Xinshun 1730

Chapter 558 The intersection of fate on the eve of World War I

George Anson was a man of backbone.

But it is useless to face the vast sea with backbone.If they can't berth on China's side for supplies, they won't be able to move forward on the vast Pacific route behind, and the supplies are seriously insufficient. The first time the fleet has come to the Pacific Ocean, they have no experience, and a large number of people have scurvy.

If you want to attack the Philippines, or intercept Spanish ships in the Philippines, you also need Fujian or Taiwan as a berthing and sailing place.

The typhoon day has not yet passed, and a place that can maintain and avoid typhoons is also needed.

The Dashun warship, which has seized the T prefix, has opened its guns. Even if it starts a war for the honor of the officers regardless of the political consequences, it may not be the opponent.

After all, this is the doorstep of Dashun. If it is in the English Channel, even in the Caribbean or North America, it will be the size of a battleship and seven cruisers. George Anson thought that if it was in those places, I would definitely let them Insulting me paid for it.

Unfortunately, not here.

On the big ship, Liu Yu observed the situation here with a binoculars. Seeing that the deck was still moaning, she couldn't help cursing: "You're still so arrogant when you ask someone to do something?"

Duplex hurriedly said: "The British have always been like this. Last time in Guangzhou, they should be more ruthless, so that they can improve their memory."

After dawdling for a while, the warships on the British side finally lowered their flags, and they were resigned.

Liu Yu sent a signal to Mantou, and then the navigator set off, leading the fleet to the Kowloon Peninsula where the forts are densely covered.

…………

On the sea, 16-year-old Robert Clive witnessed the whole process on a British East India Company ship watching from afar.

This is the first time he came to Asia, the crazy gambler in the future, [-] million broke [-], and he gambled on Clive in India, and he was still very young at this time.

He came to Guangzhou with the ship of the East India Company, because his father, who was a congressman, thought that the child could not be expected to study, so it was better to send him to the East India Company to find a way out.

Originally planned to wait two years before going to adulthood, but Dashun has launched formal diplomacy with Western countries, and the East India Company is short of manpower to expand the scale of its China business hall.

His father loves his son very much. Considering that there is a hole in every turnip, the people who get on the car first will occupy the car, and it will be difficult to get on the car in the future.

India is not a good place, hot weather, malaria, fever, cholera... If the company can't catch up with this opportunity to expand its business office to China, it will have to go to India in two years.

As for Dashun, no matter how you say it, the big port cities are much better than those in India.

Whether it is climate, urban drainage construction, sanitation, etc., it is much better.

If you miss this opportunity to expand the business hall to recruit new people, it will be more difficult to come to the more comfortable China instead of India in the future.

So the father, who was a member of the parliament, took a relationship, asked the door, gave some gifts, and finally found a job for his son as a clerk in the East India Company's commercial office in China, registering goods, but not participating in accounting—because he didn't study hard. , can't be an accountant.

Dashun requires the ambassadors of various countries to be stationed in Tianjin, and the general manager of the commercial hall should also stay in Tianjin.

In order to get first-hand information about the goods, the shops in the remaining port cities in the south must send staff.

In the past, many ships were traded in Guangzhou, not because Dashun also engaged in trade, but because Macau had a good foundation before, and it was a kind of inertia.

But now, of course, those who buy tea go directly to Fujian. The British like to drink cheap Wuyi tea, and Wuyi Mountain is not in Guangdong.

Moreover, after the establishment of a trading company in Songjiang, big capital began to gather in Songjiang. The original route from Jingdezhen to Macao was changed to the Yangtze River waterway from Anqing to Songjiang for bulk goods.

Nowadays, the East India Companies in various countries have begun to develop their business halls northward, buying goods as close as possible, saving one yuan is one yuan, and there is a shortage of manpower.

After the Dashun diplomacy started this time, this trend became more obvious. Under the change, Clive, who was going to the East India Company to find a way out after two years, was sent by his father to "seize a good place". When you come to China, where the climate is more suitable, you will experience it first.

This was a relatively good arrangement in the first place. If it weren't for the help of the relationship, the company has only so many positions in China. Even a clerk is more comfortable than living in India. At least it is not easy to get a tropical one. sick.

However, Clive, who witnessed the scene in Lingdingyang, had a different thought in his heart.

He doesn't like it very much.

"Has China always been this overbearing?"

Clive, who was watching the excitement on the deck, asked an old employee of the company, a friend of his father.

"Yes, China is not India. Here, if customs officials board our ship, we need to kneel down. And if the company has something to ask the local officials, it can't use 'application', 'note' and the like Words. Be sure to use 'report'."

"We must obey the rules here. The company has also issued an order to prohibit the carrying of opium and other goods. The company is here and must abide by the local laws. After all, our company is still in China, and we have to face Sweden, Denmark, and France. , Holland, and the Portuguese, and even Prussia."

"And...the company's sales in China are not very good. There are not many big businessmen who are willing to contact us."

The previous ones have always been such a habit, and the employees of the East India Company do not have the status of scholars, how can they not worship when they meet officials?

The latter can be regarded as the helplessness of the United Kingdom at this time.

Historically, there are still 30 to [-] years before the Opium War, steam engines have appeared in the UK for a long time, and the merchants of the Thirteen Banks in Guangdong are still waiting to see the British.Because the goods that the British used to barter to compensate for silver coins were really hard to sell.

Before the Opium War, the only country in history that was able to trade normally with China and balance the trade volume after deducting opium smuggling was actually only the United States that sold ginseng and mink fur.

Of course, the British East India Company was dishonest, but the imperial court had long been aware of the dangers of miraculous medicines such as "Diyejia" and issued a ban on smoking.

For the time being, the UK has no ability to beat Dashun violently, and is afraid of being banned from trade, so it can only strictly stipulate that the company's employees should not engage in petty tricks.

This is completely different from the British trade in other places outside Europe.In India, let alone bowing down, they often chatted and laughed happily with the princes of the local state, but Dashun really had a hard time meeting a Jiedushi level.

Moreover, Dashun only drew a circle, and the ground was a prison, and he was not allowed to walk around the circle at will.It is not only worried about missionary work, but also after the map incident of the "Kingdom of Han Jurisprudence", Dashun was extremely wary of this group of Westerners who secretly drew maps and shipped them abroad... and worried about them stealing porcelain and raw silk and other technical reasons.

The Russians spent a lot of money to buy rhubarb seeds, and Dashun has investigated several major cases here.The French here almost stole the secret of porcelain, so we must guard against it.

All kinds of companies have a completely different style from the companies that have been rumored to show off their power, which makes Clive very uncomfortable.

Even though he hasn't officially worked in the company yet, Clive is already a little bored.Thinking about the endless clerk work, and thinking about the "tyrannical" barbaric behavior in Dashun, it is not as free as it is in India.

Looking at the Royal Navy fleet that lowered its flag in the distance and sailed slowly under the surveillance of the Dashun warship, Clive imagined his future life, and couldn't help but frown.

Imagine that I am only sixteen now.

Every day, I have to work as a clerk in the commercial hall of the port, counting goods, inventories, and counting.

Working for 30 years, from teenagers to middle-aged and old people, such days can be seen today 30 years later.

Days like this are really worse than death.If you like this kind of life, you will go to school and study hard, and you will not transfer to another school and be expelled continuously.

I had heard a lot of legends about the East India Company and sea stories, and thought that the outside world must be as interesting, adventurous, and exciting as in the stories. Every day was like betting on my lover at the gambling table. .

But look at those obedient Royal Navy warships, and listen to the old uncle saying that even the words in his mouth must use words like "reporting". The contrast between reality and imagination is too great.

Clever looked at his father's old friend and said distressedly: "Uncle John, I heard that life in the company is very exciting and there are many legends about getting rich, so I came to the company."

"If you are here, you have to abide by order and laws. Why should I come? Doesn't Britain have order and laws?"

"Are the stories about the legendary company all false?"

Old John smiled and said, "It's true. But among the stories and legends you've heard, did any of them happen in China? Oh, right, except for the incident of being beaten by French sailors in Guangdong. As hate has always been outside the propaganda."

"The legend is true. An exciting and adventurous life can be found in the Caribbean or in India. But it cannot be here. Here, there is an empire that can maintain their law and order. We can only abide by the laws here."

Clive asked with the amazement of a rebellious 16-year-old: "Uncle John, can you bear such a life?"

Old John also looked at Clive in amazement, and asked, "God. There is no tropical malaria or fever here; there is no summer so hot that you want to take off your skin. You don't need to worry about wars, you don't need Worried about the French leading those native princes to take us prisoner, don't worry about the lead bullets shot by the Indians from the woods... Salary and foreign subsidies are higher than those of domestic clerks, boy, isn't this kind of life good?"

Two people can't understand each other's thinking at all.

Clive is a gambler who has been pursuing excitement all his life.

At the age of eleven or twelve, in order to seek excitement, he climbed on the statue of the church and hung upside down on it to pretend to be the Hanged Man.

Not to frighten the neighbors who are praying.

Just to feel the tension that could fall and die at any time.Every time my heart beats faster and every pore of my body is sweating, it's like experiencing an extreme...orgasm.

Later, he almost single-handedly broke through Bengal and created a myth, but that only raised his stimulation threshold.The subsequent war made him feel less exciting, so empty that he began to smoke opium, pursuing the pure and ultimate spiritual pleasure.

A year before the North American rebels were about to launch an attack, Clive, who had taken too much opium and felt more empty and less stimulated, committed suicide with a knife.

And the commission to grant him the governor of the Massachusetts colony, allowing him to suppress rebels and recreate the myth of Bengal is already on the way.

It is difficult for Clive to understand what Old John said. When he goes to and from get off work every day, he can know the life of a 16-year-old at the age of 60. Why would anyone like it?

Old John also felt that Clive's question was strange. Why would someone not like a life without tropical diseases, a relatively clean city, good wages, and a stable life without life-threatening?
Clever looked at the Royal Navy warships that had gone away and obeyed the laws and order of Dashun, and finally shook his head firmly.

"This is not the life I want. The life here, from the age of 16, you can know what it looks like at the age of 60, so what is the difference between dying now and dying at the age of 60? I don't like law and order, law and order sky Under the circumstances, there is no soil for legends and heroes."

"I... don't like China. Here, there is order. Can I apply to be transferred to India? Or, can the company destroy the order in Dashun?"

(End of this chapter)