Thanks to the 1st Guards Tank Brigade and Hu Barui for their great rewards!

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The seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Early this morning, the city gate of Guangzhou was opened, and the red and yellow five-star dragon banner of the Taiping Holy Kingdom on the city tower fluttered in the wind, whirring.

Tomorrow is the day of great joy in Guangzhou. The opening of Nanyang Company is scheduled for tomorrow, and the time is set for the most auspicious morning.

In addition to Chen Yucheng, Liang Peiyou, Lu Shunde and others who were fighting abroad, the high-level leaders of the Taiping Holy Army in Guangzhou City were all to attend.

Feng Yunshan got up early in the morning, but found that Zuo Zongtang and Xu Xiangguang were accompanied by Wu Chongyao and Liu Shengbang, who were already waiting for him in front of the hall earlier than him.

But it turned out that Wu Chongyao and Liu Shengbang had just rushed back to Guangzhou in the early morning, and they were afraid of disturbing Feng Yunshan's rest, so they waited in front of the hall, but they ran into Zuo Xu and the two who came over early in the morning.

At that moment, Wu Chongyao detailed his trip to Hong Kong Island and Xiangmen.

On behalf of the Holy Kingdom, Wu Chongyao went to Hong Kong Island to mediate the war between Chen Kaiyi's army and the British army. Unexpectedly, the British consul in Guangzhou was very happy, and even though he agreed to a truce with the rebels, he asked the rebels to return a wooden sailing ship that had been captured to the British.

Wu Chongyao and Liu Shengbang rushed to the rebel army on the other side of the coast overnight, and Chen Kai and others seemed willing to stop fighting, but Lin Huanlong strongly made peace talks with foreigners, saying that he wanted to avenge the nearly 10,000 dead and wounded rebels.

However, Chen Xianliang, Lu Shunde and others also asked for a truce, and finally Chen Kai decided that he could make a truce with the foreigners. But he demanded that the foreigners compensate 500,000 taels of silver and hand over the Baigui.

So, Wu Chongyao returned to Hong Kong Island again, and when he talked about Chen Kai's conditions, the British Deputy Governor of Hong Kong Island, Major General Cha Wei, changed color and immediately threw his hand away.

Wu Chongyao remembered the characters who wanted to complete the Holy King's explanation, and persuaded both sides to stop. told Chen Kai that the British side only promised to compensate 100,000 taels of silver and asked for the return of the gunboat, which was entrusted to him Wu Chongyao. As for Bai Gui, when the rebels retreat and disperse, they will be handed over to Chen Kai.

When Chen Kai heard this, he originally thought that he would not be able to defeat the British and wanted a truce, but now that he has this condition, he can be regarded as an explanation, so he agreed.

Wu Chongyao returned to Hong Kong Island for the third time and informed Bao Ling that the rebels were willing to withdraw from the war and not to compensate, but the gunboat was considered by the other party to be their spoils of war and would be dismantled and sold as a compensation for the sacrifice of the rebels. Bao Ling didn't say much when he heard it.

Speaking of this, Wu Chongyao said: "Holy King, Chongyao and the Shengbang brothers have hired a group of boat people, and they have driven the wooden sailboat with a white flag to the Humen Fort and handed it over to the defender Chen Yucheng there. ”

"What? That wooden sailing gunboat has arrived? Feng Yunshan was overjoyed! After thinking about it for a while, he understood that it must have been Wu Chongyao who had paid 100,000 taels of silver in advance.

Feng Yunshan knew that Wu Chongyao did this in order to successfully complete the first task he gave him.

What Feng Yunshan wants is for Chen Kaiyijun to put pressure on the foreigners, and then let them contain each other, which is in his own interests.

He didn't want the rebels and foreigners to fight together. Fighting the foreigners too hard will make the other party mobilize a lot of troops to come to the Far East, which is also a kind of suppression of the Taiping Holy Army, and the rebels themselves have many casualties. Now such casualties have made Feng Yunshan feel uneasy, even if the righteous army refuses to submit to him, he is still a fellow Han Chinese, and he can't bear to watch being killed by foreigners.

Wu Chongyao continued what he had just said and continued: "Chongyao arrived on Hong Kong Island and wanted to take a good look. However, because the rebels attacked the island, the British imposed martial law on the island, and the control was strict, so they could not find out much news. ”

"I only know that the Deputy Governor of Hong Kong Island is very hostile to our Holy Army, while the Consul Bao Ling of Guangzhou is much more relaxed. In addition, the number of British troops on the island was not large. Oh yes, it seems that there will be a warship returning to Hong Kong Island in Xiamen in the near future. ”

"Oh, so that the British will be strengthened in the area around Hong Kong Island. The rebels are still stationed in the Kowloon area? Feng Yunshan asked.

"Holy King, the righteous army has suffered great damage, and they are still resting on the Kowloon Peninsula." Wu Chongyao replied.

"Send someone to remind them that the British will have reinforcements." Feng Yunshan said to Zuo Zongtang, and asked Wu Chongyao again: "Chongyao, I heard that the rebels and the British have promised to come to Guangzhou to participate in the opening of the Nanyang Company, and by the way, negotiate the withdrawal of the rebels and the surrender of Baigui?" ”

"Yes! Chen Kai and Bao Ling both promised to come to Guangzhou in person to discuss the details of the retreat. Although both sides had promised a truce, the rebels did not leave Kowloon for a day, and the British were always vigilant, and the whole Hong Kong island was under martial law, and foreigners could not do business. Chen Kai did not stop if he did not capture Bai Gui. Wu Chongyao explained.

Feng Yunshan nodded to make the inside story clear.

In the end, Wu Chongyao roughly said that he and Liu Shengbang invited foreigners from all over the world on Hong Kong Island and Xiangmen to come to Guangzhou to participate in the opening of Nanyang Company, but due to martial law on Hong Kong Island, not many people were invited, but many foreigners in Xiangmen said that they would participate on time.

Feng Yunshan was overjoyed when he heard that many foreigners were coming. The original purpose of his opening of Nanyang Company was to make a name for himself and invite foreigners to come to Guangzhou as a fellow businessman. The final idea was to approach foreigners from all over the world to find business partners who could help them make a fortune and sell weapons and industrial equipment to the Holy Army.

Thinking of this, Feng Yunshan asked Xu Xiangguang to prepare for the opening of Nanyang Company, and only asked Zuo Zongtang, Wu Chongyao, and Liu Shengbang to accompany him to visit the foreigners in Guangzhou City.

In the afternoon, Feng Yunshan and others came to the Thirteen Lines Foreign Business District.

"Holy King, not far ahead, is the foreign bank area opened by foreigners. After the Opium War, dozens of foreigners' foreign banks were opened. However, in recent years, due to the Qing demon head of the two Guangxi governors, Xu Guangjin and the governor Ye Mingchen, they openly and secretly resisted the foreigners, seized the loopholes in the treaties signed with the foreigners, and did not allow the foreigners to enter the city of Guangzhou. Wu Chongyao pointed to a block in front of him and introduced.

"Well, I can't imagine that these two demon heads still have this mind. But the foreigners must not be happy, right? Feng Yunshan said with a smile.

"Holy King Mingjian! The foreigners were indignant. On behalf of the British, Wen Han, the governor of Hong Kong Island, asked to meet Xu Guangjin and Ye Mingchen, the Qing demon heads, several times, and asked to revise the treaty, but Xu Ye and the two could not be delayed, and finally reluctantly accepted the stipulation that foreigners could not enter the city. ”

"But in fact, there are still a lot of foreigners in the city. After all, foreigners enter the city without permission, and the government is not too likely to pursue it. Even so, there are fewer and fewer foreigners starting foreign businesses in Guangzhou, and many foreigners have begun to transfer their business to Shanghi. The business of the Thirteen Lines of Foreign Banks here is starting to slowly decline! Wu Chongyao said worriedly.

That's not going to work! Feng Yunshan heard that the Thirteen Lines of Guangzhou were the main source of tax sources in Guangzhou. At present, Guangzhou belongs to its own territory, and it is robbed of business by Shanghi, what kind of thing is it? He walked all the way, and asked Wu Chongyao to continue to talk about the situation in this regard.

It turned out that before the Opium War, the Thirteen Lines of Guangzhou, as the only foreign business place in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, had a prosperous business. But after the war, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was forced to open Shanghi, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen and other four other treaty ports, the other three are fine, basically there is no business, but Shanghi because of the Yangtze River estuary, convenient transportation, foreign trade volume gradually increased.

Wu Chongyao said, for example, in the fifteenth year of Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty, the total output of raw silk in the entire Manchu Dynasty was 70,000 quintals, and a total of 10,000 quintals were sold to foreigners, of which Guangzhou accounted for 9,000 quintals. But in the twenty-fifth year of Daoguang after the war, only 5,000 quintals of raw silk were shipped from Guangzhou to foreigners, and Shanghi also increased to 5,000 quintals.

Especially last year, Guangzhou shipped only 5,000 quintals of raw silk, while Shanghi increased to 45,000 quintals. In the past few years, Shanghi has grown several times. Other tea porcelain, although not as severe as raw silk, is also trending.

Feng Yunshan thought about it and understood why this was so.

The magistrates of Guangzhou, such as Xu Guangjin, the governor of Guangzhou, and Ye Mingchen, the governor of Guangzhou, did everything possible to make things difficult for foreigners, and even openly and secretly instigated the people in the city to drive the foreigners out of the city.

And the magistrate who is in high office has a small official position and lacks confidence.

Especially after the "Qingpu Teaching Case" occurred, I was even more afraid that foreigners would reach the extreme and dare not cause trouble. Foreigners opened concessions there, acted recklessly, and even dared not say anything more if tax evasion was serious, so Shanghi became a paradise for foreigners.