"Your broken door is worth a few dollars, I'll find someone to replace it for you, the wood is better than this." "www.biquge.info Hong Tao also knew what compensation the emperor wanted, but he didn't want to give it.

"I don't force you to betray your country, but as a friend, it shouldn't be considered a betrayal of your country to provide me with a reference in my private capacity, right? I just want to know if this musket is any better. Since you are the inventor, you must know better than anyone else about its pros and cons. As soon as Friedrich II saw that he was not fooled, he began to make friends and reason again.

“…… It's easy to use, and it's a waste without logistics, which is better for you to control the army. Hong Tao really doesn't want to tell the truth, but the muskets have already been circulated here, and it is impossible to just say such a one, and it will be useless to say it yourself, no one is a fool.

"The army is not all the emperor's, why do you say that?" When it came to national affairs, Friedrich II simply sat down and asked patiently, humbly, and sincerely.

"The musket itself cannot hurt anyone, it is not easy to use as a stick, and its power is mainly in the bullet. If you want to equip the Imperial army with muskets, just keep the ammunition in your hands, regularly replenish the troops in front, don't bring too much at once, they are not in a condition to rebel. Moreover, it is easy to find an excuse to control the amount of ammunition carried by the army, and it is very inconvenient to store ammunition, and it is a real problem to be afraid of tides, fire, and turbulence. ”

"But I have to remind you that the reason why I didn't mention this weapon to you in the past is not because I don't want you to use it, but because the cost of this thing is a bit high, and the requirements for the country's smelting and metal processing are very high, and there are not enough craftsmen and raw materials, and forcibly equipping a large number of muskets will only drag the country poorer. Moreover, the musketeers cannot be used alone, it also has its weaknesses, that is, it is not very convenient to use in rainy days, and it is more afraid of sudden attacks by cavalry, and it needs to be protected by other arms, such as pikemen. "Since you have said it, you might as well say a few more words and appear to be more sincere. Anyway, it can't be stopped, it's better to sell it, Friedrich II is very important to his oil routes in Europe, and he can't offend too much.

"I partially retract what I just said about you, you certainly don't want to help me build an army with muskets yourself, but I will seriously consider your advice. If you could give me some more advice among my friends, I would exchange a very important message with you, how about it? What Hong Tao said, Friedrich II easily figured it out and agreed with it. He also wanted Hong Tao to say more, but with what he knew about Hong Tao, there was no hope for the flickering of empty white teeth, and it was more effective to use exchange.

"You say first, I'm going to evaluate the value." Hong Tao has never been willing to suffer, but this time he came to Naples to ask for help, and he still had to make the necessary concessions. In fact, through a few arguments with that scholar just now, he has already obtained a lot of information, and this trip is quite worthwhile, and it doesn't hurt to listen to it more.

"The kind of cannon you have on board has been made by the German nobility, specifically by a group of merchants from Lübeck. They didn't hide it from anyone like you did, but sold it to other merchants in their organization at a very high price. As far as I know, these merchants were Danes, Germans, English, and Franks. Do you know what they bought these guns for on their ships for a large price? If you want to know, that's my second quid pro quo. "Being able to force Hong Tao to honestly exchange benefits with himself, Friedrich II is very proud and has a sense of accomplishment.

"To snatch the whaling market with Carl, right? William, you have disappointed me so much, Carl is your dearest cousin, and every time you are in trouble, he is ready to risk his life to help you. As a result, now the nobles in your country have come to rob him of the market, and you are secretly watching jokes on the side, and you are using this news to exchange benefits with me, don't you think it's a bit shameful to do this? Hong Tao didn't let Friedrich II's sense of accomplishment linger for long, and sent a lot of accusations for free.

"It seems that your baroness has already told you, and you have come to me to ask about the Flemish Hansea, right?" Friedrich II was already immune to Hong Tao's mental attack, and immediately guessed Hong Tao's intention.

"I'm mainly here to see Saifei and Senya......" Hong Tao still wanted to be hard-mouthed.

"They went to Milan, and Seffei was going to paint a fresco for the church, and Senya accompanied him. Don't stare at you, it's not my idea. Isn't it a little ridiculous that you, a heretic who hates the Lord, should marry a wife who is very devout to the Lord? "Friedrich II also learned Hong Tao's trick, putting business and idle things together, not for anything else, just to disturb the opponent's thinking, and it can be done.

"Well, I confess, I'm here for the Flemish Hanseatic thing. Tell me what you know, and I'll show you how to use musketeers against cavalry on the battlefield. "One move is restricted, one move is restricted, Friedrich II is not the emperor who was confused about the world ten years ago, and it is not easy to get him now, rather than bickering here, it is better to exchange with him at the same price. Anyway, I can't hide the matter of the musket, so tell him what.

"Deal! Actually, if you don't tell me about the musket, I'll have to tell you about Flanders and Hansea, you've been fooled. I'm afraid you don't know that Gregory IX died a year ago, and his successor was Innocent IV. This old guy is even more insidious than Gregory IX! On the surface, he had always been on good terms with me, but secretly he was very close to the Flemish Hansea. It is said that the Church also invested a lot of money in this group of profiteers, and through these merchants and nobles he intended to weaken my influence in the German kingdom and then elect a new emperor. Deprive me of the title of Emperor, and then try to revive the Papal States from me. This old bastard, I won't let him succeed, you see, I'm going to ......" Seeing Hong Tao relent, Friedrich II was very happy, this is one of the few times he can defeat Hong Tao in words. As soon as he was happy, he said a lot, and as soon as he talked too much, he talked about the pope, and then he was guilty of schizophrenia again.

William...... William! Don't get excited, I'll talk about the Pope later, can you tell me first what the hell is going on with this Flemish Hansea? Hong Tao quickly shouted and dragged Friedrich II out of his small universe. If he continues to play, he will not be able to slow down for the past two days, just listen to him scold the Pope in various languages.

"Hong, will you deal with them with me!" Although he stopped, Friedrich II still did not fully recover from that state of euphoria, and his eyes were bloodshot and red. It seems that this time he is really angry, from another point of view, he is a little scared, the new pope's methods seem to be much more clever than the old one.

"You have to let me know who you're going to deal with and what they're doing before I can make a decision, so it's more sensible, what do you say?" Hong Tao didn't dare to joke with the neurotic emperor on this issue. As long as you say yes, he will really believe it, and if you can't do it, he will treat you as an accomplice of the Pope and his mortal enemy.

"Well, the Flanders Hanseatic are actually about the same as your Strait Company. Don't be surprised, I also know that many things in your country are not all told by Said, and that your country's caravans are almost reaching the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and this kind of musket first appeared in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. As soon as he said the beginning, Hong Tao's little eyes widened again, Friedrich II actually knew about the Straits Company! It's only been a few years since I left the empire, how can the empire become a sieve. Seeing Hong Tao's expression, Friedrich II was quite righteous and immediately helped him answer the questions in his heart.

"The Strait Company is not mine, it belongs to the Great Song Kingdom." Hong Tao instinctively wanted to clarify himself.

"It's all about the same, I won't believe that you got such a big money-making company out, but it turned out to be given to the Great Song Kingdom, which is not in line with your style." Friedrich II did not let Hong Tao's words fool him, insisting that his judgment was correct.

"Well, go on, why is it like the Straits Corporation." Seeing that the topic was about to deviate again, Hong Tao had to put aside the controversy first and pull the topic back.

"It was ostensibly a commercial alliance of free cities, but behind the scenes it was controlled by Louis, Henry, the Pope, and some German nobles. The Baron and Karl suppressed the Venetians so badly that they almost became the spokesmen of the Venetian city-state, and the Pope lost a wealthy ally and became weaker and weaker in the Mediterranean. If this continues, he will never want to return to Rome. There was more than one Venetian city-state under the influence of Genaia and Karlburg, and the kingdoms of Louis and Henry the Younger were excluded from these lucrative trades, and they owed a large debt to Mademoiselle Baroness, who had to find other means of earning money. ”

"The princes of the Kingdom of Germany, like Louis, have lost their influence on the city-state of Renaia, and they can only watch as Carl and I make a lot of money, and even carry goods to their territories and empty their pockets. They have not been idle all these years, and have been secretly learning the techniques of mining, smelting and shipbuilding, and they have been very successful. ”

"There is iron in the Argona Forest, copper in the Ardennes, salt in Lorraine, hemp and textile technology in Flanders, coal and wool in England, and furs and timber in the north. They communicated with each other by the Rhine, the Scheldt, the Meuse, and the Somme, and then traded with each other between London, Lübeck, Bergen, Riga, Bruges, and Paris by sea, and the trade was so great that it is said that more than thirty Free Cities had joined. ”

"But I think whale oil is only a small means for them to gain wealth, and their ultimate goal is to communicate the route to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, to try to throw out of the Gernaya, Venice, Karl and I and trade directly with the merchants of the East. A few years ago, they didn't know where to get the way to boil whale oil, of course, such a lucrative business could not let Carl monopolize it, before there were no big ships and cannons, and they didn't dare to earn with Carl, but now they also have big ships and cannons, in comparison, Carl is at a disadvantage. As far as I know, they have no less than thirty ships in the sea, and the number of cannons is not clear, and it is estimated that they are indispensable. In addition, I have got the musket, and Louis will not be too late, if he has enough gold, he will soon have an army with muskets. "Friedrich II did not speak quickly, but the coherence was clear. After a brief introduction to the ins and outs of Flanders and Hansea, Hong Tao also basically understood the changes in Europe over the years.

That is to say, after coming to Europe with a lot of high-tech gadgets, Europeans, especially the nobles in the Kingdom of Germany and France, are not idle, they use various channels to quietly observe themselves, ponder themselves, imitate themselves, and then try to catch up with themselves in some aspects. But he didn't know anything about this, and he kept his attention on the Mediterranean, thinking that by guarding this region with the most developed economy and technology in Europe, he would be able to control the lifeblood of the whole of Europe.

(To be continued.) )