Lacu said mysteriously, "General, this hundred thousand gold francs is just a normal courtesy exchange. This is because time does not allow it. Otherwise, I will prepare some ancient Egyptian cultural relics of equal value for you, so that you will not feel the bribe." The feeling!”
"Actually, it is normal to give each other national gifts during diplomatic negotiations. I spent 100,000 gold francs to buy a few Egyptian statues from four thousand years ago as gifts to you. No one may be able to say anything about it, but sending money seems a bit... It’s changed…”
"You can't think like that! The value is the same, so why can the statue be exposed to the light and the money is a bribe? Today's situation is urgent. If I had enough time, I would prepare a matching gift for you, right?"
"Take it, don't refuse to take it yet..."
Raku grabbed and grabbed Xiang Ying's hand, and the cashier's check from the Bank of France was quietly placed next to the red wine glass.
For this reason, Xiang Ying could no longer put on airs. After all, he started drinking, and the atmosphere of the negotiation suddenly became harmonious.
Raku breathed a sigh of relief, "General, what do you think of me making a suggestion? You have indeed been hurt by this conflict. I saw it with my own eyes, but now is not the time to hold people accountable, and there is no such thing as that." Time!"
"You need to rush to London. We also need to look for clues about the attack. Even solving the case will take time... Putting aside my status as a diplomat, I would like to advise you from a personal perspective. All diplomatic negotiations in the world take a long time. Time, this conflict will actually be resolved by Europe in the end!"
"Think about it, is this true? In the final analysis, the final negotiation between your head of state and our French emperor is the key to solving the problem. What do you mean by suppressing me? It can't solve the final problem. The problem..."
"In this case, please save me some face. I won't make this apology statement, but I can use other ways to calm you down, especially to calm down the Chinese soldiers. What do you think?"
Xiang Ying glanced at him thoughtfully and drank the valuable red wine in one gulp. "I'd like to hear the details!"
"Compensation! How about I compensate you in the name of the canal company? Give you cash, shiny gold francs to make up for your losses, and then reward your soldiers. Wouldn't this solve your problem? Yet?"
"Cash? Hahaha..." Xiang Ying laughed. "Can you afford the compensation? You sound so arrogant. How much does it cost to damage the Zhiyuan? How much does it cost to fire a shell from the main gun? Depreciation of rifling wear and tear How much does it cost..."
"After strong winds pressurize, the entire battleship system speeds up. As the old saying goes, how much do parts cost? How much depreciation must be calculated..."
"How should injured soldiers be compensated? What about shock compensation? What about lost work compensation? What about compensation for loss of youth?"
"Forget about soldiers, how much does the row of guns that Long Live Lord of the Qing Dynasty received take into account?"
"Hahaha... You, a small canal company, want to pay compensation? Are you kidding me..."
Raku was really not joking. He smiled mysteriously and held out four fingers. "What do you think of this number?"
Xiang Ying was so angry that he wanted to open Ya's head with a wine bottle, "You are wasting my time! You want to settle this matter for 400,000 gold francs? You haven't woken up yet..."
"No, no, no...my general, I'm not talking about four hundred thousand, I'm talking about four million gold francs, what do you think?"
Hiss... Xiang Ying took a breath and said four million gold francs? His heart skipped a beat. Based on the international exchange rate in 1869, one or two large silver treasuries was equivalent to seven francs, or four pounds.
Four million gold francs is a full 570,000 taels of silver!
Xiang Ying just wanted to express his feelings, but suddenly felt that he was at the negotiating table at this moment, and he had to keep his composure. He quickly took a sip of wine to calm down, and his mind began to spin and calculate desperately.
Xiang Ying thought to himself, "Since you want to give me a gift, then I will play with you again. I want to see how much money you have in your hands..."
"Haha, four million gold francs is only more than half a million silver. How much money is this? To tell you the truth, my own pocket money is more than this..."
"This small amount of money is not enough to settle the entire visiting delegation. Even if it is all given to His Majesty, it may not be able to calm His Majesty's anger. Do you still expect to calm our entire army?"
Of course Laku would not believe Xiang Ying's lies. How young are you? You only have five hundred thousand taels of pocket money? Nonsense.
"General, how much do you think is appropriate?"
"At least one million taels of silver, which is seven million gold francs!"
"Ah? Isn't that a bit much..." Raku's face turned a little dark.
The one who was really shocked was Xiang Ying. He thought that after such a sky-high price was quoted, Laku would be furious, but in the end he got a little too much evaluation. Could it be that this canal company is a gold mine?
Raku gritted his teeth and said, "Five million gold francs, no more..."
"You are so insincere, nine and a half million..."
"Five and a half million, that's all!"
"Nine million..."
"No, I'll give you six million, and there won't be any more..."
Xiang Ying shook his head, "Eight and a half million, if you don't give it to us, we will send troops to land!"
"Six hundred and fifty, okay? That's really only this much money. How much cash reserves can the canal company have? This is already the limit!"
"No, I want eight million. If it's not enough, I'll accept the IOU!"
"You're cruel, it's only seven million. If you don't accept it, I'd rather go to war with you!"
The two of them froze, like fighting cocks. For three minutes, Xiang Ying suddenly smiled and stretched out his hand, "It's a deal, but I have a question, and you have to give me an answer. It's a personal question..."
"How could the canal company have so much cash? And how could you, as a diplomat, mobilize it?"
Raku smiled and stretched out his hand and the two of them held it together. "This is our secret. It's really inconvenient to answer!"
"Haha, I know it's hard for you to say, so I'll answer it for you... Is it the money of the black Ottoman Turks? Is it your little treasury?"
Raku was stunned, "Haha... Hahaha... I don't agree with your statement. What you said is wrong, hahaha..."
Xiang Ying definitely guessed it right. The management of the Suez Canal in this era was chaotic. Perhaps the French deliberately made it chaotic.
The management of the entire canal company is in the hands of the French, and even the most effective army on the canal is French, but the sovereignty of this land belongs to the Ottoman Turks.
The entire canal company operates on a joint-stock basis, with the French and Egyptian governors holding the largest shares, followed by the British, and the rest are scattered shares.
In this model, how could the French, who control the management, not hack Egypt? The black hole here is so big that it has no edges.
