"Brother Zhang, is there any news from the queen's mother, let me wait to meet the emperor?" In the headquarters of Xu's Industrial Group in Chang'an City, Xu Xingxia couldn't help but smile bitterly when he saw Zhang Qiang rushing into his office: "There are less than ten days before the New Year's Festival, if not, let's prepare some gifts and go to the harem to meet Niangniang." At this moment, it is estimated that the emperor is too busy with government affairs to get out of his body, and it is unknown. "The Xu family, as Li Xuanqing's minister, could have been directly informed of entering the palace, but the unfortunate thing is that this year's festival is approaching, Li Xuanqing is almost every day either discussing with the cabinet about next year's imperial economic development plan, or there are still a lot of army rotation adjustment plans on the side of the General Staff that need his nod, not to mention that the Senate will hold a formal election after the imperial meeting next year, and the Fuxing Society and the Justice Party led by Cen Tianshi and Tuoba Sijian are constantly mobilizing their own capable forces to propagate in various places these days. Conduct the first election of the Members. So although Li Xuanqing had already read the report on the previous China Eastern Airlines plan submitted by the two, he couldn't spare time to meet them at all. That's why Xu Xingxia said to Zhang Qiang.

"I said Brother Xu, don't worry, the emperor has already asked the Imperial Forest Army to pass an order to me, and we will be able to enter the palace to see the emperor early tomorrow morning, and the queen will also be there at that time." Zhang Qiang said with a smile: "I came to ask the next brother, wait until the spring of next year, the north is gradually warming, should you and I readjust one or two, but I know that this year, there are no less than 50 new large cargo ships in the royal shipyards in Tianjin, Dalian and Haizhou, which have been bought by your brother, and the Liuqiu shipyard is now taking over the new shipbuilding technology?" Such a big deal is not much worse than the queen's mother. Is it possible for the dude to expand the Western caravan? But that's not the Xu family's main business, right? The two are familiar with each other, so Zhang Qiang spoke straightforwardly, and said with a smile: "Brother, I have to give me a bottom today, when it comes to overseas trade, even if it is your expression Zhang Qishan, is not the opponent of your Xu family, you hurry up and explain to me, otherwise I won't be able to pay the queen mother at that time, and I will rely on you." ”

"You are the general manager of the Tang Imperial Assets Group, why are you so scoundrel when the emperor talks to the queen's mother?" Xu Xingxia made him a cup of tea and said with a wry smile: "When it comes to overseas trade, I just take the lead." You, patronizing and staring at me, you don't look at it, the emperor is afraid that he has planned it a long time ago, I have prepared the ship but I just plan to continue to move forward according to what the emperor said. Xu Xingxia said this with a calm appearance, but faintly revealed the bearing of the head of the Xu family, although the Xu family has been sent behind the Murong family among the six major families over the years, but under the layout of Xu Xingxia, it has developed into a large group with a complete category, and unlike other families focusing on basic industries, Xu Xingxia's eyes are always staring at the high-tech industries advocated by Li Xuanqing, and all the industries of the Xu family basically represent the most advanced level of Datang in the current industry. In some respects, it is even comparable to the royal group. Moreover, the Xu family not only occupies an absolute advantage in the ocean trade, not only the trade throughput firmly occupies the first place in the country, but also in terms of overseas exploration, the Xu family is also tied with the Murong family and the royal family in the top three, and there are special expedition fleets and professionals under them, and the subsidies issued by the Ministry of Communications alone every year are enough to make all families red.

"Brother Shi really has a unique vision." Zhang Qiang instantly understood what the other party meant, nodded and smiled. The two went directly to the gate of Changqing Hall early the next morning to wait, but found that Li Xuan had arrived early in the morning.

"Okay, there are too many things in the past few days, and I've delayed your big things. So, let's have some snacks together. Li Xuanqing saw Qiaoxi bringing breakfast, and hurriedly beckoned the two of them to eat together, "It just so happens that we are chatting while eating, and the two of you may not be eating early this morning." ”

"This looks like the queen's craftsmanship again." Both of them are acquaintances and know that Li Xuanqing does not pay attention to etiquette, so after saluting, he sat down, Xu Xingxia said with a smile: "If the emperor is willing, I want my sister to enter the palace to be a female official for a few years, at least this craft cannot be learned elsewhere, so that she will not be idle at home every day." Xu Xingxia felt a deep headache for his spoiled and lawless sister, and laughed while eating.

"Forget it, I don't have the heart to discipline my sister for you, you just have to find time to marry her off." Li Xuanqing smiled and then began: "I read the report you sent, it seems that you have found the string of small islands, do you have any specific descriptions of the accompanying crew?" ”

"Your Majesty, this is a chart jointly drawn by our two families, this expedition took a total of half a year, starting from Temple Street and Vladivostok Port, along the coastline to the north of about 10,000 miles, sure enough, as the emperor expected, we found the strait in the far north, and then turned back to the east to find a string of islands like Bohai Bay." Xu Xingxia put down the dishes and chopsticks in his hand and said: "Originally, the crew planned to go north, but because it was already in the middle of winter, the north was extremely cold, and the ship could not go, so they had no choice but to return." ”

"I heard that Xingxia has already ordered more than 50 large ships, all of which are new large ships with a range of more than 8,000 kilometers, and Xingxia plans to continue to explore the Eastern Voyage in the spring of next year?" Li Xuanqing said with a smile: "That's fine, but the two of them form a joint fleet, and let the Admiralty also send warships to accompany them, and the two of you can arrange reliable henchmen to go to the main business." ”

"Is there any danger on the emperor's side? Need a warship to accompany you? Zhang Qiang was a little curious: "This won't let us also carry weapons with us to defend ourselves, right?" ”

"Big brother means to let you carry weapons. The weapons are ready, and when the time comes, Brother Zhang can go to the Zhao Navy's Oriental Fleet to get them, and they will also have marines to join you later. Qiaoxi said with a mysterious face: "According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, there is a mysterious country over there that we have not discovered, the legendary Golden Country, go grab some gold and come back." Brother Xu, you can grab some dowry for Sister Xu Jiayan. ”

"Then, according to the records of the Book of Mountains and Seas, there is really a possibility that there is a mysterious country over there." Zhang Qiang was not very familiar with the Classic of Mountains and Seas, but Xu Xingxia nodded and said thoughtfully: "The emperor and queen don't worry, Xingxia will rearrange the deployment when he goes back." As soon as he spoke, Zhang Qiang also nodded, obviously the two of them had a little understanding of those mysterious countries in the east, so Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi were not worried that they would not make any moves when they encountered the local natives, and the huge gold and silver reserves in that place would need to flow into the treasury of the Tang Dynasty. With the support of countless gold and silver there, the imperial economic development will inevitably get rid of the embarrassing position of deflation in one fell swoop, and it may even take the opportunity to change the dual gold and silver standard to a single gold standard system, so that the huge silver of the central bank can also be really used for industrial development and become a raw material for industrial development.

"By the way, after the Bering Strait turns to the east, tell all the sailors who go to sea not to go north for the time being. The Far North is only afraid of being cold all year round, and rushing to the place is only afraid of adding difficulties to the fleet. Moreover, the extreme north is so cold in summer, if you are afraid that you will not be able to live in people, so don't march north for the time being. To the east, if you can draw a rough outline of the land, let's continue and establish a long-term or short-term base at a suitable place along the way. The Tianjin shipyard is already developing large-scale hot forging furnaces and high-temperature treatment equipment, and if it can be processed, it can build ships with larger voyages and longer ranges, so that it is not necessary to travel along the land coastline, so as to open up more convenient routes to facilitate travel. Li Xuanqing is also helpless when he says this, at present, except for himself and Qiaoxi, other people in that continent don't know whether it exists or not, so naturally it is impossible to directly mark a more convenient southern route. In fact, the southern route not only has a large number of islands along the way for replenishment, but also has no seasonal changes along the way, and can be navigable all year round, but according to the current ship mileage, I am afraid that the empire will need to re-lay a new supply route.

Li Xuanqing was silent, Zhang Qiang and Xu Xingxia didn't dare to continue, but Qiaoxi knew his thoughts, so he smiled: "I don't think it's better to be like this, hasn't the navy already moved the Nanyang Fleet to Luzon Island in the South Seas, and there are several ports in Sriwijaya Qi?" You can have another person sail east from Luzon, establishing a stronghold on the good islands along the way, and acting with the Admiralty, maybe you can end up in the same direction. After Qiaoxi finished speaking, Li Xuanqing glanced at it and shook his head, Li Xuanqing felt that Qiaoxi's proposal was inappropriate, but he always felt that if these things were only mentioned by the two of them, he was afraid that people in this era would never be able to move forward independently, so he thought about it and continued: "You can refer to Qiaoxi's words, if you are sure, you can apply to the Nanyang Fleet, and then form a tripartite joint fleet to go east together, and it just so happens that the Nanyang Fleet also has a plan to go east to quell the rebellion on those islands, you can go with you." ”

Li Xuanqing then chatted with them for a while about some precautions for ocean voyages before giving up. After the two left, he said skillfully: "Why didn't the big brother let them go directly from the south?" ”

"There are some things that they still need to experience by themselves, otherwise they will lose the ability to think for themselves if they rely on us to mention everything, and then once you and I leave the empire in the future, there will be no motivation to forge ahead." Li Xuanqing smiled: "Let them go on their own, they are not unprepared." Maybe we can do something that you and I don't expect. Anyway, I just need them to bring back the gold and silver on that continent that makes everyone's eyes red. ”

"Hee-hee, big brother doesn't care about me. Our shipyard will soon be able to solve the problem of parallel connection of steam engines, and when the time comes, if one steam engine can't be carried, then two, and if it doesn't work, four will be on it together, which is always enough. Qiaoxi beckoned the palace maid to clean up the dining table, and then stood up with Li Xuanqing and said: "Originally, I wanted Brother Xu to send those big ships to the Western Ocean, but this is okay, Brother Xu is in the east, let Zhang Qishan and Ma Mengdie go to the Western Ocean." ”

"Don't worry, with Xu Xingxia's brain, how could he let go of such an opportunity. But I don't think he's going to be the leader. Li Xuanqing suddenly smiled. Today, the empire's overseas trade has been divided into three parts, the Dongyang Trade Group jointly operated by the Xu family and the Murong family, the Sihai Shipping of the Zhang family, and the Nanyang Trade of the Ma family. However, these three businesses also intersect with each other, you have me, I have you. It's just that the Xu family's expeditionary activities are already related to the sustainable development of the empire's finances. In fact, Li Xuanqing's trick is not his own originality. After the industrial revolution in the West, the industry was able to develop rapidly, and the trade reached the whole world was also supported by the huge amount of gold and silver trafficked back to Europe from all over the world by Spain and Portugal. Therefore, the gold and silver brought back by Spain and the colonies supported the two legs of the European Industrial Revolution.

Li Xuanqing also knew that she was ingenious, otherwise she would not have directly proposed to let Zhang Qiang and Xu Xingxia go directly from Luzon Island. So he thought for a while and said: "Big brother don't have to summon, Nanyang may be able to help us solve our urgent needs, there are a lot of gold and silver mines over there, let the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Central Bank and the internal guard rush over to mine." ”

"Forget it, this time their extreme north route is also very valuable." Li Xuanqing waved his hand and said with a smile: "There are already people in Nanyang who are already doing it, and we don't need to mention it." Let's take a closer look at this route, although the conditions are limited, but once they go a second time, they will understand that there are ocean currents pushing them in these two places. ”

"What the big brother said is that I heard that Vladivostok is not already planning to expand north, and several small ports can be established in Vladivostok to facilitate travel in the summer." Qiaoxi said that some time ago, Vladivostok planned to expand northward, and the Cabinet and the Admiralty were planning to establish several high-latitude ports on the Sea of Okhotsk to facilitate the production of newly opened farms and the transportation of materials to and fro. It's just that this matter was rejected by Li Xuanqing, and there are very few crops that can be grown in the high latitudes further north. But Li Xuanqing didn't say anything to death, but asked the Ministry of Agriculture to establish a few experimental fields over there to try first, after all, Li Xuanqing himself couldn't remember the climate, hydrology and other information there. But at this time, Qiaoxi mentioned this matter, which made him stunned, and after thinking about it, he nodded, found the submission some time ago, re-approved it, and sent it to the cabinet and then forwarded it to the General Staff.

After Li Xuanqing finished doing this, he threw himself into the tense year-end affairs, but when this official document was handed to the General Staff, it was seen by Hu Xiaosi, who finally joined forces with the Admiralty to look for gold and silver mines while building a port in that sea area, and he really found several large gold mines, and the latter panicked to send a large number of people from Japan, but let the rapid development of a new city with a scale of tens of thousands of people in the following years, so that the empire took another step north.