Kuntiliang set out for a visit abroad in early July, and led a small delegation to the Bologna Peninsula by boat from the Golden Horn to visit Patus, the capital of the Blue King; At the end of July, he ended his visit in Hailan, boarded the ship again and crossed the sea, and the next stop was to make the envoy to Avalon, the capital of King Fizhen. The mission was expected to return to Colasbourg at the end of its visit in early September, but on the very day of its visit to Fizhen, Quintilian sent back an urgent telegram by means of "telecommunications" requesting Rudolph to authorize the mission to temporarily change its itinerary.

His Majesty was so surprised by this that he immediately contacted Kun Tiliang with the help of the magic guide telegraph and asked him why he had changed his itinerary temporarily.

Roland was still in the countryside at the time, and did not know about the matter, and only after returning from the countryside did he learn from his father that the foreign secretary planned to go to the Jotunheim region, where the New World Colonial Company of Yashan, Hailan, and Fizhen had clashed, to conduct a field trip. The reason given by Kun Tiliang is very strong: "If you do not witness the situation on the ground, you cannot determine how fierce the conflict between the Yashan Empire and the two countries of Fizhen and Hailan is, and it is impossible to predict whether this regional conflict will turn into a national war, and it is impossible to judge how much the Far Easterners can benefit from this melee." ”

Rudolph appreciated his decision after learning about Kuntilian's thoughts, but was also concerned about the safety of the mission. After all, this diplomatic mission lacks the protection of armed forces, and travels far and wide to the distant and strange New World to investigate the armed conflict involving the colonial corporations of the three great powers and their vassals, natives and mercenaries, and may encounter accidents at any time.

Showing the courage of a distinguished diplomat, he insisted on visiting the New World, and if His Majesty was concerned about security, he could send the rest of the mission back to the Far East and go to the New World alone. In the unlikely event of falling into the hands of local militants, he would never admit that he had anything to do with the Kolas government, insisting that it was only a private trip at his own expense to avoid provoking a diplomatic dispute.

Seeing that he was so resolute, Rudolph did not persuade him more, and told him to be more careful on the road, and in case of trouble, the government of Kolas would never stand idly by, and would try to rescue the mission safely at all costs.

In this way, the delegation led by Kun Tiliang crossed the meteorite ocean to the New World full of unknowns and dangers, and it can be seen from the weekly investigation reports that it encountered a lot of risks along the way, but fortunately, it was fortunate that it first got in touch with the branch of the Yangbo Chamber of Commerce in the New World, and then got the help of the branch of the "Harvest Ring" in the New World, and repeatedly saved the danger at crisis junctures.

By the middle of October, the mission finally ended its inspection in the Jotunheim area, and landed in the North Bay on the magic steam freighter of the Yangbo Chamber of Commerce, which was considered to be a return to the embrace of the motherland!

The mission rested for a day in Port Baiou and returned to Krasbourg the next day by postal airship, which happened to be the first of November, nearly five months had passed since the day the mission departed.

The airship landed at Krasbourg at dusk. Rudolph held a banquet in the royal palace to receive the dust of the hard-working mission. Kun Tiliang briefly entertained for a while, and then exchanged glances with His Royal Highness the Prince, and raised his glass and walked into the balcony of the banquet hall. In this relatively enclosed space, the two can communicate individually.

"Mr. Kun Tiliang, it's been hard all the way!" Roland clinked glasses with the foreign secretary and asked straight to the point: "How about you along the way?" ”

"After going out for a walk, I felt that my eyes were opened, and I didn't know where to start, what kind of news did His Royal Highness the Prince want to know?"

"Remember that letter I sent you in early August? About the price of food in Fijin and Hailan. Roland nodded and gave a hint.

"Of course, I remember that I personally investigated the markets in Patus and Avalon, and also hired local investigators to record the weekly changes in food prices, and sent them to me in the form of communication stones," Kuntiliang touched his jacket pocket, took out two tables full of dates and numbers and handed them to Roland, "This is the statistical data of the changes in food prices in the capitals of Hailan and Ferzhen over time, from the sudden change of the situation in the New World at the beginning of July to the day I left Avalon, in just two months, the price of food in Patus has increased by fifty percent, and Avalon is even more exaggerated, the price of food has nearly doubled!" ”

"The sharp rise in food prices will inevitably lead to a simultaneous rise in the prices of other commodities that use grain as raw materials," Roland shook the cup of corn-brewed soju in his hand, "The rise in prices will have a negative impact on people's lives, have the two governments taken action to stabilize food prices?" ”

Kun Tiliang took a sip of sweet soju, smiled and nodded: "In fact, the authorities of Hailan and Feizhen have introduced policies to try to crack down on those profiteers who take advantage of the opportunity to hoard and speculate on grain prices, but these two countries are different from our Far East, the power of the merchant group is very large, even to the point of swaying the cabinet, and the government's attempt to stabilize grain prices not only harms the interests of grain merchants, but also is strongly opposed by those speculative tycoons who have placed heavy bets on grain futures markets to increase grain prices, until they make a profit and leave the market. It is almost impossible for food prices to come back in both countries. ”

Roland smiled bitterly to himself, the capitalists are really unrelenting when they initiate national disasters.

"Are the two governments so helpless in the face of rising food prices? If the situation continues to deteriorate like this, I am afraid that the cabinet ministers will have to collectively step down and apologize. ”

"Your Highness, you guessed right, this food price turmoil was caused by the armed conflict in the colonies, but now it has evolved into a domestic political struggle between Hailan and Feizhen, Hailan's situation is okay, the royal family's power is relatively large, and it can barely control the scene, Feizhen's grain price is higher than Hailan, in my opinion, it is mainly because the royal family has prestige and no real power, the ruling Order Party cabinet is unpopular, and the opposition Fairness Party tries to use overseas conflicts and food shortages as an opportunity to launch a cabinet overthrow movement to oust the Order Party, As a result, the tense atmosphere between the government and the opposition led to the worsening of the situation. Kun Tiliang sighed sincerely, "At the beginning, His Royal Highness took a clear position to declare that the Far East would not engage in party politics, and I was still quite unimpressed, but now it seems that you are right, the two parties are really fighting each other and attacking each other, which can really be described as the source of disaster for the country and the people." ”

Roland smiled slightly, not surprised by the predicament that Hailan and Feizhen are facing now.

In fact, since half a year ago, when he heard that an armed conflict broke out between the empire and Feizhen and Hailan in the colonies, he had a premonition that there would be such a day. At the time, the Far East government and opposition were generally gloating over this, and even the most conservative people believed that the Assanite Empire had stabbed a hornet's nest this time—the loss of the Far Eastern province and the most important rice-producing region on the mainland, and the conflict with the two major naval powers at sea, this "clayfoot giant" was killing itself.