Foreign Minister Guo Songtao first put forward his opinion: "My opinion is to favor the former, expand the powers of the board of directors of the concession and form an Egyptian company. The powers of our concession board in Cairo must be expanded, and then an Egyptian company headquarters will be formed in the Red Sea coastal cities of Gulghai or Port Sefaj, and I also have a proposal for our Egyptian fleet to be stationed in Port Sefaj, the location of Port Said in the Mediterranean Sea is too sensitive to European countries, and at the Cairo Conference, Austria and Russia have already sent proposals to European countries on more than one occasion to attack us. Even our Italian friends vaguely asked me if it was possible to change the garrison of the Egyptian fleet. ”

Guo Songtao's first half of the sentence makes sense, but about the home port of the Egyptian fleet, this needs to be considered, "I want to know which countries have such thoughts." Does it include Britain and France? Zeng Guofan looked at Guo Songtao.

"The attitude of Britain and France is not clear, the countries with this idea are currently clear Austria and Italy, as well as Russia and the Ottomans, but Russia can't get out of the Black Sea now, we don't have to care about Russia's attitude, as for the Ottomans, I asked the ambassador to the Ottomans to negotiate, and the Ottomans replied that the main opponent of their navy is Russia, which controls the Black Sea, and they don't want our Egyptian fleet to threaten their territory to the south, even if we don't threaten them."

"As long as Britain and France don't say anything, we don't really need to pay attention to other countries, after all, they have a fleet in Egypt like us, but Ottoman needs to reply well, Ottoman can be said to be our natural ally in Europe, even if he is now a little more influenced by France. Yunxian (Guo Songtao) will let the ambassador to the Ottoman tomorrow release goodwill and sincerity to the Ottoman Sultan, we can give the Ottoman enough support in the dispatch of military instructors, the export of industrial machinery and the study of students, and if the Ottoman needs the empire, it can build advanced warships for the Ottomans, including ironclads. Zeng Guofan thought for a while and decided to support this sick man in West Asia.

"Okay, okay, let's get back to Egypt." Li Hongzhang felt that the topic seemed to be far away, and decisively pulled the topic back.

"Actually, I think it is necessary to expand the Egyptian concession board and form an Egyptian company, Egypt is a place where international power is chaotic, and the great powers of the world are staring at Egypt, so we must have an efficient administrative organization in dealing with Egyptian affairs, and the concession board is a good choice, and the Egyptian company is responsible for economic plunder. The Governor of East Africa was in charge of East Africa and the recently new lands, and it was difficult for the Governor of East Africa to be thorough in Egyptian affairs. Yang Litong followed up and said.

"Well, since everybody thinks so, let's send a telegram to Egypt after the meeting, so that the board of directors of the Cairo concession is ready to be expanded, and let the board of directors start to form an Egyptian company, and we will complete all these things while the Cairo conference is not over." Zeng Guofan made the final decision.

"Hi, Your Excellency Prime Minister!"

"Then let's set sail!" Zeng Guofan silently shouted in his heart-

On October 1, 1871, the cabinet of Zeng Guofan promulgated the "Resolution on the Enlargement of the Board of Directors of the Cairo Concession and the Establishment of the Egyptian Company", which determined that the headquarters of the Egyptian Company would be located in the Red Sea coastal city of Gulghagai, and that the political power of the Board of Directors would be expanded, and the Board of Directors would be given the right to administer all the land within the sphere of influence east of the Eastern Desert of Egypt. The board of directors of the concession was expanded, with Nie Shicheng, military attache of the Ottoman Embassy, and Zuo Guigui, military attache of the Egyptian embassy, serving as the chairman and vice chairman of the board of directors.

On October 11, 1871, the Colonial Department of the Cabinet promulgated the Judicial Decree Directive for Cities Along the Red Sea Coast, declaring that only persons appointed by the Board of Directors of the Red Sea Concession of Egypt had the right to perform judicial duties within their territory, and that the Board of Directors of the Concession would form a police force to maintain law and order in the territory. Egypt's Ismail Pasha was outraged by the Cabinet's approval of the Board's seizure of judicial jurisdiction and police appointment power on the Red Sea coast, and as a result, Britain and France followed suit with judicial documents for their respective spheres of influence, and the Egyptian government protested to the three countries, but received no reply. But how could Ismail Pasha, who was committed to the development and modernization of Egypt, tolerate such an outcome, since the construction of the Suez Canal, Ismail has been holding his breath, even if a canal is at least compensated, and now the three countries are openly violating Egypt's sovereignty, which makes Ismail, who has a good relationship with the British Empress Victoria, feel outright angry. At least from the intelligence of the Jinyiwei, it seems that Ismail is ready to do something to preserve his dignity as an Egyptian Pasha.

On December 1, 1871, the Board of Directors of the Egyptian Concession promulgated a series of decrees, including the Regulations on the Administration of Local Security, the Judicial Regulations of the Desert Areas of Eastern Egypt, and the Regulations on the Administration of Police Affairs in the Red Sea Region.

On December 11, 1871, the Egyptian Concession Board announced the construction of the "Sefaj-Kina" and "Sefaj-Suez" railways, and the funds for the construction were to be raised by the Board of Directors and the Egyptian Company, and the ownership of the railways was owned by the Concession Board and the Egyptian Company.

By the middle of 1872, the board of directors of the concession had basically taken control of the major cities and even some towns along the Red Sea coast, and local political bureaus and courts had been formed. Of course, the population was mainly concentrated in some large cities such as Guldaiga, and it was not difficult to control it quickly, and the poor Egyptian people were very satisfied with the new ruler who had given them enough to eat. Sometimes the food, or the fullness, is far greater than the nationalism and nationalism. On Egypt's Red Sea coast, the board of directors followed the "dual management system" used by the British in India: the Egyptians selected and appointed by the board of directors were in charge of civil affairs, and the board of directors had the power to expropriate land. That is to say, the Black Cauldron Egyptians themselves even let Ismail Pasha carry it, and the interests are occupied by the board of directors. That is to say, if the board of directors makes some wrong decision or decree, then the Egyptian people at the bottom will only think that it is the local Egyptian government or the Pasha who is at fault, and will not care about this politically hidden board of directors.

Ma Xiangyang, male, from Wenzhou, has a high school degree. Born in 1841 as an orphan of a military family, with the assistance of the Royal Family's Care Fund, he completed his high school diploma with great difficulty (the empire implemented nine-year compulsory education, and generally the youth of the empire had a junior high school education, and by 1870, the imperial literacy rate reached 62%, and the military literacy rate had reached 93%). After graduating, he worked as a reservist for three years, and after being discharged from the army, he worked in a factory because of his academic qualifications and qualifications as a soldier, plus his personal diligence and ability, and soon became a factory manager. Now that he is thirty years old, he decisively resigned and came to Egypt with his first fortune of 20,000 Chinese dollars to find his way to make a fortune.

To be an explorer or adventurer is his life ideal, in 1858 the emperor published the book "My Colony" systematically introduced the empire's East African colonies and the land of southwest Africa, this book once triggered the empire's young people to go to the colonies to make a fortune, Ma Xiangyang also had such an idea at that time. Now he was moving towards his goal in life, he wanted to go to the Empire's newly acquired land in Central Africa, but his friends in the colonial department told him that although the place was full of opportunities but the environment was too harsh, he suggested that he should go to Egypt.

On October 23, 1871, he took a ticket to Suez