There is indeed only the details left between us and the Armenian businessman Holnisian, and there are no principles of obstacles between the two sides.

In the next few days, the trade department staff under Xu Xin held a detailed consultation with Holnisian, including the types, quantity, price, payment method, and delivery location of the transaction. In general, the negotiations between the two sides were still very pleasant. After the negotiations, Holnisian and Xu Xin signed an agreement of intent. Next, Holnisian will return to Izmir to contact the family and finalize the trade between the two sides as soon as possible. Before leaving, he paid and bought 500 pieces of cotton, which was planned to take back to Turkey for trial sale.

After Holneysian left, Xu Xin was idle for a moment, and then discussed mathematical problems with Toricali and Viviani. Xu Xin was born in economics and had a good mathematical foundation, so he naturally had a ease in communicating with Toricali and others, and for the time being he strengthened his confidence in going to the east coast to study.

In the bright sunshine of early summer in southern France, a month passed quickly.

On July 5, four warships of the First Navy Fleet crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived at the Port of Bordeaux. At this time, Xu Xin and Mo Ming finally learned about the fog battle that took place more than a month ago on the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean. They did not know how much impact this small naval battle would have on the development of the entire country, because it depends on the attitude of the British.

But one certain fact is that the relationship between the East Coast Republic of China and the United Kingdom will definitely deteriorate significantly, which is beyond doubt. Based on the high competitive relationship between the two sides' advantageous industrial products (textiles) and the piracy of the First Fleet of the East Coast Republic (although there is no conclusive evidence). A certain scale of war may break out between the two sides. The British may not declare war openly. However, many pirate ships in China may issue privateing permits to harass the maritime lifeline on the East Coast.

The cotton raw material base of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, overseas markets such as St. Augustine, Brazil, Gascone, etc. can be said to be completely exposed to the threat of the British. Feeling the seriousness of the matter, Mo Ming immediately decided to return home on the ship of the First Fleet, and to his superiors, he posed a threat to the sea lifeline and the necessity of opening up African routes.

The First Fleet did not delay too long in Bordeaux. After accepting more than 900 French immigrants and more than 100 children aged about ten, the First Fleet carried some payment for cotton and potatoes, and rode the wind and waves all the way, and finally returned to the Zhenhaibao Naval Base in early October.

The Executive Committee and the Joint Staff Headquarters had already learned about the naval battle when the Beagle, which was escorting the British immigration ship, returned to Oriental Harbor. After fully analyzing the current international situation and the UK's financial situation, the Executive Committee believed that there would be no comprehensive war with the UK in the short term. However, small-scale and low-intensity naval wars are inevitable.

To this end, the Executive Committee has been quiet on the surface, but secretly has begun to increase the import of various strategic materials. In particular, the import volume of gunpowder, copper, lead, pig iron, and Brazilian mahogany has doubled in the past few months, almost exceeding the total import volume in the past two years.

In addition to materials, Zhenhai Shipyard completed two flute-type transport ships and started construction of two guard gunboats without stopping. On the platform of the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard, the third "Free Trade" class battleship, also began to lay keels on the platform of the "August 10th" class battleship.

The whole country continues to operate in such a situation where the surface is calm but the internal flow is actually undercurrent. This is how Mo Ming feels within a few days after returning to Dongfang Port.

He sorted out his appearance at the silver-plated mirror produced by the Henan Glass Factory. Mo Ming, whose eyes were red because he stayed up late and wrote materials all night last night, sighed softly: "It's a miserable person." Then, he picked up his leather briefcase and went out to head towards the conference room of the Joint Staff Headquarters.

Today, representatives from multiple departments such as the Joint Staff Headquarters will sit together to hold a joint meeting to discuss how to face the complex and severe situation today.

Before Mo Ming left, he went to the General Administration of Intelligence and had a secret conversation with Director Jiao Tang for a while before walking towards the venue. When he entered the venue, the morning meeting was halfway through. Liu Ang, a senior researcher from the Ethnic and Policy Research Office, was flying in the stage to teach international situation classes to representatives of the various departments on the stage.

"...To sum up, based on the current domestic and international situation and our naval strength, the Atlantic route to Europe is too fragile and easily cut off by the enemy. Therefore, it is imperative to open an African route. This is related to industrial development, the fundamentals of the country, and the national destiny in the next few decades. It is easy to do and difficult to do. This route must be opened. In this way, we cannot be controlled by others." Seeing Mo Ming in, Liu Ang greeted him with his eyes.

"Damn it, it's not something that the Navy people did. I'm addicted to robbery, but I was caught. The new pirate met the old pirate. Now it seems that the old pirate is still a little more powerful. Damn it, it's just a pain for everyone, it's so fucking." Someone below whispered a sarcastic remark. Mo Ming glanced at it and found that it was Wei Aiwen from the Army Department "Wei Damou". This kid dared to say anything with a stinky mouth. Now he complained about the Navy, and he was even more indifferent.

The two army lieutenants in dark blue uniforms beside him laughed softly. There was no heavyweight leader in charge today, and these guys were all very presumptuous. In fact, it is no wonder that the army has been suffering by the navy over the past two years.

Seeing the navy go out to be pirates, batches of supplies are brought back from the Caribbean Sea, greatly improving the country's finances and boosting the pride of the people. Not only are the leaders praised the navy, but even the common people talk about how the navy is like when chatting. Not to mention those naval officers and soldiers who made a fortune because of participating in private activities, they all have a big pocket and speak twice as much as the army. They get more money than the army, and they are more beautiful than the army. In the end, they are even more competitive than the army when they get married. This is how can the army brothers swallow this breath.

Mo Ming shook his head. These things are not something he can do, and there is no need to do. The Navy and the Army are still in a healthy competition so far, which is enough.

After Liu Ang finished his speech, Mo Ming was about to go on stage by himself. In fact, the policy executive committee has basically concluded the big policy. Today's joint meeting is at best to unify the ideas of various departments and lay a solid foundation for the next action.

Yesterday, the Executive Committee issued a task to the State Administration of Intelligence: to formulate a preliminary plan for opening African routes and discuss it at the joint meeting of various departments the next day. As for why this plan was handed over to the State Administration of Intelligence rather than to the Joint General Staff, it may be that a leader heard that the plan was originally proposed by Mo Ming, so he asked Mo Ming, a senior analyst of the State Administration of Intelligence to do it.

Thinking of Director Jiao's strange eyes and false smile when he was talking to him, Mo Ming couldn't help but feel numb. But now is not the time to worry about these things, Mo Ming sighed gently, took out the speech from his briefcase, and walked to the podium to start his speech.

Mo Ming glanced at the representatives of the time traveling in more than 20 departments under the podium. These people were middle and senior cadres of the country, and to a certain extent represented the will of the country.

"Today, I want to talk about the preliminary plan for opening African routes. The necessity of opening African routes. I think Researcher Liu has already said it thoroughly just now. I will not repeat it here. Next, I will talk about the specific details of African routes, the midway nodes, the climate conditions and the safety situation of the seas." Mo Ming opened the first page of the manuscript paper and said: "The starting point of the African route is the Oriental Port, and the ending point is the Port of Suez of the Ottoman Empire. The midway nodes include South Africa, Madagascar, and Djibouti, and the entire range exceeds 10,000 nautical miles, which takes several months or even half a year."

As soon as Mo Ming said this, he whispered a little, and someone quickly raised an objection.

"Analyst Mo, hello, I am Lao Ding of the South China Sea Transport Company. I would like to ask who will complete the exploration of the route in your plan? As we all know, we are still in a stage of knowing nothing about that sea area. It is not bad for the period from Oriental Port to Cape of Good Hope. Some Dutch sailors in the Navy have sailed there before and have made transactions with the Coisans there. We explore and explore most of the routes that can be used to pass through. But from Cape of Good Hope we enter the Indian Ocean and head north, we are completely disgusted. This is not a trivial matter. If we want to take a new route, our South China Sea Transport Company is not afraid, but at least you have to explore this route for me first, right?" Ding Canlin, general manager of the South China Sea Transport Company, stood up and asked.

Ding Canlin was also an old crew member on Yunsheng 1 at the beginning, and now he has become the general manager of the only professional ocean transport company in China. After all, they will go on the African route in the end, so he naturally cares about all aspects of this route.
Chapter completed!