Alien Arms Empire

Chapter 227 Chapter 227 Choice
Jon is a fisherman. As a commoner in the poplar kingdom, at the age of 45, he never thought that one day he would be able to sit on a warship in his life.

He has been living in Nanshui, sailing and fishing here, barely supporting his family of three.But recently, such a peaceful life was broken.

First came a huge warship emitting black smoke, and then he saw with his own eyes more than a dozen cargo ships that wanted to return to the port, just like that, being bombarded by the sound of bombardment and sinking into the bottom of the water.

Then, the war broke out suddenly, there were many warships haunting the sea, and the final winner was the enemy's warship from nowhere...

Going out to sea to fish has become a dangerous thing, because some fishing boats were sunk by the opponent when they passed by.

So Jon could only honestly give up his job, wait on the shore and pray for the end of the war as soon as possible.

A miracle seemed to have happened. After Nanshui Port was blocked for a month, it had turned into two warships smoking black smoke and swaggered away.

The opponent hadn't appeared on the nearby sea for a day, and the officials at Nanshui Port began to force the fishing boats to go out to sea, asking them to check the open sea to see if the enemy had really gone far.

Soon, almost all the fishing boats returned to the seaside—these small fishing boats didn't need to go to the port at all, so they were relatively flexible and not easy to be wiped out.

The returning fishing boat brought back good news. They did not find the warship emitting black smoke, and Nanshui Port temporarily calmed down.

Afterwards, the restoration work started in full swing. With Lord Marquis Leibert personally in charge, the restoration work of Nanshui Port progressed quite quickly.

Some larger merchant ships salvaged the cannons of the battleships that sank in the offshore and the sinking location has been roughly ascertained. This is the most valuable thing on these sunken ships.

Those ships who don't know where they were sunk or whether they were really sunk have no way to deal with them for the time being.

In short, the loss of Nanshui Port this time, or the loss of the Poplar Kingdom, has been so great that it can be called terrifying.

The factory can basically only maintain one-third of the operating rate, and the roads are congested with horse-drawn carriages that have been dispatched temporarily, full of messy goods.

Sewage flows across the roads, workers are tortured listlessly by soaring prices, production is on the verge of collapse, and riots may even break out at any time.

A modern city is fragile. Even if the water supply is temporarily cut off, it may cause people's livelihood problems, not to mention a war.

Even though Lord Marquis is personally in charge, the entire Nanshui is still extremely depressed. It was not until the last two days that there was barely a glimmer of recovery.

Sadly, Dawn of Recovery had nothing to do with Jon, who was drafted into the Army and became a Marine.

Because the naval warships suffered heavy losses, and the number of naval sailors and crew members died in battle was very large, it was difficult to make up for a while, so I could only find some fishermen to make up the number.

The battleships they are in charge of are not real warships, but hiding in the port, and there are more than a dozen armed merchant ships that have returned to sail one after another in the past few days.

As a result, in the last few days, when everyone thought the disaster was over, two enemy warships with black smoke came back aggressively.

They sank these armed merchant ships responsible for guarding the periphery of the port, and then captured the lucky or unlucky Jon.

Then he was thrown into the sea near the coast, and he was allowed to swim back by himself.After he anxiously handed over the bottle he was carrying to an officer of the city guards, he was detained.

At this time, he finally had time to calm down, and carefully recalled all the details on that powerful steel battleship.

On that battleship, there were clean wooden decks, black painted cannons, tall funnels, and sailors in beautiful clothes.

Those sailors were even more respectable than the nobles. They wore white jackets and hats that looked like boats. They stood there with their hands behind their backs as straight as a poplar tree.

He also remembered the huge dragon flag, which he had never seen before, but it was very beautiful.

In addition, he also remembered a detail, that is, there were elf sailors on the battleship, and they seemed to have duties, because many people obeyed the elf's orders.

Could it be that the pine wood kingdom next to it has already fought over?Is this their battleship?Because Jon was frightened and was too tired, he quickly fell asleep amidst these guesses.

But at the same time, someone couldn't sleep.

Augustin Leibert smashed the rather exquisite-looking drifting bottle, and took out the letter inside.

Then, his eyes widened, and he saw the code words left by his cronies.This code word can only be used once, but it appears here...

When he continued to look down, he was shocked by what the letter said and jumped up from his chair.

1400 gold coins!
The Datang Group actually asked him to pay a full 1400 million gold coins!
He was pinching the letter, with an extremely sinister expression on his face, as if he were a ferocious beast that wanted to eat people.

"Bastards! Are they crazy? How dare they ask for so much? How could I give them 1400 million gold coins?" Leibert yelled in his office angrily, throwing everything he could find on the ground.

However, when he calmed down, he confirmed a few things: first, his cronies had indeed arrived in Bunas, although the time was a few days earlier.Second, the other party actually has a way to transmit the news to Nanshui Port on the same day!

Third, the Datang Group, which he owed 10 gold coins back then, does have the strength to collect debts, and they sent those steel warships.Fourth, the current matter cannot be delayed and must be dealt with as soon as possible.

The matter in front of him was indeed tricky, because as the prime minister of the Poplar Kingdom and as a marquis, Leibert had to consider the impact of this unwinnable naval battle on the Poplar Kingdom.

If there is really a stronger existence than the Cyric Consortium, supporting the Pinewood Kingdom and other kingdoms, then the expansion war of the Poplarwood Kingdom can only be declared over.

They may not even be able to defend their own frontiers, and a long-term naval blockade will completely collapse the economy of the Yangmu Kingdom.

Obviously, if these things really happened, then he would be the prime minister to the end.The huge prestige accumulated by defeating the Kingdom of Galles will also be wiped out.

It is impossible for the king to trust him, the person who caused the disaster, and he may even get rid of him in exchange for Datang Group's understanding, and then end the war...

But how is he going to deal with the matter in front of him?According to the letter, send someone to the enemy's battleship, use that magical machine, write a reply letter to command the negotiation remotely?

What are you kidding?Play open cards with your opponent?Tell your opponents about your bottom line?Isn't this crazy?
Moreover, I only have one chance to confirm the true thoughts of my confidants, because there was only one password at that time, how to confirm the identity of the person who replied in the next letter?

What's more... What I said on my side, will the meaning be changed when it is passed on to my cronies?
This state of being unilaterally transparent to the enemy, having problems everywhere on his own side, and being constrained everywhere immediately made Leipper annoyed.

When he wanted to throw something again, he calmed himself down as much as possible—no matter what the price, he must give the king an explanation and end this farce, the sooner the better !
His eyes rolled around in his eye sockets, and he really thought about whether he should pay the debt of Datang Group.

For a person like him, interests always come first, and he must make a decision to protect his own interests.Obviously, judging from the current situation, it is more in his fundamental interest for him to find a way to settle the debt.

Soon, he roughly estimated something.First of all, he couldn't really prepare 1400 million gold coins to repay the debt, otherwise King Yangmu XI would probably let him go home to retire.

So replacing it with other things has become the only option - such as the most valuable: land!Or minerals!
Yangmu Kingdom previously relied on selling Datang Group's technology to get back most of its own mines from Cyric, including the iron ore and copper mines contained in his territory.

He cannot move those in the kingdom, but he can move those in his own territory.Although this will reduce his income, he can keep everything he has with the king.

Keep the position of prime minister, keep your title, keep your power and the possibility of expanding your influence abroad.

As for his own income... At worst, he would return to the way he was before being controlled by Cyric. Anyway, it's not impossible to live with it.

But the arrears are too huge right now, and it is obviously impossible to repay it only by relying on the mine.

Therefore, at least part of the land must be added, a complete piece of land that may be valuable.After much deliberation, he decided to ask the king's opinion.

Because the most valuable land in his hands is Nanshui Port, which is also his base camp.But Nanshui Port has the largest industrial base in the kingdom, and he dare not cede it out by himself.

He intends to ask His Majesty the King if he is willing to make an exchange, ceding the Port of Osa, and then return the Nanshui Port to the King himself, and then find a fief from other places.

After all, the value of Nanshui Port is much higher than that of Osa Port. If Yangmu XI can take back Nanshui, he must be very happy to find another poor place for Leibert.

The remaining thing is how to introduce the latest and most useful technology to the Poplar Kingdom after repairing the relationship with Datang Group.

(End of this chapter)