"Special Economic Zone? …… This is the second Venetian city-state! The empire doesn't have that much money to do this, and it has to be said that His Excellency the Duke really has a very clever idea. "This time Emperor Friedrich II met Hong Tao directly in the council chamber, and there was no one present except Empress Isabella, it seems that the emperor knew what Karl said in advance, and he waited for Hong Tao to come to talk to him.

"What about the investment by the businessman himself? The empire only needs to pay a part of the upfront investment, such as the cost of repairing the port, the cost of leveling the road, the cost of building enough warehouses, and this money is not there? Hong Tao didn't expect this emperor to be so shameless, and he cried poor as soon as he came up, so he had to take another step back.

"No...... Now the treasury is empty, including my own property. For the war, I have borrowed 20,000 livres from the Venetians. "Friedrich II is a dead pig who is not afraid of boiling water, and a poor ghost emperor is quite happy.

"How about raising money from other lords of the empire? Everyone invests in shares, and dividends will be distributed according to equity in the future. Hong Tao felt that he had let Carl and his cousin be pitted, or that Carl and himself had been pitted by this seemingly harmless emperor, he was trying to empty the gloves of the white wolf! Don't talk nonsense, you don't have money to do Mao's business, you have money and that's Jinhe Company, why throw it in Europe to help them restore the economy. Profit is what it should be, and it's a later story, it's impossible to make yourself 100% advanced in the early stage!

"None of them are very optimistic about the war, and it is difficult to convince them to invest in me. And the German lords did not like me, they wanted me to fall, and then they gave in to them. Investing is impossible. "It seems that this Emperor Friedrich II is not here to negotiate. It's here to dismantle the stage. Hong Tao said what he was against, and he didn't let a single step.

"Then I don't understand, if Carl and I don't come back, how do you plan to conduct this war, Your Majesty?" Hong Tao rolled his little eyes and began to fight back.

"I'm ready to surrender...... Friedrich II was even more unscrupulous than Hong Tao, shrugging his shoulders and spreading his hands.

“…… Well, I'm convinced, Your Majesty can be my master in straightforwardness. I can lend a sum of gold to His Majesty as a personal friend. But I wonder what collateral His Majesty can come up with. Let me state first, Carl is not worth so much money, he is a person, not a commodity, so don't use him as collateral. I need real collateral, if Your Majesty can take it, let's continue to talk, if Your Majesty can't take it, there is no need for us to continue talking. I'm a businessman, not a philanthropist. "Hong Tao is really convinced. He would love to say that he had seen a thick-skinned one, but he had never seen one with such thick skin. But this phrase is troublesome to say in Latin.

"Carl told me about your past, and you can tell that you are a shrewd businessman. I think I have a piece of collateral that interests you, land! A large tract of land, my wife's fief, which I intend to mortgage to His Excellency the Duke. Hong Tao came prepared, and Emperor Friedrich II was also quite prepared, and as he spoke, he took out a parchment roll.

"Barcelona! Where was the empress's fiefdom? Oh yes, Princess Aragon...... Carl and I mentioned it. I can't ask for this land though, and I know very well what it means to you. There is a saying in our country that a gentleman does not take what others like, and if I take this land, I am afraid that the two of us will become enemies in the future because of it, I hope you can understand. Hong Tao stretched out his head and glanced at the parchment that the emperor had opened, on which was a map of Spain and southwestern France.

Although the map was drawn in a bit of a freehand style, Hong Tao still recognized at a glance where the area of the emperor's finger was, which was the fiefdom of his first wife! The northeastern region of Spain, the triangle of Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza, is now the Kingdom of Aragon. For this emperor, who lost his parents since he was a child, and was raised and educated by his wife when he was a teenager, this fief is an eternal miss in his heart, if he takes it, he will think about it for the rest of his life, as long as he frees his hands, the first person to deal with must be himself, and he didn't run 100%.

"Thank you very much for your kindness, but as far as the country is concerned, I can't take out anything else, if you can see it, I can mortgage the palace to you......" Hearing Hong Tao's refusal, the emperor's eyes were slightly distracted, and at the same time, the look inside also darkened. It was evident that he was indeed desperate, like a man lost in the desert, who had finally hoped for a passerby, but who was still unwilling to exchange with him what he considered to be the most precious thing. This feeling is reassuring and painful, it is difficult to describe, Hong Tao can figure it out, but he can't realize it, he hasn't experienced it.

"Don't be disappointed, Your Majesty the Emperor, there are many kinds of people in the world, what you think is precious is not necessarily precious to others, and what you think is useless may be someone else's treasure, this is the essence of businessmen, communicate with each other. Although I don't want this land, I am very interested in it, and I wonder if His Majesty the Emperor can give it to Carl as compensation for the loss of his fief. Hong Tao is a very soft-hearted person in his bones, as long as he doesn't hate people and has no conflict of interest, he is willing to help. He didn't hate Emperor Friedrich II, and I couldn't see too much of the hypocrisy of politicians in him, but in fact he didn't look much like an emperor and more like an artist or scholar.

"This is not the land of the Empire, not even the land of Christendom, it belongs to the Berbers...... There is a war going on there, Christians and ******! The emperor tilted his head and glanced at the place that Hong Tao was pointing to, and immediately shook his head and refused, the reason is very sufficient, he can't control this piece, he can't even make an equivalent exchange, who will exchange land with the enemy?

"Yes, I know that it is the territory of the A-La-Bo people, if Karl, an authentic Christian knight, knocks down such a small piece of it, can it become his fief?" The place that Hong Tao refers to is the Port of Gibraltar, which is located on the north shore of the eastern exit of the Strait of Gibraltar, and is a peninsula that penetrates into the strait. On the west side of the peninsula was a large bay, which could not have been used as a naval base, and the British have been occupying it for generations, firmly holding the throat of the Strait of Gibraltar and keeping the German navy out of the Mediterranean, a very strategically located place. But in the thirteenth century in Europe, it was a barren land, occupied by the A-La Bo people of North Africa.

"Carl must be crowned to the Pope if he can defeat him, and it is a terra nullius land for Christendom, and whoever can take it from the pagans is whoever owns it. I don't want Carl to take that risk, and I'm not going to agree to this in exchange for one hundred percent sure. Didn't the Duke just say that Karl is a man, not a cargo, and the same applies to you. No matter how smart Friedrich II was, he couldn't think of what Hong Tao wanted this place for, so he simply didn't want to, but questioned Hong Tao.

"I just need His Majesty the Emperor to prepare the necessary personnel for Karl to manage that land, and Karl will definitely be able to take it down, but he can't hold it alone. I think we need at least one or two hundred troops, and we won't ask His Majesty the Emperor to send troops in this matter, but can you ask His Majesty the Emperor to help Carl hire such an army, and the money will be paid by Carl himself, and this cousin of His Majesty is much richer than His Majesty. "Hearing the emperor's question, Hong Tao was happy, and if he could be crowned reasonably and legally, he would have achieved his goal, and as for the issue of war, no one else had to worry about it.

"Actually, I was very envious of Carl's adventures, and even a little jealous. He could travel with His Excellency the Duke to so many countries, while his emperor's cousin had to stay here and guard the land every day like an old hen. Well, the matter of fiefdoms and knighthoods was for the emperor to come forward and ask Gregory IX for it, and he had to promise me. But there is still one question that remains unresolved, how much loan can the empire receive, and what are the terms of the loan? Your Excellency the Duke, can you tell us an accurate number? "Friedrich II was not very accustomed to Hong Tao's way of talking, it was too whimsical and uncontrollable, so the conversation was very brain-consuming and very tiring. He didn't sleep much in the past two days, and he looked very tired, but when he saw that the loan was going to be settled immediately, he had to force a crossbow to chat, what is so good about being an emperor.

"The first installment is about fifty thousand livres worth of gold, which is on my ship and will be delivered ashore tomorrow. After Karl's fiefdom was confirmed, there were still fifty thousand livres of gold. Half a year later, the third installment, when 100,000 livres of gold will come in, and if that's not enough, I'll be able to double it. However, whether there is any additional payment depends on the speed of the construction of the special economic zone, and I hope that it will be completed within a year. "Hong Tao has already calculated with Luo Youde just now, one livrel is less than five grams of gold, one kilogram of gold can make more than 200 pieces, and there are five hundred kilograms of gold nuggets brought from Cape Town on the ship, which is enough to meet the needs to be paid in the early stage.

As for the 100,000 livres in the later period, after Hong Tao returned to Cape Town, he would ask the craftsmen to start mixing brass with gold, and then directly cast the livre by the hydraulic press in Cape Town, and even digest the casting consumption by themselves, and directly transport the gold coins. The 200,000 livres are not for nothing, they are loans, and there is no interest for Karl's sake. As long as the SEZ is established, it will take less than two years for all the goods shipped from Cape Town to recoup all the investment. No matter how awesome the Venetian merchants are, they can't make whale oil, candles, soap, matches and other daily necessities, let alone alloy utensils, silk clothing, perfumes, cosmetics and other high-tech products, there is no competition problem at all, we are exclusive!

(To be continued.) )