Chapter 1238 Negotiation!

Yijing, a house in the northern part of the city
Zhang Kaishan, 35 years old, fell into deep thought while looking at the letter in his hand. He is the adopted son of Nanyang Jinghai King Zhang Dapeng, and the third in command of the pirate team under Zhang Dapeng. He is usually trusted by Zhang Dapeng. For this reason, Zhang Dapeng sent him to Yijing to negotiate with the Great Zhou court...

In fact, during the negotiations with the Yijing court, there were different opinions within Zhang Dapeng's pirate team. Most of the Zhou leaders in the team supported the negotiations with the Yijing court. In this way, they could not only whitewash their identities, but also transform themselves into officials of the court and return home in glory. This was attractive to some pirate leaders who came from the Great Zhou!

The pirate leaders who were born in Nanyang were more resistant to negotiations with the Yijing court. Due to some historical reasons, they were more wary of, repulsive to, and even resistant to the Zhou people. Therefore, they believed that if they accepted the amnesty from the Yijing court, then they, the Nanyang people, would be excluded and divided in the Nanyang Governor's Office to be established in the future.

Therefore, these pirate leaders who were born in Nanyang used the examples of pirates in the past who accepted amnesty and ended up with bad results to warn Zhang Dapeng, hoping that Zhang Dapeng would not accept the amnesty, would not become an official of Da Zhou, and would continue to maintain his current independence.

It was in this context that Zhang Dapeng, after careful consideration, sent his adopted son Zhang Dapeng to Yijing to negotiate with the court on the issue of amnesty.

Although Zhang Kaishan was sent to Yijing for negotiations, it does not mean that Zhang Dapeng fully supports the amnesty. Zhang Dapeng is actually somewhat ambiguous on this issue...
Zhang Dapeng’s idea is that if the Yijing court can accept his conditions, then he is willing to accept the amnesty from the Great Zhou court and lead his troops to become a subject of the Great Zhou!
But on the other hand, if the Yijing court rejects his conditions, then Zhang Dapeng will refuse the Yijing court's offer of amnesty!

Although his attitude on the issue of recruiting was ambiguous, on one issue, Zhang Dapeng's attitude was clear and enthusiastic!
The problem is firearms!

Zhang Dapeng hopes that Zhang Kaishan can find a way in Yijing to help them obtain more firearms, especially the most famous red cannon of the Fengwu Army.

In a sense, for Zhang Kaishan, finding ways to obtain more firearms in Yijing is the main purpose of his trip to Yijing. As for the negotiations with the Yijing court, that is just a secondary matter!
Because he was entrusted with an important mission by his adoptive father, Zhang Kaishan quickly met with Wang Xuecheng, who was in charge of the negotiations, after arriving in Yijing, and submitted his adoptive father's conditions to the biggest spy chief of the Yijing court.

The price Zhang Dapeng asked for was very high and Wang Xuecheng had no power to agree to it, so he just passed on Zhang Dapeng's conditions.

At the same time, Zhang Kaishan also started his real purpose. He first found several brokers on the black market, hoping to get more firearms through these brokers. New firearms were best, but he didn't mind second-hand firearms either, as long as he could get money for the things, the problem would be solved...
Driven by the huge amount of money, these brokers were very powerful. They got some muskets and even some tiger squatting cannons for Zhang Kaishan. Unfortunately, after the case of Ye Zhanpeng, the Fengwu Army's management of firearms has become stricter. So although these brokers were able to get firearms, the number they got was not large, only thirty-three in total, and there were only two tiger squatting cannons!

Zhang Dapeng's pirate team has a scale of over ten thousand people, so these firearms are just a drop in the bucket, not even enough to fill the gaps between their teeth. Seeing that he could not get more firearms through brokers, Zhang Kaishan did not give up, but wanted to bypass these brokers and talk directly to the people behind these brokers.

Zhang Kaishan had a good idea, but unfortunately, the private sale of firearms was a serious crime in the Great Zhou, so those who hid in the dark also protected themselves very well. In a strange place like Yijing, Zhang Kaishan was not as capable as he thought, so even though he had tried his best, he still did not see these brokers come online!
Just when Zhang Kaishan was at a loss, new news came from Wang Xuecheng. Among the five conditions proposed by Zhang Dapeng, except for the first one which the Yijing court could fully accept, the Yijing court rejected the other four conditions to varying degrees!

When Zhang Kaishan received the conditions from the Yijing court, he was furious. He felt that the Yijing court did not have much sincerity in the negotiations. The so-called amnesty of the Yijing court was simply an attempt to get something for nothing. They wanted them to fight to the death, but they were unwilling to pay too much for escorting the merchant ships of the Great Zhou in the South Seas.
Although Zhang Kaishan wanted to storm out and end the negotiations with the Yijing court, he had to stay patiently because his main goal of getting firearms had not made any progress, and continued to tangle with the United Mediation Office and Wang Xuecheng...

Because both sides' price tags were very high and their attitudes were very firm, and no one was willing to back down, the negotiations came to a stalemate for a while. At this time, Nanyang sent a letter to Zhang Kaishan.

This letter from Nanyang was written by Zhang Dapeng himself. In the letter, Zhang Dapeng stated that their old rival, the Bazhe tribe, had obtained some muskets and cannons from a group of Westerners. Therefore, they, who had already coveted Ba Harbor, were now even more restless and might very likely take action again this year. Therefore, Zhang Dapeng also urged Zhang Kaishan to get firearms and instructors from Da Zhou as soon as possible.

Zhang Kaishan was somewhat helpless about his adoptive father's urging. He also wanted to get more firearms back as soon as possible, but the problem was that the situation was a bit bad now.

Because long before coming to Yijing, Zhang Kaishan had already understood the Yijing court's attitude on this matter through his contacts with the Coordination Office, that is, firearms were linked to amnesty, and if the amnesty was successful, neither firearms nor instructors would be a problem, but if the amnesty negotiations failed, the Yijing court would not be able to provide firearms on a large scale.

It was based on this that Zhang Kaishan turned his attention to the HS channels, but unfortunately, under the strict control of the Fengwu Army, these HS channels did not achieve the effects that Zhang Kaishan expected.

In this way, things are back to the starting point. If Zhang Kaishan wants to get firearms, it seems that he has no choice but to negotiate with the Yijing court!

Thinking of this, Zhang Kaishan couldn't help but frowned. In the business world, people always ask for a high price but pay the low price. So in order to prevent the Yijing court from lowering the price, Zhang Dapeng deliberately set a high price and left a certain amount of room for negotiation. Zhang Dapeng also gave Zhang Kaishan a certain amount of autonomy...

So now Zhang Kaishan is faced with a choice: should he make some compromises in the negotiations in order to obtain the firearms of the Fengwu Army?
Zhang Kaishan was a little hesitant about this issue, because the price offered by the Fengwu Army was far from the bottom line given by Zhang Dapeng, so Zhang Kaishan was very pessimistic and believed that even if he made certain compromises, it would be difficult for both parties to reach a final consensus!
Just as Zhang Kaishan was in his room, thinking hard about how to break the current dilemma, an attendant beside him came to report in a panic:
"Master Shan, Brother Chen and his men were captured by the Yijing City Patrol!"

Zhang Kaishan was shocked when he heard this and asked quickly:

"How is this going?"

"Brother Chen said that it was boring to stay in the courtyard, so he, Ruan Ding, and Dan Le went to Yijing City to have fun. They first went to Manchun Garden, but Manchun Garden did not receive them. They wanted to destroy Manchun Garden, but were driven out by the gigolos in Manchun Garden!"

“Then the three of them went to a gambling house in the city, but Chen Song was caught cheating and was about to have his hands chopped off by the casino’s thugs, so they started fighting, and in the end they were all taken away by the officers from the City Patrol!” Zhang Kaishan was furious when he heard this. Although the Coordination Office did not restrict their personal freedom and allowed them to move around in Yijing City, Zhang Kaishan knew very well that Yijing was different from Nanyang, and his men were used to lawless in Nanyang, so in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Zhang Kaishan also forbade his men to leave the yard without permission...
At that time, all of Zhang Kaishan's men patted their chests and promised, but they didn't expect that Chen Song, Dan Le, and Ruan Ding, the three bastards, would sneak out after just a few days, taking their words as farts! Especially Chen Song, the bastard, who is really a dog that can't change its nature and is still cheating in the gambling house!

Although Zhang Kaishan was extremely furious, he wanted to whip the three men severely to teach these bastards a lesson!
But at this moment, hearing that these three people were captured by the officers of the City Patrol, Zhang Kaishanye could not sit idly by. After all, these three people were brothers who had followed him for many years and had life-threatening friendships with him. He could not watch these three people being imprisoned!
Thinking of this, Zhang Kaishan took a deep breath, put on his clothes and prepared to go to the Coordination Office. He was not familiar with Yijing, so if he wanted to rescue someone from the prison of the City Patrol Division, his only choice was to ask the Coordination Office for help!

Although he had not been in the Great Zhou for long, he had heard of the great reputation of the Coordination Office. He believed that as long as the Coordination Office could step in, there would be no problem in rescuing three people from the prison.

After arriving at the Coordination Office, Zhang Kaishan originally wanted to find Wang Xuecheng directly, but unfortunately Wang Xuecheng was not in Yijing at that time, so Zhang Kaishan found Deputy Director Ji Xian, and Zhang Kaishan truthfully explained his purpose to Ji Xian.

After listening to Zhang Kaishan's story, Ji Xian pondered for a while and seemed to be somewhat helpless when he spoke:

“Master Zhang, this matter is a bit difficult for you. Yijing is under the feet of the emperor. It is a place with laws, and everything must be done according to the law. Although I am the deputy director of the Coordination Office, I cannot violate the laws of the Great Zhou...”

"The censors in the Metropolitan Censorate have always disliked our Coordination Office. Every day when they wake up, they try to find trouble with us and try to disband our Coordination Office in various ways. If they knew that I helped you get the people back, they would definitely report me to the higher-ups!"

Listening to Ji Xian's words, Zhang Kaishan also said in a deep voice:
"Director Ji, my subordinates and I are your guests. We don't know your rules. Isn't there an old saying in the Great Zhou that ignorance is not a crime?"

"There have always been many voices of opposition within our ranks regarding whether to accept the imperial court's offer of amnesty. If word of this were to spread back, I'm really worried that it would affect our negotiations!"

Seeing that Zhang Kaishan raised this matter to the level of negotiation, Ji Xian smiled and said:
"Boss Zhang, I heard that if you cheat in your Nanyang gambling house, you may even lose your life!"

Zhang Kaishan was a little speechless after hearing this. Ji Xian was indeed right. Cheating in a gambling house is a very taboo thing no matter where you are, especially in Nanyang. If you are discovered, your life will be taken away. In comparison, breaking a hand in Yijing is already a very light punishment!
Seeing Zhang Kaishan was somewhat speechless, Ji Xian smiled and comforted him:
"Don't worry, Mr. Zhang. I just said that your matter is a bit difficult. I didn't say I won't help you..."

"According to our latest laws, although your subordinates participated in the fight, they did not cause any casualties, so this is a civil dispute. As the saying goes, if the people do not report it, the officials will not investigate it. As long as the gambling house does not keep on asking for trouble, your subordinates can be released on probation after they have completed the relevant Great Zhou laws and paid a deposit!"

"I can help you deal with the gambling house and make them stop biting you. When your subordinates have received relevant training on the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty in prison, you can pay some bail for them, and they can be released on probation!"

"Master Zhang, don't think that we are cheating you out of your money. As long as your subordinates don't commit any crimes during the probation period, then after the probation period is over, the money will be returned to you without a cent missing!"

"But if your people commit crimes again during the probation period, not only will they be punished for their crimes, but even their bail will be confiscated!"

After hearing what Ji Xian said, Zhang Kaishan's brows relaxed a little, and he bowed to Ji Xian and said:

"Director Ji, please help me! Let them be released on probation. I will keep them under control!"

"No problem! Master Zhang, I heard that you are from Youyan?"

Zhang Kaishan was a little surprised when Ji Xian mentioned this. He hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said:
"My father is from Youyan!"

Ji Xian nodded and said with a smile:

"I wonder if you, Mr. Zhang, are interested in going back to your hometown to see what Youyan is like now?"

"Director Ji, what do you mean by this?"

"It's nothing special. I just want to invite you to go back to my hometown and have a look..."

(End of this chapter)