It was not just Long Ye and King Shang Tai who prepared New Year's gifts for Xiao Letian. Almost all the high-ranking officials who were preparing to return to Ryukyu began racking their brains to prepare New Year's gifts.
Chun Shisanniang in Beijing mobilized countless resources of the Northern Branch of the CIA to purchase twenty-four young and beautiful women from the private sector, and sent them there on the pretext that the Prime Minister's Mansion was short of maids.
During this time, Chun Shisanniang did nothing else. All her energy was focused on the loyalty assessment of these twenty-four girls. Eight generations of the ancestors were investigated clearly, and ideological education was carried out every day. To put it bluntly, It's just brainwashing.
Chun Shisanniang was also afraid that there would be a few tricks mixed into it, which would cause big trouble.
Tanggu Lotte Foreign Bank has also started to move, and the affiliated firms that maintain close cooperation with the foreign firm are also going crazy. For example, Shopkeeper Niu of Sihai Trading Company, who made a fortune following Xiao Letian, has been on fire in the past two days because of preparing gifts. Swollen.
Lotte Bank and Lotte Bank are the two most important financial institutions under the Prime Minister's Office. Shopkeeper Niu has been working hard in the past few years and has obtained a permanent seat in the bank. This is a golden job that cannot be exchanged for a thousand dollars. He can also be regarded as a member of Xiao Letian's influence. A core member.
"What the hell? Xuande Lu! Do you have a pig's brain? Can you get antiques from the Song Dynasty? At the end of the day, the Tang Dynasty will have to be prosperous... Let's look for it again!"
"Sending beauties? Am I short-sighted or are you short-sighted? All the Chun Thirteen Niangs in Four-Nine City have already given them away, how can we show off our merits by giving them away? Besides, the Thirteenth Niang can give them away, no problem. If I give it away, just wait for the two ladies to come back and deal with me! Get out..."
"By the way... I remembered that your Lord's Journey to the West has not yet been published in a collector's edition! This is a good opportunity. Let's spend a lot of money to find engraving masters in Beijing and Jiangnan to carve a collector's edition for Your Excellency. !”
"That's right, someone is here! I have collected two million taels of silver from the semicolon in advance. I want to invite calligraphers across the country, the best engravers, the best painters... to engrave it for me regardless of the cost!"
"Regardless of whether it's too late or not, let's carve out 50,000 to 60,000 words in these two months! This is a decent amount of money spent!"
Shopkeeper Niu felt that his idea was so good that he couldn't even find his eyes laughing. In two months, he actually carved out the first 50,000 words of a volume. According to people who know the art, it is no less exquisite. From the Wuyingdian Sikuquanshu published by Emperor Qianlong.
There are many people who are interested, and Jiangnan is also in chaos. Hu Xueyan is very shrewd. He knows that although Xiao Letian has money, one of Lotte Yang's weaknesses is that it has too much silver and too little gold.
In the trade circle around the Qing Dynasty in Asia, silver was a very important currency, but if you want to conduct large transactions in Europe, silver is not easy to use, because the mainstream currency in Europe is still gold, and the settlement prices are different between gold and silver. of.
Sometimes European countries are even too lazy to ask for silver, preferring to ask for Asian physical goods of equal value.
Does three thousand taels of gold ingots look vulgar? But this vulgar currency is the much-needed reserve currency in Xiao Letian's financial empire, and Hu Xueyan's Fukang Bank also promised to help Letian Bank exchange at least 50,000 taels of gold from Jiangnan within three years.
This gift is even more precious!
Senior intelligence officials stationed in the northwest prepared a high-precision military map of the northwest, Ryukyu envoys from Nanyang brought the latest maritime maps of Southeast Asia, and diplomats stationed in India collected the highest quality Sri Lankan gems.
Of course, Fuso was indispensable. Senior officials of the Fuso Intelligence Bureau, such as Ryoma Sakamoto and Hirobumi Ito, even secretly encouraged the emperor to cut off a piece of the agarwood collected in Todaiji Temple and give it to Xiao Letian.
This Orchid Retreat is not ordinary, it is Japan’s top national treasure. In history, all those who have received Orchid Retreat and Agarwood are the actual rulers of Japan.
Historically, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Ashikaga Yoshitsune, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Toki Yoritake, Oda Nobunaga, Emperor Meiji, etc. have all used it.
The scale of this New Year's banquet has shocked East Asia. Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan in the south of the Yangtze River and Zuo Zongtang in the northwest have expressed their hope to send representatives to attend the banquet and have also prepared many expensive gifts.
But Xiao Letian refused. He said in a very tactful tone that this was just a New Year's reception within Ryukyu. He politely thanked others for attending the ceremony. Ryukyu would give a gift in return to anyone who was given a gift.
Zeng Guofan gave a calligraphy, Ninth Marshal Zeng Guoquan gave a sword, and Zuo Zongtang from the northwest gave a painting. These were all ordinary gifts for the occasion. In the end, even the Manchu Qing court issued a decree to reward Xiao Letian with one. Yellow mantle and the title of Baturu.
What is surprising is that despite the decree, no one sent yellow jackets to Ryukyu. The Manchu and Qing Dynasties did not take it seriously, and the Ryukyus did not take it seriously. Anyway, this is the attitude that both sides want.
I am the king and you are the minister. I reward you and you accept the reward. Just perform this face-saving show, but the New Year's gift for Zai Chun took a whole boat and was delivered to Ryukyu a month in advance.
The New Year is approaching day by day, and crowds of people from all over the world gather at Naha Port. Almost every day, senior officials disembark at the port, and there is an endless stream of big shots to greet them.
Ship after ship of precious goods were sent to Shuri Castle and the Prime Minister's Palace. All kinds of ingredients prepared for the banquet were piled up like mountains, and the inventory was full and the warehouses were busy 24 hours a day.
In the lively atmosphere, there was only one person who was extremely lonely, and that was Aixinjue Luo Zaichun, the Tongzhi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
Young Zai Chun has just returned from Fuzhou, and his three hundred bodyguards have been sent to Fujian. Where is the sphere of influence of Zuo Zongtang, a great loyal minister, and where are the three hundred bodyguards' initial plan to train three thousand new troops loyal to Zai Chun. .
Fukang Bank provided more than three million taels of military expenses and weapons and equipment. Xiao Zaichun's bodyguards have all transformed into squad platoon leaders, eating and living with the new recruits. They used all the skills they learned in Ryukyu to start replicating Ryukyu new soldiers. Army model, hoping to build a strong army.
Zai Chun was not sure whether he could surpass the Ryukyu Marine Corps, but whether he could surpass the Xishan Camp, there was no suspense about it. The only thing that worried him was the gap in numbers.
Zai Chun was very conflicted. In what capacity should he attend this New Year's banquet? The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty or the Prime Minister's student? Ryukyu has made it clear that this is an internal gathering of the prime minister's officials, and they have declined diplomatic congratulations or accepted state gifts. So far, no one has sent the yellow mantle from the Four Nine Cities.
As for Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang and others, they were just New Year's gifts given in a private name and had nothing to do with this banquet.
"Er Mao! What do you think I should do? My identity is so embarrassing!"
Er Mao stood behind Zai Chun and said calmly, "Embarrassment is just a state of mind. It depends on your choice... But I still have something to say. Without the Prime Minister, Your Majesty would not be where you are today!"
Zai Chun closed his eyes and felt the night wind blowing on his face. He clenched his fists and the scenes in his mind were spinning back and forth like a revolving lantern. The Forbidden City is like a prison, people study in the Wenhua Hall every day, officials who are respectful on the surface but ignore themselves in their hearts... those scenes are like yesterday's dream.
Nowadays, Zai Chun's bedroom is filled with world-famous guns, and he shoots hundreds of bullets every day. Even Ye Qiu and the others have a thumbs up for Zai Chun's marksmanship.
There are also those three hundred bodyguards, who are trained like tigers one by one. Fuzhou Zuo Jigao mobilized all resources to select soldiers for himself. They are all children of poor and kind families, and they are all simple farmers. According to what the Prime Minister said These are all the best soldiers.
Who gave all this? They are all their own masters!
"The kindness is so great that there is no way to repay it! I can't take care of that much anymore, so Er Mao prepares pen, ink, paper and inkstone..."
