Liang Pengfei smiled and looked at the scene in front of him, who is proficient in Western languages, where can he not understand French, but he did not show it, because he did not have the habit of showing his hole cards at one time, which was a habit he had developed in his dangerous career for many years in his previous life.

"What's the matter, this subordinate of yours seems to be very dissatisfied, could it be that he wants to try the naval guns of my Great Qing Kingdom?" Wu Liang is like having just poured a pound of gunpowder, he is still extremely rushing when he speaks, and his expression is still extremely arrogant, but Liang Pengfei does not speak with a smile, because Wu Liang's appearance was arranged by him in advance, no matter what, he must find a reason to show the arrogance and arrogance of the officials of the Qing Dynasty, as well as the greed and barbarism.

Anyway, in a word, let those Westerners despise the better, Wu Liang can only do what Liang Pengfei tells him, as for the reason, I am afraid that only the roundworm in Liang Pengfei's stomach will understand what he wants to do.

"Of course not, respected general, my subordinates do not have any malicious intent, General Liang, let's talk about business, our king's request is actually quite simple, this is an edict signed by our king's majesty, please take a look." In desperation, Macartney, who has always regarded himself as a standard British aristocratic gentleman, decided not to deal with the two arrogant and arrogant Qing people in front of him, and took out the edict of His Majesty the King and handed it over to Liang Pengfei.

Liang Pengfei looked at the beautiful handwriting, and after seeing the content clearly, the corners of Liang Pengfei's mouth curved into a weird arc. His finger flicked the letter signed by King George III of the United Kingdom: "Tut-tut, you have a lot of demands, I don't think these requests of yours will be approved." ”

"Your Excellency, this is not much, our request is quite simple, it can be said that this is just some of the necessary foundations for diplomacy and trade between our European countries." Macartney looked so deferential. But in fact, there was a bit of a drum in his heart, because at the end, according to the requirements of the East India Company, after consulting all parties, he had already added a few more articles to the original.

"Increase your share of British trade? And this one, if you British merchants commit crimes within the territory of our Great Qing Kingdom in the future, they must be handed over to you for trial?! Do you think it's possible. Liang Pengfei laughed loudly, and behind him, several subordinates who knew English couldn't help but show contemptuous expressions, as if the British were just a dwarf frustrated man who wanted to climb on the back of an elephant and play with a big knife.

"This is an international practice, General Liang." At this time, Staunton, who was scratching his itchy scalp under his wig, stepped forward, and as a key employee of the East India Company in Macau, his ears and eyes were much more informed. "Since you are fluent in our language, you must know some of our Europa history, and believe me, this request is a diplomatic practice in our Europe."

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As the largest opium smuggler under the East India Company, Sharka was swept away all the way by the Qing [***] team along the coast of Guangdong last year, and Sharka and his subordinates, a total of hundreds of people, were all executed, and the goods were confiscated.

You must know that it is difficult for European goods to be sold in the Qing Kingdom, and the British aristocracy and commoners are obsessed with Eastern silk, tea and porcelain, which makes the British trade deficit with the Qing Kingdom increase year by year, and it is for this reason that the East India Company, after discovering that opium smuggling is profitable, began to grow opium in India for smuggling to China several years ago with the tacit consent or even hint of the high-level.

It is to use opium, a drug, to recover the trade balance between the two countries, although the Qing State explicitly banned this substance, but the East India Company, which has dealt with Qing officials for many years, knows very well that this paper ban is just a dead letter in the eyes of those corrupt officials of the Qing State.

However, they still did not dare to anger this huge empire too much, and quietly opened the market through smuggling channels, and in the past two years, the profits obtained from the opium trade have attracted the attention of the East India high-level, so opium has accounted for a large proportion of the East India Company's trade with the Qing State, but it is still entered through smuggling channels.

And that Charka, a veteran of the opium trade from the beginning, has been engaged in the opium trade for many years, and he has been able to easily import opium into the territory of the Qing Dynasty through smuggling channels, and it is precisely because of this that the East India Company will fully support this smuggling tycoon who is trusted by the top management of the East India Company.

But who would have thought that just last year, when the opium harvest was unprecedentedly bumper, Charka scraped almost all the opium at once and went to the Qing Kingdom, as a result, the people were gone, and the goods were gone, so that the East India Company's losses on opium alone amounted to more than one million pounds.

After the news that no one in Sharka's party who had secretly smuggled opium for the East India Company survived was transmitted back to India, the top management of the East India Company was almost stunned by the news, and then became angry.

However, although the efforts of Staunton and others temporarily extinguished the anger of the East India Company, their dissatisfaction with the Qing State had become their consensus. Towards the end of the year, the share of trade that Britain had purchased from the Thirteen Banks in Canton was suddenly cut by two and a half, which surprised and displeased him, but on behalf of the interests of the merchants who belonged to the East India Company, Staunton found Ye Shanglin and Pan Youdu, and the answers given to him by the two seemed to be very consistent, and the amount of trade share was related to the price of merchants from other European countries.

Although Staunton was willing to pay the same price, or even a little higher, to obtain the share of the trade that had been carved up by those countries, the two were unwilling, and refused Staunton's request on the grounds that they had already signed a contract and could not change it.

This made Staunton very dissatisfied, but he did not have any recourse, although the reduction of the trade share was still short and did not have much effect, but it was enough to make the top management of the East India Company vigilant again.

At this time, Macartney, who had been ordered by His Majesty the King and the Parliament to go to the East, came to India, and Staunton naturally would not let go of this opportunity, so at the request of him and the East India Company, for the benefit of the Empire, Macartney decided to add the East India Company's request to the letter of state.

Liang Pengfei stretched out a finger and shook it at Staunton and Macartney. "It's a pity, this is the East, good luck to you. That's what I want to tell you. After Liang Pengfei said such a fluttering sentence, he returned the letter of state to Macartney.

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Macartney, who was a little stunned, took the national letter, but he didn't quite understand what Liang Pengfei meant by this, and Staunton next to him explained to him in French: "Mr. Earl, don't worry, Oriental people like to pretend to be so inscrutable, and they often make people scratch their heads. ”

Although Macartney still had a lot of doubts in his heart, he decided to put them aside at this time, otherwise, it would be quite impolite to talk to himself in front of the other party in a language that the other party did not understand, and he did not want to anger the general of the Qing Kingdom.

Liang Pengfei smiled and took out a pack of cigarettes from his arms, and after tearing open the seal, he lit it to himself, and the lingering fragrance of tobacco made the smokers present swallow a mouthful of saliva.

"It seems that the gentlemen are very interested in the cigarettes I smoke, in that case, monk, bring two boxes to these British gentlemen, and bring them up." Liang Pengfei glanced at Monk Chen behind him.

Soon, two boxes of cigarettes were placed on the deck, and the packets of beautifully packaged and novel cigarettes were handed to the members of the British legations who had crowded onto the deck to watch the excitement, and soon the deck was almost covered with smoke, and if a traverser happened to land on the surface at this time, he might have thought that he had encountered a steaming galleon powered by coal.

"I am really touched by your generosity, Your Excellency, this thing is less spicy and strong than a pipe, but it makes people feel very fresh and lovely, I have received such a gift in India, but unfortunately it is too little, and it was smoked in two days." Macartney let the smoke come out of his mouth as he looked at the cigarette in his hand.

"Since Mr. Ambassador likes it, don't worry, when I arrive in Macau, I will send you and your subordinates more, you know, we Oriental people have always been very hospitable." Liang Pengfei laughed, but there was a thief's light in those eyes.

"Well, now there is one more thing, and that is that I need to check, comprehensively inspect all your warships, first, to see what gifts you have prepared for our esteemed Emperor Majesty, and second, I need to check whether your men's warships are carrying contraband, such as opium." After Liang Pengfei flew the cigarette butt, he cleared his throat and said to Macartney.

"Opium?" Staunton shook his fingers as he was holding a cigarette, and his smiling face couldn't help but stiffen slightly. "Your Excellency, I think you are mistaken, this is our country's envoy fleet, not some smuggling merchant ship, how can there be such a thing."

"Damn it, did he think that we in the British Empire even had opium on our diplomatic fleet? This idea is so nonsense that it is simply an insult to the diplomatic envoys of the British Empire. Baron Staunton thought to himself.

And the members of the envoy who had slightly changed their attitude towards Liang Pengfei because of Liang Pengfei's generosity showed absurdity and anger on their faces, as if they had been engaged in opium smuggling for many years, and they were a group of pure people with high quality like angels.

"Do you mean, as British envoys, you actually know that your people are smuggling opium into our territory?" Liang Pengfei tilted his head and looked at Staunton, the smile on his face was like a fox playing with its prey.

(To be continued)