Li Chong was released the next day, but was ordered not to stay in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so Clifford took him to the Anglo-American Public Concession, where he also stayed at the Recha Hotel.

Li Chong once had a relationship with his own foreigner uncle in Guangzhou, and then Clifford took Li Xuanji back to England, when he hated the foreigner who abducted his little sister very much, but later under Rong Lu's explanation, he slowly understood what kind of character his cheap uncle was, although there was still a trace of resentment in his heart, but he also felt that only a person of Clifford's status could be worthy of his sister.

Then Li Chongtong Guò Ronglu's business in Guangzhou learned the news that his sister held a wedding with Clifford in London, England, and the originally slightly peaceful mood became ashamed and angry again, and the little sister didn't know about such a big thing as her marriage, and she didn't invite herself to participate, it's really an outgoing girl! Li Chong is an old-fashioned scholar, his mind is full of three outlines and five constants, and he feels that his eldest brother is like a father, Li Xuanji obviously didn't take himself seriously when he did this, so he also hated his eldest brother.

But he had a bad year this year, after the defeat and capture, he was escorted to Tianjing to offer prisoners, suffered humiliation, he thought about suicide, but when it came to the end, he was always reluctant to die like this, and he still held a hope that the Heavenly Kingdom would surrender him. That time in Guangzhou, the merchant ship that even Clifford could not go up lightly was finally found out by Rong Lu, it turned out that the big man on the ship was the king of the West of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Rong Lu regretted it afterwards, and he knew that he would rush up regardless of a qiē army, and he could solve this great enemy once and for all. And after Li Zhong learned about it. is secretly scolding his little sister for being shameless, and has seduced a foreigner, but he has provoked the pseudo-king of the West. made the pseudo-king of the West chase after him for thousands of miles regardless of his identity, which really lost the face of the Li family, so he also knew that the pseudo-king of the West was a good friend of the little sister.

is because after he was captured and humiliated, he always felt that there was still a glimmer of hope that he could not die, so he hoped that the king of the West would not kill himself in front of his little sister. It seemed that things were also moving in the direction he expected, and half a month later he was sent to the Shanghai prisoner of war camp for detention, and then he met his little sister.

To stay alive. Li Chong would naturally try his best, and when he found out that Xiaomei seemed to have no intention of rescuing him, he said anything vicious. After he was angry with his little sister, he also knew that his life was broken.

But there is no endless road, and in the afternoon, a jailer said that someone was already helping him get out of prison. Tomorrow you can leave. This made Li Chong surprised and delighted. When he finally left the prison, he learned that his brother-in-law Clifford had saved him.

Sitting in Clifford's luxurious carriage, Li Chong naturally thanked Clifford for his kindness and extreme servitude, which is the reading people taught by Manchu Confucianism, most of whom are ideological castrations who have lost the spirit of resistance, and have no backbone at all.

Ali Guo also sat in the carriage and saw Li Chong shouting affectionately as a good brother-in-law. Frowning and saying to Clifford in English, "Is this guy really worth 100,000 silver dollars?" ”

Clifford was also extremely disgusted with Li Chong, and just smiled and said, "I don't know." Maybe the thinking of Oriental people is different from ordinary people, and you can never guess what is going on in their hearts. ”

Ali Guo smiled and asked, "Including your wife?" ”

Speaking of Li Xuanji, Clifford's face twitched slightly, although the West is open-minded, there are countless incidents of men and women looking for lovers after marriage, the wife of the French Emperor Napoleon once gave this Corsican a green hat, and the Emperor Napoleon also had a lover, although the two divorced in the end, but everyone in the Western world thinks that this is a very normal thing. Before coming to the prisoner of war camp, Ali and Clifford went to the Recha Hotel, and learned from Smith that a Chinese had visited his wife, and that she seemed to have cried later. From the description of his appearance, Clifford confirmed that this person was his former rival Xiao Chaogui, the king of the West, who was slightly teasing at this time.

Clifford had a gloomy face, remembering the wedding night with his wife, he found that his wife was not perfect, which is not a big deal in the West, but Clifford guessed that his wife's first time must have been given to his rival in love, and the most unacceptable thing for him was that every time he fell asleep in the dead of night, his wife would sit alone on the balcony and look at the east, he knew that there was always the shadow of that man in her heart.

Clifford loved art, and artists had more or less compulsive compulsion to perfection, so this concept was also carried over to married life, and he began to gradually become jealous and resentful. He had now moved in a family meeting to terminate the cooperation with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and terminate his investment in the Far East, but in the face of actual interests, he was powerless to return to the sky, and after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the Far East began to introduce a large amount of foreign capital to mine ore, build railways, build various factories, bridges, and telegraph lines, the Rothschilds realized that this was another great opportunity to make a fortune, so Clifford's motion did not get a chance to vote at all, and everyone thought that Clifford must be crazy.

This time, Clifford and his wife returned to the Far East because of the needs of the family business, and the investment right to build a railway in Fujian was obtained by the family agent, Jardine Matheson, but after the project began, the two sides began to have disagreements. Fujian is a mountainous province, the construction difficulty is also greater than the construction of railways in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, after the construction project began, encountered a lot of problems, the British engineer finally asked to increase the budget, that is, to increase the right to return on investment in the future, but the Chinese side did not agree, at that time before the opening of the bid between the two sides were negotiated, so the British did not regret it?

After several talks, the family sent Clifford and his wife to the Far East, because they had a close friendship with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and hoped that these measures would solve the stagnation of the construction of the Fujian Railway.

After Clifford arrived in Shanghai, with the help of Ali Guo, he found Wang Minyun and stated the reasons why the British side needed to increase the investment budget, and the Chinese side also sent geologists under the Academy of Sciences presided over by Li Shanlan to Fujian many times to verify the situation, and also found that the facts were consistent with what the British said, in fact, it can only be blamed that the science and technology at this time were not smart enough, and some geological conditions underestimate the underground, resulting in several bridges and culverts that need to be built in Fujian when building railways need to greatly increase investment. After the Chinese side understood the situation, it also understood that it was impossible for the British to continue to work at a loss, and finally Clifford came, and after repeated consultations between the two sides, they finally decided on a mutually acceptable budget plan for additional investment, and only then did the matter be resolved, and Clifford was considered to have a face.

Clifford did the thing, for the Rothschild family to obtain 50% of the mineral mining rights along the Fujian Railway, and at the same time they have 50% of the right to profit from the future operation of the Fujian Railway, which means that after the completion of the construction of the Fujian Railway, it will become a necessary channel for Fujian tea exports, plus Fujian is rich in minerals, the Rothschild family has made a lot of money.

What the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gained was infrastructure construction and mineral development, as well as factories and ancillary industries built after the development of mines, which could solve the livelihood problems of a large number of people, and they also had the other half of the mineral mining rights and railway revenue rights, which was generally a win-win situation.

When the matter was done, Ali introduced Clifford to a man who was his secretary Gong Cheng, who brought even more exciting news about a big man in the north. This big man will stage a big coup d'état next year, as long as the British and French forces can send troops to help at the right time, I believe that the chances of success are greater, and after success, the northern provinces, especially the flat Central Plains, the right to build railways and the right to mine minerals along the railway will all be handed over to the Rothschild family for investment and development.

The British were very moved by such generous conditions, so that northern China would become a second India, a base for the British to plunder cheap raw materials, and then turn into products in British factories and sell them all over the world, and even the British could build various factories in northern China to produce products on the spot, and the big man generously demarcated Tianjin, Qingdao and other places as open ports, and promised to let foreigners lease places, promised to dock warships in concession ports, stationed troops, and so on.

Both Sir Elgin and Clifford were intrigued, and Ergin found that joining northern China offered so many favourable conditions that it seemed in the best interests of Britain to maintain the status quo in the north and south of China in the absence of major changes in the south. Clifford, on the other hand, was motivated by commercial interests, and if Britain gained a foothold in the north, it might even open up routes to Japan, Canada, and the east coast of the United States.

So the British began to pay attention to the mention of this big man, and repeatedly studied the current political pattern and military deployment of the Qing court, and then they found that if the British and French forces joined, the probability of winning this coup or mutiny would reach more than seventy percent, and the risk of winning seventy percent was compared to the profit of several hundred percent, and the British were full of adventurous spirit again, and this adventure was definitely worth it!

So the allied fleet at Dagukou retreated, one was to paralyze the Qing court's negotiator Prince Gong, the second was to avoid the freezing period of the Bohai Sea, and the third was to prepare to join the allied expeditionary force in Hong Kong, war was inevitable, but the Manchu prince Gong was still complacent about the goodwill and negotiation sincerity shown by the British and French withdrawal of the fleet, but he did not know that a conspiracy was already brewing.

And Li Zhong didn't know that rescuing himself was just an episode in these planned steps, and the 100,000 silver dollars were not issued by Clifford, but by the big man in the north, he needed to have a reliable person who had a certain relationship with the British, and at the same time knew the military to act as a liaison officer for future coordination with the British and French forces, and Li Chong was undoubtedly the most suitable candidate. (To be continued......)