Humble Administrator's Garden. (Starter)

When the cold wind hit, the branches that were already almost ruined fell a few more yellow leaves, and they looked more and more shining. However, people are in good spirits on happy occasions, Qi Taiyu has newly obtained this super cultural garden, and he is happy, so he is not moved by the cold wind of winter at all, and stands outside the round gate on the side of the "Jianshan Tower" surrounded by water on three sides waiting for his guests.

The name "See the Mountain Tower" is taken from Tao Yuanming's poem: "Under the east fence of picking chrysanthemums, you can see Nanshan leisurely." It reflects the feelings of the frustrated officialdom Wang Xianchen more than 300 years ago after he returned to the mountains. Wang Xianchen is the founder of this Humble Administrator's Garden.

"Humble Administration" is taken from Jin Panyue's "Idle Living Fu": "Build a room and plant trees, and be at ease...... Irrigate the garden with vegetables for the morning and evening meals...... This is also the case of the clumsy. "Yes, the Wang family has been rubbed by officialdom, and for 40 years, he only used the Gaozhou General Judgment (Zheng Liupin) to make fun of his peers, and laughed at himself as a clumsy politician because of the fake Pan Yue's tone.

Qi Taiyuzhi's "gain" is not that he has already obtained the Humble Administrator's Garden, but that he and Li Hongzhang have taken a fancy to this garden at the same time, and as the comprador of the Duke of London, he is absolutely confident that he will take this garden. He is a businessman, and businessmen do not fight with officials, but Qi Taiyu is not an ordinary businessman, he is one of the two compradors appointed by Tang Ning, and the other is of course Xu Rongcun.

Qi Taiyu knew that the current Duke was the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, so he was not afraid of Li Hongzhang at all, not to mention Lord Li, even the emperor was not afraid. So much so that Li Hongzhang wondered, how could this kid dare to compete with himself for this garden?

Even if Tang Ning messed up, he Qi Taiyu slapped his buttocks, left the Qing Dynasty, went to Nanyang, went to Europe, and was full of the territory of the Duke of London. Ever since he was beaten by a certain Qing official, Qi Taiyu has hated the entire Qing Dynasty officialdom, and even Lord Li hated it. If Master Li is willing to give 3,000 taels, he will pay 10,000 taels to see who has the money. Li Hongzhang is an official, and it may be too conspicuous to buy a garden for 10,000 taels, and he is reluctant to pay this famous Suzhou garden, so he came today to negotiate with the Qi compradors, suggesting that he should not fight with the official, otherwise there will be no good fruit to eat.

As for the problem that officials are not suitable for funding, he has already thought of a solution, in the world of the official position, there will always be a way to be an official, even if he doesn't want to, as long as he releases the news, others will naturally help you think. He also hired a comprador to act as a stand-in.

This comprador is very eye-catching, his surname is Hu, his name is Guangtang, and his name is Xueyan. Hu comprador was originally in Zhejiang to buy grain and grass for the governor Wang Youling, but now the Qing and British coalition forces attacked Suzhou, which suddenly reduced the pressure on Zhejiang, and he was ordered by Wang to help Li run military rations. It can be said that Hu Guangyong is responsible for the grain and grass of the Qing Army's Green Battalion, which is the remnant of the defeated soldiers and will be integrated to do some containment work, while Qi Taiyu is responsible for the military rations of the British army. One is a local comprador and the other is a foreign comprador. At present, the status of foreign compradors is obviously higher than that of local turtle compradors, because the main force attacking the Taiping army is foreigners.

In addition to these three characters, there is also an indispensable character - Wu Jinde, the original owner of the Humble Administrator's Garden. Why is it called the "original" owner? Because of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the loyal king Li Xiucheng fell in love with this place after breaking through Suzhou, turned the "Wu Garden" into the palace of the loyal king, and built a large number of buildings, and now you can still see the shadow of the garden project under construction everywhere, but its prosperity is also booming and its death is also sudden, and soon Suzhou changed hands again. This becomes a confused account, who should this garden belong to?

Today, they're here to solve this problem.

Qi Taiyu is not alone, Xu Rongcun helped Tang Ning deal with state affairs in Beijing, because he was Tang Ning's intelligence chief in the Qing Dynasty, and the comprador was his part-time job, so Xu Rongcun, the comprador job in Jiangnan, was handed over to his nephew Xu Run.

At the age of 15, the young Xu Run went to Shanghai with his uncle Xu Rongcun and joined the British merchant Baoshun as an apprentice. He is extremely diligent and studious, and has understanding, so he is deeply valued by foreign banks, and at the age of 19, he has been allowed to go to the court to help the account, and now he has become Xu Rongcun's right-hand man.

"Oops! The virtuous nephew is here, very early! Qi Taiyu saw Xu Run and greeted happily, it should have been the juniors who greeted him first, he was in a good mood and couldn't help but speak first.

Xu Runchu smiled and said, "Uncle Qi is so happy? Isn't there going to be a hard negotiation later? ”

Qi Taiyu didn't listen to the words "hard negotiations" in his ears at all, and pointed to the scenery with stories about the grass, trees, ponds, bridges, bricks and tiles around the mountain tower, and said: "The garden of more than 300 years is a strong cultural atmosphere, this is an opportunity that can not be found, we dare not buy the Old Summer Palace, haha, it would be good to have the Humble Administrator's Garden." Do you make it? There is a couplet of Wen Zhengming on the pillar of Yuanxiangtang: the quieter the cicada noise forest, the more secluded the birdsong mountain. In the center of the pavilion, there is Ni Yuanlu's 'between the mountains and wild birds' of the Ming Dynasty, and the words of Yuanxiangtang are also the legendary poets of the Qianlong period, and the calligraphy of Shen Deqian, who was only in the Jinshi at the age of 66. Have you gone to see? How well written! ”

Xu Run smiled again: "Uncle Qi is educated!" I don't understand that, I didn't know you understood this. ”

While the uncle and nephew were talking and laughing, their guest and negotiator arrived.

Xu Run didn't know the inside story of Tang Ning's coercion of the Son of Heaven to order the princes, and he was a little stunned to see the arrival of Li Hongzhang, the minister of the Qin Mission sent by the emperor to suppress bandits with the foreigners, after all, it was the Shunmin of the Qing Dynasty who was used to it. And Qi Taiyu is full of confidence, the emperor is his own hair! Is there anything in this world that increases one's own ambition and destroys the prestige of others?

According to the etiquette system, the people should bow down when they see officials, especially an official of not low rank like Lord Li, who was recommended by Zeng Guofan as the governor of Jiangsu, from the second rank of the senior member, and added the rank of squire of the military department, but because the jurisdiction is in the war, it has not yet been granted. Xu Runzheng wanted to bow down honestly, but his uncle stopped him and said lightly: "Nephews don't have to be polite, foreigners don't have to kneel when they see the emperor." We are Malayan nationals, and we are foreigners, so Master Lee thinks the grass people are right? ”

The governor "rubbed" the fire on the ground, but after half a second, he immediately suppressed the anger, adjusted his face, laughed, and said: "I see, the two of you are no longer my subjects of the Qing Dynasty, interesting, a little interesting...... It's okay, feel free to do so! He made a gesture of please. Li Hongzhang is a treacherous person, he knows that everything is abnormal, there must be a cat, but I want to see what this profiteer has to say, if he changes Zuo Zongtang, I am afraid that he will already turn the table.

"Please!" Qi Taiyu took in Master Li's expression, "Please take a seat!" "Of course he is not afraid of Master Li, this place has been occupied by his private soldiers, don't forget that he is a person who participates in the armed training of Chinese in Singapore, according to the general of the Hessian Chasseur Regiment, Mr. Qi still has a little talent to lead the troops, but he is not talented, and he can still lead the road police of a certain branch of the Daqing Railway Bureau, and Tang Ning is now giving him the plan to master the road police of the Shanghai Branch, which is the most important branch. In his plan, the military power of the local governor and the strength of the train bureau are upside down, that is, he deliberately wants to make the strength of the governor far inferior to the train bureau, Lord Li does not understand now, but one day he will understand.

Lord Li is no longer polite to this profiteer, and takes the lead in taking a seat with his chest held high, the aura of the governor is undoubtedly revealed, Xu Run secretly wiped his sweat with his sleeve, this matter is troublesome, and he offended the governor from the beginning! Is it bad to make money with anger?

Qi Taiyu is not stunned, he just knows that one day Lord Li will know the emperor's upside-down plan, instead of hiding it, it is better to go with the flow, it is his dream to be able to sè in front of the governor, he hates the governor the most, especially the governor of Jiangsu, because the governor of Jiangsu beat him up well. Have you ever heard of beating a water dog, have you heard of beating SAINT ANGELO? Hmph, this is a lifelong hate.

After the guest and host sat down, Qi Taiyu put out the host's score and shouted: "Xiaolan, watch the tea!" ”

Xiaolan is the tea master he looked for from Shanghai's elegant ****, with excellent appearance, especially a pair of white and soft wattles, which can cause ripples in the hearts of men.

Qi Taiyu showed his strength in talking and laughing: "Today, please try the tea produced in Nanyang and see what is different." This is a black tea from Estate 7, and it is of excellent quality. Oh, and I'll have to explain why it's number 7. Back then, the Duke of London, the richest man in the world, sent Wallace and other 8 biologists to the South Seas to plant rubber, of which No. 1 was the most famous manor of Wallace, a great scientist who discovered the secret of the origin of species with the Duke of London and Mr. Darwin. Mr. Wallace, however, did not take the estate very seriously. The owner of Estate 7 was different, he worked very hard, growing not only rubber, but also tea. ”

Hu Guangyong is very interested in the tuba of "the richest man in the world": "Really? How much money does this Lord Duke have? How can you be called the richest man in the world? ”

Qi Taiyu waved his hand again and again: "Actually, the title of the richest man in the world is the most worthless name of the Duke of London." Anyway, he has too much money to calculate, and I don't think he even knows how much. Let's put it this way, you know how much the budget of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway is this time, right? ”

Hu Guangyong, a businessman, of course, knows this number well, and he once had the idea of investing in the Daqing Railway Bureau, but because he didn't understand the background of this foreigner, he gave up and said casually: "500 pounds, that is, 18.5 million taels of silver." ”

Qi Taiyu, a small profiteer, has unconsciously attracted the attention of everyone present: "By the way, it's 18.5 million taels!" Do you know how expensive it is to build a railway? Our Qing Dynasty train uses less steel, but all the rails built by the foreigners are rails, which turned out to be rails, since our Duke of London invented the method of rapid steelmaking, the world's railways have become steel rails, and the Duke is the king of steel, just this one, you can count it, how much money does the Duke have? Besides, steel is not only used to build railways. Building roads, building bridges, building houses, building ships, which one does not require steel? Steel is the skeleton of this world! ”

Hu Guangyong gasped: "You mean, all the steel in the world comes out of the Duke of London's factory?" ”

Seeing that he had frightened Master Li's companions, Qi Taiyu nodded triumphantly: "That is, the duke is a great talent, how can the things he invented be so light that they have been learned?" Other people can make steel, but the quality of the steel made by most people is not good, and there must be a secret in this. （http：／/.)。 Look at the names of our Duke's factories: British Iron and Steel Works, Indian Iron and Steel Works, Japanese Steel Works, European Steel Works, and in the future, Daqing Iron and Steel Works, all of which are monsters with too much output. ”

As a big profiteer, Hu Guangyong knows best that monopoly position is the most profitable way, like he monopolized the supply of military food in Zhejiang, and made a lot of money from it, monopolizing the world's steel, which is too cruel, no wonder I heard that the Duke wants to build a railway, and foreign capital rushes to invest like a tiger smelling blood, even ignoring the war.

What Hu Guangyong didn't understand was that since the duke was so rich, why did he still find someone to invest together? Does it mean risk? Hu Guangyong didn't understand the railway, and he couldn't even imagine it, so he still didn't take the risk.