Updated: 20-06-09

On Sunday morning, the newborn sun shines golden light over Hong Kong's Victoria City. Two doors of a large mansion on Bonham Street in Sheung Wan slowly open, and a plaque in Chinese and English hangs on the door of the house, "South China Press", which is the location of the South China Press founded by Hong Kong Huafu & Co.

A horse-drawn carriage drove from the South China Printing House along Queen's Road, in the fresh sea breeze, all the way west.

Hearing the cries of the newsboys outside, Li Duoen, who was sitting in the carriage, felt very freehand, the South China Press was on the right track, the sales of newspapers were getting better day by day, and other printed books were also in short supply.

Li Duoen is the manager of the Nanhua Press, 5 years old this year, from Hubei. He graduated from the Communication University of China, is good at media propaganda operations, and was once accepted as a non-editor by a powerful department of TG, and assigned to work in the German reporter station of a certain newspaper for a long time.

Li Dorn sat in the carriage for a while, feeling that the old Hans beside him did not move, and when he turned his head, the old Hans fell ill and dozed off in his seat. He hurriedly instructed the coachman, "Slow down, don't let the carriage jolt." ”

Feeling the carriage slowing down, old Hans was startled, sat up straight all of a sudden, and German came out of his mouth, "Dawn, has St. John's Cathedral arrived?" ”

Dawn is the name that Li Dorn used when he was working in Germany, and after coming to Hong Kong, he used it again. Having worked in Germany for many years, Lee Dorn developed a habit of going to church on Sundays. When he came to Hong Kong, Li Dorn also went to Hong Kong every Sunday to worship at St. John's Cathedral, and with his proficiency in German, Li Dorn met the elder Hans when he was worshipping. Hans the Elder, a German who had his own printing house in Prussia, had lost a lot of money in Berlin because of the failure of the competition for production, so he went to Hong Kong to pan for gold.

"It's almost there, ten minutes to go." Li Dorn lifted his glasses and asked with great concern, "Mr. Hans, are you tired!" You won't have to work this night shift anymore. ”

Lidorn's German with a Berlin accent, and old Hans, with his round face and beard shaved to the ground, thought to himself that this was not at all like what we Prussians do, but if you only listen to this voice, no one really thinks it is his fellow Germans. He shook his head repeatedly, "No, no, no! It's okay to work the night shift, it's a Sunday service once a week, and I'm full of strength right now. ”

Old Hans said that this night shift is a must, and the night shift in the printing house has a night shift subsidy, plus his own salary, he can pay off his debts in more than a year. Hans is now the director of the printing workshop of the South China Press, that is, the director of the workshop, and his salary plus the night shift allowance is 200 silver dollars a month.

Li Dorn smiled, "Mr. Hans, after all, you are also in your fifties, after all, after the night shift, go to church services, can you stand it?" ”

"I'm not tired, hearing your authentic German, my fatigue is gone all of a sudden." As he spoke, old Hans thumped his chest with his fist, "Come on, I'm a soldier's body, and it's no problem to do coolies." ”

The elder Hans was very comfortable in coming to Hong Kong, an English and Cantonese environment, where he rarely had the opportunity to communicate German with others. But unexpectedly, he met Dawn, an American with yellow skin, black hair, and black eyes, who spoke fluent German at the church. Unexpectedly, Dawn offered him a high-paying job and hired him to be the director of the printing workshop, although the Huafu printing press used by the Nanhua Press was more advanced than the printing machinery he knew, but the old Hans quickly mastered the principle of machinery, so that the entire printing workshop could run safely and efficiently.

St. John's Cathedral is located at the corner of Garden Road and Battery Lane in Central, Hong Kong Island, and was officially completed on the 49th anniversary of the month. The cathedral is cross-shaped, sitting west to east, and contains a bell tower, a west door, a cruciform transept, an altar and an altar, a pulpit, a bishop's seat, and a prayer hall.

In the early autumn, the flowers and plants on both sides of the main entrance of the church are abundant, and seagulls fly over the church from time to time, giving people a holy atmosphere, like a paradise on earth.

The carriage stopped in front of the gates of St. John's Cathedral, and Lidorn and Hans stepped out of the carriage, dressed up, and entered the church solemnly. There were already a lot of people in the church hall, and Li Dorn went to Tang Muyao to pray silently in the front row, saying that this guy came so early. He and Hans directly found an empty seat, and together they silently bowed their heads and shook hands to their foreheads and prayed.

"Are you Mr. Hans, Hans? Mr. Werner? A whisper, hesitant, came from behind him.

Hearing the friendly German, old Hans quickly turned his head to a middle-aged man with a slanted face and a thin figure in the appearance of an orthodox ordinary Germanic man, who sat in a row behind him and greeted him.

Old Hans's eyes widened in surprise and whispered, "Mr. Heinrich! I didn't expect to see you in Hong Kong. ”

Heinrich? Langu was a Hanoverian merchant from Hamburg, and the elder Hans had a business relationship with Heinrich.

"Ever since I was trading in the East, Thomas has approached me. He said, "You are in Hong Kong, and you asked me to bring you a letter." Heinrich laughed.

"Thomas, is Thomas okay?" Old Hans's expression was a little excited. Thomas? Werner was the son of Hans Sr., who was about to graduate from the Prussian Military Academy before Hans Sr. went bankrupt.

"Thomas did a good job, he was now in charge of the guard of the Prussian diplomatic corps in Frankfurt. The letter is in my dwelling, and you will know later. ”

As soon as he heard about Frankfurt, Lidorn immediately thought of Bismarck, who was now the representative of the Kingdom of Prussia in Frankfurt, and he immediately asked softly, "Thomas and Bismarck together?!" ”

"Yes, he is responsible for Mr. Bismarck's safety." Heinrich was surprised by Lidorn, who did not expect that the Oriental man also spoke fluent German and knew something about Prussia.

"Be quiet, Mr. Bao Ling is here!" Suddenly, someone whispered. The hall of the church suddenly became quieter, and the Governor of Hong Kong, accompanied by the priest, walked from the middle passage to the center of the front row of the church.

After about a minute, music began to play, and the Boy Scouts dressed in white sang hymns to the accompaniment of the organ.

After the service, people bustled out of the church. Walking out of the church side by side with Bao Ling and Tang Muyao, the people in front of St. John's Cathedral scattered one after another, making way for a space.

Bao Ling's face was full of spring breeze, "Dear Tang, your idea is really good, don't fight that greedy guy head-on, and directly go to the Colonial Department to explain the connotation of the order, so that he has nothing to say." ”

Tang Daban smiled, "Mr. Justice is mainly a little more difficult, as the deputy governor wants to seek the power of the governor, he stretches his hand too long, and the colonial department naturally wants to teach him a lesson." ”

Bao Ling, who was halfway up the mountain and had not yet finished the Hong Kong Governor's Mansion, sighed, "The main reason is that the Hong Kong government's finances are tight, otherwise how can there be so many things." ”

The construction of the Hong Kong Governor's Mansion was completed in five years, but due to the financial constraints of the Hong Kong government, it has not been able to be renovated.

"The finances will be better, and the adults have been in office for less than half a year, and they have opened up a variety of financial resources. I believe that in Marseille in the afternoon, the Hong Kong government can get a batch of rich taxes. When Bao Ling was a little distracted, Tang Muyao comforted him.

"Marseille in the afternoon must have been a success, and your ideas never let me down." Bao Ling nodded, a strange expression on his face.

"Hong Kong is based on trade, and I think trade should be the main source of tax revenue for the Hong Kong government."

"You're right, if it weren't for the damn Manchurian trouble, the trade volume would not have been able to rise, and Hong Kong's fiscal revenue would have absolutely no problem." Bao Ling had a murderous look on his face.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty opened up five ports to trade, and the rapid development of trade in Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities caused Hong Kong's trade to continue to decline. A British merchant wrote to the Colonial Department, "Hong Kong has no business to operate, and the island can only be used as a place for the Hong Kong government and its officials to stay, and to shelter a group of poor people who have nothing to live on." ”

Commercial supervision was Bao Ling's main responsibility, and further opening up trade with China was one of the tasks assigned to him by the Colonial Ministry. After the First Opium War, a large number of British goods entered China, but because China was a closed small-scale peasant society, most of the British goods were not marketable, and only the opium trade was dominant. If it weren't for the Crimean War, Britain would have been ready to use the means of war to continue to open up the Chinese market.

Bao Ling's chubby body was the first to get into the carriage, and the crown sign of the governor's carriage left tuk-tuk, and everyone present hurriedly saluted.

Tang Muyao secretly scolded in his heart, hateful warmongers! The executive committee asked him to delay the outbreak of the Second Opium War as much as possible to buy time for the development of the team in Taiwan. Although Tang Muyao already has a good friendship with Bao Ling, it is not easy to make Bao Ling's ambition less urgent. Tang Muyao thought about the problem in his heart, and unconsciously filled his steps.

Many merchants in front of the church gathered around Tang Muyao. Most of these people are the owners of various newspapers in Hong Kong, and they have gone to the "Xiangjiang Daily" and "Nanhua Daily" to print beautifully, and they have repeatedly approached Tang Muyao, wanting to learn the printing technology of the Nanhua Press, but they have all been rejected by Tang Muyao's patent application for the new technology has not yet been approved.

The Chief Magistrate of the Hong Kong government, Xi Lier, first blocked Tong Taipan's way, "Mr. Tong, congratulations, your two newspapers have been quite successful, but my "Far Away from the Public" has failed. ”

Hong Kong's first Chinese-language newspaper, Wandering Treasures, was founded by Christian missionary Maddox who was unable to devote himself to the complex task of editing because he was both consul in Shanghai and had to deal with church affairs. Therefore, in 54, he transferred the editorial affairs to his son-in-law, Xi Lier, who had assisted him in founding and editing the newspaper "News of the Nations". In addition to his work as Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Government, he also serves as the editor of the magazine.

Xi Lier felt that the circulation of "Far Away from the World" was getting worse, and he felt powerless to return to the sky, and wanted to sell the newspaper to Tang Muyao.

Regarding Xi Lier's proposal, Tang Muyao rejected it on the spot. He declared that Hong Kong would become a metropolis in Asia, and that there would be hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands, of Chinese from all walks of life.

"I believe that in the future, Hong Kong will accommodate several, more than a dozen different Chinese newspapers."

Tang Muyao told Xi Lier that the printing machinery produced by Huafu Machinery Factory has applied for patents in Europe and the United States. He expressed his willingness to provide a complete set of services for the upgrading of the printing technology of "Far Away from the Treasure".

"My machine shop has started mass production of Huafu printing presses." Tang Muyao looked around at the newspaper bosses present, "As long as you are willing to pay, we Huafu Foreign Bank guarantee to provide you with the latest printing technology and follow-up technical support." ”