"I'm glad to meet you, my friend!" After taking off his hat, Howard warmly hugged Li Yongji warmly, and then continued, "Your complexion is really good. ”

"Thank you." Looking at the other party's flushed face, Li Yongji smiled and nodded, "Your complexion is also good." ”

"I'm hot." Howard loosened his bow tie, "It's really hot and humid here, but you're comfortable here." ”

Indeed, Li Yongji's room was turned on by an air conditioner, and because he had to meet Li Shanlan and the others first, Howard and the others were waiting in another room temporarily, and there was no air conditioner in that room, at most they would be provided with a little cold soda.

This is also no way, this is not the nest of Qingpu County, it has not undergone much modernization, this air conditioner is easy to say, but the generator currently only has one diesel generator set, the energy is limited, it is impossible to popularize air conditioning on a large scale, at least Li Yongji is not interested in opening another air conditioner just for a few foreigners, wasting his precious energy.

Howard and his party didn't know about this, they couldn't think of such a thing as air conditioning, and they thought that this room had been chilled with a lot of ice cubes in advance, so it was so cool, and the cold drink with ice cubes they had drunk before deepened their misunderstanding.

Of course, Howard's group of people are so uncomfortable, and it is also related to their dress, who makes them wear tuxedos and high hats on hot days, and they can't complain about others, but they can all wear tuxedos, which shows that they all have certain financial resources and strength, otherwise a set of tuxedos is not cheap at this time, and ordinary Americans can't afford this spectrum.

Unlike the British, Americans have always paid attention to straightforwardness, or it is not to pay attention to it, so after complimenting each other a little, the heat on their bodies also dropped slightly along with the cold air and cold drinks, and they began to get down to business.

Their intentions are clear to Li Yongji. It is for the new Wusong Port Free Trade Zone.

Just recently, due to many days of unpaid wages, the defenders of Wusong Fort have surrendered under Li Yongji's silver bullet offensive, well, this word is a bit inappropriate, it should be officially accepted by the Jiangnan Admiral, that is, Li Yongji's leadership.

In short, it was precisely because of the peaceful start of Wusong Fort and Wusong Port that it opened the door for the surprise attack of the British and French forces.

When the Wusong Fort was controlled by Li Yongji, the British, French, and American garrisons in Shanghai had just engaged in the mercenary army called Chang Shengjun. Under the shelter of the Americans' armed merchant ships, they pretended to put an empty cannon under the Wusong Fort, and then the Wusong Fort also pretended to put a cannon, indicating that they were very strict in their resistance, but the weapons were inferior to the people, and they couldn't keep people.

After everyone finished making a look, the fleet carrying the Chang Shengjun went all the way along the Yangtze River to Nantong, broke through Nantong in one fell swoop, and then under the guidance of the intelligence officers of the Jingwu Army. After hurriedly robbing the local treasury and several large households, he continued to go west, breaking Jiangyin and Zhenjiang, and continued to do something in Nantong. Just stay in Zhenjiang and turn with the Taiping army who were notified in advance.

After the two sides joined forces, they went all the way north, broke Yangzhou again, and then showed signs that they were going to attack Huai'an!

This way of attacking. The Chang Shengjun is naturally enjoyable, but because the whole process is supervised by the guide of the elite army, and there are strict restrictions from the officers. Therefore, he did not let go of the robbery of the common people, but specially robbed the treasury and a few large households that had been set in advance, and the looted property was directly left to the people sent by the Jingwu Army to receive it, and the price was assessed on the spot, and then everyone added two to five to divide it.

Why did Chang Shengjun want to share it equally with Li Yongji? The Jingwu Army didn't really make much effort on the surface, so why did they want half of the profits?

It's very simple, because the Jingwu Army is the recipient of stolen goods, and the looted property can be directly converted into Yinyang. But this is not a big deal, after all, there are many people who can collect stolen goods, so the most important reason is not this, but the full support of the Americans for this distribution plan!

The Americans accounted for a third of the victorious army, and they controlled the most important fleet, so the Americans spoke with a lot of weight, so they obediently obeyed.

So, why do Americans support Li Yongji, this is because of two things.

The first thing is for the Sino-US free trade area plan proposed by Li Yongji.

What is the China-US Free Trade Area? To put it simply, Li Yongji enclosed a large area of private land outside the original Shanghai Public Concession.

This land expands to Zhoujiazui in the east, to the junction of Shanghai County and Baoshan County in the north, and to Jing'an Temple in the west, with a total area of more than 30,000 acres, which can be said to encircle the entire Shanghai Public Concession.

Not only that, along the Huangpu River to the north, all the way to this section of Wusongkou, the land on both sides of the Huangpu River was also encircled by Li Yongji, which was also his private domain.

This large area of land is now nominally Li Yongji's private land, and it is true that construction is underway recently, nominally to build a large estate in the so-called small world of the East, but in fact to create a private free trade zone.

To put it simply, Li Yongji, a place called the small world of the East, will be a disguised concession with a large number of buildings as the core and a large number of buildings as the core in the future.

Why is it a disguised concession?

That's because, firstly, in this area, any Chinese and Americans who come here to trade, whether they buy or sell, do not charge any transaction tax, only a little supervision tax, which is actually stamp duty.

Second, Americans can preach freely in this area, as long as they do not violate Li Yongji's own laws and do not force others to join the church.

Third, in addition to Chinese, Americans can also freely rent and buy land or build houses freely in this area. For example, if you want to build a commercial house or a church, you only need to pay a rent to the General Affairs Office set up by Li Yongji here when renting land or building a house, report your personal information, sign a rental and sales contract, and get a real estate certificate.

Fourth, various litigation issues between Chinese and American civilians in this area are adjudicated by the trial court set up here, although the "judge" of the trial is appointed by Li Yongji himself. However, the jury system was introduced, with a total of six jury members, and the Chinese and American sides were present in a half-to-half ratio. If five members of the jury have the same opinion, they can reject the judge's final decision, but there are only three chances to veto at most, and if they all three vote negative, the jury and the judge must be replaced and the new person will be retried. This time, if the judge's opinion is the same as that of the previous judge, but the new jury still vetoes the decision of the new judge by more than five people, then the retrial will proceed with a substitution. In the third trial, there will be no jury, and the third new judge will be left to judge alone.

Fifth, as for the administrative management of this place, since it is a private territory, all of it is handled by Li Yongji's private General Affairs Office, and the head of the General Affairs Office is naturally a Chinese sent by Li Yongji, but the General Affairs Office will hire a certain number of Americans as Li Yongji's personal employees to "assist" in handling the affairs of the General Affairs Office. In principle, the ratio of employees in China and the United States is 2:1, and the Chinese have absolute control and right to speak, but in fact it is equivalent to a joint government between China and the United States.

It can be seen from this. This private territory, called the Little World of the East, will provide considerable convenience to the Americans, allowing Americans to settle down and live, and allowing Americans to participate in the local government. Allowing Americans to participate in juries, allowing free trade, this is already a de facto concession.

Only this benefit. It is enough to tempt the Americans, and with the second benefit, it will make the Americans completely crazy.

The second advantage that Li Yongji gave to the Americans was that he allowed American private enterprises to cooperate with Li Yongji to build railroads.

To put it simply, Li Yongji will set up a joint-stock railway company with the Americans, of which Li Yongji will have 51 percent of the shares in terms of land and protection, and the Americans will have the other 49 percent in terms of capital and technology.

After the company was founded, it recruited engineers from the United States to come and explore the railroad and issue a construction plan, and then Li Yongji was responsible for purchasing cheap and high-quality steel rails and recruiting Chinese workers to build the railway.

The first railway started from Baoshan County, passed through Shanghai County, Qingpu County, and went to Mojiagang in Pinghu County; The second road starts from Qingpu County and goes west, passing through Suzhou, Wuxi, and finally Changzhou; The third railway also started from Qingpu County, went directly to Huzhou, and then repaired westward to Xuancheng.

Needless to say, the first railway was to connect Wusong Port and Mojia Port, and to strengthen the connection between Shanghai and Jiaxing.

The purpose of the second railway was to connect Shanghai with Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou, and to unify the resources of these cities, which would not only be more conducive to the transportation of their own troops, but also of commercial benefits.

As for the third railway, it is to take a fancy to the resources of Xuancheng, especially the coal resources of Guangde County, and the next coal chemical construction site, Li Yongji chose Guangde County. With this third railway, it is possible to connect the coal chemical industry in Guangde with the Haiyan chemical industry in the Jiaxing sea area, so that the most basic heavy chemical industry can be lived, and the rest is to consider the steel industry.

To tell the truth, Li Yongji can repair these three railways by himself, but it costs too much money to repair them alone, and the rails are easy to do, but the technicians are difficult to do, at this time the Qing Dynasty did not have railway talents like Zhan Tianyou, so they could only be selected from the powers, and relatively speaking, the Americans were the best choice.

In addition, letting the Americans join seems to give them benefits, but they have to fund their own funds, they only provide land and protection, as well as provide cheap steel rails, to reduce their own financial pressure, and the later steam train is estimated to have to buy the Americans first, and even the personnel training has to let the Americans intervene, so joint ventures are inevitable.

Although the joint venture is estimated to give the Americans a lot of privileges, such as allowing them to open mines within the railway or something, this is not a matter, as long as the gun is in their own hands, and then the tax is collected according to the proportion, the Americans come here to invest in mining and set up factories or something, and he can't ask for it, this is a proper investment.

Therefore, it is precisely because of these two conditions set by Li Yongji that the Americans have completely decided to turn to Li Yongji, but before that, it was only Li Yongji who put forward an intention to them, which means to see your sincerity first, and then talk about specific cooperation.

Now, the Americans have shown their sincerity, at least let the victorious army exactly follow Li Yongji's intentions, and the wealth obtained is also two to one, and then they will do their best to deliver the three ships to Li Yongji, but after all, they are still in a hurry, so at the same time as the delivery, they hurried over and wanted to sign the detailed contract with Li Yongji.

Li Yongji's credit, they still believe in it very much. What's more, Li Yongji has indeed been building on a large scale on the outskirts of the US concession recently, and as for whether this land is really owned by Li Yongji, this is not a question at all, Li Yongji is the largest warlord in the region, and he said that he wants to designate that place as private land, who dares to say nothing?

"You're really anxious." In the face of Howard's straightforward approach, Li Yongji just shrugged his shoulders, "The natural calculation I said before, but don't sign the formal agreement, judging from the current situation." If I formally signed a paper agreement with you, it would be very bad for me. No way, who makes us Chinese mostly very sensitive to this matter, the conditions I said, it doesn't matter if we secretly do it ourselves, but if the contract is signed on paper, then my reputation will be ruined, and reputation is still very important to me, so I hope you understand. ”

"You mean. Do we just verbally admit this agreement, do not sign it, and only do it quietly? Howard frowned, "No, no." How to ensure that the rights and interests of both parties are effectively protected? ”

"Guarantees, you say? What's so difficult about this, strength. Li Yongji smiled, "My strength, the protection of my elite army." It is the greatest guarantee of this cooperation. Seriously, if it weren't for me, you and the Qing court would be in the current state. Do you think there could be a better deal? Even if you don't talk about the Qing court, let's talk about the Taiping Army, you can now be regarded as a cooperative relationship with the Taiping Army, but do you think that the Taiping Army will have this kind of cooperation with you? No, no one would have such a large-scale and in-depth cooperation with you like me, would they? What's more, my firm's trading volume with you has been increasing recently, and to put it bluntly, trade with you is also an important link to support my elite army. If I go back, you can use trade sanctions against me, and that's a very important thing for me. ”

"That's right," Howard continued to frown, "but ......"

"Don't." Li Yongji sighed, "That's it, in order to show my sincerity, I will give you two more preferential policies." First of all, as long as you Americans buy the goods of my firm, I will give you a nine-percent discount on the basis of exempting from any taxes; Secondly, I can also place orders with you, buy a lot of your wheat and potatoes, and I will buy livestock, live pigs, live cattle and sheep, oh, by the way, and horses, your American quarthorse is very good, I like it very much, and I will continue to import a lot of it from you, and the price is good.

The settlement method, I only accept gold and diamonds for my exports here, of course, we can continue to barter. For example, I can exchange your wheat and potatoes for all kinds of supplies I have here, and even Sharps rifles, Colt revolvers, and even Napoleon guns can be exchanged with you, how about it? My weapons are quite advanced, you should know this very well, but the price, hehe, let's be honest, purchasing these weapons from me, even if you add freight, is much cheaper than you buy from the local original factory, you can't miss the opportunity, you won't come again! ”

Hearing the last sentence, before Howard could speak, the American in military uniform, dressed like an officer, spoke: "Mr. Lee, I want to ask, where did you get these Sharps rifles, Colt revolvers, and 12-pounder Napoleon guns?" How can you sell it cheaper than we produce ourselves? ”

"Let's be honest, we produce it ourselves." Li Yongji smiled, "You know, the Chinese's labor is cheap, and there are many people, so we must be cheaper than you to produce the same things ourselves." If you want to compare prices with us, you can, you can make your Americans' wages the same as our Chinese, and the price of raw materials is the same as the price we purchase in China. The question is, can you do it? ”

"If that's the case, it's really not comparable." The officer nodded, "But you're infringing!" I would like to tell you that these weapons you produce are all patented, and you produce these weapons privately, have you asked us what we mean? Have you paid us royalties? ”

"I'm sorry about that, Mr. Officer." Li Yongji shrugged his shoulders, "At least so far, we in China have not signed any patent protection bill with you, the United States or any other power, so we in China are not bound by this patent law." Since there are no constraints, then we can produce as much as we want, what do you think? ”

"You, you're a strong word!" The officer said angrily, "This is a thief, a robber!" ”

That sounds so harsh. An officer of an aggressor of a great power said that I, the invaded, was a thief and a robber, and this logic is a bit problematic. Li Yongji smiled and said, "Are you sure your brain is fine?" ”

"Bastard!" The officer stood up and subconsciously touched his waist, only to remember that he had already surrendered his weapon before, "I, I'm going to duel with you!" Yes, I'm going to duel you! You have to pay for your insulting words! ”

"Mr. Howard." Li Yongji simply stopped looking at him and said to Howard. "How did this manic get in?"

"What did you say?" The officer obviously knew what Li Yongji was talking about, because Li Yongji didn't lower his voice at all, "You dare to say that I am a mania?" I, I'm going to ......"

"Enough!" Howard suddenly said loudly, "Lieutenant Skoll, this is the end!" Remember what you came for, if you continue like this, I can only expel you from this delegation! Yes, I have that power! Isn't it? ”

"I ......" was reprimanded by Howard. The officer was about to continue talking, but suddenly he realized something when he saw that the ladies around him had raised their pistols at the same time and pointed them at himself. lowered his voice and said unconvinced, "I'm an American, I'm an American officer!" You. I don't believe you're going to shoot. ”

"You can try to provoke me one more time, like take a few steps forward and wave your fist at me." Li Yongji lazily leaned back on the back of the chair behind his back. "Really, you can give it a try, try to see if they dare to shoot. Well, I'm actually looking forward to it myself. ”

"Master Li, don't be impatient." Howard quickly stood up and stood in front of Skoll and said, "Lieutenant Skoll is just fainting from the heat, you know, it's too hot, hot people are flustered." ”

"yes, it's too hot." Li Yongji nodded, "That's it, you let this lieutenant bow to me and admit his mistakes, and forget about this matter, otherwise, hehehehe......"

"You!" Skoll just wanted to continue scolding, but suddenly saw that everyone around him was looking at him, and Howard's face was particularly stern, and he finally realized something.

"Lieutenant Skoll, I order you, in the name of the head of the delegation, that you must apologize to General Lee for your previous words and deeds." Howard said sternly, "If you refuse to apologize, then you will bear the consequences of the next qiē!" You must understand that you are not a person now, you are a member of our delegation, and you represent the United States of America in everything you say and do! If you damage our national interests and damage our image of the United States for personal reasons, even if General Li does not punish you, we will punish you with the strictest punishment when you go back, and you must make it clear! ”

"I see, Mr. Howard." This Skoll seems to have finally seen it, or his head has finally cleared up, so no matter how unwilling he is, he still slowly walked up to Li Yongji, lowered his head and admitted his mistake, "I'm sorry, I was a little impulsive before, and I was a little too much for your words, I hope you will forgive me." ”

"Well, that's just a trivial matter, since you sincerely apologize, then I'll forgive you this time." Li Yongji said with a smile.

Skoll, who lowered his head, raised his eyebrows, but still took a deep breath and continued to bow: "Thank you for your forgiveness." ”

After speaking, he couldn't wait to straighten up, and then retreated with a calm face, but he didn't look at Li Yongji again, and his face was still red, obviously because his mood had not calmed down.

Seeing him like this, Li Yongji also smiled quietly.

This officer was able to attend such an occasion at a young age with the rank of lieutenant, and he was also able to control his feelings in a timely manner, which shows that his identity is not simple...... Well, for the sake of the Americans who are about to work hard, I will really forgive you this time, I am really a good-natured person.

"Come!" At this moment, Howard suddenly picked up his teacup, "Replace wine with tea, toast to our cooperation, toast to the friendship between China and the United States!" ”

Seeing that everyone was holding their own drinks, Li Yongji had no choice but to smile and shake his head, and also picked up the iced black tea in front of him: "Okay, toast to Sino-US friendship!" (To be continued......)