The four walls are covered with a sturdy Persian couch and a sturdy ebony writing desk, a low bookcase carved from hardwood, and richly bound books, all in a solemn and harmonious tone, and two silver-gray tapestries of the famous French Gobelin, faded to cover the four walls, and the shepherds and trees on the tapestries come to life.

When I looked at it, I saw that the building was full of exotic scenery.

Ye Zhao sat behind the desk, fiddling with the kaleidoscope in his hand. On the desk in front of him, there is a jade hairpin, and the night pearl of the hairpin is brilliant and gorgeous; There was also a glittering gold pocket watch with a diamond chain; There were also a few small boxes, which were full of jewels; Next to the small box, there was a thick stack of silver tickets from Hengtongzhuang, Ye Zhao had just counted, no more, no less, just 10,000 taels.

These things were all sent by Wu Jianzhang, playing with the kaleidoscope Ye Zhao chuckled, it seems that this Wu Jianzhang has spent a lot of money, and has spent a lot of thought, let's just say that these gadgets on the table are all local treasures and imported products, no matter how you want to be in the end, you will like it.

I heard that in order to send the film to Fukangan, a dignitary, in the Qianlong Dynasty, the cost was 10,000 taels, and he had such a big handle as Wu Jianzhang, even if he was bankrupt, he had to coax himself to be happy. Besides, he probably has his own thoughts again, right? For him, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to establish a relationship with the future Iron Hat King.

Even if Ye Zhao Zheng was born in the royal mansion, this 10,000 taels of silver is a lot. Prince Zheng's family business is an extremely terrifying behemoth, Prince Zheng's annual silver is 10,000 taels, as for the various inputs of the palace, it is even more astronomical, tens of millions of acres of land, pastures, and forests inside and outside the Guan, and the annual rent collection of the leased land is always tens of thousands of taels, plus there are several gold mines and coal mines outside the Guan, and its industry is really huge and scary to calculate.

However, the number of expenses of King Zheng's mansion is also amazing, and the owners of the past dynasties have fewer savings of silver, let's say the first back garden of the capital, Huiyuan, that is, the princes of the previous generations saw that the palace had tens of thousands of taels of silver, and thought that the money was a disaster, so they took it all out to build a beautiful palace garden.

Although Ye Zhao spent money like running water, he got a huge sum of 10,000 taels out of thin air, but he definitely couldn't talk about the indifference of wanting nothing, but he was quite happy for a while.

"Master, there are foreigners handing over films." After knocking on the door, Ruisi's thin figure flashed in, holding a business card with a hot gold rim in his hand.

Ye Zhao took it and glanced at it, "Shenghe Xing Mike Wells."

"Ask him to talk in the flower hall." Ye Zhao searched for memories of this McWells, but he really couldn't remember such a person, but then again, there are not many foreign businessmen who have made a fortune in China by relying on the opium trade, and the most famous is Citigroup, that is, the American consul in Shanghai, Jin Nengheng, who has made an amazing net worth in China, but it is also famous because he has lived in China for a long time, and there are actually many opium dealers and various businessmen who are more ruthless than him.

And this Mr. Wells can come to visit him before the consuls of various countries, but it is not to be underestimated.

……

The flower hall is elegant and clean, the French carpet under the feet is soft and more than two inches thick, and there are oil paintings hanging on the four walls, which is a western style.

Mr. Wells was an aristocratic man, with a short beard trimmed into exaggerated twos, and was fond of kowtowing his embossed pipes on the table when he spoke.

Because he saw that Ye Zhao was fluent in English, the interpreter he brought with him was left outside, and there were only two people in the flower hall, him and Ye Zhao.

Wells was extremely direct, and after starting to greet him, he asked with a smile on his face: "I wonder if the envoy is interested in firearms?" ”

Ye Zhao took a sip of tea, and said in his heart that he was an arms dealer, but before he could find out the details of the other party, Ye Zhao started haha: "Mr. Wells, am I not the only one who is interested in firearms?" ”

At present, Shanghai, the concession and the county seat are completely two worlds, which is completely different from the pattern of Greater Shanghai in the later Republic of China.

Although Britain, the United States, France and other countries spread the rumors that their merchants strictly adhered to neutrality, in fact, there were always trade channels between the concession and the rebels of the Little Knife Society, and the supply of the Xiaodao Society was maintained by foreign merchants.

Merchants seek profits, do business with the knife society, and also do business with the Qing army, but they make a lot of war money in it.

But if you want to find yourself as a messenger, it's obviously a big business.

Sure enough, Wells knocked his pipe, smiled in his cunning little eyes, and said, "Your Excellency, a thousand rifles, does Your Excellency want me to sell them to the rebels who are fighting against the central political axe of your country?" ”

A thousand branches? Ye Zhao's eyebrows jumped, but there was no show on his face, and he asked with a smile: "Mr. Wells is an arms dealer?" Or an opium dealer? This arms and opium business, firstly, harms people and rarely pays off, and secondly, the sea is bumpy and difficult and dangerous all the year round, and Mr. Wells has not thought of making other investments? ”

Wells was stunned for a moment, and then laughed and said, "Your Excellency the Special Envoy understands business investment? Obviously, I think it's a little funny that an official of the Great Qing Dynasty suddenly talks business with him.

Ye Zhao leaned forward and said, "I have an immature idea, which can be called financial speculation. For example, in the present war between France and the Tsar, it is said that a telegraph has been set up to transmit information, but what if the telegraph operator makes a mistake? After a month of news of defeat, will the stock prices of companies with a stake in the Ottoman Empire plummet? Even your country's national debt will inevitably fluctuate greatly, right? And a month later, the real battle situation was transmitted to London, what was the situation? ”

"Of course, I'm making an analogy, even if your country's financial regulations are not strict today, how can a telegraph operator make such a low-level mistake?" Ye Zhao smiled mysteriously.

Wells's eyes were getting brighter and brighter, and his pipe was no longer smoking, but he was dazed.

At this time, Rui Si came in from outside the hall, came to Ye Zhao and whispered something in his ear, and then retreated.

Ye Zhaodong was waiting for Rui Si to return, and the interpreters brought by Rui Si and Wells were waiting in the side hall, and Ye Zhao had already instructed Rui Si to pass the translation plate to the bottom of Wells.

Mr. Wells, who was a ruined aristocrat, came to China more than ten years ago to start the opium business, and now he has accumulated a fortune of nearly a million pounds, and although he is not well-known in England, he seems to be one of the richest businessmen in Britain.

Ye Zhao was a little taken aback, you must know that in addition to the thirteen Chinese merchants who once monopolized Sino-foreign trade with the characteristics of the Qing Dynasty, most of the rich people in this world are from England, and there are only a handful of businessmen with assets of more than one million pounds in England, and now, one pound is about three taels of silver, and the large bribe he just accepted is only three thousand pounds.

The wealthy Chinese merchants, the Thirteen Lines are going downhill, not to mention which Manchurian nobles can confiscate their property with a yawn, and their property has no technical content, nothing more than relying on the ban on trade by the imperial court at that time, and only allowed the Thirteen Merchants in Guangzhou to trade with foreigners.

Today's million-pound British businessmen have a lot to offer if they have a keen eye.

"Mr. Wells, Mr. Wells" Ye Zhao shouted twice, and Wells seemed to come back to his senses.

"Mr. Wells, I wonder if you can allow me to take a look at the rifle you're about to sell." Ye Zhao asked with a smile.

"Okay, good," Wells agreed, but he was depressed, obviously still thinking about Ye Zhao's words to fool him.

……

Ye Zhao only took Rui Si'er, he got into Wells's carriage, and Rui Si'er trotted all the way to the east, straight to the dock.

Wells's ship was a three-masted clipper ship, with a huge hull and huge pieces of canvas hanging down, and it was imposing.

The blonde and blue-eyed armed sailors on the deck all looked curiously at Ye Zhao and Rui Si'er who boarded the ship from afar.

Wells commanded, and soon several open-chested and sturdy sailors brought a wooden box from the lower cabin, and a handsome white young man quickly opened the wooden box, which was covered with straw and neatly arranged with brand-new rifles.

The white young man took out a rifle from the wooden box and handed it to Ye Zhao, but he couldn't hide a trace of disdain at the corner of his mouth, obviously in his eyes, who knew how to use firearms in this weird country with braids?

Although Ye Zhao is an amateur to firearms, he can also see at a glance that these rifles are not polished, but they are really models eliminated during the Napoleonic period, pick up a few and look at them, and even some rifles are still unrifled smoothbore guns, although they are much stronger than the shotguns that the Qing army has always prepared, but they are really the eliminated arms in the Western world.

It's normal to think about it, a few years later, the Hunan Army and the Huai Army will still equip other people's eliminated models in large quantities, although there are also real advanced rifles, but they are really a minority.

Ye Zhao looked at Wells with a smile and said, "Mr. Wells, I don't know how you are going to set the price?" ”

Wells was sharp-eyed, originally an opium merchant, but when he saw that the Qing Dynasty had made trouble with the Taiping Army, he immediately used an opium boat to carry a batch of firearms. Originally, he was about to go to Tianjing to sell these guns to the Taiping army at a high price, but suddenly heard that a Qing official who could speak foreign languages came to Shanghai, Wells was naturally happy to try his luck to see if he could scrape more money from the political axe army.

Who knew that it was not the case when he saw Ye Zhao, but Ye Zhao's words about London stocks just now made him think for a long time, he might not make money according to the method implied by Ye Zhao, but it undoubtedly gave him a lot of inspiration.

Originally, he was going to offer a rifle for thirty taels of silver, but Ye Zhao asked with a smile, but Wells couldn't answer, hesitated slightly, and said, "One branch, one twenty taels ......."

The white young man who was taking the rifle from Ye Zhao's hand and putting it back in place looked up in surprise, but he knew how shrewd and stingy Mr. Wells was.

Ye Zhao's heart shone, it was dark enough, according to the current situation in the Western arms market, the most advanced rifle was only a few pounds, more than ten taels of silver.

Seeing Ye Zhao's smiling expression, Wells was sure that this young official knew the market very well, but in any case, if he wanted to sell it to him at a low price, it would never work, and the other big buyer, Taiping Jun, was afraid that he would be willing to pay thirty taels of silver......

"It looks like we can't reach a consensus on the deal." Wells said with a smile.

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