The arrogance started from Chinatown

Chapter 625 Guangzhou, Incident

Halfway through the journey, Chen Zhengwei's carriage stopped, and A'long and Situ Ye who were on the roadside squeezed into the carriage.

"Brother Wei! This time it's our own boat!" After getting on the carriage, Aaron kept rubbing his hands, obviously excited.

Xiucai and the three Donahue brothers were chatting at the gate of the shipyard. Many people were waiting behind them at the gate of the shipyard. When they saw Chen Zhengwei's carriage coming, they hurried to greet him.

"Boss!" Everyone's face was beaming.

The San Francisco Union Iron and Steel Shipyard's most glorious period was when it built gunboats for the US Navy.

But this time the technical content is much higher than before.

After studying the structure and layout of British warships and spending several months with engineers at the British shipyard, the level of the shipyard improved significantly.

This cruiser is among the best in the world.

With the addition of new cannons, they felt the ship could sink the British to the bottom of the ocean.

"Let's go and take a look together!" Chen Zhengwei was also very interested. Walking in the shipyard, he could see with the naked eye that the shipyard had expanded a lot and had swallowed up the shipyard next to it.

In the past six months, the shipyard has not been idle and has been constantly recruiting people to expand.

Today, the shipyard has seven dry docks and five water docks, and the number of workers in the shipyard has reached 7.

A maximum of 7 ships can be built and 5 ships can be repaired at the same time.

Led by the shipyard staff, we arrived at the largest dry dock.

I saw a large warship parked in the dock. The steel hull was shining with a ferocious cold light, and the words "San Francisco" were written on the hull.

A three-story bridge was built on the ship. In the center of the ship's deck in front of the bridge was a twin gun mount, with two 229mm main guns standing there.

On both sides of the deck behind the two main guns are six 152 mm secondary guns.

At the stern, there is a 229 mm main gun and two 152 mm secondary guns.

"The San Francisco also uses two steam systems. With the addition of sails, the maximum speed can reach 24 knots. Using only the steam engine, it can reach a speed of 22 knots!"

"Displacement is 4120 tons, draft is 7.2 meters..."

Peter Donahue continued to introduce this steel behemoth.

"This ship can send the Warrior into the sea!" Situ Ye smiled happily.

The speed of the Warrior was only 14 knots, while this ship had a speed of 22 knots using its steam system, and most importantly, it used new cannons.

The range and power of smokeless powder shells are much greater than those of previous artillery.

Using black powder, the range of the 229mm main gun is only 3000 to 4000 meters, but using smokeless gunpowder, the gun's range reaches 6000 meters.

Not only the Warrior, but now the warships of the navies of various countries cannot touch this ship and can only be beaten.

And the way gunpowder was loaded also changed.

Originally, gunpowder had to be loaded into the barrel manually, then the shells loaded and fired.

Nowadays, gunpowder and fuse are directly loaded into the cartridge case, which not only speeds up the loading process but also increases the barrel pressure. Therefore, less gunpowder is needed to achieve a range of 6000 meters.

Of course, this is also possible because of the use of smokeless gunpowder.

Not only Situ Ye, but also A Long and Xiu Cai couldn't stop smiling.

Chen Zhengwei was in a good mood. With this ship, he no longer had to worry about being strangled.

Even if we become enemies with Britain in the future... the worst that can happen is we can just fight!

But before that, let’s seize Spain’s colonies first.

The group boarded the boat and took a walk around. Chen Zhengwei smiled as he touched the gun barrel.

"It's big enough and thick enough, it's just right for me!"

"Brother Wei, is it really that big?" Aaron came over and said with a smile.

"The president can testify!" Chen Zhengwei laughed.

Unfortunately, the president who could testify has already left.

It’s time to go to the fields.

Peter Donahue handed Chen Zhengwei a bottle of wine wrapped in red cloth, and Chen Zhengwei experiencedly slapped it on the bow of the boat.

Snapped!
The wine bottle in the red cloth was smashed to pieces.

"Brother Wei, I see they are celebrating the launching ceremony, so just pour out the bottle of wine! And they're going to use this bottle of wine to celebrate!" Situ Ye said with a smile.

Chen Zhengwei was stunned for a moment, then kicked Situ Ye.

"I'm safe!"

Peter Donahue was also very experienced and took out a bottle of wine wrapped in red cloth to celebrate.

After all, we've experienced this last time.

But no one reminded Chen Zhengwei last time.

"Prepare two bottles of wine to celebrate in the future. May everyone be safe and sound, and the world be blessed with good fortune!" Chen Zhengwei said as he walked after taking the wine glass.

He is the boss, he makes the rules!

The ship was then launched and after a busy inspection, Situ Ye took his men on board to conduct various tests at sea.

……

In Guangzhou, Rong Zeye, wearing a gentleman's suit and a hat, holding two walnuts in his hands, walked into the Osmanthus Tower with a staggering step.

"Uncle Yu!" The shop owner greeted Rong Zeye as soon as he saw him.

Back then, Rong Zeye worked as a helper in the kitchen of Guihualou, and was then driven away by the former owner.

However, no one expected that after he took a boat to the United States and stayed there for seven or eight years, he made a fortune and bought the Osmanthus Tower as soon as he returned.

He was generous and had several followers around him. At first, some hooligans were targeting him. But a few days later, the bodies of those hooligans were found in a stinking ditch.

From then on, the whole street called him "Yu Ye".

"Has anyone arrived?" Rong Zeye asked.

"Here you are. You have been arranged to stay in Room A, which is by the window." The shopkeeper said quickly.

"Uncle Yu, I'll show you the way!" The waiter came up to him with a smile on his face.

"This is my own restaurant, and I don't even know the way?" Rong Zeye cursed with a smile, then took the two people upstairs. When they entered the private room, they saw several people dressed in silk and satin, but their fierce aura could not be concealed.

In addition to tea, there were snacks such as fried dough sticks, salted water dumplings, and egg rolls on the table in front of them.

"Boss Li, Boss Yu!" Rong Zeye smiled and bowed, then looked at the person inside, it was a stranger.

"Who is this?"

"Boss Rong! This is Boss He from Foshan. We are old friends. You have a way to make money, and Boss He also wants to try it."

"It turns out to be Boss He!" Rong Zeye didn't think much about it. What he did was not something that needed to be hidden.

Although the Guangzhou official did not say it, he knew it clearly in his mind.

Then Rong Zeye sat down, exchanged a few words with the others, ate two pieces of fried dough sticks, and then got down to business.

"The day is almost here. Have all the bosses made arrangements?" Rong Zeye asked.

These people are the local gangs behind the ship owners.

Rong Zeye approached them just to send the piglets to San Francisco.

"Don't worry, Boss Rong. There's nothing wrong with arranging matters for a few people." A fat man with gold teeth said with a smile.

"As long as you have money, it's hard to say about a million, but I can still get you one hundred thousand or eighty thousand!"

"That's fine, let's do everything as you say." Rong Zeye nodded. These people knew everything about this.

As for sending the piglets to San Francisco, he had no psychological burden.

After all, these people can really make money if they go there, isn't it better than having no food to eat here?
"But Boss Rong, is there really gold everywhere in the United States? Can these people really make money by going to the United States?" asked another local gang leader.

"Don't ask me this, ask those ship owners, they know better than anyone else! Don't you know your relationship with them?" Rong Zeye said with a smile.

"I have heard them say that, but it's a little unbelievable."

"I heard that Chen Lao Hu, although he didn't establish his own territory over there, he is still a rampant one. He needs so many people, I'm afraid he is going to do something big?" the leader asked indirectly.

"What you said is different over there. Over there, it's all about business! The bigger the business, the more people are needed. Let alone, don't those millions of acres of land need people to cultivate them? Don't those leather shoe factories and shirt factories need people to work?" Rong Zeye laughed.

The gang leaders looked at each other and then laughed.

"Boss Rong is right."

"But this person, is it 120 silver dollars each?" Boss He said.

"That's right! Our words are as firm as ours, without any further ado!" Rong Zeye said immediately.

"That's it!" Boss He stood up, walked to the window and gestured to the outside.

Suddenly, some people rushed out from other shops, rushed directly into Guihua Building, and then kicked open the private room.

"Boss He, what do you mean?" Rong Zeye's face turned cold and he glanced at the other bosses, who were all drinking tea with their heads down and not looking at him.

His two followers pulled out their pistols, while the opponent drew out his knife.

"I am honored to meet you, Lord He!" A man who rushed upstairs knelt on one knee and said.

"What do you mean? I am an official appointed by the court. Do you still want to resist?" Lord He sneered.

"This is because of the flood that washed away the Dragon King Temple. I am very familiar with Tongzhi Li!" Rong Zeye laughed. He did not do nothing in Guangzhou. He got involved with Tongzhi of Guangzhou Prefecture, a sixth-rank official.

In fact, the officials in Guangzhou have some connection with the piglet selling business.

"If you have anything to say, come back to the yamen and tell me." Lord He sneered.

Rong Zeye looked at the other person for a few seconds, thinking in his heart that although he didn't know what it was, money makes the world go round.

At worst, I can just go to the government office and find someone to help me sort things out.

Then he put on a smile again: "Then I will go with Lord He."

"Whatever the crime is, we'll talk about it when we get to the government office." Lord He had Rong Zeye and his two followers taken away, along with the other people in the restaurant.

As a result, when he arrived at the yamen, Rong Zeye was beaten with a stick, leaving his skin torn and flesh exposed.

Directly above him is the prefect of Guangzhou.

"Rong Zeye, you are trafficking in human beings and you are the mastermind. Your crime is unforgivable and you should be executed according to the law..."

……

Just one day later, a telegram was sent from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, then from Hong Kong to India, and then to the UK, and finally to San Francisco, where it fell into the hands of Rong Jiacai.

When Rong Jiacai saw the news on the telegram, his expression changed slightly.

He was confused and thought for a moment, suspecting that Rong Zeye and others were being lavishly spent in Guangzhou and were being targeted by someone.

He sent a telegram back to ask someone to take money and go and find out what was going on.

It was seven or eight days later that news came back.

"The imperial court sent Guarjia Ronglu to the south to inspect the navy and crack down on human trafficking."

"Not only that, the court also ordered the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhang Shusheng, and the Governor of Fujian, He Jing, to cooperate in this matter."

After seeing this telegram, Rong Jiacai could no longer sit still.

(End of this chapter)