"Three hundred taels?" According to this evaluation, if the price of 10,000 British troops is 3 million taels of silver, and the 4,000 captured French troops still need at least 1.2 million taels of silver.

This huge number made Dalhousie faint in front of his eyes, and the soldiers behind him held him up, otherwise he would have been hit on the stone pavement, and he could be directly included in the list of the dead and mixed with a pension.

Dumont. Rousseff was so angry that he jumped to his feet, and the merchant Bing's surname was exposed, and scolded Lin Haijiang for not being a human being, if it weren't for the officers and soldiers of the Nanyang Naval Division who were guarding him around him who couldn't understand French, I am afraid that he would be beaten up and sent to God immediately.

"Then go to Miles and borrow as much as he can, and I'll borrow as much as he has." Dalhousie facing Dumont. Rotherf roared.

"One hundred and twenty taels!" Not far away, an old man dressed in rich clothes shouted out the auction price.

"Haha, this old gentleman knows the goods." Zhang Dewu laughed: "Is there anyone else who offers a higher price?" ”

"I'll give you a hundred and thirty taels."

"Good guy, it seems that there is no shortage of people in Guangzhou."

"I'll give you a hundred and fifty taels."

…… After coming and going, among the bidding of six or seven people, the final auction price of the first British private was settled at the price of three hundred taels.

Listening to the indifferent tone of the translator next to him, Dalhousie broke out in a cold sweat on his head, and felt that his cheeks were hot, especially the smug and provocative expressions of those buyers made Dalhousie angry.

After that, more than a dozen British soldiers judged the reserve price of the auction entirely according to their fitness and rank. To Dalhousie's surprise, the bigger the size, the higher the price, but the higher the rank, the price was relatively much cheaper, and there was even no one to bid, which made some British and French officers who were auctioned almost ashamed of themselves, and some even asked for bids to buy themselves.

In known Western history, if a beautiful maid and an ugly princess of the enemy were captured, the princess was worth a thousand times more than the maid no matter how it was calculated.

This is absolutely a naked insult, the meanest humiliation to the British Empire and Her Majesty the Empress.

Dalhousie could not imagine the wrath of Her Majesty if she knew all this. Poured out the strength of a country to destroy the Qing State?

No, it's not realistic!

Dalhousie thought calmly, although the rule of the Qing State was rotten, and the development of science and technology was even more different from that of the Empire, but its territory was too vast, the population was too dense, and the territory of the Empire was only a large island, and even one-tenth of the Qing Kingdom was far from reaching, and it was too difficult to gnaw this bone.

Moreover, Tsarist Russia, as well as other countries, are also staring at this piece of fat, and even France, an ally now standing together, may not agree that the empire has this piece of fat alone? Even the most ambitious ruler could not make such a crazy decision.

The Crimean War and the suppression of the Indian uprising had consumed too much of the Empire's military strength, and the Empire could not afford to wage a large-scale war in the short term, and the Empire could not afford to be drawn into another protracted war, otherwise the first to be dragged down would be the Empire's finances.

The previous attack on Guangzhou was because the plenipotentiary Bao Ling saw that the Qing State was busy with civil strife, and the Qing soldiers had always been poor, so he wanted to take Guangzhou City with only 5,000 soldiers, and the looting proceeds just made up for the military expenses consumed by the empire due to the Crimean War. Later, Britain and France reunited, and the two countries invested more than ten times more troops than the first time, but the result was unexpected by everyone.

The empire lost to the ground! The only consolation was that the French who hitchhired also suffered heavy losses, the combined forces of the two countries were defeated by a backward eastern country, and the prisoners of the two countries were put in the auction house, and it was a great shame to let these barbarians pick and sell like pigs, and this despicable act was probably impossible even for the shameless Russians.

But Dalhousie had to participate in this auction, and the average price of all the British soldiers was about three hundred taels of silver, and the top twenty cost him more than six thousand taels of silver, and the silver that was spent in vain flowed out of his hands, even if it was not his money, it made him die of distress.

And when it was the turn of the French prisoners, the reserve price all started from fifty taels, which made Dalhousie subconsciously think that Dumont. What agreement did Rosseph reach with Lin Haijiang in private? It's just that as people around continue to bid prices, the auction price has soared to more than 500 taels, and the highest even reached more than 1,000 taels.

"Rousseff is going to bleed profusely this time, with Napoleon III's stingy surname, I'm afraid he won't give a dime, just ......"

Dumont. Ruseff blushed as he watched the rising prices, twitching uncontrollably with each rise.

Dalhousie looked at the three third-class battleships not far away, and now it seems that they have been temporarily mortgaged by Ruseff to Miles, these three warships cost absolutely more than 2.6 million taels of silver, even if Miles really took these warships, if you want to start, you have to find engineers from European countries to repair them at a high price, if you want to start, the sailors also need nearly a thousand people, what is the use of a businessman taking a warship? It is more convenient to convert it into a cargo ship than to buy it directly.

"What kind of businessman is Miles? How can there be such a huge amount of energy in the East? ”

If Dalhousie knew that Myers was directly employed by Lin Haijiang, he would not dare to borrow money from him for fear of being killed, and the businessman pursued profits, and Miles developed this to the extreme, no matter who was in any country, he didn't care.

Dalhousie didn't care at all, after all, the battleship was French, what did it matter to him?

When the representatives of Britain and France first approached him to borrow money, Myers listened to Lin Haijiang's suggestion and asked the two to write down an IOU contract, which was only a hundred thousand taels, and he was not afraid that he would not be able to recover it, not to mention that the interest was super high. But when today Dumont. Rousseff came to the door again to borrow money, and when the amount borrowed was nearly one million, Rousseff proposed to use the warship as collateral and promised a knighthood, he immediately realized that once he lent this money, he didn't want to take it back, he knew too well what these imperial vampires thought, and a knighthood wanted to exchange it for a million taels of silver? It's just wishful thinking.

The funds that Miles himself could call up were about 500,000 taels, but he didn't have to spend a penny, because the auction was organized by Lin Haijiang. Rosseph prescribed the so-called "line of credit"!

For this line of credit, which has been approved by the auctioneer, Dalhousie and Dumont. Roselle immediately looked at Miles differently.

The auction is still underway, but Lin Haijiang's mind has already flown to the construction of the Mawei Shipyard.

The Mawei shipyard in Fujian Province is now restricted by the transportation of raw materials, so it can only try to build patrol ships with relatively small tonnage, and patrol boats of 3 to 400 tons have been successfully built.

However, the light armored cruiser of more than 1,000 tons is still a problem in the hull combination technology, Lin Haijiang mobilized a group of experienced ship maintenance technicians and engineers from the old port, but most of the old port contracted maintenance and armament replacement, not construction, so many problems in hull construction have to be solved by Prussian ship engineers, and their own technicians are constantly encouraged to innovate and innovate while learning, but the speed of crossing the river by feeling the stones is definitely not fast.

For the captured British and French ships, Lin Haijiang all dragged back to the horsetail and controlled them, although the sail battleships were backward, but it was more than enough to train sailors and alternate officers, and these warships could also be specially processed and sold to the capital.

Although the armored protection cruiser was generous in this engagement, Lin Haijiang knew very well that it would take at least ten years for the capital ship to completely replace the sail warship with an all-steel hull movable axial turret, because the sail warships in the navies of various countries accounted for more than 98% of the total tonnage, and the navy was a branch of the army that continuously renewed and invested huge sums of money and constantly replaced the weapons of the ships.

Lin Haijiang, as the commander of the Nanyang Naval Division, needs to form a fleet that can deter the countries of the South Seas and defend against the invasion of Western countries, the task of this fleet will be the defense of the ocean, not the operation of the near sea, he cannot tolerate the European powers repeatedly burning the flames of war to his door, and the navy must be built with a great aggressive surname.

By noon, Dalhousie and Rotherf were exhausted by the chaotic auction, but they had also detected some hints in the excitement of the auction.

After the auction for a while, as the freshness dissipated, the people who watched the excitement began to gradually disperse in twos and threes, and the promoters arranged by Lin Haijiang were even more exposed, Dalhousie and Rossef were not stupid, their calculation at the moment was to save people first no matter what, as for how much money, even if it was a pound or a franc or even a tael of silver, it had nothing to do with them, because their final negotiation opponent was the Qing State Political Axe, not this despicable and shameless Nanyang Navy Admiral Lin Haijiang.

However, the officials of Liangguang in the teahouse have a small calculation in their hearts at this moment, they are worried that the average price of each foreign hair is at least 500 taels, and there are 10,000 people in Britain alone, which is 5 million taels!

Not to mention the French, you must know that their average price is more than 2,000 taels, which is sold for foreign hair, which is more expensive than the top girl in the Jiyuan to open the bud and redeem herself.

Ye Mingchen looked at Lin Haijiang, who was expressionless, and knew in his heart that even if he got the money, I am afraid that Lin Haijiang would not hand it over to the treasury and release it into the treasury, and the foreigners did not seem to have the preparation and intention to give money at all, it was more about keeping people, and it was estimated that the mess of the aftermath would still have to be clearly separated between the court and the foreigners.

Bai Gui on the side squinted his eyes and didn't speak, in the past, this nearly 10 million taels of silver passed by, how could he fight for it, even if he scraped a little soup and water, it was enough. But now they are all about to resign and return to their hometowns anyway, and they are content to protect themselves, and they have almost lost interest in these things outside their bodies. Nearly 10 million, that's not 1 million, 100,000, it's very hot.

Everyone understands that the real people are here to see the excitement, who has nothing to do to buy a ghost-like guy with yellow hair and blue eyes who eats raw meat to go home? It was purely full of food and nothing to do, and the people who flickered around in the audience were the members of Wang Faren's special intelligence detective team, and every time they raised the price to a certain height, they were very sorry to retreat, so Dalhousie and Dumont were very sorry. Rotherf was extremely nervous.

The auction gradually entered the **, every time a British or Frenchman put up, the bidding was endless, even if it was a few taels or dozens of taels, and they wanted to be happy.

However, the average transaction price climbed at a very fast speed, and under the incitement of Zhang Dewu's extreme temptation, several wealthy people in Guangdong bid with each other, and two or three colonels actually climbed to the position of 5,000 taels, but despite this, the final winners were Dalhousie and others.

Looking at the hot auction scene, Dalhousie and Dumont, who were so anxious that they were sweating and busy. Rosseff, Lin Haijiang took a leisurely sip of tea.

When the first 1 million taels of credit was quickly used up, Dalhousie personally approached Miles, hoping to get more credit from Miles, but Dalhousie's request was rejected by Miles, Dalhousie said: "The Eastern and Western social systems are different, but they are the same in the pursuit of maximizing commercial interests, too much credit is equivalent to waste paper, and the reason why the credit line can be recognized is the capital behind it and the throughput of trading goods as a guarantee." ”

Just as Dalhousie was frustrated and ready to leave, Myers reminded mysteriously: "Admiral Lin Haijiang has studied in the empire, he admires the empire extremely in his heart, he is an enlightened Qing man, he likes to maximize his interests, he is an enlightened official and a shrewd businessman, it is much easier to be friends with him than to be an enemy, you must know that having an army in the Qing State is equivalent to having everything, and Admiral Lin has the strongest army and fleet in the Qing State, and Guangzhou, Guangxi, and Fujian are all under the control of his army." ”

Miles' profound words made Dalhousie suddenly feel like another village! Seems like a turnaround is just around the corner? But he couldn't grasp the key point that was clearly in front of him.

However, when Dalhousie returned to the auction, an anxious Rousseff grabbed him, and following Rousseff's fingers, Dalhousie was surprised to see that in a corner of the table, two well-dressed French prisoners had caught his attention.

Oh, my God! O my God! That's Plimpton. Admiral Arthur and Major General Mitchell!

The two heavyweights of the captured French army, Plimpton. Admiral Arthur and Major General Mitchell were both prominent families in France, and their families had great influence in France, especially Princeton. Admiral Arthur, who joined the French Guards Cavalry Regiment at the age of 17 and later served as the principal of the Rorentau Military Academy, his students were all over the French army, and even the arrogant Napoleon III was a big man who had to give three points, and was even put on the auction table?

"If the news of the auction of two French generals reached the ears of Napoleon III, I am afraid that he would vomit blood with anger." Dalhousie gloated in his heart, the most of the British prisoners were colonel-level officers, but in front of the French army, he still looked worried: "This is not only an insult to the French Republic, but also an insult and provocation to the entire Western civilized world, Your Excellency Rousseff, let's go see Lin Haijiang!" ”

In the teahouse, after retiring everyone, Lin Haijiang received Dalhousie and Rossefu with a smile on his face, and expressed sympathy for the difficult situation of the two, and generously said that he could terminate the auction at any time, Lin Haijiang's change of attitude made Dalhousie and Rossef extremely shocked, and even couldn't believe it, they suspected that this was the beginning of another conspiracy by Lin Haijiang.

Lin Haijiang smiled slightly and said in English: "We have an old saying in China, don't do to others what you don't accept!" In the 5,000 years since the founding of the Chinese nation, we have never been conquered by force. I hope both of you understand that. ”

Lin Haijiang paused and said: "I understand the difficulties of the two of them, so I have agreed that the two captives themselves will let their relatives or friends provide a ransom according to the price of today's auction, and those who pay the ransom will be released immediately, while those who cannot provide the ransom will repay the ransom with the value created by labor in the newly built labor camps and factories in Guangzhou." ”

Lin Haijiang's words made Dalhousie and Rousseff, who were already ready to cheat and never give money, were stunned.

(To be continued)