Gao Mo's villa is located on the shore of the North Reservoir of the Oriental Port City, surrounded by green trees and sparkling lakes.

Although it is a villa for a senior leader of the country, it is just a three-story small western-style building made of marble, blue bricks, and red tiles. In the 21st century, it may not be as beautiful as the houses built by some local tyrants in rural China, and the only thing that may be better than those local tyrants is the use of materials.

For safety reasons, the walls of these villas are uniformly thick, and the walls are usually made of large blocks of polished stone, thick and dignified. The flooring between the upper and lower floors is made of prefabricated cement panels, which are now widely used in various occasions, and are cheap but durable. The floor is covered with a wooden floor, which is unpainted and retains the stripes it had when it was harvested from other places, giving it a very natural look. There are several windows on each floor, and the windows are made of the same kind of colored broken glass – like those old churches in Europe, in a variety of patterns that are very pleasing to the eye.

These villas were slowly developed and built by the Construction Bureau of the Ministry of Communications over several years, and were originally intended for the residents of the crossers, with less than 50 units built in the early stage. However, it is somewhat embarrassing that most of the people who travel through the construction bureau are not very interested in these standard villas built by the Construction Bureau, thinking that these houses look too bulky, not well lit and not bright enough, and the style is too old-fashioned. They would rather spend a little more money and buy land on the shore of the lake to design and build their favorite style house than come and buy such a "bargain".

It couldn't be helped. The remaining 20 or so houses can't be completely vacant, right? In the end, Xiao Bailang came up with an idea. That is, these houses will be opened to some special talents among immigrants. Sell it to them at cost price, and while recovering the funds, take the opportunity to attract these talents who have gradually become the backbone of the East Coast Republic of China, so as to set an example for those later immigrants.

As soon as this policy was introduced, it caused a sensation among immigration officials, military personnel, and skilled personnel. They saw it as a great honor to be able to live with a group of people who held the highest power on the East Coast, because it meant that they had gradually entered a more central circle. In the future, as the Republic of China on the east coast of China grows stronger, their wealth and power will also rise.

At the end of the day, the remaining 24 villas priced at 500 yuan each were after a fierce competition. Finally divided up by someone. Among them, many people originally couldn't make up the huge amount of 500 yuan to buy a house, but some of their old superiors generously lent them money to buy villas at this time. In particular, some high-ranking officers in the army can take out hundreds of yuan of funds without blinking an eye and lend them to some of their henchmen and favorite generals who have repeatedly made meritorious contributions. Therefore, 18 of these 24 villas were taken away by a group of Qiu Bamen who had martial arts, and the remaining 6 were respectively funded and sponsored by Mo Ming, Tori and Viviani, Xu Wenxuan, who opened an oil extraction workshop in the north, Pierre, a senior technician of Ping An Iron and Steel Plant, and Fabian, the armed forces minister of Dingyuan Township. and the earliest "from the dragon" Dingyuan Township deputy head Grote obtained.

Many of these people are unable to live here most of the time after buying a lakeside villa, which they see as a status symbol. Able to be neighbors with some of the five hundred "nobles" who hold the highest power in the country. In their eyes, this is already a great honor.

Gao Mo pushed open a sliding wooden door and walked to the balcony on the second floor of the villa. Unlike the general crossing public, most of the eleven members of the Central Executive Committee of the East Coast Republic of China chose to buy these standard villas, and Gao Mo was one of them. The neighbor to his left is Shao Shude, the minister of materials, and to his right is Jiao Tang, the low-key internal affairs commissioner. On the balcony are several unpainted tables and chairs, and the wood used for the tables and chairs is extremely valuable, and it can be seen that it seems to be red sandalwood and red sandalwood from the New China region. This is also the tone that the East Coast people like nowadays, that is, the decoration style is as simple and low-key as possible, but the materials are all exquisite.

"Taste the tea leaves from the Ming Kingdom of the East." After the servant stepped forward to make tea for the two, Gomo stretched out his hand and motioned for Blanco to take it himself.

Blanco's face tensed, and he whispered a thank you, and then sat down at the tea table with a heavy heart, looking at the scenery outside the balcony.

The balcony sits south facing north and faces the sun. Not far in front of the villa is the sparkling Dongfang County Reservoir, the east bank of this huge artificial reservoir has been repaired for about seven or eight years, after many expansions, transformations, has become a huge artificial freshwater lake nearby. The shores of the lake are beautifully decorated with fruit trees and of course oak trees are planted the most, which is an excellent timber for shipbuilding. It is said that at the bottom of this artificial reservoir, there are also several water pipes leading to the drinking water treatment plant in the Oriental Port City, providing a huge amount of domestic water for the residents of the city.

On the north shore of the lake, several small streams converged, and on both sides of the stream, dozens of men who looked like soldiers were washing their horses. While they exchanged feelings with the war horses affectionately, they talked to each other, and bursts of enthusiastic laughter broke out in the crowd from time to time. They wore uniform white cotton shirts, dark blue trimmed military trousers, high riding boots on their feet, and cooked cowhide belts around their waists, and the whole looked simple, clean and atmospheric.

These soldiers have young faces and bright smiles, and they don't seem to be from the worldly world at all, like the mercenaries on the side of São Paulo, Brazil, who have been sad all day. They seem to have been born with a sense of honor and superiority — well, maybe not innately, but at least they were nurtured, Blanco knows, and that it takes a good life, a high social status, and the self-confidence that has accumulated over and over again to succeed. And the beggar-like armies of Europe cannot be compared, they are not even professional soldiers, but they were hastily called up before the start of the war, and it is self-evident how much combat effectiveness can be.

Blanco sighed. That's it. The non-centrificism of the East Coasters had to be carefully considered.

"Our friendship for so many years was ruined because of the greed of those Spaniards?" After a long time. Blanco finally spit out, "Gao, why don't you join us?" Fighting alongside us? We will pay you enough to pay the military expenses. You yourself know that conflict with the Dutch is inevitable, so why do you want to push such a ready-made ally as ours out at this time? High, I'm so disappointed! I've been convincing my family and my friends for years to befriend the East Coast, but that's how you treat us. ”

"From a personal emotional point of view, I am more than willing to support your claims." Gaumore comforted Blanco. "But there are many people in our government who disagree with me, who think that the invitation of the Spaniards is timely, and that the Spaniards have given us territorial promises, and that they cannot refuse this great benefit," he said. Moreover, your recent successes of failures in the Paraguayan region have opened the eyes of many to opportunities. ”

What Golmore pointed out speaks to Blanco's sore spot. Beginning in 1639, when the Spanish government approved the arming of the Guarani in the missionary area, the São Paulo Banner, which had repeatedly penetrated into Paraguay to capture slaves as if they were uninhabited, was attacked one after another. The Guarani fought for their own freedom, and they bravely resisted the invasion of the São Paulo; And they no longer trust strange clergy, lest they fall into the trap of St. Paul's, who often wear clergy uniforms and pose as Jesuit priests. In the most recent large-scale battle in Paraguay, only 30 of the 2,000-strong Brazilian flag team survived. While people sigh at the bravery of the Guarani, they also sneer at the fighting power of those Brazilian flag teams.

Blanco was silent for a long time. Only after the last did he slowly say, "Gao, I know what you want." I appreciate that you were able to convince your colleagues not to accede to the outrageous demands of the Spaniards for the time being, but it is destined to cost us. Well, you guys won, high. Our new king is at war with the Spaniards on the peninsula, and he has no time to care for us, even to cede the land where our ancestors have lived for generations to the Dutch, and we are in a very dangerous situation. When I go back, I will try to convince the other families, and I will also try to convince Joao. Fernandez. Vieira's representatives, I think they should be able to recognize the situation and make the right judgment at this time. Well, I think they're going to promise to give you low-interest loans of up to $250,000 over the next few months. The interest rate is one cent per annum, the loan period is five years, and you can choose to repay it in kind, but not more than half of it in kind. That's the limit of what I can do, and all you need to do is sever any secret agreements with the damned Spaniards! ”

Gao Mo nodded imperceptibly. Blanco gave him a fixed look, then walked out without saying a word.

After Blanco left, Gao Mo gently walked to the next room, where Ma Qianzu, Liu Weimin, Jiao Tang, Xiao Bailang and other bigwigs were sitting. Gao Mo smiled at them: "The play is finally over, it's really tiring." Hehe, almost 250,000 yuan, but it's a pity that 20% of this money will be distributed to the greedy governor of Gutierrez in Peru in the blink of an eye to reward him for his wonderful assist. Anyway, this governor has a really good brain, and he can make such a big deal with just a few words from the king who asked him to act on camera and fight against the Portuguese colonies. ”

And just as the East Coasters were glad to have blackmailed a sum of money from the Brazilians, Blanco, who had just returned to his ship, immediately found his personal servant. The personal servant understood what he meant, and whispered to him: "Two bighorn goats from the east coast have been brought on board by me, one male and one female, all alive. In addition, the people of the East Coast have been collecting manure to make nitrate, but it is not clear what they are making for so efficiently, and according to the scattered information detected, the people of the East Coast seem to think that sprinkling plant ash will help increase the yield. The last piece of news is that the people on the east coast have recently suddenly increased their sulfuric acid production, and they must have found some great solution, but unfortunately the people on the east coast are very strict about this, and we have not been able to find out effective information. ”

"Let them not be in a hurry, take their time, as long as they are willing to spend money, they will always find someone who is willing to sell us information. Okay, this matter must be kept secret, do you know the truth? If the people of the East Coast find out what we are doing, no one can afford the consequences. Blanco whispered with a serious face.

"I understand." The other party also nodded with a serious face. He didn't want to be one of the gallows where one or two dangling corpses were added to the gallows in the East Coast People's Wharf Square almost every day. (To be continued......)