The people who prepared New Year's gifts for Xiao Lotian were not only Dragon Lord and King Shangtai, but almost all the high-ranking officials who were going to return to Ryukyu began to rack their brains to prepare New Year's gifts.

Chun Shi Niang of Beijing City mobilized countless resources from the Northern Branch of the CIA to purchase twenty-four young and beautiful women from the private sector and send them over in the name of the lack of manpower in the Prime Minister's Mansion.

During this time, Chun Thirteen Niang didn't do anything else, all her energy was focused on the loyalty assessment of these twenty-four girls, and the eight generations of ancestors were investigated clearly, and they had to carry out ideological education every day, to put it bluntly, it was brainwashing.

Chun Thirteen Niang is also afraid that there will be a few fine works mixed in this, so it will be a big deal.

Tanggu Lotte Foreign Bank has also moved, and the affiliated businesses that maintain close cooperation with foreign companies are also crazy, just like the cattle shopkeeper of the Four Seas who made a fortune with Xiao Letian, and the gums on the fire have been swollen in the past two days because of the preparation of gifts.

Lotte Bank and Lotte Bank are the two most important financial institutions under the Prime Minister's Office, and the bull shopkeeper has changed to a permanent seat in the bank through the saddle and horse after the past few years, which is a golden job that cannot be changed, and he is also a core member of Xiao Letian's forces.

"What kind of thing? Xuande furnace! Do you have pig brains? Can you get your hands on antiques after the Song Dynasty? At the very least, you have to be in the Tang Dynasty...... Look for it again!"

"Send a beautiful woman? Is it because I lack the heart eye or do you lack the heart eye? The spring thirteen niangs in Sijiu City have already been sent, can we still show our good if we send them again? Besides, the thirteen mothers can send it, no problem, if I send it, I will wait for the two ladies to come back and clean me up! Get out of ......."

"That's right...... I remember, my adult's journey to the west has not been published until now! This is a good opportunity, let's dig up Beijing and Jiangnan engraving masters, and carve a set of collector's editions for adults!"

"That's right, come on! Collect two million taels of silver from the semicolon in advance, and I want to invite all the calligraphers of the whole country, the best carvers, and the best Danqing skillful hands...... Mark me at any cost!"

"Don't worry about it too late, let's carve out 50,000 or 60,000 words in these two months!

The shopkeeper felt that his idea was very good, and his smiling eyes could not be found, and two months really let him carve out a volume of 50,000 words at the beginning, according to those who knew the industry, its exquisiteness was no less than that of the four libraries of Wuyingdian printed by Qianlong Ye.

There are a lot of people who are tempted, Jiangnan is also in chaos, Hu Xueyan is very shrewd, he knows that although Xiao Lotian has money in his hands, one of the weaknesses of Lotte is that there are too many silver reserves and too little gold reserves.

Silver is a very important currency in the Asian trading circle around the Qing Dynasty, but if you want to trade in Europe in large quantities, silver is not easy to use, because the mainstream currency in Europe is still gold, and the settlement price of gold and silver is different.

Even sometimes European countries are too lazy to ask for silver, preferring to ask for Asian physical goods of equal value.

The 3,000 taels of gold ingots look vulgar? But this vulgar thing is the much-needed reserve currency in Xiao Letian's financial empire, and Hu Xueyan's Fukang Qian Zhuang also promised to help Lotte Exchange at least 50,000 taels of gold from Jiangnan within three years.

This gift is even more precious!

Senior officials of the Intelligence Bureau stationed in the Northwest prepared a high-precision military map of the Northwest, the Ryukyu envoys in the South Seas brought the latest charts of Southeast Asia, and diplomats stationed in India collected the finest Sri Lankan gems.

Of course, Fuso is indispensable, Sakamoto Ryoma and Ito Hirobumi, high-ranking officials of the Fuso Intelligence Bureau, and even secretly encouraged the emperor to cut off a piece of the orchid luxury agarwood that was treasured in Todaiji Temple and give it to Xiao Letian.

This orchid luxury is not ordinary, it belongs to Japan's top national treasure, and all those who have accepted the orchid luxury of agarwood in history are the actual rulers of Japan.

Historically, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Ashikaga Yoshikyo, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Toki Yoritake, Oda Nobunaga, and Emperor Meiji have all used it.

The scale of this New Year's banquet has already shocked East Asia, and Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan in the south of the Yangtze River and Zuo Zongtang in the northwest have all expressed their hope to send representatives to attend the banquet, and many valuable gifts have been prepared.

But Xiao Lotian refused, and his tone was very tactful, he said that this was just a New Year's reception inside Ryukyu, and thanked others for watching the ceremony, and whenever there was a gift, Ryukyu would have a return gift.

Zeng Guofan sent a word, the nine marshal Zeng Guoquan sent a treasure knife, and Zuo Zongtang in the northwest painted a picture, which was considered an ordinary gift for the occasion, and in the end, even the Manchu court issued an order to reward Xiao Letian with a yellow coat and the title of Baturu.

What is surprising is that the will was given but no one sent the yellow coat to Ryukyu, and the Manchus did not take this matter seriously, and Ryukyu did not take it seriously, anyway, this is the attitude that both sides want.

I am a king, you are a minister, I reward you, you accept the reward, this face drama is good, but the New Year's gift for Jae-chun was enough to pull a boat, and it was delivered to Ryukyu a month in advance.

As the New Year approaches, crowds of people from all over the world gather at the port of Naha, and almost every day high-ranking officials disembark from the port, and the big names greet them in an endless stream.

Shiploads of treasures were sent to Shurijo Castle and the Prime Minister's Mansion, and the various ingredients prepared for the banquet alone were piled up, and the inventory was full for 24 hours.

In a lively atmosphere, there is only one person who is extremely lonely, and that is the Tongzhi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Ai Xinjue Luo Zaichun.

Xiao Zaichun has just returned from Fuzhou, and his 300 guards have been sent to Fujian, where is the sphere of influence of Zuo Zongtang, a loyal minister, and the 300 guards initially plan where to train 3,000 new troops loyal to Zaichun.

Fukang Qianzhuang provided more than 3 million taels of military expenses and weapons and equipment, and Xiao Zaichun's guards have all turned into squad and platoon leaders, eating and living with the recruits, and they took out a full set of skills learned in the Ryukyus and began to reproduce the model of the Ryukyu New Army, hoping to train a strong army.

Whether it can surpass the Ryukyu Marine Corps, Jaechun has no bottom in his heart, but whether he can surpass the West Mountain Battalion, there is no suspense about this question, the only thing that worries people is the difference in numbers.

Zaichun was very conflicted, in what capacity should he attend this New Year's banquet? The Qing Emperor was still a student of the Prime Minister? Ryukyu had already made it clear that this was a gathering among the hundreds of officials under the Prime Minister's curtain, and he refused diplomatic congratulations or received state gifts, and no one had sent the yellow coat from Sijiu City to this day.

As for Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang and others, they were all New Year's gifts in their private names, and they had nothing to do with this big banquet.

"Ermao, what do you think I should do? My identity is so embarrassing!"

Ermao stood behind Zaichun and said calmly, "Embarrassment is just a state of mind, it depends on how your heart chooses...... But the slave has something to say, without the prime minister, there is really no Your Majesty today!"

Jae-soon closed his eyes and felt the night breeze blowing on his face, and the scene in his mind swirled back and forth like a marquee with his fists clenched. The Forbidden City, which is like a prison, reads in the Wenhua Hall every day, respectful on the surface but ignores his own officials in his heart...... The scenes are like yesterday's dreams.

Nowadays, Zai Chun's bedroom is full of world-famous guns, and he fires hundreds of bullets every day.

There are also the three hundred guards, one by one, who let themselves practice like tigers, Fuzhou Zuo Jigao mobilized all the resources to select soldiers for himself, all of them are children of extremely poor and kind families, they are all simple farmers, according to what the prime minister said, these are all top soldiers.

Who gave all this?

"Kindness is more important than the sky, there is no way to repay it! I can't take care of it so much, Ermao prepares pen, ink, paper, and inkstone ......"