To have money or not to have money is actually a relative concept, not an absolute concept. In the eyes of the poor, the landlord's family is already rich if they can eat polished rice and white noodles at once, and the landlord envies the high-ranking officials' daily bird's nest, shark's fin, warbler and swallow's swallow.

People at every level actually think they are poor, because everyone is in every level of society has their own troubles, and no one can avoid this.

The destitute small peasants would worry about dinner, the yeoman farmers would lament over taxes and forced labor, and the landlords and tycoons would also have a headache about where to make the start-up capital for the next big deal, and where there would be enough money.

People are not of the same class, so the issues they consider are different, and their ideals are also different. Xiao Letian's crying of poverty is hypocrisy in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the eyes of these hardcore subordinates, it is a great shame for the lord to worry about the humiliation of the ministers.

Twenty million taels of silver cash reserves, this is such a huge wealth, it is not an exaggeration to say that he is rich and rivals the country, not to mention that with 20 million taels of cash reserves, then Xiao Letian's total assets must reach a total scale of two or three hundred million taels of silver.

The name of the richest man in Asia can't run away, and this kind of person crying poor really makes people feel very pretended. But no one can forget that Xiao Lotian has such a great fortune and the responsibility he bears is unprecedentedly great.

If we want to rely on the Ryukyus, an emerging power group, to keep the peace of China's coastal areas for at least 10 years, is 20 million taels enough to be enough for such a huge responsibility?

Five years to prepare for war, five years to rebuild, a total of 10 years for China to complete the rebalancing of forces at home, unite people's hearts and minds, and then go all out to promote the process of industrialization.

This is the limit of what Xiao Lotian can do, to strive for ten years of safe reorganization for all ethnic groups in China, during which Xiao Lotian can grit his teeth, vomit blood, and do everything possible to keep some of China's vitality for those selfish guys in China, and ten years is really his limit.

Once the ironclad battleship model is popularized for ten years, the amount of money that the arms race will consume is not something that a single Ryukyus can afford, and it must be built together by gathering the national strength of all China.

Think of World War I 46 years later, in four years and three months, 33 countries participated in the war, and more than 1.5 billion people were involved in the war. The two sides mobilized 65.4 million troops, suffered more than 30 million military and civilian casualties, and suffered $186.3 billion in direct war costs and $330 billion in property losses.

This is not a game that Xiao Letian can play alone at all, all the nations of the human race are involved in that flesh and blood grinding disc in order to survive, and it will not be over if the last piece of bone is not crushed.

"I, Xiao Letian, can only protect you for ten years, and after ten years, I will unload all my responsibilities...... If the fortunes of the Chinese nation do not return to the glorious path that should belong to us at that time, I swear! I will tear all my vows with my own hands, and I will give up the ideal of saving the fortunes of the country with the least amount of blood......"

"Don't think that I, Xiao Letian, can't kill people, don't think that I'm really a terminal patient with the disease of the Virgin! If this thief still proves to me ten years later, he wants so many lives as a sacrifice of flesh and blood...... That's good, I, Xiao Letian, will do it with my own hands, and let me bear the sin of slaughtering hundreds of millions of people alone!"

No one had ever seen Xiao Letian's face so hideous and terrifying, and none of the important ministers in the attic was not a battle-hardened killing god, but in front of the terrifying murderous aura released by Xiao Letian, the wine glasses in their hands were trembling.

No one heard what Xiao Lotian was talking to himself, they seemed to have heard ten years, oaths, sacrifices, murder or something, but these important ministers who knew Xiao Letian best all felt the drastic changes in the prime minister's temperament.

If Xiao Letian was strong with a hint of cynicism in the past, no matter how difficult the situation was, it was difficult for him to really get angry, yes, even if Xiao Letian scolded no matter how fierce he jumped, but at that time, people could feel that what was hidden in his angry appearance was the control of everything.

And today's Xiao Letian is just muttering to himself, but people can feel that Xiao Letian is really encountering a big problem, and that kind of control ability seems to be weakening.

How do they know that the dividends of the traverser are useful for one day, and the more he changes, the more the world will deviate from the past trajectory, and when everything is gradually drifting away, the eyes of the traverser who see through the fog of history will gradually lose their luster.

The road ahead will become more and more difficult, and the confidence of victory will fade little by little, and this sense of powerlessness will be fatal to the traverser.

Xiao Letian knows very well that the steel giant ship that he and Bismarck have worked so hard to build that surpasses the difference of 20 years in this era cannot really lead the world by 20 years.

As long as the secret of the Zhiyuan is revealed to the world, Britain will definitely be able to replicate a better warship than this within two years and form a combat effectiveness. In this way, what Xiao Lotian is fighting for is actually just a two-year generation difference.

And what followed was a crazy naval arms race, and Britain didn't even have to go to war with the Ryukyus directly, and Xiao Letian could be dragged down by the consumption of national strength alone.

Fan Yao couldn't see his uncle's anxious and angry expression, he patted his thigh, "Uncle, don't worry about money, isn't it money? I'll make it for you...... We still have gold and jewels in our secret vault, and I'll turn them into money for you......"

"The bonds issued by Jiangnan, I can do things from it, I think the over-issuance of more than 20 million taels will not cause the credit to collapse, as long as Hu Xueyan and Zeng Dashuai do not dismantle our platform, we can still frame the past ......"

"As long as the crisis you mentioned is over, we can still secretly repurchase the bonds, and then the hole will be filled without knowing it, don't worry, there is no obstacle in the world that cannot be passed...... Don't scare me with that look!"

Xiao Letian hurriedly smiled bitterly and toasted his father-in-law: "Father-in-law, Lao Taishan! Things are really not that simple, do you think you don't know what the gods and ghosts do? Do you think that if you get rid of the Jiangnan consortium represented by Hu Xueyan and Zeng Dashuai, you will be safe?"

"How can foreigners give up, what they are best at is sheep shearing, if I guess correctly, they have already set their eyes on Jiangnan's bonds, and now is the time to eat slowly......"

"Maybe in a few years, the moment when the earth will collapse, we will not only face the enemy's foreign guns, artillery and warships, but even the shearing bankers who will eventually crush our economic ......"

"What kind of sin have I created! Why do you toss such a thing as credit currency......

The people present were the elite of the elite, and many things were pierced by the window paper a little bit, and there was a dead silence in the attic, and they realized that the gap between the Qing Dynasty and the Western powers was so big and so deep!

"Ahh......h What do we want to do so much? What do we rely on all this way? Isn't it just a clear conscience!"

"When the enemy comes, let's fight! Why do you want to do so much, the sky is going to rain, the mother wants to get married, and the people die and the birds will not die for thousands of years! Why have you all become so dull and depressed all these years?"

"My Prime Minister, where is all the arrogance when you burned down the Yongzheng Mausoleum?"