There were three people in the team who went to negotiate outside the city, and Hurd was the only foreigner, and under the protection of more than a dozen soldiers from the Eight Banners of the Guangzhou General's Mansion, he went to Shijing to negotiate with Lin Fuxiang. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Shijing is located in the north of Guangzhou, and later belonged to a town under the jurisdiction of Baiyun District, which was called Shijing Wei at this time, and was named after a stone well. In later generations, it was considered a city, but now it is still purely rural.

The people here are fierce, the clan power is huge, after the British and French forces occupied Guangzhou, it became the sphere of influence of Xiangyong, Pashali brought people to encircle and suppress many times, but failed again and again, not that they couldn't fight, but the terrain restrictions here, they couldn't exterminate Xiangyong, either they were run away by the other party, or attacked by the other party, and they were annoyed.

It is quite risky to contact such a country warrior, Pasha Li can't come in any way, Hurdt wants to fight for the future, it is he who takes the initiative to come lightly on behalf of foreigners, so except for him alone, the remaining two are Chinese, one of them is Zhu Jinglun, and the other is Wu Chongyao.

Wu Chongyao, a businessman, is the most frequent contact with foreigners in Guangzhou City, and they are different from officials, in the process of dealing with foreigners, they are more willing to reveal the attitude and bottom line of some Chinese officials, so they are more trusted by foreigners, so this time Pa Xia Li released Wu Chongyao from the Guangzhou Yamen and let him contact Xiang Yong as a member of the negotiations.

In addition to the three of them, there was also a family with a letter, a letter written by Bai Gui, the family was Bai Gui's family member, the purpose was to get in touch with the local village Yong, and tell the local village Yong that these people were here to negotiate, hoping not to hurt these people.

In fact, as early as March, due to the frequent activities of the township warriors in the Shijing area, Pa Xiali led people to clean up many times without success, so he threatened Bai Gui to send people to enlighten these villagers, and at that time he asked Hua Tingjie, the magistrate of Nanhai County, to go with his letter, but Hua Tingjie was just perfunctory, and came back to say "enlightenment does not follow", and soon after, Hua Tingjie escaped from Guangzhou City to Huaxian County to practice.

This shows a truth, Bai Gui has always been in contact with the Xiangyong outside the city of Guangzhou, he is not a traitor who is completely determined to follow the foreigners, of course he is still a traitor, but he can't rule out the entanglement in his heart, he is just trying to survive in the cracks.

It's just that they have to cooperate with foreigners in order to keep their status.,It's a typical literati who knows the times as a handsome man.,It's their essence to be two-faced and three-sworded.,Never block the back road.,It's their style.。 Even Pa Shali knew this very well, and often complained that it was Bai Gui who secretly instigated Xiang Yong and the villagers to oppose him, so that he could not control the situation. And Bai Gui reported the situation of the local Xiangyong many times in the last recital to the emperor, and many of the situations were quite detailed, obviously he knew more about the situation of the Xiangyong outside.

Sure enough, Bai Gui's henchman easily found an ordinary farmer, and after handing over the letter to him, a pair of soldiers dressed as Xiangyong soon appeared, and they refused to allow the Eight Banners soldiers to enter the village and let them return to the city immediately. As a result, only three people entered the village, were blindfolded, and finally taken to an ordinary stone house to negotiate.

Zhu Jinglun, the negotiator, did not know, and he rarely spoke during the negotiations, but mainly Hurd.

But Hurd's approach to negotiation was too formal, making the other side impatient.

Speaking of the evening also came to fruition, and all three lived in the same house at night.

Hurd was very anxious, he had taken the risk to come to get credit, and it was obvious that solving this matter would make him show his face in front of a big man like the consul of Guangzhou, Pa Xiali, but if he didn't succeed, the risk would be in vain. The consequences of the breakdown of negotiations are also something he does not want to eat, this kind of person comes for fame, dares to take risks, but cherishes himself more. At the same time, he is well aware that some of the Chinese's behavior is indeed very uncivilized, although there is also the concept of envoy immunity in Western civilization, but it will not be strictly observed, and the Chinese also say that the two countries do not cut off the troops and do not cut the envoys, but they will often say such things as "cutting off the envoys and sacrificing the flag", obviously not cutting the envoys is not a principled thing, or that the Chinese are not very principled, and the principled things are also said to be changed.

So Hurd was extremely anxious.

"Mr. Hurd, maybe we can get in touch with them privately to find out what they really want. You have also shown today that it is impossible for us to come up with so much silver and rice, and I am sure they themselves understand this, and perhaps they have other plans. ”

There were only three people in the house, Hurd was anxious, Wu Chongyao, who had just been released from prison, was very cautious and cautious at this time, he knew that the townspeople composed of these low-level people all scolded him as a traitor, so he didn't speak at all, and it was only Zhu Jinglun who could speak.

Hurd has always been willing to listen to Zhu Jinglun's suggestions, and he doesn't have any good ideas at this time.

"Zhu, is there any way you can contact them?"

Zhu Jinglun shook his head: "There is really no way, so I can only find them directly." ”

Hurd nodded: "I agree with this, but you can also see in today's negotiations, they are very resistant to me, and they are not willing to disclose any useful information." ”

Zhu Jinglun sighed: "Mr. Hurd, because you are a foreigner. ”

Hurd nodded, "So, I mean, maybe it would be more appropriate for you to come forward." ”

Zhu Jinglun said: "This is exactly what I mean. ”

As he spoke, he walked to the door of the broken house, and there were village warriors guarding them outside.

"Tell your heads, I want to talk to him!"

Na Xiangyong scolded a few words, and seemed to be very reluctant to report, and the next thing went surprisingly smoothly, and soon they sent someone to take Zhu Jinglun away.

After that, Hurd was even more anxious, hoping that Zhu Jinglun would bring back good news, but at the same time he warned himself not to be too optimistic, so as not to be disappointed at that time. He wandered around the room repeatedly, not sleepy. Wu Chongyao, who received this drudgery, was also not sleepy, and no one knew that before he left the city, he even explained the aftermath to his family.

How did the two anxious people know that at this time, Zhu Jinglun was just drinking and eating meat with the people sent by Lin Fuxiang, how comfortable and comfortable he was.

When the drunken Zhu Jinglun swayed and sang a little song back to the broken house, Hurd immediately greeted him, and Wu Chongyao also pricked up his ears to listen.

But at this time, Zhu Jinglun was a little slurred in speech, and after entering the room, he lay down on the bed, and under Hurd's repeated urging, he said "They want a person" in a slurred voice, and then fell asleep, and Hurd couldn't wake up even if he shook him.