C150

Chapter 150 - Country

"My Lord!" Mr. Xiao, how did you do it? I'm still trying to persuade you to grow your hair, why is it so short now? And Dragon Lord, why did you get a big bald man here? " Tanggu also knew that Zhou Mingkui's eyes were wider than a cow when he stood on the dock.

How could he not be shocked? Xiao Letian had the identity of an American citizen, Da Qing couldn't force himself to leave his braid, but Dragon Lord and his subordinates were all citizens of Da Qing. How could they all have shaved their heads?

Xiao Letian subconsciously touched the short hair on his head, then looked at the bald heads of the Dragon Lord and the guards behind him and laughed.

At that time, Xiao Letian and the others had created a large number of Molotov's cocktail, and adding the fact that the entire Overlord Japanese had committed murder and arson, it could be said that the entire battle was carried out in the midst of a fierce fire. The braids left behind by the Qing Dynasty people were too troublesome. Just a slight mistake and the ends would be ignited. Even an expert like the Dragon Lord was not spared.

In the end, the Dragon Lord became ruthless and actually cut off the braids. The hot-blooded youths at that time, could not care about any sort of laws, and under Xiao Letian's instigation, cut off the braids one by one.

"Hehe, don't mention it, didn't Ba get burnt by the flames when he was fighting those Japanese, you don't know, that Ba's night of fire was so strong that half of the city was burned, not to mention braiding those Japanese's braids, even his pants were burnt …" "Sigh, Lord Zhou, you really don't know. A Japanese woman who caught on fire ran around the streets bare-chested. It made my eyes go blurry …"

Xiao Letian had an indecent look on his face, and even had a naughty smile on his face. This scene shocked many people on the dock who did not know him. But when they found out that this was the 'culprit' Xiao Letian, the person who led this massacre of the Tanggu City, they subconsciously took half a step back.

"Good boy, this is the God of Slaughter that the people of Tanggu speak of, he is like the third grandson in front of him, other than smiling apologetically, there is no other expression …"

"Shh …" Lower your voice, Xiao Letian is the real big boss of Letian Firm, you don't want to live anymore? The Letian Firm has unified the business circles of the Tanggu, and you said that you cannot borrow money from other people's Letian Firm … "

"That's right, this is a person we cannot afford to offend. It is rumored that the man-eating Industrial Zones is brought here by this person, and when the walls are erected, the evil spirits would be raised. If you dare to disobey and throw them in, you'll be eaten alive …"

The fools on the pier were now treating Xiao Letian and the Demon as equals. They were so scared that they all lowered their heads to work and did not even dare to look at him.

came together with him to pick up Xiao Letian, along with Manager Fan Lian and the other big bosses over the Tanggu. All of them were subdued by Xiao Letian during the chaos in Tanggu, and now they were looking at Xiao Letian like a cat or mouse.

"The Mr. Xiao exalted the seas and pacified the capital of a country. This is a wondrous achievement. Mister has a chance to become a marquis, to have a chance to become a marquis... Mister is mighty, today at noon, everyone in the Ocean Gazing Restaurant collectively do East to welcome you … "Mister, you have greatly increased the prestige of our China overseas. We, the merchants, do not think that it is a blessing in disguise. We have collected 100,000 taels of silver. Please accept it, sir."

The shopkeeper who rubbed his hands and feet together on the wharf shouted at Xiao Letian, his respectful tone almost matching that of a filial father-in-law.

In the beginning, Xiao Letian did not really care much, but when he heard about the hundred thousand, he immediately stood still. Keeper Niu, you got rich? You haven't even paid off your debts yet, and you can already gather 100,000 taels of silver? "How generous …"

He walked out of the crowd and landed on the ground one thousand times over, "Returning to the Mr. Xiao, wasn't it due to your grace? Now, in the northern business circles, who doesn't know that you are the god of wealth riding on a black tiger, no matter how much you put out, you will always receive 10% of the profits. Furthermore, you don't even have to deal with the interest payments anymore, our business is now many times bigger than before, it is all thanks to your good fortune!"

What the Keeper Niu said was the truth that came from his heart. Xiao Letian's current Letian Firm actually had the rudiments of a future bank, how could merchants not like banks? A low-interest loan with a bit of money was no different from giving them for free.

"My dear sir, you are the one who saved my life!" "One hundred thousand taels … Even if we gave you an extra profit, it would have been what you deserve. It's all yours …"

Xiao Letian nodded his head and laughed: "Since it's like this, then I will accept. Coincidentally, I have ordered two big ships from the United States, this hundred thousand is enough for the deposit, you guys really got me, hahaha …"

Keeper Niu and the others were stunned when they heard that, "Sir, what did you say? Did you buy a big ship? "Good heavens, the foreigners can agree. They can open the sea lanes?" All of a sudden, the crowd burst into an uproar. At this time, three figures appeared on the merchant ship behind Xiao Letian. One was McCartney, one was the Cleric Louis and the last was the American emissary Ma Xiu.

Xiao Letian did not lie, Ma Xiu had indeed brought a message from the President, the United States Government was prepared to sell Xiao Letian three pieces of the new scissor boat, each with a volume of 2000 tons. Although each ship only had ten cannons used for self-defense, the President clearly loved Xiao Letian, as these cannons were all used to deliver the very advanced 120-millimetre caliber rear loading naval gun, and the ammunition they were given was also the most advanced flowering bomb.

The boat was good, the cannons were good, but the price was also good. Xiao Letian obviously could not discount the favor of saving his life, as these three scissor boat s alone made a huge sum of $600 thousand to him.

Although he didn't know much about the true cost of scissor boat s, he did know a little about the cost of British battleship s. In the early 19th century, the most impressive main battleship s were the top-tier battleships that had over a hundred cannons on their third level. The actual cost was only one hundred thousand pounds.

scissor boat s were only a type of large-scale merchant ship, and their construction costs were much cheaper than battleships. These scissor boat s manufactured in the United States would at most cost around forty to fifty thousand dollars, and even if artillery was added, it would be worth around sixty thousand dollars. However, the United States Government was willing to pay $200,000 each, whether or not he liked it or not, he was not willing to lower the price.

The price had risen three times! This was a huge profit! A huge profit! But there's no helping it, this is a seller's market, even if the Asian countries are not convinced, there's no way around it, you can't produce it.

Although ships were expensive, Ocean trade's profits were astonishing. Two hundred thousand dollars per scissor boat for two years was enough for him to earn a lot of money, and adding on to that, what Xiao Letian had to do was to make a huge profit from the silver trade. It would only be six hundred thousand dollars, which was only two hundred forty thousand silver taels, Mao Yu.

Today, when the merchants of Qing knew that the Letian Firm was about to take over the Ocean trade's merchant ship, everyone was so excited that their eyes filled with tears.

"Sir, you have really raised the morale of China. All these years, you have caused the foreign merchants to squabble against you with unspeakable bitterness. You only bullied us for not having a big ship and not being able to directly go out and do business. "We won't leave until we're drunk, but we won't leave until we're drunk today …"

Xiao Letian sighed in his heart, it's only been two ships and you guys are already so excited, you can see how much anger and anger they have held in their hearts for the past few years, this is a power, a power that no one else but me can control.

Ma Xiu and Mike, who were behind Xiao Letian, looked at this group of lunatic merchants. They had just started learning Chinese, and could not understand what these merchants were saying. In the end, it was Louis who helped them solve their confusion. When Louis said this, these merchants had already collected a hundred thousand silver taels from them in the blink of an eye.

"Oh my God, one hundred thousand taels of silver, wait for me to calculate …" Oh God, God help us, they gave Xiao Letian $250 thousand for nothing? A scissor boat just gave it to him for free? "How is this possible …" After all, Mike was a businessman. He suddenly realized that the people standing on the dock were not people. They were golden dolls.

Ma Xiu was a military official sent by the President, he had never seen someone as generous as Ma Xiu. "No, no, dear Priest, you're the messenger of God, you can't lie, you're going to hell with that …"

Looking at Ma Xiu's stubborn look, Louis, who was from China Tong laughed bitterly and said, "I swear to God, I'm not lying. This is your first time in China, you have no idea how rich this country is … "

Louis could not help but think back to what he had seen and heard in the Beijing. Those literati could spend over a thousand taels of silvers to gather in one night in the eight major alleys, while those officials would privately sell off their official positions.

This was an empire where the gap between the rich and the poor was huge. The rich could spend hundreds of thousands of silver to build large mansions for themselves, and the poor would not even be able to eat a single meal.

"Can a hundred thousand taels of silver still be considered money to these invited citizens?" I heard that in the palace, a royal family would need a hundred silvers to eat an egg. That's $250! " Louis muttered to himself.

The merchants at the Tanggu Pier taught Ma Xiu and Mike a lesson, they had already overturned all their guesses regarding the empire's poverty. This was an ancient country with unlimited wealth, his background was something the westerner couldn't comprehend.

Xiao Letian was very cunning, he heard the conversation of the three Americans s behind him in English. Xiao Letian shook his head and sneered, "What do you guys know? In the past few thousand years, China has amassed an unimaginable amount of wealth. China lacks a modern financial system to mobilize this wealth. As long as this wealth has surfaced, do we Chinese need to go out and rob it if we want to modernize it? "

Compensation for two Opium Wars, a war compensation payment, a war compensation payment... Adding on the incident at Ryukyu, the incident at Yili and so on, just the Great Qing Dynasty's treaties alone would send out 900 million silver taels, which was equivalent to 1.3 billion silver taels.

Furthermore, this was only the payment for the contract. In addition to the silver that was earned from the western commercial invasion, this was even more so. Whenever he thought of this, Xiao Letian would spend the entire night sleeping in grief and indignation unable to teach him.

"How many times has Industrial Revolution not been enough to get this much wealth? How many Iron-armored battleship could he buy? Li Hongzhang used to get the Northern Ocean navy back then, and the cost of buying a ship was only 1 million silver taels. "Alas, if there had been two Northern Ocean Fleets back then, China's modern history would have really been rewritten …"

Just as Xiao Letian was about to go back and teach his American friends a lesson, a group of people suddenly ran over from far away.

"My lord, my lord! "You've finally returned, I truly missed you, your servant greets you …" Following the voice, a black shadow flew over like a skinny mantis spirit.

"Oh my god, who the hell is this demon? Dragon Lord, quickly protect me!"