Thomas got up to say goodbye, Lin Yuan didn't stay, looking at the back of Thomas leaving, Lin Yuan thought: "You guys have fallen into my trap again, I don't know what happened to Jonas?" ”

After a while, Jonas walked in from outside, and as soon as he entered the door, he said to Lin Yuan anxiously: "Lord Lin, you are in big trouble!" ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "I don't know what tricks this Jonas and the British government have, why don't I pretend to be scared and see what tricks they have." So Lin Yuan raised his hand, pretended to wipe the cold sweat on his head, and said, "What's wrong with me?" ”

Jonas looked at Lin Yuan very proudly, took out a stack of newspapers from his bag, and said: "You detained Asko, the director of the Yingkou Port Taxation Department, this matter has caused an uproar in our country, and the newspapers are full of comments about this matter, and the comments say that the Chinese government is becoming more and more arrogant, and it is time to start a war." ”

Jonas said this with an anxious face, as if he was an old friend of the Chinese, and he said to Lin Yuan seriously: "Do you know the Tao? Our domestic arms dealers have been looking forward to war for a long time, and this incident just gave them an excuse, don't you remember the Yarrow ship incident? ”

Lin Yuan certainly remembered the "Yarrow Ship Incident", and every bloody Chinese could not forget this matter, which was the trigger for the Second Opium War, which originated from a merchant ship named "Yarrow", the owner and crew of which were all Chinese, and on October 8, 1856, the Guangdong sailors arrested two Chinese pirates on this ship.

This was originally China's internal affair, but the British consul in Guangzhou at that time had to say that the ship was a British ship, that China had insulted Britain, and rejected the Qing court's apology, and then provoked the Second Opium War, in which the British and French forces invaded Beijing, burned down the Old Summer Palace, and plundered a large number of cultural relics, which are still scattered overseas today.

When Lin Yuan heard Jonas mention these things, he was sure that Jonas must have a conspiracy to come to him, because the newspaper has always monitored the movements of foreign media, and Shen Wanqing even used reporters to obtain newspapers and news in the UK from them at any time, so Lin Yuan knew that his seizure of Asco had not attracted much attention in the UK at all, and several mainstream newspapers did not even report it at all.

However, Lin Yuan still pretended to be panicked and said, "Does Britain want this incident as a reason to attack us?" ”

Jonas said helplessly: "Actually, I don't want to see a war break out between the two countries, so I have been actively mediating this matter, and now I have some eyebrows, at least I can convince the British government that this is just an ordinary diplomatic friction, so you don't have to worry." ”

Lin Yuan nodded, but thought in his heart, "Could it be that Jonas just came to tell me that there is nothing to do?" Would he be so kind? ”

Jonas said: "I came here this time, and there is a more personal matter, which has to do with the aluminum factory. ”

Lin Yuan asked, "What?" Is there something wrong with the aluminum plant? ”

Jonas said: "Our British company is different from your China, your big Chinese companies are all run by officials and merchants, and many are simply government-run, and our company is completely run by businessmen, the largest shareholder of this aluminum plant happens to be a good friend of mine, after he heard that there may be a war, he asked my relationship to sell this aluminum factory, I think about it, only Lin Shuai you have the ability to take over." ”

Lin Yuan understood it all at this time: "Jonas's plan is like this: after so many days of refining, they must have discovered that bauxite cannot be successfully smelted with their process methods, so the entire aluminum plant will not be able to start, and their investment will be completely wasted." ”

"They can't be willing to suffer such a big loss, so they have to transfer all the shares of the factory to me, which is equivalent to them selling me the equipment, so that they will not suffer losses, Jonas came in and said that war is going to break out or something, in fact, he is threatening me, if I don't agree to buy shares, he will not help me mediate, then the war will break out!"

Lin Yuan saw through Jonas's trick, so he smiled: "Aren't you mediating?" If war doesn't break out, then why would your friends be so afraid? ”

Jonas said: "People are different and my friend was not willing to take that risk, so he wanted to sell his entire stake and the full set of equipment in the factory for eight million pounds. ”

Lin Yuan put on a look of embarrassment and said, "I also want to buy it, but the price of eight million is too high, you can discuss it with that friend again, let's lower it, four million, okay?" ”

Lin Yuan directly killed the price halfway, originally thought that Jonas would oppose it with all his might, and then continue to raise the price, but in fact, the negotiation is like this, asking for the price all over the sky, sitting on the ground and paying back the money, there will be no result without a few rounds of confrontation, but what Lin Yuan didn't expect was: Jonas nodded happily and said: "Okay, deal!" ”

After Jonas finished speaking, he took out a document from his briefcase and said: "Look, this is the equity and equipment transfer contract that I drafted for both parties, you can take a look, if there is no problem, we will sign it now." ”

Lin Yuan was a little confused by Jonas, and thought to himself, "Why did he sign a contract with me so soon?" Did he have any tricks? It can't be a problem with the device, right? No way! When their equipment arrived, I asked the experts on the Beijing ship to inspect it, and the experts said that although the equipment was primitive, it was completely capable of smelting aluminum. ”

Lin Yuan took the contract and looked at it, it was very short, only a few dozen words, Lin Yuan thought about it, took out a pen from his pocket, signed his name on the contract, and then said: "I will have people transfer the money to your account through the bank in a while." ”

Jonas also signed his name on the contract, and then as if he was afraid that Lin Yuan would regret it, he put his contract in his bag and said: "What our embassy means: First of all, you want to release our director of the tax department, Asko, and then publicly apologize and promise not to interfere in the affairs of the tax department again." ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "You guys are really ruthless! The release of the director is nothing, but a public apology shows that we have relented, which is a blow to my majesty at home and abroad, and even more serious is not to interfere in the affairs of the tax department, which means that they can dump all kinds of goods, including opium, into the country at will. ”

Lin Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Except for the one that publicly apologizes, I can agree to the rest." ”

Jonas didn't say anything, so he said: "Okay, let's make a joint statement publicly, just say that this seizure incident is due to a misunderstanding caused by poor communication, and we will try to avoid these things in the future. ”

Lin Yuan nodded and said with a smile: "Okay, no problem, we can hold a press conference in two days to explain the seizure clearly." ”