C631 Negotiations with France (1/2)

On the 29th of the Moon, the Xiao Family's Great Mansion was in an uproar.

Since morning, the sounds of firecrackers never stopped. The servants who came out were so busy that they didn't even touch the ground. The Kitchen in the front yard started to move away from the seats, and the fragrance of fried meat spread in the wind. The recruits on duty at the door, as well as engineers from Europe and the military officers of the new army, anyone who was hungry could come in and eat.

All the windows had been pasted with fake flowers woven by silk silk s, even the leafless trees were covered with fake flowers.

The servants and attendants all changed into brand-new satin cotton-padded jackets. old shopkeeper Fan Lian was generous, he only needed to pay three times the monthly amount of silver in the first month and the second month. This time, the entire Xiao Family Great Mansion was in an uproar. In order to let the Prime Minister live a good year, everyone was busy to the point of going crazy.

Tongzhi, the little emperor, no longer had any semblance of an emperor. His dragon robe had also been stripped off and changed into ordinary clothes.

Xiao Letian seemed to want to make up for the ten years of lost childishness that the little emperor had lost. He would teach him four hours of lessons every day and play around with the rest of his time.

Furthermore, Xiao Letian strictly ordered everyone to not kneel down and worship the little emperor. He wanted the emperor to descend from the clouds to the human world.

Not only was the Xiao Family's crowd clamoring, even the Tanggu City who had removed the threat of war had sunk into a sea of joy. Under Xiao Letian's efforts, the dead and wounded citizens of Tanggu received a generous compensation. The imperial government actually compensated two hundred silver taels for a single life, and even the injured received different degrees of compensation.

This was a rare occurrence in the history of the Great Qing Dynasty. They had never heard of the Eight Flags Soldier killing Han people with even money to lose, wasn't a Han people worth a donkey just by their lives? After the war, it was already considered righteous for the imperial government to give them some food to compensate for their losses.

The citizens of Tanggu were originally rich under Xiao Letian's care, and with the compensation from the imperial court soon arriving, the entire city quickly walked out from the pain of war, the people's faces were filled with smiles.

The fresh goods from all over the world were pulled toward the Tanggu one ship after another. The dry and fresh fruits and low-priced rice from Nan Yang, the dried seafood from Ryukyu as well as the white sugar, including the western foreign goods brought by countless foreign merchants, filled the entire market.

Not only that, there were also a lot of merchants from Japan and Korea. Although they didn't have any good stuff, they brought countless women with them. Dozens of custom shops were opened under the roots of the year, which made lecherous men addicted to it.

did not actually do anything. He only gave the foreign and foreign merchants a fair chance to do business, in the end, he was given a bustling port city with a population of close to a hundred thousand.

The whole city was filled with cheers and firecrackers. If it was late at night, you would find that the fireworks never stopped until after dark. It wouldn't end until 3 in the morning.

This was Xiao Letian's Special Zone, this was the renter of the Prime Minister Xiao. The imperial government could only send out officials here to symbolize their authority, and the person controlling everything would always be the man standing on the ocean.

The French protective battleship Roman s and Zodiac s had already been repaired. Right now, these two battleships were Xiao Letian's largest mid-tonnage battleship, the Roman s amongst them had the lightest injuries and their age was also the youngest. Naturally, they became Xiao Letian's flagship.

When winter arrived, a large amount of sea ice would appear in the Bohai Sea. At this time of the year, it was very dangerous to travel, but the Tanggu had already become the largest commercial port in the north. Even in the winter, there were many merchant ships that came here to trade.

Tanggu was not allowed to form a professional sea ice clearing team, using explosives, iron pliers and other tools to break open the ice everyday to ensure that the channel would be smooth.

At this time, Xiao Letian was in the Roman's Captain's Room. He had a warm brazier, delicate dishes, and expensive Bordeaux wine … There was also a very angry face.

Sitting opposite of Xiao Letian was Minister of France Ge Erdemi. He dared to come to see Xiao Letian before the new year just for the sake of the French prisoners.

When Ge Erdemi arrived at the Tanggu and heard that Xiao Letian wanted to meet him on the Roman, the French large nose was so angry that his hair almost stood on end. How could the noble Frenchman accept such humiliation?

Just as he was clamouring for Xiao Letian to get off the boat, Xiao Letian's words from the deck made him completely furious. ”Either we have a secret meeting on the Roman, or I will invite the envoys of the three nations, Britain, America and Russia to have a discussion.

The order Ge Erdemi received was to secretly negotiate with Xiao Letian and quickly settle the matter of the captives without alerting the international community.

Now that Napoleon III was in power, the international environment was not as friendly to France as it was in the past few years. Britain, which controlled the maritime power, felt threatened by France.

In the face of such a predicament, in addition to encountering such a failure in East Asia, Napoleon had already been trapped internally and externally. His country's bourgeoisie's confidence in him had already wavered, so how could an emperor, which even the Ryukyu could not win against, lead France to greatness?

To the French Emperor, the most important thing to do now was to reach an agreement with Xiao Letian, and immediately quell the effects of this failed expedition. First, he had to focus his energy on his own country, and the most important thing was to stabilize his own governance.