Chapter 242: Spirit Stone Trade Begins, Selling Out a Country Can Be Zero or Countless
Looking at the wine glass in front of him, William was silent for a long time, then slowly picked up his own glass and said hesitantly: "But if this is true, our country will never be able to leave the Ming Dynasty."
"Uncle," William raised his head and looked at his uncle Edward who was holding a wine glass in front of him, and said, "We are sinners!"
"The Ming Dynasty has great ambitions. I seem to have seen the future. One day, the empire will fall. I..." William said, shaking his head in pain, "This is not my intention..."
"William," However, before William could finish his words, he was interrupted by Edward in a deep voice, "I must tell you that this is not your decision, nor is it mine!"
"I still say the same thing. Don't think that if you don't do it and I don't do it, others won't do it either."
"There is an old saying in this country that goes 'It is better to die than to be a friend of yours', and it is better to mind the troubles of others than to take care of your own business. It is enough for us to just do our own thing."
"Besides, silly boy, do you think that with the strength of the Ming Dynasty, they can't conquer the whole of Britain?"
"Don't forget that terrifying shuttle flying in the sky. With something like this, it would only take the Ming Dynasty a month or so to conquer Britain!"
"They will use shuttles to transport a large number of their country's elite troops to Britain, and they will also use magical 'divine magic' methods."
"If the Ming Dynasty really wants to take action against the countries in the world, who do you think our opponent will be? It's God!"
As he spoke, Edward became a little excited.
"It is impossible for a mortal to defeat a god!" Edward exhaled softly and said, "Besides, it's not like the empire hasn't been invaded and ruled before, right?"
"Also, look at Britain today. The nobles and businessmen are frantically grabbing land, totally ignoring the lives of the people below."
"What's even more ridiculous is that Congress actually repealed the Anti-Enclosure Act in 1593. What does this prove? It proves that those officials themselves did not regard themselves as the masters of the country!"
"They only know how to plunder and rob to satisfy their own appetites, haha..." Edward said, raised his head and drank the red wine in the glass in one gulp, smacked his lips, and shook his head:
"They simply don't understand what it means that when the lips are gone, the teeth are cold, and when the nest is overturned, no egg can be left unbroken!"
"They are like a group of greedy vampires, constantly devouring everything in the country and then looking elsewhere."
"Then, they will start a war, and keep going like this until one day, they will starve themselves to death!"
"Although there is always plunder and war between countries, at least in the Ming Dynasty, their officials put the people first, and their emperor knows that he is the master of the country."
"They are in their own home. They don't consider themselves as guests. No, they are robbers!"
"I believe that if one day England is under the jurisdiction of a provincial government under the Ming Dynasty, they will also take the people under their territory seriously, and the Ming Dynasty law will bring a new order."
"And this is our chance!"
After listening to his uncle's words, William's originally confused eyes suddenly became firm.
"Huh!" After taking a deep breath and exhaling the next day, William looked at his uncle Edward and said seriously: "Uncle, I never thought that you would see things so far."
"Your words are very important to me!"
"The future belongs to us!" After saying this, the uncle and nephew raised their glasses together and clinked them with each other.
The next day, William took the initiative to find the black captain.
Later, with the introduction of the black-clad captain, he met the prefect of Shaoxing Prefecture. The country's agriculture was decided by himself. Such enormous wealth almost made the prefect of Shaoxing Prefecture faint with excitement.
Why did the Jinyiwei seek cooperation from the prefect?
The reason is very simple. Although the opening of the Lingshi trade was agreed upon by the court, on the surface, the court always had one order:
Export food to overseas countries!
The Immortal Dynasty has a dignified way of doing things. Spiritual stones are something that violates the harmony of nature and benevolence, so naturally they cannot be used openly.
However, officials from all over the country have long been members of various factions, especially those who have reached the level of prefect.
They naturally knew that the purpose of exporting grain was only to resolve the conflicts caused by the overproduction of grain in the Ming Dynasty. Even if it could make the people make money, it was nothing more than worldly money to them, and the officials didn't care at all.
No matter what, the purpose of exporting grain is to keep the people safe, to prevent them from causing trouble and to stop them from overthinking. That's enough.
What these court officials really valued was the future potential of the "experimental country".
Now that William has agreed to help the Ming Dynasty and take control of the entire British agriculture, it means that Shaoxing Prefecture will become the main channel for exporting grain in the future.
Most importantly, they will control a country, its future, and all the products of the spiritual industrial era.
When these products are fed back to the Ming Dynasty, what a great political achievement it will be!
How could this not make the Shaoxing prefect excited?
As for the Jinyiwei, there was also competition and comparison of merit among them.
The Black-Clad Thousand Household Member was able to achieve such a great effect simply by controlling a chess piece, so his contribution is naturally self-evident.
By then, the rewards above will definitely be indispensable!
For a moment, the Shaoxing prefect, the black-clad captain, and William Henry Sutherland were all happy.
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye a month has passed. It is now mid-February of the 76th year of the Jiajing reign.
During this short period of one month, the imperial court issued decrees again, and its main purpose was to inform all the people.
Starting from the beginning of March in the 76th year of Jiajing, the Ming Dynasty will open up grain trade with various countries. All the people will no longer have to worry about their own interests being damaged due to overproduction of grain.
For a moment, the entire Ming Dynasty people were once again in an uproar and excitement.
When the people learned that they could export their surplus grain to overseas countries, they were naturally very happy.
Some people who had complained about the court because of overproduction of grain, falling grain prices and plummeting income felt ashamed when they saw the court's new policy.
Songjiang Prefecture, Huating County.
As one of the important grain producing areas of the Ming Dynasty, as the official documents were sent down to each chamber of commerce and farmers, businessmen with a keen sense of smell began to take action.
In fact, when food prices continued to fall, they did think about exporting food to overseas countries.
Unfortunately, however, in today's imperial court, every official takes his political achievements extremely seriously, fearing that he will make a mistake and be reported by his subordinates, and then be removed from his post and lose his job.
Therefore, without the consent of the imperial court, they would naturally not allow the smuggling of grain overseas to occur.
Now that the imperial court has allowed export trade, all merchants have taken action immediately to find overseas merchants.
As the news spread that the Ming Dynasty was an immortal dynasty where people could cultivate immortality and achieve longevity, more and more countries sent envoys or caravans to the Ming Dynasty. In addition, because the first major immortal cultivation city in the Ming Dynasty was in Nanzhili, the entire Nanzhili had the largest number of overseas merchants.
Therefore, there are naturally merchants from various countries in Huating County.
During the process, there were naturally many Jinyiwei running around, and transactions of immortal arts and spirit stones were also started in secret.
The third day of the third month in the seventy-sixth year of the Jiajing reign.
One after another, merchant ships produced by "Xianming Heavy Industry Institute" sail out from ports in the southeast coastal areas and head to all parts of the world.
These merchant ships were naturally loaned by the Ming Dynasty to the merchant caravans of various countries. After all, their ships were too old and too slow.
Today, all officials of the Ming Dynasty are holding their breath, wanting to resolve the "huge grain crisis" as soon as possible and increase the "total financial revenue" of the areas under their jurisdiction as quickly as possible so that they can gain political achievements.
Naturally, we hope that the merchant caravans of various countries can travel efficiently between the countries and the Ming Dynasty, so that the economy can flow rapidly.
Well, it is worth mentioning that, in this case, officials in the court would have to deal with the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue.
After all, the ships built by the "Heavy Industry Institute" are all driven by spiritual energy. They are also the wealth of the Ming Dynasty and are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue.
For Yan Shifan, lending Ming Dynasty ships to merchant caravans from various countries was naturally not a problem.
And he will also strongly support it. After all, as long as the economy circulates quickly and the food crisis is resolved, officials from his own faction can also profit from it.
However, the "Heavy Industry Institute" is under the Ministry of Industry and is under the jurisdiction of Xu Fan. Over the past five years, with Xu Jie's intervention, the Ministry of Industry has naturally returned to the control of the Xu family.
Not only that, all the people who originally belonged to Prince Yu Zhu Yijun and Prince Jing Zhu Yijin within the "one pavilion and two courtyards" were kicked out and replaced by a new group of monks.
Although Zhu Yijun and Zhu Yijin were both geniuses, unfortunately, facing an old fox like Xu Jie who was at the same level as Yan Song, they were too naive after all, and had no choice but to return the power of the Ministry of Works.
As a result, officials from other forces had to deal with Xu Jie, the second-in-command of the cabinet.
Xu Jie also took this opportunity to develop his power in the court again, of course, the most important ones were officials from the two capitals and thirteen provinces.
For a time, within just one month, the official opening of the spirit stone trade caused a stir again among the upper echelons of the court. As for the common people, the happiest people were the merchants from various countries.
In fact, they were able to travel thousands of miles from all over the world to come to Ming Dynasty and quickly gain a foothold. Behind them, there were more or less shadows of the political circles of overseas countries.
First of all, knowing that the Ming Dynasty has immortal magic, there are secrets and methods that can make people immortal, ordinary businessmen are naturally not qualified to share this cake with the dignitaries of various countries. They can only have the support of the dignitaries.
Secondly, if these merchant families want to do business in the Ming Dynasty, they have to establish good relations with local officials and families.
The most direct way to build good relationships is nothing more than the two words "sex and money".
When it was confirmed that there were indeed cultivators in the Ming Dynasty who could cultivate immortality, the reactions of the world's major empires were equally intense.
For those nobles, no matter how much wealth and power they have, it is all in vain if they do not have a long life to rule it all. Therefore, they are the most eager to cultivate immortality.
They even gave orders to the caravans and envoys who traveled to the Ming Dynasty, saying that they would give anything as long as they could get immortal arts and spiritual resources from the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, they knew about the existence of immortal arts and began to contact the Ming Dynasty to buy them. It has been at least 20 years, but they got nothing.
As for the immortal arts, the Ming Dynasty court has no intention of selling them. If the court is unwilling, it can just buy them from the people, right?
The result is that a huge price is paid, but the result is always unsatisfactory. Sometimes, even if one obtains the immortal method through bribery, one still cannot cultivate immortality without spiritual resources.
Of course, during this process they had also thought about uniting to use force to break open the Ming Dynasty's borders, forcing the Ming Dynasty to hand over its magic and trade spiritual resources with them.
Unfortunately, although the idea was good, reality gave them a slap in the face.
The moment they saw the huge shuttle fleet, capable of accommodating tens of thousands of people, flying into the sky, they completely gave up the idea.
Once they dare to provoke and start a war, the consequence will be the destruction of the country. Or even more than the destruction of the country, they may even be completely massacred.
Don't forget, Yingzhou Prefecture was once a country. Not only that, they even had trade relations with this country. Now? It has been destroyed!
Now, Yingzhou Prefecture is nothing more than a spiritual warehouse of the Ming Dynasty.
I even heard from Ming officials that the country and race in Yingzhou Prefecture were erased from history by the Ming Dynasty.
Well, in order to please the Ming Dynasty, the various countries immediately erased the countries and races of the former Yingzhou Prefecture from their respective history books.
At this point, a country and a race have completely disappeared, and will no longer exist in the past, present, or future.
Such horrific means and such a powerful Ming Dynasty made overseas countries fear it, but more of it was yearning for it.
Just because this mysterious dynasty has the secrets and methods that can make people immortal.
Now, their wish can come true.
The ships forged by the "Heavy Industry Institute" of the Ming Dynasty are driven by spiritual energy. Since they are going to overseas countries, the spiritual energy is naturally provided by spiritual stones, but the speed is not slow at all.
You can even directly put in spirit stones to propel the ship forward, and the effect is much better than the spirit energy charged at a spirit energy filling station.
A new cargo ship of the Ming Dynasty has a sea speed of about 400 miles per hour and a carrying capacity of about 2 million dan.
Therefore, it only takes five or six days to travel from the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty to the UK. Of course, one of the most important reasons is that the Ming Dynasty’s new cargo ships are all driven by spiritual energy.
Not only that, there are also various magic arrays on board to ensure that the ship can sail calmly on the sea.
Taking the UK as an example, the maximum round trip time is twelve days.
Of course, these are just preliminary trades. When the Lingshi trade fully develops the market in the future, it will be transported by shuttle. By then, the time cost of trade between Daming and other countries will be greatly reduced.
"Boom!"
A huge cargo ship was traveling on the dark and gloomy sea, which was ravaged by violent storms.
In the distance on the sea, there was a huge tornado sweeping across. At this moment, it seemed as if the end of the world was coming.
A cargo ship fully loaded with grain seemed to be completely oblivious to this scene and continued to sail through the wind and waves at a very fast speed.
"Buzz!" When the cargo ship sailed into the edge of the vortex, suddenly a layer of space ripples appeared on the entire cargo ship.
Then a white transparent light cover opened from the top of the cargo ship, and then wrapped the entire cargo ship into a cocoon of light.
"Boom!" A terrifying wave rose up and slammed down towards the cargo ship. In front of this huge wave, the huge cargo ship seemed as small as an ant and could be torn to pieces in an instant.
However, on the deck, the Ming Dynasty's helmsman and crew were not afraid at all when they saw the terrifying waves.
Everyone had an expression of being accustomed to it on their face.
If this kind of situation happened in the past, they would naturally be extremely nervous, but things are different now. Today's Ming cargo ships are blessed with magic arrays, and the wind and waves can't do anything to them.
"Boom!" As the terrifying huge waves hit, a huge curtain of water exploded on the sea surface. When the waves receded, a huge cocoon of light broke through the waves. It was the undamaged Ming cargo ship.
The most amazing thing was that there were mysterious runes floating and rotating around the cargo ship. And under the cargo ship, the waves were pushed away, forming a smooth channel several meters wide.
In other words, the seemingly dangerous sea surface was as smooth as flat ground in the alley where the cargo ship was sailing. As for the raging waves, they were bounced away by the spiritual energy the moment they touched the light shield.
"Boom boom boom!"
Thunder and lightning flashed, and above the sea, there was a terrifying doomsday scene, but the people on the cargo ship were calm. Many people were even observing the doomsday scenery on the sea with great interest.
At this time, we were in the lounge on the third floor, on the top floor of the cargo ship.
William Henry Sutherland and his uncle Edward Alexander Sutherland sat facing each other by the window.
However, at this moment, the eyes of the uncle and nephew were all fixed on the palm-sized, dark green jade dish on the table. To be precise, they were staring at the small dish that was full of transparent crystals.
"Is this the spirit stone?" William held a spirit stone and brought it close to the candle on the table. The orange-red light made the spirit stone transparent and orange-red, just like a gem.
Uncle Edward, who was standing opposite him, put the spirit stone in his hand into the small dish, and then said in a deep voice:
"In three days, we will be back in London, William. We will definitely be summoned by the Queen when we return this time. I think we should discuss what to do next."
Hearing this, William resisted the urge to use the spirit stone to practice right now, put the spirit stone in his hand into the small dish, and looked at Edward.
"Uncle, do you have any new ideas?" William knew something about his uncle.
He said this at this time, obviously he had other plans.
"The queen is old," Edward took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "The most important thing is that she has been reluctant to get married and has no children. In addition, her decisions have become increasingly foolish over the years."
"She has become a tyrant..."
Hearing this, William also thought for a moment, frowned and said, “Uncle, what do you mean?”
"There have been rumors over the years that the Queen's favorite heir is James Stuart. I want to support him to become monarch!"
"James Stuart?" William frowned and said, "But this guy is arrogant and stupid. He is not a qualified king. If it weren't for the purest blood flowing in his body..."
"It's his stupidity that I want!" Edward interrupted his nephew William and said:
"We all know that practicing 'divine arts' can increase a person's lifespan and make the body healthier."
"If we bring the 'divine art' back for the queen to practice, once she practices it, she will most likely return to being the shrewd and capable queen she once was."
"If this is the case, I'm afraid the deal between us and Ming Dynasty will not be successfully concluded."
"Elizabeth I, this woman has a perverted desire for power. If she survives, it will be bad for all of us," Edward said with a gloomy look in his eyes.
"So, she must die. We need to support a puppet to take the position. James Stuart happens to be a staunch believer. Doesn't he consider himself a messenger of God?"
"When the real 'divine art' is placed before him, and he has the opportunity to become a 'divine messenger', can he remain indifferent?"
"If we support such a stupid guy to take office, we only need to unite with all the nobles in the House of Lords, and then the whole of Britain will become our one-man show."
"By that time, I'm sure the Ming Dynasty will be more satisfied with our Sutherland family, and we will get more."
Edward said this, his eyes full of greed.
Selling out one's country, from the moment you decide to do it, is bound to happen countless times.
During the decades of living in the Ming Dynasty, he deeply realized a saying: either don't do it, or do it thoroughly!
In his opinion, Britain would become meat on the chopping board of the Ming Dynasty anyway, so it would be better to make a wise decision as soon as possible.
At least in the future, he and his family will have unparalleled power in Britain.
Since you have decided to sell out your country, you must never allow your country to have a wise king.
It just so happens that Elizabeth I is a queen with a perverted desire for power and strong abilities. This is not in his interest to sell out his country, so... the queen must die!
"But uncle, how are we going to explain this to the Queen when we get back?" William said, looking at the spirit stone on the table, "Many people in our caravan know about this."
"After all, the envoys from the Netherlands, France, Spain and other countries did a lot of publicity in private before we set off."
"The Ming Dynasty gave us the 'divine arts' and the resources to practice them. We can't hide it at all..."
"Then don't let them return to London alive!" As soon as William finished speaking, Edward said coldly:
"Have you forgotten that this cargo ship was lent to us by the Ming Dynasty? Didn't the lord tell us before we left? If you run into trouble and want help, feel free to find the captain."
"Captain, you are a flag officer of the Royal Guards!"
"In this ocean, with that lord's strength, it shouldn't be difficult to make a few people disappear in the sea, right? When the time comes, when we return to London, won't we be able to decide everything?"
"Crack, boom!" Another flash of lightning streaked across the dark clouds, illuminating a large area of the sea.
"I have already contacted that gentleman before. I believe he has already taken action by now." Edward's face was illuminated by lightning, and his words made William feel cold in his heart.
He didn't expect that his uncle would go down the path of selling out his country so decisively and without any regrets!
"..."
(End of this chapter)
