The peace talks between the two "countries" are actually similar to the negotiations between the gang bosses. They rely not on words, but on fists. Wan Lei knows that the main battlefield of the peace talks is not on the negotiating table, but outside the negotiating table, so he "throws" the messenger first Visit Beiping City for a few days, let them open their eyes, weigh their respective strengths, and they will know who has the stronger fist.

At twelve o'clock at noon that day, the train the Ming envoy took arrived at Beiping City on time. Representatives from Beiping Province had been sent to greet him at the station.

Beiping City Station is also the headquarters of the Railway Administration. A five-story reinforced concrete building is under construction. The huge waiting hall on the first floor has been built, which can accommodate thousands of people. There are also more than a dozen small shops inside. It is filled with various products for tourists to choose from.

Next to the waiting hall, there are more than a dozen hotels of different specifications, including large hotels with luxurious decoration and relatively simple small hotels. However, these hotels all have one thing in common, they are clean and tidy, and they are all equipped with glass. Windows, people living inside, feel comfortable and lively.

Not only is the hotel clean, but the area around the train station is also very clean. Although the station square with flat floor tiles is crowded with people, there is very little garbage. Walking on it, you feel like you have stepped into a palace. Maybe , the palace, which has dedicated personnel to maintain it regularly, is not as clean as this one.

The envoys stayed in a large hotel called Yonghua. The ten envoys were arranged to live in a suite on the third floor. Standing on the window sill, they could see the situation within a mile in radius, and they saw neat rows of rows. Uniform courtyards line both sides of the flat and open streets.

On a tall tower in the distance, a large clock chimed the time crisply. Not far from the tower, a tall chimney was emitting black smoke into the sky. These scenes were all very unfamiliar to the visitor. , which also surprised them.

"Mr. Wan is still patrolling in the south and will not be able to return for a few days. Please stay here for a while. Our city of Beiping is different from the Ming Dynasty. Silver is not circulated in the market. We only use silver coins and Beiping Tongbao. These one hundred silver dollars are our internal affairs. The department will provide you with the consumption and shopping expenses." The person in charge of the reception was not Tie Xuan, but a clerk from the Internal Affairs Department.

"Can we leave our residence?" Gao Weishan didn't care about money. He just wanted to go out for a walk. After all, to him, the city of Beiping looked like a different world, and it was more prosperous than Jinling.

"Of course you can, but you can't just walk around. You must be accompanied by guards when you go out, so as to ensure your safety." The clerk put the string of one hundred silver dollars on the tray and said goodbye, and the ten people accompanying him Several elite guards also exited the door, leaving only the ten envoys in the suite.

A young official dressed as an imperial envoy looked around in the suite and found that there were no outsiders. Then he said to Gao Weishan: "Master Gao, they all say that hearing is false and seeing is believing. The imperial court has obviously underestimated the Peking Army."

"Indeed, the imperial court did not know the strength of the Peking Army and still regarded it as thieves. It is really the bottom of the well." Gao Weishan also shook his head. From this road, he saw Yilin Half Claw. He could conclude that except for the size of the territory, it is not as good as Ming Dynasty. Outside of the DPRK, the North Parallel Province far surpassed the Ming Dynasty in all aspects. If the Ming Dynasty still did not think about improvements, the world might soon change hands.

"The Peking Army is indeed strong, but judging from that man's attitude, it seems that he does not want to be an enemy of our dynasty, otherwise he would not have made a widespread statement stating that he wanted to cease the war." Another envoy said.

"The Peking Army is unwilling to go to war with our country. I'm afraid there are other reasons. I heard that the Peiping Army is at odds with the Tatar tribe. Maybe they want to concentrate their military power against the Tatars." Gao Weishan was not an old fool, and he had already understood what was going on here.

"What Mr. Gao said is absolutely true. The Peiping Army is at odds with the Tatars and is unable to fight on two fronts. Negotiating peace with our court is really a tactic to slow down the war. Why don't we use the plan to make peace and fight secretly?" Hu Guang suggested. He had been ridiculed for days, and he seemed to hate the Peiping army. He wished he could encourage the Ming army to attack immediately.

"Adopt the plan?" Gao Weishan shook his head and said: "The imperial court has just put down the rebellion, the treasury is in short supply, the army is exhausted and the people are in dire straits, and it is unable to raise more troops to march north. The imperial court sent me and others to the north to negotiate a peace as a way to delay the war and strive for a few years of peace. Only then will the imperial court have time to restore its national strength."

"Well, Mr. Gao is right because he is worried that the imperial court is indeed unable to fight. The emperor sent me to the north to promote peace talks and to take the opportunity to spy on the strength of the Peiping army. Now they have no defense against us. I We should take this opportunity to investigate further." Another man dressed as a pedestrian said.

"What Mr. Liu is saying is that there are many novel and ingenious things in Beiping City, such as the train that travels thousands of miles a day. If we can find out its secrets and use them for use, we can firstly mobilize troops thousands of miles away, and secondly, we can ensure continuous food and pay. This alone can greatly increase the power of our court." The man dressed as an imperial envoy said.

"Well, that's true." All the envoys nodded in agreement, and even Hu Guang, who was disgusted with the military morale of Peiping, nodded again and again.

While these guys were discussing how to find out the secrets of Beiping City, in a small attic not far away from them, two people were holding telescopes and observing in the dark. And just below the suite where these guys stayed, there were A woman put an iron tube to her ear, listening and recording at the same time. It was Liu Wan.

"I knew these guys were not well-intentioned, but I wasn't afraid of them being sneaky. Let them go out for a walk first, give them a little sweetness, give them a little hope, and then let them completely despair." Next to Liu Wan, there was another person. The woman who was quickly sorting out these conversation records was Li Ling.

"Well, they went out. Let the people outside keep an eye on them so they don't get lost." Liu Wan waved her hand, and Li Ling immediately walked to the window and opened the curtains. The people opposite saw it and scooped up After waving the small flag a few times, several men who were still wandering on the street began to look towards the exit of the hotel intentionally or unintentionally. As soon as the emissary appeared, they followed him from a distance.

"Sister Liu, the sparrows have come out of the nest, so we have nothing to do." The woman sat down on a large soft sofa and stretched out comfortably, "This big hotel is different, so There are luxurious sofas, I can buy one anytime."

"You damn girl, if you don't pay attention when you work, you will have random thoughts all day long." Liu Wan smiled and patted Li Ling's head. Due to the last incident of kidnapping the princess, Li Ling's identity was exposed and she was transferred back to Peking. Now Liu Wan Wan formed a secret operations team with her, specializing in eavesdropping.

"Sister Liu, it's true. Sister Xiao Fei got married to the man she wanted. She only had thousands of silver dollars in gifts and only a few tens of silver dollars to buy a sofa. She refused to pay for it. She was stingy." Li Ling said flatly, because Liu Fei got married. After that, she moved into Nuhong Lane and lived with Liu Wan.

"All that money was used to buy road debt, and I am penniless now." Liu Wan spread her hands, "If you want to buy it, save your own money."

"You are stupid. Who doesn't buy the shares of Huayuan Company if they have spare money now? You can get several dividends a year, and you will earn no compensation. So you are stupid enough to buy road debt, and it will take two years to get the road debt. It only has a 30% bonus, so only those who have no way to buy the shares can buy it. Your brother-in-law is the manager of Huayuan Company, don't say you have no way."

The so-called road bonds are actually a kind of national debt, specially used for railway construction, so they are called road bonds. Different from company shares, road bonds are issued by the government and are divided into two-year and five-year terms, and the interest earned is not unlimited. It’s the same, but it has the government’s credibility guarantee and the income is stable, so once it was launched, it was very popular among small households.

Of course, those big businessmen don't bother to invest in road bonds. After all, the returns are too low. On average, the return rate in a year is only more than 10% at most, which is incomparable with Huayuan Company, which lays golden eggs. However, Huayuan Company The amount of shares issued is always small, and people with no means can really not buy them, and those who hold shares generally will not transfer them.

It is precisely because the shares of Huayuan Company cannot be bought with money that there is a market for issuance of road bonds.

"What do you know? We are citizens of Beiping City and elite loyal guards. Of course we must take the lead in supporting railway construction." Liu Wan smiled calmly. She was also a person who had experienced "battlefields" for a long time and thought about problems much further than Li Ling.

In fact, not only Liu Wan invested money to support the construction of the railway, but also the Zhao family, the Zhou family, the Liu family, the Tie family, the Li family and other wealthy families in Beiping City also invested a large amount of money to support the construction of the railway, because for these big families, simply how much money they earn is meaningless. What they pursue is monopoly and control.

Railways are the most effective means of controlling the country's economic lifeline. Wan Lei also promised them privately that within the next five years, the railway system will be gradually privatized. They have a lot of road debt and are the major shareholders of the railway system. Railway operations They had the final say, and they would definitely make money without losing anything in the future. Liu Wan also recognized this and spent all his money to buy road debt.

While Liu Wan and Li Ling were staying in the room chatting about investment methods, the ten envoys were divided into five teams and began the so-called "secret spying" trip. They also chartered a few carriages and went around like a horse. Wandering around, the accompanying Jingzhong Guard not only did not stop them, but also very enthusiastically acted as a tour guide for them along the way.

"These fools don't keep their mouth shut when they brag." Along the way, Hu Guang got a lot of useful "information", and he was a little disdainful of Jingzhongwei. From now on, Jingzhongwei, Wan Lei and others will just be a bunch of rich people. A poor and showy country bumpkin.

"These people are so frank, are they really not defensive at all?" Gao Weishan was not foolhardy. He knew that there was no such thing as a pie in the sky, but as soon as his mind changed, he thought to himself: "Let alone whether these people are If there is any other motive, I should report everything I see and hear to the imperial court. Only by knowing myself and the enemy can I win every battle."

Among the other envoys, some had seen the wealth of Beiping City, and their minds became even more unstable, secretly wondering whether it was time to change jobs. These envoys all had their own agendas, but they did not know that they would never be able to find out the real secrets of Beiping City. Yes, and even if the design drawings of the steam engine were given to them, they would not be able to control it, because many core technologies, especially steel smelting technology, would not be able to catch up with the Ming Dynasty for decades.
Chapter completed!