Outside the Taiping Gate in Guangzhou, due to the century-old peace, it has long been opened up as a residence for merchants and people. The Thirteenth Line, merchants and business offices from various Western countries are all here. Whenever Western merchant ships arrive in Guangdong, the merchants and hawkers near the Thirteenth Line also come to Guangzhou.

I can make a lot of money and buy a lot of Western goods from big merchants, and then increase the price by 20 to 30%, and sell them nearby in the Lantern Alley and Shibafu area. There are also many people in central Guangdong who like foreign goods.

Therefore, during this season, there was an endless stream of people near Shisanhang, and wealthy people even spent large sums of money to buy some exotic Western goods for show off.

On this day, the Western Commercial Building south of Thirteenth Line was also busy. In front of the American Commercial Building, an old flag slowly fell from the flagpole, and was replaced by a new flag with a red and white background, but it was different from the old flag.

Yes, there are twenty white stars in the upper left corner of the new flag, but there are five more than the old flag. In the business hall, Gu Sheng watched the new flag gradually rise, but he was also quite proud of it.

The man smiled and said: "How about it, Mr. Wu, do you think our flag looks good?"

Needless to say, Wu Bingjian once again came to the American Commercial Center as a guest on this day.

"Yes, this... flag of your country is indeed very beautiful. In other Western countries, some are just a piece of white cloth with a blue background painted on it, and some are just painted with an eagle. I heard that this one

There are some differences between an eagle and two eagles. The other thing is a cross. It's too simple. It's rare that your flag has so many stars embroidered on it. But I don't understand. Your original stars are fifteen. What exactly does this mean?

Why did it become twenty again?"

"Our country has five more states." Gu Sheng said with a smile: "According to the rules of our country, for every additional state, a star is added to the flag. In fact, six years ago, we already had eighteen states.

Those in Congress say nothing about changing it. Last year, Mississippi joined our United States, and there were finally twenty states. This time they finally agreed to change the flag. But I think they will change it after a while. Listen to the domestic situation

People say that there may be one more new state this year." After that, in the winter of the 23rd year of Jiaqing, Illinois became the 21st state of the United States, and it took just over a year to build the twenty-star flag.

However, since there is no accurate word to describe the concept of "state" in the United States at this time, what Gu Sheng said was in English. So what Wu Bingjian thought was not much different from Jiang Youzhu, except that he changed the word "state" in English.

Understood as "tribe". Listening to Gu Sheng talking about domestic affairs in the United States, Wu Bingjian naturally became interested and asked Gu Sheng: "So, Mr. Perkins, how big are each of the tribes in your country?"

What? Is it as big as a county or a prefecture?" He also spoke English here, so Gu Sheng didn't notice any difference.

"Well, in terms of Mississippi, about three Mississippis are equal to your two Guangdong provinces." Gu Sheng replied.

"Really? In this way, your tribe is not small, right?" Wu Bingjian smiled and said: "In this way, your country is about... as big as fourteen direct provinces of China. This is a big country. I heard

Over in Europe, a country is only about the size of one or two provinces. Although your country is newer, it definitely has a lot of space."

"That's natural. If our ancestors weren't overwhelmed by the old aristocrats in Europe, why would we go to North America?" Gu Sheng heard Wu Bingjian praise that "the country is a big country," so he was naturally more satisfied with him, so he also

Said a few more words.

"Really? No wonder when I hear you speak, you sound almost like the English. Mr. Perkins, you were also English before, but you came to live in America and established a new country, right? You

How is your relationship with Britain on weekdays?" Wu Bingjian thought about Ruan Yuan asking him to ask about the details of the United States, but he did not dare to neglect, so he took advantage of the situation and gradually asked about the internal situation of the United States.

"Mr. Wu, we are from the United States of America, not the British. Many of our ancestors are indeed from there, but we have lived in North America for two hundred years, so we are already Americans in North America. As for

Britain...hum, we have a bad relationship with us. There was a war six years ago. Although we are independent, their Canada is to the north of our country. They burned down our capital four years ago. Can we forget this grudge?

"But we are not afraid of them. They have many ships and guns at sea, but we fought on land and finally drove them back." Gu Sheng replied, before and after the independence of the United States, in order to win the support of the people on the North American continent, Thomas

Many of the founding leaders of the United States, represented by Paine, put forward a new national concept, believing that white North Americans had settled in the North American continent for a long time and had already formed a new American nation, and were no longer subjects of the British king. At the end of the Napoleonic War,

The second Anglo-American War broke out between the United States and the United Kingdom. Therefore, the period when Gu Sheng came to China and Ruan Yuan was in charge of Quang was precisely the worst period for Anglo-American relations.

"Oh, so this Englishman is just as arrogant and domineering in America?" Wu Bingjian continued to ask Gu Sheng.

"Britain is indeed very strong now, especially three years ago, when Napoleon of France was defeated by them. Their navy is even more powerful, with twenty or thirty battleships, and we don't even have ten. But we also have one thing, which is

What they are afraid of is that these newly added states are all in the Great Plains, and the grain produced every year can be continuously exported to Europe. While the British are fighting with us, they will still eat our corn and wheat. But once we do not give the British

If we export food, we will lose a lot ourselves, so during the war, no one in the country is willing to do this." Although Gu Sheng admitted that the United States was inferior to the United Kingdom in terms of navy, he was not convinced and took away the advantage of food export.

He came out, thinking of overcoming the British side. But when he said this, Gu Sheng was also a little curious, and smiled at Wu Bingjian: "Mr. Wu, it's really strange today. You haven't asked me this before, and you actually told you this today."

What a beautiful thing."

"Haha, Mr. Perkins, you are my good friend. I see your country getting bigger and bigger, and I am happy for you, so we chatted a little more." Wu Bingjian hurriedly smiled and said, just

At this moment, he suddenly heard hurried footsteps and a servant of the Wu family came over. Wu Bingjian quickly stood up and walked over. The servant approached Wu Bingjian and whispered a few words in his ear.

"Mr. Wu, you are not a friend enough. What do you want to hide from me?" Gu Sheng looked at Wu Bingjian's behavior, but he was also a little confused.

"Nothing, just some matters concerning Governor Ruan here." Wu Bingjian replied.

"Governor Ruan? Why, I heard before that you prepared gifts and sent them over. Is it possible that some of the governors of China are unwilling to accept gifts?" Gu Sheng asked smoothly.

"It's not that I don't accept gifts, it's just..." As he said that, Wu Bingjian also told Gu Sheng some of the conversation he had when he first met Ruan Yuan. Gu Sheng listened, but his face was solemn, because both of them were

One thing is clear: for the two of them, a governor who is willing to accept gifts is much more convenient than a governor who is unwilling to accept gifts. The governor's acceptance of gifts means that Wu Bingjian has the governor's handle. Whatever he wants to do in the future, the governor

Everyone will consider Wu Bingjian's kindness. But if the governor does not accept the gift, it means that the governor is an unpredictable person. In the future, Wu Bingjian will only become more and more passive.

Ruan Yuan accepted the giant inkstone, but also gave Wu Bingjian the price, which was discounted back and forth. Perhaps Wu Bingjian owed Ruan Yuan a favor.

"Then...have you come up with a new idea today?" Gu Sheng asked Wu Bingjian again.

"What's the solution... maybe today is also an opportunity." Wu Bingjian thought about what his servant had whispered, and seemed to have a new idea.

In the market near Thirteenth Line, there is an endless stream of merchants on weekdays. The magnificent merchants sit in sedan chairs, but many of them are familiar with the merchants. After all, in the eyes of these retail traders, the merchants of Thirteenth Line are

He is an unattainable high-class person, and it is not uncommon for him to be extravagant and wealthy. Even sometimes, when retail merchants look at the green cloth sedans on the streets of the market, they will only regard them as ordinary people going out and do not want to take a second look. Because of this

, these shops near Thirteenth Line, on this day, they did not even notice that there was an unfamiliar green sedan on Baimi Street.

Naturally, the scattered merchants would not realize that this small sedan originally came from the Guangxi and Guangdong Ministries in Taipingmen in the city, and the two women sitting in it were Kong Luhua and Xie Xue. At this time, the two daughters of Kong and Xie were in the sedan.

Looking at the various rare treasures sold from the West on Baimi Street, I couldn't help but marvel at them and started to criticize them repeatedly.

"Madam, look at the small bottle over there." Xie Xue pointed to the perfume bottle on the shelf of a perfume shop outside in the sedan chair, and praised Kong Luhua: "Is that a Western perfume? Look, even if we are in the sedan chair,

, it smells so good like this. And the bottle, look, it’s so exquisitely carved.”

"Yes, I heard that the perfume in the Beijing Palace is still a perfume-making process learned from the West a hundred years ago." Kong Luhua looked at the perfume shop outside and liked it. She was just thinking about their identities, but she also expressed her gratitude to Xie.

Xue smiled and said: "But Yuezhuang, if we were in Hangzhou at that time, maybe we could still use some of this perfume. You see, Fuer is getting married now, and if anyone in the family wants to use perfume, only Yunjiang can use it.

We are already old people!" When Xu Yanjin was in the Xu family, because he was elegant and good at literature, he took the name "Yunjiang" after the men in the family. At this time, the elders such as Kong Luhua in the Ruan family often called him by the name.

"Madam, you are only forty-two and I am only thirty-seven. We are considered old..."

"What do you think? Hehe, Yuezhuang, Fu'er is your biological child. You don't know him as well as I, your aunt, do you? Look at the way he and Yun Jiang look on weekdays. They both like each other.

Well, I think in another year and a half, you will become a grandma!" Kong Luhua also joked to Xie Xue.

"But madam... look at the woolen feather shop over there. The clothes inside are also very nice."

"Hey, Yuezhuang, I heard that these woolen feathers are all made of wool. If it is winter in the capital, maybe more can be used. How hot is the summer in Guangzhou? Foreigners are really like this, in

Selling woolen feathers in Guangzhou, isn’t that a loss-making business?” The woolen feathers mentioned by the two people here are woolen clothes. At this time, the British textile industry had been developing rapidly for decades, and British woolen textiles had been sold all over the world, even in the early years of the Jiaqing Dynasty.

The relics given to Ruan Yuan and Emperor Qianlong included a Western woolen feather. It was also the vast textile market that in turn stimulated the innovation of textile technology in the United Kingdom. One of the first industries in what is today called the Industrial Revolution was the woolen textile industry. However, even though

In this way, since Britain could only trade with China at this time in Guangzhou, and Guangzhou had high temperatures all year round, sweaters did not have much sales in Guangzhou. Even if a small number of merchants resold woolen textiles to Jiangbei, since domestic cotton was already popular, these sweaters did not have much competition.
Chapter completed!