I, Altria, only want to rule China.

This is the Wu Kingdom, not their Roman Empire. If a fight breaks out here, they will probably be asked to leave in a friendly manner by the Wu Kingdom.

After Pinov calmed down and thought for a while, he pulled the swallowtail knot on his collar and snorted, "Of course, a gentleman will not argue with barbarians."

And from the yard next door came another sentence: "He who plants thorns will only harvest prickly thorns in the end."

Pinov knew he was in the wrong, so he snorted and said loudly: "When the wind and the sea are fighting fiercely, only brave and calm sailors can reach the other side!"

After saying this, Pinov simply returned to the house with his men.

But as soon as he sat down, Pinov said: "Gentlemen, I think those damn Persians must have the same purpose as us in coming here, and this will only be the beginning, not the end."

"Once firearms become popular in Europe, other countries will definitely come here. The current situation is very unfavorable for our Roman Empire."

"Yes, Mr. Pinov, you are right. Wuguo is too big. With our financial resources, we cannot monopolize the entire Wuguo market, which means our money will be affected."

The Roman Empire gentlemen in the room shrugged their shoulders, and one of them asked, "So, Mr. Count Pinov, what good ideas do you have?"

Everyone here, in addition to being nobles of the Roman Empire, is also a businessman. Except for Pinov who came here to buy firearms on an imperial mission, everyone else came here to buy various goods from the Wu Kingdom, bring them back to their country to sell, and see the world.

Chapter 151 This is a gamble

After thinking for a while, Pinov said unhappily, "I think we can rush to the next door and kill those damn Persians!"

"However, since we came to this city, our weapons have been confiscated. The queen of Wu Kingdom does not want us to have weapons because she is very confident in the public security in the area she rules." Another gentleman spread his hands helplessly.

Everyone thought about it for a long time, but there seemed to be no good solution. After all, if they couldn't get rid of the group of people instantly, they would be discovered by the soldiers of the Wu State, and then they might be the ones to be driven out.

"Speaking of which, I wonder if you have noticed that the farmers we saw in Guangzhou Province of the Wu Kingdom are completely different from those in Rome. And the closer we get to Chang'an of the Longwu Kingdom, the more serious this feeling becomes."

At this moment in the Wu Kingdom, because Leah had unified the entire country, all the provinces and places were changed to more modern names by her, and the previous old names were all turned into modern ones.

"Yes, among the people we saw in Wu State, we saw that they all had happy expressions on their faces, and sometimes they looked at us as if we were country bumpkins. That look made me want to beat them up at the time!"

"Indeed, it feels like we are just a group of uncivilized monkeys in their eyes. It's really annoying!"

"It's more than just unhappy. You haven't seen the various commodities of Wu Country. The things that shocked me were just commonplace in the eyes of the common people. Oh, it's so embarrassing just thinking about it."

"Not only that, not to mention how excellent this country's technology is, even what we saw and heard along the way was the first time I had ever seen it in my life. Pinov, look at this thing called a newspaper, there are new things every day."

Arnold took a newspaper and pointed at the steam train on it and exclaimed: "And this thing called a steam train is even more outrageous. The speed has reached 50 kilometers per hour. How much manpower and material resources have been saved by this? It's terrible!"

After listening to his colleagues, Pinov slapped the table and said seriously: "Gentlemen, this is the "Wu Kingdom", not our Rome, so we just need to treat this matter with a normal mind."

Compared with his colleagues who came to Wu State for the first time, Pinov knew more. After all, he had been to Wu State more than once or twice, and he knew how terrifying Wu State was.

"Even if you really saw something we don't know, just ask politely and don't do anything to offend them. I'm sure you have seen how powerful Wu is. I don't care what you did in Rome before. In Wu, I just hope you abide by the rules here."

"In short, in order to have a good relationship with the emperor of Wu, for this huge market, and for all the silver, we must sell the things that the damn Persians dare to sell, and we must sell the things that the Persians dare not sell even more!"

While Pinov was discussing with his "envoys" what could be sold and what could not be sold, the Sassanid envoy who lived next door to them was also discussing countermeasures with his own "members of the delegation".

Luo Lin looked at the people in his room and said, "This is the current situation. Those damn Romans were placed next to us by the people of Longwu. I think you should know what Longwu is planning, right?"

"God knows how low the Romans' bottom line is, and no one can guess what conditions they will agree to for the Longwu people."

Of course the Persians understood that the Longwu Kingdom was clearly trying to raise the price and was telling them clearly that if they didn't buy, it would be hard to say what would happen to their neighbors.

Luo Lin looked at the others and said seriously, "Believe me, they will definitely sell the things we dare to sell, and they may also sell the things we dare not sell."

"It's really too bad to see these things. I have to say, ever since Longwu Nation invented firearms, the world has become very strange."

At this time, one of the envoys asked tentatively: "Why can't we unite with the Romans next door? You know..."

But Roland scolded him bluntly: "What do you want to know? You know, they can't give us back the land they occupied before. You know, we have been fighting with those damn Romans for hundreds of years, and we have paid a huge price to fight until now."

The reprimanded member of the delegation rolled his eyes and retorted: "Even if we can't unite with those damn Romans, Mr. Luo Lin, please don't forget that there is a great empire behind us and we have an invincible army. If those "Dragon Warriors" dare to play any tricks, we can definitely beat them.

They surrendered.”

Luo Lin now regretted very much, regretting why he chose such a fool as a member of the delegation.

With a gloomy face, he scolded: "It is true that we have the great and invincible Sassanid Empire behind us, but think about it with your poor walnut-like brain, why are we here?"

"Do you know the horror of those firearms?"

"No, you don't know anything. You only know how to take your lovers to buy clothes, hold dances, decorate villas, and arrange gardens. You also keep a few mistresses and give birth to a lot of illegitimate children!"

"But I know!"

"The territory of Wu State is now more than four times ours, and its population is ten times ours! Their firearms are much more advanced than ours. Although our Majesty is a fool, you can't treat the people of Wu State as fools."

"Do you know how big the market is here? You idiot, please shut up from now on, don't say another word, and get out of here and go back to Sassanid Persia as soon as the negotiations are over!"

After unceremoniously scolding this extremely stupid member of the delegation, Luo Lin looked at the other members of the delegation and said, "Gentlemen, in order to prevent those damn Romans from snatching our orders, I have decided to agree to the conditions of the Queen of Longwu Kingdom as much as possible."

"I will apply to His Majesty to make Sassanid Persia and Wu Kingdom the most loyal allies of each other."

Having said that, Luo Lin looked at the other members of the delegation and said in a deep voice: "There is no doubt that this is an investment and a gamble. Gentlemen who are willing to agree, please raise your hands."

As soon as Luo Lin finished speaking, all members of the Sassanid Persian delegation raised their hands, including the member who had just been reprimanded.

Chapter 152: Leah wants to show her fist

"Okay, now that we've agreed, let's take a look at the Wu people's purchasing requirements!"

"Slaves? No problem. There are many hungry people in our country. It is better to sell them to the Wu people than to let them starve to death. Not only will they have food to eat, but we can also make money. Besides, slaves can be easily captured in other countries."

"Then there's the weeping tree? Of course that's fine too, although I don't know what they're going to do with it. Maybe it's for aesthetics? Who knows?"

"As long as you have silver, tea, silk, and porcelain, everything else is easy to deal with."

"There is nothing that cannot be sold, including our conscience and even the rope that can hang us."

"All for world peace."

After completing the audience process, the first Roman envoy, Pinov, presented the gifts he had prepared long ago, and then started to flatter and said:

"Great Longwu Kingdom, beautiful Queen, please believe that I came here with great sincerity. I hope you can agree to my humble request, open a few more trading ports, and offer more favorable prices for goods."

"Of course, it would be even better if you could allow us to enter and exit the city as freely as the Wu people."

Seeing that the Romans had taken the lead, the Persian envoy Luo Lin also shouted: "We, Opos, have come with great sincerity. As long as the Queen of Wu is willing, we, Sassanid Persia, will be your best ally on this continent!"

However, Leah did not care about the flattery of these countries. Instead, she played with the flintlock that Pinov gave her as a gift, and said to Pinov with a smile:

"Is this a flintlock rifle? Did you imitate the flintlock rifle of our Wu country? It is comparable to our work from ten years ago.

Pinov showed an embarrassed look on his face, then bowed and replied: "Yes, Your Majesty, this is a copy of your Longwu country's flintlock rifle made by Rome, but it is really incomparable to the Wu country's flintlock rifle."

At this point, Pinov was a little proud. Although it was your Wu Kingdom that first developed firearms, our Roman Empire is not bad now, right?

Although according to the Empress of Wu, it was only their work ten years ago, it is still quite powerful. For a country without firearms, it is a dimensionality reduction attack!

Does this mean that they only need ten years to catch up with the current Wu Kingdom?

This is purely Pinov's overthinking. Not to mention catching up with the Wu Kingdom in ten years, even if it takes 100 years, he may not be able to catch up.

This doesn't mean that you can succeed by copying them, but you have to overcome the technical difficulties of these things. Just taking the steam engine as an example, there was no one to guide them, and they had no idea how the thing worked.

Liya hummed and said, "As the saying goes, it is impolite not to reciprocate. Since the envoy has given me a gift from your country, I will give you a flintlock rifle made by the Shenjiying Arsenal of my Wu Kingdom as a return gift.

Anyway, the technological level of these guys' countries is too low and they can't make it at all, so it doesn't matter. By the time they are able to make it, their technology will have been replaced by new firearms.

The other party got the flintlock rifle, and then spent a lot of money to research and imitate it, which was a thankless choice. Once they found that the gap between the two was too big, they would directly give up the research, which was the best result.

Of course, if the other party really wants to learn from the modern Rabbit Country and choose to develop everything on their own, then there is nothing wrong with that. Guns are really no secret and can be made if the technology is advanced enough.

Things like trains and planes are the real secrets.

After Pinov bowed and thanked him, Leah continued, "I agree to open more trading ports, but I will send someone to discuss the pricing of those goods with you in detail."

When doing business, especially business between countries, it is always fast to reach a deal in a day or two. Even if you haggle for several months, it would be considered fast.

Of course, the progress won’t be slow.

If there is only one supplier, then it is what is called a seller's market, and customers can only buy what the seller sells.

If there are many suppliers, then a so-called buyer's market is formed, and customers can pick and choose, and the sellers have to sell what the buyers are willing to buy.

As the most powerful country in the world and the only supplier, Wu State has a lot of say.

Therefore, before the formal negotiations began, Liya took these envoys with her and planned to invite them to visit the firearms equipment of the Wu Kingdom army, to show them her skills and let them know whether they were qualified to negotiate with the Wu Kingdom!

Hearing that Her Majesty the Queen of Wu State was actually going to take them to see Wu State's firearms, the two envoys were extremely happy and they couldn't wait to see the firearms that Wu State talked about.

Anyway, the negotiation with the State of Wu about opening a trading port is a foregone conclusion. What remains is just some slow work. If we can take the opportunity to find out the level of firearms used by the army of the State of Wu, it would be a pleasant surprise like pie in the sky.

However, after the envoys followed Leah's men out of the city, they all wanted to curse.

A carriage without even a window, with the door covered with black cloth, jolted along the way for who knows how far it had traveled or how many turns it had made. The members of the delegation felt as if they had been traveling for most of the day, but had not gained any useful information at all.

After the carriage finally stopped, Leah had someone lift the curtain at the door of the carriage, and the envoys got off the carriage.

A building like an archway appeared in front of them. First it was a sentry post with a path outside. Next to the path were deer horn chevaux de frise and behind the chevaux de frise was a straight road that seemed to lead deep into the military camp.

But what disappointed the delegation was that at the gate of the military camp in front of them, there was only a wooden sign with the words "First Military District of Wu State" written on it. The remaining wooden signs were covered with cloth, and no useful information could be discerned at all.

The envoys were speechless. How strong is the Wu Kingdom's sense of secrecy? Asshole!

What's even more fucked up is that Leah's people didn't plan to lead them into the military camp. They just stopped more than 200 meters outside the military camp and pointed at the military camp and said

"This is the headquarters of the First Military District of Wu State. The carriage can no longer move forward. Please follow me."

After that, the people sent by Liya took these people directly to the back of the mountain.

Chapter 153: Liya: Is my cannon thick?

After going around in circles again, until everyone in the delegation was almost dizzy, they finally arrived at a place that looked like a shooting range.

When they entered the shooting range, what caught the eyes of the diplomatic envoys was the 1st Military District Team who had been waiting for a long time. They were wearing the same uniform, lined up in neat rows, and looked at them intently.

And Her Majesty the Queen of Wu State has already been here.

Behind them were rows of targets and in the distance were cannons with their metal barrels raised.

The members of the diplomatic corps were shocked when they saw the metal gun barrel that was several meters thick.

Unlike the artillery they had in mind, this type of artillery looked more majestic and powerful. The tripod was made entirely of iron, especially the long and thick barrel, which was 3 or 4 meters long.

Especially with its huge caliber, one can imagine how powerful this big guy would be if it fired a shell!

Next are the rifles carried by those soldiers, which are rifles, completely different from the flintlock rifles they used, and they also look terrifying.

Seeing the frightened looks on the envoys' faces, Liya laughed and said, "Our arrangement today is very simple. The first item is to test the flintlock rifles you are using now, the second item is to let you try out our Wu country's rifles, and the third item is to let you watch the artillery volley."

As Leah finished her words, everyone in the delegation became curious about the difference between the rifles and flintlock rifles currently manufactured by the Wu State.

"Let the envoy of the Roman Empire go first." As Leah spoke, the envoys from other countries all turned their eyes to Pinov.

The flintlock rifles currently imitated by the Roman Empire are of the type that require opening the lid on the powder pool, then taking out a small paper bag containing bullets and gunpowder, biting open the part containing gunpowder, and pouring part of the gunpowder into the powder pool.

Then cover the powder pool, stuff the remaining gunpowder and bullets in from the front of the muzzle, and then compact them with a cleaning rod to complete the firing process.

Of course, it doesn't matter if you don't use the cleaning rod. After loading the gunpowder and bullets into the muzzle, you can turn the flintlock upside down and hit the ground with the butt of the gun. This will speed up the loading process.

However, the flintlock rifle, which the Roman Empire spent a lot of time developing, was only eliminated by the Wu State ten years ago.

After performing for everyone, Pinov looked at Leah, wanting to see what the Queen would say.

Liya just smiled, called a soldier, took the rifle from him, and threw it to Pinov and said, "Come and try our Wu country's rifle."

Pinov looked the rifle up and down, and after hearing Leah's instructions on how to use it, he immediately tried firing a shot at a target in the distance. This test deeply shocked him.

The Wu State's current rifle, also known as the needle-fired rifle, is the earliest revolving rear-pull rifle in human history and also the earliest breech-loading rifle.

The emergence of breech-loading rifles greatly increased the speed of ammunition loading and thus the rate of fire, which was a huge breakthrough in the history of firearms.

At the same time, fixed-load bullets also appeared. This type of bullet has the primer, propellant, and bullet all loaded into paper, allowing loading from the rear.

These are two completely different types of firearms from flintlock rifles.

You have to know that the flintlock rifles they are using now will be affected by rainy weather, while the Wu State's rifles are not affected at all.

Not only does it have a faster reloading speed, it also has higher shooting accuracy and a longer range. These things combined are enough to quickly establish a victory.

Pinov returned the rifle to Leah, forced out an ugly smile as if his parents had died, and said to Leah: "Your Majesty is worthy of being the most powerful Holy Emperor in Chinese history. Under your rule, Wu State has developed such advanced weapons."

The Persian envoys on the other side heard this and expressed their desire to try it. After using it, they all looked dejected.

Seeing this, Liya laughed and said, "It's just an ordinary musket. It's not worth making such a fuss. Your Excellency might as well pay attention to the next artillery salvo."

After the envoys nodded in despair, Leah turned to the soldiers around her and said, "Next item, artillery salvo!"