Just when everyone thought that this pleasant meeting was about to disperse, Yang Meng waved his hand, and a huge hand-drawn map was hung on a wooden shelf behind him.

"Guys, do you know where this is a map?"

Yang Meng took the silver rod from Tiffany's hand and pointed to the map and asked a question.

All of you here are merchants, not sailors or geographers, and in the face of a partial map, who knows where this is?

"This is the topographic map of the port of Guangzhou, here is the west gate of Guangzhou, here is the thirteen lines, and here is the embassy area.

The water depth of Guangzhou Port is enough to drive sea vessels, have you not encountered trouble in loading and unloading in Guangzhou Port?

In order to deepen and expand the cooperation between us, and also to increase the cargo throughput of Guangzhou Port, the headquarters decided to make great efforts to rectify this Guangzhou Port within three months before the contract was signed! ”

Yang Meng's words are what many people are willing to hear, and many people are not willing to hear, these three months are very critical, the shipyard has occupied a lot of manpower, and then rectify this Laoshizi Guangzhou Port, how much labor has moved the public.

The upgrade of Guangzhou Wharf to Guangzhou Port is not something that can be completed in three months, and three months is enough time to build some shore fortifications at Guangzhou Wharf.

"I don't know how Yang Butang is going to rectify Guangzhou Port?"

This was asked directly by Bao Ling in Cantonese, rectifying Guangzhou Port, this Yang Butang is really frightening people frequently!

"Hmmm! Governor Pauling's questions are always so timely, there are too many houses near the Guangzhou wharf, which take up too much space. The first is to move the houses north along the west gate.

Thirteen Rows of Architecture. Most of them are made of wood, which is easy to catch fire. The current thirteen lines are also newly built in recent years, and the thirteen lines are closer to the embassy area, and the rebuilding of the thirteen lines is the second step.

The embassy area, it's better to demolish it and move it to the vicinity of the pier, of course, at our expense.

As for the third step! The reason is the height of the sea boats, which are much higher than the river boats. Today's Guangzhou wharf is not high enough, and on this basis, the height of six feet is just enough to be flush with the deck of a small sea vessel, so that when carrying goods, the speed is much faster.

Or this third step, lengthen the length of the Guangzhou wharf, so that there are more ships berthed, from here to this is the loading area, this is the unloading area, and the unloading area should also be divided into two, here to load and unload the goods transported directly by water. This is the place to load and unload goods stored in place.

As the pier grows taller, so does the width. The width of ten zhang should be barely enough, on this high platform wharf, but also to erect a lifting winch driven by a steam engine, behind which is a piece of warehouse, so that both the throughput and the loading volume will be doubled, and the speed of loading and unloading will be faster. ”

The area crossed by Yang Meng's silver pole was just in front of the west gate of Guangzhou, six feet high and ten zhang wide, and it was almost like a fortress fort if you thought about it.

With this high platform that is nearly ten miles long in the name of the wharf, Guangzhou City is equivalent to an additional city wall, as long as enough artillery is erected on this city wall, it can be very light to block the main channel of the Pearl River, and the branch channel is also within the attack range of this fort, with this dock fort, about twenty-four pounds of artillery, it is enough to block the river, if there is more than ten tons of huge artillery, then this nondescript thing called a wharf, you can easily sink the battleship on the sea.

After reading Yang Meng's plan, Andre first nodded to the French minister Bourblon, and then shrugged his shoulders, the meaning is very clear, if this thing is built, it is basically a helpless thing, the batch of retired giant cannons in France is in the hands of this Yang Butang.

If all of them were placed on this dock, they could threaten an entire fleet with a certain amount of protection. And Renres took a deep look at Baoling, and for the number of cannons in General Yang's hands, Renlei is undoubtedly the one with the most right to speak.

There is no need to equip many huge cannons, as long as this General Yang places 100 32-pounder cannons on this dock and fights a dozen or twenty battleships, there is no problem at all.

After reading and listening to Yang Meng's description, the look on Bao Ling's face can only be described as having just eaten, Britain, France, the United States and Germany, what arms have they traded with the mysterious General Yang, although Britain does not have specific information, but they are still generally a little eyebrows.

If this nondescript thing is built, once there is enough time to be armed, it will be a fortress on land, a fortress blocking the waterways of the Pearl River.

What is the purpose of the steam winch and the warehouse behind it, Bao Ling understands, it is nothing more than hoisting artillery and storing ammunition, although he is not a professional soldier, but the range and ballistics of some artillery Bao Ling still roughly knows.

The warehouse next to this dock seems to be difficult to attack! The firing range of the coastal defense artillery is mostly stronger than that of the naval artillery, and with such an unsinkable thing floating in front of the city of Guangzhou, without paying a certain number of casualties, it is tantamount to a fantasy to occupy Guangzhou.

"I disagree!"

Bao Ling's attitude is very resolute, many people present can understand Bao Ling's resoluteness, once this new wharf is built, the passage along the Pearl River into the mainland of the Qing Dynasty will be blocked, if Bao Ling can agree, it is strange!

"You don't agree? Who else disagrees? ”

Yang Butang, who put forward this idea, stood up from the main seat at once, and Yang Butang, who had a solemn face, was still a little intimidating.

"Yang Butang, if you do this, you will destroy the relationship between our two countries!"

After Bao Ling, Pashali also stood up, but except for a limited number of British businessmen who responded to these two, the others naturally had nothing to do with themselves.

"Bao Ling and Pashali are ministers of England, let's talk about it later, why don't you agree?

The expansion of Guangzhou Port is also imperative in the view of the department, among you are often in Guangzhou to do business, in the last year or two, do you not think that Guangzhou Port has many types of goods? Is the quantity of goods too large?

There's a reason for that, my previous position. He was the military minister of Jiangnan in the Qing Dynasty. To put it in layman's terms. Before that, he was the governor of Jiangnan in the Qing Dynasty.

During his tenure, the headquarters connected the water network of Hunan to the Pearl River waterway with canals, and the canal connecting Jiangxi and the Pearl River was also being built and excavated.

In this way, the Pearl River waterway runs through the six provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi, and it is also possible to count Sichuan and Anhui. The business of the eight provinces is all in the Guangzhou wharf.

The steam barges we are riding today are also designed and completed under the leadership of the Ministry, and these steam barges can transport dozens of tons or hundreds of tons of goods lightly, and the main product of the newly built Wuguo Shipyard in the near future is a wooden barge with a steam engine.

In the land of eight provinces, the barge with a huge volume of speed and speed, the headquarters believes that within three to five years. The cargo throughput of Guangzhou Port will increase by dozens or even hundreds of times. Do you still think that there is no need to upgrade this Guangzhou terminal to Guangzhou Port? ”

The British businessmen who supported Bowling and Pashali were considered to be people who crossed the political and business circles of England. Temptation is the best solution.

After Yang Meng's words were finished, there was a burst of jubilation in the venue, and the land of the eight provinces, the canal and waterway, and the power barge, the huge business opportunities in this are self-evident!

And many discerning people, Yang Meng's evaluation has also been raised again, this Yang Butang's business methods are too clever, whether it is the Wuguo shipyard under construction, or the Guangzhou Port that is about to be rebuilt, after this explanation, there is a need for its survival.

The construction of steam engines, the construction of wooden barges, and finally the assembly of steam-powered ships have also become the hope of the vast majority of businessmen here.

Yang Butang's military purpose is also hidden behind these two major commercial means, the shipyard can build warships, technology shares, practical shipbuilding, inevitably involve warships, after involving warships, it will involve artillery, and then from artillery to guns is also very simple, if the construction of the shipyards of these five countries has no military purpose, most of the people here do not believe it.

The rebuilt Guangzhou Port, in addition to being used as a wharf, can also be used as a military fortress outside the city of Guangzhou, if you add artillery emplacements on this map, it is a fortress deployment map, there is no military purpose in it, who believes it?

But this Yang Butang, the conditions put forward, whether it is 30 percent of the fixed income, or the canal network connecting the eight southwestern provinces, are all these people here can not refuse, Europe and the United States have a demand for the Qing Dynasty, this is certain, Yang Butang under the premise of expanding this demand, the expansion of some military facilities, it does not matter to these merchants, after all, they value their own commercial interests more.

Under the gaze of a group of foreign merchants, the British businessmen who supported Bao Ling and Pashali also sat down in disagreement, and once they were boycotted by European and American businessmen, the impact on these people would also be huge.

As figures in the political and business worlds, they can clearly receive the huge grievances from businessmen from various countries behind them, and once they stand on the opposite side of Yang Butang and the European and American merchants here, they are afraid that their business in the Qing Kingdom will also be hit by extinction business.

"It seems that you have no opinions, Governor Bowling and Minister Pashali, tell me your opinions!

The two of you have interfered in the internal affairs of the Qing Dynasty, and if you do not give a reasonable explanation today, I would like to remind your government that it is best to get rid of these two careerists who affect the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

This is an official meeting, if they make remarks unfavorable to the Qing Dynasty on other occasions, the boycott of the headquarters will not only be English politicians, English businessmen, but also within the scope of the boycott!

Doing business with friends, I Yang Meng supports, as long as it is an enemy, even if there is a need to do business, my attitude is: refuse! ”

Yang Meng's statement was a little uneasy, but the businessmen present gave Yang Meng a full understanding, after all, he was an official and politician of the Qing Dynasty!

In the face of this diplomat who is good at commercial means, Ba Xiali, a China expert, and Bao Ling, a half-hung China expert, have a deep sense of powerlessness, and in the face of Yang Butang, diplomatic means seem to have become completely useless.

Yang Meng's words, Bao Ling and Pa Xia Li both rationally chose to deal in silence, now is by no means the time to speak, once it affects the draft contract signed by the shipyards of the five countries before, then the matter will be really big.

"Nothing to say? Governor Bowling and Minister Pashali, today I formally send a note to the English government, in view of the bad behavior and domineering attitude of the two of you, if the British government does not remove the Governor of Hong Kong and the Minister in Canton, then there will be no diplomatic relations between our two countries!

The Qing Dynasty is the Qing Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, and another note is that you must demolish the embassy outside Guangzhou within three days, and as for the address to be rebuilt, we will talk about it when the next minister comes!

Minister Bourblon and Minister Mailian, do you have any objection to the demolition of the embassy? ”

Only then did everyone understand Yang Butang's strength, Bao Ling just said a word of disagreement, and Yang Butang was about to break off diplomatic relations directly, which was obviously a threat.

"No opinion, the reconstruction of the embassy, we will pay for it ourselves!"

At Grace's suggestion, Mai Lian made her choice first, and after discussing it with Andre, Bourblon nodded in agreement.

"Good! In that case, let's wait and see! Under the premise of not affecting normal business activities, within three months, the headquarters will complete the reconstruction of Guangzhou Port! (To be continued......)