"Ahh You're all here, and I'm looking for you! After returning to the office, Hu Zhen found that Li Haoran and Niu Quyun were waiting there, so he asked, "Say, how is the progress of your work?" ”

"Let's ask Senior Li to speak first!" Hu Zhen is usually very courteous to the elders of the Huaxia Guild, and most of the people under him are also very respectful of these Huaxia bigwigs, Niu Quyun asked Li Haoran to say it first.

"Then my old man is welcome, according to your commission from Xinghua, I went to find Charles of the Brooke Dynasty. Jason. King Brooke negotiated, and now there is a result, but ......" Li Haoran didn't seem to be very satisfied with the result of the negotiation, and his old face was very unhappy, and he was a little embarrassed not to say it.

Hu Zhen chuckled in his heart, and he didn't know if he couldn't talk about it, so he said: "Senior Li, no matter what the result is, please say it, so that we can face it!" ”

"Yes, yes, King Charles of the Brooke dynasty said that if we pay six and a half million pounds, he will take the money and retire to England to recuperate, and give us the whole territory of Sarawak, but...... But I just talked to him about six million pounds! ”

It turned out that the Brooke dynasty was harassed by the remnants of the Jacques army commanded by Dagaan and the rout of the Dutch army, the plague was epidemic in the territory, and even the slaves and tribes in the territory rebelled, the industrious Chinese fled to the south of Borneo, the economy of Sarawak plummeted, and the entire Brooke dynasty was already in a state of bankruptcy. Jason. King Brooke sat on a volcanic crater, restless.

But this King Charles was very tough in the negotiations with Li Haoran, and he just clung to the price of six million pounds.

The old man Li Haoran felt that he had failed to suppress the other party's asking price to less than half of the asking price in the negotiation, and in front of Hu Zhen, he couldn't hold his face.

Historically, the Brooke dynasty was a seller of rubber banana timber, and in addition, there was no major source of economic income, and half a century later, in 1942, when the Japanese army captured the territory of the Brooke dynasty. The king also had a wealth of only 600,000 pounds, and by this time, the pound had depreciated many times, and the king of Bruco wanted to give up. will offer a high price, and it is no wonder that Old Man Li feels that he has not pushed the price low enough.

"Oh, then just promise him!" Hu Zhen was in a burst of ecstasy at this time, thinking that this Sarawak was done, and people just saw the barren tropical place of Sarawak. There is almost nothing left but plague-ridden and endless tropical jungles, without knowing the strategic significance of it, and not knowing that the abundant oil reserves of northern Borneo will be an endless source of wealth.

"Six million pounds? It's too expensive, isn't it? Li Haoran's mind was full of comparisons with the figure of buying 1.3 million square kilometers of Borneo and other 1.3 million square kilometers for 20 million pounds, and this Sarawak is less than one-tenth of it, and the price is obviously more than three times more expensive.

"It's okay, this territory is in control, it's not a bargain to buy vegetables at the market, as long as this land is in our hands, there will be a day when millions of pounds will be earned back. The benefits could be thousandfold greater than those millions of pounds! Moreover, this is a major event related to our future development, we don't want to delay the occurrence of many things in the long night, please go back to King Charles today and say that I agree, as long as he signs the contract immediately, I will arrange for the bank to remit six million pounds tomorrow. ”

"Yes, I'm leaving for Sarawak!" Li Haoran couldn't imagine that Hu Zhen was so decisive, and he didn't say anything at the moment, stood up and was about to leave.

"Senior Li, I'm not in a hurry for a few minutes. Please stay and wait, and listen to Niu Quyun's report before leaving, which will also be more confident in negotiating with King Charles. Hu Zhen understood, even if he signed a treaty with the Brooke Dynasty. As a semi-independent country founded by the English people, if it had not gone through the English government. The government's ratification is the signing of the treaty, and I am afraid that it will also be a bamboo basket for nothing.

Seeing that it was his turn, Niu Quyun hurriedly reported: "After our communication with the Governor's Office of the Straits Settlements, as well as our activities in London. Saying that we were interested in buying the English colony of Sabah in Borneo at a high price, the English have now reported our opinion to the English Prime Minister of Salisbury. Salisbury seems to be a little tempted to sell Sabah to us through a loan from the Bank of England and to sign a protection agreement, given the precedent of our purchase of the Dutch colony and the Bank of England making a lot of money, but this is a matter of great importance for the colony, and the House of Commons is now being consulted. ”

"Very well, since Salisbury is willing to consult the House, it shows that he has a little bit of interest, and we have managed to put some effort into Europe, and we can hope for success with a little more push!"

To be honest, Hu Zhen really didn't know whether he could say that Salisbury, which was known for being tough on the outside world, could sell the British colony, but this could not be said to Niu Quyun and Li Haoran.

"Since there is hope for this, I am relieved, I should go to Sarawak first!" Li Haoran knew that there were many ways that Hu Zhen had not used in his hands, so he was very confident and hurriedly said goodbye.

"Okay, then continue to work hard for Senior Li!"

After Niu Quyun also went out, Hu Zhen once again called up the information of the Marquis of Salisbury, the current Prime Minister of England, from the nuclear submarine supercomputer through TV glasses:

Although Salisbury was a marquis, his father and brother died early, and he developed a conservative and strong personality, formed a cabinet three times and became prime minister, and his foreign policy was very tough: he forced Tsarist Russia to revise the Treaty of San Stefano, adopted a high-pressure policy towards Ireland, and opposed the policy of Irish autonomy; It was believed that Britain did not need an alliance, remained brilliantly isolated, maintained the balance of power in Europe, and focused on plundering the colonies. in Asia, the seizure of Burma; in West Africa, conquer Nigeria, occupy Kenya, enter Uganda; In South Africa, Rhodesia was occupied. Passed a bill to expand the navy on a large scale based on the principle of the two-power standard system. After that, the Anglo-Boer War was launched, and in 1902, in order to contain the Russians, the Anglo-Japanese alliance was concluded, and the glorious isolation policy was abandoned.

Hu Zhen looked at Salisbury's information back and forth, and finally made up his mind: "This time we must use a little money in Europe to do something!" ”

Hu Zhen immediately drafted a long telegram and sent it to Zhang Suan, who was stationed in Europe, asking him to immediately organize those literati gunmen to publish articles in British newspapers and media to influence the thinking of the government and the opposition in England. At the same time, he also asked the fat Frodo and the thin and tall O'Lang to use the upper social connections to do something to promote England to sell the Sabah colony from the perspective of economic interests.

Taken together, these things are intended to influence the judgment of the English House.

Thousands of miles away in England, how did he know that a young yellow man on the coast of the Far Southeast Sea was manipulating a huge network of funds at the moment, influencing the decision-making actions of their empire on which the sun never sets.

From that day on, the newspapers of England and Le Blaze were discussing the question of whether Sabah, which had been plagued by outbreaks, harassed and looted by bandits, and had no financial revenue, for fifteen million pounds to a Chinese guild that had appeared out of nowhere.

Any topic is the same, divided into two factions of opinions to sell and not to sell, each with its own opinions and reasons.

The controversy was so overwhelming that in the end it was the party that won the upper hand: for their reasoning was that if this remote and barren land were exchanged for fifteen million pounds sterling (at this time, England's military expenditure was less than 10 million pounds a year) for military expenditure, it would be easy to recover it, but it would be a waste to lose the land there without any gain, and it would cost budget money to maintain it.

Under this social trend, many members of the House of Representatives responded to the reasons and opinions of the think tank literati and took the initiative to ask Salisbury to deal with the matter quickly. (To be continued.) )