June 15, 1793, off the coast of Macao.

The five ships of the visiting fleet, including two ordinary merchant ships hired by Wickham, are quietly anchored in the sea near the mouth of the Pearl River. The batch of Indian cotton cloth purchased in Calcutta had already been sold off when the fleet passed through Batavia, and the profit was as high as 30,000 pounds!

This made Wickham realize how lucrative the maritime trade could be in this day and age, and that 70% of the profits could be made on such a short route from Kolkata to Indonesia, and that would have multiplied several times if it were shipped to the European continent.

Of course, such a high profit can be completely due to the fact that India's cotton cloth is basically monopolized by the British East India Company. Wickham's behavior of digging the foot of the East India Company's wall cannot be played without a way, and the profits in it are naturally huge. Lord Magalny turned a blind eye to this kind of behavior, because his nephew was also involved, and he couldn't cut off his nephew's wealth, right?

After disposing of the cargo, Wickham did not dismiss the two merchant ships, but chose to continue to hire them to China. It was no secret that the high profits of the Chinese route were no secret in the Age of Sail, but the goods exported from the 13 lines in Guangzhou had a fixed amount, and most of them were covered by the monopoly privileged companies of the East India Company, so small and medium-sized merchants could not intervene at all.

The Qing court attached great importance to the British mission, and even allowed the ships of the mission to trade directly in the area of Zhenhai in Zhejiang, and there was no restriction on the amount of goods at all. If Wickham, who is familiar with history, does not seize this opportunity, then he will really be a human being for nothing.

The two merchant ships did not carry any cargo except for the one hundred and fifty rosewoods, and were completely empty. Bert and Barnett were puzzled by this, and their idea was to buy some goods from Manila and sell them in China, and they could make a profit.

But Wickham knew very well that the ancient Chinese economy was self-sufficient, and unless he got opium out of it, he would lose what he sold in China! Therefore, he tried his best to ignore public opinion, directly empty the ship, and directly went to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to purchase goods when the time came.

At this time, the deck of the "Lion" was filled with important members of the mission and a number of middle and senior officers, and the main envoy of the mission, Lord Margarny, the deputy envoy, Baron Stanton, and the commander of the fleet, Colonel Aldrich, and Wickham, were all present.

Originally, a small captain of Wickham was not qualified to appear on such an occasion, but these days, Wickham's knowledge of China has completely convinced several attachés sent by the East India Company. As Lord Magalny's special adviser on Chinese affairs, Wickham was called by Magalny to serve on the "Lion" when he entered the South China Sea.

When a small sampan slowly approached the "Lion", a group of sailors hurriedly pulled the people inside the sampan up. With a wave of his hand, Magarny called the second lieutenant officer, who had just boarded the ship, and asked, "What is the reply of Mr. Governor of Macao?" ”

The second lieutenant had just rowed his sampan ashore to make contact with the Portuguese officials in Macao, and the members of the mission wanted to know more about the situation in Guangzhou, and the Portuguese in Macao were undoubtedly the best candidates, after all, they had established a stronghold in China for more than 200 years, and they belonged to the land snake on the ground in Guangdong, and they were much better informed than the mission that had just arrived from Europe.

The second lieutenant's blue military uniform was wet with the sea water when he was riding on the sampan, but he didn't care at all, and said with a look: "Your Excellency, the Governor of Macao has asked our fleet to stop in the open sea first, and wait for the Qing navy to come and inspect it before entering the port of Guangzhou under the guidance of the other party's warship." ”

On the borders of Europe, it is a very sensitive matter in itself for other ships to dock in their own ports, let alone on the borders of the Far East. After all, the British mission had a large fleet and a third-class ship with sixty guns, and it would definitely cause unnecessary trouble if it broke into the mouth of the Pearl River in this way.

The commander of the fleet, Colonel Aldrich, had long anticipated this, so he did not lead the fleet into the mouth of the Pearl River, but ordered the fleet to anchor off the coast of Macao, and first see what the Portuguese had to say.

Wickham leaned excitedly on the side of the "Lion", looking at the distant land, and felt excited, that is, the land and country he loved in the previous life, but when he returned here, time had been inexorably advanced to two hundred years ago.

Suddenly, Wickham felt a little lost, and after nine months of hard work at sea, and even nearly lost his life several times, he returned to China. It's just that the current country is a familiar and strange place for him.

His habits, values, and moral system were so out of place in China two hundred years ago. Now he is a Yiren to China, and China is more like a foreign country to them. Perhaps, this is the first and last time he has been in this country.

The Portuguese were still quite efficient, and just three hours later, a Chinese sailing ship flying the flag of the Humen sailors appeared at the mouth of the Pearl River, and was unhurriedly heading this way. It seemed that the Portuguese had informed the Qing officials in Canton of the news that the British mission had arrived, so they hurriedly sent the ships of the sailors to guide them into the port.

Everyone on the warship, including the members of the mission, Shui Shui and the officers, stretched their necks and looked curiously at the ** ship in the distance, many of them were coming to China for the first time, and they were full of curiosity about everything in China, and they wanted to know what was the difference between the warships of the Eastern Empire and the warships of Britain.

Wickham carefully examined the Qing court's sailor warship, and found that it was a small ship with a displacement of no more than 200 tons, which according to ancient Chinese weights and measures was about 700 materials, and there were no more than four guns on it. The ship type is typical of the fortune ship, which is more suitable for freight, but it is not suitable for warship, because its dense watertight compartment partitions greatly limit the arrangement of artillery.

The sailing movements of the Qing sailors looked a little clumsy, and it was obvious that they did not go to sea for training very often. Wickham shook his head, China's maritime power has been thrown a few streets away by the European powers in terms of technology and training, and the warship of the Humen Naval Division in front of him all shows that China's navy is no match for the British Royal Navy in terms of equipment or training.

It is no wonder that forty years later, the British expeditionary fleet from India easily wiped out all the Qing Dynasty's maritime power in Guangdong at the mouth of the Pearl River. In addition to the lax camp affairs of the Qing court at that time, another important reason was that the gap in equipment was too large, and it was normal to be abused.

The greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment. The small ship in front of them disappointed the members of the British mission, in their image, China was a wealthy, civilized, and powerful super-empire, but they did not expect that the other side's navy was even worse than the navy of the Ottoman Empire, the sick man of Asia Minor.

A trace of contempt flashed in Colonel Aldrich's eyes, and he whispered: "Such a small wrecked ship, the Lion can send it to the bottom of the sea with a salvo!" ”

A Scottish natural scientist in the mission exclaimed even more exaggeratedly: "My God, are those people on the deck of the Qing warship sailors or beggars, why are they dressed so in tatters, is it possible that the Qing Kingdom is so poor that they have no money to issue a set of military uniforms to their soldiers?" ”

The gun officer on the Lion laughed strangely: "Have you seen the guns on that ship, it is covered with rust!" Didn't the sailors of the Qing Kingdom take care of their own weapons? With such a badly corroded artillery, I really doubt that it will be able to be used properly, don't blow it up as soon as you fire......"

Listening to the discussions of the people around him, Wickham's heart was a little bitter, his former motherland was so belittled by foreigners, he felt very uncomfortable. But Wickham understands that face is earned by himself, and the barbaric nation of the Qing Dynasty is indeed not qualified to win the respect of the civilized world.

In less than 20 minutes, the warship of the Humen Naval Division had already approached and stopped at a distance of 100 meters from the British fleet, and then several military attaches and sailors of the Qing army rowed their sampans towards the "Lion". The sailors on the "Lion" did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly lowered the cable and pulled up the military attaches of the Qing Dynasty.

After the military attache stepped onto the deck, he straightened out his official uniform, and then shouted proudly: "Who is the English tribute envoy Magalny?" After speaking, the Qing military attache said in a low voice in Cantonese: "Hold your mother, the name of this Yi people is really awkward to pronounce, and it is worthy of a group of overseas barbarians who have not yet been incorporated." ”

However, he didn't expect that several Britons present could understand Cantonese, and those Britons looked a little unpleasant, but they still held back. Wickham almost couldn't hold back his laughter, this naval attache was so funny.

Wickham quickly glanced at the complement on the military attaché's chest, and found that the complement was embroidered with Biao, a six-rank petty official, and he was at most a general in this Humen sailor camp. The current Chinese are not those who worship foreigners in later generations, in their concept, China is a big country and the center of the earth, and they are qualified to be proud in front of the Yi people.

However, before the middle of the Ming Dynasty, China was indeed the world's largest superpower. But after the end of the Ming Dynasty, China has begun to slowly decline, and now the world has entered the era of sea power from the era of land power, and China's ruling class has never turned its attention from the land to the sea.

Lord Magalny thought that the Qing military attache opposite him was a high-ranking official, so he greeted him and said, "I am Lord Magalny, the British envoy, and I have been entrusted by our King George III to establish formal diplomatic relations with your country. Wickham, as the highest level of interpreter, also rose to the occasion and became a simultaneous interpreter.

The little military attache didn't expect Wickham to speak fluent official language, but he still suppressed his curiosity and said to Magalny: "Your Excellency the Governor has an order, let our Humen sailors guide you to the port of Guangzhou, the emperor's birthday is coming, you have to hurry up and land and go from Guangzhou to Beijing." ”

The meaning of the governor of Liangguang was very simple, he wanted the English tribute envoys to follow the old practice of the Portuguese tribute envoys, go ashore from Guangzhou and then go to Beijing by land to pay tribute. This six-grade petty military attache was instructed by the Shaoxing master of the Governor's Palace, so he wanted to urge Yingyi to speed up, and Emperor Qianlong attached great importance to this ceremony of all nations coming to the court, and no one dared to mess things up at this time.

Lord Magalny frowned, he had in his hand a map of the Qing territory drawn by a French missionary, there was at least a thousand miles from Guangzhou to Beijing, equivalent to the distance from Lisbon to Jerusalem, if you took the land, not only would it be difficult to transport large gifts to the Qing court, but also might not be able to catch up with Qianlong's ninety-third birthday.

After paying attention, Magalny spoke: "Dear sir, I still have a large number of gifts for His Majesty the Emperor on my ship, which can easily be damaged by land, and I ask your country to allow us to go directly to Tientsin by sea, and then land at Tientsin for Peking." "This route was also the best route for the East India Company's staff to help plan, which was not only convenient but also time-saving.

Wickham knew that the six-rank junior military attache in front of him had no right to decide, and Margarny said it in vain. Sure enough, the little military attache frowned and said, "We are on the orders of the Governor of Liangguang, and if there is anything, you will have to say it yourself." ”

After speaking, the Qing State junior military attache ignored everyone and just guided the fleet into the harbor by the small boat. Magarni was bored with himself, so he shut his mouth and said no more.

ps: Thank you for the tips of Science and Technology Farming, Xuan Ang and Love Eggplant 222.