The red building is so arrogant

Chapter 188 Deliberation
[There is another update in the middle of the night]

The next day.

Even though Xiang Ling tried her best to break away from Jiao Shun's arms carefully, she still woke him up.

Jiao Shun habitually stretched out his hand, found a slippery place to hold it, and felt that his arms were profusely sweating, and his palms were also a little damp.

"What the hell weather?"

He closed his eyes and muttered and complained: "It's not even May yet, and it's so hot and stuffy. Will people be allowed to live in the dog days?"

Xiangling hugged the thin quilt and sat on the bed, allowing him to flirt wantonly for a while, before asking: "Master, do you want to wash up first before getting up?"

Jiao Shun waved his hand: "I just washed it last night, so don't make too much noise this morning, just wipe it off with a wet towel for me."

As he said that, he rolled up the quilt by himself, barely protecting his vitals, revealing his bronzed chest and two hairy legs.

With a half-truth and half-fake smile in his mouth, he asked, "May I wipe it off for you, too?"

If Yu Chuan was in front of him, he might have taken the opportunity to change the morning exercise program.

But Xiangling was honest, and while taking his underwear from the shelf beside the bed, covering Bai Shengsheng's body, he said seriously: "How dare you work hard, when Sister Yuchuan comes back from home, the two of us will take some time off." Just wash it with water and it’s fine.”

tsk~
This reminded Jiao Shun that the drama of mandarin ducks playing in water and wanting to fly together has not been reviewed for a while.

Yesterday I was too tired to hang up the exemption card, and today I need to raise my spirit...

Or forget it, now you are exhausted all day long, so how can you spare time to nourish your energy?
Besides, if you really have the time, you should go to the East Mansion first to see if the surprise Youshi prepared for yourself can be achieved. It's not too late.

Although it was just wiping, because of Xiangling's attentiveness in serving her, she never missed a spot from head to toe, and when she finished dressing and washing, she also missed the time for morning exercise.

The silly girl pouted and blamed herself, but at the same time wrote it down in her notebook, preparing to supervise Jiao Shun to make up for today's training in batches.

The little Jiao Shun who looked straight at her loved and hated her, holding her slender waist and putting it on his lap, he insisted on imprinting a shallow ring of teeth marks around the rouge mark between his eyebrows.

After breakfast in the main room, he asked Xiang Ling to make some summer ice from the treasury for use in the evening, and then Jiao Shun drove out of the back door of the Rong Mansion.

Because the meeting was held in the cabinet these few days, I passed the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry and did not enter, so I went straight to Donghua Gate.

In front of the doorway, there are three tables arranged in the shape of characters as usual. This is where the identity registration and access certificates are checked. They are divided into left Wen and right Wu, and a special window for big bosses in the middle.

Jiao Shun registered on the left, because the enlarged cabinet meeting was already on its fifth day, and he was already familiar with being an 'old representative', and he could face it calmly when he was 'sought up and down' by two eunuchs.

However, although the formalities were completed very quickly, as a person of his rank, he did not enter the palace by order, so it was naturally impossible for him to enjoy the independent guidance service of a special person.

Therefore, after completing the registration check for entering the palace, he waited in the doorway for a full quarter of an hour until he gathered five participating officials. the palace gate.

The dragon guards that Jiao Shun saw in the past were basically modern soldiers armed with live ammunition. It wasn't until the palace meeting these days that they realized that some of them were mainly armed with cold weapons.

These people are usually mobile positions, and many of them are descendants of nobles - if Jia Rong fills the real vacancies, he will probably be responsible for such mobile positions.

When we arrived at Wenyuan Pavilion, which is where the cabinet usually works, we saw more than a dozen tables lined up on both sides of the gate, each with the words "Department of Households" and "Department of Etiquette" on it. white paper signboard.

Jiao Shun went to the desk of the Ministry of Industry. The book office on duty had already prepared the file bag, and he handed it over before he could open his mouth. He pointed to the west chamber and said, "My lord, please go to the third small hall from the north." , with the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Department of General Administration, and the General Administration of Customs.”

tsk~
Come to work this early in the morning.

Jiao Shunchong slightly nodded at the book office, then walked towards the west chamber, opened the kraft paper bag and poured out the documents inside, and a few huge words on the front page immediately came into view: "The price of the oil barrel is inflated, how should I deal with it" .

Seems like this question has been heard before?

Jiao Shun thoughtfully walked into the third meeting room in the West Wing, looked around, saw that none of the people in blue and green robes inside were officials from the Ministry of Industry, he was relieved at first.

Without these backstabbers who only like to delay their legs, this discussion should be much more relaxed today.

After exchanging a few simple and reserved greetings, after revealing their identities, the estrangement deepened as expected, so Jiao Shun found a corner to sit down, and looked through the topic materials on his own.

In fact, the topic today is quite simple. After some calculations, the Wuxi people think that the transportation of kerosene is more troublesome, and special oil barrels need to be prepared. If it is sold at the price set by the Xia Kingdom court, it is difficult to achieve the expected profit in the early and mid-term.

It is estimated that only when kerosene lamps become mainstream all over the world and the cost of crude oil extraction is further reduced, can they achieve satisfactory profits.

But the Wuxi people obviously can't wait that long, and they don't have the confidence to dominate this industry for a long time.

Therefore, they demanded a certain degree of price increase, but not the price of kerosene, but the price of wooden barrels—the price of each oil barrel after arriving in Hong Kong was equivalent to three to four times that of Xia Guo.

Xia Guo certainly thought this request was unreasonable, but the Uxi people insisted that these price differences were calculated based on shipping costs and could no longer be compressed.

Since this is not a major problem, the information provided above is quite limited.

But in order to avoid more embarrassment, Jiao Shun still bite the bullet and read it for a full quarter of an hour, until the papers were almost blurred, and finally someone said: "Everyone should have read the same. Now, let’s have a discussion first—Master Jiao, what do you think?”

The person who stood up was the head of the household department, and he was also the highest-ranking person present.

By the way, there were a total of five people present at the meeting, two from the Ministry of Household Affairs, one from the Ministry of Industry, one from the General Administration of Customs, and one from the Department of General Administration.

Among them, Jiao Shun was ranked second—although he was at the same level as the officials of the General Administration of Customs, but he was an official of the Six Departments of Beijing, and the other party was a newly established official close to the people—so he was called by the head of the Ministry of Household as a matter of course, and he was the first to carry out the investigation. speak.

Knowing that the other party probably had the intention of being picky about the school, Jiao Shun naturally couldn't deliberately hide his clumsiness.

Immediately, he opened the folding fan generously, put on a confident posture and said: "In Jiao's opinion, this matter must not be agreed to. These Wuxi people have always made progress. If the imperial court approves their unreasonable demands, I am afraid that these Xiyi is more and more trying to test the court's bottom line."

Hearing this, the Secretary of the Household Department [Cong Jiupin] immediately objected: "That's what you said, but it can't affect the compensation negotiation because of these trivial details?"

The people from the Department of General Affairs also echoed: "Yes, newspapers big and small have already spread the news. If it is because of such a trivial matter, the compensation cannot be negotiated. Whether it is the court or the people, I am afraid that they will not be able to explain it. past."

Again!
Every time as long as I speak by myself, it is always necessary to sing the opposite.

Jiao Shun is already used to it now, so he snorted and said, "Didn't you hear that the embankment of a thousand miles collapsed in an ant's nest? Now, with the power of the great victory in the Southwest, the imperial court still wants to take the overall situation into consideration and tolerate the Xiyi. After the peace talks are reached , when the little official below faces Xiyi, do you want to continue to be tolerant, or even more tolerant?"

"Even if the central government backs away from him, how can the lower officials still stand upright?! At that time, although Xiyi will be defeated, and I, Great Xia, will be the victor, the people under my command will suffer from it. Isn't it ridiculous?!"

The head of the household department who presided over the meeting heard this, frowned slightly and said: "Master Jiao, is it too alarmist? How can the officials in my court sit back and watch the people suffer from the fish and meat of Xiyi?"

"Master Li."

Jiao Shun looked at him without giving in half a step: "Throughout the dynasties, there have been fewer incidents where subordinate officials indulged the barbarians to harm the common people out of fear of trouble?"

"absurd!"

Without waiting for Chief Li to answer, the Secretary of General Administration rushed to sneer and said: "My dynasty conquers the world, and barbarians from all directions are subject to it. No one in the past dynasties can compare with it! Master Jiao's words, I am afraid that I have underestimated the officials and people of our dynasty. !"

"If so."

Jiao Shun glanced at him, sniffed and said, "Then I am dignified, so I shouldn't agree to Xiyi's unreasonable request—and according to what I know, Xiyi even entered the port in a half-empty state before, and there was basically nothing on board. Goods, all pointing to the sale of our silk, porcelain, tea, etc. to Europa to earn huge profits."

"Now that there are things that can be shipped and sold, it is already a huge bargain - if the imperial court refuses to buy wooden barrels at the price, will they still come with empty ships? Wouldn't it be more of a loss?"

These remarks were well-founded, and the people from the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Department of General Administration couldn't be bothering me anymore, and the representative of the General Administration of Customs also took the opportunity to express their agreement.

Seeing that the topic was finally on the right track, he heard a sudden commotion outside.

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, and then Director Li signaled the Secretary of the Household Department to go out to find out what happened. After a while, the little official returned to the hall with a strange expression on his face, and said: "There are countries such as Garcia, Gaolanji, and Chris, who have jointly signed the request of Honglu Temple. Participating in the peace talks is said to ensure that the Ussi people will not betray the overall interests of Europa, thereby affecting the friendly relationship between the two continents."

Principal Li couldn't help frowning when he heard the words: "What do these Xiyi mean? Could it be that they want to unite to put pressure on me, Daxia?"

"I don't think so."

Jiao Shun laughed and said, "I'm afraid it's the nest that's turned upside down."

The secretary looked at Jiao Shun in surprise, nodded and said, "As Mr. Jiao expected, those Western barbarians expressed that if the imperial court can share some of the benefits, they can help us suppress the Wuxi people together."

Director Li also glanced at Jiao Shun when he heard the words, and then snorted coldly with a pun: "Hmph, you really are a barbarian with no manners!"

(End of this chapter)