"Your Majesty, the Green Camp of the Han Army suddenly sent soldiers out to purchase this morning. They bought a total of fifty pigs, two large carts of cabbage, some rice and white flour, and half a cart of soju..."
"Your Excellency, Tongzhi Yamen has begun to prepare for today's dinner. The cooks and waiters from Haihailou have entered Tongzhi Yamen..."
"The first company has made all preparations, all equipment has been inspected, and a rest has been ordered..."
"Sir, from last night to this morning, three waves of Qingyao's messengers have been intercepted and killed, and their bodies have been hidden. This is the secret order they carry..."
"Sir, our falconry has already taken off outside the city. A total of ten falconers have been mobilized to ensure that not a single homing pigeon can fly out..."
In the early morning, at the Xiao Family Mansion, the sky was just getting dark. Xiao Letian, who was practicing Tai Chi with Master Long, was already surrounded by the orderly soldiers. Pieces of intelligence were gathered here for review. Every move in the entire Tanggu city could not be escaped. Xiao Letian's eyes.
By the time Xiao Letian finished the two sets of punches, he was sweating on his forehead. "Bring breakfast here... I'll tell Sima Yun later what's going on with the second company, why don't you rest? If you have tasks at night, you can sleep with me during the day..." …”
The city of Tanggu was in a state of restlessness for the entire day. Xiao Letian dealt with official duties in the morning like no one else. In the morning, he spent time in a foreign store with Matthew and Mike studying various matters regarding the special zone that would start construction next spring. In the afternoon, he even went to a bathhouse. Zi took a nice bath, and when it was about five o'clock, a refreshed Xiao Letian was finally ready to go to the banquet.
In addition to Mr. Long and a few guards, the person attending the banquet with Xiao Letian was the shopkeeper Fan Yan. Zhou Mingkui’s previous post also made it clear. The excuse he used was to sit down and have a drink together to mediate between Fan Yan and Fan Ru. The conflict between the two brothers.
Not to mention, Zhou Mingkui's excuse was pretty good. It's not a problem for Fan Ru to pester Xiao Letian so much. It would be good if he could solve everything today so as not to have to worry about it twice.
"Hello, Mr. Zhou, good luck to Mr. Zhou!"
"Oh, Shopkeeper Fan of the foreign company, I haven't seen you for a few days. Let's have two more drinks tonight. Your eldest brother has already arrived. Please come to the flower room in the back garden to serve tea..."
"Mr. Xiao! You're here, please hurry up and invite me. You are really magical. Mr. Qing and I worked hard to convince these unruly people, but in the end, you were invincible..."
Zhou Mingkui stood inside the second door to greet him. When he and Xiao Letian looked at each other, he quickly blinked a few times to give a warning, which was very obvious. When Zhou Mingkui looked over and saw that there were only four or five guards behind Xiao Letian, his face instantly turned pale.
"Why did you bring so many people here? Don't think that Mr. Long is omnipotent. There are many good men named Sun!" Zhou Mingkui said softly in a low voice.
Xiao Letian patted his chest and walked into the second door with a confident look. Mr. Zhou looked at Xiao Letian's nonchalant expression and felt sweat dripping from his forehead.
The dinner was held in the greenhouse in the back garden of the Yamen. Mr. Zhou is a flower lover. The greenhouse he designed himself is quite famous in Tanggu. There are all kinds of flowers in the four seasons in the greenhouse. As soon as people enter the door, they are hit by the fragrance of flowers. A big somersault.
Fan Ru and Sun Sanhu had been waiting inside for a long time. When they saw the protagonist entering, they both stood up and saluted. They wanted to say a few polite words, but found that Xiao Letian didn't answer the question at all, and instead went to see the flowers on his own. .
"Oh, these chrysanthemums are blooming beautifully. Mr. Zhou is so elegant... Look, these pieces of glass windows can let in light and keep you warm. It cost a lot of money, right? Wintersweet... What a beautiful potted plant Wintersweet, I want this pot and give it to my wife to play with..."
Zhou Mingkui wiped his sweat with his handkerchief anxiously: "Okay, okay, you can move out if you like. Let's just sit down and sit down. Sir, please tell us about Western things, and we will also broaden our horizons..."
Xiao Letian's rudeness almost made Sun Sanhu's nose crooked with anger. He thought to himself that this kid really didn't know whether to live or die and yet he was still so leisurely after the hell gate was closed. I'll just let you be arrogant for a while, and then I'll kill you in a hundred ways.
At this time, Sun Sanhu glanced sideways and saw Xiang Shaolong, "Hey, this is Mr. Xiao's bodyguard, Master Long, right? This is a private banquet. Isn't it appropriate for you to have a bodyguard here?"
Xiao Letian rolled his eyes at him, "Who are you? Do you have the right to speak here? Tie your crotch tightly, don't always jump out and make random statements..."
"You..." Sun Sanhu was so angry that he was about to take action, his fists clenching loudly. At this time, Long Ye leaned forward. Just changing his standing position had blocked all directions from which he might attack Xiao Letian.
Not only was the protection tight, but the angle was very tricky and did not affect Xiao Letian's line of sight at all. He was indeed the famous Beilong in the world.
At this time, Fan Ru said, "Ahem... I am the oldest at this table, so let me be an old man. Can everyone just drink in peace? Why is there such a strong smell of gunpowder!"
Xiao Letian was most annoyed by people who relied on their elders and sold them, and this old coffin boy wanted to sell Huniu, which made Xiao Letian even more indignant. If Fan Ru hadn't still had some affection for his brother, Xiao Letian would have dealt with him long ago.
"Fan Ru, Fan Huangshang! You are indeed on errands for the royal family. We can't match your magnanimity. How can one of your subordinates be so domineering? The bosses haven't even spoken yet. Do you have the right to speak first?" Your grandma’s…”
This sentence made both Fan Ru and Sun Sanhu blush. Especially Sun Sanhu, who was scolded by Xiao Letian. He looked down on a devil like Xiao Letian from the bottom of his heart. He was a famous guard with swords in the palace and a secret protector of the royal family. Today, he actually Being humiliated by a Japanese devil?
Okay, okay, wait for me to deal with you. I will execute you later and use your flesh to string fish hooks piece by piece. I will use your flesh to go fishing on the Haihe River. Sun Sanhu cursed in his heart. .
Just when the atmosphere in the greenhouse was tense, the guards in the small courtyard outside seemed to hear the slightest noise. They didn't know that Sun Sanhu had hidden more than thirty martial arts masters in the rooms surrounding the greenhouse, and they were stringing their bows one by one. The knife was unsheathed, and someone even prepared a shotgun inside, and the matchlock shone with a dark red light in the darkness.
It was already after six o'clock in the evening, and the sky was completely dark. Suddenly, there was a dense sound of footsteps on the official road outside the city. Many curious villagers went out to take a look, and at a glance they saw countless green soldiers smearing their way towards the city. As they marched towards Tanggu City, everyone was silent.
The farmers didn't dare to interfere with these things. They quickly locked the door and acted like a coward, even blowing out the oil lamps.
The net surrounding Xiao Letian has gradually closed, and at this time, Xiao Letian was still bickering with Fan Ru and others.
"Mr. Fan Ru, you are an imperial merchant, and your path is different from ours. If you insist on getting mixed up in our water, I'm afraid you won't get used to it. Doing maritime business with foreigners is different from your foreign business. I can't explain the secret here for a while, so I can only accept your kindness..." Xiao Letian pulled off a chicken leg and chewed it greasyly while talking.
Fan Ru frowned slightly and said, "Mr. Xiao, my brother and I are discussing business. It wouldn't be a good idea for you to interfere in this way, right?"
"Mixing? How can you call it mixing!" Xiao Letian threw the bones in his hands on the ground. "I have a share in Lotte Matheson. Don't forget that I gave the name of Matheson!"
"Hmph! Your shares? Don't try to hide your tricks from me..." Fan Ru looked at him with disdain. "Mr. Xiao, don't treat us Qing people as fools. You said you have shares." , tell me how much principal you invested? How much money can you have, a Japanese devil who returned from overseas naked?"
"You relied on deceit and deceit along the way, and even the bandits in the Taihang Mountains were coaxed by you. Don't try to hide this from me. I have figured out any ways you can make money for you. Those bandits can at most have one or two. With a fortune of 100,000 yuan, it is impossible for you to earn more than 30,000 taels from writing books... Of course, you also robbed Huang Juren of his family property during the Tanggu riots, so you can probably earn 20,000 to 30,000 yuan..."
Fan Ru banged his fingers on the table and said angrily, "Look, there is nothing wrong with the calculation I gave you, right? All the silver taels added up to five or six hundred thousand are already as high as the sky... Oh, I almost forgot, you There is probably a lot of looting in the Ryukyu Kingdom, but the Ryukyu Kingdom is only a county. Even if you scrape the sky three feet high, how much money will you have? Don't forget, the foreign bank has already been established at that time..."
Xiao Letian was dumbfounded, Fan Yan's face turned red, and Lord Long, who was always serious, burst into laughter. This ignorant, bad old man has all the thoughts of a country rich man. How could he know Xiao Letian's methods of amassing money?
Fan Ru didn't realize the mocking looks of others at all, and was still living in vain. "Five or six hundred thousand taels of silver can never support such a large foreign company, so the one with the largest share in this foreign company is my brother, and you He is just a liar who takes advantage of others..."
The more Fan Ru talked, the angrier he became, "You kid, relying on your knowledge of Western learning and your good skin, deceived Huniu and deceived my old brother. Isn't your purpose just to seize my brother's property?" At this time, Fan Ru looked at him. My brother said, hating iron for not being able to become steel.
"And you! Are you so willing to let him bully you? Are you so willing to work as a coolie for him to make money for him to spend? You are so confused..."
At this time, Xiao Letian couldn't hold it in any longer. He chuckled, "Hahaha, you're teasing me to death. You're really teasing me to death... Hahaha, look at your seriousness. You're telling the truth." The same, hahaha..."
"You, you, you!" Fan Ru's blood pressure soared. He had never seen such a shameless person. He still laughed after his conspiracy was exposed. Do you still understand what shame is?
Fan Jian kept kicking his brother's feet under the table. "Stop talking. Please stop talking for a while and stop talking..."
"Kick, kick, kick, why do you keep kicking me? You are really obsessed. How come you are such a fool in the Fan family!" Fan Ru is now so stunned that he can no longer understand the good words.
"Shopkeeper Fan, please report to your elder brother quickly. Let's talk about some big deals our foreign bank did last month. Let him know how much money it costs to open a foreign bank, and let him understand how high the sky is. thick!"
