Regarding Fumar's question, Demons felt so depressed that he took a sip of Shaoxing rice wine, which was not authentic, and then replied: "Consul, you must know that this time the French ignored the principle of the unanimous powers and caused me a great loss..."

He has been thinking about this many times. It is true that this arms merchant, the leading arms merchant in Shanghai and the Far East, obtained a Huzhou-Hangzhou Railway charter from Liu Juehu during his adventure not long ago. Many Chinese and Western businessmen in Shanghai have publicly requested a withdrawal of their shares.

This is a fact that it is publicly placed there. So far, Demons has invested hundreds of thousands of Spanish rounds for this railway that only exists on paper. He not only sent an exploration team to find designers, but also bought a large amount of railway materials.

However, the outbreak of this war made his investment vague. At least before the end of the war with the French and Russia, the rebel armed forces of the Hongjun could not concentrate their manpower and material resources to build such a railway. Therefore, the Demons' railway company started a wave of withdrawals in stocks as soon as possible.

Faced with the debt-compulsing trend inside and outside the Shanghai Concession, Demmons had to turn around to Ningbo, but he was in Ningbo and his heart was in Shanghai. He was still manipulating Shanghai's bulk arms trade, and in some ways, his weight had increased.

Both the French and Russians hoped that he could stop the arms trade with Liu Juehuo, so Demons's retreat in Ningbo was not without the factors that avoided responses.

Now this sea singer is fascinated by Shaoxing rice wine. Of course, according to his personal statement, he cannot find authentic champagne in the Far East, so he has to find a substitute to soothe his soul, but Fumar clearly knows that Demons is not drunk at all.

He once again wanted to open a gap on Demons' side: "Earl Demons, I know you have suffered a lot, but after the storm, everyone will think of your extraordinary wisdom. Do you have any opinions on the current situation?"

Demons took a sip of rice wine, and another big arms dealer next to him, His Excellency Anrui, could no longer control his anger: "Fairness and freedom are the basic norms of international trade. Now the French and Russians are blatantly trampling on international conventions, and this is declaring war on Britain. We must respond..."

Fumar dared not give a clear reply to His Excellency Anrui's passionate statement. After all, he still represents the British official. Every word must be careful in such an occasion, otherwise it will be ruined to make Fumar's political future and everything.

And now Demons finally let go of the antique glass goblet in his hand that was said to be made in Venice and made a dignified reply: "These damn Frenchmen, and those Russian dogs. They have caused me to lose hundreds of thousands of Spanish silver coins, but also caused me to lose tens of millions of silver dollars in business opportunities. In the eyes of you British people, such hatred has definitely been declared nine times. You should not understand my losses. In addition to the investment in the railway company, I have also invested in a large amount of public debts and the public debts of Hongjun..."

Demons thought Fumar did not understand his feelings. But Fumar could clearly understand Demons' feelings because he also felt the same way.

He also suffered huge financial losses, just as Demons got the first to get the moon. As the head of the government of Ningbo Port, he was able to get many inside information that outsiders could not know at the first time, and investing in government bonds became Fumar's natural choice.

Not only did he invest all his savings in the government bonds, he even borrowed money from Shanghai to make additional investments. At that time, although the discount on the three-year Hongjun government bond reached 20% and 50% off, everyone was unanimously optimistic and believed that it would definitely break through the amount of the bill.

But the damn Frenchman came, and His Excellency Fumar's 87,000 Spanish rounds were hit by a devastating blow. Now if he cut his losses, His Excellency Fumar will declare bankrupt immediately.

Therefore, Fumar and Demons have the same feeling. He even dreamed every night that he was not only ruined, but also burdened with a huge debt of tens of thousands of pounds, and finally he could only freeze to death on the streets: "So we must protect the legitimate interests of European merchants, at least the legal trade in Ningbo Port cannot be stopped!"

Legal trade, naturally, includes materials that can be used indirectly for war, such as military uniforms, all belong to absolute qualified trade. Only arms and military materials fall within the scope of strict control, of course, this is only for the protection of the peace and neutrality of Ningbo Port.

And the large arms dealer, Demons, actually strictly controls the arms trade in Ningbo: "Yes, legal trade must not be stopped. This is the life of the port of Ningbo. Of course, we will unanimously recommend that the Consul strictly control the illegal military trade. A bullet, a rifle, or a cannon will never be allowed to flow into the hands of both parties in warring..."

This looked very strange on the surface, but Ryan, Ruthya and other arms dealers present agreed with Demons' suggestions: "I strongly support Mr. Demons' suggestions!"

“Illegal trade must stop!”

"Now is the time for us to kill each other!"

However, no one exposes the real purpose behind the regulation, but only sells arms to the Hongjun more efficiently, and at the same time gets higher benefits.

Any control will form corresponding interests. In the next few months, Ningbo's arms trade has formed an oligopoly situation. Anrui is even more glad to tell everyone: "Recently, the French have purchased a batch of arms from me, and I have delivered all the orders to them as much as possible."

"All orders?" Someone didn't understand the secret: "The French are not very suitable for the price!"

Although Shanghai is the largest military trading port in the Far East, due to the emergence of the Hong Kong army, Shanghai quickly replaced Hong Kong's status. In the past December, Shanghai and Ningbo's two ports have paid more than 100,000 Western rifles, and due to the outbreak of the war, the scale is still expanding.

The French knew nothing about the arms market in Shanghai and nearby areas, but when they arrived in Shanghai, in addition to the weapons and equipment they carried, they still needed to purchase a large number of weapons and ammunition, especially when they were preparing to arm the Qing army, the purchase volume would reach five-digits.

However, their prices are very inappropriate, and they can even be said to want to buy arms in the Far East at European prices. They also claim to be smart people and understand the market conditions, not as easy to fool as Qing Dynasty officials.

Therefore, the French's procurement was almost completely failed. You should know that the reason why everyone was killed in the Far East was not just for a profit of 300%. But now Mr. Anrui actually sold a batch of arms to the French at a price that was almost the same as Europe.

But everyone is still silent, everyone knows very well that an old fox like Anrui will never be able to lose money business, let alone a business that is obviously a corruption of the market.

But Demons knew his old rival very well: "You finally sold that batch of garbage? This is the reasonable price!"

Everyone has already understood that although Shanghai is a paradise for arms dealers, the second-hand goods you bought from Europe are tragic, such as dilapidated rifles, cannons, water-soaked gunpowder, five-hand or even six-handed military uniforms. All of this was thrown to the Qing army equipped by the French and Russians.

"Yes, the French will soon understand what a reasonable price is!" Anrui announced all this with pride: "In fact, they already understand that their latest price has risen by 70%!"

"That's not enough. They have to float at least 150%!"

"That's it, their price is lower than General Liu..."

"I hope Napoleon III's treasury has enough francs to pay his bill..."

When talking about this, the arms dealers were smiling, which was the topic they were happy to discuss. His Majesty the Emperor obviously thought of a war that was tens of thousands of kilometers away from France. They did not even prepare much for the most popular Spanish and Eagle-Visco Silver Rounds in the Far East.

In this case, the French team, who lacked the ability to pay, found that the China they landed in was not the so-called "golden country". In fact, they were on the verge of bankruptcy in a few days, and the bankrupt army has always been the best trading object for these conscientious merchants.

In fact, there were not many transactions at all. Mentoban had urgently requested the transport of large amounts of cash and French banknotes from India and other places. When he sent back to France, he said urgently: "If there is no further financial support, the expedition will end this great expedition in the midst of hunger and cold..."

These transactions that are purely garbage sale or even non-existent have already caused the French Expeditionary Force to bear millions of gold francs. Even merchants like Demons, who have always had the best deals with the Hongjun, have conducted several chaotic transactions with French officials that only exist on paper.

Therefore, the atmosphere of the entire venue became joyful because of the French purchases, but Fumar still couldn't find a way to get rid of the trap. He asked Demons again, the key player in the arms dealer: "Earl of Demons, do you have any good suggestions for Ningbo Port?"

"Yes! There is a good suggestion!" Demons replied: "I heard that the rebels were preparing to evacuate some civilians north, and I think you should give some help..."

Now the north of Ningbo is Jiaxing and Changzhou, which is the battlefield where France and the Hong Army are about to start a war. Therefore, the so-called "civilians" and "evacuation to the north" are completely a lie. I am afraid that even the French will not be able to deceive such lies afterwards.

Because everyone knows very well that this refugee fleet that is about to be wearing the British flag is the 11th Land War Regiment supporting the direction of Jiaxing. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian to vote for recommendations, monthly votes, and your support is my greatest motivation.)
Chapter completed!