Chapter 2198 Provocation

When the Western Empire wants to expand its own navy, they always express this matter on their lips. In fact, their real actions are not very big. This is mainly due to two reasons. One It is because of the financial situation of the Western Empire that they no longer have that much money. Although a series of measures have been taken, the navy is definitely a money-burning business, just like the warships they are equipped with now. , the above twelve war crossbows plus the ship itself, need about 300,000 silver to come out. This is only when a series of things such as timber have not increased. If it is, it is absolutely impossible to win this price. The other is the performance of the navy of the Western Empire in the war. They did not expect such a thing to happen. In their view, such a thing is simply impossible It happened, but the actual situation really happened, and it happened very powerfully. People in Cao's House can say that their warships are useless. Although they don't want to admit this, but in fact? They have to admit this matter, because the first opponent of their navy is the people of Cao's House, and they spent so much money to get this thing out, but what did we get in the end? It can be said that we didn't get anything, and all we got in the end was a shame, and the people of the Western Empire felt that the navy was not as good as making a giant crossbow. This thing made a lot of things for the people of Cao's House Difficult, it costs money anyway.

In fact, for the navy of Cao's House, the navy of the other empires are not very impressive. I know how much combat power they have. Li Cong is the clearest about this matter. It is simply impossible for such Gula's things to fight us, but we can't give you our things. In the past, you didn't have the expense of a navy. Maybe people who are not very dependent on Cao's firm for finances. But now you should all understand that Li Cong has another plan, which is to let the navy of the Southern Empire and the Eastern Empire have such a conflict. He believes that the combat effectiveness of the navy of the two empires is quite equal. It's close, anyway, at this time, I am in a period of recuperation. You should have started the war. But now the Southern Empire has also been repaired by itself. If the navy of the Southern Empire is allowed to fight with the Western Empire, there may be many uncertainties in the matter, maybe if the Eastern Empire is angry at this time. Sending your own army may destroy the Southern Empire. Although the border between the two empires is not very large, the Southern Empire is in a state of failure, while the Eastern Empire has almost recovered. Yes, although a lot of losses were caused by Cao's business in the past few years, the area of ​​the Eastern Empire is relatively large, and it is for this reason that the speed of recovery is also very fast. The Great Empire is not his opponent. If this is the case, the Northern Empire should be dragged into the water. Li Cong has been staying in the house for a long time, just to see if he can put their fire Pull it up, the Northern Empire and the Eastern Empire are not injured.

Basically, these two empires have no losses. When other empires are fighting, they are all developing dully. Especially the Northern Empire, this empire has not encountered any major incidents from the beginning, let alone Well, the Cao’s House of Commerce in the Northern Empire has a relatively good relationship with them, and they didn’t think about occupying the wealth of Cao’s House like other empires, but when you don’t count on me, I have to count on you. Recently, some strengths in the Northern Empire have also spoken out.

What do you say that the Northern Empire should be able to make other empires take a step back now? Their strength is already very strong. Originally, this matter has little to do with Li Cong. Whatever you want to say is your own business. We have nothing to do with each other, but there is another question, why did you people change your tone when you made a fuss? Li Cong saw it very clearly before that none of the four great empires belonged to his friends. Although allies are very important if they want to rise, it seems that he will always be their enemy. , These people did not regard themselves as their allies. Most of the reason why the Northern Empire retreated at the beginning was because of the huge benefits. In their view, the talents of the Western Empire are fools. Although you have gained a lot of territory, you have also suffered a lot of losses. Just look at the current situation and you will know that although the territory of our Northern Empire has not expanded, we have not suffered any losses. Yes, those who have obtained a large amount of interest are much better than you.

According to the information from the intelligence department of the Cao Family Commercial Bank, the principal plus interest that the Northern Empire will repay to the Cao Family Commercial Bank this year is about 16 trillion taels of silver, of which 3 trillion taels belong to the Northern Empire government, and the rest are private individuals. Loans, after the government of the Northern Empire repays the money, they will pay back hundreds of billions of silver less next year. If this continues, they will not have the loan from Cao's House in a few decades, of course. In recent years, they will repay the people of Cao's Commercial Bank, and they may also accept some, but no matter what, the loan from Cao's Commercial Bank has become a real help for the Northern Empire. The reason why Li Cong encouraged them to take loans at the beginning was to control them with debts. Who knows that he has really helped them now. This matter is not so good. How could we do such a thing? As for the thing, if there is no crisis in a large empire, it is very easy to develop quickly, especially like these relatively large empires in front of you. Even if they are injured, they can stand up quickly, not to mention these countries that have not yet risen, they all understand very well, so this time the people of the Northern Empire must be involved Go in, otherwise, the people of the Northern Empire will become stronger in the future, and this time the people from the Cao's House of Commerce must not be allowed to mix in. The Cao's House of Business will also do some military business. Of course, things like chain crossbows cannot be sold, but things like grenades can be sold. Anyway, when this thing explodes, there is nothing left. It is not easy for them to imitate a grenade on this planet.

The port of Lahasana can be said to be the port closest to the Eastern Empire in the southeast of the Northern Empire. In the past, it was basically a deserted place, but now it has become one of the largest cities in the southeastern part of the Northern Empire. The reason is It was the rise of maritime trade. Although maritime trade has been going on for several years. But the Northern Empire's own shipping business is not very developed. The ships of the Eastern Empire basically undertook more than 90% of the transactions between the two parties, and the people from the Cao’s House of Commerce took on 90% of the 90%. It can be said that the Northern Empire and the Eastern Empire Most of China's ocean-going transactions are controlled by Cao's firm. But the Cao’s House of Commerce also understands this truth. You can’t let yourself earn all the money, so they will release some of the goods on a regular basis. Cao’s House of Commerce will ask the merchants of the two empires to buy these goods. It’s up to you how you want to buy it after you go out. For this reason, Cao’s House of Commerce still has a foothold in this place. In the past, the Northern Empire Many people don’t even know what a foot boundary is, but now they understand that a foot boundary means a piece of land rented out on your territory. This place has nothing to do with your country, even if it is If people here kill people, they can only be dealt with by the people of Cao's House. At the beginning, the people of the Northern Empire didn't understand why. Their coastal governor sold this place for 8 million taels of silver, about 20,000 square meters For a kilometer of land, the rent is two million taels of silver per year. They are right. There was nothing in the past, but now with so much money, isn’t it making money?

I earn 2 million taels of silver for the court every year, and I can get 500,000 taels of silver myself. The governor still feels that he has done a very good job in this matter. Others basically think the same way. They are not fools. They always feel that there is something wrong with this matter, but even if they don’t know how to say it, they can’t detect it. Li Cong is going to start from this place if he wants to start a war between these two countries. , There are many guests from the Eastern Empire who came with the ships. These people all want to do a good deal. The people in the Cao’s House are just responsible for the transportation. It is done, but the charges are very high. Some small local merchants have their own ships. They will pick up the goods from Cao's firm and these people at sea, and carry out the next step of distribution when they arrive at the local area. That is why there is a price difference from the factory. In fact, this is a very normal business practice. If people come out to do business without profit, why would they do this? Everyone is not doing charity. At the beginning, these merchants from the Northern Empire and the Eastern Empire could live in peace, but when doing business, one will always take advantage and the other will suffer, because the people of the Eastern Empire They often come to this place, so they earn more money, they are rich, they also bully the people of the Northern Empire here, since they want to stir up trouble, they have to obey them Find one of them, as long as things get agitated, the people in our Cao's firm are not afraid of how big this matter will be, of course, the bigger the better.

There were no people in the port of Lahasana before. In the past few years, it has suddenly become a city with a population of three million. It was all built on the seashore. It is far from the port in the northern part of the Eastern Empire. The distance is about two years. This is calculated according to the speed of each ship of their two empires. Their fastest speed is only more than ten kilometers per hour. It is definitely too slow. The boat can already reach a speed of more than 70 kilometers per hour, so if everyone in Cao's House wants to go back and forth, it will only take a few months. However, the people of Cao’s House of Commerce are all in the spirit of giving others a bite to eat. The distribution center of Cao’s House of Trade is on a small island about 40 kilometers outside the city. The area is not very large, only a few hundred square kilometers. After throwing it there, the Cao Family Firm will use some local ships to transport it to the mainland. The reason why it is so troublesome is that there will be a lot of people on the mainland who want to play their ideas, even though it is the people of the Cao Family Firm. It is already very careful, and the force is also very powerful, but it is nothing to those people. They can do whatever they want to do. No one will control what the people of Cao's House of Commerce think. These people will be very powerful if they do things, and they will do some extreme things in normal times, let alone. The government of the Northern Empire doesn't know what to do yet. So it's okay to have such a buffer zone. Don't look at it, it's only a few tens of kilometers away from the coastline, but there are hundreds of warships in the two squadrons of the Cao's Commercial Bank, and it is absolutely impossible for the Northern Empire to fight past it with its current capabilities. It can only be watched.

Now there are about hundreds of thousands of people from the Eastern Empire in Lahasana Port. These people are either some big merchants of the Eastern Empire, or the imperial merchants of the Eastern Empire. They are responsible for purchasing some things in the Northern Empire, and then Let the people of Cao's House of Commerce transport them back. This kind of business has also started to rise in the past two years. In the past, they bought the goods of Cao's House of Commerce directly from the Eastern Empire, but in that case, the profit would drop by a hundred. Thirty percent, Cao's House didn't think that such a thing could be carried out at the beginning, but later found that my profit would be guaranteed well, anyway, I was responsible for the transportation anyway, what do you buy and sell? It has nothing to do with us, and the people in the Cao's Commercial Bank have also opened the so-called insurance business. As long as you are insured, if there is any problem with these things, the people in the Cao's Commercial Bank will be responsible for it. I’m sorry if you don’t have insurance, you can only be responsible for it yourself, and many people were unwilling to do this at the beginning. They thought that as long as their own people were optimistic about it, nothing would happen. But later, after several things happened in succession, they finally understood that this society is really not that good, and they could only accept this thing, and one by one, they all started to give Cao's house People are insured, anyway, the insurance money is not so expensive every time, we don't even need to follow people, as long as something happens, the people from Cao's House will take the initiative to give us the money, if such a thing If you don't do it, you really have a problem in your mind. This also makes some local escort agencies anxious. They have nothing to do, and then they all become gangsters.

In the past, this kind of business should be what other people's bodyguards should do. Does it have anything to do with the people of Cao's House? You are smashing our jobs by doing this. Don't let us have enough food, so the local The Escorts are combined and often trouble some merchant ships of Cao's House. If the power of the government in other areas can be said to be enough to kill them, but it is not possible in this place, although there are already a few here. It's a large city with a population of one million, but in the imperial court, the organization here is a county seat. There are only a few people in this county seat. If it is full of people, it means that there are thousands of government servants. The army of the Northern Empire is here. There are tens of thousands of people, but they basically don't care about such things. Besides, when those people want to do things, they will send a lot of money to these guys in the army one by one, and they will take their money. How could you come out and make trouble? They understand such things very well. If they don't understand such things, it can only be said that they don't understand anything. These people used to deal with the government often, so they are more concerned about this matter than Cao Cao. Everyone in a commercial firm must be clear. Since you groups have harmed us in the past, Li Cong is going to start doing this from them. You are going to take the blame. Li Cong's this The plan is very simple, it is to use these people to rob some important goods of the Eastern Empire, or kidnap their more powerful people, so that at the beginning, the people of the Eastern Empire may not say anything. But Li Cong knew that there would be a good deal in the future, and they would be able to accept it at that time. At that time, they would have fun. The two empires were quarreling, so it's no wonder he didn't make a fortune? (to be continued...)

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