It was not until the morning of September 20 that all the open flames at the fire scene were extinguished by the Green Camp soldiers. Ruan Yuan also personally took a sedan chair and came to inspect the disaster situation at the 13th Bank. Thinking that after a fire, there would often be more thieves, Ruan Yuan went there before setting off.

Immediately, he informed Supervisor Biao Green Camp to strictly investigate those who took advantage of the opportunity to commit robberies in the Thirteenth Line area. Sure enough, along the way, he saw many thieves, who had been captured by the officers and soldiers of Biao Camp, and were marched to Guangzhou Prison in twos and threes.

When he arrived at the Thirteenth Row, Ruan Yuan immediately got off the sedan and looked around. He saw that most of the buildings and halls on one side were already in ruins. They no longer had the heyday of the Thirteenth Row's carved beams and painted buildings. Only a few shops were not affected by the fire.

I guess he was prepared for it. Wu Bingjian heard that Ruan Yuan had already

When they came to Thirteenth Line, they immediately came out to greet them. Seeing that Ruan Yuan was also very tired, Wu Bingjian also paid homage to Ruan Yuan: "I have met Mr. Ruan, Mr. Ruan, in fact, my intention seems to be unkind, but it was yesterday.

The best way is for the general manager to listen to your suggestions."

"General Shang Wu, has your Yihe business been affected?" Ruan Yuan also asked Wu Bingjian.

"Going back to the General Administration, Xia Trading Company built three water wells a long time ago, and has always prepared fire-fighting water guns, so when there is a fire, you can get water immediately and there will be no loss." Wu Bingjian replied.

"Then there is no need to demolish your business to put out the fire." It seems that Ruan Yuan is still not satisfied with Wu Bingjian's proposal yesterday: "You want to demolish other people's houses to put out the fire. The person whose house is demolished will

How can I be convinced? I am the only one who is ordered to demolish the house

Of course, it has nothing to do with you if it can be issued. You and other thirteen wealthy businessmen all have families and businesses. If you are really asked to wait and weigh, no one will demolish your business. In the end, it is not the poor people who will lose their houses.

?I can't do such a thing."

But at this time, Wu Bingjian looked at Ruan Yuan's expression and vaguely noticed that while Ruan Yuan insisted on his opinion, his tone of voice sounded extremely regretful.

Perhaps Ruan Yuan also knows the rationality of his suggestion, but due to his own position, he cannot do so.

"President Ruan, south of our Thirteenth Bank is a foreign trade company. This fire caused a lot of damage to the foreign trade shops. Now that the foreign trade merchants heard that you came in person, they are all waiting for you over there. How about that?

...How about you also go and meet them?" Wu Bingjian thought that the foreign companies had also suffered a lot of losses, so he immediately reported to Ruan Yuantong.

"Let me go meet them." Ruan Yuan did not refuse this suggestion. Instead, under the guard of a group of soldiers from the Biao Camp, he came all the way to the land of foreign trade. As expected, there were many officers and soldiers from the Biao Camp coming and going with them along the way.

More than twenty arrested thieves arrived overseas

As he walked, he saw more than 20 people gathered in the smoke-filled open space, all with Western faces. Ruan Yuan looked at a business building on the side that was made of marble and was not affected by the fire, so he walked up

Shitai, to the foreign merchants at the foot of the platform:

"Everyone here, you are all of Western origin, and you have traveled thousands of miles to Qing Dynasty to operate the mutual market. We also have a saying here that you are a guest from afar. Since you are all guests, we, as hosts, should treat you hospitably.

, I shouldn’t have let you

Waiting for our guests to suffer such a disaster. A fire was reported outside the Taiping Gate the day before yesterday. When our governor received the news, he dispatched the green camp to put out the fire. Unfortunately, the fire was very strong yesterday and the green camp was unable to save your house. I also watched on the way here.

We're here, wait for a consultation

Most of the silver stored in the museum was melted by the fire, so that you and others suffered such a tragic disaster. No matter what, I, as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, am at fault. I know that if I say this, you may not forgive me easily, but

I saw this fire the day before yesterday

To this day, I have always felt guilty. I am sorry for you. Please accept this bow no matter what." After saying that, Ruan Yuan also took off his official hat, then clasped his hands and bowed to the Western businessmen present.

Bye, to express my apology.

Most of the businessmen present were from England and the United States. There were only two Dutchmen and one Danish merchant. Therefore, Ruan Yuan's words were translated to everyone in English by an interpreter from Yihe Bank in the audience. All of a sudden

, British and American businessmen were also whispering to each other, talking about the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi on the stage.

"Look, this man's clothes are embroidered with a crane. I heard that in China, these are clothes only used by the highest-ranking officials. Is he the governor here?"

"Yes, I heard that this governor-general has to take charge of two provinces, Guangdong here, and Guangxi Province in the west. From this point of view, this governor-general has to take charge of an area as large as half of France.

But he’s a high official now?”

"What does the Emperor of China do? Why did he let such a person be the governor? Look, this business building was burned down to this state. He must be responsible!"

"Yes, I heard that Haoguan has told him our suggestion, asking him to demolish some houses to put out fires, but he just doesn't listen. Such a confused and useless old man can also be the governor. I think this is nothing more than this in the Qing Dynasty.

?”

"No matter what, I have to ask him for compensation today! We worked so hard to come to China, and all my money was lost in the ditch over there. They have to pay the price!"

…

Suddenly, many people living near Shisanhang heard that Ruan Yuan had come to Shisanhang in person and surrounded him from all directions. The accompanying officers and soldiers had no choice but to separate the onlookers as much as possible to avoid conflicts.

"Everyone, I know that no matter what I say today, you will not be satisfied. I can understand that if my own house was burned down like this, how would I feel about the court officials of Guangzhou Prefecture? Maybe I will agree with you too.

It's the same thing." Ruan Yuan naturally knew that no matter what he said at this time, he would not be immediately understood by foreign businessmen and people, so he immediately said to everyone:

"However, since the Honbu Hall is here today, the Honbu Hall can also make three guarantees to you. You have also seen that after today's fire, there were many gangsters who wanted to commit robberies and take advantage of the chaos. Our Green Camp immediately dispatched and captured them

Catch them all! Based on this, you should also believe that Honbudo can do whatever he says next!"

"The first guarantee is that our headquarters will immediately go to court and ask the emperor to exempt you from commercial taxes. Our headquarters is now planning to exempt you and other Western merchants from business taxes next year as long as they were doing business in Guangzhou the day before yesterday and yesterday!

According to the usual practice, local businessmen of the 13th line of business are exempted from half of the business tax. If there is a problem with turnover,

Those who are unable to pay the other half of the business tax in full at the moment can also report it to our governor's office and record the outstanding debt for the time being. And next year our governor's office will never seize the property of any of your families because the merchants are unable to pay taxes! Secondly,

This guarantee is that from today onwards, our church will work with you and others to re-plan the disaster-stricken areas.

From the eighth to the thirteenth line, anyone who is unable to rebuild their house can also inform the governor, and the governor will help you rebuild your house. Moreover, this time, the main hall will re-plan the location of the water well for you. Starting from the eighth

Just to the thirteenth line, in today's disaster area, there must be a well within every 200 steps so that water can be obtained at any time for disaster relief.

! Of course, if someone is unable to dig a well, you can also inform me, the Governor-General, and I will help you dig the well. As for the households in the disaster-stricken areas, the two counties of Panyu, Nanhai, will re-count the destroyed houses in the next few days.

, the houses of the Dan households will all be rebuilt with money from the Guangdong vassal treasury, so you won’t have to wait for the Dan households to come back and spend money."

"Thank you, Ruan Butang!" Hearing that Ruan Yuan was willing to help everyone rebuild their houses, and even provide free resettlement for Dan households, many Dan people in the crowd immediately paid their respects to Ruan Yuan.

But when the British and American businessmen heard this, they remained indifferent. It seemed that they all believed that reducing business taxes was a natural thing, and Ruan Yuan just did what he should do.

"There is a third item, which is the fundamental solution after the fire!" Ruan Yuan said to everyone again: "In this fire, most of our soldiers from the Guangdong Green Battalion participated in the rescue, but there were still many houses destroyed.

Many people's property was destroyed in one day. I'm sorry for all of this. But I also know that I marked the Green Camp, and at least most of the officers and soldiers have been here since the night of the 18th, trying their best to save the people.

I am not a lazy person. But even so, the fire still happened like this. I learned from the pain in the past two days and found out that the reason why the fire was not put out in time was because there were not enough people in the green camp.

fire prevention equipment! The first people in our Green Camp who came to fight the fire were able to prepare water guns and buckets, but those who arrived later often had only three or five people with one bucket, and each of them only had one gun.

Water guns, and many Green Camp officers and soldiers have not practiced fire-fighting methods. Faced with such a fire, they were at a loss from the beginning. How can they put out the fire? So today, the Honbu Hall also assures you that the Honbu Hall will meet with the court to re-establish the establishment of the fire.

Guangzhou's fire prevention and firefighting regulations, after the regulations are finalized, will be announced in this thirteen-row area, and the headquarters will also strictly drill the green camp, which will definitely enable the camp troops to deal with serious fires in the future.

I know that what I say today is just empty talk, but in half a year or a year, I will let everyone see a brand new fire-fighting green camp and a more complete fire-fighting regulations!" In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, due to the different actual situations in each province, many direct provinces

There have been "provincial regulations" that are only applicable in this province to solve special problems in this province. The "Fire Prevention and Fire Fighting Regulations" mentioned by Ruan Yuan are also a kind of provincial regulations. Once they are finalized, they can be implemented in the whole of Guangdong.

"The great master is aware of it, the great master is aware of it!" Many people watching were moved when they heard that Ruan Yuan was willing to re-formulate the regulations and reorganize the fire prevention green camp.

But this time, even among the Western businessmen, there were a few people who kept nodding.
Chapter completed!