Li Yunzhong put down the tea bowl and told Hu Mengjun: "You take my official document to the Ministry of Industry to receive twenty cannons, transport them to the outside of Nanjing, and directly take a boat to Anhui, enter Chaohu Lake, and you can enter the territory of Luzhou, where our army will respond." ”

Hu Mengjun wrote it down, bowed down to take the official document, and saluted: "Weichen retires." ”

Seeing Hu Mengjun coming out of the upper study, Chen Chengying, who was waiting for the arrival, nodded to Hu Mengjun and couldn't wait to walk into the upper study.

"Weichen Chen Chengying see the emperor." Chen Chengying bowed to Li Yunzhong.

Li Yunzhong raised his head and asked, "How did I do with the things I explained?" ”

Chen Chengying presented the fold and replied: "The Wanbao Building that the emperor ordered Weichen to build has been completed, a total of 50,000 taels of silver have been spent, and 3,000 prisoners of war have also been released from prison, and most of them are willing to live in the territory of the Han Dynasty. ”

Li Yunzhong looked at a personal name on the fold and asked, "Are the names of the businessmen who are willing to participate in the exchange meeting on it?" ”

Chen Chengying said with a smile: "Because there are too many businessmen who have signed up to participate, Weichen only recorded the businessmen with a net worth of more than 30,000 taels according to the amount of property, and the rest of the ministers also sent people to send invitations. ”

Who is Ng Siu Wing? Who is Lu Jiguang? Why don't you know the top row! Li Yunzhong pointed to the top row of people and asked, "Since Wu Shaorong, Lu Jiguang and others are at the top, they must have a net worth of at least a few million taels, why have I never heard of it?" ”

Chen Chengying explained: "These are the people of the Thirteen Lines of Guangdong, who came by boat from Guangdong the day before yesterday, and their life in Guangdong is not easy, since the Qing Dynasty was defeated by the British twelve years ago, they have signed a series of treaties with them. Among them, there is an article abolishing the monopoly of foreign trade of the thirteen banks and opening the treaty port instead. Free trade. ”

It turned out to be thirteen lines! Li Yunzhong has been famous for them for a long time, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong monopolized coastal trade for only a few decades and became rich and rivaled. The Thirteen Lines have existed for nearly two hundred years, and the family is very rich, especially Wu Bingjian, a cattle man, whose reputation in later generations is on par with Heshen.

"What do these people do when they come to Nanjing? Is it as simple as just attending an exchange meeting? ”

Chen Chengying said: "They and their group have arrived in Nanjing the day before yesterday, and there are people with their families, each of whom has bought a property in Nanjing, and seems to intend to live here for a long time. It seems that they also heard some rumors of the emperor's kindness to businessmen, so they hurriedly came to Nanjing to investigate. ”

Li Yunzhong was very interested in these huge riches, and instructed Chen Chengying: "You bring their representatives to meet me tomorrow, and I will hold a family banquet to entertain them, and the business exchange meeting will be opened the day after tomorrow, and I will also attend it in person." ”

Chen Chengying said: "Weichen obeys the order. ”

"Daddy, are we really going to the palace banquet tomorrow?" Wu Fangfei saw Chen Chengying leaving, and couldn't wait to run out from behind the screen and asked.

Looking at his daughter dressed in a dress, Wu Shaorong said helplessly: "Since the emperor invited." How could we not go! You must not wear foreign clothes to the banquet tomorrow. ”

Wu Fangfei pouted and retorted: "Dad, you underestimate the Emperor of the Han Dynasty too much, you see that the prosperity of Nanjing City is about to catch up with Paris and London in Europe, which shows that the emperor has the intention to develop industry and commerce and learn from foreigners." Fight against foreigners, just like Mr. Wei said, master Yi's long skills to control Yi! I didn't understand until I arrived in Nanjing. The emperor must have been to Europe, otherwise how would he know this. So, Daddy. If you put one hundred and twenty hearts, the emperor will not embarrass us! ”

Wu Shaorong thought of Wei Yuan and sighed: "It's a pity that Mr. Mo Shen doesn't want to be an official, if he dedicates the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" to the emperor, the emperor will definitely be happy." ”

Wu Fangfei echoed: "There are more than 100 copies of the book "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom", if it is less, I can also secretly 'borrow' it from my husband and dedicate it to the emperor, but now I only have three copies. ”

Wu Shaorong exclaimed: "You brought Mo Shen's "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom" here! How I didn't find out! ”

Wu Fangfei felt that it was no big deal, and said: "It's so boring to take the boat, I borrowed a few books from Mr. to read, but Mr. gave me these, I look quite interesting, so I accept it!" ”

Knowing the cause and effect, Wu Shaorong couldn't cry or laugh, and complained: "I asked Mo Shen to come to Nanjing, but he just refused, but lent his treasure to the emperor by my hand, obviously hoping that this book will be appreciated by the emperor and published in the world. ”

Wu Fangfei finally felt that she was very useful, and said excitedly: "I'm going to write down the table of contents of the "Atlas of the Sea Kingdom". ”

Early the next morning, Lu Jiguang took his wife and Wu Shaorong's family to the palace.

"Brother Wu's palace is too shabby, and it is not as luxurious as your mansion on the side of the Pearl River, which as the residence of the king of a country, cannot help but set off the dignity of the emperor." Lu Jiguang couldn't believe his eyes, how could a dilapidated house be used as a palace in his eyes.

Wu Shaorong saw that the guards leading the way in front of him were far away, and replied cautiously: "This shows that the emperor is strict and thrifty, sympathetic to the people's feelings, Nanjing's prosperity has long surpassed Beijing, but the emperor has not built a palace on a large scale, Ming Jun!" After a pause, he added: "Maybe one day the emperor will move to Beijing." ”

Seeing that there was someone in front of them to greet them, Lu Jiguang and Wu Shaorong tacitly stopped the topic and followed each other with a slight smile.

Yang Changmei said: "Two, the emperor is invited, as for a few relatives, you can go to the harem to rest for a while, and the banquet will be held for another hour." ”

Wu Fangfei saw that the other party was a female general, and asked with wide eyes, "Can I go around the palace?" It's not going to run around. ”

Yang Changmei didn't wait for Wu Shaorong and his wife to reprimand her, so she replied: "Yes, I won't get lost anyway, I'll let the two guards follow, just ask them to bring you back when you've had enough." ”

"The grass people knock on the emperor, may the emperor live long live, long live, long live."

Li Yunzhong said: "Pingshen, I heard that you are from the Thirteen Lines of Guangzhou, why did you come to Nanjing, so you are not afraid of the reproach of the Guangzhou officials?" ”

Wu Shaorong didn't understand the meaning of Li Yunzhong's question, so he could only answer truthfully: "Weichen has a British friend, named Smith, who borrowed 100,000 taels of silver from the minister three years ago and did a tea silk business, and then there was no news. ”

The ambitions of the rich businessmen are also great! Li Yunzhong decided to scare him: "The Thirteen Lines are famous, and I have heard a little, especially your father Wu Haoguan, no one among foreigners knows about it, and doing business with foreigners is often millions of taels, I am afraid that I have made a lot of money in the opium business just a few years ago!" ”

Hearing that the emperor intended to bring up the matter of opium, Wu Shaorong knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, these are all slanders from the world, our Wu family pays more attention to reputation than money, how can we sell opium!" ”

Li Yunzhong looked at Wu Shaorong and Lu Jiguang who were kneeling on the ground, and said: "Groundless wind may not be without a reason, everyone in the world knows that the Thirteen Elements colluded with foreigners to sell opium, bringing disaster to the country and the people, and even the imperial court can't help it, I'm afraid it's not completely slanderous, right?" ”

Wu Shaorong replied quickly: "Your Majesty, before the war between the British and Qing dynasties, foreigners came to China to do business, all of them had to be guaranteed by the Thirteen Lines, but the foreigners were greedy, often carrying opium in the goods, they bribed the Qing court officials, and sold them in the coastal areas on a large scale, and later saw that it was profitable, and even colluded with the local officials and local compradors, and dumped opium on the coast of Guangdong without any scruples. Foreigners are bullying, and the Thirteen Lines are already struggling and facing collapse. ”

Lu Jiguang added: "That's it, Lin Zexu also put Brother Wu in prison and blackmailed the Wu family, and the Wu family spent three million taels to get out of it. Our thirteen lines were also extorted millions of taels. ”

Seeing them complaining to him, Li Yunzhong felt that something could be done, and asked with a smile: "If your thirteen lines are not supported by the imperial court officials, why are you being blackmailed by Lin Zexu." ”

Lu Jiguang scolded: "Those corrupt officials are happier than anyone else when they collect money, they procrastinate when they do things, and they refuse to contribute, they occupy half of the shares in the thirteen lines, but the most reckless one disregards the life and death of the thirteen lines, and signs a contract with foreigners, breaking the privileges of the thirteen lines of foreign trade." ”

Wu Shaorong took the opportunity to say: "The emperor is wise, the Han soldiers are strong and strong, and the thirteen elements are willing to dedicate half of the shares to the emperor, and ask the emperor to be the master of the thirteen lines." ”

This money is not easy to take, let the Thirteen Banks monopolize foreign trade again, it is completely killing chickens and taking eggs, this kind of stupid thing, no matter how big the benefits are, Li Yunzhong will not do it, and refused: "As the saying goes: no merit is not rewarded." You Thirteen Lines have never thought of doing other business, there are so many ways to make money in the world, why hang yourself on a tree. ”

Wu Shaorong shook his head in disappointment and said: "Dissatisfied with the emperor, now the Wu family's Jardine Matheson firm is only an empty shelf, when my father was alive, he transferred a large number of properties to the United States and Europe, invested in railways and securities transactions, and left a lot of property in Guangzhou, and before he died, he also instructed me that the whole family moved to the United States to live, but I didn't want to leave my hometown to a strange place, so I delayed until now." ”

Lu Jiguang echoed: "My Lu family has always looked at Uncle Wu's horse, but there is still half of the property left in the country, if the emperor allows me to do business in the Han Kingdom, I am willing to pay one million taels of silver as a guarantee." ”

Wu Shaorong also looked at Li Yunzhong expectantly, he traveled to the United States and Europe a few years ago, and deeply felt that the Chinese were discriminated against there, and there was no fairness in life, so he was reluctant to go abroad. (To be continued......)

PS: Here I want Xie Lu to mourn Wu Huaxia's monthly ticket and reward, Liu Mo's reward, congratulations to him for being the third disciple of this book, and Xie Lu Xie Qianqiu's drunken dream of 2 monthly tickets, Xie Lu Xie.