Chapter 175

“Asad, I might not have that much time to go to Dubai Port… although, I really wanted to.” Ye Tao hesitated. If he had to go back and forth to Dubai Port and also attend the founding ceremony, he really didn't know when he would be able to return to Yunzhou this time. Although this trip to Nanyang could be considered a long overdue honeymoon with Tan Weixin, he still had children and a wife at home. Although Yunzhou and Zhenzhou both had strong figures guarding them, and a complete set of measures to deal with various situations, it still felt strange to him, the Northern Frontier Pacification Commissioner, to expect everything to be fine from thousands of miles away. "You know, I have children at home. I ran away a few months after they were born. By the time I get back, they'll be so big. I think it's a real pity to miss that time. And... are you really going to hold the founding ceremony in two months?"

Asad sipped his Central Plains-style green tea and said with a hint of regret, "Actually, before the war to establish the country began, the ceremonial items and those gorgeous instruments were all prepared. The Samir family has never been a purely commercial family; they have always been very close to power. Preparing those things, according to your Central Plains way of saying it, was definitely presumptuous, definitely showing disloyal intentions. But, what could we do? Controlling this force and that force from behind the scenes is not as satisfying as personally leading a country. Becoming a country will bring national problems, such as what to do with the Samir family's business? Should it be independent of royal power or integrated into royal power? What about so many people who have contributed so much in various ways? Some of them have no interest in being ministers of a country at all."

Asad winked, as if to say that he was one of those who had no interest in power. However, Asad would probably find it difficult to leave the Samir family circle. Although he was not a direct descendant of the Samir family, he was only slightly related, he performed very well in the Samir family's war to establish the country, whether as the commander of the escort fleet, as a merchant continuing to maintain trade routes, or as an important link in negotiating with the Seven Seas Trading Company and Yunzhou and Dongping. Although Asad had not led any land army to participate in any battles, what he did was not much different from what he had always done. He was still running around on ships, ensuring the safe flow of supplies and people, but his ability to guarantee this was already remarkable.

"What will your position be after the country is established?" Ye Tao asked with a smile.

"The family elders want me to be the governor of Gaya Province. Gaya Province is still in the hands of King Wu Tailu. The family is preparing to give me an army and a fleet to personally wipe out Wu Tailu... but I really don't know how to fight this kind of war. I've been running around at sea all my life. I started helping out on ships when I was ten years old, and I’ve been doing that until now. Although my position is already very close to that of an elder of the family elders council, I have never had time to learn about those things on the ground. I have proposed to continue running the trade routes... Some elders think it's feasible, but it's not certain yet. Unless I can prove that continuing to do business and cooperating with the Seven Seas Trading Company is more beneficial to the family and to this emerging regime." Asad sighed, "Now, the possibility of establishing contact with Yunzhou on the ground is getting lower and lower. Speaking of which, it's our fault. As far as I know, the governor of Zhenzhou you appointed has been ruthless since taking office. Without using the main forces of Zhenzhou and Yunzhou, and with a total investment of six local legions, he actually forced the northern tribes further north. Now, the northern tribes are fighting fiercely with those large bandit groups for their living space, and no one has the upper hand. And now, Nanyang, which the family has ceded, is now unequivocally Dongping territory. You are now at our doorstep, and it seems that you no longer need to spend a lot of effort to maintain such a long and complex trade route... What I fear is that the beginning of the Samir family's founding of the country will be the beginning of the Samir family abandoning its commercial traditions of many years and heading towards decline... I shouldn't be saying these things to you."

Ye Tao agreed, "That makes a lot of sense, but could this just be an excuse and an illusion of yours as a veteran senior executive who can't leave the ocean and can't leave interesting business?"

Asad laughed and said, "I really hope so."

"From here to Dubai, how long will it take if everything goes smoothly?" Ye Tao asked.

"Starting from Hengbo Port, it should only take about ten days." Asad estimated cautiously. Asad asked strangely, "Do you still want to go to Dubai?"

Ye Tao shook his head and said, "I won't go. After I convene a meeting of the Seven Seas Trading Company's executives in Hengbo Port, I have to rush back to Yunzhou. After many years, when I step down from the position of Pacification Commissioner, I will travel to Dubai with my children."

Asad was not unhappy about Ye Tao's refusal. He smiled and said, "Okay, I'll be waiting for you. My friend."

After sending Asad away, Ye Tao seriously considered the situation in Nanyang. What Asad said could really happen. The Samir family would need time to change its original development model after the founding of the country. For a family, it is normal to use economic means to control people, and then use these people to control power, so that the family can obtain what it needs. But once this family itself becomes the ruler of a country, this set won't work. Not only that, but they must also try their best to prevent others from doing this kind of thing. Governance will replace business and become the new driving force for the Samir family, or self-inflicted trouble. As a family that started and developed with commerce, on the one hand, it must strive to cultivate a fair and just business atmosphere in its own territory, and on the other hand, it must strive to regulate it so that no other family can develop to the point where it can influence the Samir family's rule in the way the Samir family does... These are all political skills of extremely high level. Whether seasoned merchants can successfully switch careers is really another matter. At the same time, the Samir family's reduced investment in commerce is inevitable. So, can the Seven Seas Trading Company fill this gap? Or will other forces intervene?

Tan Weixin was much more experienced in this regard. She had a series of records of cooperation between the Seven Seas Trading Company and the Samir family, as well as research reports on the Seven Seas Trading Company's investigation of the Samir family's business in the entire Nanyang region and even parts of the Middle East. After careful consideration, Tan Weixin proposed a far-reaching plan: she wanted to friendly and comprehensively take over the business that the Samir family would be unable to manage. On the one hand, with the Samir family's consent, they would avoid many detours and bear fewer costs, and on the other hand, they would open up a trade route from Dongping and Nanyang directly to that mysterious Western world for current Dongping merchants.

"I don't know what the Samir family will want in order to hand over the entire business to us, whether it's payment or technology exchange... If it can really be settled with money, that would be simple. Twenty million desert-style gold coins? That's my estimate of the value of this business. The Seven Seas Trading Company and us will have to live frugally for a while, but this money can be earned back. But what if the Samir family wants precision technology? What if they want airship technology? Or... something else?" Tan Weixin smiled, marked a line on the documents in her hand with a vermilion pen, and said, "Are you going to prepare this?"

"Technology transaction?" Ye Tao glanced at Tan Weixin's prepared negotiation outline. He nodded and said indifferently, "Don't establish any direct branches in the Middle East. If you want technology, if you want to learn anything, just come. Except for those projects in the research institute, you can learn anything you want, as much as you can. That's not my business... As for the export of those products... they're all armaments. I don't have the final say on those. They have to go to your father to negotiate."

Aside from being slightly worried about the time, Ye Tao and Tan Weixin's life in Nanyang was still comfortable. The Seven Seas Trading Company supplied their couple's various needs almost to the best of their ability. And the research that Tan Weixin brought out on the industries that the Samir family might use as bargaining chips, as well as the package of acquisition and management plans, made the senior executives of the Seven Seas Trading Company who had arrived in Hengbo Port feel that it was worth more than its value. This goddess of wealth in everyone's mind was indeed magical... How much wealth was twenty million desert gold coins? It was roughly equivalent to the total funds that the Seven Seas Trading Company had invested successively since entering Nanyang until now. However, many of the Samir family's industries were established with countless blood and sweat from the very beginning of the Samir family, with mature trade routes, well-functioning nodes, and a large number of skilled craftsmen and mature technology systems. These are priceless. Twenty million desert gold coins was indeed an astronomical figure, but after only reading Tan Weixin's report and plan, and after reading the business proposals put forward by Tan Weixin and the series of technical improvement proposals annotated by Ye Tao, everyone felt that twenty million desert gold coins was completely worth it... even very cheap.

Before the Seven Seas Trading Company held a meeting, a letter asking for the Samir family's intentions was taken away by Asad. He would take this letter to ask for the opinions of the Samir family's council of elders. Asad was quite moved. Twenty million desert gold coins... was enough for the Samir family to calmly survive the period of maladjustment after the founding of the country, and to restore the key commercial businesses that had been affected by the war during this period... And what was even more attractive to Asad was a suggestion made by Ye Tao in private: he suggested that if this acquisition deal could be reached, he hoped that Asad could be responsible for all handover matters as the representative of the Samir family. And by then, Asad would also gain the power to speak at the Seven Seas Trading Company's senior executive meeting...