C242 Night feast on the city wall

That night, the test paper jointly written by Xiao Letian and Yue Sefu started to be printed with ink. All the soldiers in the military camp were anxiously preparing for tomorrow's test.

Ryukyu King Shang Tai, Winged King Shida Kai and Xiao Letian, the three Leader s with the highest statuses in Ryukyu, gathered on top of the walls of Shouli City at night and held a banquet in front of the sea breeze.

After three rounds of drinking and eating, Shang Tai was the first to become drunk. He held a white porcelain wine cup and pointed at the pitch black shore defense cannon under the moonlight.

"Prime Minister, I never thought that Ryukyu Kingdom would possess such a terrifying cannon. Do you know, after the gigantic cannon landed on the shore three days ago, all the Japanese were so frightened that their faces turned ashen, and some even kneeled down to kowtow to them!?"

"Feels good! It was truly a great pleasure to have mister here, Ryukyu Kingdom. It is my fortune to have mister here, and I invite mister to have a drink of this wine … As long as Ryukyu is strong, I, Xiao Wang, will be happy even if I have to eat dried fish porridge everyday! "

How could Shang Tai not be excited, a young man in his twenties who had been bullied by the Japanese for hundreds of years. How could Shang Tai not be excited, a young man in his early twenties who was bullied by the Japanese?

It wasn't that no one had warned Shang Tai to be careful of Xiao Letian, the King of the Glazed Ball was also a little worried of Xiao Letian annexing the temple of the Ryukyu Kingdom, but the form was stronger than the person, Xiao Letian's power had already infiltrated the entire Ryukyu from the economic, political, military, cultural and other aspects.

On the surface, there were more than a thousand new troops that belonged to the Ryukyu Kingdom, but all the middle and upper ranking officers were brought out by Xiao Letian and the King of the Glazed Ball could not even command them.

Everyone recognized Xiao Letian as their Grandmaster. In less than three years, all of the students in the Ryukyu Hall would be Xiao Letian's disciples.

What was worse was that the Letian Firm had a lot of economic control over the Ryukyu Kingdom. Currently, all of the foreign currency on the market was all Mexican eagle and the soldiers' salaries were all exquisite paper money.

His only hope was that Xiao Letian would keep his word, that his vision would be long and broad, that he would pay more attention to this world, and not take this county too seriously.

Furthermore, he hoped that the elites that came to the continent wouldn't be too ugly, at least he would save some face for the King of the Glazed Ball!

Xiao Letian and Shi Dakai looked at each other and laughed. They had all heard King Shang Tai's crappy flattery, so after drinking a cup of wine, Xiao Letian said with a smile, "Your majesty, are you crying because you are poor? "Hahaha, I understand, I understand, it's hard to maintain the Ryukyu's treasury for the past year. Although the foreign banks have taken over the main expenses of the imperial government, His Majesty himself still has to spend some pocket money!"

While they were talking, a Chinese man, who looked like an accountant, walked up with a black wood box in his hands. "Greetings, Your Majesty, greetings Prime Minister. After saying that, he placed it on the table and walked down the wall.

Inside the wooden box was a stack of Notes s that were printed overseas, so Xiao Letian casually picked up a stack of them and flipped through them: "Your Majesty, here is a small deposit slip of two hundred thousand silver dollars, count it as your Majesty's New Year's money, right now the merchants on the market all recognize these Notes s, it is very convenient for the palace to use them directly, or even to exchange them …"

Two hundred thousand silver taels! And it was for the royal family's pocket money! In the past, Ryukyu Kingdom could only collect a tax of sixty to seventy thousand a year, but if she were to take more than half of it, she would still need to maintain the expenses of the officials and the army. The palace did not have much balance in a year.

In Shang Tai's memories, after the end of the year had been settled with the Ministry of Revenue, a balance of fifty to sixty thousand was equivalent to burning incense, and that balance was equivalent to the king's private money.

Today, Xiao Letian extended his hand and gave two hundred thousand silver coins. This was already comparable to the balance of four years in normal times, so was so excited that his hands trembled a little.

"Master, the Ryukyu is currently in a bad mood and needs money everywhere. This money should be used on more important things …" Shang Tai asked politely, but he could not take his eyes off it. In his heart, he even had plans to repair and repair the Shouli City.

Xiao Letian had already seen through his thoughts, "Your Majesty, do not decline, although it is as Your Majesty said, we are in need of money everywhere, we do not lack this two hundred thousand. Don't worry, in the future, the annual balance will not decrease, just wait and see …"

Shang Tai was too drunk, he drank three pots of Woman Red all by himself and refused to let go of the money box even though he was holding onto it.

The attendants supported His Majesty and brought him back to the imperial harem to rest. Only Shi Dakai and Xiao Letian were left on the city wall, and not a single person could be seen within a hundred steps.

"Sir, have you decided? You don't want to eat this Ryukyu anymore? " Shi Dakai had always had this question, especially when Xiao Letian faintly guaranteed this to King Shang Tai on the wine table.

"Hehe, Your Highness is wrong!" Xiao Letian pointed to the brightly lit foreigners ships on the pier, and then pointed to the shore defense cannon that was under construction.

"Take a look at all of this. I'm not talking about ten years ago, even if you had thought about it three years ago? "Right now, the world is no longer the world where saints live, the idealistic country of scholars no longer exists. The ultimate fate of countries like the Ryukyu is to be annexed by great powers …"

"I'm not exaggerating, this is the iron reality, this is not a small and barren inland country, not many people care, here is Jin Liang of ten thousand countries, here is the exit of Chinese civilization, also chained to the national destiny of China …"

"This chain is too important. As long as the Ryukyu Kingdom is under our control, then the BoHai, the East Sea, and the Yellow Sea will all become our inner seas. If the enemy wants to invade, they will have to break through the first chain …"

"It would be better to let war break out in the Pacific Ocean or the South Sea than to let people use cannon fire on their doorstep, right? "In my vision, an armed island chain and two or three ocean-going fleets could block enemies in the Pacific Ocean and south of the South China Sea …"

Shi Dakai inhaled a breath of cold air on the spot, "Sir, your handiwork is too great, how many battleships would it take to seal such a large ocean? Just how much money did it cost? You want to do it all by yourself? "

Xiao Letian shook his head, his teeth clattering loudly. Later generations of Northern Ocean Watermasters, from the selection of battleships to the construction of the pier, to the preparation of a school to train talents and also to raise troops, spent 3 million silver to build the skeleton. This also includes embezzled money.

Just based on the avarice of the late Qing's bureaucracy, they should at least eat half of the thirty million silver. A North Ocean fleet of 15 million silver would probably be more than enough. The dollar was about forty million dollars.

Is it a lot of money? Maybe it was a huge sum of money for small countries like Ryukyu and Japan, but for the huge China, it was simply a drop in the bucket. It did not take much time for them to compensate Little Japan with two hundred million silver taels.

If this small amount of money was placed in the eyes of Hezhen and Zhong Tang, it would not even be worth looking at. The wealth that the Chinese people had accumulated for thousands of years was unimaginably huge.

"Prince, don't worry. Do you think I don't have the ability to snatch 200 million silver from the hands of the dryad? I'll tell you the truth, your old enemy, Ceng Guofan has already reached an agreement with me, I can choose from the scattered silver in Jiang-Nan city, and Hu Xueyan will need to cooperate fully, at that time, we can leave the coinage machine in Ryukyu … "

This was the old enemy of heaven. Countless disciples had died by his hands, but now, Xiao Letian actually wanted to cooperate with him? From a emotional perspective, it was impossible for him to get past this obstacle.

Xiao Letian knew that it was impossible for him to not expose this sore point. His plans were too big, he had to rope in all possible allies, and if he wanted to save this decaying National Destiny, he had to cooperate with Xiang Army.

"I'm sorry, I really have no other way …" Our national destiny is really too run-down. It's just like a dying patient dying from a heart attack. We can't let it go on like this. We can't fight another civil war … "My lord, the Chinese really don't have much time left …"

Shi Dakai raised his head, drained a cup of hot and spicy wine and sighed, "I understand what the Military Advisor said, I know you want to conserve some energy for Zhonghua, but have you thought about how all these powers are bonded together?"

"During this time I have been studying the democracies, republics, and constitutional monarchies of the West... I couldn't figure out how they had managed to convince each other. Let people of different faiths and values sit together and share the benefits? "No matter how I think about it, it's too unreliable …"

Shi Dakai let out a long sigh and said, "Military Advisor, you are a wise man. You should think about this issue more clearly than me. Just with our small new army plus the Discipline Hall, how many people are there under your command? Even if I don't count it, it's still worth tens of thousands. Even if you don't have the heart to take power, what about them? "

Ye Feng suddenly tensed up, just like what Xiao Letian was thinking right now, was there an answer to this thousand years old problem? Is there a standard for concentrating or dispersing power?

Think of the chaotic battles that occurred in the decades after the Qing dynasty was destroyed. The Chinese people had acted to prove to the world that the Chinese people were unconvinced by anyone. The warlords were everywhere, the factions were rampant, and Yan Xishan had changed the distance between the tracks in order to cut down Shanxi.

"Your highness, give me some time. Let me try, let me use this life to travel on a strange path. There will always be a way, there will definitely be a way …"

Shi Dakai paid close attention to Xiao Letian for a long time, and laughed, "Don't worry, I don't have much hatred in my heart anymore. Ceng Guofan has killed many brothers of the Sky Nation, but how many of them haven't? Eldest brother doesn't need to speak of second brother, even if it's fifty steps don't laugh at every step … On the path to the Yellow Springs, forget about revenge, just how many vengeful spirits are there that want to seek our lives … "

As Xiao Letian listened to these ghastly words, he suddenly felt his heart palpitating. He suddenly realized that he had entered the deep water region, and he could vaguely see the biggest hidden bolt of lightning, one that could completely destroy all his businesses.