Probably encountered something on the way, two days later, the Aspen fleet did not arrive in Hong Kong on schedule, but Hong Renji arrived in Hong Kong on schedule with some people from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and also secretly contacted Guo Songtao through the Tongshun Foreign Bank branch of the old Wu family in Hong Kong at the first time, informing him that he had arrived. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Unexpectedly, the Taiping Heavenly Congress took the initiative to send people to Hong Kong, and when Hong Renji suddenly appeared in front of Li Taiji the next day, Li Taiji was inevitably caught off guard by Hong Renji, and then asked with a strong smile about Hong Renji's intention, Hong Renji's answer also made Li Taiji at a loss again - Hong Renji said directly: "Dear Mr. Li Taiji, I received information that the Qing demon in the capital intends to buy the fleet ordered by our Taiping Army from you at a higher price, so I specially rushed to Hong Kong from Tianjing, On behalf of me, the King of the East of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Long Live has negotiated with you and asked you to abide by the legal contract between your country and our country and sell the fleet to us at the original price. ”

"Dear Hong, you are very well informed, what happened not long ago, I didn't expect you to already know." Li Taiqiang said with a smile.

"Mr. Li Taitai, don't underestimate the intelligence capabilities of our Taiping Army."

Hong Renji still has some acting skills, and he smiles very confidently, as if this information was really discovered by the Taiping Army. After laughing, Hong Renji said straight to the point: "Mr. Li Taitai, since you didn't deny it, so to speak, did the Qing Demon in the capital really contact you to buy a boat?" ”

"Dear Hong, yes, there is such a thing." Li Taitai still nodded reluctantly, and said with a forced smile: "But don't worry, we Britons are all people who abide by business reputation, and I have already rejected the representative of the capital in person." ”

"Thank you, dear Mr. Lee Thai." Hong Renji thanked him, and said directly: "Then Mr. Li Taitai, when will the fleet we ordered arrive in Hong Kong?" I have come this time to pick up the ship, and I intend to return to Tianjing with the fleet we ordered, and then pay you the rest of the payment in Tianjing, and promise not to lose a tael of silver. ”

"The fleet is almost there." Li Taitai was forced to tell the truth again, and then said hypocritically: "But dear Hong, I'm very sorry, because of the rising cost, our British official must raise the price of the fleet a little." And for several special reasons, we in the UK have also decided to add some strings and conditions, and you must all agree unconditionally before we can sell the fleet to you. ”

"Oh, how much are you going to go up, and what are you going to add?" Hong Renji asked quietly.

Li Tai was a little embarrassed, originally Li Tai planned to negotiate a price with the Qing army or Wu army first, and then with the fleet to Nanjing and then have a showdown with the Taiping army, if the Taiping army did not accept their extortion, they would immediately take the fleet to the capital or Wuhan to sell for a good price. In this way, he does not need to be told too many details by the Hong Kong officials led by Lao Baoling, and he can talk about the country as much as he wants, and the huge amount of money extorted can also be safely pocketed, and he does not have to worry about being blackmailed by his superiors and colleagues.

"There can't be a showdown at this time, if Hong Renji makes a fuss at this time, and is known by other Britons, or even by Lao Bao Ling, I won't be able to explain."

He quickly made up his mind, and Li Taitai immediately refused to tell Hong Renji about the specific price changes and new additional conditions under the pretext that the new contract had not yet been drawn up, saying that everything would wait for the fleet to arrive in Nanjing. As a result, Hong Renji immediately stopped doing it when he heard it, and protested directly: "Mr. Li Taitai, not to mention that your temporary price increase violates the legal contract we signed with Mr. Pashali, why don't you tell me how much price you want to increase and how many additional conditions you want to add?" ”

"It's my freedom, and I have the right to decide when to tell you about specific price changes." Li Taitai showed a scoundrel face.

It is a pity that Li Taitai has found the wrong person for playing a scoundrel, and Hong Renji is not as fearful of foreigners as the Manchu officials, and he has lived in Hong Kong for a long time and knows how to deal with foreigners, so he immediately replied loudly: "Then I also have the freedom to ask you to abide by the contract and unconditionally sell the fleet to us at the original price, otherwise you will compensate us twice the deposit according to the contract!" ”

"There are many details of the contract signed between Mr. Pashali and you, and it needs to be renegotiated." Li Taitai said with a sneer.

"Then let's talk about it now, I have the authorization of His Royal Highness the Eastern King, and I am the plenipotentiary representative of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom." Hong Renji also sneered and said, "No matter what you want to talk about, as long as it is reasonable, I can accept it on behalf of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom." ”

"But I don't want to talk about it right now." Li Taitai replied arrogantly.

"And when do you want to talk?" Hong Renji asked.

"Wait until the fleet arrives in your capital." Li Taitai replied very simply, and directly issued an order to expel the guests, saying: "Mr. Hong, please leave, I still have official business to do, so I won't leave you, and I will talk about it when the fleet arrives in Nanjing." ”

Li Taitai's refusal to immediately have a showdown with the Taiping Army was of course somewhat unexpected by Gong Cheng, so that Gong Cheng's plan to expose Li Taitai's shameless and greedy face through Hong Kong newspapers failed, but it didn't matter, Li Taitai's reaction made Gong Cheng immediately guess his other purpose - to hide this huge amount of money from the Hong Kong government, and also gave Gong Cheng a better opportunity to rectify Li Tai. So after Hong Renji secretly sent the news to Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng, Gong Cheng immediately adjusted the plan slightly and informed Hong Renji to act according to the plan......

Just when Hong Renji began to do it, the Aspen fleet, which is known as the bloodsucking fleet by Western historians in history, finally arrived at the Hong Kong wharf, and after receiving the news, Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng also rushed to the wharf to visit the fleet as soon as possible.

Not to mention, although most of this fleet is the retired warships of the British Navy, its strength is enough to single-handedly challenge the main force of the naval division of any Asian country in terms of tonnage and firepower, especially the two small iron-hulled steam gunboats that are not equipped much in the British Navy, which made Guo Songtao drool, and made up his mind to suggest Wu Chaoyue to purchase and imitate, and immediately decided to go to Li Taitai and let Li Taitai lead him on the ship to visit.

"What do you need to find? Shall we just go straight to Asben? Gong Cheng felt that Guo Songtao's search for Li Taitai was just a superfluous move, and said: "Let's bypass Li Taitai to contact Asben, maybe we can take the opportunity to learn more about the situation." ”

"We don't know Aspen, will he meet us?" Guo Songtao asked suspiciously.

"Stupid, wouldn't it be okay to bring a gift and show your identity?" Gong Cheng scolded: "What are the foreigners coming to China from Britain for thousands of miles? Isn't it trying to make a fortune and make money? Give a generous gift, and then tell Asben that you are the representative of Wu Dashuai, and he will not see you and me, and the words Gong will be written backwards. ”

With the attitude of giving it a try, Guo Songtao gritted his teeth and picked out a Han Dynasty jade bucket from the antiques given to him by Yang Xiuqing, ran to the flagship of the Aspen fleet to show his identity and ask to see him, and gave a meeting gift with tears. And then not to mention, Asben, who had just retired from the British Royal Navy, really immediately ordered Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng to be invited on board, and when Guo Songtao saw him, he was also playing with the exquisite jade bucket.

"Dear Wu, thank you so much, I can't imagine that you can give me such a precious gift, if I remember correctly, the Chinese name of this artifact should be called Yudou, right?"

Asben's proficient Chinese words surprised Guo Songtao very much, and also made Guo Songtao curious to ask why Asben was so familiar with Chinese civil and military affairs, but Asben's answer made Guo Songtao extremely helpless - Aspen actually participated in the Opium War twice, although he was limited by the establishment and could not participate in the robbery of the Old Summer Palace, but he had seen countless Chinese cultural relics from other British robbers, so he could say the name of Guo Songtao's gift.

But it's okay, at least Asben, who knows the goods, was immediately full of good feelings for Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng, not only personally took Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng to visit the fleet, personally introduced the facilities and equipment on the ship, but also directly asked Guo Songtao whether he bought this fleet on behalf of Wu Chaoyue? Gong Cheng hurriedly gave an affirmative answer, and then said in skilled English: "But there is no way, your fleet was promised to be sold to the Taiping Army, but I am afraid that we will not be able to buy it if we want to." ”

"It doesn't matter, as long as you're sincere." Asben replied very frankly: "I have already discussed with Li Tai, whether it is Marshal Wu in Hubei or the Qing army in Beijing, whoever pays the highest price, we will sell this fleet to whomever it is." ”

When Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng quietly exchanged glances, Aspen couldn't wait to encourage Wu Jun to hire all the sailors he brought from Britain, saying that the sailors he brought were not only veterans of the British Navy, but also many of them received technical training from the British Navy. And Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng found through careful observation that Asben was really not bragging, and many of the soldiers he brought from the British were really technical soldiers, and it was difficult to find technical talents in naval warfare in China.

When Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng had a rough idea of this fleet, they suddenly appeared unexpectedly, and Li Taitai actually led Wen Xiang, the Manchu military minister they had seen in the capital, to board the Aspen fleet. As a result, when the enemies met, of course, they were each red-eyed and ignored each other.

Taking advantage of the opportunity for Asben to talk to Wenxiang, Gong Cheng quietly pulled Guo Songtao aside and said in a low voice: "Yunxian, get some blood, send someone to buy some wine and meat to reward Asben's army." ”

"Are you stupid? What is the purpose of treating someone else's army for no reason? Guo Songtao asked angrily.

"You're stupid! Such a good opportunity, you are willing to miss it? Gong Cheng scolded even more angrily: "If you are Wen Xiang and Li Taitai, can you not believe that our Hubei army is determined to buy this fleet when you see our Hubei army spending such a big price to win over Aspen's army?" Don't be afraid to spend money, the money spent is recorded in the account, go back and ask Yang Xiuqing for reimbursement, we help him so much, I don't believe he will be stingy with this money! ”

Guo Songtao suddenly realized, and hurriedly under the guidance of Gong Cheng, he deliberately asked Aspen to treat the army in front of Wen Xiang and Li Taitai, expressing his hope to send some wine and meat on the ship to reward Asben's more than 800 subordinates. As a result, Asben smiled when he heard it, and immediately agreed, Li Tai was overjoyed, but Wen Xiang was pale.

After rewarding the soldiers of Aspen's fleet, when Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng returned to the Wu Army's Hong Kong office, Gong Cheng's hair hidden in Wu's fake quotation list had indeed disappeared without a trace. Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng were secretly happy when they saw it, and they didn't say anything, but quietly hid a hair in it, and then ignored it.

The next day, Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng deliberately toured the street for another day, and when they returned to Wu Jun's office in the evening, they were pleasantly surprised to find that the second hair had indeed disappeared, and then Gong Cheng immediately smiled at Guo Songtao: "It's nothing to do with us, wait to see a good show." ”

It is true that there is nothing to do with Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng, but Li Taitai's trouble suddenly came - on the afternoon of the next day, the "Dechen West Daily", which ranks second in Hong Kong's influence, suddenly published a news, reporting that he violated the contract and privately asked the Taiping Army to raise the price, and also shook out his refusal to negotiate with Hong Renji in Hong Kong, strongly questioned whether Li Tai's move was legal, whether it had been reported to the British domestic government in advance, and questioned the real reason for Li Taitai's refusal to negotiate in Hong Kong, and asked the Hong Kong government to send personnel to supervise the negotiations. lest the economic interests of the British government be damaged and the commercial interests of British merchants in the areas controlled by the Taiping Army should not be jeopardized.

As soon as the newspaper made the incident public, Li Taitai could not sit still immediately, so he could only quickly send someone to demand that the "Dechen West Daily" take back the newspaper that had not yet been sold and stop reporting on the matter. It is a pity that he has neither money nor power, and the "Dechen Xi Pao" and the Hong Kong news censors, who have already been fed with Hong Renji's silver, have certainly not birded him; "Dechen Xi Bao" not only continued to sell, but also published the "Hong Kong Shiphead Price News" and "Zhongwai Xinbao", which also received Hong Renji's silver, and openly questioned Li Taitai's suspicion of enriching his own pockets.

Only one day later, Li Taitai's trouble came again - the governor of Hong Kong, Lao Bao Ling, sent someone to call him to the Hong Kong Governor's Palace, and threw the newspaper directly in front of Li Taitai, asking Li Taitai to explain the reason to him in person.

Fortunately, Li Taitai, who had secretly learned of Wu Jun's offer, still had a card to play, that is, he secretly promised Lao Bao Ling to give him 30% of the benefits, and directly said that such a fat sheep would not be slaughtered for nothing. And Lao Baoling was also mixed by Gong Cheng, and when he could sit back and enjoy the results, he really acquiesced to Li Taitai's extortion - but Lao Baoling had to share half of the stolen money.

Although he tearfully agreed to Lao Baoling's extortion, but with Lao Baoling's acquiescence, Li Taitai was also much bolder, and immediately took the initiative to find Wenxiang to make a new offer, asking the Manchu court to buy the Aspen fleet at a price of one million taels of silver, and the additional condition was that the military expenditure was eight million taels for four years, and he and Aspen each provided with a capital mansion covering an area of more than 15 acres, and appointed himself as the Minister of the Manchu Navy.

What surprised Li Taitai was that Wen Xiang, who was still looking forward to the Aspen fleet some time ago, actually saved the bargain, directly rejected Li Taitai's new offer, and made it clear: "Mr. Li Taitai, we have decided not to buy the fleet, it is too expensive, we can't afford it." ”

"You're too expensive?" Li Taitai asked in surprise, and said: "Mr. Wenxiang, I gave you this opportunity for the sake of your face, do you know what kind of price your Hubei rebels offered to buy this fleet?" If you don't buy it, this fleet will be bought by the representatives of the Hubei rebels? ”

"It's because I know the price offered by Wu Chaoyue that the official doesn't dare to buy it."

Wen Xiang muttered in his heart, and replied: "Mr. Li Taitai, thank you very much for your kindness, but there is no way, our Qing Imperial Court really can't take out so much silver, and we can't afford such a huge military expenditure, so we can only give up the purchase." ”

Li Taitai, who refused to give up, lowered the military expenditure to six million taels, but Wen Xiang still categorically refused, and Li Taitai had no choice but to throw down a few cruel words threatening the Manchu court and leave. As a result, looking at the back of Li Taitai leaving angrily, Wen Xiang still hummed in his heart: "Wu Chaoyue, that traitor likes to be the wronged boss and let him go, if he really buys this fleet, Yang Xiuqing, the traitor, may turn his face with him." Instead of competing with Wu Chaoyue and the rebel thief and the mussel, so that you foreign devils and fishermen can benefit, it is better to take the initiative to withdraw and let Wu Chaoyue and Yang Xiuqing, the two rebel thieves, eat the dog. ”

After the Manchu court refused to be the wronged leader, Li Taitai of course had no choice but to come to Guo Songtao to be the wronged leader, but Guo Songtao insisted that Li Taitai first negotiate with the Taiping Army to reach a result, and decided to terminate the deal and then negotiate with Li Taitai, and refused to let go no matter how Li Taitai coerced and lured.

All the pressure was pressed on the poor Mr. Li Taitai alone, public opinion condemned, the merchant group protested, Lao Bao Ling urged, and the officers and men of the Aspen fleet, who dreamed of coming to China to make a fortune, even scolded one by one, forcing Li Taitai to fulfill his promise as soon as possible, and at the same time, Hong Renji also insisted that negotiations must be launched in Hong Kong, and asked the Hong Kong Governor's Government to send someone to supervise, and Wu Jun, who was most likely to be the main wronged man, refused to let go of his mouth to hold negotiations on the purchase of ships, and Li Taiji must first negotiate with the Taiping Army to reach a result.

In the end, it was Wu Chaoyue who helped the Taiping Army, and Lao Bao Ling sent someone to tell Li Taitai that the British envoy Clarlondon was about to arrive in Hong Kong in the near future, and he would visit Hubei via Hong Kong to discuss the formal alliance and the establishment of diplomatic relations with Wu Chaoyue. Therefore, Lao Bao Ling asked Li Tai to solve the problem of Aspen's fleet before the British envoy arrived in Hong Kong, otherwise, once British Prime Minister Palmerston's henchman Clark London and the accompanying British local reporters knew about this matter, even Lao Bao Ling would have to be implicated! - By the way, there are not only one or two people in Britain who are eyeing the Governor of Hong Kong, but Kralondon, who made great contributions to British diplomacy in the Crimean War.

At the same time, because of the supervision of officials and reporters from the Hong Kong Governor's Office, Li Taitai was forced to take the initiative to make large concessions and take the initiative to cut the military expenditure to 1 million taels a year. However, even so, Hong Renji still flatly refused, only promised to raise the price of the ship to 1 million taels, and did not agree to any other additional conditions, all in accordance with the established contract.

As a result of the open negotiations, Li Taitai was once again scolded by the newspapers as stinky shit, and they all questioned the fate of the stolen money extorted by Li Taitai, and Li Taitai, who was in a hurry, had no choice but to find Guo Songtao again, saying that as long as Wu Jun undertook the military expenses of five million taels of silver for four years and agreed to other additional conditions, he would immediately end the negotiations with the Taiping Army and immediately sell the fleet to Wu Jun. Guo Songtao shook his head and said: "It's too high, it's really not a secret, except for one million taels of silver to buy the fleet, which can be discussed, we will definitely not consider bearing the military expenses." The six steam gunboats we bought before didn't say anything about bearing military expenses, and if I dared to agree to this, Wu Dashuai would kill me. ”

Li Taitai was dumbfounded, and then simply said: "But according to the news I received, you have decided to bear five million taels of silver for four years?" ”

"Why did we decide to bear such a high military budget?"

Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng were stunned together, and Li Taitai, who was anxiously red-eyed, was also out of the way, and simply flipped out the list of quotations directly on Guo Songtao's desk, but Guo Songtao and Gong Cheng were both taken aback together, and exclaimed together: "Where did this thing come from?" How come we've never met? ”

"It's definitely the chaos in the capital, they sneaked into our office and hid this fake offer here." Gong Cheng shouted angrily: "Qing Demon wants to drive a wedge between us and your Britain, so he hides such a fake list!" ”

"What the hell is Wen Xiang doing? How did he get separated? ”

Li Tai was completely dizzy, but at this time, Lao Bao Ling's subordinates directly found Wu Jun's office and took Li Tai from Wu Jun's office to the Hong Kong Governor's Mansion, and then Lao Bao Ling slapped the table and shouted: "I limit you to end the negotiations within one day and sell that damn fleet to the Taiping Army, otherwise I will remove you from your post and drive you back to England!" ”

"Your Excellency the Governor, why are you in such a hurry?" Li Tai asked timidly.

"The day after tomorrow, the envoy from Carat London will arrive in Hong Kong!" Lao Bao Ling roared and said one reason, and the other reason was that Hong Renji privately promised that as long as Lao Bao Ling forced Li Taitai to sell it to the Taiping Army at a price of one million taels of silver without any additional conditions, Hong Renji would give Lao Bao Ling 100,000 taels of silver.

In the end, the Taiping army finally bought this fleet for one million taels of silver, which was enough to affect the situation of the war against the Qing Dynasty, and Li Taitai could not force the Taiping army to agree to any of the conditions he offered. On the night of the end of the negotiations, the angry officers and men of Aspen's fleet besieged Li Taitai's residence under Aspen's personal leadership, and beat Li Taitai who had deceived them into going to China in vain.

It was only after Li Taitai was seriously injured that Guo Songtao, who had already arrived at the scene, stood up and persuaded him, promising to hire all British sailors who had been returned by the Taiping Army to serve in Hubei at the same salary as technical instructors for the Wu Army; He also offered a higher price than the Taiping Army, and hired Aspen, who was actually very high-level, to go to Hubei to serve as the principal of the Naval School, help Wu Jun train naval soldiers, and get a lot of valuable technical talents for Wu Chaoyue at the same low price.