[Seven o'clock and chapter 3]

This morning, Álvaro Martín, the Spanish commercial representative in Nanjing, dressed like a peacock with an open screen, dressed in a silver-white dress, a Romanesque wig, came to visit the French Trade Center not far from the Spanish Trade Center. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Chen Han's old friend Perrière was not in Nanjing, he was in Shanghai, and the French commercial representative who stayed in Nanjing was called Pierre. This man was originally a trader who had made his fortune with the French East India Company in Canton. Seeing the change in China's foreign policy, Pierre boldly used most of his savings to buy his current position from Paris, the French commercial representative in Nanjing.

At the same time, his personal business was underway, and when he left Paris, he received a capital of 200,000 livres from his partners. That's about 26/70,000 silver dollars. Pierre then set up commercial offices in Guangzhou and Shanghai, and he also opened a shop in Shanghai.

"Monsieur Pierre, in praise of the eternal friendship between France and Spain, I hope that my invitation will be pleasantly answered by you." Álvaro Martín said with a smile.

"Oh? Your invitation? What do you mean, do you have any troubled things? I'm happy to lend a hand if I can. ”

"That couldn't be better. Tonight, I'm going to have a banquet in the Merchant Hall. You and your wife are welcome to visit us. ”

Pierre, a keen party celebrity, immediately rejoiced: "Of course, I am glad to receive your invitation. What time does the party start? My wife and I will arrive on time. Pierre agreed cheerfully, and then he casually asked, "Can you know any other guests?" ”

"At six o'clock in the evening, at the Spanish Trade Center. We sincerely welcome you and your wife. Guests are limited to the head of the Nanjing International Business Pavilion. Álvaro Martin handed Pierre an invitation. Turning and walking out of the French Trade Hall, he had to rush to the next place.

If in Europe, this kind of thing should be done by servants or retinues, but now in China.

They had been in Nanjing for a while, and they were very sad to find that they could not even hire servants here. Even if they could offer a higher salary, no one would come to take the money. Nanjing, a relatively foreign city to them, has better prospects for development than Guangzhou, but the Chinese here are also more conservative, or more proud. They look down on foreigners, whether they are natives of small South Seas or Europeans.

Yes, they look down on Europeans, and they certainly don't think that white skin is a noble color, which is an emotion that every European in Nanjing can clearly feel. In the end, it was the Europeans' business partners in Nanjing who lent a helping hand and sent their own household servants, which relieved the embarrassing situation that the Europeans had to do a lot of work for the business representatives to clean up at the beginning. They have now reported the matter to China, and it is estimated that by this time next year, there will be more foreigners in the Shangguan District who can speak Chinese.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Pierre and his wife were preparing. Although the French Trade Center is so close to the Spanish Trade Center. But Pierre was such a man, and his belief was that, whenever possible, one should make friends with people of higher status than oneself, and only in this case could one experience the pleasures and benefits of being more than oneself.

"So that we can imitate what we can learn, and we can also ask people for advice and get a little bit of benefit. Look at me, how did I go from being a lowly peddler to where I am today? If I hadn't befriended people of higher status than myself, I would still be a humble street vendor. I work hard every day, but I still have to worry about filling my stomach. ”

Now that his status is in the middle of the pack, he is also happy to communicate with people of the same status.

Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, France, United Kingdom, Prussia, Austria, Sweden, Denmark......

Chen Han demarcated an area for Europeans, and the threshold for entry was very low, as long as there was formal authorization from the national government. Pierre readily agreed, but if it was possible, he preferred to stay with Robert Peel, the pesky Englishman, rather than be taken by Álvaro Martin to meet with Fick Dequelmar, the Dutch commercial representative.

Of course, soon Fick Dequelmar and Robert Pierre pulled it over.

Pierre knew with his toes what Martin was trying to do. The Spaniards and the Dutch are at odds with the Chinese in Southeast Asia, whether it's Sulu or the strange Singapore, where news of European pirate attacks has been reported in the last two months.

"Martin, for the sake of the sincere friendship between France and Spain, I faithfully advise you not to do any more useless work. The British would not be at odds with China because of Dutch interests in the South Seas, and France would not give up the source of wealth in the East because of Spanish interests.

The wounds of the Seven Years' War have slowly healed, but every European country still needs high profits to enrich its coffers.

Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, all of them. ”

Did the Spaniards and the Dutch think that the British had offended China because of their interests in Southeast Asia? Satan knows the answer.

"The Chinese are brewing a counterattack against the Qing Empire in the north. I think Manila and Batavia can send military observers to take a concrete look at the combat effectiveness of the Chinese. And then make certain decisions! ”

The details of the gathering held at the Spanish Merchant House were quickly sent to Chen Ming. Seeing that Decker Mar and Robert, Martin and Pierre were all unhappy at the banquet, Chen Ming smiled contemptuously.

The Spaniards and Dutch did not dare to completely tear their faces with China, which was equivalent to tying a pair of feet to fight Chen Han, although Chen Han only stretched out a finger to the South Seas. But how could the Spaniards and Dutch in Southeast Asia not be the same finger between Spain and the Netherlands?

If you don't have enough strength, you want to find fault in foreign trade, but unfortunately, the current China is not the rabbit of the previous life, let alone a crow!

There is also a rough idea of Nanyang's affairs, and Chen Ming has nothing to be constrained against. All the internal affairs are left to the father and they will deal with it, anyway, there is money and food in the treasury now, where will there be problems? The policy of 'substituting pay for fields' that has been implemented in the army has responded very well, and not only the army and naval divisions, but also government officials and low-level public officials are now clamoring for 'paying with fields.' The first edition of the banknotes is also freshly released, connected to the system of supply and marketing cooperatives.

Chen Ming's idea of paper money was quickly processed by his subordinates and sent to Chen Hui's hands, and his father only changed it one time - paper money can be taxed. made Chen Ming sweat a lot, how could he forget this?

Then according to the statistics everywhere, after these measures are rolled out, it is not impossible to save 10 million or 20 million silver dollars for the Fu Han army by the end of the year. By the time the coming year, the network of supply and marketing cooperatives will be more sound, and with the policy of 'substituting land for salary', Chen Ming feels that he does not need to worry about money and food at all.

Now Chen Ming has no foreign affairs entangled in his body, and he is now thinking about fighting with the Manchu Qing Dynasty. As for the subsequent expenses that may be in Shandong, there are those big families in Shandong, are you still worried about running out of money?

……

The news that the Fu Han army was about to launch an attack on the Manchu Qing Dynasty was known to foreigners, and it can be imagined how widely it was spread.

Jinan, Shandong, this very famous spring city, is now like fallen leaves swept by the autumn wind, very miserable.

The current governor of Shandong is Xu Ji, don't look at the name of a Han person, the blood in his bones is indeed the blood of the Han people, but he is a Han army banner man, and the Han army is a blue flag person. Under the labor reform system of the Han Army, there was no distinction between the Manchu Army Banner, the Mongolian Army Banner and the Han Army Banner, they had only one identical identity - the banner people, and they only had one common characteristic - the Manchu minions.

If Chen Han raised his noble hand to them because the people of the Han military banner were Han Chinese, then it would be a great muse.

When the alien race is killed, he kneels on the ground and licks the ditch, and when the Han people are prosperous, they turn around and stand up again to be a Han people, how can there be such a cheap thing in this world?

Therefore, Xu Ji was very loyal to the Manchus, and after the Manchus saw Chen Han's 'equal treatment', they also trusted the people of the Han military banner more. Even the Eight Banners New Army has recruited Han Army bannermen on a large scale, which is a very interesting thing.

In the twelfth year of Qianlong, Xu Ji was promoted, and he was awarded the Quanhe Pass Judgment in Yanzhou, Shandong, and moved to Taiwudao in Jidong, Shandong, and then after the previous Fu Ming'an was transferred to Beijing, Xu Ji sat on the throne of the governor of Shandong.

When Chen Ming first started the incident, the governor of Shandong was Fu Nihan, and as a result, Fu Nihan was transferred to Beijing. At that time, if it hadn't been for Soul's half-way bad thing, Soule would have been in the position of governor a long time ago, instead of being thrown into the Ministry of Works as a squire with no great power.

And what about Fu Ming'an? Unsurprisingly, it was Fucha.

Xu Ji just sat in the position of governor last year, and more than half a year has passed this year, and then the real test is coming.

In the governor's yamen signing room, the atmosphere was silent and cold, although the temperature in the room was really not cold at all.

"Ahem...... "Ahem, cough " Zhou Yuanli covered his mouth and coughed again, which was the only sound in the signing room. As soon as the temperature cooled down in autumn, Zhou Yuanli's body and bones 'collapsed' all at once, especially after hearing the news that the Fu Han army was about to launch an attack on Shandong. But no matter how 'sick' Zhou Yuanli is, he is also the number two person in Shandong officialdom, whether it is Xu Ji or Wang Jintai, the direct commander who is in charge of the military power of the Shandong barracks, no one shows a trace of asking him to get out. Even the political envoy Jiao Qi, who is a head lower than him, is actually the No. 2 person in Shandong officialdom, and he also respects Zhou Yuanli very much.

And isn't the name Jiao Qi a little familiar?

At the beginning, Jiangxi Yiyan Road was temporarily in charge of Jiujiang Customs Affairs, and he was also a part-time supervisor of Jingdezhen. When Chen Cong was married to Chen Ming, he took the formula and silver, regardless of the cold, and ran to Kaifeng regardless of the cold, and he held the formula and silver and begged the Kaifeng Mansion at that time to be sure to accept it, and Mingzheng got the formula and dedicated it to this Jinqi.

When Chen Ming looked at Shandong's intelligence before, he was very emotional about this. Karma is not happy!

Also doing it in the signing room is Kong Zhaohuan, the prince of Yansheng, although the minister of regimental training in Shandong has been in chaos, Wang Qixu is not a military talent, and after he left office, the military power was obtained by Jiao Qi, and it was not Kong Zhaohuan's turn, but the status of the Kong family in Shandong is extraordinary. Now that the catastrophe in Shandong is coming, it is reasonable to invite Kong Zhaohuan to Jinan to discuss major matters.

"Treading ......"

A series of hurried footsteps came from the outside and from the inside, into the ears of everyone in the signing room. A yamen came in like running, "Urgent report from the sticky pole, urgent report from the sticky pole!" ”

The five people in the signing room still did not move, and the yamen experience did not seem to expect such a situation. Sticky rod, this is an urgent report at the sticky rod, such an important thing, why didn't the five bigwigs react?

The urgent report was handed over to Xu Ji, and the yamen experience was about to open his mouth to briefly report the content of the emergency report. Xu Ji's finger flicked lightly on the table, and Yamen immediately closed his mouth, turned around and exited the signing room.

The emergency report quickly circled in the hands of the five people, and the already silent atmosphere in the signing room became almost solidified.

"Now that it's over, there's nothing to be afraid of. My generation fought to the death to repay the court Longen. (To be continued.) )