In the lounge, Yi Zhizhi and Yilu talked happily, but the negotiation in the conference room was extremely difficult, Jiang Liang and Yu Baochun resolutely refused to give in on the compensation for the price of cigarettes, and bit three million to the death, Yilu was unacceptable to this price, the reason is very simple, this price is just to be destroyed crows. The wholesale price of the film in India, he could not explain to the cigarette dealers.

After nearly two hours of bargaining and negotiation in the vegetable market, Yilu suddenly reacted, easy contentment is the key, what is the effort to spend here with them? He immediately found an excuse to leave the table, went out of the conference room, and when he asked, he learned that Yi Zhizhi and Yilu were in the lounge, so he immediately rushed over.

In the lounge, Yi Zhilu and Yilu were drinking coffee and talking about the model of the Singapore Free Trade Port, seeing Yilu coming in, Yi Zhilu couldn't help but smile, this guy finally reacted, nodded politely, and said, "The coffee here tastes good, do you want to have a cup?" ”

"Thank you." Yilu said: "I drank a stomach of bitter tea in the conference room. After sitting down next to his cousin Yilu, he asked, "How are you talking?" ”

"Good." Yilu said: "The problem now is the price of cigarettes, I hope you will give in." ”

"It's okay to give in." Yilu said and looked at Yi Zhicontentment and said: "The total price of cigarettes cannot be less than five million, and the agreement to compensate for three million is okay, and the difference will be compensated by Mr. Yi with tea, how about it?" ”

The reason why he said this was because he found out that Lin Zexu was when he - five quintals of tea for a box of crows. The slice turned into five pounds of tea for a box of crows. At the time of the film, the Wu family and Yi Zhizu made it clear to him that they were willing to privately pay 100,000 loads of tea to compensate for the losses of the British merchants, and now he is just repeating the old words.

Yi Zhisuff reduced the amount of the claimed cigarette price and reduced the number of treaty ports, the purpose was to make it difficult for the British to accept and continue to expand the war, where would he still agree to compensate privately, he immediately shook his head and said: "At this time and that time, at the beginning, we were willing to compensate privately, because we wanted to maintain the situation of trade in Guangzhou and to maintain the status of the thirteen monopoly on foreign trade, but Your Excellency refused.

Now that the commercial port has been opened, the monopoly position of the Thirteen Banks has been cancelled, whether it is the Thirteen Merchants or Yuanqi, there is no possibility of private compensation, we have a saying in China, after this village can not have that shop, it is the Governor-in-Chief himself who missed the opportunity.

Of course, it is not impossible, if you can give up the opening of additional commercial ports, not to mention five million, ten million, Yuan Qi will also admit compensation! ”

Hearing this, Yilu was silent for a long time, and it was impossible to give up the opening of additional commercial ports! Seeing this situation, Yilu said: "Didn't Mr. Fang Caiyi say that he could be compensated in Shanghai? ”

"Not bad." Yi Zhishu nodded and said: "I am Shanghai Dao, directly under the jurisdiction of Jiang Customs, for the merchants of your country who have suffered the loss of the smoking ban, if they reform themselves and engage in legitimate commerce, I can compensate within my authority, such as through the customs duty reduction or return of Jiang Customs." ”

This is a long-term slow way of compensation, and Yilu will naturally not accept it, but he also knows that compared with the opening of additional commercial ports, the cigarette price claim is not worth mentioning at all, and no matter how tough it is, it can't be the other party, so he can only look at his cousin Yilu for help.

Yilu was also helpless, he couldn't affect the overall situation of the negotiation because of the cigarette price claim, shrugged his shoulders, and said: "Although Mr. Yi's compensation method is slow, I have to say that it is very sincere. ”

Yi Zhixiang smiled and said, "Your Excellency the Governor actually doesn't need to make trouble to buy crows from India. The price I gave was enough for you to buy the same amount of crows from India. Slice. ”

"It's a good idea." Yilu said: "If you discuss with Sir Pudingcha, you should be able to get a lower price." With that, he stood up and said, "Mr. Yi, let's go back to the negotiation table, otherwise we won't be able to celebrate at noon." ”

The three of them returned to the conference room and negotiated again, the main focus was whether Ningbo would be opened as a treaty port, Yi Zhixiang was not very concerned about this, one more and one less treaty port, it was insignificant to him, anyway, this agreement was soon a piece of waste paper, but in a quarter of an hour, the two sides quickly reached an agreement to open three more treaty ports in Xiamen, Shanghai and Ningbo, and compensate for the price of cigarettes of three million, and the other six terms were fully agreed.

In this regard, Jiang Liang and Yu Baochun were speechless for a while, they were simply decorations at the negotiation table, Yi Zhixiang didn't have time to take into account the feelings of the two of them, and after carefully reading the negotiation records, he raised his head to look at Yilu and said: "According to international practice, this treaty should be a reciprocal treaty, isn't it?" ”

After a little hesitation, Yilu nodded slowly and said, "Yes, it's a reciprocal treaty." ”

"Okay." Yi Zhizhi said: "One more thing, our citizens also enjoy the same rights in your country's treaty ports. In addition, I would like to ask you to list three or four ports that your country has opened to the outside world as additional treaty ports for our country. ”

"As Mr. Yi wishes." Yilu commanded, "Add this one." He knew very well in his heart that this article was of no practical use, and the merchant ships of the Qing State had never been out of the South Seas at all, let alone England, and of course, a reciprocal treaty was more conducive to the Qing Emperor agreeing to open additional trading ports.

Although Yi Zhixiang did not say it explicitly, he knew very well that it was not an easy thing to open a commercial port in the Qing Dynasty, since the Qing Dynasty opened to trade, England has been sparing no effort to increase Ningbo as a treaty port, has not been able to do so, the stubborn conservatism of the Qing Emperor can be seen.

Humen Village, Admiralty Office.

After carefully reading the draft agreement, Qi Shan glanced at Yi Zhi, and unabashedly appreciated: "When it comes to foreign affairs, no one in the Qing Dynasty can be content. ”

Yi Zhizu said humbly: "It's just a matter of knowing each other and knowing oneself, but I don't dare to praise the middle hall so falsely." ”

"Knowing each other and knowing oneself is easier said than done." Qi Shan said with a smile: "Looking at the government and the opposition, how many people can know Yingyi's confidant?" As he spoke, he looked at the agreement again and said, "The last one has the finishing touch, so that this is a completely fair treaty, which will not damage the prestige of the imperial court, but also be enough to block the mouth of the world." ”

After pondering for a while, he continued: "This cigarette price compensation, although the amount is not large, but the impact is not small, it is not appropriate to list it openly, it is better to change the name, otherwise it is not conducive to the imperial court to ban smoking, and besides, the emperor also has a will, the price of cigarettes is not allowed to be a cent, is there a way to be content?" ”

This is really a bit difficult to do, and it is impossible to compensate for military expenses, if you want to make Daoguang not disgusted, it is really not easy to find, he unconsciously took out a cigar, and was about to point it, only to realize that Qi Shan was in front of him, and quickly put it away again, Qi Shan smiled and said, "Smoke, it's okay." With that, he got up and opened the window.

Yi Zhizhi was not hypocritical, lit a cigar and took a few puffs slowly, suddenly smiled, and said: "In the name of repaying the business debt, pay these three million, is it feasible for Lord Zhongtang?" ”

In the terms originally proposed by Yingyi, there was already a clause to repay the merchant debt, and the payment of this cigarette price in the name of the merchant debt can be said to be seamless, Qi Shan smiled: "Okay! Very good! The Imperial Court of Ming Japan signed this treaty with Yingyi. ”

In a blink of an eye, it is the month of Lap, the eighth day of the Lunar Month, and the Laba Festival.

"Laba porridge, Laba rice, the chicken will lay eggs when it eats." The crisp sound of children's voices echoes in the streets of Guangzhou early in the morning, and every festival, there is nothing more cheerful than carefree children, for whom it means having something delicious to eat, and being able to eat with an open belly.

Along with the nursery rhymes, there is also the news of the opening of the Yuanqi Stock Exchange, which has been publicized in the "Xiguan Daily" for several months, has finally opened, and many people with solid money have rushed to Xiguan to see the excitement.

Xiguan, Tong'an Street, stock exchange, early in the morning, outside the gate of the exchange will be full of people, outside the gate, a slip of eight cauldrons, the pot is naturally cooked Laba porridge, the aroma is overflowing, attracting countless people to come, the square table in front of the pot, is full of bowls of Laba porridge, can be received for free.

Yuanqi's Laba porridge is made of exquisite materials, with yellow rice, white rice, Jiang rice, millet, water chestnut, red beans, peeled jujube paste, etc., cooked with water, externally dyed red peach kernels, almonds, melon seeds, peanuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts and white sugar, brown sugar, trivial grapes, in order to make a point dye, not only fragrant and extremely pleasing to the eye, the news spread, more and more people come to receive the porridge.

Laba Festival Laba porridge, in addition to sacrificing ancestors, but also widely distributed to relatives and friends, in order to show blessings, many large families also imitate the door soup porridge to send blessings, specially to the poor people, easy to be content to choose this day to open, and widely give porridge, also for the transaction to take a good fortune head.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, Laba porridge was given, the gate was cleaned up, the water was sprinkled on the street, and the red and green were festive, Yi Zhizu was dressed in a brocade robe, and the whole body was cleaned up and down, and he stood at the gate in high spirits and waited to welcome a group of guests.

Rong Kunyi took a look at the fake braid on the back of Wu Yundong's head, and said, "Look at this braid, it's oily and slippery, but it looks much better than your original one." ”

Wu Yundong pulled his braids back dissatisfied, raised his chin at Yi Zhizhi in front of him, and said, "The big shopkeeper is also fake, you go and take a look, it's better than mine." ”

In the past few years, Yi Zhixiang's prestige has become increasingly important, especially since the formation of the Yuanqi group training, Rong Kunyi didn't dare to joke with him, and immediately changed his head and said, "Do you follow the big shopkeeper to Shanghai?" ”

"Naturally, I'm going." Wu Yundong said, his family did not approve of him practicing in the Yuanqi Group, and now Yi Zhizhi went to Shanghai, where would he miss such a good opportunity, and said, he smiled, "You also want to go to Shanghai?" ”

"We can't do anything, why bother in front of the old man." Rong Kunyi said: "Jianghaiguan is not under the management of the big shopkeeper now. ”

"Want to go to Jianghaiguan?" Pan Shiming paced slowly, took over the conversation and said: "If you kid wants to make money, I advise you not to go, the big shopkeeper wants to implement customs innovation in Jianghaiguan." ”

Customs reform? Rong Kunyi really didn't know that there was such a thing, and he said without showing weakness: "Who wants to make money?" With the big shopkeeper, can you still be short of silver? If we can't do anything, we just want to follow the big shopkeeper to make a difference. ”

"Then you have to seize the opportunity to talk to the big treasurer." Pan Shiming said with a smile: "As soon as the exchange opens, as long as there are no major accidents, the big shopkeeper will immediately rush to Shanghai to take office." ”

"Is that evergreen going?"

"Changqing wants to stay in Guangzhou."

"Someone's coming." Someone shouted softly outside the door, listening to this, everyone followed out, the first wave of guests who came were not outsiders, it was a group of merchants from the thirteen lines, they came together, everyone was familiar with each other, and stood at the door for a long time to greet each other, until they saw that a guest came, and everyone entered the courtyard.

The second wave came to the shopkeeper of the Shanxi ticket number, and the big shopkeeper of the Guangzhou branch of the Rishengchang ticket number - Wang Dechang took the lead, and he laughed loudly as soon as he met: "Congratulations, congratulations to the shopkeeper of Yida." ”

"Thank you for coming." Yi Zhizhi smiled with his hand.

"That's what I said." Yuan Tsuji smiled and said: "Yuan Qi is happy, how can we not come to join in the fun?" ”

"That's what I said." Ren Tiande, who had a ticket number in Tianchengheng, said with a smile: "We are now breaking bones and connecting tendons with Yuan Qi, Yuan Qi has something to do, how can we not come." ”

"That's a good point." Yi Zhizhi said with a smile: "In the future, you are welcome to come to Shanghai to open your ticket." ”

"Speaking of this, the shopkeeper Yida is not kind." Wang Dechang said with a smile: "I don't invite guests if I let go of Shanghai Road." ”

"I'm done with this while, I must please." Yi Zhizhi said with a smile: "If you don't invite anyone, you can't invite the shopkeeper of the West Ticket." As he spoke, he raised his eyes and saw a guest coming, and hurriedly stretched out his hand and said, "Everyone, please." ”

The guests who followed were a large group, all of them were silk merchants, the silk merchants of Shunde, Nanhai, Xiangshan, Sanshui and four counties gathered together and rushed to come, easy to be busy and overwhelmed, in fact, he knew the silk merchants of Shunde, and the other three counties, he only knew a few big silk merchants.

Followed by the tea merchant led by Huang Zichang, the iron merchant in Foshan, Yi Zhizhi and the others were simply too busy, and there were also many gentry and merchants in Guangzhou City who came one after another, and more and more people saw it, Wu Changqing was a little anxious, and reminded softly: "There are so many people, I'm afraid the exchange can't accommodate it." ”

Yi Zhizhi said: "Don't be afraid, if you can't tolerate it, it's outside." ”

At eleven o'clock in the morning, a gong sound came from far and near, needless to say, this is a group of officials in Guangzhou City arrived, and the people who came to see the excitement and attend the opening ceremony did not expect that there would be officials to congratulate, "Minister Qincha, Fuguo Gong has arrived!" ”

"Minister Qincha, Qi Zhongtang has arrived!"

"Governor of Liangguang, Lin Butang has arrived!"

"Governor of Guangdong, Yifutai has arrived!"

Listening to the roll call, everyone was secretly surprised, the Qincha, the governor, the general of Guangzhou, the governor, the superintendent of the Guangdong Customs, the admiral of the navy, the political envoy, the envoy of the inspection, the Daotai, the prefect, and the county of Guangzhou, almost all the civil and military officials in the city of Guangzhou did not pull in, this meeting is really rare. (To be continued.) )