At this moment, Wu Bingjian and Li Guangyuan in Guangzhou were also overwhelmed by the criminal case and were helpless.

It turned out that just a few days ago, a British warship "London" anchored off the coast of Lingding met a civilian fishing boat. The civilian ship came from a small island in the Lingding Ocean. There were several children on board at the time. When the children saw

They met the British sailors and made jokes to them one after another, many of which contained offensive words. There were also translators on the British ships, so the British sailors were no strangers to children's language. After hearing the children's jokes, a soldier named Bigot said,

Quite annoyed, he thought about shooting to scare the children. Bigot didn't want to cause trouble. When he fired, he told other companions that it was just an empty gun as a warning, but he didn't want Bigot to be careless. At this time, there were still bullets in the gun.

, as a result, the shot came down and directly hit the boatman Zhang Shuncun in the boat, causing Zhang Shuncun to die on the spot.

After the shooting was reported to Guangzhou, Ruan Yuan immediately ordered the closure of the ship involved. At the same time, Ruan Yuan also immediately called the guarantor Li Guangyuan and asked him to negotiate with the British businessmen. The "London" was originally a warship

, came to Guangzhou to escort a merchant ship named "HMS Duke of York". Hearing that there was movement in Guangzhou, the "London" immediately fled to the open sea. After the advancing officers and soldiers discovered the "HMS Duke of York", they determined that it was

Even the ship involved in the case surrounded the "Duke of York" and prevented it from entering the port for trading. Li Guang had a vision that something was not going well, so he had to ask Wu Bingjian for help. However, Wu Li and the two came to the Guangdong and Guangxi Department again, but Ruan Yuan did not respond.

The two were polite, but directly stated their conditions:

"General Shang Wu, General Shang Li, our department has investigated the case clearly. It is undoubtedly the British people who shot our Qing people! Therefore, our department can only accept one result in this matter, that is, you two accompanied other soldiers

Go to the foreign ship and escort the person involved to justice. Then, as long as the headquarter proves that person's identity, he will be hanged immediately! Lingding Waiyang is our sea area belonging to the Qing Dynasty, and the deceased Zhang Shuncun is also a citizen of the Qing Dynasty. This is

Now that this has happened, I will never show any mercy to foreigners!"

In desperation, Wu Bingjian and Li Guangyuan had no choice but to take a naval warship and go to the docking place of the "Duke of York". On this day, the two arrived overseas. The British ship had already heard about this, so they put down the ladder and took the two away.

Come up. Soon, Captain Cameron of the "Duke of York" heard that Wu and Li had arrived, and he quickly walked out of the cabin to greet them. People were coming and going on the "Duke of York" all day long. Wu Bingjian and Li Guangyuan were already worried.

, watching countless British sailors going up and down, moving in a hurry, my heart was even more confused.

But Wu Bingjian was the most experienced. After seeing Cameron for a moment, he calmed down and said to Cameron warmly: "Mr. Captain, the two of us have already prayed for Mr. Captain at the governor's office.

But the governor has issued a strict order, saying that the soldiers who shot the people must come out and pay for each life. As for other things, there is also the matter of compensating the families of the deceased. This is not difficult. We have a business guarantee system here. Mr. Li

I have already prepared the money, and the one I owe now is the murderer."

"Mr. Peiguan, you can't make things difficult for us, can you?" Cameron listened to Wu Bingjian relaying Ruan Yuan's intention, and actually wanted Bigot to pay for his life before he gave up. He hesitated for a while, and said to Wu Bingjian: "But you also

It should be clear that the person who committed the crime was on board the London, not on our ship? We are here to do business, and we are about to enter Whampoa, but you have been detained here... To this day, we are fifth

It's day, we people on the boat have done nothing, why are they treating us like this?"

"Mr. Captain, didn't that warship come to the South China Sea just to escort your merchant ships?" Wu Bingjian could only persuade: "In this case, from the governor's point of view, your two ships, then

It’s just a ship. They committed a crime, and they didn’t take responsibility and ran out on their own. Then on our side... we have to find someone to take responsibility for the dead person, right?"

"Mr. Peiguan, the person who fired the gun originally just wanted to discharge the gun empty. How did he expect that there would be bullets in the gun? This was a mistake, not intentional?" Cameron was still thinking about continuing to defend.

"Mr. Captain, if you follow your words, anyone in the world who kills someone with a gun can say that he did not mean it?" Wu Bingjian did not want to be too serious about this matter, so he lowered his voice and whispered to the card.

Mirren said: "We don't want things to develop to this point, but the Governor is determined to handle this case, but it's not me who makes things difficult for you, right?"

"Then...then I can't ask the 'London' to be handed over, right? I...I can't do such a thing." Cameron had no idea for a moment. At this time, several sailors came from behind.

They walked into the cabin and seemed to be holding something. Then, several sailors walked to the side of the ship and threw everything in their hands into the sea one by one, as if they didn't want to keep it in their hands at all.

"What are you doing? Why do I see something wrong with this ship today?" Wu Bingjian saw these people behaving strangely and asked Cameron.

"Oh, don't talk about it. It's all because our ship has been sealed up these past few days, causing harm to the people inside." Cameron also complained to Wu Bingjian: "There is a cook in our ship named Palocliffe. This man

He was a bit irritable at first, and he always complained about this and that, saying that life at sea was difficult and he couldn't even drink fresh wine. In the past few days, you have sealed the ship and we are not allowed to move. Now he is even more impatient.

A few days ago, he said... that he couldn't live anymore, but... this morning, we found out that he had committed suicide."

"Is the person dead?" Upon hearing this, Wu Bingjian's eyes suddenly lit up, and he seemed to have a solution to the problem.

"Mr. Captain, you are saying that someone committed suicide on your ship, right? Is his body still there?" Wu Bingjian asked immediately.

"The body is still there, so Pei Guan, what do you mean..." Cameron seemed to have the same idea after hearing Wu Bingjian's question.

"Mr. Captain, both the Governor and other officials involved in the case have only heard that a foreigner killed someone, but what exactly does this foreigner look like, not to mention the government, and even the actions of those children?

The confession was vague. In other words, if you hand over the body of this cook and only say that this is the murderer who shot people, will the officers and soldiers outside become suspicious of you? I don’t think so.

What I want is, to put it bluntly, a dead person. What will you lose by handing over the body? So my idea is that you hand over the body to us, and we will tell the governor when we get back that the murderer is already guilty.

If you commit suicide and bring the body here, won't this matter be over?" Sure enough, Wu Bingjian revealed this method of concealing the truth, and after hearing this, Cameron began to nod his head again and again, and was able to deal with Ruan Yuan and other Guangzhou officials.

In the past, the price of a dead Palocliff was perfectly acceptable.

"This is good, but...will the government really not be suspicious?" Although Cameron agreed to this method, he still had some doubts.

"Haha, Mr. Captain, don't worry about this." Li Guangyuan finally came to his senses at this time and explained to Cameron: "The rules here are the protection system. Ten households are guaranteed one. If one person commits a crime, ten will be protected."

Everyone in the family must bear responsibility for him, but as long as one person takes the initiative to take over the responsibility, the others will no longer have to take responsibility. According to our practice, your ship is jointly insured by one person, and one person died.

, then other people can naturally follow Bao Jia's example and forget about it."

"Oh, you're talking about...joint and several liability?" Cameron seemed to understand the Qing Dynasty system this time.

"Yes, that's it, joint and several liability." Li Guangyuan responded immediately. In fact, the two of them spoke English. They just understood each other's general meaning. It would take some time for the word "joint and several liability" to officially enter Chinese.

"That's fine... OK, I'll tell them right now that I'll hand over Pallocliffe's body to you, and then you can take it back. For the rest, please give the governor a nice word, and leave it alone.

We're sealing our ship, otherwise, I think something might happen in the ship." Naturally, Cameron would not sympathize with a corpse. Seeing that the problem could be solved by handing over the dead body, he immediately agreed to their suggestion.

.

Soon, Palokliffe's body was brought to the Guangdong and Guangxi Ministries. Wu Bingjian and Li Guangyuan also claimed that Palokliffe was the murderer who shot Zhang Shuncun. He had committed suicide in fear of crime and came here to deliver the body. Ruan Yuan saw Palokliffe's body.

Although it was once suspected that the deceased was not the murderer, according to the joint protection system, since a corpse has been released from the British ship, the responsibility for paying for the death has been fulfilled. Even if there are still doubts about other details, after all, it is difficult to work on the sea, and there are many truths

It is no longer possible to investigate in detail, and it is natural to close the case with such a result. As for the ship, Wu Bingjian and Li Guangyuan also claimed that their previous confessions were wrong. It was originally the sailors of the "Duke of York" who committed the murder, and the plot of the "London" was regarded as a mistake.

It was concluded and removed from the case file. (Later, British information was exposed, and the Chinese people just knew that Bigot was not actually on the "London" at that time, but secretly absconded to another British warship "Liverpool" near Lingding Ocean

In other words, even if Ruan Yuan goes further and forcibly searches the "London", it is impossible to find the real murderer on the ship.)

In the end, the case was officially closed based on the fact that "the sailor of the English merchant ship Duke of York, Parrocliffe, shot and killed civilians and eventually committed suicide out of fear of crime". Li Guangyuan also fulfilled his responsibility as a guarantee and compensated Zhang Shuncun's wife and children in silver, while the "London"

After that, he quickly left China and took Bigot away. For the Qing Dynasty, which implemented the Baojia system and regarded ships as Baojia, this was an acceptable result.
Chapter completed!