Daming Town Haiwang

In the Governor's Mansion of Hong Kong, Governor Tang Bohu received the Duke of York, who had just come from France, in his garden.

The weather is very good now, a rare sunny day, blue sky, white clouds, sunny, carpet-like lawn, and a pot of good Daming tea, sitting on a chair, overlooking the bustling and lively urban area below, this is definitely life A great treat.

"Your Excellency the Governor really enjoys it, sitting here drinking tea and looking at the bustling city, this is definitely a great enjoyment in life!"

The Duke of York took a sip of the tea. This fine Ming tea was different. With the tea in his mouth, the tea tasted slightly bitter at first, followed by bursts of sweetness, leaving an unforgettable fragrance on his lips and teeth.

"Haha, overlooking Hong Kong from the Governor's Mansion is indeed one of the great pleasures in life."

Tang Bohu, who is over [-] years old, looks a lot older now. He has been the governor of Hong Kong for many years, and he has witnessed the development and prosperity of this place with his own eyes.

He also often overlooks the city here, and even when he is in the mood, he will splash ink here, but he has left a lot of works, and even learned sketching and painting in Europe, which is quite successful.

Of course, these are not the things he is most concerned about now, what he wants most now is to be transferred back to Daming.

Recently, there was also news that Mr. Liu, the chief minister of the cabinet, intends to promote him back to the mainland of Daming to serve as the chief envoy of a province. If he can, then he will be regarded as a third-rank official.

The third-rank officials are all already remarkable officials, and they can be regarded as glorious lintels.

And he is only sixty-one years old now, as long as he is in good health, he is still expected to move forward in the future. If he can return to his hometown as a servant of the minister, it will be really good.

At his age, and having been an official for many years, that's what he is pursuing now, and he no longer expects to be an extremely powerful minister, become a cabinet boss or something.

"Your Excellency the Duke, it shouldn't be as simple as asking me to drink tea this time, right?"

After exchanging pleasantries, Tang Bohu also asked him why he came.

In fact, Tang Bohu had already guessed the reason for his visit. The European side was full of gunpowder and the war was about to start. He must have come to him to buy arms and weapons.

The trading of arms and weapons in the Ming Dynasty has always been controlled by the imperial court, but it is traded and bought through the Tianjin Ocean Trading Company.

If you want to buy Ming's arms and weapons, you must first go to the Daming government to obtain permission from the Daming government, and then go to Tianjin Ocean Trading Company to negotiate the quantity, price, etc. of the weapons you need.

The reason for this operation is that many arsenals headed by the Miyun Arsenal are all the industries of the Great Ming Son and the Great Ming Xungui Group.

These industries are not controlled and managed by the Ming court, but private industries. Naturally, this private industry must pay attention to profits and benefits.

The imperial court can control whether I sell to the outside world, but as for how much to sell, that is my own business, and the imperial court can't control it. I must guarantee my own benefits and interests.

In the past, under the Ministry of Industry, there were a large number of craftsmen directly under the Ministry of Industry, who specially made weapons for the imperial court, but the quality of the weapons they produced was very poor, and the corruption was extremely serious, so that the military equipment of the imperial court was slack, and the frontier army would rather Even if you use a fire stick, you don't want to use a paper knife issued by the court, or a musket that explodes.

Later, Emperor Hongzhi took the military power into his own hands, and at the same time all the expenses of the army were paid from the emperor's internal funds, which was equivalent to turning the army into the emperor's private army.

Naturally, the emperor himself was responsible for the weapons and equipment of the army, and the imperial court no longer paid for the purchase of weapons and equipment for the Ming army.

For this reason, at that time, Liu Jin also established the Miyun Arsenal with Emperor Hongzhi, the prince, and many military generals, specializing in the production and development of weapons and equipment.

Eventually, the current system was formed.

"Your Excellency must also be aware of the current situation in Europe. Our England united with France, the Holy Roman Empire, the Holy See, Italy and many other countries.

Bangguo established the Cavaliers Alliance to jointly deal with the brutal Charles V. "

"We need a large amount of arms and weapons, so this time we are also looking for His Excellency the Governor, please ask His Excellency to inform the Son of Heaven to allow the export of arms and weapons to us."

The Duke of York hurriedly said solemnly.

"As for your affairs in Europe, our Ming Empire has always maintained a neutral attitude."

"Not long ago, King Charles V of Spain sent someone to buy another 500 muskets, 20 cannons, and [-] newest iron-clad warships from our Ming Empire."

"Now that you have found us, our Ming Empire is of course willing to sell you arms and weapons. This is fair for both of you."

"As long as there is silver, we will sell you as much as you want."

Tang Bohu looked at the Duke of York in front of him, showing the face of a businesswoman.

After staying here for many years, he has gradually developed this habit, because as the Governor of Hong Kong, the most important thing is to serve Daming's interests in Europe.

Among them, the biggest interest is to protect the business interests of Daming here, and the people who deal with the most are the heads of major commercial firms, nobles and businessmen from various European countries, and so on.

"what?"

"Charles V bought another 500 muskets, 20 cannons, and [-] iron-clad warships?"

Hearing Tang Bohu's words, the Duke of York couldn't help but slightly widened his eyes.

The strength of the Spanish Empire is already strong enough. Unexpectedly, Charles V is still purchasing a large amount of arms and weapons to continuously strengthen his military power. It seems that he is already ready to fight a big war.

"Your Excellency, we also need a lot of arms and weapons, the more the better."

"But at present, the funds in our hands in England are limited. Can you provide us with a certain loan?"

"I heard that the Ming Empire provided Spain with a huge loan of [-] million taels of silver!"

The Duke of York frowned and asked after thinking about it.

England is poor, really poor.

He lost the two wars with Spain in the past few decades, and he paid a huge amount of war indemnity to the Ming Empire and Spain. It was finally paid off, and he lost a lot of land. There are not only Ming people on the British island. The colonies, as well as the colonies of Spain and Japan, although they are not large, the British Isle itself is very small.

In the past three years, there has been a drought and a reduction in production, which made things worse. Henry VIII was so poor that he was reluctant to buy a Mercedes-Benz car from Daming. Fortunately, Emperor Ming gave a Mercedes-Benz car as a gift when he ascended the throne. And go out in a carriage.

Now it's time to fight Spain again. I don't have money but I can't even afford arms and weapons. Let's use the arms and weapons I made myself, that's to deliver food to the Spaniards.

Now the whole of Europe has realized this point. To fight a war, you must use the arms and weapons produced by the Ming people. There is a huge gap between the arms and weapons made by yourself and the Ming people, and they will be directly crushed by others.

"The loan was no problem at the time."

"But you also know that this bank is not our government's final decision. Even if we can let them lend to you, you still need to provide collateral."

"This time, the Spaniards took out a large colony on the Gold Coast of West Africa as collateral, and our Daming bank is willing to lend them a loan."

Tang Bohu smiled and readily agreed.

"Pawn?"

When the Duke of York heard this, everyone was slightly taken aback.

The Spaniard has a colony to mortgage, what does England have to mortgage?

"We have no colonies in England."

The Duke of York said anxiously.

"You can mortgage your own land, for example, mortgage the area adjacent to Hong Kong, or you can mortgage your tax rights."

"Even you can mortgage the population of England, women or something, as long as the bank is willing to accept it, you can
Mortgage everything that can be mortgaged. "

Tang Bohu smiled and suggested: "Of course, this is not a long-term solution. If you want to get more silver, you can raise more sheep and produce more wool. We Daming people's demand for wool Very big."

"This?"

"Shameless, greedy Daming people!"

Hearing Tang Bohu's words, the Duke of York couldn't help scolding in his heart.

The Ming people are so greedy that they want to spend land, population, and taxation rights from England to arrive. Once the war is lost, they will not be able to pay back the money of the Ming people.

This means that England will lose a large amount of land, lose its own taxation rights, lose its own population, and lose women. This is the complete demise of England.

It's so vicious.

After all the calculations, it seems that raising sheep is also a good choice, but raising sheep takes time, and there is only so much wool produced in a year, and the money that can be exchanged is still limited.

After all, if you want to get a loan, you still have to take out collateral.

It's just that it is unacceptable for a country to mortgage land, women, or taxation rights.

"My lord, is there no other way?"

The Duke of York thought for a while and asked.

"I can't help it. Although we are neutral and don't interfere with your European affairs, we can't give you money for free. Besides, the First Bank of Ming Dynasty is a private bank. Our court can't order them to do it for free. You provide loans."

Tang Bohu smiled and shook his head.

"If you have the money, you can go to the Tianjin Ocean Trading Company to buy arms and weapons. If you don't have the money, you have to take out the collateral and go to the Daming First Bank for a loan. That's all I can do."

"I hope you can win the war!"

PS: Ask for tickets~~