It's a pity that the effect of this trick is even worse than Pu Ding Cha thought.

"Britain, the United States and France are the three strongest countries in the world, and they have always been admired very much.

It's just that Mr. Minister doesn't seem to have understood that it is one thing for me to respect these three countries, and it is another thing to respect several consuls. Li Xian said gently.

"How do you say that?" Pu Dingcha secretly screamed in his heart, but he remained silent on the surface.

"A few seem to be overestimating their influence in their respective countries.

I know very well how several of them became diplomats, and I understand the difficult situation of Mr. Minister in their own country, and I can't hide that it is hard to believe that some of them have enough influence in their own country to participate in some really big things.

As far as Britain is concerned, it depends on London's own will to go to war, and London wants to fight and make peace, and I can't believe that Mr. Minister has the ability to induce London to change its decision on war, or to change its decision on peace talks. Li Xian said with interest.

Pu Dingcha was furious in his heart, and he wanted to have a seizure at that time, but as soon as he saw Li Xian's demeanor, he calmed down as if he had been poured cold water, and hid all the anger in his body.

Pu Ding Cha has been in India for a long time, and has always been at the top level, and he knows something about some of the martial arts world that has mastered mysterious powers, and at the same time, he knows that Li Xian is the best among the mysterious martial artists, and if he really wants to anger him, he will not allow the guards, Li Xian alone can suppress all the four respectable diplomatic officials with one hand.

Moreover, Li Xian's remarks just now clearly violated all diplomatic etiquette, and he said that you are only second- or third-rate figures in your own country, and you have no ability to influence your country's strategic measures, which is equivalent to a direct slap in the face, but it may not be true.

What's more, if you are serious about it, it is still Pu Dingcha who is unreasonable and threatens the supreme leader of one side with war, and is casually ridiculed, which is also deserved.

"Mr. General is still too confident in his own force. Pu Ding found out that at this time, he could only reply coldly.

"If I were to say it, it would be better to say that Mr. Minister did not understand the current situation and did not take into account the actual situation of China.

If you have been observing our Huaxia Army from close proximity for many years, you should understand that the Huaxia Army is inseparable from your country's last aggression, and it is precisely in order to resist the British aggression that tens of thousands of ordinary people gathered together and took up arms to resist, so that there is today's Huaxia Army.

If there is another war of foreign invasion, I believe that the war will bring ten hundred Chinese troops and tens of thousands of rebels.

In this sense, the armed intervention of Britain or any other country may not be a good thing for the Huaxia Army, because then it will be much easier for the Huaxia Army to recruit troops in Jiangnan and Jiangbei, and it will also get many more allies than it does now. Li Xianke said politely, but every word he said was a heart-wrenching word.

When the two sides talked about this, they both began to threaten each other, and the conversation naturally could not go on.

In order to avoid really tearing their faces, the two sides then stopped talking about those overly sensitive things, and after talking about the customs of various places, they broke up unhappily.

However, Li Xian maintained his grace in the end, and presented several pamphlets with the four diplomats as they left, entitled "Reform of China's Tariff System" and "Analysis of the Current Situation in the Raw Silk and Silk Industry."

The purpose of the four diplomats was to test Li Xian's attitude towards customs and the trade of raw silk, and when they understood that these two pamphlets represented Li Xian's attitude towards these two things, they immediately read them voraciously when they arrived at a place where they could move freely.

According to the booklet "Plan for the Reform of China's Tariff System," Huaxia Jun will drastically revise the Qing court's tariff policy in Shanghai and other concessions, the core of which is to directly raise the import and export tariff rate from about 5 percent today to more than 20 percent, and the tax rate on some commodities is even as high as 30 percent.

Of course, the Huaxia Army's tariff plan was not just a blind demand, but also proposed to strengthen the infrastructure of the wharf, facilitate the loading and unloading of goods, and simplify the customs clearance process, and also adopted extremely low tax rates on important materials such as "steel, machinery, books, saltpeter, and sulfur" imported by Britain and other countries.

However, on the whole, this tariff reform plan is all about money, and imposes heavy taxes on import and export trade, and as for opium, it is not mentioned at all, so it is natural to kick opium out of normal trade goods.

After reading this content, several people's faces became very ugly, these taxes are not necessarily directly attached to foreign merchants, but they will always increase the cost of trade, although foreign merchants still have a lot of profits, but they are not as good as they did in Shanghai before.

"This man is poor and insane. U.S. Consul Wu Liguo said indignantly, but he knew in his heart that businessmen from the United States, Britain and France would eventually accept such a plan.

Just like the tea trade, the Queen of England imposes a high tariff of 90% on the tea imported from China to the United Kingdom, but the number of ships buying tea in China has not increased at a rapid rate every year, and everyone is crazy to trade tea.

It can only be said that the tariffs on the Chinese side have been raised, and the tariffs on the British side have been relatively reduced, and they can hedge against each other.

"Analysis of the Current Situation of Raw Silk and Silk Industry" is an analysis of China's raw silk industry.

Before the Opium War, tea was the largest commodity in China's trade, and even more than 95 percent of the goods purchased by foreign merchants in Guangzhou were tea, and few other goods were traded.

At that time, the price of tea was about 30 silver dollars per quintal, 300,000 quintals were sold every year, and the total trade volume of tea was about 9 million to 10 million silver dollars.

And since the opening of Shanghai, another more profitable and profitable commodity has appeared, that is, raw silk.

Before the Opium War, China's raw silk exports were mainly through Guangzhou, and its price fluctuated greatly according to quality and origin.

For example, the price of standard Huzhou silk in Huzhou is about 200 silver dollars per bag, and the export price after being shipped to Guangzhou is about 380 yuan per bag.

So, what about the price of raw silk in Europe? The price at which French merchants bought Spanish raw silk was about 420 taels of silver per bag, or about 630 silver dollars.

Considering that the cost of shipping goods from China to Europe by sea is about 30 silver dollars per ton, that is to say, the transportation cost of a bag of raw silk to Europe is only about 5 yuan, considering that the expensive price of raw silk is almost negligible, far less significant than tea.

After the opening of the port in Shanghai, the price of raw silk in Europe remained almost unchanged, while foreign merchants from Guangzhou to Shanghai, saving a lot of transportation costs, can directly buy high-quality raw silk in Huzhou and other places of origin, that is, at a price close to the cost price of origin directly in Shanghai, which is very close to Huzhou.