On Saturday, February 7, 1637, the thirteenth day of the first month of the tenth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Empire.

At this time, most of the Daming maritime merchants were still waiting for the Shangyuan Festival in their respective homes, and it would take at least half a month to go to sea on a large scale, and now there are only a few small Western-style sailing ships moored in the port of Pearl Island. Just when the civil port was at its most free, a large fortune ship with the Zhengzi flag slowly approached the Pearl Island wharf.

Since the Huamei fleet made a move in the South China Sea of the Ming Dynasty many years ago, except for Luzon, Manila and Macao, the Zheng family fleet has rarely made large-scale operations to and from the South Seas. And the Zheng family's merchant ships or secret agents who return from the South Seas every year are full of various "out of tune" descriptions of Huamei Pearl Island, which has to make arrogant people like Zheng Zhihu quite unconvinced.

Zheng Cai, who was still lean, walked out of the cabin dressed as a businessman, squinting at the gorgeous harbor towns in front of him, which were quite different from the Ming Dynasty, Macau, and even Manila, Luzon, and remembered how he had personally led his fleet to trade here a few years ago. Zheng Cai was still a little calm, but Zheng Zhihu, who came out of the cabin behind him, opened his eyes wide and opened his mouth wide, and he didn't say a word, but his shock was beyond words.

The astonishment and contemplation continued for almost a stick of incense, until the entourage informed the ship that the entry identity of the Huamei officials had been verified, and Zheng Cai and Zheng Zhihu landed ashore. After a while, several horse-drawn carriages carried a group of people towards the city center.

There are too many places in front of the street scenery in front of Daming, and there are many Taixiyi people among the pedestrians, but the traces of New Year's firecrackers and the Spring Festival couplets posted on the side of most shops still comment on the fundamental cultural attributes of this town.

"Damn, it's changed in less than ten years...... This gorgeous man is really rich, and he has smashed a huge city alive for thousands of miles. Zheng Zhihu looked at the scenery outside the car window, although he was disdainful, but his heart was already mixed.

At this time, the Zheng family's old nests, Kinmen and Penghu, have also been moving from the mainland for many years. Even if it is not compared with the gorgeous town in front of him, the competition with Dongning City, the eldest member of the Yan family, is a lot lower, and it still looks like some poor and dilapidated Tunken Dazhai.

"If there is no Zheng family in my country, how can this remote place in the South Seas be so beautiful? Now the general army is full of food, and the tiger master has a good way of governing the army, and over time, Jin, Xiamen, and Penghu can also prosper. Zheng Cai knew what the other party was thinking, and quickly changed the topic with a smile.

"Well, there will always be a time when this Ming Donghai Haiyang will still be the world of my Zheng family!" was so complimented by Zheng Cai. Zheng Zhihu's little bit of stimulated inferiority complex suddenly disappeared, and his burly body straightened up.

……

As the top person in charge of Far Eastern affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and the United States, Fan Li has been guarding here for many years, just like in Amsterdam in Europe. Jin Xiaohan, the former junior follower, has been able to take charge on his own, officially taking over the daily management of the Asian Intelligence Division, and is now running around Luzon with the big staff. At the age of forty, Fan Li rarely regained the image of a Chinese diplomat, and returned most of his energy to the foreign affairs of the Far East.

Liu Xiang and Li Guozhu, who had just welcomed a personal visit a few days ago, have not yet completed secret negotiations with the two, and now the guests are still staying in hotels in the city. Now I have received the news that Zheng Zhilong has sent a diplomatic representative. Fan Li, who was teasing his children to drink coffee at home, couldn't help but feel happy.

There was no deliberate avoidance, and the meeting took place openly in Fan Li's office. The purpose of the Zheng family's trip is very simple, that is, entrusted by the boss Zheng Zhilong, to come to the gorgeous place to discuss "business". The content of the business is to ask the other party about the possibility of purchasing Huamei sea vessels.

"Mr. Fan, this time the chief soldier asked me to come here to discuss the matter of dealing with Liaodong and Dongyu." Wait for the room to calm down. Zheng Cai smiled and bowed, "Go to the East Nukou Border and plunder Shanxi, Jiliao and other places." The world was shaken, although the chief soldier of my family was full of righteous indignation, he wrote to the court several times that he was willing to Xingqin Wang's soldiers and horses, and used boats to transport grain and grass and military aid to Luliao. However, the sea road is high and turbulent, and in a hurry, there are many losses. In the final analysis, the warships are still outdated, and it is really difficult to achieve their wishes. ”

"The biggest problem in the Ming Dynasty at present should be land annexation and starvation riots, right?" Fan Li thought about it for a while, and secretly smiled at Zheng Cai's righteous opening remarks, "Your Zheng family has made millions of taels of silver every year over the years, and you can be called rich and rival the country. I heard that last year you also transported 100,000 koku of grain and refined salt and sold them to the Ryukyus, Japan, and Korea, and you made a lot of money. ”

The implication is that the Zheng family is really worried about the country and the people, so they should ship the grain to Shandong and northern Jiangsu, where the price of grain is skyrocketing, to save the disaster, instead of boasting here.

"Hmph, that's also your reselling business. I heard that Siamese rice has been harvested in recent years, and the purchase price in Nanyang is only 3 yuan and 8 cents per stone, but it costs 1 tael and 1 yuan per stone to resell it to my Zheng family. Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses eat horses and chew them, how can they feed them without getting some silver......" Zheng Zhihu muttered on the side, as if everything the Zheng family is doing now is gorgeous and "forced".

"Hehe, the local area is just a trade transit, General Zheng feels that the price is not appropriate, and he can also go directly to Siam to buy goods." Fan Li smiled disapprehantly, "And the big man has also sold grain to your Zheng family in recent years, and the price of grain is not cheaper than that of the local area, aren't you also reselling it in various places with a price increase of five yuan per stone?" ”

"All the places in Nanyang are eaten by you and other Taixi Fanyi painting circles, Qiongzhou, Luzon, Dayuan, Java, all kinds of maritime merchants are arranged to resell, how can there be a place for my Zheng family to settle!" Zheng Zhihu's personality is still so hot, he immediately stood up after being ridiculed like this, and the resentment that had been holding his stomach for many years gushed out in an instant.

"Uh...... It's all trivial, misunderstanding, misunderstanding! Zheng Cai saw that Zheng Zhilong wanted something bad, so he quickly stood up to dissuade him, and kept laughing, "This time I am not asking for food, and I ask Mr. Fan for forgiveness." ”

"Hehe, I'm just talking. If it's just a dispute between these merchants, I'm afraid I can't do anything about it. Fan Li didn't move, and took out the pen and paper directly from the drawer, with a serious attitude, "Two, let's get straight to the point, what do the Zheng family want when they come to our country this time?" ”

"It's no secret that the chief soldier wants to buy a ship from a friendly country in China!" Seeing the other party's straightforward attitude of settling accounts with his own brothers, Zheng Cai also looked dignified, and raised his hand again to salute, "Shandong, Huaibei, and Liaodong are full of displaced people, and the general soldier is suffering from the lack of ship strength, so it is really difficult to collect the southern transportation, presumably Mr. Fan doesn't want to see it, right?" ”

"Boats? What ship? "I originally thought that the other party was here to discuss the interests of the Zheng family, Luzon and Dayuan. Fan Li was stunned for a moment, and the pencil in his hand stopped.

"In order to deter the small and protect the sea route, it must be a military ship, and it must be a large ship carrying more than 2,000 materials! It is also equipped with heavy artillery and flowering iron bullets. I don't know if your state is interested in selling it? Zheng Cai glanced at Zheng Zhihu, who was silent beside him, and turned around and said word by word, "If it can be done, in the future, the Zheng family can reduce the price of the southbound refugees, whether they are old or young!" ”

"Warships and new heavy artillery are large pieces of military equipment under congressional control. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not have the power to decide on the spot, so it is better for the two of you to stay on Pearl Island for a few more days, and I will forward your intentions to China. Fan Li put away the pen and paper, looking very embarrassed, and at this moment, his wife Serena walked into the office with a tea tray.

"Serena, prepare oriental dishes tonight. Some old friends also happen to be in the city, so let's take this opportunity to get together. ”

Fan Li's fingers were pinched together and made a few unique little gestures, and his good wife, Serena, smiled knowingly. Putting down the tea in his hand, he withdrew from the room, planning to take the servants to the street in the afternoon.

"Others?"

Hazy had also heard that Huamei had a so-called thousand-mile sound transmission mechanism, but in the past few years, no matter how he sent someone to investigate, he was confused, but Zheng Cai heard other meanings at this time. I was stunned.

"The seventh uncle of the Yan family has been recuperating locally, and it just so happened that Mr. Liu Xiang and Mr. Li Guozhu from Luzon also came a few days ago, shouldn't they celebrate?" Fan Li laughed, his face harmless to humans and animals.

Look at each other. Zheng Cai and Zheng Zhilong's faces were a little unsightly.

……

I don't know if it was intentional, Fan Li's dinner party came to a lot of "unrelated" people. Not only Zheng Zhilong's old rivals Yan Jia, Li Jia, and Liu Xiang, but also Aniel, the mayor of Pearl City, and Colonel Andrew, commander of the Huamei Asian Fleet, were also invited.

Although Fan Li did not publicly talk about the purpose of the Zheng family's trip. But in front of all the guests, he asked Colonel Andrew directly at the dinner table about the construction of the sail warships ordered by the Kingdom of Spain.

It is said that at the beginning of the design of the "Iberia 2000 large schooner battleship", Shi Yige, who was far away in the country, even sent a telegram to Andrew to consult some details of the sail warship, so in a sense, Andrew is now also a senior military adviser to Huamei for selling naval sail warship equipment to Europe.

“…… From the point of view of purely nautical combat performance, the schooners and heavy artillery sold to the Kingdom of Spain should be the most sophisticated naval equipment in Europe at present, and they are also suitable for use in the Far East. However, according to my personal observations, except for the naval dockyard on Pearl Island, the Far East does not currently have the capacity to safely maintain such large sail battleships. ”

Andrew was quite awkward to hold the dish with chopsticks, and he couldn't stand it anymore, so he had to change to a fork specially prepared for him. As the oldest generation of immigrants in Huamei, although he is 60 years old and speaks Chinese Chinese fluently, he has not yet made a qualitative breakthrough in his ability to use chopsticks.

As a soldier, Andrew, of course, was very interested in this kind of topic, and he knew everything and said everything, but he did not expect that what he was talking about would be a sensitive thing that would cause turbulent and dark surges in the Far East in the future.

"If it's really a giant in the West Sea, just hearing about it makes people fascinated......

Looking at Liu Xiang, Uncle Yan Qi and Li Guozhu with gloomy faces on the table, Zheng Cai's mouth was as if nothing had happened, but he didn't know how many times he had scolded in his heart, and he was secretly dissatisfied with the attitude of the Chinese and American diplomats who seemed to be deliberately revealing the Zheng family's purchase of ships. Looking at Zheng Zhihu on the side, he was already so angry that he didn't even want to move his chopsticks.

The praise of the sumptuous dishes, coupled with all kinds of inappropriate New Year's greetings, became the main tone of the Fan family's dinner, but Uncle Yan Qi, Liu Xiang and Li Guozhu, who were all old people, paid attention and did not plan to stay for a long time, so they left after the dinner.

……

It is still unknown whether the purchase of the Huamei giant ship will eventually succeed, but Zheng Cai and Zheng Zhihu are already worried at this time, and they are helpless against the Chinese and American diplomats' Daming border sea balance strategy.

Three days later, a telegram sent back by the National Security Committee for the preliminary review of arms sales was placed on Fan Li's desk, and even a number of sets of sail warship plans of the Yacheng Shipping Company were sent back with the telegram, and Colonel Andrew, commander of the Asian Fleet, personally explained the plans.

Knowing that the Huamei government agreed in principle to sell the "Huamei New Sailing Battleship" to the Zheng family, the stone hanging in Zheng Cai's heart finally fell to the ground, and Zheng Zhihu couldn't put it down on several sets of construction plans.

The first model, an improved version of the "Type 2000 Large Schooner Battleship" being built for Spain and Portugal, was quoted at $650,000, equivalent to 430,000 taels of silver. This specialized sail battleship had a full load displacement of more than 2000 tons. With 48 heavy guns, the cost is high, the performance is first-class, once put on the coast of Daming, it is definitely a giant like a store, and those thousand-ton armed merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company were immediately compared.

The second model, a smaller version of the first, was named the "Type 1600 Schooner Battleship" and was quoted at $480,000, equivalent to 320,000 taels of silver. The full load displacement was reduced to 1650 tons. It is still the traditional two-deck broadside gun layout, equipped with a total of 42 naval guns, including 8 24-pounder guns, 12 18-pounder guns, and 20 12-pounder guns, with a standard crew of 350 people. Although the self-sustaining power and defense are reduced, the armament is not much worse than the first recommended model, and the handling is a little more flexible.

The third model is the newly designed "Type 1200 Schooner Cruiser", with a full load displacement of 1220 tons and only one gun deck. A total of 28 12-pounder guns were armed, and the standard crew carried 240 people. The offer was reduced to $360,000, or 240,000 taels of silver.

Even though Shi Yige has separated from You Qi, the old-fashioned slogans such as "there is a discount for the number of orders and a spare sail" and "spare sails" are still directly written in the draft plan. Colonel Andrew also said that the Pearl Island Naval Base Dockyard can provide annual maintenance work.

Think about it now, except for the Dutch East India Company, whether it is the Yan family or Zheng Zhilong, the largest warship under his command is only fully loaded with just over 1,000 tons. And it is equipped with more than 30 old guns of more than 30 models at most. In the current plan, no matter which one you choose, you can buy a shotgun for a cannon. In the future, it will not be the rhythm of walking sideways along the coast of Daming?

Although the superficial introduction is very tempting, Zheng Cai, who has been dealing with silver money for a long time, is still frightened by the above offer. The price of a Type 1200 sail cruiser alone is almost equivalent to four to five 3,000 Dafu ships, if it weren't for the new cannons on it, it is estimated that the Zheng family would not buy this kind of equipment even if they were all brainless. Only Zheng Zhihu, who didn't know the cost of oil, salt, firewood and rice, was completely fascinated, and directly pulled Zheng Cai towards the port, eager to fly back to Kinmen immediately, and asked his eldest brother for silver to place an order quickly.

At this time, the seventh uncle of the Yan family, Liu Xiang and Li Guozhu of Luzon also frequently inquired about Fan Li in private, once it is confirmed that the Zheng family intends to buy Huamei warships, then these families' future response strategies may have to be changed.

……

It's been another day.

In the office area of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese and American Foreign Affairs in the Far East of Pearl Island, Fan Li was taking his big-bellied wife Serena for a walk, followed by Li Guozhu. In the courtyard with the fragrance of birds and flowers, the three of them slowly played and enjoyed the scenery, and said polite words to each other.

"I heard that Governor Coquela has added an additional business tax for Chinese businessmen in Manila?" Fan Li remembered the Manila Massacre that happened in 1639 in history, and turned back to Li Guozhu to ask a question.

"Mr. Lao Fan is worried that it is true, the Spaniards have scarcely traveled to and from Tessie in recent years, and there are Dutch and other Tessie shippers who have been crowded out in Borneo, Siam, Annam, Champa and other places. Every year, I sat and ate nothing, and then I stretched out my hand to us and other Chinese people, and the provisions that gave preferential treatment to Chinese businessmen many years ago have become useless. Li Guozhu sighed slightly, looking preoccupied, "Recently, Governor Coqueilla issued a strange decree that Chinese people living in Luzon for business, regardless of whether they believe in religion or not, must pay the eleventh tax of the church and the real estate tax on the land and property purchased by them, the latter being collected by the local chieftains of Luzon. It also forbade Chinese shops in Manila to sell wine, tea, oil, tobacco and other goods, and transferred them to Westerner vendors. ”

"Hehe, they have a hard time, so they naturally turn their attention to you, raising sheep and plucking feathers, which is their style. To provoke them now is to deliberately avoid the attention of our Government. Fan Li raised his voice, ignoring Li Guozhu's expression at this time.

"Jane lives under other people's roofs, and he can't help himself, but Mr. Fan also tells the truth." Li Guozhu shook his head with a wry smile, and did not evade, "Fortunately, there are still places in Luzon and Nanyang where I am waiting for a bite to eat, as long as I don't provoke right and wrong, and I don't leave others to handle, I can get by." ”

"Just ask for money, I'm afraid that one day I think this method is too slow to make money......" Fan Li stopped and gestured lightly to his wife. The latter walked away with a smile, and then lowered his voice, "Overseas Chinese have been diligent for generations, and their families have thousands of treasures...... It's hard to say whether you will leave a handle or not, but does Mr. Li still remember the events of the Wanli period? ”

As soon as these words came out, Li Guozhu's face suddenly changed greatly.

……

In 1603, in the Spanish Philippine colony, a vicious massacre of Chinese people took place in the Spanish Philippine colony on the issue of hatred and prevention of the Chinese who might lead to Spanish colonial domination. It is known as the Dalun Mountain tragedy. Of the more than 30,000 Chinese residents who settled in Luzon, more than 25,000 died tragically in a foreign land, and the news even reached the ears of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition to the heartbroken condemnation of some Fujian magistrates, the Ming court did not take any action to protect these overseas compatriots who were "surrendering", and even attributed the massacre to a certain Chinese businessman who forgot his righteousness and provoked the incident.

"The four people of China, the businessmen are the most cheap, how can they be untouchables, raise a military revolution, and abandon it."

This is in "Retrieving the Luzon Prisoner Shang Shu". The content of the edict of the Ming Dynasty "to listen to the official and discuss the crime" is an attitude that makes people speechless to the point of collapse. And some descendants are still touting how tough and strong the Ming court was at the beginning.

"The massacre of the Chinese should not be taken seriously. The Chinese emperor was lenient and generous, and he would never ask for the crime of the massacre of the Chinese...... Most of the Chinese in China are bad people. and let no mercy be. ”

This is the Spaniards after the massacre, fearing that the Ming emperor would retaliate, sent a special envoy to China to explain. Xu Xueju, the governor of Fujian, replied after receiving the edict of the Wanli Emperor. The Spaniards also have records of the same period in their own documents, which are completely consistent with the records of the Ming Dynasty. Probably in the eyes of Emperor Wanli, these overseas Chinese who were willing to give up their status as subjects of the Celestial Empire were also to blame.

In that massacre, the Spanish colonial bureaucracy that skinned the Chinese in Luzon made a lot of money. As the years passed, decades passed, and now the Chinese population in Luzon and surrounding towns has increased to more than 50,000 in history, far exceeding the local Spaniards, making the Spanish governor Coqueira, who has always been wary of the Chinese controlling the local economy and land, secretly itching and difficult to make up his mind.

Historically, it was Governor Coquela who launched another massacre in 1639, but in this historical time and space, he had to worry about the overseas territory of the Pearl Island of the United States, and the number of Chinese in Luzon had exceeded 50,000, which was really scary.

……

"Mr. Li?" Seeing that the other party was distracted, Fan Li smiled and gently patted the other party's shoulder.

"It's rude." Li Guozhu came back to his senses and hurriedly bowed down, but his expression was much worse.

Seeing that the atmosphere was almost brewing, Fan Li smiled and took out a copy of Wen Jiàn from his pocket, shook it gently, and put it in Li Guozhu's hand.

"Mr. Fan, you are ...... here"

If you don't look at it, you don't care, and Li Guozhu was startled when you saw it. The text clearly lists the situation of Chinese people in Luzon today, from the population and land, to the composition of the place of origin, from the number of Chinese merchant ships, to the scale of Chinese merchant assets, which is almost a complete set of Luzon Chinese social survey reports, many of which are completely consistent with Li Guozhu's own grasp, or even more detailed.

Not only the number of these Chinese, but also the military and economic situation of the local Spaniards in Manila are very detailed.

All this information has been collected by Jin Xiaohan, head of the Asian Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and the United States, in the past few years. Now placed in Li Guo's assistant, it is like a time bomb that makes people tremble.

"Do you think Governor Coquela doesn't have any of that on his mind? Our country and the Kingdom of Spain are now allies, and in many things a deeper diplomatic relationship must be taken into account, and the partiality towards the Chinese in Luzon can only be confined to commercial matters for the time being. Fan Li smiled and pulled back the text, took out a lighter and lit it, and then watched with interest as it turned into ashes.

"Tens of thousands of Chinese in Luzon, thanks to Mr." Li Guozhu had already faintly felt the aggressiveness of the Spaniards over the years, and at this time he bowed to the ground with a pale face.

"Me? I only have two hands and two legs, can I hold tens of thousands of Chinese in Luzon behind me like an old hen? Or are you going to tie your hands down? It seems that Minister Yan also talked to Mr. Li back then, and there are some things that you need to ask for others and yourself! All we can give is some muskets and cannons that we don't have long hands or feet, and the world of the Chinese people still has to fight for it ourselves. ”

Fan Li shook his head, turned his back and took out another letter from his pocket: "Our Ministry of National Defense is in the process of forming the third Foreign Legion Infantry Brigade, and I have already conveyed a preliminary intention to Minister Zheng. If Mr. Lee is interested. A group of Luzon Chinese children can be recommended to serve in the army, but the number is limited, and only a maximum of 300 people can be accepted each year. I believe that in a few years, it will be time for the Luzon Chinese to protect themselves......"

Fan Li's hint was already very obvious, Li Guozhu's whole body was shocked, and he no longer spoke, but bowed his head again.

……

Li Guozhu left with a heavy heart, and Fan Li didn't have much heart to continue to "teach" Liu Xiang, who was almost played bad by Temasek, but sat down and "talked" to his wife.

Another seven years passed, and the family was led from Europe to Asia by Fan Li. I don't know when and where I'm going.

The three children are all normal people, so Fan Li finally confirmed that his wife was not born deaf and dumb. Now the only thing Fan Li has to consider is the growth and education of his children. The wife is deaf and mute, and the silent world does not prevent the children from feeling the warmth of their mother, but the children have basically not been in the local area for a few days since they were born, and they can already clearly feel that they are a little out of touch with the local cultural atmosphere.

Now that the eldest daughter has reached school age, the local primary and secondary education in Mingzhu City is obviously only at a relatively low level, and once it is out of touch with the local area, it will be the last thing Fan Li wants to see.

"Serena. Next month, when the baby is born, you take them back to Manchester City. Touching his wife's big belly, Fan Li gestured with a gesture that only the couple could understand.

Serena shook her head. Then he grabbed Fan Li's coat tightly, looking very nervous.

"I'll try to come back to see you every year." Fan Li smiled and hugged Serena's body tightly, and the two leaned back on the bench like this. Enjoy a rare purity.

"Brother Fan, there's a reply from Macau!"

At this time, I saw Jin Xiaohan walking into the garden with a mysterious smile. The 28-year-old director of the Asian Intelligence Division is in the prime of his life. The whole body is full of active but calm motivation. Basically, Jin Xiaohan already has the ability to support a package of intelligence work in Batavia, Malacca, Manila, Macao, and Dayuan on his own.

His wife quietly avoided it again, and Fan Li opened the letter handed by Jin Xiaohan.

"The Governor of Macau, Domingo, has already paid a visit to Zhang Jingxin, the new Governor of the Ming Dynasty and Guangzhou, and conveyed to the other party that we want to directly start trade with Guangzhou, but Zhang Jingxin has not said anything......" Jin Xiaohan lowered his voice, "I heard that before Zhang Jingxin took office, he also had many correspondence with Xiong Wencan. ”

Although Zhang Jingxin is not a pure Donglin Party, he is also very close to the Donglin Party. It is said that this man was elegant, introverted and gentle, cautious, and could not go into hiding after the death of the Ming Dynasty, but his son was admitted to the Jinshi in the Manchu Qing Dynasty within a few years. From a certain point of view, he is not a 'stubborn' person, and he loves face. Fan Li frowned, a little difficult to grasp the information in his hands, "In this way, in order to reduce some diplomatic risks, let the people of the Oriental Union Group not be too deliberate, it is best to ask European officials to come forward." ”

"This time, the cabinet intends to deal with the Ming Dynasty at close range, which is different from the previous policy guidelines. Would the Portuguese be so readily willing to agree to the direct trade of the Oriental Union with the Ming Dynasty? Jin Xiaohan nodded, but still expressed some of his doubts, "It seems that Minister Yan doesn't know about this yet, right?" ”

"That's what Swenbo has done, re-signing a cooperation agreement with Portugal. When Lao Wu made this decision, he had already sent Yan Xiaosong to Sweden to visit Wèn in advance. Su Zining is now in the Senate, and I am afraid that he will continue to remain neutral on this matter. Fan Li shook his head helplessly, saying that he didn't know much about the current cabinet and Congress's thinking, "There are some small troubles in Qiongzhou, and it is not safe for the Oriental Union Group to put all its eggs in the basket of South China Sea firms, in order to prevent passivity in the future, it is not a bad thing to have a trade port that can be in our own hands, but is it really necessary to have a concession on Hong Kong Island......"

Standing up and stretching, looking in the direction of the north, Fan Li sighed slightly. (To be continued......)