"Mr. Jazz, have you seen those who are dressed more carefully and hold folding fans in their hands? The Chinese call them 'scholars', and they are some scholars. Their identities are equivalent to those of our European scholars and the backbone of this huge country. In China, this is the most stubborn and conservative group of people. I have to remind you that you must not offend them in words and deeds. If you arouse these people's disgust in one aspect, I will say with certainty that your itinerary will be greatly hindered. Because most of the officials in China come from the scholars' community! There is a very broad connection between the two, and even the emperor of China dare not offend this community too much."

Wiggins sat in the carriage, pointed out through the car window, and said to Richard beside him. This Sir Richard is not old, only in his forties, and in his prime, unlike his daughter Elizabeth's chestnut hair, he has thick brown hair. It is not easy to achieve diplomatic achievements that make the whole of Europe admire at his age, which also shows his talent. However, he and Wiggins, the Spanish captain, have an amazing similarity to his views on this trip to China... This trip will be very difficult!

"Thank you very much for your reminder. Mr. Wiggins! In fact, since receiving this task from the Prime Minister, I have been studying Chinese culture for the past few months, but I have to admit that it was too late to do it. In the past few months, I have only come to one conclusion, that is, it is impossible for me to understand Chinese books. At least, this will be like this in the past few years... Their thoughts are essentially different from those of the West." Richard shook his head with a wry smile, and secretly regretted having such an errand.

"The essence is different? Hehe, you are one of the only people I know to recognize this! I will wish you good luck!" Wiggins smiled.

"Thank you very much!" Richard smiled gentlemanly at Wiggins and said.

"Mr. Wiggins, where are we going?" Elizabeth kept looking at the scene on the street through the car window. When she heard the conversation between the two, she suddenly asked Wiggins again.

"According to the rules, I will take you to the county government in Shanghai! Then let the Shanghai County Magistrate pass on the news of Sir Richard's arrival layer by layer!" Wiggins replied.

"Why are we coming here? Why don't we go directly to their capital?" Frost asked.

"Haha... Dear sir, when have you seen merchants from Europe reaching the north? No! Towards north of Shanghai, it is the forbidden area for all foreign ships. Especially the Bohai Sea in the north, it is called the "Sea of ​​Imperial Guards"! There are the direct navy of the Chinese emperor. The biggest possibility of ships of unknown origin is that they are sunk one by one!" Wiggins said.

"Occupy the entire sea? Oh my God! Is their territorial waters that vast? How many miles beyond the coastline? This does not comply with international rules at all!" Elizabeth said dissatisfied.

"Dear Miss, Japan and Ryukyu are both vassal states of China, and Taiwan is China's territory. These three places have formed a huge encirclement. Everything in the encirclement, including the sky, belongs to China!... This is what I occasionally hear from their navy generals say! I don't think that's a big deal! Especially after the Chinese occupied Temasek!" Wiggins shrugged and said with a smile.

"Mr. Wiggins is right. In this world, they have always spoken by strength. Since the Qing people have enough strength, they are qualified to say this and do this... Elizabeth, you should listen to Mr. Wiggins more, he is an amazing guide." Richard said.

"Hmph!" Elizabeth glanced at Wiggins and turned her head aside.

"Please forgive me, this child has spoiled me!" Richard said to Wiggins with some embarrassment when he saw Elizabeth's behavior.

"It doesn't matter. Ladies have the right to be proud!" Wiggins said with indifferent smile.

"Proud?" Richard smiled bitterly. Wiggins was really bad enough. Elizabeth was obviously "willful", but he changed his taste.

"Hello!"

Frost suddenly stuck his head out of the car window and screamed.

"Frost, what are you doing?" Elizabeth asked dissatisfied.

"Jar, look, a European!" Frost shrank his head back, pointed his finger out the window and said loudly to Richard.

"Mr. Frost, this is a port opened by the Qing Dynasty. There are quite a few Europeans!" Wiggins looked at Frost with a funny look and shrank in his seat without moving. In his opinion, Frost was just a rare and strange thing.

"Mr. Wiggins, please stop the carriage!" Although Wiggins did not move, Richard looked out along Frost's hand, and then he immediately asked Wiggins.

"There are no good hotels here!" Wiggins muttered when he saw that Richard was as unsteady as Frost. However, Richard was his employer, and he would not have to listen to his words. So he stretched out his head from the car window on the other side and asked the driver to stop the carriage. As soon as the carriage stopped, Richard immediately pushed open the car door and ran down.

"I've never seen the world!" Seeing Richard's appearance, Wiggins muttered another Chinese, and then slowly followed Elizabeth and got out of the car.

...

Drake has been in China for almost ten years.

His luck can be said to be quite good. Although he was captured by Made before, he did not become a coolie, and later he was fortunate to become the first lieutenant of Yu Zhong's army. After Yu Zhong slowly made a name for himself in the Manchu Navy, and even commanded the entire vassal army for one time. However, Yu Zhong was transferred away and the Manchu Navy changed to a head of the family. Yisan's attitude towards the Japanese vassal army was quite good, but he couldn't stand these colorful Europeans. Therefore, he and his European subordinates were cut off from the vassal army.

Fortunately, because he had performed well for a long time, he had some friendship with Yu Zhong and Ma De. Shortly after writing a letter for help, his companions who were removed from the vassal army were re-moved. Some were transferred to the army as firearm instructors, some were transferred to Fengtian. As for him, he was transferred to Jiangsu with several companions and started working under Ma De again. Moreover, Ma De also gave him an official position... Jiangsu Customs Office! Yes, it was Jiangsu Customs Office! The governor Wei Dongting, who had previously mastered the customs of four provinces, resigned from Emperor Kangxi because he felt unwell and prohibited his sons from inheriting the position. Kangxi approved Wei Dongting's request and set up four customs admirals in the four provinces, and Ma De served as the admiral of Jiangsu Customs.

When he first took over the official position of the Literary Office, he thought Ma De wanted him to be a clerk or something, but later he found out that the Literary Office could also collect taxes. What he was responsible for was to charge the annual customs export fee! This was a fee charged by the porter when the goods in the inspection shed were overweight and inspected. However, this fee was quickly abolished by Ma De. His responsibilities also changed immediately. Now, he is already responsible for the "reason" of Shanghai Customs exports. (An official position belongs to the yamen of the governor and the name of the customs official cannot be found, so he had to use it as a substitute)

Customs work has always been busy, especially in Shanghai, a place connecting China's east, west, south, and north, and with a boss who is not easy to deal with, the hard work has to be added to the level of hard work.

However, even though he is busy, today is a rare day of leisure. So Drake took a few subordinates to go shopping together, intending to find a place to have a meal, and contact a few subordinates at the dinner table. After all, as a European, he did not get along very closely with these subordinates.

However, what Drake did not expect was that he had just left the yamen and was blocked by three Europeans. Especially one of the pretty white women, who looked pretty good, said something that made him very upset:

"My friend, why are you arrested?"

God! He just changed into a casual suit and brought a few subordinates in official uniforms!

However, Drake also noticed one thing: this woman speaks English, which means... he met a fellow villager!

**********

Beijing!

Old man Fei sat on his warm sedan chair and let the sedan chair bear carry him forward step by step.

Since Zhonghe Ma De was transferred to the south by Kangxi, he rarely came here again. However, although he was a little unfamiliar, he still had no interest in lifting the curtain and looking outside. In recent years, Beijing City has become a place like a tiger's den in the eyes of many people. Due to Kangxi's strong suppression, although the party struggles in the court were not very fierce, it was in secret. No one could grasp the lineage of things. Even if he and Ma De were the others, they could only be careful in the face of this situation! The fourth prince Yinzhen was neglected by Kangxi for a period of time because of his poor performance in the past few years. He rarely did anything, so naturally he had no outstanding places. However, because of this, they dared not put their hands into this huge vortex. Because they could not guess who would be the last Ying family, and not even one of these princes could satisfy them.

The reason why he came to Beijing this time was because someone took on his position as the Fengtian Prefecture Order. In recent years, the three northeastern provinces have developed rapidly with Fengtian as the leader. The industries such as grain, salt, edible oil, glass products, textiles, shipbuilding, animal husbandry, sugar and wine, fishing, and marine breeding have created huge profits. Especially last year, after he successfully tried the new open furnace steelmaking method and obtained the permission of Kangxi to open the mine ban, the iron and steelmaking industry in the northeast also developed rapidly. In addition, the Jingqi Huitun has now evolved into a system to train a group of children of the Jingying Eight Banners in the Northeast every year. His power as the Fengtian Prefecture Order has attracted the envy of countless Eight Banner nobles and the powerful in the court. It can be said that whoever controls the position of Fengtian Prefecture Order will control the promotion of the Eight Banners, especially the children of the Xiawu Banners.

Faced with this situation, Old Man Fei knew that his status was a little unstable. Of course, this does not mean that Kangxi no longer trusted him, but he had been in the position of Fengtian Prefecture for more than ten years. With Kangxi's control over power, he was able to allow him to stay in the place where his ancestors started for so long and did so many things, which was already a very tolerant manifestation. Therefore, he may not be able to maintain this position this time.

"Hmph, is my old man's territory so easy to grab? It hurts your dog's teeth!"

Old Man Fei couldn't help but think in a little annoyingly. He was not an elder with noble character. He was very unhappy to see that the results of more than ten years of hard work were about to be left empty-handed by others. Therefore, he did not intend to "instruct" his successors at all... All forces in the Northeast were mixed, and except for a few direct initiators such as Ma De, no one could convince the public! It was not that easy for others to settle in so easily. Those people were not soldiers and did not abide by the rules so much.

...

"Master, we are here!" Agudamum's voice came in outside the sedan chair, interrupting Old Man Fei's thoughts.

"Yeah! Stop!" Old Man Fei responded, and then the sedan chair was gently put down. Then, the curtain was lifted up, and Old Man Fei lowered his head and walked out.

In front of me is the Meridian Gate, the main gate of the Forbidden City. Now it is not the time to go to court, so there are only a few soldiers standing sparsely in front of the Meridian Gate. Of course, this is just the surface. If anyone wants to rush in from here, at most it is just the yawning time, and a large number of imperial guards can gather inside and outside the Meridian Gate.

Without waiting for Old Man Fei's order, Agudam took the initiative to walk to the soldiers standing guard in front of the Meridian Gate.

"My owner is the prefect of Fengtian, and he is ordered to come and see you!"

"The Fengtian Prefecture Prefecture is here?" A man dressed as a leader came out of the group of soldiers. The man looked at Agudamum with his eyes slanted, and then looked at Old Man Fei who was standing in the distance. His originally drooping face raised again, and he said to Agudamum with a smile: "Fengtian is a good place, is this brother's noble name?"

"My name is Agudam! Please let the general report!" Agudam hugged the leader and said.

"Haha, let's just say something! This is easy to say..." The leader laughed twice, nodded a few times, and stretched out a hand to Agudam.

"..." Agudamu looked down at the spread of his palm, then looked up at the head's face, and blinked inquiringly.

"Huh?" The leader saw Agudamu's eyes, and his originally smiling face suddenly turned cloudy!

"What do you mean?" Agudam finally asked.

"Brother, have you come from Fengtian? That's a big place! Why don't you even understand "Men Jing"?" the leader said dissatisfied.

"Menjing? The palace also wants this?" Agudam asked in surprise. However, although he was honest, he knew that this place was not Fengtian. The emperor lived in the gate opposite him, and he was the most powerful person in the world. So he touched his body, took out a handful of silver dollars and handed it on.

"You really come from Fengtian?...I said, "Brother, where do you regard this place?" The leader picked up the silver dollar in his hand, sneered disdainfully, and said to Agudamum: "This is the palace, not a teahouse that can be spent a day with a few big money! Just that, you just want to go in?"

"I have that much!" Agudamum felt a little frustrated, but his awe of the palace made him dare not be presumptuous, so he could only defend himself in a low voice.

"Who asked you how many you have? Brother, go and ask you lords! All the princes in the country are rich!" The leader secretly pointed to Old Man Fei in the distance and said.

"My master has no money either!" Agudam said in an insult.

"Your master has no money? Oh hey... boy, it seems that you don't plan to respect us imperial guards, right? What do you think we are doing? Who doesn't know that you Fengtian can earn tens of millions of taels of silver a year? The Fengtian Prefecture Principal will only have such a little money?... Okay! Since you don't want to go in, then wait outside!" The leader snorted coldly, turned around and walked into the Meridian Gate, and the silver dollar given to him by him was put in his arms.

"You..." Agudamu suddenly became angry when he saw the leader doing this. Since he became Old Man Fei's personal guard, no one dared to be so rude to him. Even the three princes in Fengtian were whispering in whispering every time they saw him. How could anyone have treated him like this? So, he suddenly chased forward two steps, trying to capture the leader back, but after he took a step, the soldiers who were originally standing on both sides of the door immediately pointed their swords and guns at him. Seeing this formation, he remembered that this was not a place where he could do wildness, so he could only snort hatefully and turn back to report to Old Man Fei.

...
Chapter completed!