Chapter Thirty-Six: Reunion with an Old Acquaintance

  It's said that Gong Banlun's nickname is because he has no sense of ruler-subject, father-son, husband-wife, brotherly or friendly relationships, and only loves a little concubine. The five cardinal relationships have gone to four and a half, hence the name Half Lun. It seems that this little concubine in front of me is indeed the one referred to as Half Lun's favorite.

  Gong Cheng also knew what Li Mingfeng was thinking, and with a red face, he said to the concubine: "Go eat, it's not outsiders." The concubine responded with a sound, lowered her head and followed the two into the dining hall.

  Li Mingfeng was not poisoned by feudal ideology, and he did not have the idea of looking down on his concubine, so at the dinner table, they were still chatting and laughing. Gong Cheng was different, he quite liked this concubine, and usually ate together with her, but today, with outsiders present, letting a concubine sit at the table was somewhat against etiquette.

  But he didn't want to hurt his concubine's feelings, and at the same time, he was afraid of losing face in front of Li Mingfeng. After weighing the pros and cons, he could only swallow his pride and be rude for once, thinking that he didn't have a good reputation anyway. What he didn't expect was that Li Mingfeng didn't mind at all, which moved Gōng Chéng to tears, thinking to himself, "I'm glad I didn't misjudge my friend."

  After dinner, the two of them had a long and intimate conversation. Li Mingfeng didn't have anyone under him, not even someone to gather information, so he had to go to the teahouse to hear rumors. Gōng Chéng was after all a local snake, able to quickly get many small pieces of news, so the two of them chatted and laughed together, one speaking and the other listening, one asking and the other answering, and they got along quite well.

  Li Mingfeng listened for half a day, and the news that interested him was that Dacheng State had been defeated repeatedly and was on the verge of being annihilated. Another piece of news was that Bai Gui's downfall had become a settled matter, but Huang Zonghan, the new governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi, had taken four months to travel from Sichuan to Guangdong and still hadn't taken office, which had already become a laughing stock among the common people.

  The country of Dasheng was thoroughly destroyed, and Li Mingfeng was happy about it. It would be best if that Sima Ping who had taken him hostage also died in the chaos. The second piece of news wasn't good either - Zhang Shipei and Qin Cheng had already returned to Guangdong to organize a militia. If Bai Gui were still in charge, things would have been half done, but now with a new governor arriving, it's going to be tough.

  After chatting for a long time, it was already late, and Li Mingfeng didn't want to return to the consulate residence, so he directly stayed at Gong Cheng's home.

  On the second day, a person from the consulate came to inform that Gui Liang and Hua Shana had already arrived in Shanghai. He Qing, the Governor of Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces, had been waiting here for some time. The three high-ranking officials of the Qing government gathered together to negotiate with the British and French envoys on trade agreements.

  This time Li Mingfang and Gong Chang were both cold-shouldered, and they could no longer speak in front of the foreigners. Even the responsibility of translation was handed over to the British missionaries. This negotiation was not private, so there were a large number of participants. Each department of the imperial court had sent personnel, and the entire British and French delegations, with hundreds of people, also attended the meeting.

  Li Mingfeng and Gong Cheng no longer had a place in the front row, and every day they participated in negotiations, they could only stand ten meters away from the negotiating table. These two people were not followers of conventional rules, seeing such a situation, they simply didn't go again.

  A large part of the Anglo-French delegation still looked down on the yellow-skinned Chinese, and previously they did not understand why Wietingema reused Gong Xiang. Due to Wietingema's power, they could only tolerate it. This time when Wietingema returned home, these two orientals also voluntarily did not participate in the negotiations, and most of the delegation were delighted to be free from them, with no one paying attention to them.

  Li Mingfeng also spent his days going in and out of various theaters, wine houses and tea houses in the concession with Gong Cheng, carefree and unrestrained.

  That day, two people were drinking foreign wine in the French concession. Suddenly, they heard a loud noise outside. The foreigners who were also drinking in the bar went out to see what was happening. Gong Chang was introverted by nature, but Li Mingfeng was different, he had inherited the Chinese trait of loving excitement and gossip. Hearing that it sounded like someone was fighting outside, Li Mingfeng immediately got up and went out to watch the fight.

  Looking far away, I saw about a dozen foreigners fighting together, all wearing British and French military uniforms. Judging from their staggering appearance, they were probably drunk. A team of Indian sepoys responsible for maintaining order bullied Chinese people with arrogance, but when they saw the foreigners fighting, they didn't dare to step forward, and could only rush around on the side, shouting useless words of mediation.

  It seems that the two sides started arguing over which country was stronger, England or France, and ended up insulting each other before finally coming to blows.

  Li Mingfeng is not interested in this topic. Moreover, it's just a habit of punching, you say that taking out the war knife from one's waist and chopping people is using fists, what kind of skill is that? It seems like he still doesn't want to risk his life.

  Just as Li Mingfeng was about to turn around and leave, he suddenly saw a familiar face in the crowd of people fighting. It turned out to be Palande. Seeing him, Li Mingfeng couldn't turn around and leave, so he hurriedly ran to the front of those Indian thugs and shouted loudly, directing them to pull back.

  Li Mingfeng has also been mixed up in the concession for over a month, and these rascals also know he's from the consulate. When they see him coming out, they shout to pull back, and the rascals all obey. Anyway, if the foreigners want to blame someone, they'll just push it onto his head.

  A group of Indians rushed up, and in the twinkling of an eye, they seized more than a dozen people who were drunk and confused. Li Mingfeng ordered that the British be sent to Gong Cheng's house, while the remaining French brats would be left on the road to sober up for a while.

  Back to the tavern, Gong Cheng was pulled out and the situation explained. Gong Cheng was quite magnanimous, after all his house was big with two floors and dozens of rooms, so a few more people wouldn't matter.

  Luckily, Gong Cheng's house was not far from there, and it wasn't long before Palan and the others were carried to the place by Ah San and the others. After ordering the servants to prepare towels and sobering tea, Li Mingfeng carefully looked at these several old men who had a street fight.

  Good guys are all acquaintances, Palando, Andrew, Adams, Harrold, Pitts, Wilson, Harrold. They were all known in Guangzhou, but after being captured that time, the British army went north and never saw each other again. In Tianjin, they were all on warships, Li Mingfeng participated in negotiations, and there was no chance to meet. This time in Shanghai, we finally met again.

  Ordered the servants to carry these drunkards into the room, used a cool towel to wipe their faces, and poured sobering tea for them. After bustling about for half a day, these people fell asleep in a daze instead.

  Li Mingfeng thought to himself, how much wine did they have to drink? Logically speaking, even if it was just going out to relax and clear their minds, there's no way they would end up drinking like this. There must be something bothering them, causing these few people to drown their sorrows in wine.