Chapter 2290 Lack of Money

Soon these people went back home and reported to His Majesty the Emperor. They also said that the people in the Eastern Empire were also puzzled by this matter. Did the people from the Cao Family Firm discover some huge gathering point in the sea? After all, I have never been to sea before, and I don’t know much about the outermost things. It seems that the people of Cao’s House really discovered something terrible. Otherwise, how could they get so many people? These people It doesn't look like they came here by looting, and they are very serious when they do things, and the Cao's firm pays them regular wages, which makes people in other empires feel suspicious, and immediately began to investigate The great nobles under my command, did these great nobles sell all the people they closed themselves off? If so, this will definitely be severely punished. It is already related to the foundation of the entire empire, and you still have to hold these It would be too wrong to exchange things for money, but when he checked all the nobles under him, and finally found no big noble who betrayed them, they were really panicked, especially the Western Empire. The emperors of the Northern Empire had great opposition to Cao's House of Commerce. They definitely didn't want to see the people of Cao's House of Commerce develop like this, and build a naval base at their doorstep like this?

I don't know when it started, but they have already felt it. In the past, there would always be some people who would unite against Cao's merchants, but now the people who organized the alliance seemed to disappear suddenly. Did you go somewhere? This is really confusing, even if those people disappeared directly. There should be some clues. In fact, those people they think are those people in the Cultivator Continent. Ah, this person used to want to kill Cao Jia in the cradle, but it's a pity that they didn't do it at all. If they didn't get to this matter, they were all arrested by Li Cong now, and they no longer had the kind of thinking they had before. What they think about now is how to get those top-quality spirit stones from Li Cong's hands. What they want, if you people from the great empires can also provide those things, we will help you do whatever you want us to do. It's a pity that you don't have that kind of thing. It is impossible to provide it to us. Besides, we are all controlled by Li Cong now. Even if you want to give it to us, we have to have the guts, not to mention you don’t even know what it is. thing. Now the people of Cao's House are also very polite to these people. After all, Li Cong also confessed when he left. These people are very useful, and no one can tell what they can do in the future, if they can really help Cao's house. You have offended him now, even if he helped you at that time, he would definitely hold a grudge, and would not help you sincerely. These people in Cao's Commercial Bank have not been with Li Cong for a day or two, and they all know What should we do with such a long-term investment, so it is okay for these people one by one. These people see that the people of Cao's House of Commerce treat them so well, and they start to concentrate on doing their own things. The main research What role will the spirit stone have on this continent?

There is no impenetrable wall in the world. There are still some people who have done a lot of things in the Eastern Empire and understand what is going on. Speaking of which, these people are not fools. It has been such a long time, if they have not received any news In other words, these three empires really don’t know what to say about them to people. Now that they have obtained some news, each of these people feels that something is wrong. It is said that the people of Cao’s house have already With so much hot money, it seems impossible for them to give up the plan of the naval base.

You must know that no matter when Cao's House of Commerce is going to do things, they have never done such a halfway thing. Even if these people feel that the conditions are not enough, they will create conditions instead of just waiting like this. This is definitely not the way the people of Cao's House of Commerce do things. Although they knew that Wu Zuoxi had gone to the Eastern Empire before, they would never suspect this matter on the Eastern Empire. The relationship between the Eastern Empire can be said to be the worst. How could they cooperate? The second is the power on the sea. Although there are many navies on their continent, it can be said that they can compete with the Cao family firm. The warships that are threatening are the navy of the Eastern Empire. In the past, the Eastern Empire was a navigating country, and now it is even more like this, because they have already dispatched new types of warships. If you don't deal with them, you will cultivate a strong opponent for yourself in the future. In fact, the people in Cao's Commercial Bank are not very worried about this problem. The backwardness of a society cannot be changed by one or two weapons. It takes the whole society to change. If it is really possible to change with weapons, then the world has changed countless times, so even the people of the Eastern Empire have developed weapons similar to theirs. I will not be afraid, because such a feudal society is a decadent one. The reason why the people of the Eastern Empire can develop so quickly is because they have made some changes. If there is no Cao's firm, they can indeed It is obviously impossible for the alchemist to become the king of this continent. It is impossible for them to become the king of this continent. There can only be one king of this continent, and that is the Cao family The people in the trading firm can do it. Although the people from the three empires doubted this matter, they never thought of the East Empire. Protesting such a thing is like a child playing house, it is simply useless , Just look at the current situation. If you went to protest at Cao’s House at the beginning, some people would still come to receive you, but if you go there now, I’m sorry, there is no such thing at all. Yes, we will not deal with you people, if you want to know some things about the navy, you can. We have an external liaison agency, you can go there to have a look. We are a purely commercial organization here, and we don't know much about them, and even know much less than you. It is because of the answer of these people from Cao's House that they started to worry. Although they don't have many ships going to sea, there are a few. These ships have all come back and said that there are some places on the sea. Cao's firm's naval base. At this time, although they still can't see how important those places are. But they understood one thing, that is, all their ships seemed to come in and out from that place, and it was for this reason that they understood. main traffic. Although at this time there is no such thing to introduce this thing. No matter how the alchemist strikes, he can be regarded as a high-level person on this planet. If he can't understand this point, it will be impossible to continue messing around in the future. No one will talk to you about such issues, and you can only bless yourself. As for other things, you can only say sorry.

The spies of the three empires have also started wandering around, especially the people from the Western Empire and the Northern Empire. The Southern Empire is very upset because of the relationship with Cao's firm, so they don't want to inquire about this matter, because Their entire empire is managed by people from Cao's House of Commerce, even if they are not, but in some more important places, only people who are close to people from Cao's House of Commerce have that position. In other words, if there is no Cao It is impossible for him to be in that position if he is recommended by the Cao family firm. It can be said that the Cao family firm is really powerful in the Southern Empire, but because the people of the Southern Empire still have a lot of resistance to them, so they I can't completely regard this place as my own. If I really do that, I guess the most unlucky person may still be my own. The power of the people in the Southern Empire is very strong. This matter It can only be a little bit of walking slowly. If the walking is really too much, I don’t know what will happen in the future. Many people on the side of the Western Empire have also felt it. They didn’t With so many scruples, their ships are beginning to approach the naval base of Cao's House. Although it is tightly blocked, alchemists are on the vast sea, and there are no so-called radars in this era, so if you want to go there It is still very easy. The spies of the Western Empire paid a huge price, and finally got some news. On the islands in the coastal area of ​​​​the Western Empire, the people of the Cao Family Firm have already started with more than 30 naval bases. It has been pruned, and their scale will definitely not be small. If all these bases are established, it is estimated that it will be very difficult for people from the Western Empire to enter the ocean in the future. As I said, as long as it is a civilian ship, there is no problem, and there is no need to worry about pirates. If you are a warship, alchemist, then I am really sorry for you. How can these warships be destroyed without our approval? It is a bit unreasonable to be able to enter the ocean, isn't it? The people from Cao's House didn't say anything to these scouts from the Western Empire, they just sank half of their ships, and there are no cameras in this era, even if I did it, you guys all ran back , There is no need to be afraid of this. The high-level officials of the Western Empire will definitely believe what you people say when you go back, but because you all don’t have any evidence, so how we do things is our own business, what about you? ? It is a matter that no one has the right to ask. If you come to our place, you will have to prepare for losses. However, this time, in addition to bringing this news back, these spies also got another piece of news, that is The artillery of Cao's House seems to be much more powerful than before. One shell can sink one of their ships. In fact, this is all because Cao's House used armor-piercing bullets. Although the ships on your planet are all made of wood, ordinary shells are fine, but because the people of the Eastern Empire have already used multi-layered ships, if you don’t use armor-piercing shells, I really underestimate you. If it happened, I found out that it was such an ending, the bottom of the ship was pierced directly, and some of the crew members didn't even have the chance to carry water. The people in the department were dumbfounded. When did Cao's House give people such a shock? When is this? How could there be such a powerful thing to hit us? It simply doesn't want us alive. Why not let our people also have such weapons? All of them are going crazy, why don't they have such great abilities?

It can be said that these naval bases pruned by Cao's Commercial Bank this time have their own ideas. All the naval bases are not too far away, so that they can support each other. On the mainland, Cao's Commercial Bank Li Wei is still very clear about how the empire on which the sun never sets dominated the entire world. Of course, now is the time again. We absolutely can't just pass by like this. We need to carry forward the ability of others back then, and it is for this reason that some ideas must be realized now, otherwise. In the future, if you use others, you won't care what you do. Now Cao's firm's naval base requirement is that each base must have at least more than a hundred warships capable of fighting. It is the kind that can be pulled out at any time. At the same time, there must be dozens of coastal defense guns around the base, and the caliber should not be lower than 203mm. If it is smaller than this, the shells fired will not be that far away, so it can be said that it will not be of much use to targets at sea. Now everyone is very clear that if the navy wants to fight, it absolutely needs to use warships Yes, things like coastal defense guns are like a chicken rib. Of course, they are all on the earth, because they will use very powerful artillery to fight against them. It is different here, even if it is There is not a single warship in the military port. It is very easy to deal with these. After all, they are all wooden boats. It is not that simple to deal with yourself. These people can feel it one by one. Arrived, that is because of the reason in front of them, these people have to build a large number of coastal defense guns one by one. This cannon can be transported quickly from the other side of the earth. People from the Yang family and the Cao family business Some of the iron ore we have mastered through cooperation has already been transferred in large quantities, and the quality is much better than that on the earth, but some infrastructure here needs to be done by people here Yes, among other things, the construction of a naval base alone requires 60,000 people to work continuously for five years to complete. This is definitely not a small project. Although there were a lot of road repairs in the past There are other projects in there, but compared with the one in front of me, that project is simply too useless. Many people can see that this project can truly reflect Cao First of all, the road construction project last time can be said to be very simple. As long as the cement is delivered and there are people using it there, it will be fine. Many people are very happy. If you understand this matter clearly, this time is different. Every military base is different from others. It takes a year for engineers to design this place. There is no such thing on this continent. There are so many engineers. The people Li Cong transported from the earth this time are basically these people. They belong to the surplus people on the earth, but there is no problem with professional knowledge. These people are one by one. They are also very willing to come to this place, and it is a very good thing for them to come to this place to see, but these people have some problems all over their bodies, which makes people feel It's not very comfortable, but Li Wei didn't care so much about their problems, he just let them adapt to this place. Life on the other side of the earth can't be compared with this side. That kind of life on the earth is impossible. A lot of life here is not as good as that over there, but this side is also a very huge stage, enough for you to show off one by one. In fact, this is a It's a common problem, many people can't stand the environment here.

The people of the Eastern Empire didn't waste their time at this time. They didn't think about some naval bases in the outer sea, because they all knew that it was impossible. How capable are we? We don't have the skills of Cao's House of Merchant. They have calculated a naval base, not counting those warships, just a base, which requires hundreds of millions of silver, and it may even be higher. If the naval base is established according to the standard of Cao's firm. At least two billion silver is needed. If it is one or two, then there is no problem, but is it one or two now? That's not enough. According to the information they got, Cao's firm will build more than 1,025 naval bases. In the future, these 1,025 naval bases will become some huge nails on the sea. As long as they exist, there will be With the sphere of influence of Cao's House of Commerce, they can do whatever they want, at least they don't have the ability to stop it, and the other three empires are even more impossible. Relying on others is also something that is not very realistic. At this time, it is better to rely on yourself. Just like now, the people in the Eastern Empire are already prepared, and all they need to do is to gather all these people. Then do something that you can do in your own coastal location. It is definitely not going out to find trouble with the people of Cao's house. That is simply a waste of your own resources. You must know that any resource at this time is very fatal, if you waste it at this time. Then don’t think about returning all of them in the future, it is simply impossible. The Eastern Empire also has its own plan. 350 billion silver, it is necessary to build a very good coastal defense line. They know that after the completion of this defense line, it is impossible to resist the attack of Cao's House, because there are too many places for the navy of the Eastern Empire to defend. If you want to protect all the places, it is impossible to increase the investment by ten times. Don’t the people of the Eastern Empire want to protect their own empire, but this war is too expensive. It's called all being competed, but they don't know it. This kind of thing is a very normal thing on earth. Basically, many opponents are not killed on the battlefield, but are killed in such an arms race. Well, the Eastern Empire has already started now, and they don't know what their purpose of doing this is, just to keep themselves from being idle, and they also know that it is shameful to waste time, alchemists, why don't you think about it, waste Money is also not a good thing. What they do now does not waste time, but their money is wasted a lot. There is one difference between the Eastern Empire and the other three empires, that is, The other three empires already believed to a certain extent that Cao's House was the biggest force, alchemists and the others didn't think so. In their view, the most powerful force on this continent was their Eastern Empire. As long as they have such an idea, they don't know what to say. At least they have no way to solve this problem. The navy is a new branch of arms. They think they can catch up with the people of Cao's firm. , but why don't you think about it carefully? The people from Cao's House have been doing this for a long time. It is impossible for you to catch up with them at the beginning. Another thing is, You people in the Eastern Empire are also a little scared. They still know about the last conflict. Tens of millions of troops were dispatched, and at the end they didn’t even return a single cent. They were killed by the people of the Northern Empire, and they felt very uncomfortable when they said it, but the people of the Northern Empire asked us to help, so why did their people kill us most vigorously later.

It is because of this reason that the relationship between the Eastern Empire and the Northern Empire is not very good. In fact, this is also a very normal thing. We came to help you, but it turned out that you chased and killed us. If it were you If that is the case, we will also do that. No one can tell who failed in this matter, but one thing is certain, that is, the people of Cao's House definitely took advantage of a lot. Look at their It's clear from the appearance, these people are very good at doing things one by one, and in the end they benefited from both sides, it is simply impossible for other people to have such treatment, of course , People's treatment is so good, it is also because of their huge power, we don't have such a huge power, such things can be seen very clearly, although these people from the Northern Empire are because of this incident. The people here are not very polite, but they also know that at the end of this matter, it was the people from Cao's firm who were messing with it. If it weren't for them, the current result would definitely not be what it is now, but you know so what? Do you want to go up and do something to the people of Cao's house? Let's not say that other people's army has already entered the institution in your county. Even the current navy doesn’t eat dry food. If it really makes a fuss, this matter is really not easy to handle. These people also understand their affairs very well, so they don’t say anything. Since it’s all of you Don't mention this matter, we Cao's business people naturally don't need to raise this matter.

One month later, the 152 naval bases of Cao's Commercial Bank were already in operation, and the Eastern Empire also received a loan of about 29.5 billion silver, which can be regarded as a win-win project. Although the people of the Eastern Empire wanted to obtain a larger loan. But Li Wei won't just give you money directly. We talked about this very well at the beginning. We will give you a loan of 1,000 taels of silver, and you will find me a laborer. When I guarantee their safety, they must stay with me for at least 6 years. The agreement between the two parties can be said to be very detailed. Even the salaries of these people are clearly stated. Of course, after 6 years, these people will all be master-level people. The work they do is very good, and it can be regarded as a craft, but this craft is not what it is at all except in Cao's House, and many people think that They are not doing business properly. At that time, the people from Cao's House of Business told them to get out. I guess they would not go out. They are not fools. If you go out from here, it is impossible to get the treatment you have now. Apart from continuing to work for the people of Cao's House, you have no other ideas, although this is not bad. , but I always feel that something is not very comfortable, but this matter can’t be said. Since there is no way to talk about this matter, then we can only recognize the matter in front of us. Just do it here. The Eastern Empire’s calculations are also good. I hope these people can bring back some secrets of the Cao’s House when they come back. You must know that this place is built as a naval base, and it is definitely not ordinary. Something, that is, after guessing their thoughts, Li Wei will let the people below him keep these laborers one by one. In the future, there will be more projects in Cao's Commercial Bank, as long as these people If you are willing to stay, you don't need to be afraid that you won't have anything to eat in the future. Of course, if these people are messing around, if they are all flirting with the people of the Eastern Empire, then not all the fish in the sea will be full. Yes, I will also find some hungry ones. It is very good to ask you to eat a ton, but you are the food in the belly of the fish. Just see if you have the ability. Everything is like this of.

At this time, the people of Cao's House of Merchant also basically got information about the construction of the latest warships of the Eastern Empire. They have already established more than a dozen shipyards in some relatively hidden places in the Eastern Empire, with a total investment of more than 10 billion. In terms of silver, the various expenditures of the military expenditure accounted for 30% of the annual expenditure of the Eastern Empire, reaching more than three trillion silver, which was impossible in their history. As for the matter, counting the principal and interest that needs to be repaid to Cao's House of Commerce this year, the finances of the Eastern Empire are basically nothing, but the officials of the Eastern Empire seem to have not seen this, and they are still actively following up. Some people from the Cao’s House of Commerce were discussing the issue of borrowing money. At this time, their minds had lost everything. What they were thinking about was how to get money from the Cao’s House of Trade, even if they mortgaged their ancestral graves. There is no problem, as long as there is money, they just want to quickly build their navy. Because of this problem, the people of Cao's Commercial Bank have been studying it for a while, although the theory of debt control is still possible. It will continue, and they will not be the opponents of Cao's House in a short time. Even if they don't admit the debt, it doesn't matter. If you don't admit it at this time, it's just a temporary problem. In the future, we will use our weapons to get you to admit this matter properly. If you still don’t admit this matter at that time, it will be a big problem. The people of Cao’s House of Commerce have never done business at a loss . In the end, the economists wanted Li Wei to immediately terminate the loan negotiations with the Eastern Empire, because they all felt that the current debt was the limit that the Eastern Empire could bear. If they wanted to continue For borrowing money, I really don’t know what to say to them. At this time, they don’t have the ability. If they want to continue to get money, Cao’s Commercial Bank must consider their own risks. Things that are beyond their ability , I can't cooperate with them, of course Li Wei agreed with this idea. In fact, this is also impossible. Although the money is relatively better, the risk of being an alchemist is too great. If you are a little careless, you will lose all your money. I am very clear about this matter. It is absolutely impossible to make this matter too bad.

When the people of the Eastern Empire got the news from Cao's House, they were immediately angry. How can this be so. You must know that they have invested so much, it's like two people going on a date, and I have already prepared everything on my side. Everything was done according to your requirements, but at the end you called me directly and told me that this matter should not be carried out, and we should all rest for a while. How appropriate, just come and do this when there is a chance in the future, that's it, the people of the Eastern Empire felt that the people of Cao's House of Commerce might be afraid that they would not pay the money, so they immediately put away the treasures in their internal treasury Some things were taken out by the people of Cao’s House of Commerce, but the people of Cao’s House of Business are not fools. This matter is not something we can do as you say. These things of yours are very valuable. But this matter can’t be done that way, the most important thing is that we can’t agree to what you do. If you just borrow money to drink and gamble, then there is no problem. You can have as much as you want, but You are used to form the navy, will we give you this? We can only control your navy within a controllable range. If you want to go beyond this control, it is absolutely impossible for our people to agree to this matter, because we are not crazy, maybe After our money is handed over to you, we will die a lot of people, and don’t tell us to sign some peace agreement or something like that, that is absolutely impossible. It has no effect, but such things often happen among large organizations. In the end, the people of the Eastern Empire had no choice. The imperial meeting began, and they hoped to get some silver from other places.

"Everyone, you are all capable people in my empire. You can basically do anything. I want to ask what should be done about this matter now, Minister of the Household Department, how many things are we still lacking?" Silver?" His Majesty the Emperor of the Eastern Empire really didn't know what to say, at this time the first person to ask would always be himself, how could he be so unlucky, many people would be implicated in this matter It is absolutely impossible to have only one of my own, but there is no way to do this matter. Who made the main issue today be the issue of money? I happen to be the one in charge of money. Who to look for, really depressed to death.

Hubu Shangshu stood up and said, "Your Majesty, our shipyard has already started, because it involves a production problem. For example, we spent 1.5 million taels of silver on a dock. If we can't make a few ships If it comes, then our money can be said to be in vain, so this thing must be produced. What we lack now is the money to manufacture warships. The new warships we have designed can be said to be very Not bad, for us this thing is already good, but the problem is that the cost is too high, each ship costs 1.7 million taels of silver, which is already the price after mass production, if it is just manufactured When it comes out, the price will be even higher. Now we have manufactured more than 2,000 ships in the first batch, and all of them have been sent to the Bank of China, but they will soon be used up. The second batch of 12,000 ships is Not at all, this part is short of about 20 billion silver... Finally, according to Weichen's calculations, we still have a shortfall of about 356 billion silver this year. We are already with several large banks in the empire They have also discussed it, but at most they can come up with less than 80 billion silver." The Minister of the Household Department said depressingly, in fact, there are still quite a few banks in their country besides the bank of Cao's Commercial Bank, but those No one is willing to do this business, the interest is not much, and it needs to occupy such a large sum of money, but not all the people who run the bank are as rich as the people in Cao's House, we are all some For the poor, we are not as rich and powerful as the people in Cao’s House of Commerce. If we have so much money, we are very willing to do this. Unfortunately, we don’t have that much money, so we want to give you some help. It's also impossible, so don't come to us for this matter.

The emperor of the Eastern Empire didn’t know what to say after hearing this. There are quite a few of these big banks. One was jointly opened by the relatives of the emperor. In the past, this was the largest one. The dozen or so princes are the largest shareholders. These people are the mainstay of the royal family. If I attack them, this matter will not work. There may be problems with my notification foundation. The other one is Guojiu. The business is run by those relatives of the Lord. One of the two big shareholders is my uncle, which is my mother's family. It is said that my mother still has a lot of shares in it, and the other big shareholder is the queen's family. Well, it is very rare for two generations of foreign relatives to unite. Among them are some shares of the eldest princesses, which cannot be moved. Then there is the last one left, which is controlled by the Cheng family of the salt merchant. Speaking of which, the Cheng family is not easy to mess with. At least it has been established within the empire for tens of thousands of years. It seems that the Cheng family already existed when there was an empire. It's really nerve-wracking for me to cause a lot of trouble. (To be continued..)