"Is Your Highness really ready for us to make a big move? Your Highness, don't forget, although the country is big, the belligerent will die, and even if Your Highness can defeat us, it will inevitably be a great loss of strength at that time. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Xiao Qi said loudly.

"It's not that this king wants to make a big move, but that you force this king to go to war, and in this case, we will just burn everything." Xiao Ming looked like a scoundrel who was afraid of whom.

Seeing this, Xiao Qi and Zheng Hao were silent, and now Xiao Qi is obviously eating the scales and is iron-hearted.

Cui Zhang and Wang Xi were secretly happy in their hearts, they wished that the three of them would fight, so that they could profit from it.

After staring at Xiao Ming for a while, Xiao Qi was finally defeated, and now Xiao Ming is arrogant as the victor, and he is trembling as the defeater.

After hesitating for a moment, he said: "This matter is too important, I can't be the master, this matter must be decided by His Royal Highness King Wei, I just hope that His Royal Highness can give the lower officials time and don't take the opportunity to grab the land again." ”

Xiao Ming smiled, now his strong appearance finally made Xiao Qi cowardly, he said: "Yes, but the patience of this king is limited." ”

Xiao Qi nodded and turned to leave.

Cui Zhang sighed, "Hey, this has to be on the throne for another ten days." ”

"Why should His Royal Highness be impatient, there is food, drink, and opera in Qingzhou, and this day is not boring." Wang Xi said with a smile.

Cui Zhang secretly sneered in his heart, thinking to himself how could this Wang Xi know that they had reached a deal with King Qi in private, but he was still amiable on the surface, and said: "What Wang Shilang said is very true, since this is the case, today we will go to this Qingzhou Opera Garden for a stroll." ”

After that, the two of them also went.

Zheng Hao and the others left, and they didn't stay long, hugged Xiao Ming, and left.

At this time, Zhan Xingchang said to Xiao Ming: "Your Highness, will this King of Wei agree?" This Yangzhou is a world-famous and wealthy place. ”

"I'm not afraid that he won't agree, I'm afraid that he will agree, now that we have more than a month to go down to three cities in a row, this King Wei should understand that he is not our opponent no matter how stupid he is, and it is beneficial for them to delay our attack at this time." Xiao Ming said.

Zhan Xingchang nodded, "It's just that delaying time is more beneficial to us, and if we take the population of these four states, we will greatly increase our strength." ”

"That's right, but the reason why this truce came out of the Quartet is that the problem of ammunition also makes this king a little helpless, and the military workshop comes to report that there is not much ammunition stored in this warehouse." Xiao Ming sighed.

Zhan Xingchang's expression suddenly became a little exciting, but he didn't expect that Xiao Ming was purely scaring Xiao Qi just now, but he was actually powerless to attack again.

"I see, so I really should leave a batch of ammunition for self-defense, and not all of them should be used for conquest." Zhan Xingchang said.

Xiao Ming nodded, this time Pengzhou Station, the Battle of Tongzhou, and the Battle of Huaizhou consumed 1.2 million rounds of musket projectiles and 16,000 rounds of solid shells.

Although some of the shells were cleaned up after the battle was over, some of the shells didn't know where they went, and the marbles were lost even more because they were too small.

And the marbles that had been punched into the local soldiers could not be removed.

"Exactly." Xiao Ming said that the continuous war had almost exhausted the inventory.

But now that the converter steelmaking line is available, this problem is not a problem, but he needs time to reserve.

After chatting with Zhan Xingchang for a few words, Xiao Ming went to the steel workshop again, he often ran to this place these days, and he would be very satisfied whenever he saw a whole furnace of molten steel flowing out.

Because this is one step closer to the Industrial Revolution, after all, to fully realize the Industrial Revolution requires a large number of steel manufacturing machinery of all kinds.

After observing the production of steel for a while, and then looking at the production of the second converter, Xiao Ming went to the palace.

As soon as he returned to the palace, Xiao Ming was about to take a rest, when Li Kaiyuan walked in with a red-haired and blue-eyed person.

"Your Highness, long time no see."

The person who followed Li Kaiyuan was none other than the Dutchman Rhodes.

A few days ago, Li Kaiyuan was still talking about trade with the Dutch, and also mentioned that Rhodes went to Dengzhou, but he didn't expect Rhodes to go to Qingzhou with him.

"Your Highness, Rhodes said that Count Claire asked him to come to Qingzhou, and the lower officials brought him here." Li Kaiyuan said with a smile.

Xiao Ming looked at Rhodes at this time, "Take this king to say hello to Count Claire, there must be something important for Count Claire to let you come this time." ”

"Yes, Your Highness, the British are very active at sea during this time, and our fleet is under great pressure, so Count Claire wants to sign a military alliance with His Highness, hoping that His Highness can block the attack of the British with us in the Asian waters, this group of damned British guys is really driving us crazy." Rod complained.

"Haven't the British been in the Indian seas all the time? As far as I know, the southern seas are mainly colonies of you Dutch and Spaniards. Xiao Ming said with a deep groan.

"No, there are also the French and the Portuguese." Rhodes corrected, "Your Highness is right, the British have been in India all the time, but our merchant ships have brought unfortunate news, the British have improved the damn steam engine, which is said to have increased their cloth production a lot, and now these British are looking for dumping places for goods, they must have an idea here, Earl Clare is just taking precautions." ”

Xiao Ming did not move on the surface, but his heart was slightly turbulent, according to his understanding, the west of this world ended the Middle Ages ahead of schedule because of the invasion of the steppe barbarians more than half a century in advance.

And now Rod's words confirm his speculation that Western technology is about half a century better than the same period in the contemporary era.

He couldn't help but ask, "When did this happen?" ”

"It took more than three months for our merchant ships to reach Holland from the city of Geranza, plus a year, a total of one year and three months, but by the time everyone knew it, the first steam engines had already entered the textile factories." Rod spread his hands.

Xiao Ming's eyes narrowed, he didn't expect that he would inadvertently get this bombshell news.

"Now all the countries of Europe want steam engine technology from the British, and it seems that they are very interested in this thing." Rod said to himself.

He had been out of the Netherlands for too long and was now slow to take care of the changes taking place in Europe.

The purpose of Rhodes coming here this time was to test the military alliance, and after thinking about it, Xiao Ming said: "A military alliance may be a good idea. ”

"Of course, with more than 30 warships of His Royal Highness, the British can't take advantage of this sea area." Rod's eyes were earnest.

Xiao Ming was stunned for a moment, it seemed that Rhodes and Claire already knew about the addition of twenty-four warships to his fleet, and these Dutchmen were really well-informed.