Chapter 1154: Angry

When Qi Haoran arrived, he felt a little guilty. However, when he saw that his big brother’s expression was calm and he did not reprimand him, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Li Jinghua found it funny and whispered to Mu Yangling, “Your big brother is also feeling guilty. If it weren’t for Fourth Uncle’s visit today, he would have forgotten that he has such a younger brother.”

Mu Yangling pursed her lips and smiled. She glanced at the two brothers who were getting along peacefully and went to watch the children play with Li Jinghua.

After the seventh day of the New Year, the government office would be opened. The six departments would be busy with the spring matters. The Imperial Censorate would also have to keep an eye on the officials of the various departments and localities in case of corruption and things like that.

The Ministry of Rites had also received the notice to start preparing to send the envoys of the various countries away. Negotiations with the Spanish envoy had also been put on the agenda.

This time, Fan Zijin didn’t participate and only checked on Little Treasure and the others. After that, he handed this matter to the Ministry of Revenue to negotiate while Little Treasure, Little Bear, and Little An watched from the side.

This was not the first time Little Treasure and Little Bear had participated in political affairs, so they calmly entered the venue and found a seat before sitting down. However, it was Little An;s first time, so he could not help but feel a little uneasy as he stood beside them.

The Imperial Court had sent two people each from the Ministry of Revenue and Ministry of Rites as ambassadors for the negotiations. Little Treasure had already handed over the terms they’d drafted to the four of them a day in advance, hoping that they could adopt their opinions.

When the four of them accepted this mission, they vaguely heard that this matter was led by the Crown Prince, and so he might drop by to listen in. However, they did not expect the Crown Prince to come even on the first day and even bring Prince Rong and Prince An along.

The four officials immediately raised their heads and puffed out their chests, wishing they could go home and take out a mirror to tidy up their appearance again

Little Treasure was quite satisfied with their morale, but this satisfaction disappeared by the time the afternoon negotiations ended.

The magnanimous Little Treasure only left with a cold expression, while Little Bear stood up, glared at them fiercely, kicked the chair away and strode out. Little An, who was behind the duo, also glanced at them coldly, his eyes filled with mockery.

As the three of them walked out angrily, they bumped into Qi Haoran.

Qi Haoran was forcing the Ministry of Revenue to allocate money to buy cannons for the West Mountain camp. They had been arguing for the entire morning over money. At this moment, his mouth was dry from all that talking, so he took a break to come out in search of food. Unexpectedly, he bumped into the three children the moment he came out.

Only then did Qi Haoran remember that they were going to listen in on the negotiation with the Spanish envoys, and the venue was set up in the Ministry of Revenue’s office.

Qi Haoran waved at the three children and said, “Are you hungry? This isn’t the palace, so there’s no snacks or food for you. Let’s go. I’ll bring you to a restaurant.”

Little Treasure restrained the anger on his face and followed behind his Fourth Uncle in silence. Little Bear was so angry that he clenched his fists tightly and complained to his father as he walked. “…Although they didn’t agree to Andre’s conditions immediately, from their tone, it sounds like they were generously rewarding those Spanish envoys. Could it be that they really plan to agree to Andre’s suggestion without bargaining at all? With such officials in the Imperial Court, wouldn’t they empty out the national treasury and inner treasury?”

Little An was equally furious. “Whenever the envoys listed a condition, our officials didn’t even consider if it’s beneficial to Great Qi, and immediately wanted to agree when the other party praised them. If Great Qi is run by such people, our treasuries will be emptied out by them sooner or later.”

Little An glanced at Little Treasure and said, “They even take a look at Brother Crown Prince every time they say something. Those who don’t know better might think that they were instructed by Brother Crown Prince. I don’t think they were in the mood to negotiate at all. Instead, they’re focused on pleasing Brother Crown Prince.”

Little Treasure’s expression was very ugly. Little An continued, “Brother Crown Prince, if we don’t punish such people severely, I’m afraid there will be more such people in the future. They will at most be charged with malfeasance, but the world will blame their incompetence on your short-sightedness and come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories. Those with bad intentions might even think that you’re forming a party for personal gain.”

“Little An!” Qi Haoran glanced at him disapprovingly.

Little An said nonchalantly, “I’m not wrong. Fourth Uncle, if you don’t believe me, just watch. In at most half a year, see if there will be changes in the court because of this.”

Little Bear’s mouth fell open. Previously, he was angry at the incompetence of the four officials for going along with Andre, but he didn’t think as deeply as Little An.

He looked at Little An in shock, thinking that this kid was too smart to have considered such implications.

However, Qi Haoran had a headache. Little An was as smart and sharp as Zijin, but he was not as scheming as Zijin. As a result, his smartness and sharpness turned out to be a bad thing instead.

He opened his mouth, not knowing how to raise these concerns with a ten-year-old child. He could only bring them to the restaurant and carefully ask about the negotiation process.

Basically, the four officials wanted to suck up to the Crown Prince, but failed miserably.

The three children were digging a hole for Andre and Antonio, but the four officials mistakenly thought that the Crown Prince sincerely wanted to cooperate with the Spanish envoys, so they were agreeable to all their terms. Although the four officials didn’t outright agree to Andre’s tax-exempt goods on the spot, they didn’t object or even raise any opinions.

Little Treasure and the others wanted to interrupt, but they were sitting in the observers’ area at that time, and it was obvious that they were not part of the main negotiating team. If they spoke now, they would definitely affect the officials’ morale. Moreover, this would let the other party sense internal conflict.

The three of them could only suppress their anger. Seeing that it was about time, they interrupted their conversation and indicated that it was time for lunch. Since they would take a break for lunch, the negotiation would continue next time.

Little Treasure, who had been silent all this while, finally spoke. He said angrily, “I got someone to hand over the compiled terms to them yesterday, but such a mistake still happened today. It’s obvious that they didn’t take this matter seriously. How ridiculous.”

Alas, Little Treasure’s words wronged the four officials.

Even if they had to work overtime and stay up late, they would still finish reading the documents sent over by the Crown Prince. They thought that they were acting according to the Crown Prince’s wishes, but why was he so angry?

The four officials looked at each other. “Did we misunderstand what the Crown Prince meant?”

“But the clauses are clearly biased towards foreigners. All we did was act according to his intention…”

“That’s right. There are more than 20 types of Western goods that are exempted from taxes, whereas we’re only proposing that they exempt taxes on 10-odd types of Great Qi’s goods. It indeed seems biased towards Westerners. Logically speaking, our attitude was not wrong…”

The four officials were confused, and Qi Haoran quickly understood the crux of the problem after reading the clauses.

The three young fellows wanted to dig a hole for Andre and Antonio, so they naturally couldn’t announce it to the world openly, lest the duo attempt to bribe the officials of Great Qi.

Therefore, some thoughts could only be known by oneself and no one else.

The three families had a tacit understanding that they were messing with the Westerners, but the officials in the court were oblivious to this.

In the article, there were 28 types of Spanish goods that were to be exempted from taxes, most of which were various raw materials. On the other hand, there were only 13 types of Great Qi goods that they proposed to be exempted from taxes. Most of them were handicrafts, and the clocks and mirrors produced by their own factories were among them.

From the items listed alone, it did seem like the Crown Prince was biased towards Spain. After all, not everyone could see the deeper meaning behind these clauses.

If not for Mu Yangling and Fan Zijin’s guidance, Qi Haoran would not have understood either.

Qi Haoran knocked on the table. However, he was also displeased that these four colleagues were overly eager to please the Crown Prince.

As Great Qi’s envoys, they were there to negotiate, not to be Little Treasure’s yes-men. Furthermore, they were four yes-men that were too dumb to think.

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