In the Great Hua Empire, within the imperial city, in the Zhou Mansion of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, a middle-aged man in a Chinese robe was sitting at the head of the table, squinting his eyes and waiting for the person on the guest seat to speak.
The middle-aged man sitting in the guest seat put down his tea bowl, thought about it for a while, and said, "This matter in the Tang Dynasty will still be difficult to handle without your care, Lord Shangshu."
This man is a well-known businessman in the Dahua Empire. He is a millionaire and can definitely be regarded as a prominent figure. He operates restaurants all over Dahua, and is also involved in gambling and other industries.
Shangshu Zhou Qiang was in the prime of life, deeply trusted by His Majesty the Emperor, and held great power but was cautious.
He waited for the guests who came to the door to explain their purpose, showed a faint smile, and declined: "Your Majesty is unwilling to admit that Tang Guo replaced Zheng Guo and easily subverted our vassal state. This matter makes Your Majesty very unhappy. "
Everyone knows that there are many vassal states around the Great China Empire, and Zheng State is one of the weaker and more obedient ones.
The Zheng State suffered a disastrous defeat in the war against the Mirage State, and it was already in a state of decline. However, it was replaced by the Tang State within a few days.
How could this not make the emperor of the Great China Empire angry? One of his vassal states was wiped out, and the one that replaced it seemed to have no intention of paying tribute.
The middle-aged man in the guest seat asked puzzledly: "But... is it really necessary to declare war? The national treasury is empty and the soldiers are slack. If something goes wrong, will the empire still lose face?"
He is not a member of the government, so he can see the Dahua Empire from another perspective that others cannot see.
The current Dahua Empire is not as powerful as it seems, and it is also suffering from internal and external troubles. The only scary thing is that this empire is still vast.
"The question is, who dares to persuade His Majesty now?" Shangshu Zhou Qiang smiled bitterly, shook his head and picked up the teacup.
The middle-aged distinguished guest said nonchalantly: "I don't think this has anything to do with it. I heard that people from the Tang Dynasty have been active in the imperial city recently. I think they will also find a way."
Tang Mo didn't plan to start a full-scale war with the Dahua Empire before he was ready, so he was still prepared to spend some money to settle this matter.
However, now the Emperor of the Great China Empire, Zhao Kai, is very angry and is even thinking about using the army to help Zheng Guo recover. Therefore, the Datang Group can only bypass the emperor and plan to work hard on the ministers of the Great China Empire.
On the other hand, bribing His Majesty the Emperor's concubines seems to be a good way, at least a good choice.
Everyone is a human spirit. When Zhou Qiang heard what his party members said, he realized what the people of Tang State were thinking: "Blowing the pillow wind? Haha... It's not impossible, but if you accidentally step on the prince's quarrel to fight for the throne, , I’m afraid it’s hard for gods to save him.”
The guest was stunned for a moment, and then asked worriedly: "These people from the Tang Dynasty are not so ignorant, are they?"
"It's hard to say, it depends on whether they are smart or not." Zhou Qiang put down the tea bowl and said with a smile.
The party member in the guest seat immediately laughed and said with certainty: "Smartness must be smart."
"I knew you were here to be a lobbyist this time." Zhou Qiang was stunned for a moment, then stretched out his finger and nodded at the other party.
The customer couldn't hide the smile on his face either: "I can't help it, the price I offered is really... full of sincerity."
"Hahahaha! Then how do you plan to convince me, the Minister of Civil Affairs?" Zhou Qiang raised his eyebrows and asked.
"It's actually simple, here." The middle-aged man smiled and took out a bill from his arms and pushed it to Shangshu Zhou Qiang.
Zhou Qiang frowned slightly, then picked up the bill, and couldn't help but tremble slightly when he saw it.
What appeared in front of him was a deed of betrayal. This deed belonged to a famous singer in the capital. Many princes and ministers had ideas. Unexpectedly, the other party actually sent this deed of betrayal to him.
"What a generous move." Zhou Qiang put the deed of sale back on the table, smiled, glanced at the middle-aged man in the guest seat, and asked: "I know Mingyue Tower is your property, this goddess Shu Xiaoxiao She is the pillar you have carefully cultivated...how much did the other party give you to give up your love to me?"
"A car production line." The middle-aged man didn't hide anything and said truthfully: "The first and most advanced car production line in our Dahua Empire!"
"Car? Is that a new thing?" Zhou Qiang remembered that there were two more cars in his mansion, both of which were gifts from others.
That thing is really good. It doesn't need horses to drag it. It can walk quickly with full oil. Sitting on it is much more comfortable than a horse-drawn carriage.
The only drawback is that because the shock absorption effect of this thing is so good, it will tremble and go up and down when crossing a ditch, which makes people feel dizzy.
Zhou Qiang sat on it several times before, but ended up vomiting all over the place after getting off the car. Then he threw it aside and did not use it.
"That's right, it's that new thing! Not only these new things, but also some other good things." The middle-aged man replied: "With these, tens of millions of gold coins are just a number."
"Hiss...really?" After thinking about it, Zhou Qiang also felt that this kind of thing can indeed make money. He heard that as long as you get used to riding on this kind of thing, you won't feel dizzy. His Majesty the Emperor seems to have a more luxurious one.
The middle-aged rich man chuckled, with a hint of obscenity in his eyes: "I even gave it to you, Shu Xiaoxiao, what do you think?"
His fingers rubbed the deed of sale twice, and he seemed to have made up his mind. Zhou Qiang finally nodded: "Okay! I will be your mouthpiece at the court meeting tomorrow!"
The rich man knew that he had almost accomplished the task this time, so he stood up and said, "Master Shangshu will not regret it!"
…
At the same time, in the Mansion of Chen, the Minister of Industry of the Great China Empire, the old man Chen Jing, the Minister of Industry, was tapping the armrest of his chair.
Suddenly, he stopped his movements, looked at his close friend who was working as a lobbyist, and asked in a long voice: "Are you sure they will invest in building twenty factories as agreed?"
"Very sure! As long as the Great China Empire recognizes the Tang State to replace the Zheng State, everything will be implemented as agreed." The old man nodded and said firmly: "The Datang Group has not broken its promise yet. They will keep their word and have Very good word of mouth reputation.”
"It is indeed a generous investment to invest tens of millions of gold coins! These political achievements are attributed to me, and they can indeed make the position under my butt stronger, but old friends, raising tigers is a source of trouble... I won't do it after all. Be practical." Chen Jing, Minister of Industry, said worriedly.
He is worried that his connivance will raise a ferocious tiger next to the Dahua Empire, which will eventually devour the Dahua Empire...
However, his old friend asked directly: "If you don't help, will the tiger leave?"
This question went straight to the heart, making the boss of the Ministry of Industry a little melancholy, and he didn't know how to answer. The tiger of Tang Dynasty has already arrived, how could it escape so easily?
The only hope now is that the Dahua Empire can pick itself up and become a stronger existence than Tiger.
But... is this possible in the current Great China Empire?
After thinking about it and being silent for a long time, the old minister Chen Jing still stubbornly sighed: "After all, it is possible to nip the crisis in the cradle..."
In his opinion, there is one last resort, which is to support His Majesty the Emperor, and use His Majesty's anger to vent his hatred, raise troops to attack the Tang State, and get rid of this future trouble.
But this is very risky, because as the minister of the Ministry of Industry of the empire, he naturally knows the internal and external troubles of the Great China Empire, and of course he also knows that sending troops this time may not lead to victory.
Once it fails, the Dahua Empire's control over the surrounding areas will be significantly reduced, which will accelerate the empire's collapse. Chen Jing is not willing to see such a result.
To put it bluntly, if a war breaks out, it will be a war on the fate of the country, a battle on the fate of the country of the Great China Empire!
From the perspective of a minister, he did not agree with betting the fate of the empire on a war. This was too hasty.
Moreover, as the Minister of Industry, he was naturally exposed to a lot of information on industrial progress. He is well aware that many new technologies have suddenly appeared in the world today. If they do not fully understand these technologies, the Great China Empire is likely to suffer military losses.
So instinctively, he actually resisted such a war. He also hopes that the empire can take action when it is more familiar with new technologies and understands them thoroughly. Until then, it's best to keep a low profile and pretend to be dumbfounded.
The old man sitting next to him shook his head and said, "It's too late! If a few months ago, when the Tang Dynasty was not yet stable, I, Dahua, had used the power of thunder to raise millions of soldiers, maybe there would still be a chance. Now. Now , they have already matured, what can we do?"
This old man had been an official before, so he naturally had a broad vision. It's a pity that he was sacrificed in the political struggle because he offended others. Now he is barely holding a sixth-grade job and is wasting his time in the Ministry of Industry.
"I heard that the whole country of the Tang Dynasty only has one hundred thousand soldiers. We, Dahua, have sent two hundred thousand troops. How can we not succeed immediately?" When Chen Jing heard the old man say this, he was startled for a moment, and then asked confused.
The idle old man waved his hand and had already understood the matter clearly: "That's easy to say, two hundred thousand? If His Majesty could easily raise an army of two hundred thousand, this battle would have started last month!"
The empire's military expenditures were already very tight, and many new weapons had appeared recently, so the military used military funds to purchase some weapons for experiments.
In normal times, these things would obviously not be a problem, but now, there is no extra military expenditure to raise troops for combat.
If you want to raise enough military pay at once, you will inevitably have to divert funds from other areas. Whether it is the Ministry of Industry or the Ministry of Rites and Officials, which department is willing to spit out the benefits of its own department?
Therefore, Chen Jing patted the armrest of the chair angrily and complained angrily: "It's all those insects that are causing trouble! It's all good, but I went to buy it from Cyric..."
"What's the use of complaining now? Having said that, if Mirage hadn't defeated Zheng with its powerful ships and cannons, allowing us to see the power of new weapons, wouldn't we still be using Cyric's flintlocks now? Wouldn't the situation be more dangerous?" The old man shook his head and said.
In his opinion, if he had not seen the power of new weapons from other wars in advance, the Great China Empire would be really in danger this time.
I raised my own troops to fight in the lake, and found that the enemy's ships were too strong and powerful to defeat them. What would happen then? Although Dahua has a vast territory, it can't afford such trouble, can it?
"Sigh... But this time, replacing 200,000 Cyric Type 1 rifles is really painful!" Chen Jing was furious when he thought of those bastards from the Ministry of War who bought 200,000 rifles in one go. Come to one place.
The old man smiled again and complained: "My body hurts? Just be satisfied! That's not even counting those cannons! Add them all up, it's extremely expensive."
Although compared to the weapons and equipment of the Datang Group, the weapons of the Cyric Consortium can now be said to be relatively affordable, but even the Great China Empire will have to digest such a huge amount of purchases.
If he hadn't been stimulated by the war between Zheng State and Mirage State, if he hadn't been forced by Tang State, the emperor of the Great China Empire would not have easily agreed to such a huge weapons procurement plan.
Thinking of this, Chen Jing sighed again: "I submitted a memorial for the construction of the train and railway before, but His Majesty has not approved it yet... I must be really out of money."
"It doesn't matter if we don't have money, we just have to pay for it ourselves!" the old man said. In his opinion, this train is the real artifact, which can connect the vast territory of the Great China Empire and truly take advantage of its size.
Therefore, he and Chen Jing have the same opinion, that is, even if the country has no money and the Ministry of Industry makes arrangements on its own, it must start railway construction.
YY
The Ministry of Industry is in charge of Dahua's industry and construction, and there is a lot of oil and water, so if they want to raise money, it will not be a difficult thing. The premise is that the person who pays the money should get more benefits!
Naturally, everyone can benefit from building the railway, so the old man is so confident that he can raise funds.
"It's because of the lack of loyal people like you that Dahua has become so decadent today!" Chen Jing sighed again, and then praised his old friend.
"However, without you, my old friend, taking care of you in the court, the people below would not dare to spend so much money to build the Laoshizi Railway, so... you are the backbone of everyone." The old man looked at his elder Friend, so said.
"I know! I know what to say." Chen Jing closed his eyes and made a choice helplessly.
In the residence of the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, the Minister Wang Yucai looked at the close relatives in front of him and sneered: "If your Majesty still has the intention to raise troops and start a war tomorrow... you know what to say, right?"
"There is no money in the treasury!" A row of ministers and officials from the household department lowered their heads and spoke in unison.
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This chapter is very poorly written. I started writing it from yesterday to today. I’m sorry to ask for leave again... I managed to write it despite the abdominal pain. You can just make do with it. I’m sorry. My health has been very bad in the past few days. It may be a gastrointestinal cold or enteritis. I don't dare to go to the hospital. I can only take medicine at home. The update may not be stable. Readers, please bear with me.
