Chapter 21 Yale Students
Chapter 21 Yale Students
"My Lord, please don't leave in such a hurry..."
Hua Er chased after him, grabbed Shao Quanzhong's sleeve, and lowered his voice, "Sir, if you are willing to pay more, we can split the extra money 30% to 70%, 30% for me and 70% for you."
Shao Quanzhong looked at the "Da Qing Tong" in front of him with a teasing look, "You are selling this price to Li Xiucheng, right? It's too expensive, I can't afford it."
Wall didn't care at all when Shao Quanzhong revealed that he was in contact with the Taiping Army and sold weapons to both sides. In this great Qing Dynasty, I am a foreigner, who should I be afraid of?
Li Xiucheng had just defeated his brother Frederick Wall's foreign rifle team in Qingpu, which did not prevent him from contacting the Taiping Army to sell weapons.
The sky is big, the earth is big, and silver is the most important thing. In order to make money, he dares to sell the rope to hang himself.
Wal's eyes rolled. "Are you buying guns for your team? The price is negotiable. How about I give you a 20% discount?"
"I can't afford it even at 50% off."
Shao Quanzhong pushed away Wall's hand and stared at Henry Wall. "You sell your stuff at a high price, and I have no objection to making money. But I can't afford your gun, so at most this deal won't go through.
I warn you, if you try to defraud the Qing Dynasty of its money, you will not end well. "
Waler smiled playfully, "How can that be possible, sir? My brothers and I have come from afar to the Qing Dynasty, but we are here to help the Qing Dynasty sincerely. We all plan to become citizens of the Qing Dynasty and become loyal subjects of the Qing Dynasty."
Seeing Shao Quanzhong turned around and walked away without hesitation, he said "Pooh" at Shao Quanzhong's back, "Poor bastard!"
The two brothers left the Wall Company. Zhang Siwen shook his head and said, "Our Qing Dynasty's muskets are only twelve taels of silver each. They are all guns. Why are these foreign ones so expensive?"
Shao Quanzhong sighed, "The things are different. What we produce is called a matchlock rifle, we don't even produce a flintlock rifle, and it's a world away from this rifle that uses Minié bullets.
You are right about one thing. They are all guns. The cost of a foreigner's rifle is only six or seven taels of silver. After being shipped across the ocean, I would accept it even if it is ten times more expensive.
But they just want to take advantage of what you don't have and charge you without any negotiation.
We need to build our own factories, otherwise we will always be strangled by others."
"Can other foreign companies' guns be cheaper?"
Shao Quanzhong had no idea. Before he could answer, a foreigner's accent came from the side, "There's no hope.
The Wall brothers established a relationship with Wu Xu, the governor of Susongtai. Frederick Wall even married the daughter of Yang Fang, the deputy governor. The two brothers almost monopolized the arms trade in Shanghai. Other foreign companies did not sell guns at all.
When Shao Quanzhong turned around, he saw that the foreigner who spoke to him had black hair, brown eyes, and deep eye sockets. He couldn't tell which country he was from. He was wearing a suit, which was a little worn at the elbows and looked rather shabby.
The foreigner came up to Shao Quanzhong in a servile manner, touched his chest and bowed, "Sir, I am Evan from Prussia, and I am willing to serve you.
If you are willing to entrust the gun purchase to me, I will help you bargain with Wall.
I am a Westerner, so I have an advantage and can help you get a 30% discount.
I only charge ten taels of silver for each gun, what do you think, sir?"
Shao Quanzhong was not persuaded. Instead, he stared at the foreign broker with a wretched face and shrewd eyes. "Prussian? All the Prussians I've seen have blond hair and blue eyes. You don't look like that. Are you trying to fool me?"
"You have met very few Prussians. I am a Prussian Jew."
Shao Quanzhong rolled his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking. He glanced at Evan's tattered suit and suddenly asked a question that seemed unrelated to the arms trade, "As far as I know, Jews are good at making money. Why are you doing so poorly?"
This sentence touched upon Evan's sad story. "To be honest, I used to be a big boss, but I lost money in futures trading, so I came to the Far East to escape from my creditors.
My downfall is none of your business. I negotiate the price for you, and you pay me the commission after I get the goods. You can't compensate me anyway. Don't you think this makes sense?"
Zhang Siwen pulled Shao Quanzhong's sleeve and said, "Brother, I think what this foreigner said makes sense."
Shao Quanzhong did not comment, "Let's talk about it later."
Seeing Shao Quanzhong dragging Zhang Siwen away, Evan chased after him, "The commission fee can be negotiated, five taels is also fine. Hey, sir, don't be in a hurry to leave, or you can lend me one tael of silver, I can't eat."
Shao Quanzhong said, "You are not my son. It is none of my business if you starve to death."
Go ahead and go.
"Brother, if you don't use this foreign broker, we probably won't be able to buy this gun. If you don't have enough money, should you buy less?"
"It can't be less than 100 clubs at least. Even if we get a 30% discount, we still don't have enough money."
Shao Quanzhong looked at the foreign concessions in Shanghai with his hands behind his back, "One penny can bring down a hero. Back then, my military budget was 70 million silver dollars. Alas, it's difficult to start a business again."
"Shall we go back then?"
Shao Quanzhong sighed, "It seems that I have no choice but to ask him for help."
"Second brother, do you know anyone in Shanghai?"
“I don’t know that person, but he can definitely help me, and he will really help me without asking for kickbacks. It’s just that I’m not very willing to do so.
If he joins our group, he will definitely oppose my becoming emperor in the future."
Shao Quanzhong gritted his teeth and said, "Forget it, if we want to succeed, we must use these people who studied abroad. We can't care about so much else."
Shao Quanzhong led the confused Zhang Siwen, walked south along the Huangpu River, out of the American Concession, entered the British Concession, and stopped in front of the door of the Butterfield & Sullivan Company.
The clerk of the foreign company saw a sixth-rank official coming in, and did not dare to neglect him. He greeted him with a smile and asked, "Sir, do you want to buy foreign medicine, or do you have a source of silk and tea?"
"I'm here to look for someone. Are Rong Hong and Rong Chunfu here?"
"My Lord, Manager Rong is away on vacation these days. Please come back in a couple of days."
Shao Quanzhong was stunned, closed his eyes and thought carefully for a long time, and suddenly a strange smile appeared on his face, "Then tell me where he lives, and I will go to visit him."
…………
Outside a small villa, Shao Quanzhong knocked on the iron door, but no one responded for a long time.
"It's over, second brother, is the shopkeeper Rong you are looking for not at home?"
Shao Quanzhong smiled and shook his head, "He must be at home. He must have been frightened by my official uniform."
"Would a shopkeeper who works for foreigners be afraid of a sixth-rank official?"
"He has something on his mind."
The two chatted for a while before there was finally movement in the room. A girl of about sixteen or seventeen poked her head out, opened the door, and came to the front door. "My father is away on a trip, so I can't entertain guests. Please forgive me, sir."
Shao Quanzhong laughed loudly, "Tell Manager Rong that I am not here to arrest him, but I want to ask him a favor. As long as he is willing to see me, I will not tell anyone about his meeting with Hong Renxuan."
The girl looked panicked and turned around and ran into the villa.
Looking at the girl's slim back, Shao Quanzhong, who had been relaxed, suddenly froze.
The girl has a round face, big eyes, short hair, a white button-down shirt, a tie, a checkered skirt, and black and white shoes. She looks youthful and modern.
In our Qing Dynasty at this time, such women are extremely rare.
Shao Quanzhong suddenly became dazed, as if he was dreaming of his past life.
(End of this chapter)