Chapter 51: Leave One Hand for Future Troubles

  The next day, 9:00 am.

  Ali and Ai came to the Qing army's garrison with silver tickets, guns, and ammunition. The two did not enter the military camp but waited outside. Moreover, they also brought a thousand Allied soldiers, led by French fleet commander Rear Admiral Léonard Victor Charner. With Charner's protection, Ai and Ali could feel at ease while demonstrating that the Anglo-French coalition was powerful and intimidating Li Zongren.

  Ari country invited a guard, ordered the guard to go to the Qing army camp to report.

  The guards entered the camp and paid respects to Li Zhen in the grand tent, asking Li Zhen to leave the camp and return the captives.

  Li Zhen shook his head and refused, saying: "Go tell Ariya and Aitong that the exchange location is within the camp, and the Anglo-French army must stay outside the camp. Only Ariya and Aitong can come in. This is my condition, and I will not change it."

  The guard smiled wryly and retorted: "General, the exchange is a bilateral agreement, how can it be done within the camp?"

  "Why can't it be?"

  Li Zhen smiled and said: "This is my territory, I'm in charge. Get out of here!"

  At this time, Huang Hu directly blasted the British soldiers out of the camp.

  The guard left the camp and returned to Ari's side, reporting Li Zhen's words one by one.

  Ariya Kunitomo's face turned red with rage, his eyes blazing with fury. The normally self-composed Ariya Kunitomo clenched his meaty fists, itching to order his soldiers to attack. In his mind, he had already begun plotting his revenge, and once Adams and the captured soldiers were returned, he would definitely order the Allied soldiers to retaliate.

  "AiTang said: "Old friend, Li Zhen is afraid of us, so he's hiding in the camp and handing over the soldiers. Let's go exchange them." After a pause, AiTang looked at LaiErl again and said: "Commander, please wait for us outside the camp."

  Laurier nodded and said seriously: "Consul, I am ready for battle at any time."

  Ai Tang and A Li looked at each other and walked towards the Qing army camp.

  At the same time, soldiers carrying ammunition, guns and money also followed closely. After entering the camp, the soldiers guarding the gate immediately became vigilant and were on high alert against the foreigners outside the camp. Li Zhen also led his soldiers out of the big tent, bringing Adams and the captured soldiers with him, and the two sides exchanged them in the camp.

  "General, one thousand rifles and two hundred thousand rounds of ammunition. You may inspect them."

  Mr. Li said: "The consul is indeed a man of his word."

  At the moment, Li Zhen ordered Huang Shi to take soldiers to inspect the guns and ammunition brought by Ali, and then also inspected the guns and ammunition brought by Ai Tang. After confirming that the two men's weapons were not fake, Li Zhen nodded and said: "The guns and ammunition are qualified, I wonder how you two have prepared your money?"

  Ali Khan snorted and said: "There's a Chinese saying that goes 'one hand gives money, the other hand gives goods'. We've already given you guns and ammunition, shouldn't you be showing some appreciation?"

  Li Zhenxiao said: "Huang Shihai, each of you return one hundred captives to them."

  Ah Li and Ai Tang saw Li Zhen being cautious, both furrowed their brows, didn't expect Li Zhen to be so careful.

  " Gentlemen, I have shown sufficient sincerity. Now it's time to pay up: 500,000 taels of silver from the British side and 300,000 taels of silver from the French side - not a single copper coin can be less."

  Ai Tang's heart was bleeding, but he ordered his soldiers to bring a box made of nanmu wood.

  Ai Tang said: "General, here is a silver ticket worth 3 million taels of silver, please check it." The French soldier brought the wooden box to Yang Banhou's side and handed it over to Yang Banhou, who then passed it on to Li Zhen.

  Li Zhen took over the box and said: "I believe in Mr. Ai Tang's character, no need to check."

  Ah Li Guo saw Li Zhen didn't check, secretly said he was too stupid.

  Li Zhen did not check, even if a few tens of thousands of taels of silver were missing, it would not be discovered.

  But now it's too late to pretend. Ali Guo also let the guard take out a box and hand it over to Yang Banhou. Inside the box were stacks of silver tickets, neatly arranged in a bundle, totaling 500,000 taels. Li Zhen accepted them without hesitation, still without checking. In this way, he got his hands on 800,000 taels of silver, 2,000 rifles, and 400,000 rounds of ammunition.

  Li Zhen ordered: "Huang Shi Hai, release him."

  At this time, Huang Shi-hai ordered his soldiers to release Adams and some of the soldiers.

  Adams hung his head in dejection.

  The soldiers who followed Adams back to Ali Khan stood quietly. Ali Khan looked at them carefully, suddenly frowned and showed dissatisfaction on his face, angrily saying: "Li Zhen, the Anglo-French army has paid money, guns, and ammunition, and has done things according to the agreement. Why is the number of soldiers you returned not enough? This does not match the number of prisoners you said."

  Li Zhen nodded and said: "Mr. Ari Kuni is really meticulous, Li Zhen admires him."

  "You, you, you shameless!"

  At this moment, Ali even had an urge to vomit blood.

  Ai Tang frowned and asked: "General, please give us a reason."

  "Mr. Ai Tang and Mr. Ali Guo, it's not that I don't trust you two, but because of the shady things you've done, I really can't believe your verbal agreement. Next, I will attack Shanghai County City, but I'm afraid you two will cause trouble for me, so I temporarily left behind 200 allied prisoners of war. Among them, there are 100 British prisoners and 100 French prisoners. They continue to live in the camp, waiting for me to capture Shanghai County City before releasing them."

  Ah Li's mouth twitched at the corner, and in his heart he was already extremely wary of Li Zhen.

  Actually, Ali Guo and Ai Tang had already discussed it, after all the captives were exchanged back, they planned to attack the Qing army camp and take back the lost money. Not only that, but also to extort Li Zhen heavily before stopping.

  Li Zhen played a small trick and both of them didn't dare move anymore.

  Ariya said: "I let the Allied forces help you attack the city, and you release the remaining Allied soldiers, okay?"

  Li Zhen shook his head firmly and said, "Mr. Araki, matters of our country can be handled by ourselves, no need for foreigners to intervene. Wait until I take down Shanghai, then the two of you can enter Shanghai again. I am the newly appointed supervisor of Jianghai Customs, responsible for tariffs in Shanghai. We will have a more in-depth conversation later. However, for now, we must be cautious and cannot relax easily."

  Ai Tang nodded and said: "Let's do it according to the general's intention, let's go."

  Ali Guo raised an eyebrow, wanting to refuse.

  However, Ah Li Guo saw the expression on Ai Tang's face and listened to Ah Li Guo's opinion, leaving together. After leaving the camp, Ah Li Guo asked: "Old friend, we still have soldiers left in the Qing army camp, why not fight with reason and strength?"

  Ai Tang's eyes were deep and solemn, and he said in a low voice: "Li Zhenqiang is extremely stubborn, it's no use arguing with him."

  Ariya said: "We have no choice but to fight."

  Ai Tang said: "Li Zhen wants to attack Shanghai, but relying on the equipment of the Qing army and the current firepower, it's simply harder to take down Shanghai than to climb to heaven. We watch from the side, when the Qing army is repeatedly frustrated, Li Zhen will definitely seek fire support and ask us for help. At that time, we bring back the remaining Allied soldiers and extort more money, isn't it better?"

  "Ah, old friend, you're indeed a deep and cunning strategist."

  Ai Tang lightly laughed twice, walked to Lai Er's side and told him what happened, bringing the Allied forces to retreat.

  PS: The second of six updates; Xiaodong continues to explode, but the ranking is not good enough, it's really miserable, my heart feels chilly.