In June, the scorching sun of Yangcheng Guangzhou was like fire, and the bustling crowd shuttled through the streets, as if the war in the capital of the Qing Empire had not affected this place - a large number of foreigners walked on the streets with high spirits, and the locals with their bodies cautiously walked past them, looking at the foreigners with fearful eyes. **After the war opened the country, the people of the country seemed to have lost the dignity of the Celestial Empire overnight, and the world had become like this! It turned out that the ship could be so big, the artillery could be so sharp, and the foreigners used the fruits of the industrial revolution to hit the self-confidence of the Chinese people little by little, and successfully evolved it into this situation: the Qing court declared war on the foreigners, and the foreigners were still superior to others in the country, and they could not bear the threat of war!

Lu Liang has seen what the Chinese people of this era are like from old photos, but after actually seeing it, he still feels a burst of despair, the rise of a nation not only depends on steel, cannons, and giant ships, but also needs to change them spiritually. When the country gradually becomes rich and strong and defeats an aggressor, the people will gradually regain their self-confidence, and when the country dares to take the initiative to challenge the great powers and win the battle, the dignity of a big country will return to the people, and then it can be said that a nation has truly stood up.

Guangzhou is prosperous, as far as the eye can see, busy people, developed commerce, and even railways and factories, but these are all based on the exploitation of the people by foreigners, Lu Liang can only feel the empty shells walking one by one, and he has no interest in these prosperity.

Above the sadness is a heavy sense of responsibility and mission, Lu Liang has not forgotten the purpose of this trip, and in front of him is the cotton cloth shop that the spy confessed. Lu Er took the lead, and Lu Liang and three genetic guards walked in, Lu Liang and the guards were dressed as bodyguards, all in suits, and their bulging waists were obviously hiding pistols. The clerk of the cotton shop nodded and hurriedly came up to greet him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please!" Lu Er dragged a sentence of foreign text, and Lu Liang played the dog's leg and said in the back: "Tell your shopkeeper to come out, our Mr. George has a big deal to discuss!" ”

The clerk turned around and called the shopkeeper in the backyard, you must have a good eye to do business in this Guangzhou city, and no one can offend anyone who teaches nine streams and squires and foreigners every day. After a while, a middle-aged man in his forties walked out with a smiling face, looked at Lu Er, a foreigner sitting on a chair, and asked, "Su Can, the shopkeeper of the Xiading good cotton shop, I don't know what Mr. George has to discuss today?" ”

"Shopkeeper Su, Mr. George's Ambrera Company is an American company, engaged in the business of buying and selling cotton cloth, and wants to buy a batch of cotton cloth from you, the quantity is very large, I don't know if you can take it out." Lu Liang translated after Lu Er said a few words of foreign language, this is to test the background of the Dinghao cotton shop.

"I don't know how much your company wants?"

"100,000 horses!" This is a lie, knowing that they can't take it out, it depends on the reaction of this shopkeeper Su.

Su Can took a long breath, 100,000 pieces of cotton cloth, his own cotton cloth store can't sell so much in a year, it is indeed a big deal, but it is not impossible to do it, his own owner can. Su Can pondered for a while, and didn't think about anything else, he didn't want to miss such a big business, and introducing it to the owner was a great achievement. He said in a deep voice: "Mr. George, we can't get so much cotton cloth from our Dinghao cotton store, but someone in Guangzhou City can do it, why don't you go to Jardine Matheson to try it?" They sent more cotton cloth from the sea every year than they could count, and it was sure to meet Mr. George's needs. ”

Lu Er and Lu Liang glanced at each other, it seemed that the British were doing it, which was expected. "Our company has just been involved in the business of the Qing Dynasty, and I am not very familiar with this side, I wonder if Shopkeeper Su can help introduce it?"

"Hehe, Jardine Matheson is not something our little cotton shop can afford, but if Mr. George must see it, it is not impossible." Su Can's old god squinted his eyes and said with a smile. George gestured, Lu Liang took out a silver ticket of one hundred taels from his arms, Su Can took it and looked at it, and his smile became extremely bright.

"I will definitely bring news to Mr. George in two days!" Do you still need him to take it, just go directly to Jardine, this time the purpose has been achieved, knowing that it is Jardine Matheson that is playing ghosts, future actions can be targeted, there is no need to meet. Is it possible to negotiate with Jardine Matheson, a capital predator, will never face up to the small cotton yarn factory, and it will be a shame to send someone to check it.

Lu Liang and the others stood not far from the headquarters building of Jardine Matheson, and after looking at the magnificent building for a while, they turned around and left. Jardine Matheson is wealthy, but after all, it is a foreign company, and it is only through three means to pose a threat to itself, one is commercial competition, Lu Liang is not afraid of this, the cost of the products produced by his own factory is low and scary, and the scale is expanding very fast, and the cotton cloth of the foreign company has to be transported from overseas, so it seems that both the output and price competition have advantages. The second is to exert pressure on the government, which is opposed by the local forces represented by the Huizhou squires, and then to absorb more squires from Guangdong to join his side. The third is the threat of war, which is a very real problem, in this era, Westerners pursue bandit logic, do not care about the so-called universal values at all, and grab it if they can't get it, this is the tradition of the British and even Westerners for hundreds of years, believing that they can launch another cotton war. But at this time, it was a period of fierce confrontation between the two camps, and Lu Liang, who had historical memory, knew that the British were now deeply involved in the Boer War in South Africa, and the Germans were constantly making trouble. In addition, the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China has just been launched, and there will never be another large-scale war of aggression against China right away. Even if war comes, Lüliang's factories are built outside the range of naval artillery, and if a land war occurs, his own army will give it an unbearable blow!

"Let's go, there is nothing to attract us in this era, there is a smell of decay everywhere, waiting for us to build the country by ourselves!" After staying in Guangzhou for two days, Lu Liang became impatient, and it was better to go back and watch his career grow little by little.

In Jardine Matheson, Todd was reporting to William, "According to Su Canlai, the shopkeeper of the Dinghao cotton store, a day ago, an American named George went to buy cotton cloth, and he opened his mouth to buy 100,000 horses, and said that they were from the Ambrera Company. We got the news that SITC was a cotton cloth produced by Ambrera in cooperation with a local squire. I asked Su Can to bring them over tomorrow morning. ”

William laughed and said, "Don't you understand, they won't come here at all, and they just go to the Dinghao cotton shop to find out their background and want to know who the opponent is." It's just a small American company, just want to shake our Jardine business, what a joke, the Americans are getting more and more uncomplacent, but they have never understood that the foundation of our empire is colonies all over the world and countless battleships, and they are the guarantee that we can do business in peace! Find those people, and then get rid of them in a remote place, I don't want to continue to see Ziqiang cotton cloth appear in Guangzhou! ”