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Guangzhou, Nanguan.

The head of the thirteen lines, where Wu Shaorong, the owner of Jardine Bank, is a magnificent mansion on the bank of the Pearl River.

The house was built by Wu Shaorong's father, Wu Haoguan, although it was rich, but after all, it was an old house more than 20 years ago, and the decoration was a little outdated, and it was not as novel and exquisite as the foreign merchant houses that appeared in Nanguan, Guangzhou after the Opium War. However, the status of the owner of this mansion in the Guangdong business community is incomparable to that of any powerful foreign firm.

Because the Jardine family has more wealth than any foreign firm active in Guangdong and Nanyang! As early as 20 years ago, the Wu family's family property was as high as 26 million two hundred silver, equivalent to 10 million pounds! Of course, this is only the wealth on the surface, behind these merchants in Guangzhou, they are all relatives of the Eight Banners, either the prince or the military aircraft. The Wu family is naturally no exception, including the foreman military aircraft Mu Zhang'a, the minister of foreign affairs Qi Ying, and the younger brother of Emperor Daoguang, Prince Hui Mianyu and others, all hold dark shares in Jardine Bank, totaling more than 50% of Jardine Bank's shares. It is because of the support of these people that Jardine Hand has the status it has today.

However, Wu Shaorong, the head of Jardine House, knew that the prosperity of the Wu family in the past few decades had inevitably declined with the advent of the era of trade between the five mouths -- the era of the monopoly of foreign trade by the Thirteen Banks was gone, and those princes and ministers who held dark shares did not care about these, and the offerings that should be given were not less than one or two pieces of silver, and in order to run the Eight Banners New Army, all kinds of apportionments and levies poured in like a tide. Even if the Wu family has mountains of gold and silver, they can't stand it!

And the Zhu Ming overseas genius who was born out of thin air became a straw that crushed the Wu family! It's just that the Wu family is about to collapse. It is also necessary to settle the dark stocks of those relatives and nobles in Beijing. Although none of them really contributed a penny. Fortunately, Zhu Jishi's actions against the thief are not fast. After destroying the Guangdong Navy Inspector, he did not come to Guangzhou City for several months, giving the Wu family the opportunity to sell their property at a low price and cash out. Now all this silver has been deposited in the HSBC bank opened by the French, and the total amount is more than 1,000 taels (silver dollars), which is basically enough to compensate for the dark stocks.

In this way, the Wu family can at least eat a good meal, and will not be imprisoned for the crime of gangsters in the imperial court. Like the Wu family's thoughts, the owners of the other 12 of the thirteen banks are also selling their properties for cash these days, and the silver they get is also deposited in HSBC. When several bank owners met and gathered a few days ago, they were still saying: If there is no French HSBC. The big guy can't transport tens of millions of taels of silver out of Guangdong in a hurry, and even if he arrives in Beijing, he can only go to the vegetable market to be stabbed.

Although it is inevitable that the family will be broken now, it will not be dead, and for these merchants who are attached to the Manchu magnates to make a fortune, it is really the most haode ending.

As for taking the millions of family fortunes in their own names as their own, they really can't dream of it.

It was nearly noon, and the door of the Wu family's mansion was already full of carriages and horses, all of which were the carriages of the most magnificent merchants in the city, and the whole street was covered with officials and guards wearing red tassels—they were all the merchants' retinue. The owners of the thirteen lines at least have the rank of Taoist, so the entry and exit are also eight sedan chairs. A guard of honor for all court officials. All of them are "red-top businessmen", but they can only fool the ignorant ordinary people, and none of the officials from the real two lists take them seriously.

Probably knowing that their master was about to be in trouble, these retinues in tiger skins lost their spirits one by one, and leaned against the corner of the wall to bask in the sun in frustration, thinking about where to go after the owner fell. I heard that this Guangzhou city will soon be the capital of the Zhu family's emperor, and I don't know if the officials of the Ming Dynasty want to follow for a long time?

Just as they were thinking about the future, they saw two brand-new Western carriages hurrying towards them, escorted by a group of soldiers with foreign guns on their shoulders. The soldiers were all blonde and blue-eyed, and the military uniforms on their bodies were also Western-style, and the people here in Nanguan, Guangzhou, knew that they were soldiers of France, the "Friends of the Qing Dynasty", and were sent by the French minister to protect the Guangzhou branch of HSBC.

There are at least 10 million taels of silver in it! The court officials in Guangzhou also deposited silver with HSBC - this is not a sign of dislove for the Qing Dynasty. In these years, there was no electronic transfer, and if you want to do remittance, except for HSBC, there are several money bank ticket numbers, but at present, the war is in chaos, and the Guangdong water division and Fujian water division have collapsed again, and the Chinese money bank ticket number has no way to transport silver out of Guangdong. If you don't follow the path of HSBC, you can't throw the money you have worked so hard to embezzle to Zhu Jishi in Guangzhou City, right?

Therefore, the Qing officials in Guangzhou welcomed the French sending troops to protect HSBC.

And today, the leaders of the thirteen banks in Guangzhou gathered in Wujia Garden, in fact, to meet with HSBC big Ban Moseley and comprador Tang Qiwen. Although these two people did not have the official status of the Qing Dynasty, they were just Ye Mingchen, the governor of Guangdong, who was polite when he saw others, and he would never dare to take half of the official frame, let alone ask for bribes at will. This is a businessman, why is someone's waist pole so hard?

The guards guarding the door (Wu Shaorong is the rank of political envoy) naturally also saw this team of eye-catching French soldiers. His face changed, and his smile naturally replaced his sadness. There was also a person who ran into the courtyard as if he was flying to report to Wu Shaorong.

The two carriages stopped at the door of the Wu family's mansion, and as soon as the door opened, I saw a tall French devil Morris and two Chinese, one fat and one thin, getting off the carriage, and the fat man was Tang Qiwen. Both Chinese are in suits and leather shoes, and neither of them has braids! This is a crime of killing heads in the Qing Dynasty, but with the big backer of HSBC, who cares if you have braids or not?

After a while, I saw the scrawny family member of the Wu family trotting out with his clothes, but I didn't know what was going on, the smile on the face of the big boss of Wu suddenly became stiff, raised a hand and pointed at the middle-aged man beside Tang Qiwen, opened his mouth wide but couldn't say a word!

Tang Qiwen had already expected to take two steps forward, and grabbed Wu Shaorong's hand: "Brother Liangfu, it is a shame to kill the younger brother when you, the second-class member of the imperial court, personally greeted you." As he spoke, he pointed to the middle-aged man next to him and smiled: "This Liu Muwen is an old acquaintance with you, right?" But today, the younger brother still wants to reintroduce to you, Brother Mu Wen is the new senior class of our HSBC bank, and he was personally assigned by the big boss of HSBC, not to mention the younger brother, even the Morris senior class also wants to listen to him. ”

"What!?" Wu Shaorong's face suddenly turned blue, and even his voice trembled, "HSBC can't do it...... Isn't it a French company? How can it be with ...... The surname Zhu got on the side!? ”

Liu Peng stepped forward, patted Wu Shaorong's shoulder with a smile, and didn't answer his question, but said lightly: "Brother Liangfu, if there is anything inconvenient to talk about here, let's go in and say, okay?" ”

Wu Shaorong turned his eyes and looked at a group of French soldiers with foreign guns on their shoulders at the door, and sighed for a long time before he said in a low voice: "Those French soldiers should not be raised by the Zhu family, right?" ”

Liu Peng smiled, nodded and said, "Some mercenaries are just taking people's money and fighting for others." The 300 people who are now stationed around HSBC are all hired by the Zhu family. ”

"HSBC, is your real surname Zhu?" Wu Shaorong asked with a dismayed face.

"The Zhu family has sixty percent of the shares, and the remaining Duchess of Segur holds thirty percent...... Brother Liangfu, do you know what the relationship between the master of the Zhu family and this duchess is? ”

Wu Shaorong was stunned, and then remembered that Bai Siwen's "Records of European Travel" once said that Zhu Jishi was merry by nature and had many lovers in Europe, including many celebrities with great status.

As he spoke, Liu Peng took a step and was about to walk inside the door, but Wu Shaorong suddenly shouted: "Slow, Mu Wen, it's not the right time for you to come today, Governor Ye Weifu is here!" ”

Liu Peng smiled, "Ye Mingchen is also there?" That's the right meeting! (To be continued......)