It is true that only the details of the matter remain to be negotiated with Khornisian, an Armenian businessman, and there are no longer principled obstacles between the two sides.

Over the next few days, Xu Xin's trade staff had a detailed discussion with Hornisian, including the type, quantity, price, payment method, and delivery location of the goods to be traded. In general, the consultations between the two sides were quite pleasant. After the negotiations, Hornisian and Xu Xin signed a letter of intent. Khernisian will then return to Izmir to contact the family and finalize the trade between the two sides as soon as possible. Before leaving, he paid for 500 pieces of cotton cloth, which he was going to take back to Turkey for trial sale.

After Hornisian left, Xu Xin was idle for a while, and then discussed mathematical problems with Torricelli and Viviani. Xu Xinxue was born in economics, and his mathematical skills were naturally good, so he was naturally comfortable communicating with Torricari and others, and for a while it also strengthened the confidence of Torricari and others to go to the East Coast to study.

In the bright sunshine of early summer in southern France, a month passed quickly.

On 5 July, four warships of the Navy's First Fleet crossed the Atlantic and arrived at the port of Bordeaux. At this time, Xu Xin and Mo Ming finally knew about the foggy naval battle that took place on the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean more than a month ago, and they did not know how much impact this small naval battle would have on the development of the entire country, because it depended on the attitude of the British.

But there is no doubt about the fact that relations between the East Coast Republic of China and Britain will certainly deteriorate considerably. Based on the high degree of competition between the superior industrial products (textiles) of the two sides, as well as piracy by the First Fleet of the Eastern Republic (although there is no conclusive evidence). There may be a war of a certain magnitude between the two sides. The British may not have declared war openly. However, many pirate ships in the country may be granted privateer licenses. Let them harass the maritime lifeline on the east coast.

The cotton raw material base of French Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, and overseas markets such as St. Augustine, Brazil, and Gasconigne, these places can be said to be almost completely exposed to the threat of the British. Sensing the seriousness of the matter, Mo Ming immediately decided to return to China on a ship of the First Fleet and complained to his superiors about the threat of a lifeline at sea and the necessity of opening up an African route.

The First Fleet did not lag long in Bordeaux. After taking in more than 900 French immigrants and more than 100 children aged 10, the First Fleet finally returned to the Zhenhaebao Naval Base in early October, carrying some of the money from the sale of cotton cloth and potatoes.

The Executive Committee and the Joint Staff Headquarters had already learned about the naval battle when the "Beagle," which was escorting the British migrant ship back to Vostochny Harbor. After a thorough analysis of the current international situation and the financial situation of Great Britain, the Executive Committee concluded that a full-scale war with Great Britain would not break out in the near future. But small-scale, low-intensity naval battles may be inevitable.

For this reason, the Executive Committee has been calm on the surface, but secretly it has begun to increase the import of various strategic materials. In particular, imports of gunpowder, copper, lead, pig iron, and Brazilian rosewood have doubled in recent months, almost exceeding the total imports of the past two years.

In addition to the material aspect, after the completion of the two flute-type transport ships, the Zhenhai Shipyard began to build two frigate gunboats non-stop, and the keel of the third "Free Trade" of the "10 August" class battleships was also laid on the slipway in the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard.

The whole country continued to operate in such a situation where the surface was calm, but the internal undercurrent was surging, and this was how Mo Ming felt in the days after returning to Dongfang Port.

I sorted out my appearance on the silver-plated mirror produced by the Henan Glass Factory. Mo Ming, whose eyes were red because he stayed up all night to write information last night, sighed softly: "Hard-working people." Immediately, he picked up the leather briefcase. I went out and headed towards the conference room of the Joint Staff Headquarters.

In the conference room of the Joint Staff Headquarters today, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Materials, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the State Intelligence Administration, and other departments will sit together for a joint meeting to discuss how to face today's complex and severe situation.

Before Mo Ming left, he went to the General Intelligence Bureau and talked secretly with Director Jiao Tang for a while before walking towards the venue. When he walked into the venue, halfway through the morning session, Liu Ang, a senior researcher at the Ethnic and Policy Research Office, was foaming at the stage to give a lecture on the international situation to the representatives of various departments.

“…… To sum up, judging from the current domestic and international situation and the strength of our navy, the Atlantic route to Europe is too fragile and can be easily cut off by the enemy. Therefore, it is imperative to open up African routes, which are related to industrial development, national fundamentals, and national fortunes in the next few decades. In this way, we will not be controlled by others. Seeing Mo Ming come in, Liu Ang greeted him with his eyes.

"Rub, it's not something that the Navy guys did. Robbery addicted to robbery, and as a result, he was caught. This new pirate meets an old pirate, and now it seems that the old pirate is more powerful, damn, it's just miserable for everyone, it's really fucked up. Someone at the bottom whispered cool words, Mo Ming glanced at it, and it turned out to be Wei Aiwen's "Wei Dazui" from the War Department. This kid dares to say anything with a stinky mouth, and now he complains about the navy, and he doesn't have any affection.

The two lieutenants in dark blue military uniforms beside him laughed in low voices, there are no heavyweight leaders in charge today, and these guys are all very presumptuous. In fact, it is no wonder that in the past two years or so, the army has been pressed by the navy.

Seeing the navy go out to work as pirates, batches of supplies were brought back from the Caribbean, which greatly improved the country's finances and boosted the pride of the people. Not only did the leaders praise the navy, but even the ordinary people talked about how the navy was when they chatted in their spare time. Not to mention the officers and men of the Navy who have made a fortune by participating in privateering activities, all of them have bulging pockets and speak in a louder voice than the Army. The money is more than the army, the people are more beautiful than the army, and even the competitiveness is stronger than the army when he marries a wife, which is how the army brothers can swallow this breath.

Mo Ming shook his head, these things are not something he can manage, and there is no need to take care of them. The navy and army are still in a state of healthy competition, and that is enough.

After Liu Ang's speech, it was time for Mo Ming to play by himself. As a matter of fact, the executive committee of the major principles and policies has basically reached a conclusion, and today's joint meeting is, at best, to unify the thinking of various departments and lay a good foundation for the next actions.

Yesterday, the Executive Committee gave the General Intelligence Bureau a task: to draw up a preliminary plan for opening up air routes to Africa, and to discuss it at a joint meeting of various departments the next day. As for what should be done by the State Intelligence Administration instead of the Joint Staff Headquarters, according to the grapevine, it may be because a certain leader heard that this plan was originally proposed by Mo Ming, so he named Mo Ming, a senior analyst of the General Intelligence Bureau, to do it.

Thinking of the strange eyes and false smile when Director Jiao was talking to him, Mo Ming couldn't help but feel a tingling scalp. But now is not the time to dwell on these things, Mo Ming sighed softly, took out the speech from his briefcase, and walked to the podium to start his speech.

Mo Ming's eyes swept over the representatives of more than 20 departments under the podium, these people were all middle and high-level cadres of the country, and to a certain extent, they represented the will of the country.

"Today, I would like to talk about the preliminary plans for the opening of the African route. I think the necessity of opening up African routes, I think Researcher Liu has already said it thoroughly, I will not repeat it here, and then I will talk about the specific details of African routes, midway nodes, climatic conditions, and the safety situation of the sea areas through which I pass. Mo Ming opened the first page of the manuscript paper, and then said: "The African route starts from the port of Vostochny and ends at the port of Suez in the Ottoman Empire. There are three stops in South Africa, Madagascar and Djibouti, and the entire voyage is more than 10,000 nautical miles, which takes several months or even half a year. ”

As soon as Mo Ming's words came out, there were some whispers at the bottom, and soon some people raised objections.

"Hello Analyst Mo, I'm Lao Ding of the South China Sea Transportation Company. I would like to ask you who will complete the exploration of the routes in this plan? As we all know, we are still in the dark about that part of the sea. The stretch from Vostochny to the Cape of Good Hope is fine, as some Dutch sailors in the navy have sailed there before, and have made deals with the Khoisans there, and we will probably be able to get through this route by groping and groping. But from the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean to the north we are completely blind, this is not a trivial matter, if you want to take a new route, we are not afraid of the South China Sea transportation company, but you must at least explore this route for me first, right? Ding Canlin, general manager of the South China Sea Transportation Company, got up and asked.

Ding Canlin is also an old crew member on the original Yunsheng No. 1, and now he has become the general manager of the only professional ocean shipping company in China. In the end, it is up to them to take the African route, so he is naturally concerned about all aspects of the route.

"General Manager Ding, I can answer you very clearly about your company's doubts: the Executive Committee has determined that this route will be opened up by the Admiralty, and then handed over to your company to run the transportation after the development is mature, and the climate, monsoon, ocean currents, pirates and other information in the various sea areas of the entire route will be collected by the Admiralty and then transferred to you. You can rest assured that the Admiralty will also establish a small supply port in South Africa at that time, and the convoy of the South China Sea Transport Company will be escorted by naval warships throughout the journey. If there is anything else you would like to ask, you can ask Staff Officer Huang of the Admiralty. Mo Ming pointed to an officer in a navy uniform sitting in the first row. (To be continued......)