As soon as he heard De Mons mention the words "His Majesty the Emperor", Liu Chang's face was a little unhappy, and he lowered his voice and said: "You are so well-informed, but you just know about this matter yourself, and you don't have to publicize it everywhere!" ”

What does His Majesty the Emperor mean by this, De Mons was stunned at first, and quickly reacted, he was actually blind, and he was really going to change the Yuan system next year, and Liu Chang was going to officially be called the emperor.

Liu Chang's claim to be the emperor has been circulating for more than a year, and every time the rumors come out can be said as if they were true, like the recent time that Liu Chang will officially be called emperor during the Spring Festival next year, and at the same time he will change the year name, it is said that this year name is called Sadaji, but such rumors have been repeated again and again, and De Mons didn't take this as a thing at all, but he didn't expect to let himself be blinded.

He didn't care whether the name of the era was Sadaji or Joan of Arc, and he didn't care how many people would know the news in advance, he only knew that he was one of the first to get the news, and he could even use the news to get some benefits.

Of course, since Liu Chang has told him, he De Mengs is also an interesting person, so naturally he will not publicize it everywhere, so that His Majesty the Emperor has any unhappy emotions, he just looked at the two concubines who followed behind Liu Chang, lowered his voice and said: "Congratulations to the two mothers!" ”

Ye Niangzi was a person who already knew, she glared at De Mons and asked, "What a well-informed foreigner, Your Highness, if you can't make a decision, why don't you ask Count De Mons!" ”

She and De Mons are also old friends, and this "ask for advice" made De Mons float to the sky, but fortunately he knew what he was, so he immediately said respectfully: "Please tell Your Highness in detail!" ”

Liu Chang has indeed had some problems lately, although the intelligence department has reported it several times. But these questions were still hanging in Liu Chang's heart, so he directly took De Mengs' hand and said: "Then I'll just say it directly, are you familiar with cotton prices?" ”

"I still know a thing or two!" De Mons is already very proficient in Chinese: "Please order Your Highness!" ”

Liu Chang also bluntly raised his own questions: "In the past time, I have worked very happily with the British in Ningbo and Shanghai. Every month, a large number of cotton and other military supplies are imported, and the import amount of each month is as little as 80,000 or 90,000 foreign yuan, and as much as 340,000 silver yuan, and everyone cooperates very happily! ”

This is indeed the Rainbow Army in addition to the arms. The largest category of imported manufactured goods, not to mention anything else, the hundreds of thousands of people in the Hongjun alone need millions of sets of military uniforms a year.

In this time and space, although military uniforms are not a necessity, they are a symbol of the combat effectiveness and morale of a troop, and providing uniform uniforms to officers and soldiers can be said to be a luxury. It must be known that every officer and soldier of the Hongjun Army must be issued at least one set of summer clothes and one set of winter clothes every year, and some units even have to issue four sets of military uniforms.

Uniform military uniform. It also gives the Hongjun army its own logo and soul, and even the civil servants in the government like to wear a set of military uniforms or imitation military uniforms, and the enemies of the Hongjun, as long as they see the grass-green military uniform, know that it is the arrival of the Hongjun, and they first have a sense of shock. Some time ago in Fujian, a group of militiamen who had just changed into a green military uniform even scared away hundreds of bandits.

And all these military uniforms, except for a small part of the supplies are homemade. The rest were made from imported British industrial products, and in fact the imports included not only cotton cloth from the British mainland, but also belts, water bottles, ammunition bags, etc., but everyone must admit that cotton cloth was the main thing.

The cotton cloth consumed by the Hongjun is actually larger than the number Liu Chang said. In the peak month, the Hongjun even imported 500,000 silver yuan of cotton cloth. However, with the continuous expansion of the army, there are still many government personnel who like to wear imitation military uniforms, and everyone unanimously acknowledges that the scale of cotton cloth imports is likely to expand.

What bothers Liu Chang is a huge problem: "Now the British businessmen in Shanghai and Ningbo have told me that the price of cotton is rising wildly all over the world, and they, as downstream manufacturers, can not withstand such huge pressure, and recently they are ready to raise the price of British cotton cloth by 30%, Earl de Mons, as my old friend, do you think I have to bear such a price increase!" ”

Liu Chang still had a slight dissatisfaction in his heart, he provided countless employment opportunities for the British textile industry, and these British people actually used such means to deal with him, but Dermons had a lot of contact with British businessmen in Shanghai and Ningbo, and he said very bluntly: "Your Highness, I know you don't want to hear my answer, but I must explain, if it is not for the opening up of the market, maybe the price of British cotton cloth has not only risen by three percent!" ”

"Why?" Liu Chang also heard some news about the rise in cotton prices, but after all, it was not as good as De Mons's understanding of the entire world market: "I want to know the answer!" ”

"The most critical factor is that the Hongjun is a great army, and in the past two years, it has ordered almost two million military uniforms from the world market, right? If you separate the outerwear, underwear, underwear, etc., it may exceed 10 million pieces, and almost all of these clothes and pants are made of British cotton, and the rainbow army will still have to replace military uniforms with greater intensity! ”

Liu Chang admitted that this was true, but he didn't think that such a purchase of military uniforms would affect the entire world cotton market: "However, the cotton cloth I purchase, if calculated in tons, is very limited, and if it is calculated in terms of the number of ships, it is even more limited!" ”

"But this has already increased the price of the world cotton market by 37 percent, and it will continue to rise, in fact it is much more serious than you think!" "In Russian Poland, for example, their fledgling textile industry is almost out of business because they can't find enough cotton and thousands of workers ......are unemployed," De Mons told Liu.

Liu Chang did not expect that such a small butterfly as Hongjun could make such amazing waves in this world market, and even destroy the textile industry in Russian Poland, but when he thought of China's huge orders for foreign countries in the 21st century and the skyrocketing prices of raw materials in the entire world market, he already understood.

In fact, the whole eighteenth century can be said to be the golden age of cotton planting, the middle class of the world has become accustomed to wearing cotton clothes, and even conservative China has been affected by such an impact, and the world's cotton production areas are very limited, the most important is the southern United States, but the export of cotton in the southern United States can not meet the amazing demand of the whole world, and the cotton planting industry in the emerging Egypt has not yet formed a scale.

Therefore, De Mons thinks: "Although it has risen by 30%, this is the most restrained behavior of British businessmen in order to open up the Chinese market, I know that for you, it will cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of silver yuan, but this is also no way, I think you can get another loan from the British government!" ”

"I'll get a loan from the British government!" Liu Chang accepted De Mengs's statement: "But there is one more thing, I must also ask for your opinion!" ”

"Your Highness, please speak!" De Mons was extra polite: "I will do my best to serve you!" ”

Liu Chang asked bluntly: "I know that you are the Netherlands, and now the Dutch government has a wrong view of our regime, I hope you can appear to make such a wrong view disappear and build a bridge of friendship!" ”

As soon as Liu Chang mentioned this matter, he immediately said: "Please rest assured, I will do my best to normalize relations between the two countries from the standpoint of peace and friendship, in fact, this has something to do with some misunderstandings, and some Dutch officials consider the Hongjun to be a threat......

De Mons changed his words: "But I think this is a great opportunity, I have already done this work through all aspects, and it should have good results in the short term!" ”

The Dutch colonies were not directly affected by the powerful Chinese empire compared to the colonies of other great powers, and De Mons, as the most successful European with a career in China, also won the favor of many Dutch, many of whom considered him another Sinbad.

Therefore, the Dutch official may be hostile to the Rainbow Army, but De Mons has made a lot of efforts in the past few months, so many Dutch people believe that there is no need for China and the Netherlands to enter a state of war, especially the French have used the painful lesson to tell the whole world that this rebel army is a powerful and terrifying enemy, with the national strength of the Netherlands, how can it be possible to fight a war of 10,000 people in the East.

In fact, it was not so much the official Dutch hostility to the Rainbow Army as the fact that it was being dragged down by an alliance of colonizers: "Now that there is the right news in the Netherlands, the Dutch people think that the war against China is a doomed gamble, but we have to take into account certain factors at home, such as the Spanish ......"

"Spaniards?" Liu Chang smiled: "You are not allies, but mortal enemies!" ”

The Protestant Netherlands and the Catholic Spain were in a sense mortal enemies, considering that the independence of the Netherlands was separated from the richest provinces of Spain, and the war between the two sides lasted for hundreds of years, but for the Western colonizers, they had a natural sense of terror about the rise of a powerful and modern China.

And Liu Chang quickly put forward his most critical point: "I am also worried about the Spaniards, although their strength is limited, but in the reality of the outbreak of the Sino-Russian War, I am unwilling to face more enemies, do you have anything to do with Spain?" I hope that there is a channel of contact between us and the Spaniards. ”