The meaning of what Xiao Yungui said had already made Wen Han, Ma Shali and others understand, and the seemingly rude rebel leader in front of him had already calculated everything. The city of Shanghai had changed hands, and merchants and officials like Wu Jianzhang, who represented the old Shili in Shanghai, had to be eliminated, all of whom supported the Manchus, or rather, these people did not dare to lean towards the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so the rebel leader would mercilessly clean up the old Shili in Shanghai, support the new Shili loyal to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and then stabilize the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Shanghai.

Joining the new Shili to control Shanghai's commerce and economy is only one of the steps, since the opening of Shanghai, many Guangdong businessmen have come to Shanghai to set up foreign firms, they want to continue the glory of the Guangdong Thirteen Lines, and turn Shanghai into the second Guangdong Thirteen Banks.

In fact, foreign banks appeared as early as the Qianlong period, when in Guangzhou, as the only treaty port, the merchants who opened foreign banks in Guangdong monopolized the foreign trade of the entire country, and the huge and lucrative profits generated can be imagined, so the Wu family was born as a wealthy man who could be ranked on the shijie. After the Opium War, five treaty ports were opened one after another, and this monopoly was broken. At the same time, due to the deepening contradiction between the monopoly operation of foreign banks and the free market trade pattern advocated by capitalist countries, the great powers also saw the prospect of changing their business models.

With the expansion of trade in Shanghai, the great powers found that even if there were Chinese compradors in the foreign firms they operated, it was still difficult to compete with some local Chinese merchants in Shanghai and other places, because the local Chinese merchants were more familiar with the mainland market and trade, and they controlled the import and export of goods from the mainland. For example, the three towns of Wuchang under the control of the Baoqing Chamber of Commerce, the Yangtze River inland trade area, is a piece of fat that the great powers are very eye-catching, from where the goods of various countries can be sold to the interior of China, and more goods from the mainland can also be transported from there to sell overseas.

Therefore, foreign businessmen began to try to change and let Chinese businessmen become shareholders of foreign companies. Let Chinese businessmen change their thinking when they are operating, and operate foreign companies as their own enterprises, so as to improve the participation and sense of belonging of Chinese businessmen, so there are examples like Wu Jianzhang's shareholding in Qichang Foreign Bank.

As for Xiao Yungui's proposal to let the chambers of commerce and business gangs in the mainland of the Yangtze River join the Shanghai market, Wen Han, Ma Shali and others are of course very welcome and supportive, and they also want to break the old monopoly. For commercial trade, more merchants join, will enrich the shipment of marrying, will provide more sources of goods, so that merchants from various countries can purchase cheaper goods. At the same time, the commission taken by the comprador of the foreign bank or the Chinese foreign bank on the procurement of goods from the mainland is omitted.

After hearing this, Wen Han immediately stood up and said: "Your Excellency, your suggestion is very appreciative, Shanghai is a place of free trade, of course we welcome more merchants to operate in Shanghai, and our British Empire is very happy to cooperate with Chinese merchants in the mainland. ”

Marshali also said: "We in the United States also appreciate the courage of His Excellency King Xi. We believe that this move will further stimulate China's huge mainland market, which is a good thing for both of us." Blombull said the same thing.

Foreigners are so cute and straightforward. There was a lot of arguing just now. When there are suitable interests in the future, they will support you, without the smiling faces of the Chinese people who hide a knife behind their backs, their love and hatred are all written on their faces, and there is no need to hide anything.

After receiving the affirmation of the ministers of various countries, Xiao Yungui nodded and said: "In a few days, we will wait for the end of the war around Shanghai to clear the remaining remnants of the enemy." The king will convene a business meeting with representatives of foreign banks from various countries in Shanghai, local foreign banks, and representatives of merchants from other places. The main purpose of the meeting was to determine the free development of commercial and trade activities in Shanghai, as well as the promulgation of some commercial activity policies. At the same time, I would like to ask the ministers of various countries to pay attention to the fact that in this process, some of our chambers of commerce or businessmen who supported the Manchu Qing Dynasty. As long as we verify that these merchants were run by Manchu officials, they are not among the invitations of our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. ”

Xiao Yungui's statement is very subtle, Wen Han and others understand that Xiao Yungui will purge those businessmen who support the Manchu Dynasty, there are many people in Shanghai who have the background of Manchu officials, China is a very strange country, businessmen have a low status, rich businessmen will want to donate an official to do, but even if you donate an official to do, you will be looked down upon by your colleagues from orthodox academic classes. Instead of being a businessman with a high status as in foreign countries, if you have money, you can even influence the decisions of the Congress, the Parliament.

Previously, Wen Han and others were worried that Xiao Yungui would hit Shanghai's commerce and trade after getting rid of businessmen like Wu Jianzhang, but after Xiao Yungui made it clear that there would be new and more businessmen joining the Shanghai market, this worry disappeared. Moreover, Xiao Yungui would actually convene a meeting of merchants to discuss trade activities in the Shanghai area, which was unimaginable during the reign of the Manchu Dynasty, it seems that this wise king of the West saw through the fundamentals of Shanghai, and if you want to control Shanghai, you must first control Shanghai's commerce and economy.

After discussing some details, the ministers of various countries requested that liaison officers be sent to be responsible for establishing contact with the Taiping Army, Britain sent Midil, a Chinese expert, the United States sent Jin Nengheng, a representative of Qichang Foreign Company, and France sent Ai Tang, the successor of the first French consul Min Tiny, as a liaison officer.

Xiao Yungui was a little dumbfounded, there were almost no diplomatic talents in the Taiping Army, Hong Yun'er was far away in Suzhou, Li Shanlan was just a scholar and was not suitable for foreign affairs, Wang Libin was still in Suzhou, and Xiao Yungui could only take on the responsibility of liaising with the powers for the time being.

Before leaving, Xiao Yungui presented some seized jewelry as gifts, and ministers from various countries gave some clocks, telescopes and other items as gifts. After this quarrel-like meeting, both Xiao Yungui and the Great Powers found a delicate balance, and the two sides reached a temporary peace and friendship, driven by common interests.

However, Xiao Yungui knew that this situation would not last long, once the Crimean War ended, Britain and France's eyes would return to the Far East, and the powers at that time were not so easy to talk to, they would ask for more, their logic was very simple, the axiom was only within the range of artillery. Therefore, there will not be much time left for Xiao Yungui and the Taiping army, he must develop his strength in the shortest possible time, and turn Wu Sangui's treasures and the silver coins captured along the way into war liliang, so that it is possible not to be bullied when dealing with foreign powers in the future. Always have strength is the last word!

After sending off these troublesome foreigners, Zhou Lichun came back to report that Mu Guandao, Xie Yinglong and others were full of food and drink and were resting, and later Zhou Lichun would take the purchased cattle and sheep to comfort the gang congregations who came out of Shanghai.

Xiao Yungui has a headache with these gangs, they control the underworld in Shanghai, and Shanghai will need more dock workers, coolies, etc. in the future, these people are all mixed with this bowl of rice. Xiao Yungui wants to restore Shanghai's trade in the shortest possible time without the help of these people, but he also wants to get rid of these old shili, and these gangs are all grass on the wall, and it is difficult to control them.

Xiao Yungui was a little undecided, so he had to let Zhou Lichun comfort those helpers first, and stabilize people's hearts for the time being. Now that these gangs are suddenly eliminated, it will also chill people's hearts, and discourage those who want to surrender in the back, Xiao Yungui can only take one step at a time.

Finally sent away two groups of people with headaches, Xiao Yungui returned to the tent, his stomach was grumbling with hunger, but he saw Li Xuanji come in with a bowl of hot noodles at some point, "King Xi, let's eat something first." ”

Xiao Yungui laughed, looking at the big bowl of noodles in front of him, there were two poached eggs on it, and under the aroma, Xiao Yungui ate it in a hurry, and asked vaguely: "Xuanji, did you make this?" ”

Li Xuanji smiled slightly, nodded and said, "I did it, how about it?" Is it tasty? ”

Xiao Yungui's mood suddenly became comfortable, it was good to have a woman by his side, he would ask for warmth, he would care if he was hungry, and Li Xuanji cooked by himself, which seemed to be a step higher than Hong Yun'er. Although the four-eyed girl who can't cook cares about her own warmth every time, she always lets others cook. If you can take Li Xuanji as your own princess, you will be able to eat better things in the future, sometimes a man's idea is really simple, that is, when he is most tired, he will feel very happy when he has a hot meal cooked by a woman.

When he was eating, there was a report from the guards outside the tent, saying that the patrol had caught a spy sneakily peeking at the camp, but after the spy was caught, he said that he was a fellow villager of the West King and wanted to see His Royal Highness the West King. The guard commander of the guard could not make up his mind, so he had to bring the man to the king of the west.

Xiao Yungui frowned and said, "This king's fellow countryman? What's his name? ”

The guard replied, "That man claimed to be Qianjiang. ”

Xiao Yungui sighed, touched the beard on his chin and said to himself: "Qianjiang? Qianjiang? That's a familiar name. After a while, Xiao Yungui sighed, stood up and said, "Could it be him?" Invite him into the account now! ”

The guards immediately went out of the tent, and Li Xuanji said curiously: "King Xi, is this Qianjiang very famous?" ”

When Xiao Yungui wrote the paper "The Rise and Fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", he had looked up the information of Qianjiang, and it was precisely because of this person's strategy of saving the Manchu Qing Dynasty finances that were about to collapse, so that the provinces and regiments had life-saving money and food, thus slowly reversing the unfavorable situation for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so this person is definitely a talent.

Qianjiang character Qiuping, a native of Changxing, was born in the family of eunuchs, and is the sixth descendant of Qian Yu, the governor of Shandong. In the early years, when he was in exile in Guangdong, he and Guangdong He Dageng, Bian Jiangyin and others actively resisted the British, after the Opium War, led the Guangzhou Society to resist the British into the city, and at that time in Guangzhou presided over the foreign affairs of the Qing Qin Minister Yi Libu, the Qianjiang Revolution to prison, the army in Xinjiang. According to historical records, then he should have taken refuge in the Manchu Qincha Qishan in the camp in Jiangbei, and served as a staff member under Lei Yixuan, why did he come to himself? As for the rumored Qianjiang later defected to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and presented Hong Xiuquan with "Xingwang Ce", it seems unlikely in Xiao Yungui's opinion, but at this time, Qian Jiang appeared in his camp, Xiao Yungui still had a trace of expectation, hoping that this person could be used for himself. (To be continued......)