"Nanyang Company!? What's the matter!? ”

On the stern platform of the old and new wood grains, Captain Popper held a telescope and chewed a cigar in his mouth, muttering while observing.

He had to lower his sails, and half a mile away, a strange ship bigger than the Candid Man was opening two cannon doors, pointing at the Candid Man steadily, and the passing flag was very conspicuous: stop the ship and wait for investigation, otherwise the cannon will be fired. The Portuguese crew on the ship pointed to the sign on the sail of the other side that resembled a double-ring ship and said that it was the ship of the Nanyang Company.

Looking through the binoculars, Captain Popper habitually counted the cannon doors, then took a cool breath, eight on one side, and then took a closer look at the situation in the two cannon doors, and subconsciously muttered: "Shet! ”

It should have been sixteen, nay, even eighteen-pounderers, and although it was not a cannon, it was no longer something that the twelve-pounder guns on his ship could compete with, and he was not superior in numbers.

Looking towards the deck, there was a row of slanted shelves in the middle of the hull, supporting several small boats, and small cranes on the shelves, and then glancing towards the bow and stern, Captain Popper was stunned, and even the cigar in his mouth fell unconsciously.

Flat Deck Boat ...... Although this boat is not as sharp and thin as the small boat it has encountered before, it is still like a guinea fish, with a long body and a narrow belly, and smooth lines. Judging from the shape of the sail, Popper could tell at a glance that it was still a fully loaded sailboat, which meant that although it was one size larger and much thicker, it was not much worse in speed and agility than the previous boat.

"Close the cannon door! Damn it! Who told you to open the gun!? ”

When his eyes came out of the binoculars, he immediately saw the gun doors on his hull lifted, and Captain Popper's soul was scattered. If it was the small boat before, although it couldn't run, it could still withstand the beating, but now this boat can't run, and the eighteen-pounder cannon is not just a flesh wound, and his honest man has to be an honest man obediently like the previous two times.

"Don't worry, Captain, I'm probably here to tell you the new rules."

The Portuguese crew comforted Popper.

"Hey...... It's this boat again! Just sank it! ”

On the Jinao, the artillery commander Lu Han and Shaanxi rubbed his hands, this honest man owed them a blood debt.

"I want to too, but it's a pity that we only have four cannons, two on one side, and now we're just scaring people......"

Jia Hao Xiao Sheng's deeds in that battle have long been familiar, Hu Hanshan is also eager to try, but thinking that there are only four guns on the ship for training, he is very helpless, not only the guns are not enough, the gunners also need to adapt to the new guns, and when it comes to fighting, the opponent has more than a dozen guns, but it is not necessarily the opponent.

"If that guy doesn't want to hand over protection...... Belch...... What about escort fees? ”

Lu Hanshan still holds hope.

"Then crash into it, and the guns will be on it! The new security soldiers on the ship are panicking! ”

Hu Hanshan is also very single.

"Escort fee?"

On the Candid Man, Captain Popper continued to be in a daze. Seeing a small boat unloaded from the big ship, not only with a sail raised, but also with waves spitting behind its buttocks, and carrying twenty or thirty soldiers with loaded guns, he rushed over, and he subconsciously repeated the words of the Portuguese crew.

The Portuguese crew said that since last month, all merchant ships entering this inland sea must pay escort fees to the Nanyang Company, and a ship must be charged according to its size, and it is estimated that it will cost 10,000 taels of silver as large as the Candid Man.

"After the fee is charged, they will issue a license, and with this license, no one in the Qing Kingdom will dare to stop and ask for bribes, and only need to pay taxes according to the announced tax rules."

Then the crew member added, and Captain Popper's hand shifted to the hat above his head.

"Really!?"

He couldn't believe that every time he entered Guangzhou before, before handing over the goods to the merchants, he stuffed money all the way from the official patrol to the customs supervision, and he could get 20,000 or 30,000 taels of silver, otherwise he would not be able to do business. 【1】

"Don't you have to give etiquette?"

"Yes, the rule of the Qing state in Guangdong seems to have changed, a figure like the king of Pingnan took control of Guangdong, and he took good care of the merchants."

After listening to the crew's explanation, Popper didn't come back to his senses for a long time, this is a big change!

"Captain, we must stay in Guangzhou for a while this time, see the situation in Guangdong clearly, and then report to the company."

The Taipan of the Honest Man was also shocked, could it be that the Qingpu chaos that he experienced in Guangzhou half a year ago has now come to fruition?

"So ...... this escort fee?"

Popper asked Taipan.

"If this matter is true, if you don't pay it now, if you enter Guangzhou, I'm afraid you will have to pay more."

Taipan said this, Popper said in his heart, if you don't pay it now, it is estimated that the ship will have to sink, what kind of Nanyang company, just like the Pirates of the Caribbean, is blatant blackmail. But...... It's so obvious, and this pirate is quite cute.

"That's it? It's boring......"

Looking through the binoculars, the maritime customs officer of the commercial relations department of Qingtian Company was counting the gold, and Hu Hanshan smacked his lips boringly.

Yanjing Yongwang Mansion, no, it's just Beizi Mansion now, and the cold voice is floating in the back garden.

"I'm not anyone's master, it's really not interesting for you to kneel like this."

Yin Zhen shook the fishing rod and said yin yin without looking back.

"How dare a slave forget his master? The past is a slave who is confused! ”

A second-class senior officer in the back was kneeling on the ground, and he didn't distinguish it, so he directly confessed his guilt. This person is in his thirties, his eyebrows are flying, and he should have been a rebellious and domineering aura, but at the moment, he is tightly restrained, and he does not dare to release a trace in front of Yinzhen.

Yin Zhen snorted, stopped talking, and stared intently at Yu Piao, as if there was no such person behind him, and the person just knelt like this, without saying a word.

After a while, the sound of water swayed slightly, the fish took the bait, and Yinzhen swung his club, but only lifted a string of water droplets. After a moment, he sighed and softened his tone: "Come here......"

The man behind him snorted, walked forward on his knees, and approached Yinzhen, who patted the stone beside him and motioned for him to sit down.

"Lianggong, your master and I are upset, I don't know how to be happy this day."

This person is naturally Nian Qianyao, who was transferred from the governor of Sichuan to the governor of Bihuan, and was also recalled to the capital to see His Majesty. After coming to Beijing, he didn't even say a word, and after talking to Kangxi, he hurriedly came to Yinzhen.

Yin Zhen seemed to be apologizing, but his heart was still churning, Nian Qianyao was the person under his white flag, thanks to Kangxi, who only took him on the throne and did not remove his white flag collar, otherwise this Nian Qianyao would not have come to him.

His attitude was just to let Nian Qianyao recognize his position, and at the same time, he also vented his anger accumulated on this guy in the past. Although Nian Qianyao is under his door, and even his sister became his side Fujin last year, his mind is very active, and he still has a past with Yinxi.

Now that he Yinzhen has been sinned, Nian Qianyao has become diligent, Yinzhen deliberately gave Nian Qianyao a cold face just now, but in fact, he was secretly happy in his heart, what Li Wei said before may be true...... "The master doesn't have to worry, when the slave sees the emperor, the emperor still wants the slave to listen to the master's words, do a good job in Bihuan, and pay special attention to the situation in Guangdong." The slave pondered, as long as the master instructed the slave to make contributions in Guangdong, how could this Tianyan be opened. ”

Nian Qianyao said carelessly, Yinzhen snorted again, but the corners of his eyebrows raised.

Sure enough, Yinzhen said in his heart, Huang Ama did not completely deny his trip to Guangdong, except for annoying himself that he was too abrupt, that is, he made a taboo in private investigation of Wang Wenxiong. This time, he transferred Nian Qianyao to Bihuan, which gave him a chance.

"The matter of Guangdong, the root of the knot is still in Li Shi alone, and it has nothing to do with other people, don't make a fuss about it."

Yinzhen went straight to the topic and guided Nian Qianyao. He and Li Wei had analyzed it thoroughly before, although Kangxi still suspected that Li Xi was a henchman raised by Yinxi in collusion with foreigners, but summarizing all the signs, they all thought that this was unlikely. Of course, you don't have to say this to Kangxi, Yinxi...... Just squat at home with peace of mind.

"Li Xian still has many doubts on his body, but it is very simple to break him, that is, to take him personally! In addition, his lair in Yingde is definitely his lifeblood, otherwise he would not have made a big fight for this, and he would have to fight to the death with Wang Wenxiong! You just have to pay attention to these two, you don't have absolute certainty, you can't act rashly, at least you can't break the skin that the emperor wants to protect! ”

Yin Zhen's heart flowed through the few rounds of fighting with Li Xi, and there was a scene in his memory that had been covered with an iron plate, and he naturally didn't want to touch it anymore, and he didn't want to do it in his life.

"If there's that possibility, you must hold it alive!"

He gritted his teeth and said, Nian Qianyao was also trembling with the cold air in these words, and said in his heart that this master really planted a big heel in Li Shi's hands.

"In addition, I will send you another helper here, and you can arrange a suitable position for him."

Yin Zhen casually arranged Li Wei, and Nian Qianyao didn't dare to refuse.

"As for the situation over there, are you sure you can handle it?"

He was also going to give some other favors, such as saying hello to the Governor of Huguang, and asking him to do his best to cooperate with Nian Qianyao.

"Master Lao is worried, the slave's father was the governor of Huguang, and the slave is very clear about the situation over there."

Nian Qianyao was stunned and said, and he didn't notice that Yinzhen's face was dark again.

"Then you go and have more parties with your sister......"

Yin Zhen said coldly and threw up the fishing rod again.

Nian Qianyao snorted in a low voice, bowed back, and only then did he feel that something was wrong, but he was too lazy to sew up, as long as Li Xian was solved, why should he care about these small sections.

"Huang Ama transferred him to Bihuan, is it because his father is familiar with Huguang, or does he still have expectations for me?"

Yin Zhen thought irritably.

At this time, Li Xi was also a little irritable in Guangzhou, and the merchants of the Cantonese Chamber of Commerce poked out the basket in Guangxi.

Guangxi's rice merchant Yixiang bribed Changping officials in several counties in Guangxi to buy Chang Ping Ping, but was stopped by Chen Yuanlong's Fubiao in Wuzhou. The proprietor of the Yixiang dressed up his guards as Qingtian Siwei, converted the shotgun into a flintlock pistol, and fought against Fubiao in Guangxi, killing and wounding dozens of people.

Chen Yuanlong, the governor of Guangxi, was furious, and he didn't catch the people of the Yixiang, but he arrested Han Yujie, the proprietor of the Hunan Xingshengtang who was inspecting the minerals in Guangxi, and asked the people of the Xingshengtang to go back to Guangdong and tell the Cantonese Chamber of Commerce that if the proprietor of the Yixiang was not handed over, he would treat Han Yujie's crimes, of course, this was actually giving him a talk.

Yixiang's actions were too arrogant, which made Li Xian sigh, businessmen are like this, as long as there are less constraints, they can do anything. But then again, this was caused by him. Of course, he can't do what Chen Yuanlong wants, obediently hand over people, otherwise the Cantonese Chamber of Commerce will definitely blow up the nest, although this matter Yixiang has had, but it is against the government, there is nothing to talk about, and Han Yujie Han Shopkeeper cooperated with Li Xian very early, and he has to go all out to protect it.

The problem is that on the Guangxi side, he can't reach it now, and he doesn't want to go to Guangxi to make trouble now, how to save Han Yujie in the end, he is in trouble for a while. The current situation is really like a pot of porridge, the Qing court is in chaos, and his side is also in chaos.

(To be continued)