The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 232 What does it mean to be in control?
Yinyou was on duty in the palace, and as soon as he stamped his seal with the knowledge, he was called over by Kangxi.

"Under the introduction of Master Bai, the English East India Company sent representatives to Beijing. He Yi from the Ministry of Internal Affairs has met with them and reached a preliminary agreement on fifteen clauses. As the saying goes, those who are not of my race must have different hearts. I have thought about it over and over again, but I am still a little worried." Kangxi sighed and added, "Those people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs can even sell out their own people as long as they can get silver."

Yinyou almost laughed out loud. Kangxi really understood it very well!

To be honest, the Ministry of Internal Affairs' greed for money and its unbridled greed has been going on for a long time.

It was impossible for Kangxi not to know this, but he just turned a blind eye and pretended to be ignorant for the safety of the entire royal family.

The unwritten understanding between the royal family and the Imperial Household Department is: as long as the royal family is willing to reward bones, the Imperial Household Department will always remain loyal!

The Master Bai mentioned by Kangxi is the foreign missionary, Jean-Baptiste du Halde.

Last time, Kangxi contracted malaria and almost died. It was Bouvet who suggested using foreign medicine and saved him.

The Savior’s work is immense!
Therefore, Kangxi trusted Bai Jin very much.

This time, the representatives of the East India Company were able to enter Beijing as a result of Bai Jin's secret promotion.

"Take Old Seventeen back to Beijing to handle this matter. Supervise the people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Don't let them sell out the Qing Dynasty for a little money!"

"Whoo!"

The next morning, Yinyou and the Seventeenth Prince packed up simply and left Rehe with a small entourage, rushing all the way to the capital.

When he heard that he was going to meet foreigners, Old Seventeen seemed extremely excited.

"Fifteenth brother, I heard that foreign women all have blonde hair and blue eyes?" The Seventeenth Brother asked Yinyou curiously.

Yinyu smiled slightly and explained: "Not only blondes with blue eyes, but also black hair and blue eyes, white hair and green eyes..."

Old Seventeen was shocked and said, "My dear, isn't that extremely evil?"

Yinyou smiled silently. According to the Qing people's perspective, some foreign women really looked like beasts.

In this era, Europe had left the Qing Dynasty far behind in terms of shipbuilding technology, naval gun technology, and musket technology.

However, due to slow progress in the army's artillery technology, the Qing Dynasty had some gaps, but the main gap was in quantity, and there was no generation gap in quality.

Even if the heavy artillery of the European Army could be produced, it was too heavy and had poor mobility, making it difficult to quickly pull it to the front line and participate in combat in a timely manner.

However, the individual equipment of the European Army instantly killed the Eight Banners Army of the Qing Dynasty.

Even Russia, a third-rate European country, was equipped with the M1715 flintlock rifle, which had a uniform caliber of 19.8mm and a bullet weight of 38 grams.

In Europe, line infantry equipped with flintlock rifles and bayonets gradually became the mainstream.

The basic individual equipment of the Eight Banners Army of the Qing Dynasty was still mainly recurve bows and swords and guns, and the number of cannons and muskets was pitifully small.

Kangxi also knew the power of firearms, but only the firearms battalion directly under him was equipped with a large number of cannons and muskets.

In essence, the Qing Dynasty also adopted a military strategy of strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches. The essence of the Eight Banners Army at that time was the firearms battalion stationed in Beijing.

As soon as Yinyou returned to the capital, He Yi, the chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, got the news and hurried to Prince Yu's palace, handing in a letter requesting a meeting.

"Tell him to wait." Yinyu knew better than anyone that He Yi came to him so quickly, he must have accepted bribes from the British in private.

Take the draft agreement reached between the Imperial Household Department and the East India Company as an example. Any one of them is accompanied by a huge amount of bribes.

For example, Article 7 of the draft agreement states that sampans flying the British flag can pass through the border without being inspected and seafarers do not need to be searched.

This is the first time in the Qing Dynasty!

In addition, the East India Company was allowed to trade freely in Guangzhou and to employ Qing citizens at will.

Just based on this point, Yinyou was absolutely sure that the East India Company had given him a considerable bribe in private.

The rats in the Imperial Household Department were after silver. Yinyu had long wanted to get involved in foreign trade, but he had never had the opportunity.

This time, Kangxi sent Yinwei back to preside over the trade negotiations with Britain. It was like he was about to fall asleep and then he met his pillow.

In the entire Qing Dynasty, if Yinyou, who was proficient in international trade, ranked second in trade negotiations with foreign white people, who would dare to rank first?

In the past, when Yinyou was the vice president of a central enterprise, he was responsible for international trade.

He has dealt with foreigners so many times that he can’t even count them!

Foreign merchants are all profit-seeking. As long as you are willing to pay and offer profit, they will even secretly smuggle their own mother to you.

Back then, the black submarines of the Rakshasa country were easily discovered as long as they went out to sea because of the insufficient processing precision of their machine tools.

As a result, Japanese merchants, for the sake of money, are not afraid of offending their masters and dare to export high-tech machine tools.

This time, Yinyu adhered to the strategy of slow and steady progress and did not intend to ask for too many benefits.

Because it was impossible for Kangxi to hand over the Firearms Battalion to Yinyou.

Now, even if he established relations with foreigners, Yinyou would not gain much in the short term.

After Yongzheng came to power, Yinyu had the opportunity to take charge of the Firearms Battalion. Only by controlling the Firearms Battalion could Yinyu defeat the enemy with fewer troops and intimidate the kings.

Kangxi liked to study foreign things, so Yinyou could use the guise of his hobby to recruit a few foreign flintlock makers or artillerymen.

If the East India Company was really willing to spend money and provide a few steelmaking technicians, Yinyou would be even more satisfied.

In history, the Rakshasa Kingdom concentrated the national strength to research flintlock rifles, but it often ended in failure.

Even in the Napoleonic era, Russia's flintlock rifles were far from comparable to those of the French because of the huge gap in steelmaking technology.

In this era, advanced steelmaking technology is the mother of industry.

It had been almost ten days since Yinyu returned to Kyoto, but he had not yet met with the East India Company delegation.

Baron Henry, the representative of the East India Company, was so anxious that he privately sought out Bouvet to negotiate peace. Only then did Yinyou meet him in the back garden of the palace.

"Your Excellency Prince Yu, it's an honor to meet you..." Baron Henry supported his chest with his left hand, took off his hat with his right hand, slightly bent forward and nodded, performing the standard British aristocratic greeting.

Yinyou didn't even look at Henry. His attention was attracted by the beautiful lady Henry brought with him.

"Your Excellency Prince Yu, it's an honor to meet you..." The beautiful lady slightly bent her knees, lifted the sides of her skirt with her hands, and nodded to Yinyou.

Since the Middle Ages, the etiquette of the British aristocracy has basically been copied from the French court.

The etiquette of greeting between British aristocrats of this era was also very different from that of modern British aristocrats.

Yinyou was just a top noble of the Qing Dynasty, not the current emperor, so there would be no etiquette issue for Macartney to kneel to meet the emperor.

Bai Jin, who was standing by, quickly introduced, "Your Highness, this is Baron Henry, the representative of the East India Company, and his Baroness. Oh, by the way, the Baroness's name is Winnie."

Bai Jin's superfluous additional introduction made Yinyou laugh.

Alas, even the foreigners knew clearly about Yinyou’s bad reputation of liking other people’s wives!

The pronunciation of medieval English is very different from that of modern English, and Yinyou actually did not fully understand the greetings between Henry and his wife.

"I'm glad to meet you too, Baroness Henry." Yinyu looked at the beautiful Winnie with a smile.

Before this, through Bai Jin's introduction, Yinyou learned a fact: when meeting British ladies of that era, it was neither popular to kiss hands nor to shake hands.

As the saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. If Henry wanted to reach an agreement, he could only act according to Yinyou's mood.

As the leader of the Qing Dynasty, Yinyou nodded and smiled, which was considered as a return of courtesy.

This was not Henry's first visit to the Qing Dynasty, and he had some understanding of the situation in Guangzhou. However, this was his first visit to the capital to meet the powerful prince of the Qing Dynasty.

After sitting down, with the help of Bai Jin's translation, Henry meant that he hoped Yinyou would nod and agree to the fifteen terms they had negotiated with the Guangzhou Customs.

Although Yinyou did not quite understand Henry's medieval English, he was very good at controlling foreign merchants.

"Alas, these terms are too damaging to the dignity of the Qing Dynasty. It is difficult for me to agree to them!" When Yinyou spoke, he was very restrained and did not look at Winnie who was holding a fan.

Anyone who has watched old British dramas knows that British female aristocrats would not dare to go out to meet guests without a fan in their hands.

In fact, Henry deliberately brought his wife to see Yinyou in order to offer sexual bribery.

However, Yinyou had no shortage of women, and even if he ended up sleeping with Winnie, he would not show his lustful intentions towards her the first time they met.

It is harder than climbing to the sky for ordinary people to ride a foreign horse!
But for Yinyou, it is not difficult!

The negotiations lasted for more than an hour, but because Yinyou refused to give in, they soon reached a deadlock.

As a representative of the East India Company, which monopolized the trade with the East, Henry was well aware of the Qing Dynasty's trade advantages.

The value of Qing Dynasty's tea, silk and porcelain was equivalent to hard currency throughout Europe.

In other words, it was a pure seller's market. As long as the merchants had goods, the European nobles would be willing to spend money to buy them.

During this time, Henry winked at Winnie, hoping that she could come forward to persuade Yinyu.

However, in the face of Winnie's active invitation, Yinyu acted as if he didn't understand.

Yinyu, who had rich experience in international trade, knew better than anyone that Winnie, who appeared for the first time, was definitely not the most beautiful woman in Henry's delegation.

When foreign merchants make a move, they will never go all in at the beginning. Instead, they prefer to negotiate terms slowly and are willing to give out the good things at the very end.

As expected, with Bai Jin's mediation, when Henry went to Prince Yu's palace again with great effort, he brought his beautiful daughter, Miss Henry.

However, the only flaw was that the beautiful Miss Henry was wearing a very tight bra binder.

According to Bai Jin, in Europe at that time, people generally believed that a flat and upright upper body could reflect the chastity and holiness of women.

However, according to Yinyu's understanding, the charming Miss Henry was most likely not wearing any underwear under her skirt.

(End of this chapter)