"Deputy Prime Minister, Baghdad Urgent News from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." On the first day of the 11th month of the 11th year of the Apocalypse, Qu Chengmei received an urgent message from Wang Shoutian from Baghdad. However, he only glanced at it in a hurry and immediately asked the adjutant to urgently send it back to the Chang'an cabinet, and at the same time, he himself kept walking towards the headquarters of the Western Expeditionary Army outside the city. In recent years, the development speed has been very fast, not only the Northwest Railway has branched out here, but also a huge number of industrial and commercial products from the Central Plains have been diverted from the north to the south to Daqin and Dashi. And all kinds of fur products and mineral raw materials sold to the Central Plains from all over the northwest are also concentrated here, relying on the geographical location advantage and the huge geographical advantages of the northwest, the development of Shule far surpasses other cities, and even if it is not for the temporary inability of Shule to develop heavy industry, I am afraid that Gaochang's Jiaohe City can not be compared with it. However, now that the center of gravity in the northwest of the empire has begun to shift to the south, especially the Persian Governorate and Xiliu Prefecture, the two important towns of Persian Province, relying on the advantages of sea and sea connections in the south, they have begun to exert their strength, but I am afraid that the development speed of Shule will also be surpassed by it.

However, Qu Chengmei does not have too many opinions on this, Persian Province has its own development advantages, but Shule's own advantages have not yet been brought into play, the last section of the western railway has arrived in Baishui City, and the next step to continue to the west will inevitably reach the Aral Sea directly, so that it is closer to Taixi, if the trade between Datang and Dashi has begun to shift from the railway to the sea, then the growing trade with Daqin is closely dependent on railway transportation, Schuller's role in this process is inevitably more pronounced. Even with the stronger and stronger control of the Northwest Datang, Shule itself can put forward the development plan of light industry and continue the Northwest Development Plan formulated during the original Tuoba Sizhi administration.

"Dashuai, the latest news from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been sent from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Da Shi has negotiated with Minister Wang, and now the canal treaty is about to be signed." After Qu Chengmei came to the barracks, he immediately informed Wan Yi and Gauss Ji of the news she had just received.

"Canal Treaty, it seems that Minister Wang has dug up a lot of benefits from the big cannibal this time, otherwise there would be no need to sign a special treaty." Wan Yi and the others didn't know the specific situation in Baghdad, but at this time, Wang Shoutian took out the detailed "Treaty of the Phoenician Canal" drawn up by himself in the side hall of the Caliphate Palace in Baghdad and handed it to Ayebi on the other side, and a confident smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

This canal treaty did not really trap the Great Food Empire, but took into account the current difficulties of the Great Food Empire, and put forward a package of canal construction and management plans, specifically for the formation of a Phoenician Canal engineering team funded by the Tang Dynasty for exploration and construction, technical personnel were dispatched by the Great Food, and the basic workers were provided by the Great Food, of course, if the Great Food Empire could not provide enough labor, it could also be recruited by the Tang Dynasty itself, but the cost was provided by the Great Food. After the canal is built, in order to protect Datang's investment income, all the income from the canal in the first 20 years belongs to Datang, and the Great Food Empire must not hinder Datang from recovering its investment for any reason or excuse. Twenty years later, Datang transferred half of the rights and interests of the canal to the Dashi Empire, and the other half was used as Datang's income and daily maintenance costs of the canal.

These terms are actually easy to say, after all, except for the Tang Dynasty, even the Ayebi family, which is the most proficient in commercial affairs, cannot see the true value of this canal for the time being. It's just that what makes the other party entangled is that Datang proposed that in order to ensure the independent operation of the canal, Datang needs to establish the necessary escort force in the Phoenicia Canal, and asked the Dashi Empire to cede the port located on this side of the Red Sea to Datang.

"Your Excellency, we categorically cannot agree to this matter of ceding the port, this is the highest interest of our country, once the matter of the cession is reported, it is very likely that it will be vetoed by the caliphate, and it will also be opposed by the soldiers at the front." Ah Yebi rubbed his eyebrows and felt a deep headache, after all, according to this treaty, the Great Food Empire really doesn't need to pay much to be able to build this canal, and those laborers are not worth mentioning for themselves, aren't there still many opposing forces within the empire? In addition, there are still nearly 100,000 prisoners of war on the Iberian Peninsula, and it will be enough to transfer them all by then. But all of them are Datang investments, and Datang will inevitably require the necessary measures to ensure its investment returns, otherwise Datang is not a fool, how can it be possible to invest so much money to do such a big project in a foreign country? According to this treaty, the total investment is likely to reach more than 100 million Tang yuan in the end, and may even exceed it in the end.

"Your Excellency, is it possible that I can make the decision for your country to separate the canal guard force and this management department from our jurisdiction, and until the end of the twenty-year period, the two countries will form a joint escort force to be responsible for the daily defense of the canal, what do you think?" Ayebi thought about it and vetoed the matter of ceding the port, but in order to make up for it, Datang thought of expanding the size of the escort team to the extent of 10,000 people, and independently handed over the Canal Management Division, which was originally under the supervision of the Great Food Empire, to Datang to operate independently for twenty years, so that it seemed that it could make up for Datang's losses. Although Wang Shoutian didn't have any expression in his proposal, he secretly laughed in his heart, ceding the port was originally added by himself temporarily, but what he didn't expect was that this Ah Yebi actually fired such a high condition, and the 10,000 escort troops were enough to close the canal at a critical time and cut off the east-west traffic of the Great Food Empire. As for the port, before coming to Baghdad, Li Xuanqing had already found another best place, and when the time came, he could completely get rid of the Great Food Empire and establish a stable advance territory of the Tang Dynasty on the continent that they had called Afrigeria.

With Wang Shoutian's seemingly reluctant nod, the treaty was unanimously agreed by both sides, and after re-discussing the details, a new "Treaty of the Phoenician Canal" was drawn up by both sides. As a result, the construction of this canal, which was later known as the busiest canal, began nearly a thousand years ahead of schedule on the African land. For the first time, Datang began to export its technology to the outside world.

On November 15, the 11th year of the Apocalypse, when Wang Shoutian signed the "Treaty of the Phoenician Canal" on behalf of the Tang Empire, and Ayebi signed it on behalf of the Great Food Empire, this treaty made everyone present excited. Through this treaty, the Great Food Empire solved the biggest problem in front of it, and communicated the most troublesome transportation problem of its huge territory across the east and west, so that the navy in its rear could have the most convenient sea passage to reach the Mediterranean, where the navy was most needed at present, to participate in the upcoming war with the Great Qin Empire. In addition to starting to export technology to earn more lucrative overseas profits, the Tang Dynasty also used this canal to directly intervene in the Mediterranean situation, laying the foundation for the next stage of the empire's external expansion.

With the signing of this treaty, the situation in the entire Taixi has also changed greatly, and the Great Food Empire has relied on the assistance of the Tang Dynasty to discover the opportunity one step in advance, and completely revised the original strategy, and the naval fleet deployed near the Iberian Peninsula has also been ordered to start southward and begin to train near the ports near Afriedrich, so that it can also protect the construction of the canal from being harassed by the navy of the Great Qin Empire when necessary. For Daqin, although they locked the patrol range of the Great Food Navy in the short term and provided them with a good opportunity for a decisive battle, what they did not expect was that at the same time as the signing of this treaty, Wang Shoutian and Ayebi also reached another huge warship procurement and training agreement, and the Tang Dynasty built new warships in the Persian Governorate and then sold them to Dashi, and assisted the other party in training, re-establishing a huge fleet with a total number of about 300 ships. This is also the reason why the Great Cannibal was unable to fund the construction of the canal, this huge warship procurement plan almost exhausted the last of the Great Food Empire's funds, and even the training expenses were finally settled on credit. In recent years, a large number of purchases of all kinds of commodities and huge arms transactions in Datang, the family base of the Great Food Empire is also rapidly depleted, if it were not for the fact that in recent years, the Great Food Merchants have also smelled other business opportunities from the Datang side, and began to collect and excavate a large number of mineral resources in the country and other places, and then sell them to the Datang, I am afraid that this kind of trade will not last long. However, in this way, it also essentially promoted the initial industrial development within the Great Food Empire, at least in terms of mining and handicrafts, although it received the impact of the Tang Dynasty, but those who survived the competition had a certain strength, which actually gradually affected the economic development model within the Great Food Empire. Among them, the people who have benefited the most are the Ayebi family, who, as the pioneers of trade with the Tang Dynasty, have benefited handsomely in this wave of tide, surpassing other families in China. Even they have been consciously or unconsciously tied to the chain of industrial development of the Tang Empire, becoming the suppliers of raw materials and the sellers and buyers of finished products in the upstream of Datang heavy industry. In this way, a preliminary cross-regional and cross-imperial joint industrial chain is gradually taking shape. It's just that no one in the Great Food Empire has reacted to all this yet. At least under the leadership of the Ayebi family, this industrial chain is growing rapidly, in order to make more profits from the Tang Dynasty, they began to haunt all places, even not limited to the Great Food Empire to collect and buy mineral resources and raw materials to be shipped to the Tang Dynasty, and then undertake a large number of industrial commodities from the Tang Dynasty and sell them to other places, so that the way to earn the price difference from the middle has allowed it to embark on an alternative development path.

However, the signing of this treaty marked the complete bankruptcy of the Gauls' intention to use Jerusalem to stir up the whole of Ctessi. The Great Cannibal has now changed its strategy, at least until the canal is opened, and even the caliph has decided that even if the Mediterranean fleet is completely wiped out by the other side, it will wait until the Phoenician Canal is opened. This actually gave Great Qin enough time to exterminate the Gauls. Even when the canal was dug on the side of Da Qin, he would take the initiative to increase the intensity of the attack on the Gauls, so as to avoid the thorn in the back of the thorn in the decisive battle with the Great Food in the future to disrupt his deployment at a critical moment. Therefore, after Wang Shoutian signed this treaty and then instructed Ayebi to demarcate the canal excavation area on the Egyptian side as soon as possible, and vacate the nearby residential areas, he also began to embark on the procedures for returning to the empire. After all, this matter is generally led by Datang, and almost all building materials, raw materials, machinery and equipment need to be transported from Datang, so I need to go back and hand over the treaty to the cabinet, and then the cabinet will make overall planning and dispatch of materials and manpower.

In order to start preparing for the Second Naval Fleet of Great Food, Ayebi found several ports with better relative locations near Baghdad and began to restart construction, and built five ports in one go in accordance with the construction style of the Tang Port on the side of the Persian Governorate. After Wang Shoutian arrived at the Persian Governor's Palace, the navy also sent warships to patrol along the coastline of the Great Food Empire in accordance with the urgent instructions sent by the Admiralty, preparing to find the island and the port on the map sent by the Admiralty. Qu Chengxing, the chief commander of the Western Fleet, who was already on the road at this time, naturally did not know that he had stayed directly in the Persian Governorate for more than three years, and within three years, the Western Fleet he led had even established a complete sea supply base at the doorstep of the Great Food Empire, and also seized two overseas territories that were no less valuable than Manraka and other places.

At the beginning of December of the 11th year of the Apocalypse, when Wang Shoutian returned to the Chang'an base camp, Zhang Jianzhong even held this canal treaty for half a day before coming back to his senses. This treaty means that for the first time, the Tang Dynasty has extended its hand to the hinterland of the Great Food Empire, and it also carries a lot of economic benefits.

"Go and inform the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, and immediately begin planning for the issuance of a special bond for overseas construction of 100 million Tang dollars, and let the ministers of industry and commerce come to me, and I will consult with them in advance on how to enter Phoenicia." Zhang Jianzhong was completely unaware that his latter sentence later became a necessary procedure for the empire to undertake overseas projects, which also led to the pace of overseas expansion of the major families within the empire.

Chang'an began to urgently mobilize the preparation and construction of this canal, Qu Chengmei, who was located on the northwest front, also received an order from the cabinet, and the huge inland resources in the northwest also got the opportunity to develop in this technology export, and a series of industrial development plans deployed by the cabinet began to surface rapidly. A large number of basic building materials factories were established in various places, initially as part of the construction of the supply canal, but later provided the foundation for the construction of local infrastructure, and the development of the northwest has reached the most critical moment.

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