Chapter 272 Compared to the Impressive Demonstration

Compared to the impressive and grand demonstration, the dinner snacks prepared for everyone at the workshop could be described as very simple, but no one seemed to notice. The officers close to Ye Tao and the officials from Yun Province began to inquire about when the Huoxing Dan (Mars Bullet) Type II and Menghuo You (Fierce Fire Oil) Type II could begin to be equipped by the troops. They inquired about how they could cooperate to accelerate this process, the cost of these powerful items, and even the "Huoshen Pao" (Fire God Cannon), which was obviously a spur-of-the-moment creation by the workshop's destruction enthusiasts, became a topic of conversation. The mobility of this thing compared to the previous small crossbow cannon with a three-man crew could be said to be worlds apart, but the weight and range of the projectiles it could fire were indeed tempting. Perhaps this thing could not become the key to victory in a battle between armies, but it seemed very suitable for siege and defense operations. Speaking of defending the city, perhaps those infantry officers and longbowmen officers who originally came from the Xueqi Jun (Blood Unicorn Army) had some experience, but when it came to attacking the city, everyone was clueless. They had indeed undergone relevant training, but who didn't know that real warfare was completely different from those training subjects?

The representatives of the Samir family were particularly deeply impressed. They were very grateful to Ye Tao for giving them the Menghuo You (Fierce Fire Oil) formula, and they were extremely interested in the Huya Jian (Tiger Fang Ship) and the small crossbow cannon with a three-man crew that Old Man Qi had shown them. As soon as the Ye Family Workshop reduced the price of that artillery group to a reasonable range, as a force that had no conflict of interest with Dongping, they would definitely be able to quickly purchase a batch of artillery groups to supplement the combat power of their family fleet. But none of this diminished their shock at the Menghuo You (Fierce Fire Oil) Type II that Ye Tao had just created. They were almost certain that it was basically "Greek Fire." Even if it wasn't exactly the same formula, the power was comparable. Combined with the constantly improved spraying devices of the Ye Family Workshop, the power that Menghuo You (Fierce Fire Oil) could actually exert now was even more amazing than the legendary Greek Fire.

After the demonstration, the representatives of the Samir family no longer cared about how simple the beef fried buns that the workshop had prepared for them were, and impatiently found Ye Tao. At this time, Ye Tao realized that the person who had come to discuss certain matters with him was not Asad, who had been working closely with the Qihai Shangshe (Seven Seas Trading Company) for many years, but a young man who showed noble qualities everywhere. He was a core member of the Samir family, with direct bloodline, and occupied a prominent position in the entire family tree: Sayyid Samir. Only his presence could allow a senior executive like Asad to act as a translator.

"First of all, please allow me to congratulate you on your promotion to governor of Yun Province, this vast and great grassland province," Sayyid said extremely humbly.

"Thank you," Ye Tao didn't feel flattered by anyone's humility, especially since he realized that the humility shown by a core member of the Samir family, a young man with the Samir surname whose position in the Middle East might exceed that of some national prime ministers and ministers, and even be higher than the sheikhs and kings of some smaller countries, was probably mostly faked. "In the past few years, Mr. Asad has made us understand the strength and wealth of the Samir family, and now, I am very happy that Mr. Samir can bring us another friend."

Ye Tao's calm performance increased Sayyid's understanding of the provincial governor who was said to be of commoner origin in the data.

After some pleasantries, Sayyid cautiously asked: "Lord Ye, as a long-term friend who has stood the test of time, I would like to make a request that may be a little abrupt. On behalf of the Samir family, I sincerely request that you can pass on to us the Menghuo You (Fierce Fire Oil) Type II... or perhaps the Greek Fire formula. …Moreover, this may be the least abrupt of my goals in coming to see you this time."

Ye Tao smiled and said, "Whether it is the temperature or the ablative power, the Menghuo You (Fierce Fire Oil) Type II is indeed a significant improvement over the original formula. I can understand your preference for this kind of weapon. I remember that when I gave you the Menghuo You (Fierce Fire Oil) Type I formula, there was a clause in our agreement about informing you of the results after continuing to improve the Menghuo You (Fierce Fire Oil). I have to say, Mr. Asad signed a very good agreement for the Samir family. According to that agreement, there is no problem in giving you the Menghuo You (Fierce Fire Oil) Type II formula. Moreover, you don't have to pay an extra price. If possible, please help Old Man Qi and the Qihai Shangshe (Seven Seas Trading Company) develop in the Nanyang area. …Of course, this is not completely generous. I have to frankly admit that I would like to sell you the finished Menghuo You (Fierce Fire Oil) Type II, but I am afraid that I will not be able to spare that part from the limited raw material production in the next few years. And you, in terms of production conditions, are actually more sufficient than I am here. I believe that you are reliable partners and close friends. I believe that giving you such weapons will not fall into the hands of my enemies."

Sayyid bowed deeply and said, "Your generosity moves me."

Ye Tao smiled and said, "You're welcome. What else do you want? We might as well really discuss it openly and honestly like friends."

After listening to the Samir family's ideas, Ye Tao began to feel a little uncomfortable. The Samir family did want to establish a country, and their idea was not just to establish a country, but to create an unprecedented great power in the Middle East. They anticipated that once they went to war with the countries and governors they originally assisted or funded, their fleet in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean would involve a lot of power, and they would probably be unable to take care of the established strongholds in Nanyang. Therefore, they very wisely began to cooperate with the Qihai Shangshe (Seven Seas Trading Company), a close partner that showed great ambition and a steady pace in marine expansion. They wondered if the trading company would be willing to take over these strongholds, and the conditions they asked of the Qihai Shangshe (Seven Seas Trading Company) sounded very reasonable: manpower, weapons, technology... nothing excessive.

But in terms of the army, they did lack powerful forces and generals with strong commanding abilities. The problem of generals was easy to solve, whether it was to discover and cultivate them internally or to poach and buy them, or even to buy veteran officers who were captured in war and sold as slaves. They could always find a way to solve it. But they did lack a large number of organized and disciplined soldiers with strong combat capabilities. In the Middle East, where the population was not very dense and most battles could predict the scale and location due to the distribution of rivers and oases, a few thousand elite soldiers who were strong enough to reverse the situation plus a large number of auxiliary troops would be enough. But how to train such soldiers? Asad's statement to the Council of Elders that Ye Tao had built an army strong enough to deter the entire continent from scratch in just a few years moved many people within the Samir family, and when they learned that there were actually many old soldiers and middle and lower-level officers retiring from the Xueqi Jun (Blood Unicorn Army), or working in the Xueqi Jun (Blood Unicorn Army)'s auxiliary army, they couldn't help but have the idea of hiring a group of people to train the army.

But this idea sounded a bit absurd on this continent. Those retired soldiers and officers of the Xueqi Jun (Blood Unicorn Army) were stunned by the representatives or agents of the Samir family who came to their door and dared not agree. The Xueqi Jun (Blood Unicorn Army), the Ministry of War, and so on, all felt that this idea was too crazy. It was unheard of to hire foreign officers to command operations. The soldiers of the Xueqi Jun (Blood Unicorn Army) believed in their soldiers' sense of honor, but they were very suspicious of the loyalty of the army... Sayyid also raised this matter when he met Tan Xiaopei. Compared with the Ministry of War, which followed the rules in everything, and the Xueqi Jun (Blood Unicorn Army), which didn't consider the issue of money much, Tan Xiaopei had a much broader vision. The concept of mercenaries was not uncommon for the Tan family, who had been bandits and warlords. Moreover, Tan Xiaopei was considering two questions: whether the people sent out could help the Samir family complete their goals within ten years; and after completing the Samir family's goal of establishing a country, how high was the probability of these people leading a large army to land directly from Nanyang and attack Chunnang from both sides... Beyond this time, there was no point in talking about these things, because old soldiers would not die, but they would indeed gradually wither, and Tan Xiaopei would never send excellent officers who could be used to build his own army to such a distant place. And this time limit meant that either he needed to quickly wipe out the three countries with purely military force and huge casualties, or he had to modify the steps of unifying the continent, first Beiliao, then Xiling, and then Chunnang. Tan Xiaopei hadn't thought about this question yet, so he sent Sayyid to Yun Province to find Ye Tao to solve other problems, giving him time to figure out this question.

And Sayyid's requests were indeed more complicated than the other. Whether he could hire retired officers and auxiliary army officers of the Xueqi Jun (Blood Unicorn Army) was not something Ye Tao could control, but Sayyid requested that Ye Tao could mediate after Tan Xiaopei agreed to this matter. And the other requests were even more troublesome. After learning that the northern tribes had been severely挫折, the Samir family was trying to reopen the long-blocked land passage from the Middle East to the Central Plains, and Ye Tao's identity as Yun Province Jing Lue Shi (Pacification Commissioner) allowed them to see the possibility of advancing from both sides to quickly form the land passage. This was not only a trade route that took slightly less time than the sea route, but also a lifeline that could ensure that the Samir family could continuously obtain war funds from trade after the Samir family, mired in war, fell into a long-term battle at sea.

Was it the Silk Road? Ye Tao frowned and remained noncommittal. He hadn't really seriously understood how much trade volume this land passage, which was once very prosperous when the Central Plains was unified, once carried. In this time and space, due to the great differences in terrain and landforms from the world Ye Tao came from, the sea journey from Dongping all the way to the Persian region was not so long that it was unacceptable, and the trade volume seemed to be quite large, and there didn't seem to be any major obstacles to shipping capacity. The only relatively troublesome thing was that during the typhoon season, or when encountering certain sudden weather conditions, the operation of the trade route would be interrupted from time to time. After all, anything could happen on the vast sea.

"Map!" Ye Tao ordered. Bi Xiaoqing and Wu Pingan immediately took out a large-scale map from Ye Tao's seemingly all-encompassing bag and spread it on the table. The map included a detailed map of the original territory of Dongping, a relatively detailed map of the place names and landforms of the three countries of Chunnang, Beiliao, and Xiling, the entire coastline of Chunnang, which had been understood very clearly by the Qihai Shangshe (Seven Seas Trading Company), and the islands and archipelagos along the sea route from Nanyang all the way to Dubai Port, where the Samir family's old home was located in Persia. But only in this area northwest of Yun Province was the content on the map extremely poor. Only some lakes, deserts, oases, and some cities and fortresses controlled by different forces were marked. This part of the content was painstakingly accumulated by the Dai family after repeatedly going deep into the grasslands.

Sayyid招了招手waved his hand, and a guard behind him picked out a few rolls of parchment from the leather bag and unfolded them on the table. These maps drawn on parchment were pieced together with Ye Tao's maps, forming a map that covered a wider area. The material of the map was not a problem, the different drawing methods were not a problem, and even the completely different map display systems did not become an obstacle for everyone to understand the map. Sayyid's finger moved on the map, explaining: "The previous northern trade route went along here. Because it had to avoid the势力势力of the喀尼汗国喀尼汗国, it绕行绕行ed around the北麓北麓of White Horse Mountain, which was a little further away. And when the北方的察尼汗国Northern Chani Khanate rose, the two nomadic民族民族,奉行劫掠奉行劫掠ing countries,压制压制ed on both sides, and this trade route was completely断绝断绝ed. Afterwards, although the喀尼汗国喀尼汗国 was eventually灭攻灭攻 by Xiling due to constant friction with Xiling, Xiling itself was rich in物产物产 and almost did not need to假借外部假借外部, and Xiling has always抑制商人抑制商人, and the northern通道通道 has not苏复苏复ed in their hands.北辽北辽 cannot绕过云州绕过云州 to通打通打 this通路通路, and春南春南 and your country have been harvesting the huge利益利益 brought by trade through the海上来海上来. Geographically speaking, the most suitable one to do this is云州云州. But云州云州 has been受敌受敌ed on several sides, and has been困于军争困于军争, and has not been able to行销天下行销天下产品产品, and naturally has no interest in the construction of this通道通道. But...大人大人..."

Ye Tao naturally understood Sayyid's subtext. It might be him who could revive this channel. And Ye Tao, who has always been known for his奇思妙想奇思妙想 and技术精妙技术精妙, could naturally allow Yun Province to come up with enough kinds and quantities of拳头产品拳头产品.

Ye Tao frowned and said, "There is a little interest, but this matter needs to be considered in the long term."

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It seems that the updates these past two days have been a bit late, sorry