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What has been the biggest change for Cantonese people in the past few months?

I am afraid that the new governor of Guangdong moved the yamen from Zhaoqing to Guangzhou, and the governor with a Han-style black veil on his head and a red Han-style official robe made the people of Guangzhou finally see the prestige of the Han officials after two hundred and four years, but the biggest impact is not the new "braids and easy clothes", after all, for Guangdong, which has been popular among the people for many years and the Tiandihui and Hongmen, which was once known as the millions of Hong soldiers, this "Han official prestige" is very popular with the people, even compared to Huguang, On the contrary, the gentry and common people of Guangdong admired the legendary "relics of the previous dynasty" even more. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

However, the change of dynasty was not without its impact on the Cantonese people, compared with the relatively loose "braids and clothes" of Kehan Kexi, the real impact was in other places, especially in the provincial capital of Guangzhou, the governor brought far more impact than they imagined, the biggest impact of which was the ban on smoking.

Unlike Lin Zexu's smoking ban more than ten years ago, his smoking ban did not ask foreigners harshly, but on the one hand to strengthen patrols at the mouth of the Pearl River to strictly investigate smuggling, but those who smuggled tobacco and soil were not only severely punished and bankrupt, but also sentenced to hard labor for life, sent to Xuwen Salt Works or Nanling to build mountain roads, even sailors, were sentenced to 10 to 20 years of hard labor, punished into the coal mines in Jiahe Huangbian in the northern suburbs to dig coal. On the one hand, it is strictly forbidden to sell cigarettes on the one hand and on the land, and the smoking houses are banned, the owners of the houses are severely fined, and the family property is confiscated.

In short, this Lord Li's anti-smoking interest is even more than that of Lin Zexu back then, but because he has not touched foreigners, he has never protested with foreigners, of course, except for announcing the territorial sea and restricting his opium-film barge from withdrawing from Lingding Ocean, which has provoked protests from foreigners, it seems that foreigners can accept his smoking ban.

After all, even in the war more than a decade ago, opium was not legalized and has always been smuggling. Now the ban is only more severe, and even among the foreign merchant houses of the Thirteen Banks, some people believe that this kind of ban will lead to an increase in the price of opium, which will be more conducive to their trade, and these foreign merchants protest through the consul that China's territorial sea is too wide, and on the other hand, they stubbornly moor opium barges in the Lingding Ocean, which seems to be testing the bottom line of the new government and its determination to maintain the territorial waters.

Nothing came as they expected, and that Master Li didn't seem determined to expel the barge on the Zero Ding Ocean. The understanding of Chinese officials has made opium traders from all over the world think that this is the "three fires" of their new officials, and naturally they will wait and see what happens to their smoking ban.

In fact, everyone is waiting to see what happens, including the thirteen elements that were once called the "Son of Heaven Nanku". Although now these thirteen lines are not as good as in the past, after the five ports of trade, Guangzhou's import and export plummeted, because of the conflict with the "Nanjing Treaty" and the "Humen Treaty", the Guangdong Thirteen Lines were dissolved by the Qing government, the thirteen merchants lost their organization and "official business" status, and there were only two options left: one was to continue to work hard in the commercial sea as ordinary merchants; The second is to leave the business world and seek another job. Most banks are not optimistic about Guangdong's future foreign trade prospects and have voluntarily closed their businesses. At this time, the old merchants of the Thirteen Lines who were still active were only Wu Chongyao and Wu Tianyuan. They are also watching.

They are waiting to see if this "Han Governor's Mansion" can last long, and on the other hand, they are watching to see how the Governor's Mansion will deal with them, especially for Wu Chongyao, after all, he was also sent by the Governor last year to hire twenty red single boats for the government to clean up the Taiping Army, and now that this righteous army has captured Guangzhou, how can he not be weak-minded, and it is precisely because of this that he will immediately lobby the businessman to take out two million taels for "****" after Ye Mingchen "surrendered to the thief", this "****" is fake, in fact, it is for " Atonement".

The silver government naturally laughed at it, and now that the new governor has taken office, for Wu Chongyao, what he is most worried about and looking forward to every day is the same thing - when the governor will summon him.

Holding a freshly brewed Tieguanyin in both hands, Wu Chongyao, who was in the study, had a sad look on his face, and couldn't help but sigh.

"Ryosuke, are you still thinking about that?"

Listening to this sigh, Wu Tianyuan asked rhetorically.

"Can you not be worried?"

Wu Chongyao nodded.

"According to the rules of the past, this new official has taken office, and it stands to reason that we are looking for the 50,000 taels of money sent by the rules, and he has accepted it, but he should have sent someone to inform us, but until now, he has not even given us a face, what does this mean?"

Wu Chongyao's mouth is naturally the governor Li, this governor has been in office for half a month, but he doesn't even give them a face, how can he not worry.

"Ryosuke, you say, this surnamed Li shouldn't take us under the knife!"

Wu Tianyuan said nervously.

"Now the merchant has long existed in name only, just a little bit of family money, and it has been almost tossed over the years, he Ye Mingchen asked us to serve, we are all from hard squeezing out of silver to serve, if you can't satisfy the appetite of those people, this, how can this be good?"

"Probably not!"

Shaking his head, Wu Chongyao put down the teacup in his hand.

"Brother, the younger brother has inquired with the merchants of Hunan and Hunan, although the Han Governor said that he was reckless, but he was a sensible person, not only did he never extort the merchants, but encouraged the merchants to do business...... That's also a last resort, besides, don't we also donate two million taels of military supplies? ”

That being said, Wu Chongyao has no confidence in his heart, he has been dealing with the government for so many years, and he always understands what the government is like.

"Hmph, that's not necessarily, just like to those flag people, what they said was that they were not to blame in the past, but now that it's good, they will all be beaten to dry salt and build roads!"

When Wu Tianyuan mentioned what happened to those banner people, Wu Chongyao's scalp was just numb, whether it was Xu Wen drying salt or building roads in Nanling, it was a place where miasma was born, and it was simply a way to send people to death. If these officials want to let people die, they don't necessarily have to use knives, there are thousands of ways to clean up people to death, those banner people, thrown to that kind of place, even if they are lucky to survive, it is estimated that they will have to lose a few layers of skin!

"This, this ......"

Just when Wu Chongyao was squeaking and couldn't speak, the servant's voice suddenly came from outside the door.

"Master, the invitation sent by the governor's yamen!"

What the!

Wu Chongyao, who was still worried about when the governor would meet him, suddenly changed his face when he heard this.

"This, who's here? What else could you bring? ”

The answer is naturally no, and naturally there is no one in the governor's yamen to secretly transmit news outside. But half an hour later, news came from outside, but Wu Chongyao's heart sank - not only did he Wu Chongyao, Wu Tianyuan, but also other former merchants who were invited to the banquet, although they had faded out of business, but they still received an invitation from the governor, this news only made Wu Chongyao's heart more worried, in the past ten years, almost every time they gathered to do business, there was nothing good.

Now the man surnamed Li has gathered the merchants together, what is it for?

"There will be no good meeting, there will be no good banquet, although the business has been disbanded now, but the old brother still has the name of the head of the line, thinking that the brother's opinion, the old brother will not go."

Wu Tianheng's suggestion, Wu Chongyao shook his head and said:

"Even if tonight's banquet is eaten with intestinal poison, the little brother must go...... It is better to be a dog than a merchant...... Ay! ”

With the words of Pan Zhengheng, who was the same writer back then, Wu Chongyao's face was full of bitterness, and finally he said to Wu Tianheng helplessly.

"Brother, let's go back and prepare the gift first, who knows what the idea of this surnamed Li is?"

For the government, the merchant has always been a fat sheep to be slaughtered, even if the thirteen lines have been disbanded, and the merchants have transferred to other industries, for the government, it is still a fat sheep, at least in the past ten years, successive governors and governors have always treated these people in this way, and even the merchants themselves are accustomed to this identity.

"I really can't do it, so I'll move the pawn to America!"

Again, when instructing his family to prepare gifts, thinking about the grievances of these years, Wu Chongyao secretly thought in his heart,

Over the years, the Wu family has had a close relationship with the government. Wu Chongyao is committed to mediation, all of which are properly resolved, so the government thinks that he is a powerful person in persuading donations, but how many people can understand the suffering? In the eyes of the government, he Wu Chongyao is a fat sheep, and in the eyes of the people, who is he? It's just a "traitor".

It is precisely because of this that he will be centrifuged, and even this kind of plan, as early as more than ten years ago, his father has begun to prepare, not only to invest in foreign companies such as Qichang, but even directly in the United States to invest millions of yuan, which of course there is a last resort for the dissolution of the business, but it is not inevitable that the government is disheartened, how much has the Wu family donated to the government over the years?

But what did you get?

Now that the sky in Guangzhou has changed, after this change of dynasty, the "right-hand donation" of the year fell into the eyes of the governor's office, isn't it also a "traitor"? If the time comes, the 20 red single boats hired by the Wu family will be investigated, what crime should be punished? As for the two million taels of "donation", whether it was his Ye Mingchen's "stepping stone" to enter the Governor's Mansion, or the Wu family's "life talisman", for a while, in the face of this sudden invitation, Wu Chongyao couldn't calm down for a long time.

"Could it be that the Wu family can't really stay in this Guangzhou?"

After a sigh, Wu Chongyao's aged face was full of helplessness.

"If the Wu family is not left in Guangzhou, then Wu may have to stay away from here......" (To be continued.) )