On April 17, 1897, the Russian Consulate General in Shanghai opened a garden east of the current Public Concession near Tilanqiao, which was now legally owned by the Qing government in Shanghai County, which was commonly known as the "Huajie" area. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info At the beginning, Yu Qiaqing bought the rocky beach here, and I am afraid that he also made plans to expand the concession.

In his previous life, Witt studied history at Fudan University in Shanghai, and at that time he had a local friend who lived in the area of Pingliang Road, and often went to his friend's house to play, so Witt was still very impressed by this part. The area that is now occupied by Devit is remembered to be close to Houdri.

The exterior of the building is in the shape of a traditional Chinese house, with three separate buildings in a zigzag layout, the largest of which is three storeys high, plus a five-storey attic and basement, located in the middle of the courtyard, and the main building is also the main office of the consulate. The basement is built in an above-ground and half-underground way, with glass windows that let in sunlight, mainly the kitchen and storage room; The main function of the first floor is the banquet hall, which is used by the consulate to hold some small-scale banquets; The second floor is the office space and three guest rooms of the consulate, the senatorial rooms are suites, divided into living rooms, offices and bedrooms, with an area of 280 square meters, and the three guest rooms, each with an area of about 60 square meters, are equipped with telephones, running water, electric lights and toilets, mainly for some visiting VIPs to live; The third floor is dedicated to Werther, with three rooms, a bedroom, an office and a reception room, and the upstairs attic is connected to Werther's bedroom, creating a loft style.

With the exception of the themed three-storey building, the other two are two-storey, with no basement and no attic. The house on the left hand side of the door is mainly used for the daily office of the consulate, and the first floor is the consulate archives, the external liaison department, the logistics department, and the security department; On the second floor, the Shanghai branch of the Intelligence Bureau, the task force, the confidential room, and the telegraph room are located, and on the roof of this building are antennas for sending telegrams. The two-storey building on the right-hand side is the dormitory for all the staff of the consulate.

Although the exterior of the consulate is made of Chinese elements, most of the furnishings in the rooms are Western-style, except for Werther's bedroom, which is furnished in a Chinese style, and some of the furniture is also custom-made mahogany furniture in Shanghai, which is handmade, and the cost of these furniture is very expensive.

In addition to the three buildings, the front garden of the consulate has a fountain specially built and decorated with lights, while the back yard is a purely Western courtyard, a Romanesque domed pavilion is located among flowers, and the northern part of the pavilion is a pond specially built with river water. The entire renovation project took more than a month and cost 500,000 silver dollars, but Witt's idea was that if the compound was sold for at least 2 million silver dollars, it would be a huge profit.

While the renovation of the Russian Consulate was underway, Witt, Hartung and Yu Qiaqing also began to build and renovate the road near the Consulate, connecting the eastern section of Yangshupu Road in the Public Concession to the east, and Witte named this road "St. Nicholas Road" to make His Majesty the arrogant Tsar happy; In the north, a new road was built at the main entrance of the consulate, and Witte named it "Vasily Road", which was so that he could leave his name in history, and I have to say that Werther's narcissism is also quite serious.

In addition to these two roads, construction was also started at the same time as the Odessa Road, which connects St. Nicholas Road and Vasily Road, running north-south, and this Odessa Road is also the Dalian Road where Witte remembers his previous life. In addition to the three roads that have already started construction, Witte also has Tbilisi Road, Helsinki Road, Baku Road, Warsaw Road, Vilno Road and Kiev Road running north-south; The total construction period of these eight roads, Sergei Road and Boris Road, which run east-west to three years, was also decided to tender for the design and construction of the Russian Consulate on Huangpu Road in the public concession.

"Vladislav, what's the current situation? How many foreign firms have come to apply? Witt asked, walking into Vladislav's office.

Vladislav hurriedly replied: "In terms of design, there are now a total of five foreign companies such as Jardine Matheson, Baoshun, Xiangtai, Lu Lin, and Huasheng to quote, and in addition to the above five, there are also Taichang, Baowen, Xianheng, and a construction firm named Wang Fa Kee Construction Factory in the Qing Kingdom to come to quote. ”

"Oh, Wang Fa Kee Construction Factory? What are their qualifications? When Witte heard that there were still Chinese companies coming to bid, he immediately asked with great interest.

Vladislav replied: "This Wang Fa Ji Construction Factory built the North Building of Jianghai Customs, and the overall process is still okay, but at present, in the entire concession, except for the Qing country's own buildings, other countries will not choose Qing people to build it." ”

After hearing this, Witt said: "As long as they are qualified, there is no problem in terms of price and quality, we will treat them equally." When we came to Shanghai to open up the situation, we had to deal with the Qing people, and these people were also the cornerstone of our understanding of the Qing Dynasty. ”

"Your Excellency the Consul, the Qing State of Shanghai sent police to block the consulate, and the Shanghai county magistrate asked to meet with you and asked us to stop building roads." While Werther and Vladislav were discussing the tender, Ivanovsky came and said.

At this time, outside the gate of the Russian Consulate in Shanghai, the officials of Shanghai County and Shanghai Province were confronting the security personnel of the Russian Consulate.

As the magistrate of Shanghai County, Zheng Qinglian stood in the middle of the guards of the officials, thinking of the entrustment of Lord Daotai today, and the horror in his heart still existed. The Russians have been crossing the border to build roads for more than a month, and I thought that this matter would probably be left to the foreigners on their own, but I didn't expect that the Beijing Division suddenly sent a report asking for a stop, and it was also a handwritten letter from the Minister of Military Aircraft, the Ministry of Households, and the Prime Minister of the Yamen, Weng Tonggong.

Zheng Qinglian was called to the Daotai Yamen by Liu Qixiang of Shanghai Dao early this morning, and Liu Qixiang told him and showed Weng Tongxiao's handwriting, the content of which was nothing more than to prevent the Russians from crossing the border to build roads. Zheng Qinglian knew that Weng Tongyi was the leader of the "Qingliu", and he was naturally disgusted with foreigners, and he also disliked those of them who had gone abroad. As everyone knows, Weng Tongyi and Li Hongzhang are not on good terms, and this discord indirectly led to the destruction of the Beiyang Naval Division, so Zheng Qinglian, who was born in the navy, is actually seriously dissatisfied with such a person who disregards the country, but the official level crushes people to death, not to mention that this is so much bigger?

Witte came to the door and saw the situation in front of him, and then looked at the middle-aged man who was surrounded by the officials in the middle of the Zhixian Qipin supplement uniform, and immediately said: "I am Vasily, the Consul General of the Russian Empire in Shanghai. Borisovich. Witte, is your country preparing for war with our country by sending troops to surround our consulate? ”

Werther was also dissatisfied with his statement, he didn't expect to be an ugly foreign invader, and he didn't know how to play himself in later Chinese novels and TV dramas. However, since you are an envoy of a country, you have to safeguard the dignity of the country, not to mention surround and attack the embassy, which is a serious provocation to the dignity of a country.

As an elite studying in the West, of course he knew what it meant to attack the embassies of other countries, but he couldn't do anything if it was an order from above, and at this time it represented the face of the country, so he said solemnly: "Your Excellency, your country has built roads and houses in China without the permission of our country, which violates the treaty signed between your country and our country, and I hereby express my solemn protest on behalf of my government. Therefore, on behalf of my Government, I would like to ask your country to stop the act of crossing the border to build roads, and as for your consulate, you can temporarily locate the Chinese border, and when the construction of your country's embassy is completed, please move out as soon as possible, so as to show the eternal good-neighborliness and friendship between the two countries. ”

Witte had a great affection for the Qing official in front of him, and dared to speak so righteously and sternly in front of his own invaders, and his standard diplomatic rhetoric was much better than some groveling Qing court officials and those arrogant and corrupt officials. If the Qing court were all such officials, then China would not be bullied by foreigners every time.

"Dare to ask your surname? What are the jobs? This time, Witte came to look at it in Chinese, and Zheng Qinglian was stunned and replied: "The lower official is Zheng Qingqing, the Zhixian of Shanghai County, Your Excellency, can the envoy agree to the request I said?" ”

Werther was stunned, it turned out to be him! No wonder he spoke so methodically, so he said: "Zheng Zhixian, my country is really forced to build roads, since your country has made representations, we can agree to temporarily suspend work, but I will directly negotiate with your country's Prime Minister Yamen about the expansion of roads and buildings." ”

Zheng Qinglian was relieved when he heard that Werther had agreed to his request, as long as he succeeded this time, then the subsequent negotiations had nothing to do with him, so he said: "Thank you for your understanding, if there is a chance, this county is willing to have a wine with you." ”

"Okay, Ben will definitely go there then!" Witt said.

Seeing that the matter was settled, Zheng Qinglian left with the officials, and at this time, Ivanovsky stepped forward and said to Wette: "Your Excellency, do we really have to do what the Qing court officials demand?" ”

"Stop work first, and then send a telegram to the embassy in Beijing, and ask Mr. Master to go directly to the Prime Minister's Yamen to protest, if it still doesn't work, I'm afraid I'll have to bother the Pacific Fleet to go around Tianjin." Witte smiled indifferently and then walked into the consulate, and at this moment Witte felt more and more that he was a shameless aggressor.

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