After sending Han Litong and them away, Song Guanqian, the co-director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, did not return to Nanjing in a hurry, but returned to the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Shanghai.

In fact, as the co-minister in charge of European foreign affairs, Song Guanqian spent most of his time in Shanghai, not in the capital, Nanjing.

Quite simply, because Shanghai is now the main city of the Chinese Empire, and it can even be said that it is the only foreign exchange city, because the Western countries have not yet formally established diplomatic relations with the Chinese Empire, and they have not been allowed to open consulates in Nanjing, so the current foreign exchanges of the Chinese Empire are still concentrated in the Shanghai area.

This also means that most of Song Guan's working time has to stay in Shanghai, and he can negotiate with the consuls of various countries at any time!

On the way back, sitting in a horse-drawn carriage, he looked at the streets on both sides and pondered several recent foreign affairs, such as the fact that Britain and France were preparing to launch a large-scale attack on Canton in order to force the Qing court to agree to the request to open more treaty ports.

With the rise of the Chinese Empire, British and French diplomats also noticed the situation of the Chinese Empire, and they wanted to open more treaty ports, not to say that the Manchus were not pleasing to the eyes and wanted to fight, and considering that Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, and Xiamen under the control of the Chinese Empire had covered most of China's current foreign trade ports, so these foreigners had to consider how they could get more treaty ports from the Chinese Empire once the Chinese Empire controlled the coastal areas.

After all, even if you Britain and France fought the Manchus, what if they forced them to agree to all the conditions?

If the Chinese Empire did not agree, all the promises of the Manchus would be useless.

And more importantly, here's what. According to the analysis of the situation of foreigners and Lin Zhe in recent years, they will find out. In fact, the Chinese Empire was much easier to deal with than the Manchus.

The Manchu side was a group of extremely ignorant and arrogant barbarians. Willing to open their eyes to the world, the suffering of dealing with them is not much easier than dealing with the savage blacks of Africa.

On the other hand, the Chinese Empire led by Lin Zhe has always supported foreign exchanges and trade, and the establishment of the trade zone is a model of friendship and cooperation between Lin Zhe and foreigners from all over the world.

Relying on the Shanghai Trade Zone, foreigners from all over the world, well, mainly the British, have reaped a lot of commercial profits, and those foreign companies have made a lot of money in recent years.

And in the same way, rely on the development of business zones. Lin Zhe, or the Chinese Empire, also gained a lot of benefits from this, firstly, by expanding the volume of exports, and secondly, by being able to use the treaty ports to import a large number of machinery and equipment, and to introduce technical personnel from various countries, thus establishing a preliminary industrial system.

Don't talk about those who are too tall first, just talk about the raw silk industry!

Relying on the convenience of the business zone, the raw silk industry in Shanghai has completely transformed from a handicraft workshop to a machine silk reeling model, and the raw silk produced is not only of good quality. It is very competitive in the international market, and it has also led to the development of other industries through raw silk.

For example, at the beginning, the most basic machinery manufacturing industry started with the maintenance of steam engines, textile machines and other machinery and equipment in the silk reeling factory. And then gradually imitate production, the most representative Linde Machinery Company is this development model.

Nowadays, they have been able to produce some of the machinery and equipment in the textile industry, of course, the performance is not comparable to that of imports. But the advantage is that the price is cheap, and in addition they are copying the steam engine. It's just that it's not mature enough to be launched into the market yet.

Rely on foreign trade in the trade zone. Lin Zhe is building a modern industrial system step by step.

It can be said that the establishment and development of the business zone is a model of cooperation between Lin Zhe and foreigners from all over the world, and Lin Zhe has always maintained good relations with other countries.

Since the formal rebellion last year and the establishment of the Chinese Empire this year, Lin Zhe has never forgotten to win over these foreigners, especially the British, in order to win over the British, Lin Zhe even asked people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hint to them that Hangzhou, Zhenjiang and other cities will not be open to trade in the future.

The British were overjoyed to hear that the Chinese Empire could talk about opening more treaty ports, but for some time now, Song Guanqian, the co-minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had been negotiating with the British and French in Shanghai on the opening of more ports.

But it is said to be a negotiation, but in fact it is a rhype and delaying time, because Lin Zhe's plan is to put a piece of meat in front of foreigners from all countries first, but if the countries do not show actual benefits, Lin Zhe will not let it out easily.

After all, although Lin Zhe said that he supported foreign trade, the nascent Chinese empire also needed foreign trade to maintain the development of industry and commerce.

However, compared with the needs of Lin Zhe and the Chinese Empire, these foreigners were more urgent, and in order to obtain more treaty ports, they were already preparing to transfer troops to fight in China, and it can be seen that this matter was very urgent for them.

Therefore, Lin Zhe's plan is to delay the time first, until these foreigners give up more benefits.

And what benefits does Lin Zhe want to obtain: the first is the opium issue, and the second is the tariff issue.

According to the Treaty of Nanjing, which was signed after the First Opium War, and many subsequent additional treaties, the opium issue was not actually resolved, and the treaty did not say that opium was allowed to be imported legally, but it did not explicitly say that it was not allowed to be imported, so the British opium trade has been so unstoppable in the past ten years.

China, on the other hand, has turned a blind eye to this fact, acquiescing to this fact, and local officials and customs officials often secretly impose tariffs on opium as a foreign medicine.

The so-called investigation of opium is actually generally referring to the smuggled opium that has not been taxed, and can be sold in any way after paying taxes!

And this opium problem is also a problem that Britain wants to solve, and what they want is legalization!

According to the Treaty of Nanjing and subsequent treaties, import and export tariffs were formulated through negotiation, and this move was to deprive China of tariff autonomy, so that the tariff rate was less than 5 percent on average, and in some cases it was only a few 4.0 percent.

Tariffs are not autonomous. And such an unusually low percentage, not only the significant reduction in revenues from national customs duties. And more importantly, it will have a great impact on some domestic industries, for example, if foreign cloth is imported in large quantities. The tariff is low, which makes the price of foreign cloth low, so what are the consequences?

The consequence is not that the Chinese can happily wear new foreign cloth clothes, but the destruction of countless self-sufficient family handmade textile industries, if this is nothing, then the next point is worth noting, that is, under the impact of a large number of cheap foreign cloth, the domestic modern machine textile industry will be destroyed by ruin, these domestic small scale. The technology is not advanced enough, and the private textile enterprises that cannot make it cheaper are bankrupt.

Tariffs, in fact, are not just taxes, they also have a more important role, that is: tariff barriers!

If we want to support the domestic textile industry, then from the perspective of tariffs, it is to increase the import tax on foreign fabrics, from 5 percent to 20 percent or even 50 percent, then it will not be long before domestic textile factories will bloom everywhere. Then seize the market of the original foreign cloth.

At the same time, if you have export commodities that are in great demand, such as Chinese tea and raw silk, and foreigners have to come from all over the world to buy them, then the price of goods will increase at the same time. In terms of tariffs, it is also possible to increase them from 5 percent to 10 or 15 percent. Then it will bring more fiscal revenue to the country.

Therefore, for modern countries, tariffs can be said to be an important matter that controls the lifeblood of the country's economy.

And now the Chinese Empire is reborn. Although in the past it was a series of foreign treaties based on the Treaty of Nanking and additional treaties, the Chinese Empire was a completely new empire. Lin Zhe was absolutely unwilling to inherit all the various treaties of the former Qing Dynasty that lost power and humiliated the country for no reason.

Lin Zhe's reluctance to recognize a series of treaties such as the Treaty of Nanking is the biggest diplomatic contradiction between the Chinese Empire and the great powers at present.

In recent months, Song Guanqian has been discussing these matters with the consuls of various countries, but the talks have been fruitless, so that they are still dragging on.

"Alas, I don't know when I'll be able to take the lead!" Song Guanqian retracted these worries in his heart and focused on the streets.

This is the core area of Shanghai, that is, the business district, although the Shanghai area has developed rapidly in recent years, but it is only limited to the business zone, and the rest of Shanghai outside the business zone is still far less developed than the business zone.

The carriages walked on the roads paved with granite fragments and yellow sand, which were not very advanced, but they were much better than the dirt roads of other cities, and the trade district had a special road maintenance agency, and workers maintained these roads every day.

The road is lined with shops and pedestrians, and you won't see the priority or laid-back atmosphere of the rest of the country.

Here, whether it is the managers of large ocean companies, large companies, senior clerks, ordinary employees or the lowest level of manual workers, female workers in silk reeling factories, they are all very busy.

Except for those who entered the shops, most of the people walking outside were in a hurry, as if they were in a hurry.

Soon, the carriage in front of Song Guan was leaving the busy street and entering the Bund Avenue, which was less pedestrian and the road was smoother.

The so-called Bund Avenue, that is, the riverside part of the former British Concession, is full of major commercial houses, government agencies of enterprises, and the only service industry building should be the Bund Hotel that is still under construction.

Although the pavement of the Bund Avenue is still made of gravel and yellow sand, the gravel is finer, and this road and street lamps are all funded and maintained by major enterprises stationed on the Bund Avenue, so the maintenance situation is better.

After the carriage walked briskly up the Bund Avenue, Song Guanqian continued to look at both sides of the street.

There are not many pedestrians here, and most of them are employees of various companies.

Looking a little farther away, I saw a few scholars in horse coats and robes shaking their heads, and occasionally hearing their fuss.

No, it just so happened that a blonde, blue-eyed lady dressed in a bare chest and bare arms came out of the headquarters of a commercial bank, and these scholars immediately showed a sigh and said things like barbarians who don't know etiquette.

Occasionally, a few young Chinese women wearing Hanfu plain skirts walked over, laughing as they walked, and these scholars were stunned for a moment, and then shook their heads one by one: "The world is going down, and what are they wearing?" Messily lost the cheongsam of the ancestors of the Han family! ”

Just at this time, the carriage in front of Song Guan passed by them, and after hearing the sentence of the ancestor's cheongsam, Song Guanqian's eyebrows wrinkled slightly!

At this time, the women wearing Hanfu on the opposite side had already walked over, and after hearing the words of these scholars, a melon seed face led by a girl about sixteen or seventeen years old immediately intervened with both hands: "Where did the crazy scholar come from, forget your roots, forget it, and say us!" ”

The scholar put away the folding fan in his hand, and immediately straightened his chest and said loudly: "In broad daylight, you linger in the market......

But before the scholar finished speaking, the melon-faced girl snorted coldly: "Ah Lai, let the dog go!" ”

As soon as the words fell, there was a sound of a dog barking, and then out of nowhere, a big yellow mane dog with a height of half a man appeared! (To be continued......)