Su Song Tai Road, commonly known as Shanghai Road, jurisdiction over Jiangsu Songjiang Mansion, Suzhou Mansion and Taicang Zhili Prefecture, in the early Qing Dynasty Shunzhi period, set up a sub-patrol Su Song Bingbei Road, jurisdiction over Suzhou Mansion, Songjiang Mansion, subordinate to Jiangnan Province, the Provincial Department in Taicang Prefecture. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 In the second year of the Kangxi reign (1663), Susong Road was changed to Susong Changdao, and the Changzhou Prefecture was added, and the Provincial Department was moved to Suzhou. In the second year of Yongzheng (1724), Taicang Prefecture, which originally belonged to Suzhou Prefecture, was promoted to Taicang Zhili Prefecture, and Susong Road was renamed Susong Taidao. In the eighth year of Yongzheng (1730), at the request of Yin Jishan, the governor of Jiangsu, the Daotai Yamen also moved from Suzhou to Shanghai County under the jurisdiction of Songjiang Prefecture at this time. Su Song Taidao is an important official, although he is a fourth-rank official, but after the expiration of his term, most of them are promoted to the third-rank judge or the second-rank political secretary.

At this time, the Shanghai Taoist was Liu Qixiang, a native of Xiangxiang, Hunan, whose name was Kanghou, who replaced Huang Zuluo in 1894 as the acting Shanghai Dao, and succeeded Lu Haihuan again as Shanghai Daoist last year in 1896. This person's history records that he repeatedly rejected the unreasonable demands of Britain, the United States, France and other countries on the expansion of the concession, so although the two Shanghai Dao grades were good, they were not promoted, and he died of illness in Shanghai Dao around May 1897.

Liu Qixiang has still been in poor health recently, but he is still beating his body to listen to the report of Zheng Qinglian, the magistrate of Shanghai County: "Lord Daotai, the Russian Consulate has recently been looking for land in the concession, and it seems that it intends to set up a permanent consulate in Shanghai. ”

Zheng Qinglian is not simple, the word Jingxi, Fujian Min County, Tongzhi five years (1866) only fourteen-year-old Zheng Qinglian was admitted to the Fujian Shipbuilding School (Mawei Shipbuilding School) to learn shipbuilding technology, Guangxu three years (1877) because of the excellent results of the official sent to the French Sebao Shipbuilding Technical School to study, after graduation in Cherbourg Shipyard, Toulon Shipyard and Germany, Britain shipyards to study. After Guangxu returned to China in the sixth year, he designed and supervised the construction of the Qiongjia clippers "Kaiji", "Jingqing" and "Huantai", and then participated in the supervision of the construction of "Guangjia" and "Guanggeng" warships, "Guangyi", "Guangbing", "Fujing" hunting ships and "Tongji" training ships. In the twenty-first year of Guangxu (1895), he was appointed as the magistrate of Shanghai, which can be described as a standard technical official.

After hearing Zheng Qinglian's report, Liu Qixiang said lightly: "We can't control the affairs in the concession, as for the Russians who want to set up a consulate, is there still a small number of foreign consulates in Shanghai County?" As long as they don't ask for more land, let them go. ”

"My lord, but what if the Russians can't find a suitable place and ask us to cede a piece of land to them in Shanghai County?" Zheng Qinglian asked.

Liu Qixiang rubbed his forehead and said, "I can't give them an inch of land, these foreigners' problems are all habitual." A few years ago, when I was the first governor of Shanghai, the English and French people approached me many times to ask for the extension of the concession, but I was turned away. As for this Russian, it's still the same, what's the problem for him to come to me. Jingxi (Zheng Qinglianzi) Ah, although you have also stayed in the ocean, you must know that this land belongs to my Great Qing Kingdom, and you can't give up an inch. ”

"Xia Guan understands!" Zheng Qinglian replied.

Liu Qixiang became more and more sleepy and then said: "Jingxi, you are good at handling things this time, if you can't resist foreigners coming to the door, let them ask me, I have my own way to deal with it." Alas, I'm getting old, and this body is getting worse day by day. ”

Zheng Qinglian got up when he heard this and said, "I hope that the adults will take care of their health and say goodbye!" Liu Qixiang nodded slightly.

At the same time that Liu Qixiang was discussing with Zheng Qinglian in the Shanghai Provincial Yamen, Witte also had a temporary residence in the Shanghai Consulate, a three-story Western-style building not far from St. Peter's Church on Aiwenyi Road in the Anglo-American Concession. On the first floor is the hall and the rooms and the secretary's office, on the second floor is the office of the two senators, the quarters and the quarters of the three secretaries, and on the third floor is the entire floor of Werther's residence - four houses - including the reception room, the office, the meeting room and the bedrooms.

"Mr. Vladislav, it's been a whole week now, haven't you found a suitable house for your office?" Werther asked dissatisfied.

Vladislav hurriedly returned: "Your Excellency, there are too few locations in the British and American Concessions that are suitable for all of us to work collectively, and although some of the properties are empty, the owners are unwilling to rent them to us for their own use, and although there are suitable houses in the French Concession, the Ministry of Industry of the French Concession does not allow other countries to enter at all. ”

"So how did you talk to Mr. Hartung about buying that vacant lot on Huangpu Road?" After hearing this, Witte also sighed, the Russians came to Shanghai too late, not only did they not have their own concession, but there was not even a single property of their own in the concession, I really don't know what the previous ministers and diplomats were doing?

Another consular senator in charge of negotiating with Hartung, Yegor. Sergeyevich. Ivanovsky said: "Mr. Hartung is willing to sell, but the price of the land is too high, it costs £1.5 million......

"This damn Jew, why didn't he rob it?" Witt was furious when he heard the £1.5 million offer.

Ivanovsky and Vladislav looked at the furious Werther, and then Vladislav said: "Your Excellency, if there is no way, we might as well find the officials of Shanghai to solve it, there are still so many vacant land around Shanghai, it should not be difficult to set aside a piece of land to build a consulate for us." ”

Witte's heart was really unwilling to add another piece of Russian concession to Shanghai, knowing that once Russia got the land, then those powers like flies would take the opportunity to go up, so it was possible that the area of the Shanghai concession would be much larger than the private expansion of various countries in 1899, so he said: "Have you not heard that the Shanghai Province and Shanghai County of the Qing Dynasty have repeatedly rejected the requests of Britain, France, the United States and other countries to expand the concession land? That official did not eat oil and salt, which made the consuls of various countries lose face. ”

When the three of them looked at each other and didn't know what to do, a secretary came in and said, "Your Excellency, Mr. Yu Qiaqing, the comprador of Lu Lin Foreign Bank, has come to visit and is now waiting on the first floor. ”

When Witte heard that it was this sea hearer, it was a critical moment to buy land to build an embassy, and Witte knew that Yu Qiaqing belonged to one of the few Orthodox Chinese among the merchants in the late Qing and early Ming dynasties, and also had a Russian name Anlilie. Pavrovich. Since this man has come to the door, then something good must have come, so Witt said: "Please Mr. Yu come to the reception room and wait, and I will go there immediately." ”

Ivanovsky said at this time: "Your Excellency, this Mr. Yu is still very famous in Shanghai, if he can help us, maybe we will get a satisfactory land." ”

Witt nodded, and then said, "Recently, the two of you have continued to look for a house in the concession, even if the price is slightly higher than the market price. ”

After Ivanovsky and Vladislav left, Werther came to the reception room after a little tidying up, at this time Yu Qiaqing stood in the reception room and admired several Chinese landscape paintings hanging in the reception room, which were picked up by Werther in the antique shop in Shanghai after his arrival, including the painting scrolls of the late Ming Dynasty landscape painter Sun Bailing and the late Yuan painter Zhang Zhen, as for whether it is authentic Werther.

"Mr. Yu has been waiting for a long time, I'm really embarrassed!" As soon as Witt entered the room, he spoke in official dialect first.

Yu Qiaqing came back to her senses and replied with a smile: "Hello Your Excellency, I didn't expect Your Excellency's official words to be better than mine, and it is even more rare for Mr. Consul to like Chinese culture, which is rare among the Westerners Yu has seen." ”

Witt invited Yu Qiaqing to sit down, and then smiled: "Mr. Yu has an overreputation." I just like some traditional Chinese culture, and there are still many people in the Western civilization world who are interested in Chinese culture. My uncle is one of them, and he is a good friend of Mr. Li Hongzhang, Minister of Military Aircraft of your country. ”

Yu Qiaqing took a sip of the Chinese tea that had just been served, and then said: "The authentic and superb West Lake Longjing, although it is not a new tea, it still tastes good. Uncle Sergey. I have also heard of Mr. Witte in Shanghai, and he can be described as Mr. Bismarck of Russia. ”

"Mr. Yu's praise for my uncle, I will definitely tell you." Witt said with a smile, "I wonder what is the important thing about Mr. Yu's visit this time?" ”

Yu Qiaqing said: "I heard that your country is looking for a suitable house for the office of your consulate general in Shanghai, and it just so happens that I have a property in hand, although it is outside the existing concession, but it is close to the British and American concessions, as long as a road is built, he can be regarded as a concession, I wonder if Mr. Consul is willing?" ”

This is really a pillow sent by someone if he wanted to sleep, but Witt only stared at Yu Qiaqing, obviously there is no interest behind such a good thing, how could Yu Qiaqing, who is a person who is a person at sea, come in person?

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