Chapter 785: Duke Nihak, who stood up for his friend
Chapter 785: Duke Nihak, who is willing to risk his life for his friend
”Dear Mr. Li Minghui, we are friends, right?”
Li Minghui, who was drinking tea and watching a drama in the office of the Presidential Palace, suddenly received such a strange “harassment call”.
The reason why it is called a harassment call is not because of the identity of the caller, but because this guy called through an internal line and only asked such a strange question.
This is no less than his bedmate suddenly sending him a message during his working hours asking him if he still loves her.
”Of course…did something go wrong during the exercise?”
He subconsciously glanced at the schedule. It seems that there is nothing worth mentioning today except that the Alliance Burning Corps has a landing exercise on the northern beach.
However, Fang Chang’s next sentence was beyond his expectations.
”That’s not the case. The exercise went smoothly. I just noticed that you are planning to sell a battleship similar to the Seaside to the Empire. Although this call may be redundant, I still want to confirm the problem with the main gun. The shelter is a rescue agency. We don’t want the technology we discovered to be used for–”
”Oh–that thing,” Li Minghui suddenly realized, and then laughed, “Don’t worry about it, we are not interested in causing trouble for ourselves.”
Isn’t this guy a member of the board of directors of Beidao Heavy Industry? How could he not know about such a large arms sales project?
Is it interesting to ask such a question knowing the answer–
wait.
Li Minghui suddenly reacted.
Could it be that the managers of the alliance were actually asking?
The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible. After all, with Mr. Fang Chang’s IQ, he would not be unable to see such an obvious thing.
After all, this business is not something that the South China Sea Alliance can decide unilaterally. The authorities only helped to take the lead in negotiating this big order, and then took a share (tax) from the advance payment. When to deliver, whether to deliver, and whether the cabin is leaking are still up to the shipyard to decide?
Moreover, even if the survivors of the Borneo Province really achieve unity, what will happen if they deliver the equipment to it?
By then, the real headache should be the enemies of the survivors, such as the Willant people who are still dreaming of conquering the world, rather than the survivors of the Valley Province and even the southern sea area who have united.
Thinking of this, he immediately changed his official tone, cleared his throat and said seriously.
”For us, the reputation of the empire is between the Torch and Charas. We have no reason to deliver a piece of equipment that may threaten ourselves to the current empire. But from my point of view, it is difficult for me to refuse the money that comes to my door. We need money. It’s that simple… In addition, say hello to your manager for me. The survivors of the South Sea Alliance welcome him to visit the southern sea area at any time.”
Fang Chang probably guessed that he misunderstood something, but did not expose his misunderstanding. He just smiled and said.
”I know, I wish you a happy life. In addition, I will convey your greetings to Mr. Manager. He has always wanted to come here to see, but I am afraid he will have to wait until the war is over.”
The phone was hung up.
Fang Chang picked up the newspaper with the exaggerated title with a smile, threw it back to the stunned Mosquito, and then tapped the VM with his index finger to end the voice synchronization.
”The NPCs in this game are more realistic than you imagined, and they are also much smarter… Of course, Duke Nihak is an exception. He is real in another sense.”
Thinking that not all NPCs are smart, Fang Chang added a patch to this sentence and coughed lightly.
”Maybe it’s a problem of education, maybe the slaves in the Borneo Province spoiled him. In short, he can’t understand that civilization is a product of game for the time being, but understands civilization as something natural. He thinks that no one can see his cleverness and treats others as fools. In fact, everyone can see it, but they are too lazy to expose it and respond to him calmly… It’s that simple.”
He recorded a copy of the phone call.
Although he felt that the manager must know everything, in order to reduce unnecessary misunderstandings, he still took the initiative to report it.
After all, he really didn’t want to be called back by Xiaoyu for questioning.
Mosquito was stunned for a long time, and finally gave a thumbs up from the bottom of his heart.
”Awesome! It’s so fucking dirty…”
”I’ll just take it as a compliment.”
Fang Chang smiled faintly, took the mojito handed over by the waiter and thanked him, then continued slowly.
”To answer your previous question, I never thought of being their godfather, but the fact is as you can see… at least before they grow wings, they really have to call me dad.”
Just as the manager declared that day, the currency of the alliance can buy all goods, but no currency is allowed to trade honor and dignity.
Do you think you can do it again?
Then come and try it.
…
For Nihak, 30 billion Xilan coins and 50 million silver coins are trivial matters.
After all, even if he lost the Golden Gallon Port, he is still the distinguished Duke, at most he just lost a governor’s hat.
However, for the survivors of Tiger State and Leopard State, especially those workshop owners who bought the Alliance brand sewing machines, and the temporary and permanent workers who stepped on the sewing machines until they smoked, they were stabbed with two knives and cried out in pain, and both kidneys were bleeding heavily. The
cloth market in White Tiger City.
The stalls, which were usually very busy, were even more “busy” this time. An empty stall was crowded with middle-aged men and young men in long and short shirts. Some
of them were owners of nearby tailor shops, some were tailors working for masters in nearby villages, and some were guys in nearby garment factories.
These people were tall, short, fat, and thin. The difference in clothing, skin color, and temperament was greater than that of cows and humans. However, the expressions on their faces were surprisingly consistent. The angry eyes were filled with indignation without exception.
An old man who looked quite prestigious walked in front, pointing at the white words written on the blackboard, his index finger and beard trembling with anger.
”Fifty taels of silver for a kilogram of cotton cloth?! Are you crazy about money?!”
When the people behind saw someone coming forward, they also shouted.
”That’s right!”
”That’s too much!”
”We are all doing business, how can you be so unreasonable!”
The guy sitting behind the stall looked indifferent, glanced at the old man who ran the tailor shop, and then looked at the group of people behind him who were making a fuss, and said impatiently.
”Reasonable? Hey, fifty dollars today is too expensive for you, wait until it goes up to sixty tomorrow and see what you have to say. This is the price, take it or leave it!”
The people around the stall were shocked when they heard this, but the guy sitting behind the stall was not afraid at all, instead he picked his earwax.
Two burly men stood beside the stall, like two ferocious tigers, staring at the survivors so that they dared not say much.
Baihu City is the largest settlement in Huzhou, and the cloth market in Baihu City is the largest cloth trading market in the entire Huzhou. How can you open a business here without any relationship with the Tiger Army?
You are dreaming!
But it is indeed strange. The price of this cloth was not so exaggerated. One kilogram of cotton was only 10 to 15 Xilan, and it was doubled when processed into cotton cloth, which was only 20 to 30 Xilan. It was sold to merchants in Jinjialun Port for 16 to 24 gallons, and occasionally settled with silver coins. That is
, one kilogram of cotton cloth was 1.6 to 2.4 silver coins.
The textile industry was the first industry to flow into Huzhou from Jinjialun Port, and Huzhou’s high-quality and low-priced cotton cloth also supported half of the prosperous export trade in Jinjialun Port.
However, no one knew what happened recently. Suddenly, a large group of merchants rushed over from the Golden Gallon Port, stuffing sacks of Xilan currency into his boss’s hands. Not only did they eat up the inventory of the textile factory, but they even booked orders for next year.
Those guys were like crazy, as if the money in their hands was not their own money, but was obtained by some kind of bargain.
Although the merchants in the Golden Gallon Port are rich and filthy, it is the inherent impression of the survivors of Tiger State, but they were not so crazy before.
Gallons and Xilan currency have an unwritten but recognized exchange rate, generally 4 gallons for 5 Xilan.
These people also exchanged Xilan currency for gallons, unless they got a cheaper exchange rate from the bank or other places.
He was just a clerk, so he naturally didn’t know where those merchants got so many Xilan currency. He only heard that the money was indeed issued by the royal family.
Those merchants were afraid that they would not accept it, so they specially brought the receipts issued by the lending bank, which were enough to prove that the money was clean and flawless.
Although it was strange, they couldn’t refuse the business that was delivered to their door, so the inventory of the textile factory in the entire Tiger State was bought out.
Generally speaking, the cloth that flows from textile factories to the cloth market is mostly the loose goods left by garment factories, but this time the major textile factories were squeezed by the flood of Xilan coins, and the cloth circulating in the market naturally had to rise.
The crowd in front of the stalls made a lot of noise and pushed each other, but in the end no one dared to act wildly in the warlord’s territory, so they could only swallow their anger.
Some servants who made clothes for the masters paid the money readily, because they didn’t spend their own money anyway, and their masters were not short of money.
Some small shop owners counted on their fingers and found that they would lose money if they bought materials and made clothes at this price, so they left cursing.
Some people heard that the price of cloth would rise again, thinking that they could speculate, so they quickly took out Xilan coins to buy it first.
More residents passing by were talking about whether something big had happened in Mammoth City again. Some people even spread the news of Alaiyang’s defeat in a panic, saying that the shrouds and bandages on the front line were in urgent need, so the price of cloth went up to the sky.
However, this analysis seems too one-sided.
After all, it’s not just the price of cloth, sugarcane, sugar, soybeans, corn and other messy things are all rising.
Some people cursed the Moon Clan, thinking that it was the unclean blood that cursed the fate of the empire, and only by drawing a large array with their blood could the curse be lifted.
Some people also cursed the merchants in Jingalon Port. After all, those guys who took advantage of the fire were not very moral, and the origin of the Xilan currency must be shameful.
Some knowledgeable people cursed Chu Guang, the alliance administrator who was commanding the front line in Haiya Province.
The reason why I say knowledgeable is that people who haven’t read a few second-hand newspapers may not know the name of the alliance administrator.
This is the bitterness of being in a cocoon. Due to the lack of channels to obtain information, sometimes you only see the slap when you are hit, but you don’t know where the slap was hit.
I don’t even know where the slap came from.
On the other side, in the suburbs of White Tiger City.
Hundreds of pedal sewing machines are crowded in the factory building of more than ten acres, and the “rumbling” sound is heard in the factory building.
This garment factory named “Farhan” was opened by a tiger businessman named Farhan. It is not only the largest garment factory in the entire White Tiger City, but also the earliest factory in the entire Tiger State.
Two months ago, the supreme commander of the Tiger Army, General Jieha Wanfu, spent a small amount of money to buy this factory, and then added an additional investment of 10 million gallons to purchase a batch of equipment from Golden Gallon Port to expand the production scale of the factory.
And this factory did not disappoint General Jieha’s expectations.
Today, one-fifth of the towels, curtains, bedding, and shirts used by the residents of Golden Gallon Port are produced here.
The tiger businessman who sold the factory at the beginning must have regretted it.
The entire factory is like a money printing machine, supplying cash milk to the Tiger Army continuously, so that the Tiger Army, like the defenders of Golden Gallon Port, has replaced the Alliance-flavored LD-47, which is much better than the Gray Wolf Army.
Just as the farmhands pedaled the sewing machines so hard that they wanted to fly, the accountant in charge of the account was also pressing the calculator quickly, calculating the accounts meticulously in the account book.
Although the goods exported from Tiger State to Golden Gallon Port are earned in gallons, that is, foreign exchange, this gallon cannot be directly taken out and used in Tiger State.
Whether it is dinars, silver coins or gallons, they need to be “settled” before they can be truly deposited in the factory’s account in the White Tiger City bank or bank.
After all, the empire is not the South China Sea Alliance with “collapse of its own currency”. Whether it is gallons or silver coins, they cannot be directly circulated in the empire in a legal sense. At most, some people use them privately.
Factories can use their foreign exchange surplus to purchase equipment from the Golden Gallon Port, but they must convert gallons into Xilan coins to purchase raw materials in the empire and pay workers.
Therefore, the accountant has to do a routine job every month, comparing the bank’s remittance records to confirm which part of the gallons will be converted into foreign exchange and which part of the gallons will be used to purchase equipment or pay for external technical personnel.
The banks in Baihu City are relatively loose in their control of foreign exchange, mainly because the warlords don’t understand this thing very well, and usually throw it to the people below to manage. The
people below don’t understand it either, so they just copy the model of the Golden Gallon Port and do what those who got rich first do.
It is precisely because of this that general industrial owners can decide when to convert foreign exchange and how much to settle, so as to save the need to use silver coins and report to the bank.
However, this month is quite strange.
First, the payment received by the garment factory was forcibly settled into Xilan coins according to the exchange rate of last month, and then the profit in the account book was reduced from more than 10 million Xilan coins at the beginning of the month to negative 2 million, which scared the old accountant.
The first one is actually nothing. This garment factory is owned by warlords, and the money house for foreign exchange settlement is also opened by the military lords in Huzhou.
He doesn’t care about those masters transferring money from one hand to the other. Anyway, no matter which pocket the money is in, it is the master’s pocket. As long as he knows where it goes, it’s fine.
The small workshops were the ones who were really worried. After all, the gallons and even silver coins that were not settled in the bank were earned by themselves. The White Tiger City bank’s trick was equivalent to confiscating the silver coins in their accounts. It was really that they didn’t intend to keep any credibility.
However, it was the second problem that killed him.
Why was the profit gone?
”Strange… Where’s the money?”
Why are they getting poorer and poorer as they produce more?
The old man was confused. He spit on his index finger and turned the account book in his hand again and again with forced calmness. Finally, he found a clue in the raw materials. In
just one month, the price of cotton cloth doubled, and even the most stable linen cloth increased by 80%.
The profit of the first half of the month was directly swallowed up by the price increase of raw materials in the second half of the month. No wonder they lost two million Xilan coins at the end of the month.
This is not a small matter.
At least they made a little profit in the first half of the month, and they only lost this much when they calculated it all together.
If this trend continues, they will lose 20 million Xilan coins next month. They will go bankrupt in half a year at most!
The accountant was sweating profusely and was about to get up to find the factory director. At this time, the foreman on duty suddenly knocked on the door and walked in. He looked at him sitting behind the table and said cautiously.
”Master… the workers are clamoring for wages. Can you pay them first?”
In fact, it was not a big deal to delay wages for one or two weeks. Those free people who worked as long-term workers were very hardworking and sympathetic to the master. However,
no one knew what happened recently. In the entire Baihu City, except for the red soil, even the soybean meal for feeding livestock has increased. The
accountant’s expression froze. He just moved his chair and sat back, glaring at the foreman with a dark face.
”I haven’t finished my account yet, why are you rushing me!”
The foreman said with a bitter face.
”Master, I’m not rushing you. I’m not in a hurry… It’s mainly the workers who are in a hurry.”
The accountant waved his pen impatiently, pretending to be busy.
”Let them work first. General Jieha has such a big family business, how can they be short of this little money? If you want to work, do it. If you don’t want to work, get out. Don’t bother me counting money.”
The foreman looked aggrieved and complained in his heart, but he didn’t dare to say anything more. He could only lower his head and walk out of the office.
For a whole day, the whole White Tiger City seemed to be possessed by evil spirits. From the cloth market where small businesses were done to the factories that did big business, there was a lot of grief.
The workers were busy from morning to night, and the accountants were busy from night to morning, but no one saw where the Xilan currency went.
Except for the farmers who sold cash crops such as cotton and sugarcane and the nobles in the manor.
They are at the upstream or source of the industrial chain and are the least affected. They can even be said to be the biggest beneficiaries of this round of “active inflation”.
Of course, this is only now.
Soon they will find that the fertilizer originally sold for 100 Xilan coins will soar two or three times, and the art and cosmetics bought by the second wife will also increase several times.
Because these things have to be imported from Jinjialun Port with foreign exchange for the time being.
Beyond the plantation and further down are weaving and sugar making.
These large factories at the relatively upstream are not bad, and they can pass on part of the cost to the weaving and food processing industries further downstream.
However, this has made the downstream industries suffer. The further down, the more you can feel the biting cold.
Especially for those small shop owners who need to use silver coins to expand production and want to compete with the merchants at Jinjialun Port for foreign trade orders, the pain will be particularly long.
After all, the loan of 30 billion Xilan coins is just the first blow of Duke Nihak’s “castration”, and the advance payment of 50 million silver coins for the purchase of ships is the most ruthless blow, which directly made the small shop owners in Huzhou and Baozhou who are still in the primitive accumulation stage work in vain for half a year.
Nihak’s charity directly emptied the foreign reserves of the Imperial Mint, and estimated that there would be an expenditure of 10 million silver coins per month.
The Imperial Mint could not come up with enough silver coins, so it could only tighten the tap to save money and reduce the quota of banks and banks along the Yongliu River in the Empire to exchange Xilan coins for silver coins.
The banks in Baihu City could not exchange Xilan coins for silver coins, and could not even meet the exchange needs of the warlord’s own factory, let alone meet the small workshops and shop owners in Huzhou.
Not only did they close the silver coin exchange channels for these little sparrows, they also confiscated the silver coins in their pockets and forcibly exchanged them for Xilan coins.
Some small workshops with a little technical content were about to evolve into factories, but they exploded on the spot before they could start competing with the factories in Jinjialun Port or being picked by the warlords.
A few bankrupt business operators turned their attention to the distant Mammoth State. It was heard that there was issuing its own currency like Jinjialun Port, and welcomed merchants from all over the world to invest.
If you bring equipment with you, you can use it as collateral to get a loan with a very low interest rate.
You can even borrow silver coins.
Although it is also the territory of the warlords, the local area also has its own advantages. One is that it is closer to Silver Moon Bay, and the other is that there is a parish of the Silver Moon Church.
Those guys who like cats not only open churches in the parish, but also banks.
Even though there are uncertainties brought by the war in Mammoth State, and there has just been a flood there, it is really tempting to use equipment as collateral to get silver coins…
In the final analysis, the foundation of the empire is still too thin.
It has only been a few months since the embargo was lifted. If you save up for decades and then make a fuss, it may not explode so quickly.
Even if it is going to explode, it will take ten or twenty years to slowly explode.
This is the impact on the ecology of the industrial chain, and the turbulence of the “food chain” is the same.
Big fish eat small fish when they are hungry, and small fish eat shrimp when they are hungry. In the end, it is also those microorganisms and mayflies that suffer.
The serfs could at least get a share of the profits from their masters, but the freemen working in the factories could not find a place to go back to farm.
The red soil that was almost unsalable became popular again, and there were more people picking up soil in the empty wilderness.
They were actually lucky.
Even the residents of Jingalon Port, who stood at the end of the Yongliu River, might not know what was happening in other states besides Tiger State and Leopard State.
However, all of this had no impact on the sunny South Sea Alliance.
The generous Grand Duke Nihak became the most “hot” figure in North Island.
The “Survivor Daily”, which had just opened in North Island, wrote a separate column for him, praising the 30 billion donations and calling him a role model of thriftiness for living on the boat all the time.
Li Minghui called him “a long way to go” in Borneo Province, but later due to protests from the ID holder himself, he changed it to General McLen of Borneo Province when he published it in the newspaper.
It is unlikely that the Weilantes would come to the far east to cause trouble for such a piece of nonsense.
Moreover, the survivors of the Borneo Province were extremely obsessed with the Weilantes, and this flattery was louder than the previous one.
People always have to be glorious for a while before they are buried, and the Grand Duke of the Empire is no exception.
Nihak was very happy every day during this period, his face was ruddy as if he had been injected with chicken blood, and he was not even afraid of occasionally meeting those guys who had captured him.
Although winter has just begun to show its tail, he feels that he and the spring of the empire seem to have come together.
Just when the warlords of Tiger State and Leopard State were scratching their heads in confusion, wondering where their little money had gone, Alaiyang, who was far away on the front line of Mammoth State to serve the empire, was also confused.
However, the latter was not because he lost money, but because his subordinates were beaten dizzy by the elusive guerrillas and lost their way.
The fierce firepower made him think that the alliance had personally taken action!
Not just firepower.
The number of resistance troops also increased, and they became more and more energetic and cunning.
At first, they were just fighting guerrilla warfare on the border of Mammoth State, but later, guerrillas began to appear in Ma and Bird States.
This group of people specifically targeted the supply lines of the Gray Wolf Army, so that the transport teams escorting supplies did not dare to walk at night, let alone hang the royal double-blade flag.
What’s more, his spies also found that these rebels built a deep-water port and a railway connecting the deep-water port in Mammoth City.
After hearing this, Alaiyang almost vomited blood in anger.
Where did these dogs get the steel and cement? ! Did they
also come from the Alliance?
Is that damn Laxi the illegitimate son of the Alliance manager? !
Just when he was angry, his confidant handed him another secret letter, saying that it was picked up by a patrolling soldier on the front line.
[…To General Alayan:
With your talent, you can easily become a king. Why waste your best years for a dying empire?
The empire is now dead. Everything is Wu Tuo’s fault.
If you surrender to me, I will not only let you live, but also let you be the leader of the resistance army. If you don’t believe me, you can also choose any state to go by yourself. As long as you don’t touch me, I promise that my subordinates will not set foot on your territory.]
Alayan unfolded the letter and gritted his teeth.
”This bastard!” He
was so arrogant just because he won a few games by chance!
He crushed the letter into a ball and threw it on the candlestick angrily, but he didn’t want to knock the candlestick over and almost burned the command tent.
The fire was saved, but the people in the Gray Wolf Army were in panic.
More and more incomprehensible confusions tortured everyone in the empire from the front line to the rear, and in contrast, the survivors of Golden Gallon Port shouted more and more passionately in the daily newspaper.
A huge and unprecedented wave was brewing in the noisy crowd. It was an energy more powerful than nuclear weapons –
the energy of progress!
Even Yodu, who had persuaded Lacy to stay, had to admit after seeing the news in the newspaper that maybe he had really misjudged him this time.
How could the guy who stood up when everyone else was burying their heads and not daring to breathe loudly, the guy who dared to reach for a gun when everyone else was submissive and endured the oppression, be a reckless man with nothing else to offer?
Just like what the officers of the alliance said when they laughed at them – can you all cry day and night to curse that Wu Tuo to death?
In the end, he really stood up. Maybe
he was too demanding of him.
Whenever it was late at night, Yodu couldn’t help thinking so, and regretted not being able to have a drink with him when he was practicing for him.
The province of four million square kilometers was already in a precarious situation.
But just before that storm finally came, a more intense storm with a wider range came first.
After two months of preparation, the horn of the southern offensive finally sounded again!
(End of this chapter)
