"I only have one thing to do this time, and that is to inform you that the Golden River Company no longer exists, and it is replaced by the Golden River Empire, and I myself am the first emperor of the Empire. At present, the envoy of the empire is negotiating with the Great Song Dynasty on the relationship between the two countries, and as for what outcome can be discussed, to be honest, I don't know very well. But don't worry, if the Great Song Dynasty doesn't like my empire very much, it doesn't matter, when the time comes, I will transfer all the shares to Director Luo, and he will be the chairman of the Strait Company, in that case, the Strait Company will have nothing to do with the Jinhe Empire, and I don't think the court will be looking for trouble with you in vain. ”

For the future of the Strait Company, Hong Tao is still very optimistic. The company is now strong enough to defend itself against some of the threats. According to Cixi's understanding, among the more than 100 shareholders, at least 20 of them are agents of some bigwig families in the imperial court, and if the imperial court wants to take the strait company, without Hong Tao and Luo Youde worrying, those big families cannot easily agree. Moreover, maritime business is a difficult industry to manage, and if they are not allowed to come into contact with foreigners, then they will still do a gross business, and simply ban the sea. As long as the Strait Company doesn't do anything too drastic, the Great Song Dynasty court probably won't take a big tax collector.

Director Hung ...... Well, His Majesty the Emperor is too worried. We are all the people of the Great Song Dynasty, and trading with Siyi is the law of the imperial court, so why bother. As long as Your Majesty can protect the Straits Company, we will be very grateful...... It's just that I heard about another thing, I don't know if it's true or not, and I want to ask His Majesty the Emperor, I don't know if it's possible? The reaction of the maritime merchants was calmer than Hong Tao expected, they didn't particularly value the royal family of the Great Song Dynasty, and they were such a foreign emperor. If love is not appropriate, the tendon of the family hurts. Didn't you say it, as long as you can protect the Strait Company, in other words, as long as you can make money with them, you have no problem as the Jade Emperor.

"Hehehe, since everyone says so. Then I can rest assured, just ask any questions. In three or two sentences, the matter of the Strait Company was explained, and Hong Tao was in a good mood.

"I heard Director Luo mention a Europe, he said that he went with Your Majesty, it is said that it is completely different from the Great Song Dynasty, and there are many items that I have not seen, I wonder if Your Majesty can you tell me how to go?" Don't worry about your majesty, life and death are in the sky, as long as your majesty sets the rules. All fees are paid according to the rules, and we also want to go to Europe to see and learn! The request put forward by the maritime representative was very unexpected by Hong Tao, it was not a secret matter for him and Luo Youde to sail to Europe, and it didn't matter if other maritime merchants knew, but they didn't even understand the specific place, and they actually wanted to open up new routes. It seems that their appetite and guts have really been raised by themselves, and they understand the truth that the greater the risk, the greater the profit, and they have also tasted the sweetness of ocean trade.

"What's going on...... It is also necessary to take a long-term view. I'll not hide it from you. I've figured out the route to Europe, but with the current state of your ships. Not enough to complete the entire voyage. And there is a lack of interpreters, there is a language called Latin, which is spoken by the official graduates of the nautical school, but unfortunately their numbers are not enough, and they are still employed in the Imperial fleet for the time being, so they cannot provide services to everyone. Actually, I'm building several supply stations along the way. It also takes a lot of effort and financial resources. Since the strait company wants to charge everyone's fees, it has to provide the necessary services, and the supply stations and escorts along the way are indispensable, otherwise I will miss the appointment. Wait, I think in another two years or so. When all the conditions are right, I will personally take you on a voyage and bring our business to Europe! Not only do we have to do business with them, but we also have to get a trading point like the Port of Callamba with them and make their money steadily! ”

It will definitely not be possible to take the Great Song Maritime Merchants to Europe now, even if they are willing to take risks, they can't agree. Their ships, sail systems, and sailors could not fall into the hands of Europeans, which would speed up the learning of shipbuilding by Europeans, which was not in line with their own plans. Hong Tao never thought that the Europeans were reasonable, and the Mediterranean was too dangerous without the backing of sufficient force. It is estimated that the pirates of the entire Mediterranean are waiting for them outside the port of Rena, and the nobles of many European countries will secretly support these pirates. But the spirit of these maritime merchants deserves encouragement, and it is worth giving a beautiful looking blank check to pass it first.

After several years of ocean-going trade, the maritime merchants have roughly understood the conditions for going to the open sea, and they also think that what Hong Tao said is reasonable, so they are no longer entangled in the issue of going to Europe. However, they put forward another suggestion, that is, they wanted to set up their own educational institutions similar to navigation schools in Guangzhou and Quanzhou, and under the guise of private schools or ethnic studies, they specially trained sailing talents for themselves. Although the navigation school in Ximaozhou has been expanding, most of the students are still from Jinhewan, and only a small part of the training places are left for the Great Song Dynasty maritime merchants, which is far from meeting the demand, and now they also realize the importance of talents, and do not expect to directly train qualified navigators and captains, and train sailors who can speak foreign languages, right?

"This is a good thing, it should have been funded and arranged by the company, and since everyone is in such a hurry, I think it is feasible. I don't have to worry about money and venues, when I get to the mainland, you are a hundred times better than my ability, so let's try my best to send officers of the fleet to your school to teach some subjects, and at the same time, some of the teaching materials can also be used in the navigation school, and it will be handed over to the bosom friend newspaper to reprint some. Hong Tao was a little embarrassed on his face, but he was happy in his heart, this is the transformation, ten years of sharpening a sword, and now this sword is finally a little better. If you want to influence the thinking of a group, it is useless to just talk about it, especially the group of merchants, who are more difficult to fool than their contemporaries. But if you fool them in the right direction, and at the same time lure them with profit, they will be faster and bolder than the rest of the class.

The establishment of schools in the coastal cities of the Great Song Dynasty could only be done by themselves, so as not to cause anxiety in the imperial court. The ancient people were not stupid, and they always regarded education as an important tool of the ruling class, and they would not easily allow foreign races to carry out large-scale universal education, which is why Hong Tao would rather open Chinese schools on a large scale in the ports of Kalamba and Cape Town, but he has never dared to go to the territory of the Great Song Dynasty to play. Now that it is set up by these merchants themselves, even if the Great Song Dynasty knows about it, there is nothing it can do, because this court is not as authoritarian as the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it is difficult to solve everything with a single piece of holy edict.

Finally, there is one more thing, that is, the bosom friend newspaper, now the bosom friend newspaper is the largest newspaper in Guangzhou, Wen Hao is more radical than Wen Nan's thoughts, and has begun to set up a newspaper in Quanzhou, recruiting a group of depressed Song literati, holding a symposium and other activities all day long, and then publishing their experience through the newspaper, and other literati factions fought-for-tat, very bit of faction leaders.

"Uncle Luo, let's set up another business newspaper, mainly based on the information of maritime merchants, don't mix it with the bosom friend. The preparation of the newspaper asked Cixi to help, and a few were drawn from the bosom friend newspaper, and the others were slowly cultivated. Hong Tao is happy and worried about Wen Hao's development trend, and it won't be long before this bosom friend newspaper will become a kind of socialist model, and it will inevitably be involved in political struggles.

The ultimate goal of pulling maritime merchants and some literati around him with various interests is actually to change the politics of the Great Song Dynasty from the bottom up, but Wen Hao and they are going too fast, to put it bluntly, they are rash. It is very dangerous to change the political structure of a country when there is no economic and armed foundation, and there are countless talents in history.

But he can't interfere with Wen Hao, put it aside first, in the eyes of people like them who are passionate and passionate, there are only two kinds of people in the world, one is a comrade and the other is an enemy, once they express their unsupportive meaning, they will classify themselves into the category of people who cannot be trusted, and they will not let themselves know the truth in the future, so Hong Tao decided to wait and see what flowers they can toss, and at the same time, they are also in a state of semi-abandonment of the bosom friend, trying to separate it from the Jinhe Empire. Before the threat of the Mongol Empire was completely eliminated, Hong Tao did not want to stimulate the Great Song Dynasty too much, according to his principles, it was better to reform or use the model of boiling frogs in warm water, and it was much better to slow down than to provoke a war. It is said that reform will be bloodshed and labor pain, but Hong Tao feels that if there is a way to shed less blood and labor pain, try not to kill each other for the sake of temporary pleasure, the civil war is very hurtful, the country can be rebuilt if it is broken, and the population can be regenerated if it is small, but once the people's hearts are injured, it will affect the world view and values, this thing can be inherited, and it cannot be changed for several generations.

However, Hong Tao is not a good person, he deliberately concealed the danger from Wen Nan on the issue of Wen Hao, he just wanted Wen Hao to toss and toss, in order to test the bottom line of the Great Song Dynasty, to put it bluntly, he wanted Wen Hao to be a thunder detector, and he secretly watched from behind. Not to mention that people who engage in politics are not people, but if you have a little humanity, it is best not to play political games, as long as you enter the field, you have to put aside all family, friendship, love, in addition to constant compromise, trade-offs, balance, you can't do anything, this is the rule of the game, people who don't meet this rule should all die! Must also die!

(To be continued.) )