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In fact, Yang Feng also knew that it was unrealistic for him to send merchant ships to Europe to engage in dumping unscrupulously, and no one would tolerate his own blood being drained and his wealth would continue to be lost. And this kind of cooperation can solve this problem, anyway, for him, as long as he can dump goods into Europe and drain the wealth of the Europeans, it doesn't matter whether he does this work alone or with others, isn't he cooperating with the British now.

Of course, the premise is that Charles XII's navy is strong enough, otherwise it is still useless.

He is robbing the British of their business, and the British will give him a bucket knife if he is really anxious.

Fortunately, this problem is not difficult to solve.

"Take Your Excellency the Special Envoy to see the Navy's bombardment, and then go to the Yingtian Garrison Brigade to see our army equipment, I think Charlie will need these things in the future."

Yang Feng said with satisfaction.

Larson bowed and left with the same satisfaction, his task should be said to have been completed for the vast majority, and the rest was to encourage Yang Feng to start a war against Russia, this work was not difficult, because he had just found the crew of the Celestial Empire who had just returned with him in Changguo before he came to read the local newspaper, and knew that the Russian army was helping Prince Yang's enemies. As for the next specific matter, it will definitely not be Yang Feng to talk to him, but Chen Ping, the translator with him, that is, the envoy sent by Yang Feng to Europe, did not leave with him, but was left by Yang Feng to report his work alone. Larsson speaks French, and does not need a special Swedish translator, in fact, he can barely understand Chinese, after all, it has been more than half a year since Sweden arrived.

"How's the war going in Europe?"

Yang Feng asked.

"Your Highness, the British just occupied Gibraltar last year, and the French and Spanish coalition forces in the Battle of Oakstadt before this were also a fiasco, especially the French and Spanish navies are now bombarded by the British with the purchase of our flowering shells and do not dare to leave the port, although the British on land buy not many rifled guns, mainly for those sniper-like rifle soldiers, but also let the Franco-Spanish coalition army suffer a lot of losses, the British used it to snipe officers, during this time there were several French generals killed in this way alone."

Chen Ping said.

"Have you gone to see Louis XIV?"

Yang Feng asked.

"Yes, and he also sent an envoy, but the British and the Dutch blocked the sea route, and their ships could not pass, and we were scheduled to go to France to receive the envoy when we returned, but unfortunately we were seized in Rotterdam, and the Swedes did not want to get involved in the war in the south, so we did not receive the French envoy."

Chen Ping said.

"Then it seems that we have to find another way to give Luise arms."

Yang Feng said gloomily.

Of course, he is willing to sell weapons on both sides, and then watch the bloody war between Britain and France, but the problem is that the eastern routes are all controlled by the anti-French alliance, and Louis can't buy them if he wants to!

"Your Highness, why don't we contact the Ottomans? The main opponent of the French is the Austrians, and the Austrians and the Ottomans are mortal enemies, the Ottomans have besieged Vienna before, although now the Ottomans themselves have been greatly reduced by internal strife, but they are still the No. 1 power, if you cooperate with them, transport weapons to the Mediterranean Sea by land route in the Red Sea, and then let the French pick up goods in the Mediterranean, although the French and Spanish navies were beaten quite badly, but there is still a certain strength in the Mediterranean. ”

Chen Ping said.

"That's a good trick!"

Yang Feng said.

"Your Highness, but you also said before that the Ottomans are also our enemies, if we sell arms to France through them, then the Ottomans will definitely ask for the purchase, then it is not in our interest for the Ottomans to increase their strength."

Liang Hong, the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the side, said.

"It doesn't matter, it's a big deal to support the Austrians in a few years."

Yang Feng said with a wicked smile.

He liked the game the most.

This work is not difficult, in fact, at this time, the trade between Daming and the Middle East has been quite prosperous, after all, this place is close, you don't need to go out for several years at once, a year of smooth sailing is enough to go back and forth, and it is safe to walk close to the coast, as well as Myanmar, Tianzhu These countries along the way trade supplement.

It's not that the Chinese don't like to run out, who doesn't do it if they have money to earn?

It's just that there was always a sea ban from time to time in the past, and there was no chance to make a fortune, but now Yang Feng vigorously advocated maritime trade, and the enthusiasm of the people was released at once, and there were already hundreds of large ocean-going merchant ships registered in the register, from the South China Sea to the Middle East, you can see merchant ships flying with dragons hugging the sun and moon flags everywhere.

Even there are several merchant ships that go to Egypt, at this time the Ottoman Empire is blockading the Red Sea on the grounds that the holy land is next to it, prohibiting European merchant ships from going to the port of Suez, which is cheaper Ming merchant ships, those Ming merchants are more flexible than Europeans, they find a few random ****** from the South Seas to follow together, and then give the Ottoman Navy a bribe to easily become brothers from the East.

Especially now that the Ming army has seized the spice islands, in essence control the spice production areas, coupled with China's own control of the trade in silk, tea, and porcelain, it can be said that the main goods of the East-West trade are basically all controlled in hand, and the people's enthusiasm for maritime trade has skyrocketed, and the coast is full of newly built merchant ships.

This is also an important reason for the increasingly delicate relationship with the British East India Company.

Find a few merchant ships that often go to Egypt, and then let the shipowners find the Pasha there, or those Mamluk Beys, they don't need to alarm the Sultan of Istanbul at all, they can do this little thing, and they can also support the power of Mamluk, maybe they can give birth to an Ali in advance. Kabir. In this way, not only will it not increase the strength of the Ottomans, but it can create a divide for them, and even cut Egypt off the territory of the Ottoman Empire, and if Egypt can be freed from Ottoman rule, then the Suez Canal can be dug.

Yang Feng immediately found that this matter was worth operating.

"Go, find a capable person, who will be responsible for this matter in the future, first, go to Egypt to make friends with a local strong enough Bey, give him a few pocket watches and sell him a large number of rifled flintlock pistols, so that he can feel our sincerity, second, use his power to contact the French, tell Louis that he can take this road to do business, third, everyone form an alliance of interests, we supply, the Egyptian warlords are the middlemen, the French are responsible for paying for it, and the business must be done by the end of next year."

Yang Feng said to Liang Hong.

"It's too tight at the end of next year, right?"

Liang Hong said suspiciously.

This work is not worth mentioning, many of the Ming ocean-going ships are following the Jinyiwei spies, and the main task is to spy on the intelligence of various countries, and they also know about Egypt. At this time, Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire, administered by the Pasha appointed by the Ottoman Sultan, but in fact it had become a decoration, and only a few Ottoman guards could really be armed. The Beys, who were held by the Mamluks in the provinces, held real power, and the Beys in Cairo even dared to depose and imprison the Pasha, and make friends with one or several Beys, so that they could do this work too easily, and the speed from Alexandria to Marseille was only a dozen days' voyage.

But the problem is that it takes three months to get from Daming to Egypt at the earliest!

It depends on the season.

If the wind direction is unfavorable, it is normal to run for half a year.

"Isn't the Honghu just built and preparing for an ocean-going trial? Take this ship to Malacca, there are coal reserves in Macau and Cam Ranh Bay, and it will be in Malacca in half a month as soon as possible, change the navy flag to the merchant flag in Malacca, and then don't load too much cargo and go directly to Ceylon, and then go directly to the Gulf of Aden from Ceylon, it is estimated that it will not take a month to arrive. ”

Yang Feng said.

His Honghu is the first steam-powered paddle turbine sailing warship of the Ming Navy, but it is actually a communication ship mainly used for information transmission, this kind of ship is not suitable for use as a warship because of its natural defects, after all, the paddle wheel is scrapped after a cannonball is placed outside. Under normal circumstances, this ship can run more than 10 knots with its sails together, and it can run 3 to 400 kilometers a day without stopping 24 hours a day, and even if the time for refueling coal and water in Macao and Cam Ranh Bay is added halfway, half a month is enough to run from Changguo to Malacca, and the remaining two and a half months are enough to run from Malacca to Suez.

Liang Hong didn't say much, and hurriedly ran to arrange for him to be the one who caused trouble in Egypt.

"Am I getting worse?"

Yang Feng asked Chen Ping with some emotion.

"Your Highness, the minister has heard the story of one of their former prime ministers in France, this prime minister is called Richelieu, to be honest, the minister simply broke out in a cold sweat after listening to his stories, if we follow the way of a saint, he is simply a template for a bad person.

Disturbing the neighboring country externally, provoking the princes of the neighboring country to kill the blood and bones in the wilderness, and then inducing the Swedes to invade his neighbor, in the end, he really couldn't play anymore and simply went into battle shirtless, in short, let the neighboring country keep killing and bleeding from within, the insidious and despicable means are simply outrageous, and the emperor of this neighboring country is even related to the king of France.

suppressed all those who opposed him, whether ordinary people or nobles, he dared to be exiled even the queen mother, so arrogant that the whole country trembled under his authority, even if decades have passed today, many French people still grit their teeth with hatred when they mention him.

But even those who hate him have to admit that France's strength today depends on him. ”

Chen Ping said.

"The minister just wants to say, what is there to worry about good and bad? As long as you can make your country strong, the minister went out for this trip, and the biggest realization was that the set of things of the saint is really like a rope that binds us. ”

Then he added. (To be continued.) )