Chapter 238: Gift!

Liang Pengfei smiled and looked at the scene in front of him. He was proficient in Western languages ​​and would not understand French. However, he did not reveal it because he did not have the habit of showing off his trump cards at once. This was a habit he developed in his dangerous career in many years of his previous life.

"What's wrong? Your subordinate seems to be very dissatisfied. Could it be that he wants to try my Qing Dynasty's naval gun?" Wu Liang was like he had just poured a pound of gunpowder, and his words were still extremely arrogant, but Liang Pengfei smiled and did not speak, because Wu Liang's appearance was arranged in advance. No matter what, he had to find a reason to show the arrogance and domineering officials of the Qing Dynasty, as well as the greed and barbarity.

Anyway, the more despised those Westerners, the better. Wu Liang naturally could only do it according to Liang Pengfei's instructions. As for the reason for the love, I am afraid that only the worms in Liang Pengfei's belly would understand what he wanted to do.

"Of course not. Dear General. My subordinates have no malice. General Liang, let's talk about the serious matters. The request of our King's Majesty is actually quite simple. This is an edict signed by our King's Majesty. Please check it out." In desperation, Macartney, who has always regarded himself as a standard British nobleman and gentleman, decided not to argue with the two arrogant and arrogant Qing people in front of him. He took out His Majesty's edict and handed it to Liang Pengfei.

Liang Pengfei looked at the beautiful handwriting and saw the content inside clearly, the corner of Liang Pengfei's mouth was curved into a strange curve. His fingers gently bounced the letter of the country signed by King George III of the British: "Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk, you have so many requirements. I don't think your requirements can be passed."

"God General, this is not much. Our requirements are quite simple. It can be said that this is just some of the necessary foundations for diplomacy and trade between our European countries." Macartney seemed so respectful. But in fact, he felt a little excited, because at the end, according to the requirements of the East India Company, after soliciting opinions from all parties, he had already added several more to the original basis.

"Increase your trade share in Britain. There is also this one. If your British merchants commit a crime in the territory of our Qing Dynasty in the future, they must be left to you for trial! Do you think it is possible?" Liang Pengfei laughed. Behind him, several English-speaking subordinates couldn't help but show contemptuous expressions, as if the British's actions were just a short man who wanted to climb onto the back of an elephant and play with a big knife.

"This is an international practice, General Liang." At this time, Sidangdong, who was scratching his itchy scalp under his wig, stood up. As an important employee of the East India Company in Macau, his ears and ears are much more sensible. "Since you are proficient in our language, you must also know some of our European history. Please believe me, this requirement is a diplomatic practice in our Europe."

As the largest opium smuggler under the East India Company, Sharka, was copied from the Qing army along the coast of Guangdong last year. Sharka and hundreds of people survived and were all executed and the goods were confiscated.

You should know that it is difficult for European goods to be sold in the Qing Dynasty, and the British aristocrats and civilians were crazy about silk, tea and porcelain from the East, which caused the British trade deficit with the Qing Dynasty to increase year by year. It is precisely for this reason that after the East India Company discovered that opium smuggling was profitable, the East India Company began to grow opium in India to smuggle China several years ago, with the acquiescent or even hints from the senior management.

It was to use opium and other drugs to regain the trade gap between the two countries. Although the Qing Dynasty explicitly prohibited this item, the East India Company, which had been dealing with Qing officials for many years, knew very well that the ban was just a piece of paper in the eyes of those corrupt officials in the Qing Dynasty.

However, they still did not dare to anger the huge empire too much and quietly opened up the market through smuggling channels. In the past two years, the profits obtained by the opium trade have attracted the attention of the senior executives of East India. Therefore, opium has accounted for a considerable proportion of the East India Company's trade with the Qing Dynasty, but it still entered through smuggling channels.

And that Sharka was a veteran of opium trade since the beginning. Years of smuggling trade have allowed him to easily import opium into the Qing Dynasty through smuggling channels. It is precisely because of this that the East India Company fully supports this smuggling tycoon who is trusted by the senior executives of the East India Company.

But who would have thought that last year, when opium had an unprecedented harvest, Sharka almost scraped away all the opium and went to the Qing Dynasty at one time. As a result, people were gone and goods were gone, causing the East India Company to lose more than one million pounds on opium alone.

After the news that Sharka and his party who secretly smuggled opium for the East India Company had no one survived. After the news came back to India, the senior executives of the East India Company were almost shocked by the news, and then they were angry. If it weren't for the strong opposition from several of them, including Stondong and others, maybe just last year, the East India Company might have sent the British Empire fleet in Indochina, which was flagship by the Hindustan, to Guangzhou.

However, although the efforts of Stondong and others temporarily calmed down the East India Company, their dissatisfaction with the Qing Dynasty had become their consensus. At the end of the year, the trade share purchased by the UK from Guangzhou Thirteenth Bank was suddenly reduced by 25%, which surprised him and was also dissatisfied. However, several times, representing the interests of those Hong Kong-foot merchants who were subordinate to the East India Company, Stondong found Ye Shanglin and Pan Youdu. The answers they gave him seemed very consistent. The amount of trade share was related to the bids of merchants from other European countries.

Although Stondong was willing to offer the same price, or even slightly higher price, to obtain the trade share that was divided by those countries, the two were unwilling to do so, but instead declined Stondong's request on the grounds that they had signed a contract and could not be changed.

This made Stangdong very dissatisfied, but he had no choice. Although the decline in trade share was still short and had no big impact, it was enough to make the senior executives of the East India Company be alert again.

At this time, Macartney, who had gone to the East to the order of His Majesty the King and the Parliament, came to India. Stondong naturally would not miss this opportunity. Therefore, at the request of him and the East India Company, for the benefit of the empire, Macartney decided to add the East India Company's request to the letter of nationality.

Liang Pengfei stretched out a finger and shook the stondong and Macartney. "I'm sorry, this is the East, I wish you good luck. This is what I want to tell you." After Liang Pengfei said this light words, he handed over the letter of national letter to Macartney.

Macartney, who was a little stunned, took over the letter of the country, but he didn't quite understand what Liang Pengfei said. Stondong next to him explained to him in French: "Mr. Earl, don't worry. Oriental people like to pretend to be unfathomable when speaking, which often makes people confused."

Although Macartney still had many questions in his heart, he decided to put it aside at this time. Otherwise, it would be quite impolite to talk to himself in front of the other party in words that the other party did not understand. He did not want to anger the general of the Qing Dynasty.

Liang Pengfei took out a pack of cigarettes from his arms with a smile, tore open the seal, and lit it on his own. The fragrance of tobacco made the smokers present swallow a mouthful of saliva.

"It seems that all gentlemen are very interested in the cigarettes I smoke. Since that's the case, monk, bring two boxes of these British gentlemen and bring them up." Liang Pengfei gave a look at Monk Chen behind him.

Soon, two boxes of cigarettes were placed on the deck. The bags of exquisitely packaged and novel-style cigarettes were handed to the hands of the British envoys who were squeezed to the deck to watch the fun. Soon, the deck was almost covered by smoke. If a crosser happened to land on the sea at this time, he might think he had encountered a steam sailboat powered by coal.

"Your generosity really touched me. General, this thing is less spicy and powerful than a pipe, but it makes people feel very fresh and lovely. I have received such gifts in India, but unfortunately it is too little. It was finished in two days." Macartney lets the smoke spew out of his mouth, while looking at the cigarette in his hand.

"Since Mr. Ambassador likes it, don't worry, after arriving in Macau, I will send you and your subordinates more. You know, we oriental people have always been very hospitality." Liang Pengfei smiled, but there was a shiny light in his eyes.

"Okay, there is one more thing now, that is, I need to check and comprehensively check all your warships. First, to see what gifts you have prepared for our respected emperor. Second, I need to check whether your subordinates carry contrabands, such as opium." Liang Peng cleared his throat after raiding the cigarette butt, and said seriously to Macartney.

"Opium." Sidangdong's finger was shaking with a cigarette, and his face, which was originally smiling, froze slightly. "Genius General, I think you've made a mistake. This is the fleet of our country's envoys, not a smuggling merchant ship. How could there be such a thing?"

"Damn guy, did he think that our British Empire even had opium on the diplomatic fleet? This idea was so nonsense, it was simply an insult to the diplomatic envoys of the British Empire." Baron Stondong thought in his heart.

The members of the envoy who had slightly changed their attitude towards Liang Pengfei because of Liang Pengfei's generosity all showed absurdity and anger on their faces, as if they had been engaged in opium smuggling for many years, were a group of pure people with noble qualities like angels.
Chapter completed!