Zhu Jinglun didn't really think that the two countries were just here to talk about business cooperation, at least he wouldn't do so, otherwise he wouldn't have to come forward in person, let alone give them that notice in advance. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

He deliberately guided the two countries and engaged in diplomatic negotiations with him.

Don't look for the British first, don't look for the French first, don't even look for the Americans and Russians first, but look for two small countries.

It is because the soft persimmon is easy to pinch, starting from a small country, it is easier to sign a favorable, or fairer diplomatic treaty, this is the first diplomatic treaty signed by Guangdong with foreigners in its own capacity, which has a very strong demonstration significance, so I found these two small countries, and they were the first to jump out and send a diplomatic mission to China at the most suitable time.

"We were a bit negligent in our previous work, and we propose to adjourn the meeting for the time being, and we need to have some consultations."

Wallenberg said.

Zhu Jinglun shrugged: "I think your attitude is very insincere, but I agree to adjourn the meeting, but I don't have a lot of time, you can contact our Foreign Minister Mr. Wu Chongyao later." ”

Saying that, Zhu Jinglun patted Wu Chongyao, who had been in a daze, like Chen Zhiting, he didn't expect that as soon as he came back, he was put on the title of foreign minister by Zhu Jinglun, the title is not important, his father still wore the three-grade top back then, and he didn't let Lin Zexu drag his pants to play the board in public, and the top was also taken off.

The important thing is that Zhu Jinglun's appointment letter to him says that the position is higher than the fourth grade, which is a real substantive officer, you must know that the prefect of Guangzhou is only from the fourth grade, that is to say, in terms of grade, he is half a level higher than the prefect served by Chen Zhiting.

As for his father's top of the three products back then, it was a joke, used to fill up in front of the small people, the biggest advantage was that Wu Bingjian could sit in a sedan chair, as for the real status, not to mention showing off in front of the prefect of the fourth grade, it was a county that ordered the Wu family to be well served, and in the records of the East India Company, Wu Bingjian would tremble when he saw the small officials of the Qing government.

And this foreign minister is obviously not his father's fictitious title, and the letter of appointment clearly states that he is responsible for all foreign affairs and is directly responsible to Guangzhao Luo Daotai, that is, to Zhu Jinglun.

So just after getting this letter of appointment, Wu Chongyao's whole person was empty, like a dream.

But Zhu Jinglun had already gotten up to leave, and when Wu Chongyao reacted, Zhu Jinglun had already walked out, and he chased him out a little recklessly, but was blocked by Zhu Jinglun, and came back to apologize to Wallenberg and Christian, obviously he was rude just now.

Unlike Wu Chongyao, Chen Zhiting's worldview is the worldview of traditional scholars, and he consciously is superior to others. Needless to say, the kind of door in the horse house is a matter of the Song Dynasty, but his brother Chen Gui is a real head of the household and a Beijing official, and his Chen family has rightly become a local noble family and the leader of the squire.

Therefore, although he was recommended by Zhu Jinglun to serve as the prefect of Guangzhou at the beginning, he was also very excited, but after returning home, he learned that what Zhu Jinglun did in Guangdong during this time, in the eyes of a scholar, was simply a great rebellion, and it was simply something that only a chaotic minister and thief did, but now he wants to accept the official position recommended by this chaotic minister and thief?

Thinking that Zhu Jinglun had done such evil things, he couldn't help but sigh, he felt that Zhu Jinglun was a rare good official, who had done a lot of good things on the side of Xin'an's government.

But now Zhu Jinglun has rebelled, although he has not yet played the banner of rebellion, but everyone understands that it is a matter of time before he rebels, and now he is just equivalent to a hero, equivalent to the local festival envoy of the Tang Dynasty, and the three feudatories of this dynasty. After the Tang Dynasty, the Central Dynasty no longer allowed local forces to divide their territories, even if it was this dynasty, didn't Kangxi also pacify the three feudatories.

Therefore, sooner or later, Zhu Jinglun will either rebel or be suppressed by the imperial court, and it is impossible for each party to last like now, and in Chen Zhiting's concept, Zhu Jinglun should not have done this from the beginning.

After listening to the description of the local squire and soldier Yong of Xin'an, he sighed, he didn't think that Zhu Jinglun was planning to rebel from the beginning, he tended to believe what the soldiers said, Zhu Jinglun was forced by the elderly to have no choice, and he had to go to Liangshan to protect the county Yong who was making trouble in Xin'an, in the final analysis, it was for the children of Xin'an.

Countless thoughts flashed in his heart, such as being the prefect of the imperial court, not serving Zhu Jinglun, being the prefect of Guangzhou, if Zhu Jinglun broke with the imperial court in the future, he could still persuade peace and so on.

For this reason, Chen Zhiting struggled for several days before he found enough reasons for himself, and then he took office with a heavy heart.

Compared with Chen Zhiting's literati pretentiousness, Wu Chongyao is much more open-minded, he is more worried about the safety of his own family, he also knows that Zhu Jinglun is a rebellion, or before the rebellion, if he is involved in the Wu family, it will not be fun, but his worldview is businessman-style, different from the land squire, the big deal is that he can still run, this time he travels around the world, then the United States is very good.

So he not only quickly accepted this identity, but also was excited, and even heard his son say that Zhu Jinglun had sent someone to borrow money, and his family only gave five hundred taels, and he also reprimanded his son fiercely for this, and turned his head to Zhu Jinglun, saying that he was willing to repay one million taels of silver, which is really not money, and the cotton he bought in London was worth tens of millions.

After that, he put himself into work with peace of mind, Wu Chongyao's work was not easy, because he was now the commander of the light pole, and there was no one under him, Zhu Jinglun's order to him was to let him start to set up the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was really difficult for him, although he used to do diplomacy for the government, but in fact he was not proficient in Western diplomatic standards, and what he was proficient in was only to combine China's sophistication with the living habits of Westerners, and it was completely his own exploration.

But he is very open-minded, he spent his own money, hired a personal consultant, an official of the Portuguese government in Macau, and the rest of the personnel, he poached two small businessmen from Xiangshan in Hurd's customs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now these three people, the consultant can't be counted, it is he privately invited, with a high salary, but he came out of his own, which is equivalent to the dog-headed master around the county order, in addition, he has to study, learn Western diplomatic norms, professional terminology and diplomatic norms, these masters can teach, because the master does this, The Portuguese representatives sent to the East, if they did not understand diplomacy, were aristocrats who came to gild and travel, and this master of Seville's commoner background was obviously not those two kinds of people.

Learning is studying, work cannot be left behind, and the immediate priority is to negotiate with the Danes and Swedes.

Every time, he came forward to negotiate with others alone, but when he turned around, he summarized the situation and reported it to Zhu Jinglun, and then asked Zhu Jinglun to instruct him that he had not yet learned to make his own decisions, and Zhu Jinglun showed concern and asked about the progress every day, which also made him dare not make his own decisions.

"The Swedes want to be able to reduce tariffs on their iron ore, steel products and machinery products to less than 5%?"

Zhu Jinglun asked after seeing the request made by the Swedes.

Wu Chongyao felt that he was now a reasonable person, and replied confidently: "The lower officials have inquired, but Western countries do not have this tax rate, and I proposed to them to increase it to 30%. ”

Zhu Jinglun said with a smile: "You have a heart, and you have even inquired about the tax rate of the West, so what is the core of diplomacy that you tell me?" ”

Wu Chongyao really didn't want to answer, because this answer was too difficult to say: "Interests." ”

Zhu Jinglun saw him whispering, and said loudly: "That's right, interests, say it generously, the exchanges between countries are for the sake of interests!" But the problem is that many people don't understand this issue of interests. Do you think that raising tariffs is tantamount to gaining benefits? ”

Wu Chongyao said: "If the tariff is raised, more taxes can be collected, and the domestic industry can be protected." ”

Well, these words were taught to him by his master.

Zhu Jinglun sighed: "But we have a fart steel industry in Guangdong, do those who strike iron in Foshan need to be protected?" ”

Wu Chongyao didn't know what to say, he had learned these furs now.

Zhu Jinglun said: "Diplomacy is naturally centered on interests, but we can clearly distinguish what is our interests. At present, we don't even have a steel industry, and if you can barely count it, the iron-making furnace of the Ordnance Institute is. What is not large-scale, that is not climate-like, will not see the need for protection for twenty years. You shouldn't talk to them about tax rates, you should ask them what we want. ”

"Our request?"

Wu Chongyao was stunned, it has always been foreigners who come to China, saying that I want this and that, let the Chinese care about foreigners and say what I want, Wu Chongyao blushed instantly when he heard this.

"Where are our interests? In your family's business, it's raw silk, silk, and tea! ”

Zhu Jinglun said sonorously.

Wu Chongyao was a little excited, he had been dealing with foreigners since he was a child, at that time there was no five-mouth trade, foreigner officials always said that the interests of their own businessmen were cloudy, as businessmen, they all felt that the foreigners' government was too nosy, businessmen's affairs, official affairs, this time he went to other countries, he found that others were simply merchants' countries.

Zhu Jinglun even wanted to protect the interests of their businessmen, and he was deeply touched by the concept of class.

"What do you mean?"

But he didn't dare to make the decision, and asked cautiously, for fear of misunderstanding Zhu Jinglun's meaning.

Zhu Jinglun said decisively: "Since they value this iron ore and steel very much, then let them go." But don't be so petty, don't have a 5% tax rate, direct tax exemption, zero tariff. ”

Wu Chongyao couldn't help but exclaim: "Then where do we collect the money?" ”

Zhu Jinglun sighed: "It's not a matter of money, they are the benchmark for our diplomacy in the future, and they have to be set up through this time." ”

That's right, Zhu Jinglun wants to set a very beautiful benchmark, so that Westerners can see that the Guangdong government also understands diplomacy, knows how to protect its own interests with strict treaties, and will not be troubled in negotiations in the future.

However, I was afraid that Wu Chongyao would not understand, so Zhu Jinglun still added: "Remember that diplomacy is reciprocal, just like doing business, bargaining, fair trading." We exempt him from customs duties on steel and iron ore, and they are exempt from customs duties on our tea and silk. (To be continued.) )