Er Mao smiled, "Actually, if I want to leave, I don't have to come back with Banzai when I was in Nanyang. If I stay in any city in Nanyang, I can live a good life..."
"Now that the Long Live Lord has rewarded you with your freedom, you should stop shouting like a slave. The Ai family doesn't like to hear it either!"
"Well...since the Queen Mother is so gracious, I'll take care of it!"
"Now my godfather's kindness has been repaid, but the friendship with Long Live has not been settled... When I return to the capital next time, I also want to accompany Long Live for two more years, and I will do my best to help!"
"As for General Cai's arms proposal today, I mean that the Queen Mother still needs to consider it!"
"You can't veto it outright, and of course you can't agree to it right away!"
"I can't agree. That's because this kind of arms deal is too expensive. It's unimaginably expensive. I didn't say much clearly just now. In fact, this kind of arms deal has a professional name among the Chinese!"
"It's called military modernization... Listen, this is not a simple deal at all. The engineering purpose of this system is to completely transform the entire army!"
"It would be simple if the nine airships were just placed there for fun, but the purpose of these airships is to fight, so in theory, we must prepare for the enemy in advance!"
"Can one base do it? A cunning rabbit has three burrows. Even rabbits know how to find three dens, let alone such a murderous weapon!"
"Then there is the navy. Three warships are not enough. An entire fleet requires dozens of warships to cooperate with each other. If the Qing Dynasty is not prepared to pay 40 to 50 million taels of silver, it will not be enough!"
"How much does it cost just to build a naval base? Along the coastline of the Qing Dynasty, the court had to build dozens of deep-water ports, as well as supporting naval bases!"
"Officers and soldiers in naval warfare have to be sent to Europa for further training. Zuo Zongtang's Mawei Shipyard has already sent away a group of students, but the number is far from enough..."
"It takes decades of hard work to build a navy. For such a big deal, the Queen Mother doesn't need to reply right away!"
Ci'an's face turned pale when he heard that there was so much money. "You can't ask for it, you absolutely can't ask for it... forty to fifty million taels of silver? It's difficult for the court to maintain a surplus now. Where can you find the money to fill this bottomless pit?"
Ci'an felt extremely distressed about the five million taels of airship contract, let alone the fifty million taels of the navy!
Er Mao had already guessed that the Queen Mother would have such a reaction, and sighed, "Yes, it is indeed too expensive! So I have to stop Master Long live, and I can't let Master Long live get reckless when his brain gets hot!"
"But..." Ermao changed his subject, "But sometimes this military expenditure is really something we don't want to spend if we don't want to!"
"The Queen Mother Mingjian... When Chang Mao was in rebellion, no matter how much the government and the public opposed foreign guns and artillery, the enemy still had to rely on foreign guns and cannons to defeat the enemy in the end. Even the Nanjing city wall had to be blown open by foreign guns!"
"Although Mr. Long Live is impatient, he has gone abroad and seen the world after all. He knows that in this era, no country can live alone and close its doors!"
"We, the Qing Dynasty, will not bully other countries, but we cannot stop others from bullying us!"
"This is the case with the arms business. If we are reluctant to spend money to buy it, there must be some countries willing to spend money to do it... And countries that enter the modernization of their military early will definitely use a knife to cut the flesh of our Qing Dynasty in the end!"
"Your Majesty... you have to think about it. Sometimes the money you have left will not be taken away by the enemy with foreign guns and cannons!"
"This is what Long Live Master is afraid of. From this point of view, Long Live Master has actually done nothing wrong!"
Ci'an looked at Er Mao with a complicated expression, "Are you taking retreat in order to advance? The Ai family finally understands that in your heart you still want the court to spend money, and you still want that Xiao Letian to make money!"
"No! Your Majesty, you are wrong... I will always stand with Your Majesty. Your Majesty wants the Qing Dynasty to have a strong military and the power to protect itself. This is not wrong!"
"The Queen Mother wants to spend her money on the court first and let the people live and work in peace and contentment. There is nothing wrong with that!"
"Who is wrong? What is wrong is actually the word 'competition'. The desperate competition between countries in this world is caused by this insecurity and the law of wolves that fight against each other and bite each other. We have to make a choice!"
"What is wrong is this cruelly competitive world! Not the Queen Mother, the Emperor, and the civil and military ministers in the court!"
"As for whether my godfather can make money, I really haven't thought about it... To be fair to the Queen Mother, is the head of state still short of money now? The Chinese are ten times more capable of making money!"
"Even if I make a few deals, they are all at friendly prices and I won't make much money!"
"Besides, there are many countries in the world that can produce good arms. Britain, France and the United States are all potential sellers. If the court doesn't trust the Chinese, it can find new sellers on its own!"
"The British shipbuilding industry is also very developed!"
"Military and national affairs are not something I, a sinister bitch, can decide. I am just summarizing what the European group has heard, seen, and thought into some opinions for the Queen Mother to make a decision on!"
"I only have a little bit of firefly light. I don't dare to brag about whether I can help the imperial court... If I can have a little bit of merit as a counselor, even if I don't do it in vain!"
"I've said all that needs to be said. I'm resigning... I'm resigning!"
In the past 200 years of the Qing Dynasty, there was only such a strange eunuch named Ermao! Before the Queen Mother could say anything, he said goodbye and left in a swaggering manner!
He didn't even return to the Forbidden City, he just left the palace and returned to his small house in the capital!
Ci'an watched Er Mao walk away gracefully, then turned to stare at Da Sixi and Xiao Sixi waiting in the distance, with a fierce look in his eyes!
"Come here!" Ci'an yelled, and Da Sixi, Xiao Sixi, and Manshun, the three eunuch supervisors around Emperor Tongzhi, all knelt in front of Ci'an.
"You three slaves are useless! We all went to Europa together, how come it's only Er Mao who has learned the skill of cheating?"
"I've been back to the palace for several days, and the Ai family has seen you several times. How come there's no one who can tell you some solid truths?"
"What did you learn when you went to Europa? Open your mouth and slap hard!"
"Your Majesty, please calm down. Your Majesty, please calm down..." The three eunuchs knelt in a triangle shape facing each other. Da Sixi reached out and gave Xiao Sixi a slap.
Xiao Sixi gave Manshun another mouthful, and then Manshun slapped Big Sixi again!
The three of them circled around and slapped each other. After being slapped, they had to shout, "Thank you, the Queen Mother, for the reward...Thank you, the Queen Mother, for the reward..."
Zai Chun did not leave Beiyuan. He was very anxious and sat on the ice cart, letting the two eunuchs pull him for a ride on Beishan Mountain!
"Drive... drive... run faster, I'm so hot! Run faster, little slave..."
The eunuch staggered when the whip hit his back, but they still had to run forward desperately, not daring to stop for a moment!
