"This is the Xuezheng Yamen, but it's a pity that Shi Tiemian is not easy to speak, and he doesn't even pay attention to my father's request, otherwise your showmanship, Brother Jin's promotion, it's a matter of one sentence."

On Huiai Street, Guan Xiaoyu was the guide, introducing the yamen all the way, and when she arrived at the Xuezheng Yamen, she said in a tone that could determine the fate of tens of millions of people in one sentence, and Li Shi remembered Shi Yizhi's nickname.

"Fame comes from the right path, and deception is never the way to establish oneself!"

Most of it was just Guan Xiaoyu's joke, but Fan Jin was seriously refuting it, but Guan Xiaoyu, who was lost face by him, was not angry at all, but looked at him with a sweet smile, his eyes full of autumn waves.

Li Xian secretly said that this is in the eyes of a lover, but then again, Fan Jin Fan Chongju used the militarized teaching methods he created to teach Mengxue for more than a year, and the original sour and rotten gas has been refined into a solemn and righteous attitude that can educate people anytime and anywhere, faintly similar to the literati like Tang Youzeng I have seen before, that is, the so-called "I have my own rivers and mountains in my heart, and I am calm when I am burdened". It's just that the "calm" is too yin and too cold, I think the rivers and mountains in my heart are already covered by a lot of fog, unlike Duan Hongshi's generation, who still has the spirit of the great era of the Ming and Qing dynasties, but it is free and easy.

"The two of them, can they really fulfill a Qihan marriage?"

Li Shi is also a little serious, Fan Jin, a poor talent with no family background and no uneducated education, wants to make a name for himself on the road to fame, and it is a myth to be able to reach the Taoist level in ten years. Even if you reach the provincial level, if you want to climb the door of the Guangzhou general's house, it is still too far away, unless...... Glancing at Fan Jin again, Li Xian sighed, unless he went into battle in person, in his previous life, he had come into contact with many soft rice experts who were rich and noble, and they had all kinds of colorful wrists. While sighing, Li Xi was still worried, Guan Xiaoyu's Laozi Guan Yuanzhong, really didn't use his daughter as an officialdom weight? Let her choose her own son-in-law, and she doesn't even care about the issue of Qihan?

"Fan Xiucai, autumn is approaching, you have to concentrate on studying."

But Li Shi was also very important, so he only reminded him euphemistically, and then said goodbye to the two. He wants to settle down in the south of the city, not only to save face, but also to touch the Guangzhou shopping malls, especially the background of Guangzhou foreign stores.

"This Li Shi, you should have less contact with him in the future."

Looking at Li Shi's back, Guan Xiaoyu began to enter the role of a virtuous wife.

"I always feel like he's ...... you Another intention. ”

What happened to Li Shi when he first saw him, coupled with An Jiuxiu's experience, made Guan Xiaoyu subconsciously have no good impression of Li Shi, if Li Shi was here, most of them would have to lament that a woman's intuition was really effective. He didn't have any bad intentions towards Fan Jin, but he really had ulterior motives for her to manage Xiaoyu.

"This ...... Too much to worry about. ”

also subconsciously wanted to refute, but thinking of what he felt directly or indirectly in Li Zhuang before, Fan Jin's heart felt a slight chill, as if the things were always incompatible with the road of fame he was going to take.

"It's still Xiaoyu's confidant."

Fan Jin glanced at the beautiful woman's delicate face, and sighed in his heart, and then brought out his heroic ambition, this township test must not live up to the expectations of the beauty.

The two walked forward silently, looking at each other with affection all the way, and when they arrived at the entrance of Guangta Street, the north was the boundary of the banner people, and Fan Jin had to separate from the beauty. 【1】

A team of guards came out from the center of Guangta Street, and saw Guan Xiaoyu still staring at Fan Jin's figure in a daze from a distance, and one of them sighed, "That's not ......"

The maid beside Guan Xiaoyu was summoned over for questioning, and after a while, the man commanded in a deep voice: "Tell Ye Yang that poor acid is back." ”

At this time, Guan Xiaoyu turned around, and the man quickly put on a bright smile: "Miss, can you have fun this month?" ”

Anhetang has another hall in the city of Guangzhou, and it is not with the foreign companies in the south outside the city, Li Xi met with An Jiuxiu's father, An Jinzhi, the proprietor of Anhetang, here, and this name made Li Xi also admire.

The old acquaintance An Liu came out to greet him, and An Jinzhi An Heguan received him behind the entrance of the hall, in a courtyard with a Jiangnan atmosphere. When he saw the real person, Li Shi's first impression was...... People live up to their name.

Fifty or sixty years old, very fat, full of gold, smiling slightly, somewhat like Maitreya Buddha smeared with gold dust.

"My girl, are you satisfied?"

After shallow politeness and speculation, the two sat down in the corridor hall in the courtyard to talk, this is a business field, and the official identity of An Heguan does not have to be taken seriously. And An Jinzhi's words, the tone is not bad at all with the old bustard in the Qinglou.

"Her mother is my twelfth room Ru Lady, she was a great beauty in Jiangnan back then, and there were even big people in Beijing who intervened, and she finally entered my room."

An Jinzhi didn't mention business at all, and the topic turned to An Jiuxiu.

"Piano, chess, calligraphy and painting are not a problem, since I was a child, I have learned to manage accounts, I know some English and Franco, and the most common is Latin. Although not as fluent as the tooth people, it is still no problem to talk to foreigners. Anyway, I'm a girl, you can use it however you want. But what...... I heard from the next person, you don't seem to welcome her in the door, are you not very interested in this Jiangnan flavor? ”

An Jinzhi, who was dressed in gold, was full of aura and completely controlled the right to speak, so Li Shi listened in a daze.

Bang Bang ...... An Jinzhi clapped his hands, and in a ringing sound, three slender figures entered the corridor hall, and Qi Qi greeted An Jinzhi and Li Yifu, and called crisply: "Ask Daddy An, ask Uncle An......"

For a time, the lark yellow warbler, the height was crisp and soft, and the beautiful voice lingered, and Li Xi turned from a flute to a daze. Look at it again, obediently, these three girls, the eldest is sixteen or seventeen years old, and the younger one is only twelve or thirteen years old, all of them are beautiful and beautiful. The big one is bright, the small one is pure, and if you take it out individually, it will make people's eyes light up, and when the three of them are together, Li Xi's eyes suddenly spent.

"I also have five unmarried daughters, these three are the right age, although their skills are much worse than Jiuxiu, but if you think she still lacks style, just pick another one. I heard that there is also a foreign girl next to you, look at my eleven shows......"

When An Jinzhi said this, the thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl in the middle blushed, and looked deeply at Li Xian, and after a closer look, it was actually a brown-haired and blue-eyed mixed-race.

"I was born of a Portuguese slave girl I accepted, if you are satisfied, you will go straight to accompany Jiuxiu."

When An Jinzhi said this, Li Shi had to speak out, is this An Heguan selling glass as a foreign company, or is he wholesale his daughter? He can be regarded as having seen how heroic the wealthy businessmen of this era are.

"Master An, you can take me too seriously, the kid's career has just started, but he can't be treated like this."

Li Xi thought politely, the biggest achievement of An Jinzhi's life should not be to make money, but to give birth to daughters, and he actually has more than a dozen daughters!? Counting the daughters of the twelve chambers such as the lady, they are all sixteen or seventeen years old, and now he shouldn't have a concubine in twenty or thirty rooms!?

"Treat? No, no...... Li Shi, even if you take all these three and your four daughters are exchanged for your son-in-law, I am willing. ”

An Jinzhi laughed and said, Li Xi just followed and smirked, he was really so bold, so he wouldn't have used the tent girl to pretend to be his daughter before.

"It's really not a joke, Li Shi. If you had accepted Xiaofeng directly, I wouldn't have much expectation for your glass business. Your caution shows that you have the real thing in your hands, and of course I can trust my daughter to you. ”

Speaking of this, Li Xianzheng thought that An Jinzhi was going to get to the point, so he changed the topic again.

"Still, I don't think you have learned much about being a businessman."

An Jinzhi waved his hand, and the three daughters withdrew.

"The way of a businessman is to be a man."

This famous sentence was used in later generations, and Li Shi nodded perfunctorily.

"The meaning of being a man is to have more daughters......"

Then he really thundered Li Xian, and he woke up for a long time, and the more he tasted, the more he felt that it was very connotative.

"So, you also have to take more women and have more children. We merchants, relying on the sky and the earth, the government on the left and the silver on the right, but these are not reliable, and we still rely on ......."

An Jinzhi compared his fat fingers and pointed to his crotch.

"It's the root of my life."

The preface and the afterword turned around in Li Xian's mind, and suddenly there was a smile on his face, which was to regard himself as the root of his life.

"Master An, it turns out that you are not very sure about the future of this foreign bank."

Li Shi spoke, An Jinzhi froze, his eyes rolled several times, he gasped, turned his hand up, put his index finger away, and cocked his thumb.

"Good boy, see through."

An Jinzhi was straight, and the face of the fat and flesh was a little more vicissitudes, and he sighed deeply.

"Outsiders all say that this foreign line is glamorous, and every silver is more than 10,000 taels in and out, I was also looking at the heat of my eyes before, and I was matched by the adults, so I set up another line number outside Anhetang, and took over the matter of this foreign goods store. In the past six months, the business has been done, and the silver is a lot of hands, but the more you do it, the more thrilling it becomes. ”

He smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Who would have thought that this foreign bank is a box for the official to put money." Last year, Xu Leguan of the Xu family in Fujian Province lost more than 200,000 taels because the tea business was not on the right side, but at the end of the year, he still had to pay money to the superintendent and superintendent, and the tax and silver contracted were even less. The business that could still be dealt with suddenly collapsed, and the people were also imprisoned, and a large family of people who were still on the clouds fell into the quagmire in an instant. ”

An Jinzhi is talking about the surname of the foreign bank, which relies on the privileges granted by the Qing court to monopolize entrepot trade, except for the relationship between officials and internal and external customers, it relies on capital, and the circulation business has always been a penny to do three things.

The specific operation of the foreign bank is to buy all the goods of the foreigners, be responsible for selling them to the mainland merchants, and at the same time buy the goods from the mainland merchants that the foreigners want. In addition, it is necessary to contract tariffs and various "tributes" for the royal family, and as for the dots on the government, it is even more important, what natural disasters are there in between[***], the capital chain can't keep up, then wait for bankruptcy.

Of course, they are also relying on monopoly privileges, and the merchants are all nouveau riche. Wu Bingjian, the representative of the thirteen banks in Guangzhou, Wu Bingjian, an official of Jardine House, can sit on a family property of 26 million taels of silver, relying on nothing more than monopoly.

But for the Qing court, this was a pigsty, fattened and killed. In the past two hundred years, there have been few evergreen businesses in foreign businessmen, and even Wu Bingjian, when he was alive, his Jardine was squeezed dry by the Qing court.

Ten years ago, a certain big man in the Ministry of Internal Affairs was originally engaged in salt affairs in the north, but then the business was smashed, and he bought a business of monopolizing the sale of foreign goods from the then prince, which suddenly made most of the foreign banks in Guangzhou collapse. Later, it was Lin Chen, Ho An, and several merchants who bought off the governor and the customs overseer, and followed the English merchants to work hard, so that they withstood the imperial merchant. Oh, that Ann is my distant uncle in the An family. Now, this foreign bank has become a fragrant dumpling for all kinds of immortals, and everyone has to stretch out their hands, but am I just a hand that Guan Adult brought in. ”【2】

"So, ah......"

An Jinzhi came back to the topic.

"I settled down as a glaze craftsman, and I made a big career by glaze, which is the root. Even if the foreign bank fails, I still have roots, and I can always protect them. Li Shi, you have my roots in your hands, how can I not be treated? ”

An Jinzhi's gaze was sincere and fiery, and Li Xian secretly underestimated this golden shining. In these years, there are not many people who can realize that industry is the root. It's a pity that the business environment is so bad, not to mention the industry that must still rely on the business environment, An Jinzhi's attitude towards industry is to treat it as a life-sustaining grass.

"To save your life, this glass is the root, but to make the cause flourish, it depends on ...... The lifeblood of men. ”

Then An Jinzhi turned to his daughter, and heard that the daughters he married were all in the mansions of high-ranking officials and nobles, and they were not the main house, Li Xian could only sigh. can force this golden shining to do his best, and be a man at night, what he wants is a stable environment. His daughter is a naked trading weight, which makes Li Shi have a deeper understanding of An Jiuxiu's surname.

After that, the conversation went deep into reality. An Jinzhi was very honest and gave a lot of money to Li Shi. A lot of his frits were smuggled, and the experience of dealing with foreigners also came from this, which gave him the capital to get involved in foreign companies. At present, the foreign banks in Guangzhou are mixed with dragons and snakes, the rules are chaotic, and the merchants are planning to change.

"Last year, there were more than 20 foreign ships entering Whampoa, and the ships that came were both England, Franco, and the Netherlands, and several countries were all safe and sound, and it seems that they joined forces to take this trade route. Regardless of the small sundries, plush fabrics, lead, and feather yarn are bulk goods for customs declaration. The exports are raw silk, silk, porcelain, tea, sugar, tin, etc., and when each ship comes, depending on the relationship and country, one or several foreign companies will take over a shipload of goods, because they are led by various gods behind them, and often stir up unresolved disputes. Not only are the merchants difficult, but the foreigners are also very troubled. ”【3】

From An Jinzhi, he found out the general situation of the current Guangzhou Foreign Bank, and Li Xi had a bottom in his heart. At this stage, Guangzhou Foreign Bank has not yet entered the stable foreign trade system of the main body of public behavior, that is, the so-called "Guangzhou Thirteen Banks" in later generations, and many business processes and benefit distribution are still in the run-in stage, and there is an opportunity for him to fish in troubled waters. Listening to An Jinzhi's introduction, the immortals from all walks of life are also deeply involved at present, and the total trade volume of foreign banks last year, Li Xi estimated that it should be between 10 million and 30 million taels of silver, from Macao to Whampoa, this small section, the silver flow is so thick, he wants to intervene, the strength is still too weak, can only be placed in the later stage of planning.

"Then, Master An, let's earn the silver in the sea with peace of mind first."

Li Shi said to An Jinzhi with a smile.

When Li Shi left, An Jinzhi was in a daze for a long time, and he didn't wake up until An Liu spoke.

"Send Eleven Xiu over, remember not to mention any requests, his conditions have also been agreed, hurry up and send out the money and get Yue Litang up."

An Jinzhi said in a deep voice, An Liu was very surprised.

"Miss Nine hasn't ...... yet Send Miss Eleven again? He didn't give in. ”

Ahn shook his head.

"He's not a businessman, and he's not here to negotiate with me."

Taking a deep breath, An Jinzhi looked at the sky, and the corners of his mouth curled slightly.

"Glass is just a small thing. This kid has such a deep and wide vision, I really don't know what kind of ambition he has. He was very attentive to foreign business, but his footsteps fell on the ground, and I looked at him...... In the future, Huangpu may be used as the Fourteenth Fu Wharf to repeat the story of Beijiang. Eighteen years old, when I was eighteen years old, I was still figuring out how to blow glass. ”

Then he said another sentence, if Li Xi is still here, he will definitely fight for it.

"I've decided, to put a part of my roots in him!"

(To be continued)