In Seoul, the trees are bleak and the wind is cold.

Anguo Cave Ancient Ink Hall, mahogany bookshelf ink rhyme incense, four or five officials sitting in the room, all of whom are the backbone of the Fengyang Zhao family.

The middle-aged man sitting in the first seat with three strands of long hair and a dignified face is none other than Zhao Bingkui, the head of the Fengyang Zhao family, who is currently the judge of Licao and a second-grade official, but at this moment his face is grim and his brows are deeply locked.

Twenty years ago, Cho Wanyong, the father of the former king's Shinjeong Princess, launched a prison to hunt down Catholics and take the opportunity to suppress the Andong Kim clan, thus establishing the political status of the Cho clan in Pungyang.

But Anton Kim has been inherited for more than 100 years, and the power is deeply rooted, and now the patriarch Jin Zuogen is a powerful figure who is not born in the world, in a series of political battles after the death of the first king, the power of the Fengyang Zhao clan was cut off step by step, forcing to kill the political leader Zhao Yinyong, that is, the father-in-law of the current patriarch Zhao Bingkui, and then concurrently served as an official, a worker, and a soldier.

The Fengyang Zhao clan was almost beaten into a place of no return by the Andong Kim clan, and the difficult situation can be said to be walking on thin ice.

Fortunately, now Anton Kim is fighting for power internally, Kim Zuogen's cousin Kim Wengen married his daughter to the queen and claimed to be the prince to fight for power with his cousin, and Princess Chunyuan died, and Princess Shenzhen, who was born in the Fengyang Zhao family, became the new princess, and Jin Zuogen lost the strong reinforcement in the palace, but it gave the Fengyang Zhao family a great opportunity to make a comeback.

Seeing that Zhao Bingkui was silent, a white-bearded old man coughed dryly, and raised his head with a shelf and said: "Yuanjun, don't think about it too much, the princess promoted the talents of the clan to serve as palace guards, and the well water in Cangping Cave was born with a golden turtle, which is a sign from heaven, the Zhao family is prosperous, we should share the worries for the king, and pull out the tumor of Anton Jin's family, regardless of whether he is Jin Zuogen or Jin Wengen, those who resist the king will die innocently!" ”

Zhao Bingkui thought about it and was silent.

The white-bearded old man twisted his beard again and said: "Yuanjun, the envoy of the Chinese emperor also agreed, and he is willing to do his best to assist Yuanjun to eliminate rebellion." ”

Several people present immediately perked up and exchanged heads and began to discuss.

A few years ago, China's bandit rebellion, this was also the fuse for North Korea to become hostile to the Western God Religion, and wantonly hunted down missionaries, and in recent years, it has been heard that China's northern and southern dynasties are standing together, although I don't know the reason, but the Chinese emperor is completely different from before, and sent envoys to Seoul, so that the Qing envoys have gradually become the object of competition among various clans, and have become a force that cannot be ignored in the political arena of Seoul.

The young official who had been silent at the end of the seat interjected at this time: "Yuanjun, I have a businessman friend who has been to Guangzhou, he said that the Southern Dynasty of China has artillery and iron ships, and the emperor of the Northern Dynasty has more victories and fewer defeats, and the Yuanjun is too dependent on the envoys of the Northern Dynasty, if the Southern Dynasty is strong and unified China in the future, I am afraid that it will not be a good thing for my Zhao clan." ”

The white-bearded old man sneered, and said with a look of disdain: "Hearsay, strange silver tricks, what a word." ”

He was extremely senior, and although the young official had an unconvinced look on his face, his lips moved and he didn't speak again.

Zhao Bingkui made a gesture and said, "Let me meet the princess and concubine in this matter, and then make a decision." ”

The white-bearded old man echoed: "What the court lord has seen is extremely true, but don't miss this golden opportunity. ”

At this time, the Changdeokgung Flower Garden, the branch pond, the snow-capped, and the beautiful scenery of ice carvings and jade sculptures.

Walking by the ice pool, the palace maid and eunuch, holding incense and candles, the beautiful woman in the front is Princess Zheren, and the old man with a majestic armor on her side is her father Jin Wengen.

Princess Zheren is more than 20 people, beautiful as a flower, wearing a nine-line blue background colorful shaking Zhai pattern dress, her hair bun is inserted with a bright golden step, which is even more slender and beautiful, and her weak waist is curling.

"Father, take a step back and open the sky." Concubine Jin sighed and persuaded her father, now that the princess and concubine in the palace are in power, the Zhao family and the Pan Nanpu family outside the palace are ready to move, and the king is not in good health, and there are no heirs until now.

Jin Wengen snorted, "It's him Jin Zuogen who doesn't know self-love and forcibly wants to seize power." Seeing his daughter's eyebrows tightened, Jin Wengen's heart softened, and said: "Okay, okay, don't worry about this little thing, serve the king well, if you can give birth to the king's blood, he Jin Zuogen will not dare to resist me." ”

Concubine Jin sighed softly and remained silent.

…… On the blue sea, four ships with golden unicorn flags rode the wind and waves and drew a white line.

Of course, the destroyer is the name given by Ye Zhao to his small gunboat, in fact, this destroyer has neither torpedoes nor missiles, that is, it cannot be anti-submarine and air defense, but it is also a medium-sized ship, not to mention the small gunboat Ye Zhao really feels that it is not majestic enough, saying that it is a small gunboat, but compared with several battleships such as Zhenhai, in fact, it is equipped with thirty or forty guns, and the gunboat with a tonnage of more than 1,000 tons.

Ye Zhao was reading North Korean information in the cabin of the merchant ship Taehe at the moment, and he didn't know much about the current history of North Korea, but he knew that more than 30 years later, there was a Princess Myeongseong who was killed by himself, and this Princess Myeongseong became the pride of South Koreans.

Now looking at the materials written by Li Xiaocun, Zhang Youcun, Huang Wenxiu, etc., I have a glimpse of the situation in North Korea, although most of these materials are from the mouths of businessmen, but what Fengyang Zhao, Andong Kim Yunyun is similar to Ye Zhao's impression of North Korea's power politics.

At this moment, Ye Zhao is wearing small round sunglasses and a sticky beard, if he is not the closest person around him, I am afraid that no one will be able to recognize him.

In addition, in order to prevent a possible conflict with Korea, the mission to Korea was led by Zhang Youcun, Minister of Oriental International Trade, and in order to prevent a possible conflict with Korea, it also carried 500 marines of the Naval Division, 500 Flying Tiger riflemen, and Ding Qimei, commander of the Flying Tiger Special Forces.

In addition, there were a number of goods, accompanied by more than a dozen businessmen and reporters from several newspapers such as Cantonese Daily.

Ye Zhao turned into a merchant and mixed in the merchant ship, North Korea he must come to see it in person, Vietnam was a barbarian state at that time, and the foothold of the coincidence was very insignificant. However, Korea is completely different, it has always been deeply influenced by the Han culture, and there are even Confucian scholars who consider themselves to be the masters of China, compared to the Turkish politics of Vietnam, they want to open the door of Korea, and if they want to open the door of Korea, they will have to start an all-out war with it if they are not handled well, and how to obtain the most practical benefits at the minimum cost, this kind of gunboat foreign trade ministers who are not aimed at conquest have no experience.

What's more, if he appeared at a critical moment, he would not be comparable to the weight of the Minister of International Trade.

As for concealing one's identity now, firstly, to prevent the Northern Dynasties from knowing what kind of demon moths had come out of leaving Guangzhou, and secondly, to look at the problem from the perspective of merchants, but to know better how to sign this treaty and how to deal with the concession in the future, so that Chinese merchants can benefit.

Ye Zhao is not worried about the affairs of Guangdong and Jiangxi, if he leaves Yue and Jiangxi will be in chaos in the world, then the yamen system, process and the entire bureaucratic system that he has gradually established in recent years have become a joke, and it is simply a complete failure. Of course, in order to prevent accidents, Ye Zhao hurriedly telegraphed the matchmaker back to Guangzhou, and explained that the owners of the houses could discuss with Lord Su if they encountered difficult matters.

After flipping through the North Korean information for a while, I heard the sound of the cabin door, Ye Zhao answered, and then Huang Wenxiu walked in, bowed down and said, "Master, the villain greets you." ”

Although Ye Zhao has never pierced the window paper of his identity with him, now that Huang Wenxiu has determined Ye Zhao's identity one hundred percent, he is becoming more and more respectful.

Ye Zhao smiled and said, "Dongge, come, sit down, I was looking for you." ”

The businessmen who were able to go to Korea with the gunboat this time were all the leading figures in Guangzhou or their agents, and Huang Wenxiu, as the helm of Taihexing, was naturally invited, not to mention that this merchant ship was originally owned by Taihexing.

"How? How's that talking machine doing? The talking machine that Ye Zhao said was naturally a gramophone, which was one of the projects funded by Taho Bank.

Huang Wenxiu said: "There is still no progress. "Speaking of it, I feel a pang in my heart, sometimes I don't know if the prince is descending from the stars, as if he understands everything, Huang Wenxiu didn't believe in this set before, but now he really believes in legends such as the birth of the dragon from the destiny of heaven.

Ye Zhao nodded slightly, and said, "Is the optical laboratory okay?" "The laboratory was built in two months and brought together a group of optical physicists and glass-making craftsmen who specialize in microscope lenses and photographic lenses. In fact, this kind of laboratory was started by the Prussians more than ten years ago, and it is not new.

Optical lens, Ye Zhaoke can't give any advice, can only recruit scientists to fund their work, fortunately, now the Xiguan Club has already made a signboard in Europe and America, and even several more famous royal academicians have come to Guangzhou, just to seek breakthroughs in scientific research and technology, which is also thanks to a few Frankensteins funded by Ye Zhao, when they wrote a letter to their acquaintance, they praised the Xiguan Club, you must know that these scientists have very strange surnames, and no one looks down on each cynic, Not to mention some theoretical formulas of physical chemistry immediately attracted them, and some of the bottlenecks encountered in years of study seemed to be solved, and they were not ecstatic, and naturally felt that this Oriental Club was really a holy place of science, and they wanted to come to Guangzhou to find out.

If it weren't for Ye Zhao's repeated low-key, the Xiguan Club would have already become famous all over the world, but even more, I am afraid that it has now attracted the attention of the political axes of European countries, especially the royal academicians of several countries have boarded the ships to China one after another, which is even more eye-catching. It's just that this is not the Iron Curtain era, and the flow of skilled workers between European countries is extremely normal, and it is difficult for countries to pay the most attention to this matter, and it is difficult to have any abnormal reactions in the short term.

was talking to Huang Wenxiu, and when he heard the sound of high heels outside, Ye Zhao just smiled, and he didn't need to look to know who was coming.

(To be continued)