Chapter 574

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“Your Highness, are you truly prepared for a full-scale conflict? You must not forget, though a state may be great, if it is fond of war, it will perish. Even if Your Highness can defeat us, your strength will surely be greatly diminished.”

Xiao Qi said loudly.

“It’s not I who wants to wage a great war, but you who are forcing me to fight. If that’s the case, then we shall perish together.” Xiao Ming had the air of a rogue who dared anyone to be afraid.

Seeing this, Xiao Qi and Zheng Hao fell silent. Xiao Qi was clearly determined now.

Cui Zhang and Wang Xi, meanwhile, secretly rejoiced. They wished these three families would fight among themselves so they could profit from it.

After exchanging glances with Xiao Ming for a while, Xiao Qi finally backed down. Xiao Ming, as the victor, was arrogant, while he, as the defeated party, was trembling.

Hesitating, he said, “This matter is too significant. I cannot make the decision. This matter must be decided by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wei. I just hope Your Highness can give me time, and not take the opportunity to seize more land.”

Xiao Ming smiled. His strong demeanor had finally made Xiao Qi back down. He said, “Alright, but my patience is limited.”

Xiao Qi nodded, turned, and left.

Cui Zhang sighed, “Alas, this will take another ten days or so.”

“Why is Your Royal Highness the Heir Apparent so impatient? In Qingzhou, there’s food and drink, and opera. These days are not boring at all,” Wang Xi said with a smile.

Cui Zhang sneered inwardly, thinking to himself, ‘How would this Wang Xi know that they and King Qi had already reached a private agreement?’ But on the surface, he remained amiable, saying, “Secretary Wang is absolutely right. In that case, let us go for a stroll in the Qingzhou opera house today.”

With that, the two also left.

Zheng Hao left as the others did, not lingering. He cupped his hands to Xiao Ming and also departed.

At this point, Zhan Xingchang said to Xiao Ming, “Your Highness, will the Prince of Wei agree? Yangzhou is a famously prosperous land.”

“I’m not afraid he won’t agree, I’m afraid he will agree. We’ve taken three cities in over a month. Even if the Prince of Wei is stupid, he should understand he’s no match for us. At this point, his delaying our attack works in their favor.” Xiao Ming said.

Zhan Xingchang nodded, “But delaying time is even more beneficial for us. Bringing these four prefectures’ populations under our control will greatly increase our strength.”

“That’s right, but the reason for the truce this time, besides the four-sided alliance, the issue of ammunition also made me a bit helpless. The military factory reported that the ammunition stored in the warehouse is not much left.” Xiao Ming sighed.

Zhan Xingchang’s expression immediately turned somewhat interesting. He hadn’t expected Xiao Ming to be purely bluffing Xiao Qi earlier, when he was in fact already unable to continue the attack.

“So that’s it. It seems we really should keep a batch of ammunition for self-defense and not use it all for conquest,” Zhan Xingchang said.

Xiao Ming nodded. This time, the Battle of Pengzhou, the Battle of Tongzhou, and the Battle of Huaizhou consumed 1.2 million firearm rounds and 16,000 solid cannonballs.

Although some were recovered after the battle, some cannonballs went missing, and lead balls were lost even more due to their small size.

Moreover, the lead balls that hit enemy soldiers could not be retrieved.

“Exactly.” Xiao Ming said. Continuous battles had almost depleted his reserves.

However, now that the Bessemer steelmaking production line was in place, this problem was no longer an issue, but he needed time to build up reserves.

After chatting casually with Zhan Xingchang for a while, Xiao Ming went to the steel workshop. These days, he frequently visited this place. Whenever he saw a whole furnace of molten steel flowing out, he would feel very satisfied.

Because this brought him one step closer to the Industrial Revolution. After all, to fully realize the Industrial Revolution, a large amount of steel was needed to manufacture various types of machinery.

After observing steel production for a while and checking on the production of the second converter, Xiao Ming then headed to the royal residence.

As soon as he returned to the royal residence, Xiao Ming was about to rest when Li Kaiyuan walked in with a red-haired, blue-eyed man.

“Your esteemed Highness, long time no see.”

The person accompanying Li Kaiyuan was none other than the Dutchman, Rhodes.

A few days ago, Li Kaiyuan was still talking about trading with the Dutch and mentioned that Rhodes had arrived in Dengzhou. He didn’t expect Rhodes to actually follow him to Qingzhou.

“Your Highness, Rhodes said that Earl Clare sent him to Qingzhou, so I brought him,” Li Kaiyuan said with a smile.

Xiao Ming then looked at Rhodes. “Convey my regards to Earl Clare. Earl Clare must have something important for you to come this time.”

“Yes, Your Highness. The British have been very active at sea lately, and our fleet is under great pressure. So Earl Clare hopes to sign a military alliance with Your Highness, hoping Your Highness can help us hold back the British attack in the Asian waters. These damned British guys are really driving us crazy,” Rhodes complained.

“Aren’t the British always in the Indian Ocean? As far as I know, the southern seas are mainly your Dutch and Spanish colonies,” Xiao Ming mused.

“No, there are also the French and Portuguese.” Rhodes corrected him, “Your Highness is right, the British were originally in India, but our merchant ships brought unfortunate news: the British have improved the damned steam engine. It is said that this has greatly increased their cloth production. Now these British fellows are looking for dumping grounds for their goods everywhere, and they will certainly have ideas about this place. Earl Clare is just taking precautions.”

Xiao Ming’s expression remained impassive, but his heart stirred slightly. According to his understanding, the Western world in this era had ended the Middle Ages half a century earlier due to the earlier barbarian invasions from the grasslands.

And now, Rhodes’s words further confirmed his conjecture: Western technology was about half a century ahead of the same period in his own time.

He couldn’t help but ask, “When did this happen?”

“It takes our merchant ships over three months to reach the Netherlands from Zeelandia. Plus a year’s time, that’s a total of one year and three months. But by the time everyone knew, the first batch of steam engines had already entered textile factories.” Rhodes spread his hands.

Xiao Ming’s eyes narrowed. He hadn’t expected to inadvertently receive such major news.

“Now all the countries in Europe want to get steam engine technology from the British. It seems they are all very interested in this thing,” Rhodes said to himself.

He had been away from the Dutch mainland for too long and was now slow to react to the changes happening in Europe.

Rhodes’s purpose in coming here this time was still to sound out a military alliance. After some thought, Xiao Ming said, “A military alliance might be a good idea.”

“Of course! With Your Highness’s more than thirty warships, the British won’t gain any advantage in these waters.” Rhodes’s eyes were eager.

Xiao Ming was stunned for a moment. It seemed Rhodes and Clare already knew about his fleet’s increase of twenty-four warships. These Dutchmen were indeed well-informed.