The age of sailing is about to begin, or it has begun.

Those countries in Western Europe have been at the forefront of the world in this regard, as a Ming Dynasty that accounts for a quarter of the world's population, Su Baiyi felt a little anxious that he could not participate in this biggest piece of the pie at this moment.

Placing the first point of the layout in Vietnam, or the Indochina Peninsula instead of Japan and North Korea, Su Baiyi was deeply considered.

The development of the industrial age, first, the emergence of steel has broken the existing pattern of the world. In addition, there is one more thing that should not be overlooked: rubber!

Of course, most of the rubber trees are still buried in the primeval jungles of South America, and the cultivation of rubber trees in the whole of Asia is only at the level of ornamentation.

To produce rubber products, especially rubber for tires, pipes, and wires, it is indispensable to plant rubber trees, after all, most of the rubber raw materials from the early rise come from natural rubber, and artificial processing of synthetic rubber does not have the conditions.

Planting rubber trees, Hainan has a little possibility.

But now there is not enough food to eat, and we must not be able to grow these things on our own land.

And rubber cultivation is best done in places like Vietnam, where it has high yields and a very fast payback.

To grow rubber in Vietnam, it is indispensable to deal with the government in Annam.

Leading troops to pacify Annan in the past is only one aspect of YY, and it is simply impossible in reality. Ming Chengzu did such a thing back then, and he did it. The Ming Dynasty easily captured Annam, turning the Annam region into a Chinese undertaker, and stationed 300,000 troops in Annam.

The result?

As a result, the annual cost of 300,000 troops was as high as 3 million taels of silver, and the tax silver that the imperial court could collect in Annam was only less than 100,000 taels.

The conquest of Annam ended in failure.

Although Su Baiyi held technology in his hands that was a head higher than others, he didn't think that he could do better than Emperor Chengzu.

All the countries surrounding China are greatly influenced by Han culture, such as Japan, Korea, and Annam. These races influenced by Han culture have a temperament of refusal to admit defeat in their bones, and it is easy to beat them to the point that their ancestors can't recognize them, but it is difficult to completely conquer and assimilate.

In the forties and fifties of the twentieth century, France entered Vietnam, and the Vietnamese people fought for independence, and finally won the battle after nine years. Seven years later, the scarred country fought again with the US imperialists, and a war of reunification between the North and the South was fought for 15 years, and even though more than 60 percent of the men in the country were killed in the war, the war was still won; Four years after winning the US imperialism, Vietnam fought again with China, and the war ended quickly, but the subsequent sporadic wars lasted for ten years.

The lessons of the past are like in front of us, the main enemy of the current Ming Dynasty is the Tartars of Jianzhou, how can Su Baiyi provoke lightly?

Since conquest is difficult to achieve, it is better to achieve the same goal by other means.

So far, Su Baiyi wants to get three main benefits from Annan: First, grain, the Ming Dynasty will soon usher in the full outbreak of the Xiaoice River, while the historical Annan and other Indochina Peninsula will not be affected, if local agricultural production can be encouraged and social stability can be maintained, a lot of surplus grain should be imported from here for the domestic people to live.

The second is rubber, even if the people in the Annam area are allowed to plant rubber now, it will take five years at the earliest to cut trees and collect raw materials for rubber production on a large scale, so the rubber plantation must be built as soon as possible, and the sooner the better, we can't wait any longer.

Finally, in the northeastern part of Annam, which borders Guangxi in the Ming Dynasty, there is an area called Guangning, which is about the same area as the general state capital of the Ming Dynasty. Quang Ninh is mostly mountainous, not very rich in agricultural resources, and has a relatively small population, but Quang Ninh has one of the best open-pit anthracite mines in Asia.

There are two characteristics of this coal mine that make Su Baiyi salivate

First, it is easy to mine, this does not need to be repeated, because it is an open-pit coal mine, so it is very easy to mine, no need to drill, no need to make a deep tunnel to mine out.

The second is good transportation.

The Quang Ninh Coal Mine is close to the sea of Beibu Gulf, and if it can be taken down and mined, the coal mine here can be transported directly to Guide Province by large ship, without any transit on the way. If coal is mined here, it will be more than 100 times better than Shanxi, Liaodong and even the nearest Pingdingshan coal mine.

Of course, although these conditions are not very harsh, people will not agree to them rashly, so it is necessary to send envoys, one is to find out what kind of situation Annan is in now, and the other is to test it to see what kind of conditions the other party will propose, and then carry out the next transaction.

Do business!

Su Baiyi believes that as long as there are enough chips, there is no business that cannot be done. The throne of the Roman Empire can be auctioned, and it should be much less difficult to buy a coal mine in Annam.

Regarding Su Baiyi's proposal, Gu Zhong only hesitated for less than a second, and then decisively agreed. He is a businessman, and it is almost impossible to make a fortune through other means, and although the path given to him by Su Baiyi seems to be a little tortuous and a bit risky, it is generally a good and smooth road.

"Okay, since you agreed, I'll tell you a rough picture of the situation on Annan's side!" Su Baiyi took out a large scroll from his sleeve, put it on the table in front of him and slowly opened it, and a map of East Asia and Southeast Asia clearly appeared in front of everyone.

At this time, Su Yan boiled water and came over, made a cup of tea for each of the five people present and left.

While drinking tea, Su Baiyi pointed to the map and explained to everyone: "The blue part of this map is the boundless vast sea, of which the yellow part is the territory of our Ming Dynasty, the brown part is the territory of the Mongols, and the blue color in the northeast of the upper right corner is the land of the Jianzhou Tartars who are now occupying our Ming Dynasty, this is North Korea, and this is the hometown of the Japanese Kou."

Okay, let's not look at that, you look here! ”

Su Baiyi's fingers moved, crossed the mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty, and then knocked on Annan's territory, "Here, this is Annan, and our Ming Qiongzhou Island is separated by a water." Don't look at their territory is small and long, but this country is not easy to mess with. In that year, Emperor Chengzu sent troops to occupy his place, and Emperor Xuanzong withdrew the garrison. Li Li, a native of Annam, established himself as king after killing Chen Song, the king of Annam, and established the Li Dynasty of today's Dayue Kingdom. Although the king of the current Li Dynasty is still there, but the ministers are in charge, the whole country is divided into three parts, you see, this Zheng lord coerced the Son of Heaven to order the princes, the south of the Lingjiang River is the territory of the Ruan lord, and there is the smallest Gao Ping in the north, which is the remnant of the Mo Dynasty......"

Another reason why Su Baiyi chose to negotiate with Annan is that Annan is now very unstable, because the whole country is divided into three forces because of the civil strife.

The more this situation is, the easier it is to take advantage of the chaos!

The Mo clan in the north is the dynasty formed by the Li Dynasty's powerful minister Mo Dengyong in the sixth year of Jiajing to abolish the usurpation of the Li Dynasty emperor, and inherited the territory of the entire Annan State at that time, but most of the people did not accept the control, and more and more people resisted, and fled to Gaoping after being defeated many times by Zheng Zhu, relying on the mountains of Gaoping to block and Zheng guerrilla warfare, and sometimes fled to the territory of the Ming Dynasty to seek assistance.

The territory occupied by the Mo clan is only one Gaoping, which is the smallest in area, about the size of Guangning in northern Annam, and only the size of a state capital in the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, this Gaoping is all mountainous, so the power of the Mo clan is the smallest of the three factions of Annan.

The two most important forces divided Vietnam in two, the Nguyen clan to the south and the Trung clan to the north. There is also a constant war between the two groups, you don't obey me, I don't obey you, and they both want to dominate the whole of Annan.

Of course, if it weren't for the dispute between the Ruan family and the Zheng family, Gao Ping's Mo family would have been wiped out by the Zheng family a long time ago.

This situation is somewhat similar to that of Wei, Shu, and Wu during the Three Kingdoms period.

"Now the emperor of Annan is named Li Weiqi, but he is only a nominal emperor, but the actual power is in the hands of Zheng Zhuang, the king of the Qing capital, because the form of Annan is more complicated, and the official has not heard too much useful information, after you arrive in Annan, on the one hand, you negotiate with the Zheng ministers on grain procurement and rubber tree planting, and on the other hand, you listen to and grasp all kinds of news throughout Annan."

"Yes, sir!" Gu Zhong gave up.

"That's it!" Su Baiyi waved his hand and said: "That's it, this matter is not a one-day effort, you first go to find a navigator to lead the way, I also have to ventilate the Honglu Temple on the side of the Jingshi, the specific itinerary is not yet decided, let's prepare first!" ”

Honglu Temple is in charge of a country's diplomacy, and this visit to Annam is considered an official envoy visit, using the name of the country rather than Su Baiyi's personal name, so the etiquette of all aspects of the envoy has to be formulated by Honglu Temple.

In addition, the selected officials and the mission Honglu Temple should also be formulated.

Although Gu Zhong is Su Baiyi's confidant, he still can't do this kind of thing that represents the image of the country. You have to choose an obedient person to go!

This is handed over to Zhu Youzhen!

Send all the guests away from the house one by one.

Su Baiyi sighed, and when he came back from outside, he suddenly felt that his neck was stiff, his entire back and waist were sore, and his eyebrows couldn't help but show a look of pain.

Damn, Lao Tzu is only twenty years old, why do you feel backache for no reason, is it because there is more nightlife?

The three female dependents were in a hurry one by one, and Yu Mutong looked at Su Baiyi with red eyes, and said, "Xianggong, what's wrong, why does he have back pain at a young age?" ”

Su Yan hurriedly helped beat his back.

Su Qingzai looked around carefully but said, "It's okay, it should be that my brother is too tired these days, just take a rest." ”

Su Baiyi nodded: "It's still Qing'er who is right, it should be caused by too much hard work." ”

It's just too busy.

Day by day, everything must be done by yourself, otherwise it is easy for the people below to go wrong.

Now steelmaking, construction colleges, Yuyuan enrollment, arranging people to go to Annan as an envoy, and the upcoming railway share auction conference, which one must not be busy himself?

"Then you can't be killed?" Yu Mutong pushed Su Yan away in distress, personally kneaded Su Baiyi's back waist, tears dripped down his eyes, and he sobbed: "Otherwise, we should not be the governor of the Laoshizi Railway, and don't be busy repairing the railway, the concubine is afraid that when the railway is repaired, the Xianggong will fall ill!" ”

"Heh......" Su Baiyi leaned on the hard table and said, "What are you talking about?" ”

Su Qing took over: "Big brother, my master used to pass on to me a method of breathing and breathing, and I taught you, getting up early every day to practice for half an hour can not only strengthen the body, but also get rid of fatigue, what do you think?" ”10