Sheng Xuanhuai actually doesn't have to pay any cost. Originally, the Qing government could not recover the 131 acres of land in the American concession in Tianjin, and it was not their turn to speak no matter what to do with it. Yang Hao lived in as an American, and everyone was happy.

It's just that this will inevitably cause the displeasure of the Germans who have been coveting that land, but that is also the problem of the Americans themselves.

What Yang Hao wanted was to ignore him, stood up and hugged his fists, and said with a smile: "Master Sheng will inevitably find out in the future how wise the decision you made today was. Don't bother much in the next place, farewell! ”

Sheng Xuanhuai waved his hand, sat in place and watched Yang Hao leave in a dashing manner, the figure that was always tall and natural was deeply engraved in his mind, turning into a series of doubts and lingering. After pondering for a moment, he called someone in and ordered: "Check the details of this person for me, and pay more attention to it on weekdays, and report to me immediately if there is any suspicious behavior." ”

A young man of unknown origin, who was extremely bold, and who was not very ambitious, appeared on his turf, and at such a dangerous moment, he must be careful to take precautions, and there is no fault in it.

Reopened the thick information and flipped through it, Sheng Xuanhuai wrote an abridgement with a pen, ordered someone to prepare a sedan chair, and went straight to the Beiyang Yamen to meet Li Hongzhang.

With his identity, he naturally didn't need to wait for a long time, and after a short time, he was summoned by Li Hongzhang. Li Zhongtang, who is seventy-one years old this year, has a good complexion, slowly and steadily, but his eyes are as sharp as an eagle's falcon, and he knows that something is wrong when he sees Sheng Xuanhuai's expression, and it is not an ordinary thing.

After listening to his concise introduction to the situation and reading the information in person, Li Hongzhang did not get angry, gently threw it on the table, picked up the tea bowl and drank it carefully, and said lightly: "One is an arrogant person who intends to be lucky, and the other is a rat swallowing the sky, which is not a good thing." Tell me to go down and arrest the spy. The U.S. concession or something, let them toss around, and they can't make big waves. ”

Sheng Xuanhuai bowed his head and said yes. He knows the old man's character very well, and he is used to holding people with eyelids, Yang Hao's behavior of directly coming to the door to show favor is not to mention, and he can't see how much awe there is, which is the most disliked by Li Hongzhang.

In addition, Lord Zhongtang has always sought stability in his work, and he is thoughtful and meticulous in all aspects, and he will not believe it lightly.

waved the people away, Li Hongzhang called his son-in-law Zhang Peilun, pointed to the envelope and said: "The neighbors in the east refuse to stop, you arrange for someone to send telegrams to various places, and then talk about it after you have arrested them according to the list!" Zhang Nanpi there, hehe, let the family feel the inside and out so clearly, he can't escape the blame! The old man folded the bullet and impeached him. ”

Zhang Peilun didn't say a word, but he read the abridgement and information as quickly as possible, broke out in a cold sweat, and solemnly said to Li Hongzhang: "Fu Xiang! It looks like the Japanese have a lot of plans! Their national policy of attacking Korea first and then occupying the northeast is not a lie, and this effort is really profound. This time, the matter of Joseon Dongxue Tao had to prevent them from making a conspiracy. In addition, in the opinion of the son-in-law, Yang Hao may not have confessed to Sheng Xingsun. ”

"Huh? Do you think that kid can have so many fancy intestines? ”

Li Hongzhang felt that he was making a fuss. The Japanese have a lot of land in total, and they don't have much money in total, although they have added a few ironclad ships in recent years, and their total strength is only comparable to that of the Beiyang Naval Division. If it really starts, it depends on who is stronger, and he didn't think about the possibility of losing.

However, he has always believed in Zhang Peilun's talent and vision, and since this son-in-law said this, there must be a reason.

Zhang Peilun said: "Just look at this person's style of acting, and whether he is tricky or not, he must be a bold and daring person." Since he can touch Sheng Xingsun's door, he may not be able to ask for favors in front of you. ”

He didn't say the rest. As long as you inquire a little, you can know Li Hongzhang's temperament, he has always looked down on others, his mouth is shady and mean, Yang Hao's kind of braid is not left, I am afraid that I will not have a chance to say anything, so I will be beaten out with a stick, and even arrested and punished.

Li Hongzhang twisted his beard and chuckled: "Then I underestimated him." This is to fish the old man's appetite, okay, then accompany him to tease the boring man. You first take someone to arrest Zhang Shiheng's bastards, ask for a confession, and then meet Xingsun to get things done. Don't leak the word on the American side. If you want the land in the concession, it is not so easy without the permission of the old man! ”

Americans are not stupid, they will definitely guess whether Yang Hao is a pawn made by the Qing court to try it, and they must come to find out Li Hongzhang's thoughts, just right, you can card him, let him know that he knows, young people don't be too crazy. In the realm of the Great Qing Kingdom, it is not his turn to act recklessly.

Li Hongzhang had no last resort, but he didn't expect Yang Haoyuan to be smarter and decisive than he expected. Out of the Yamen of Tianjin Customs Road, I turned around and went straight to the U.S. Consulate in Tianjin. Consul Shi Mid blocked people before going out, and openly put forward his request to contract the concession.

The Yankees were very surprised that he had seen such a bold Chinese for the first time in his life! In the United States, those Chinese with pigtails are submissive, and they dare not resist no matter how they are bullied, this is an outlier who jumped out of nowhere!

Without waiting for him to throw his face at the guest, Yang Hao put forward two conditions that he couldn't refuse: "First, it can perfectly solve the problem of the American concession." We were stationed as American nationals to prevent the continued encroachment of the Germans and to ensure that there would be no disputes when the U.S. government regained control in the future. The Qing court would not object. Second, we can immediately develop and utilize, and the profit benefits that will be brought by those who make decisions will benefit them. ”

In the former, Shi Mid couldn't make a decision by himself, he had to at least inform Tian Bei, the minister in China, and let him judge. But the latter one is different, no one will have trouble with money, right?

To be honest, these envoys in China have a very hard time, no extra money, no profits, nothing to do, every year in December Tianjin is closed, idle palms are itchy. If there's a lucrative deal to make, that's fine.

Yang Hao laid out a blueprint for the construction of the concession in front of him, which not only planned the wharf, the Ministry of Industry, the police station, the post office, the church, the hospital, the school, the parking lot, the power plant, the tap water and other necessary facilities in an orderly manner, but also specially set aside the factory area and spread to at least 100 acres of land in the periphery, which is an industrial and commercial entity that can create hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in a year, not to mention a profit!

Yang Hao smiled and was further tempted: "Mr. Consul, think about it, there is such an industry that generates a lot of profits every year, and constantly attracts overseas Chinese staying in the United States back, how much trouble can be solved for the government!" That's a great thing! ”

Shi Midden came to his senses! yes, there's an excuse to get rid of all the damn Chinese guys on the West Coast of the United States, and the rednecks in the province are protesting and making trouble all day long. Not only can they reduce the number of Chinese in the west and curry favor with the electorate, but they can also continue to work and pay taxes in the far east, and they can also transfer disputes and troubles to the Qing State, and they can also help occupy the concessions, and they can use them as an excuse at any time to fight for various terms favorable to the United States and gain the upper hand in the negotiations.

It is even a genius idea to curry favor with both the Conservatives and the Radicals!

At this stage, the United States has just ushered in a new financial crisis, a large number of banks and enterprises have collapsed, the incomes of the middle and lower classes have plummeted, domestic tensions are rising day by day, nationalism and expansionism are on the rise, and many people are already clamoring for it, and the United States has been appointed by the mandate of heaven to take the initiative to assume the responsibility of leading the world, no longer limited to the North American continent, but should seek a broader space outward, at least to spread the gospel of God to every coastline of the Pacific Ocean.

No one can say for sure that one day the government will change its mind and take the initiative to participate in the division of interests in China, which is one of the reasons why they will neither formally accept the concession nor give it up completely.

The Yankees couldn't hide anything on their faces, their eyebrows jumped, and they confessed excitedly: "I will report this matter to Minister Tian Bei as much as possible, and personally, I am very happy to see it happen." ”

Yang Hao immediately auctioned a large amount of silver tickets--- anyway, he robbed his house, so he didn't feel distressed. Shi Mid was so happy, a thousand taels, the rent for 8 years of the 131 acres of land! (The treaty stipulates that the rent per mu of concession land is 1,000 yuan, which is cheap)

Of course, this money can only fall into his pocket, it is an additional income, and no matter what the result is, it is impossible to take it out again. Think about the possibility of building a large engineering plant in the future, and the benefits are innumerable.

Rich can make ghosts grind, Schmidt was very unpretentious, and immediately set off to rush to Beijing in person to report the matter to Mr. Minister--- he must take this credit firmly in his own hands!

However, Yang Hao did not wait for a clear reply from him and Li Hongzhang, first booked a private room at the Li Shunde Hotel in the British Concession, asked Liu Dafu to run errands to the Shanxi Hall, and found a guide to help send out greetings everywhere, and he knocked on the door of Yan's house and directly became the uninvited guest.

Yan Fu didn't expect that such a strange person as him would come, and he wasn't too happy at first. But when he saw the strange "greeting post" sent by Yang Hao, he immediately laughed, and hurriedly ordered someone to serve tea, and he concentrated on unfolding the newspaper that was actually a four-page newspaper and reading it carefully.

If you want to impress the cow, you can't use ordinary things. The "Greeting Post" prepared by Yang Hao is a forged newspaper called "Guowen Bao", which was made by the cultural team under the props company. This name was used for the newspaper founded by Yan Fu in the future.

The newspaper is deliberately in the old-fashioned format of traditional Chinese and vertical layout, and the handwriting is not very clear, but it happens to be legible. And that's it, much better than any contemporary newspaper. You know, the most advanced in the world today is nothing more than the Albert lithography press.

The most striking thing is the content, the front page headline is current affairs news and commentary, written about the current situation on the Korean Peninsula, the uprising of the Donghak Party. The content is far more detailed than is known at the moment, and the key is to put down the rebellion in the aftermath of the incident, predicting that the uprising will surely achieve an initial victory, and the king will definitely ask for help from the suzerain. In the "Sino-Japanese Tianjin Conference Treaty" signed in 1885, Japan, which had obtained the right to intervene, would also take the opportunity to drive its troops into the Korean Peninsula, and eventually lead to the overall deterioration of the situation in the Far East and the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War!