Qingzhou.

A month after Lei Ming's expedition to Australia, the first battle report was finally sent to Xiao Ming.

As he had predicted, the battle went well, and the British army was vulnerable to the machine guns that swept through the line tactics.

"Your Majesty, it is a great achievement for Lei Ming to capture Australia, but it is a little inappropriate to privately distribute the land of Australia to the generals under his command."

Fiji in the imperial study looked serious, the cabinet has been planning the land of Australia these days, and now he was suddenly inserted by Lei Ming, and he was a little unhappy.

Pang Yukun sneered, "Fei Ge Lao's eyes seem to be a little bad, this battle report is clearly written for the emperor to review, how can it be private?" However, when the war in Australia was not yet decided, Fei Ge Lao thought that it was not appropriate to leave Australia's high-quality land to his own talents. “

"Nonsense!" Fiji was stunned and furious.

"Enough!"

Xiao Ming was in a good mood, but the quarrel between the two suddenly made him a little unhappy, there were too many people who wanted to divide the cake after the victory, and maintaining a relatively fair distribution was more difficult for him, the emperor, than the war.

Glancing at the two of them coldly, he continued: "Australia is only the first battle of the colonial war, and then North America, South America, Siberia, South Seas, and Africa will have our interests, and there will be a lot of land in the future, and you will not be too lazy to ask for it in the end, what is the hurry!" So the top priority is not your small calculations, but the big calculations of the empire now. “

After that, Xiao Ming threw a document in front of the two, "This is the merit law drawn up by me in January, from now on, whether it is officials, ordinary people, or generals who make meritorious contributions, they will get merit points according to the actual situation, and meritorious people who want to get the land of the colony will take merit points to exchange, the geographical location is different, the size of the land area, and the merits and disadvantages of the land are all different, and those who do not have merit points will exchange real money for real money if they want to get the land." ”

Pang Yukun and Fiji were stunned for a moment, and then the two picked up the document and glanced at it, this document was sprinkled with more than 30 pages in total, which listed in detail the number of merits that can be obtained for different merits, and at the same time, whether it is domestic land or colonial land, the merit number and dragon coins are clearly marked.

In addition to this, the property in the colony is also listed, and in short, this merit decree is introduced, and the right of officials to allocate land will be formally withdrawn, and everything will be done according to the regulations.

The punishment for violating the merit law was also very cruel, ranging from the worst to the exile to Siberia.

Pang Yukun and Fiji's expressions changed, and both of them felt a chill in their hearts, in his opinion, Xiao Ming This is an important step to strengthen the rule of law, perhaps the chaos in the country during this period has reached an unbearable level for him.

"The major affairs of the country should be re-enacted! The meritorious law is out, and there will be no objection to the distribution of this land. Fiji bowed and said.

Xiao Ming nodded, in this era when human civilization has just started and people's hearts are still barbaric, it is necessary to use strict criminal laws to regulate individual behavior.

"So the reply to Lei Ming this time is this meritorious law, under the meritorious reward, he can allocate land to his generals according to the meritorious law, and we also need someone to migrate here to achieve complete control of Australia, after you go back, you will officially promulgate the meritorious law, and open the authority to exchange Australian land to the people." Xiao Ming said lightly.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Pang Yukun and Fiji said in unison.

After dealing with this matter, Xiao Ming asked the two to go back, and as for Lei Ming's temporary slavery bill in Wales, he did not take it out for discussion.

Perhaps in modern times there would have been a Virgin accusing him of such behavior, but it is only the eighteenth century, and mankind has not long since emerged from the wilderness of civilization, barbarism is still synonymous with this era, and slavery in Europe is at its peak, and this indifferent mercy only invites jokes.

What's more, even during World War II, there was basically no difference between prisoners and slaves, but they were given a different high-sounding name.

Seeing off the two, Cui Shang'an, who was waiting outside the imperial study, walked in, and when he received the battle report, he asked Cui Shang'an to come over.

"Your Majesty." Cui Shangan looked cautious, Xiao Ming was a little unhappy because of the quarrel between the two elders just now, he didn't want to touch his head now.

Glancing at Cui Shang'an, Xiao Ming said; "It's a very important thing to let you come here today, now that Australia has been conquered, the Empire's South Sea strategy has made a good start, but it is still far from the current needs of the Empire, and now Britain can sail in all the seas of the world by relying not only on sail warships, but also on ports."

Coming to the map, Xiao Ming pointed to a series of British ports marked on the world map from Britain to the Americas, Africa, and then to Asia; "See, that's the basis for Britain to maintain its maritime supremacy and economic interests, and without these ports, they simply can't commit military force."

"Does the emperor mean that we are also going to build our port?" Cui Shang had a plan in his heart.

"That's right, we want to destroy the ports of the Europeans and build our own ports at the same time, as long as we control the ports, the economic hegemony of the world is in our hands, and this strategy I call it the String of Pearls, the results that Europe took two hundred years to achieve, I hope to achieve in a short time." Xiao Ming said solemnly.

With the development of the imperial industry, the market for demand is also getting bigger and bigger, and one Goryeo and one Wa state simply cannot meet the current domestic market demand.

If the next market could not be found, the empire's industry would gradually shrink due to a lack of profits.

So, he now continues to make a profit by exporting goods to the South Seas, to India, to the Ottomans, to the Americas, to Africa, and even to Europe.

But contrary to this wish was the news that the Dutch had brought three days earlier.

The impact of the breakdown of the Anglo-French negotiations was that the British and French missions ordered the treaty ports of the coastal colonies to be closed to the Chinese Empire on their way back, and that no merchant ships and warships of the Chinese Empire were allowed to dock at any other time.

If the mission returned to Europe, Britain and France would most likely jointly pressure the Netherlands to make decisions that would be unfavorable to the Chinese Empire.

It was because of this news from Rhodes that he decided to launch this String of Pearls strategy to break European hubris.

However, it will not be easy to realize this plan, after all, there is only one way to realize this plan, and that is to project troops around the world to occupy the colonies in Europe.

Cui Shangan nodded, and he said: "If this is the case, we need to increase our investment in the navy and build an invincible fleet that crisscrosses the seas." ”