Sir Edward pointed at the old Justin, who was in charge of the English treasury with his pipe in his hand: "England has made a lot of money in recent years. Whether it is the copper mines in Sri Lanka, the trade of Kunlun slaves, or the export of agricultural products, it has brought a lot of income to the English treasury."

"But, Mr. Justin, can you tell me what the money in the treasury is? Where did the remaining money go except for the military expenses prepared for France this time?"

"Don't tell me that the money in the treasury has grown wings and flew away?"

As Sir Edward finished speaking, the other nobles also pointed their finger at Justin: "In addition to the income Sir Edward just mentioned, the East India Company also made a lot of money, right?"

"There are taxes over the years. The tax rate in England is not low. After the reforms of His Majesty George, the tax rate has become higher - so, where is the money? Where has it gone?"

"If Mr Justin called for the money, then why didn't Congress get notice?"

"Mr. Justin, I think, we need your explanation."

Looking at the aggressive nobles and officials, Old Justin's face couldn't help but look ugly.

England has indeed made a lot of money in recent years, and the tax reform carried out by George III in imitating the Ming Dynasty has even made a slight slaughter from these nobles.

As old Edward and the nobles and officials said, without any particularly large expenditure, the treasury of England should not be without money.

The problem is that England's treasury does have a large expenditure, and it was secretly allocated before George III was crazy and had not been approved by Congress at all.

Now that Sir Edward and the others suddenly attacked the treasury that the treasury had no money, it was really hard to explain.

Old Sir Edward simply snorted coldly: "I think it is necessary for us to propose to Congress to impeach Mr. Justin unless you can explain why the Treasury is out of money."

Seeing that the atmosphere was getting worse and wrong, George III simply turned his eyes to his confidant minister, Pete, and then coughed: "I asked Justin to allocate the money in the treasury alone. If you have any questions, you can wait until Pete finishes explaining it."

When he heard that George III even made an inquiry, Sir Edward had to give up his plan to continue targeting Justin. After snorting coldly, he smoked his pipe in a dull sense.

Pete coughed and said, "A lot of money in the treasury in England was indeed transferred out secretly, but His Majesty George did not use the money for pleasure, but for the development of firearms."

"Gentlemen, I think you should know that, including our England, all countries in Europa bought a large number of muskets and artillery from the Ming Dynasty."

"So much so-called - the annual cost of buying muskets and artillery accounts for even one-twentieth of the entire England military budget."

Speaking of this, Peter couldn't help but sigh: "Even so, we still cannot form a military advantage over France or other countries, because other countries are constantly buying Ming's muskets and artillery."

"Of course, if it's just like this, it's actually nothing. Anyway, you always have to purchase weapons."

"But gentlemen, have you ever thought about what kind of situation we would face in England if the Ming Dynasty stopped supplying our ordnance?"

"The guns in our soldiers will become inferior to sticks because they have no bullets, and our cannons will become decorations, or even live targets because they have no bullets."

"So, after discussing with our cabinet, His Majesty George decided to secretly allocate a sum of money to develop our own muskets and artillery."

Old Edward sneered and asked back, "What? We know that this time, a large number of English muskets and artillery were used in the war against the French frogs, but the achievements on the battlefield can prove that their power is not as powerful as that of Ming muskets and artillery."

"We can even say that - if it weren't for the large number of English muskets and artillery that Japanese shorthanded, Tojo Twenty-eight would have had the chance to get France in three months."

"And, Mr. Pete, you said that if the Ming Kingdom ceased its supply of ordnance to us, our muskets and artillery would become decorations--whether did you get the news that could prove that the Ming Congress ceased its supply of ordnance to us?"

Old Edward sucked two pipes and said with a sneer: "Facts can prove everything. Dear Mr. Peter, even during our war with France, the Ming people did not stop supplying our arms, because they still needed to earn money from us."

Peter was furious: "You stupid groundhog, you are as stupid as a german! The reason why the Ming people did not stop supplying our arms is because we were fighting France - what if we were fighting with Ming? If we did not have complete independent production capacity, what should we fight?"

With a click, the pipe in old Edward's hand fell directly to the table. The expression on his face was enough to explain perfectly what it means to be stunned: "Listen, Mingguo? God, there must be something wrong with my ears. Damn Pete, have your head kicked by a donkey?"

Seeing that the atmosphere was getting worse and wrong, Fox, another confidant of George III, could only stand up with the bullet and smooth things out under the gesture of George III: "Suppose, assumption, Mr. Pitt is just saying assumption, gentlemen should never take it seriously. In addition, the most important thing now is not to discuss how to redeem Edward and Richard and others?"

Old Edward snorted coldly, "They went to war on the orders of His Majesty George, and were captured because of wrong battlefield command. Why do you ask their families to pay the ransom?"

Fox's eyes rolled and he said with a smile: "Of course, they are fighting for England. I think England has a responsibility and obligation to redeem them--maybe, we can make some money from it?"

Make a profit?

After hearing that England has the responsibility and obligation to redeem the little Edward and Richard, the old Edward and Sir Richard were relieved, and now I heard that I can make a profit...

Sir Edward held his pipe and asked with a smile: "Tell me, how can I make a profit?"

Fox looked at George III, and after receiving the gesture from George III, he said directly: "You should have heard that the Hamis in Benghazi said a lot at the small pot meeting, well, something that is not suitable for saying."

When he heard Benghazi, Sir Edward, Sir Richard and others lost interest. Old Edward said without hesitation: "Benghazi is considered the sphere of influence of France. Even if Hamis of Benghazi said something, it has nothing to do with us."

Old Sir Richard also agreed, "Yes, Benghazi is poor and even the thief has to leave with tears in his eyes when he goes there. What if he snatches it from France? Still making money? It would be nice not to lose money!"

Seeing that the nobles and officials were in a turmoil again, Fox's face suddenly turned dark and he said angrily: "I know Benghazi is very poor! We can't attack Benghazi!"

After the nobles and officials calmed down, Fox took a few deep breaths and forced himself to calm down: "I mean, Hamis of Benghazi said what he shouldn't have said in a small pot, and it made a big fuss. The French frogs would definitely not let him go easily."

"It just so happens that we have a lot of weapons that we have eliminated before, such as the clamp and flintlock."

"These things are of no use in our hands, but selling them to Hamis to Benghazi will make him a little stronger and give some fun to the damn French frogs."

Old Sir Edward shook his head and said, "Mr. Fox, Benghazi is too poor. Even if the weapons in our hands are eliminated, they are not affordable to those Kunlun slaves."

However, beyond the expectations of Old Edward and others, Fox actually shook his head with a smile and denied Old Edward's statement: "Poor? Maybe they can't afford to eat or wear clothes, but they are definitely not poor."

The nobles and officials present were immediately in an uproar.

Old Sir Richard retorted bluntly: "If you can't afford to eat, wear clothes, and often starve to death, it's not really poor, then what is real poverty?"

Fox laughed and said, "Please calm down, respectful Sir Richard."

"Maybe you don't know very well that there are a lot of diamonds in Benghazi - yes, it is the diamonds that King Louis IX of France stipulated that only the kings could own, and the reserves were much larger than India."

That's right, Benghazi is so poor that even thieves can't bear to visit, but Benghazi really produces diamonds, and Benghazi people don't know the value of diamonds.

In other words, the Benghazis are not really stupid enough to not know the value of diamonds, but Benghazi and even the entire Western Kunlun have always been a French colony - just like the tribute pricing power at the entrance of Zhongyuan Tang, the French are not stupid enough to tell the Benghazis the true value of diamonds, and it is even more impossible to acquire diamonds at market prices.

Fox smiled and said, "Believe me, gentlemen, we only need to take out some eliminated ordnance and firearms, plus a little black bread, to exchange a large amount of diamonds from the Kunlun slaves in Benghazi, and the Ming merchants in London would only wave the dragon ingot bills in their hands and buy diamonds frantically."

Hearing this, the nobles and officials present were immediately excited.

With the advertising slogan of Ming Dynasty merchants' "Diamonds are eternal, one is everlasting", a diamond craze has emerged throughout the European continent. If any nobleman doesn't have a pair of diamond rings when he gets married, he will be embarrassed to say hello to others when he goes out!

What’s hateful is that those greedy Ming merchants always try to hype the rarity of diamonds, thus selling diamond rings to a great price!

If there really were a lot of diamond mines there...

Perhaps, England can not only make a big profit, but may even intervene in the diamond market?

When the thought of this, the breathing of the nobles and officials such as Old Edward and Old Richard became rapid.

Fox continued: "However, although there are a lot of diamonds in Benghazi and our England also has a lot of eliminated weapons, this kind of transaction cannot be completed in a short while. It just so happens that our English treasury does not have that much money to redeem Edward and Richard and others..."

Old Sir Edward's face turned dark and asked in a deep voice: "What do you mean? Do you just give up on them like that?"

Fox said: "They are heroes who fought for England, and of course we cannot give up on them. To solve the problem of the treasury's lack of money, Mr. Justin and I have discussed it and planned to issue a batch of war bonds first and redeem them after the trade between the ordnance and diamonds is completed."

"Gentlemen, this is not only to solve the problem of compensation for France, but also to redeem Edward and Little Richard, but also to give us all the opportunity to make money, so..."

Old Sir Edward snorted and said, "We, Edward family, are willing to buy a million pounds bond."

Sir Richard also said, "We, Richard family, are willing to buy a million pounds bond."

“…”

As a group of nobles and officials of all sizes expressed their intention to purchase a batch of war bonds, George III soon gathered about 10 million pounds on hand.

After the nobles and officials left, George III could not help but shook his head and sighed: "Ten million pounds, I'm afraid that the military expenses for France will not be enough, let alone redeem Edward and the others."

Fox shook his head slightly and advised: "After Justin's calculations, France's military expenditure this time is about 6 million pounds, so we can talk about the military expenditure to 8 million pounds."

"That is, we still have two million pounds to redeem Edward and Richard and others."

"And, I heard that Pierre was in charge of this negotiation. He should know that the Emperor of Ming would definitely not sit idly by and watch our England decline completely, and there is still something to talk about."

"As for the rest... Sri Lanka will definitely not be able to save it, just cut it."

George III snorted coldly and said, "These conditions are all good, but only England is allowed to retain 20,000 troops for self-defense. They must not be allowed to agree to it, even if they pay a higher price!"
Chapter completed!