Liu Huaiwen, known as Old Man Liu the Miser in the jianghu, was speaking eloquently: "Since the Russian Geese and the Foolish Hawk also have oil, let's spend money to buy it from them and seal the oil reserves of the Ottoman administrative province."
As Liu Huaiwen finished speaking, the big bosses present were all stunned. Song Yucheng, the Minister of Works, looked bewildered and said to Liu Huaiwen, "If you, Old Man Liu, intend to leave usable oil for future generations, I believe you. But you, Old Man Liu, are actually willing to spend money to buy oil? This is not right!"
Liu Huaiwen glanced dismissively at Song Yucheng and sneered, "What do you, who play with mud all day, understand? Let me ask you, will the Ottoman future be our Great Ming's administrative province?"
Song Yucheng nodded and replied, "That's natural. You, Old Man Liu, have already referred to the Ottoman people as the Ottoman administrative province."
Liu Huaiwen chuckled and said, "What it's called is not important. If His Majesty is willing, he can also call it the Anxi Protectorate or the Western Regions Protectorate, it doesn't matter."
"What's important is that there aren't many oil reserves in Europe at the moment. The main oil-producing areas are concentrated in the Ottoman Empire and Western Kunlun—after the Ottoman Empire and Western Kunlun all belong to our Great Ming, those European countries will only have the Foolish Hawk and the Russian Geese left with oil, right?"
Song Yucheng first nodded, then shook his head slightly, "What you say is true, but the oil reserves of the Russian Geese and the Foolish Hawk are not that large either."
Liu Huaiwen chuckled and said, "That's precisely what we want—their oil reserves are not large. Currently, they don't use much oil, so let's spend money to buy oil from the Russian Geese and the Foolish Hawk first. By the time they gradually discover the use of oil, there won't be much left."
"By then, the entire small broken ball will only have Western Kunlun and the Ottoman administrative province with large oil reserves, and the price will naturally be dictated by our Great Ming."
"Now we buy oil from them at a price of ten dragon yuan per barrel, and in the future, we can sell it back at a price of one hundred dragon yuan or even a thousand dragon yuan per barrel."
"And we don't have to worry about them not buying—if anyone angers our Great Ming, we won't sell it to them!"
"As for money... as long as they still recognize our Great Ming's dragon yuan banknotes, our Great Ming's treasury will never lack money." xxs
"Or, we can simply use their money to buy their oil, and then sell it back to them at a high price."
Song Yucheng, Zeng Cheng, Liu Heming, and other big bosses all stared blankly at Liu Huaiwen, their eyes filled with an indescribable sense of disdain. Such insidious and venomous tactics, was he still human?
However, Emperor Zhu Jinsong laughed heartily and clapped his hands, "As expected, it still has to be Uncle Huaiwen. What a brilliant plan."
Liu Huaiwen first humbly stated that he was influenced by His Majesty, and then frowned, "There is still one difficulty here."
Zhu Jinsong said "oh" and asked, "What difficulty?"
Liu Huaiwen replied, "Reporting to Your Majesty, our Great Ming is currently buying oil from the Ottoman Empire. If we seal the Ottoman oil and switch to buying oil from the Russian Geese and the Foolish Hawk, the cost of travel and transportation will be much greater than buying oil from the Ottoman Empire. I fear it might arouse the suspicion of the barbarians?"
Zhu Jinsong waved his hand with a smile and said, "It is naturally not feasible for our Great Ming to directly buy oil from the Foolish Hawk and the Russian Geese. But what about the King of Qin and the King of Jin? The King of Qin's fief is right next to the Foolish Hawk. It should be reasonable for him to buy oil from the Foolish Hawk, right? As for the Russian Geese..."
The oil from the Russian Geese was indeed a problem.
With the Ottoman Empire already in Great Ming's grasp, Great Ming's act of buying oil from the Russian Geese would definitely attract the attention and suspicion of the Russian Geese and various European countries.
And Great Ming did not have any directly subordinate territories in Europe, so Great Ming could not manipulate a secondary account to buy oil from the Russian Geese.
After secretly considering, Zhu Jinsong simply tapped the table with his fingers and looked at the big bosses present, asking, "How about this, does anyone among you have a son of marriageable age? You could form a marriage alliance with families like the Habsburgs or the Bourbons."
As Zhu Jinsong's words fell, the big bosses present were stunned—except for Zeng Cheng, Liu Huaiwen, Meng Fanzhi, and a few others who were older, most of the others were roughly the same age as Emperor Zhu.
This meant that Emperor Zhu's sons were too young, these bosses' sons were also too young, and the sons of bosses like Zeng Cheng and Liu Huaiwen were too old, basically already married and established. There wasn't a single one of marriageable age.
Moreover, if you, Emperor Zhu, are unwilling to let your son go to Europe, would we be willing to let our sons go to Europe?
Unaware that he was being despised, Emperor Zhu continued, "I have thought about it. I will provide one son, and you should also look for sons of marriageable age in your families. Let's gather a few more people and let them go to Europe to establish fiefs. This way, the issue of Russian Geese oil will be resolved, and our Great Ming will also have a much more reliable bridgehead in Europe than France."
However, after Emperor Zhu finished speaking, he did not receive a response from Zeng Cheng and the other ministers.
Liu Huaiwen frowned and said, "Reporting to Your Majesty, I believe it would be no problem to gather a few people. However, to have a royal prince lead people to establish a fief in Europe is extremely inappropriate. After all, our Great Ming will sooner or later have to fight with the barbarians of Europe. If the royal prince were to establish a fief in the heartland of Europe..."
Zhu Jinsong smiled and said nothing more.
In fact, Liu Huaiwen's words also contained another hidden meaning: although Emperor Zhu was unexpectedly willing to let his son establish a fief in Europe, would Zeng Cheng and Liu Huaiwen dare to agree to this matter?
They would not dare!
It is said that like breeds like, and a rat's son knows how to dig holes. Emperor Zhu himself dared to raise a force to resist the Qing and restore the Ming even in a small village. Who knew what kind of formidable figure his son would be?
What if he were like Emperor Zhu? If this royal prince were to raise another force in Europe and then sweep across the entire continent...
You, Emperor Zhu, have a son who can ascend to the throne as emperor, would the son you sent to Europe not want to ascend to the throne as emperor?
Yes, you, Emperor Zhu, are powerful, but you are only powerful when you are alive. Once you pass away, wouldn't these brothers fight each other to the death?
After all, the situation of the royal prince is different from that of the King of Qin and the King of Jin. Those two are the emperor's brothers, princes. Their descendants do not pose a threat to the imperial throne in the Great Ming homeland because they are not legitimate and their claims are not reasonable. However, your son, Emperor Zhu, can legitimately compete!
If these two brothers truly fought, and each rallied the King of Qin, the King of Jin, or other miscellaneous imperial relatives...
Well, the entire small broken ball would be involved in the fight!
Based on this premise, one conclusion can be drawn: the danger of a royal prince establishing a fief in Europe is even greater than you, Emperor Zhu, directly instigating a global war!
After all, no matter how you, Emperor Zhu, instigate wars across the globe, most of the casualties would be barbarians, and our Great Ming could benefit. But if the princes fight, it is our Great Ming and our sons who will suffer!