"Your Majesty, someone from the Ministry of Supervision is here, and I am in a hurry to see you, so I am on the ship." Originally, Hong Tao wanted to wait two more days on the shore to talk to Alin's father about the Bedouins in detail, and then let him and Saeed cooperate more closely with each other to minimize the impact of this riot. But before he could finish talking to Alin, Lang Ya came over and whispered a few words in his ear.

"Why are you here?" Except for Cixi, the people in the Ministry of Supervision rarely had direct contact with Hong Tao, and the emperor was always surrounded by a group of spies, which did not give people a good feeling. But the person who came this time was actually Cixi's deputy, that is, the young man who usually followed him like a shadow. He has a rare surname, Yi, and a very special name, Yiyi. His parents are both from the Tan family, from the coastal area of Guangzhou, and they changed their name to him just to save trouble.

"There has been a change in the Great Song Dynasty, Minister Ci and Minister Wen ask Your Majesty to go back quickly to make a decision." Yiyi has very little nonsense, and if Cixi is here, he won't say a word. Even when he saw Hong Tao alone, he cherished his words like gold, only said one sentence, and then took out a sealed document from his leather bag.

"There are no outsiders here, read it for me!" Hong Tao didn't like this young man very much, he couldn't see the appearance of a young man at all, he was full of gloomy atmosphere. When his family came to Jinhe Bay, he was a pirate, and he was inspired by the old man Rong, and this kid was also an alternative in school, with almost no friends, but his academic performance was very good.

"There are two things, the Northern Expedition and the strike. The Great Song Dynasty made the decision to go on the Northern Expedition at the end of last year. Just wait for the last shipments of muskets and ammunition from the Empire to begin. Minister Wen insisted that the issue of the maritime strike be resolved first, and the two sides held their last negotiations in Guangzhou at the beginning of the year. The court of the Great Song Dynasty agreed in principle to the establishment of a consultative council by maritime merchants to supervise the impeachment of officials in Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Qiongzhou. However, they put forward a necessary condition. Neither Minister Wen nor Minister Ci could reply, and the Parliament did not dare to make the decision, so His Majesty could only decide. ”

Yi Yi doesn't look annoying, he is quite a delicate person, but his eyes are always gray and look like a dead man. After receiving Hong Tao's order, he slowly looked at the Persian dancers who were cleaning in the cabin with dead eyes. Only then did I start reading the secret letter, and the tone was more annoying, and there was no yin and yang frustration. It's like chanting.

"What must?" Hong Tao really wanted to let the prostrate figure under his feet rush up and bite Yi Yi to death, to see if he would have an expression.

The big cat is fully adult, with a body length of more than one and a half meters, and weighs more than Mercy. However, because he was raised by humans since childhood. It has lost part of its wildness. Aggression towards humans is greatly reduced. Especially for young women, it is more docile, and when they see a Persian dancer, they immediately come over to sell cuteness, and this problem is to blame Hong Tao, who raises what things.

"The Great Song Dynasty court demanded that the two countries open their ports to each other, and their merchant ships should also be able to enter and leave our ports." After Yi Yi finished saying this, he directly folded the secret letter and put it on Hong Tao's desk, seeing that he meant to finish reading.

“…… There is Wen Hao among the officials of the Great Song Dynasty who negotiated with Wen Nan, right? "Hear this condition. Hong Tao, who was still half-leaning back in the chair with his legs crossed, involuntarily sat up straight, reached out and touched a cigar and lit it. After taking a deep breath, he asked another question as the smoke came out.

"It is indeed Wen Hao, on this issue, he conveyed the opinion of the Great Song Emperor. This is the consensus of the court of the Great Song Dynasty, they are very curious and wary of the empire, and they want to come to the imperial port to take a turn. Since the two countries have good relations, it is natural for the ports to be opened. Ichi sniffled, not quite used to the smell of cigars.

"Go and call Captain Sun in." Hong Tao was really stumped, this move of the Great Song Dynasty was ruthless enough! Opening of Imperial Harbor ...... Where is there a rich port open in the empire, except for the Mayi Port, which has not yet been built, it is the capital of the empire, Jinhe City. No matter what kind of opening it is, it is not something that can be completed in one sentence, and there is still a lot of specific work to be done.

That night, the Sea King set out on its return journey with a baby sea wolf, and went to Cape Town with mercy, and the affairs of Musca Harbour were explained to the deputy commander of the fleet and Lang Cliff. Compared with the success or failure of this overseas trade port, the negotiation with the Great Song Dynasty is more important, Hong Tao has been tossing for more than ten years, just waiting for this day. It's a pity that there are many good things, and the Great Song Dynasty court refused to give in easily, and added a condition that made it difficult for them to do. Whether or not to open the Imperial Ports is really not up to you, you have to go back and discuss this matter with the Council, and then decide after thinking through all the pros and cons.

Hong Tao had always been a radical in the empire, and he initiated many of his foreign exchange ideas, such as providing simplified salmon-class drawings to the Zhenzhou shipyard, helping the Song dynasty build a cement factory, helping the Song army transport supplies with warships, selling muskets to the Song court and helping them train new troops, and so on. He was on the positive side of these matters, using his prestige and incorruptible tongue to persuade the Reichstag and government ministers to agree with him.

However, this time on the issue of opening the imperial ports and the Great Song Dynasty trade, the two sides came to a 180-degree drop. Hong Tao became a staunch conservative oppositionist, and most of the parliamentarians and government ministers sided with him, and they were in favor of this condition put forward by the Song court.

In recent years, there are not too many products exported by the Jinhe Empire, whale oil is no longer a specialty, and some people in the Great Song Dynasty have begun to whaling and boiling oil in the offshore sea, and even the Japanese have learned this technique. Although the catch is still small and the production process is lacking, it also affects the selling price of whale oil. It's just that everyone still doesn't understand the production process of soap, so it's a unique business for the time being.

However, these industries, along with the tanneries, were relocated to Penang Port and Phuket to build factories, which are so polluted that they smell of stinky feet every day as soon as they open.

Since Golden River Bay does not grow a large number of crops, there is only one winery left, and a large winery is located in Brunei Harbour. The same goes for sugar, which requires a lot of sugar cane and whalebone meal, and is also very polluting to the river, so it was moved directly to the port of Malacca, and the factory that used sugar residues to make paper was also relocated.

Now the port of Malacca has become a strategic location of the empire, and the original workshop for the production of red phosphorus has become a gunpowder factory, except for the gunpowder for the empire's domestic demand, all export output is produced here.

At present, only the glass factory, the metal group, the petrochemical group and the shipyard are still in the empire, and they all have backups, once the factories in Cape Town are officially opened, these factories in Golden River Bay will gradually have to reduce production, only produce high-end products, and the rest of the export products will gradually cease to be produced.

Hong Tao's original intention was to turn Jinhewan and Mayi Port into high-tech industrial bases of this era, and to discourage large-scale, high-density labor-intensive industries, which could be left to the colonial people to play with, not only to provide them with enough employment opportunities, but also to reduce the environmental damage of the empire itself.

Parasites, wherever they go to work in person, wait for the host to put all the nutrients into the blood, and then go directly to drink the blood. As long as the high-end industry is controlled, most of the profits will still be empire's. Don't look at those big factories doing a hot job, and in the end, it's all for nothing.

However, his theory was not accepted by most of the people of the empire, and even government officials and members of parliament opposed it. They think that these transactions are good businesses that make a lot of money, so why do they let others do it, but let the local enterprises of the empire look at Liuhazi. They are very simple in their belief that as long as they work more, produce more things, and sell more goods, they will have more money. Everyone is a shareholder of the imperial enterprise, and the more the enterprise makes money, the more it shares, and it is nonsense to talk about anything else.

In addition, there is another very important factor that makes Hong Tao not get the support of most people on this issue, that is, money!

Within the empire was high wages and high consumption, and the monthly wages of ordinary workers in an empire were more than ten times higher than that of ordinary city dwellers in the Great Song Dynasty. The empire has too much gold reserves, and this thing is not as valuable as copper in Hong Tao's eyes. However, the money is not well spent, because the empire is a closed country, which is equivalent to playing its own behind closed doors, except for large-scale purchases at the government level, the residents of the empire cannot go around foreign countries at will, and they can't spend money if they have it.

I have money but I can't let others know, the ancients have passed, this is called brocade night walking, which belongs to the category of violating human nature.

If you are a person, you have vanity, how can you reflect whether you are doing well or not? You have to compare yourself with others. If the ports of the Empire were never open, and outsiders were not allowed to enter or let themselves out, there would never be a chance to show off. Now that there is finally a suitable reason to open the imperial port, everyone is eager to realize it as soon as possible, so that they can drag their families to the Great Song Dynasty to show off their wealth, and feel comfortable.

There are also some people who are more sensible, and their support for the opening of the port is mainly for the sake of the empire. The Great Song Dynasty maritime merchants have been scurrying around the sea over the years, and they have made a lot of money every day. But all this is all thanks to the Royal Navy to support them, and it will cost the empire's finances, although they can be compensated, but those things are not obvious, and it is difficult for ordinary people to think of them.

Now the residents of the country can only watch others make money, and they can't get involved. Because the empire is currently all state-owned enterprises, even if someone wants to be a maritime merchant, there is no such rule, and it is anxious to see others make money with the conditions created by their own families.

(To be continued.) )