.

These civil officials are so terrible, they don't think about the livelihood of the people.

Maybe the crazy coastal relocation strategy was also proposed to Kangxi by a figure like Zhu Jue, who did not hesitate to sacrifice the small people for victory, as for whether to sacrifice one or a group, it doesn't matter. The first person to propose to clear the wilderness on the coastal wall was a Han official named Wang Qizuo.

What Zhu Jue didn't expect was that his method would not only not be able to retreat from the thieves, but would make the thieves more resolute to gain a foothold outside the city, and would also attract new actions from the thieves.

Because Zhu Jue's attitude of cutting off trade made many foreign businessmen feel hopeless, they began to give up this year's Guangzhou trade and turned their attention to Fujian, where the trade atmosphere was more relaxed.