Chapter 1428: Fight to the Last One... (Second update, please subscribe)
what does that mean?
75,000 tons of saltpeter!
This means that tens of thousands of tons of nitric acid can be extracted, which is equivalent to hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives!
With that saltpeter, Britain can continue the war and defeat the French and Russians!
The question is...is Santos, the profiteer, willing to sell it?
“Will you sell them?”
"How much would you like to buy?"
Santos asked.
"all!"
"Haha, you are so greedy..."
Santos made a face and said simply:
"But it doesn't seem to be a big problem. As long as the price is right, I can sell you 70% of the saltpeter."
Why 70%? Because he needed to sell part of the saltpeter as fertilizer on the market to conceal the fact that most of the saltpeter fell into the hands of the British.
"That's absolutely right. Every one of us does business for money. This business can be our starting point. In this transaction, you will get unimaginable returns."
Santos shook his head and said.
"There will definitely be a return. The question is, how much are you willing to pay for this saltpeter? We all know that saltpeter... is a very popular item in the market!"
"Oh, yes, it is true,"
After thinking for a while, Stan said,
"1.2 million pounds! This is the price quoted on the Mermaid. As for the remaining saltpeter, I promise that it will not be lower than this price. If the market price rises, my purchase price will also rise with the market price."
Santos laughed as he heard the other party's offer.
"1.3 million pounds!"
He knew in his heart that the other party would certainly not be able to resist the temptation of saltpeter. After all, saltpeter was the key material for the British to win the war. Now, after the outbreak of the war, the Ming Empire imposed an embargo on Britain and Germany, and strictly guarded against any suspicious materials entering and leaving the country.
From then on, Britain tried every possible means to obtain saltpeter. Purchasing through neutral countries was the easiest way, but because the Empire's saltpeter was a long-term contract, they could only purchase it from traders like Santos at a higher price.
As for whether Portugal’s agricultural production was affected after Santos sold saltpeter to Britain, that had nothing to do with Santos. After all, he was just a businessman, and a businessman’s duty was to make as much money as possible.
They then discussed a series of issues including how to deliver the goods, and finally finalized the deal.
In war, this kind of thing is very common.
However, when Stan happily sent a telegram back to London to tell London the good news, he didn't know that Santos had also sent a telegram. The recipient of the telegram was a trading company in Yingtian, the Ming Empire. It seemed to be just an ordinary business telegram.
But soon the telegram was delivered to the desk of Qian Zizhuang of the Zhongdu Empire Investigation Department, and soon he went to the palace with several telegrams.
"The British got what they needed."
Standing in front of His Majesty, Qian Zizhuang said.
"According to the intelligence we have, the British purchased more than 40,000 tons of saltpeter from third countries at high prices, and Germany purchased 32,000 tons. Including their pre-war stockpiles, they have about 200,000 to 300,000 tons of saltpeter, enough to make more than 100,000 tons of explosives."
In fact, all major powers will consider their own security issues. Given that the Empire controls more than 90% of the world's saltpeter resources, major powers including Britain have established saltpeter reserves as early as ten years ago. They have stockpiled tens of thousands of tons and hundreds of thousands of tons of saltpeter, which is enough for them to wage a medium-sized war.
However, it is probably difficult for them to imagine that this war will last longer than they thought and will consume an astronomical amount of ammunition.
Of course, if they want to continue the war, they must import saltpeter from the Ming Dynasty, otherwise they will have no raw materials to produce nitric acid. Without nitric acid, it is naturally impossible to produce explosives, and without explosives, it is impossible to wage a war.
"Oh, that's millions of tons of ammunition."
Emperor Zhu nodded and spoke.
"With these supplies, they can almost continue the war. Well, there is no need to consider the embargo on saltpeter to neutral countries in the past two years. We need them to continue the war."
As he spoke, Emperor Zhu quickly did a mental calculation. Millions of tons of ammunition was not a lot, but not a little either. However, for a world war, it was just the "starting price."
Why should we let them continue the war... Because Europeans must bleed!
Even France, as an ally of the Empire, needs to shed blood!
As for the "Pseudo-Roman Empire" that claims to be the world's largest country, there is even more need for bloodshed! Especially the Pseudo-Roman Empire, only when they bleed to death will their strength be weakened.
For the Ming Empire, fighting to the last European was not a bad option.
After all, the goal of this war itself is to fight to the last European!
In order to achieve this goal, the best option was to sell saltpeter, which was closely related to the war, to the belligerent countries, including Britain as an enemy country. Of course, this kind of business could not be done by the Ming Dynasty itself, but could only be handed over to middlemen.
The so-called "middlemen" are actually agents set up by the Investigation Department many years ago. The huge profits from smuggling saltpeter must not be allowed to be taken away by other people.
Since there is money to be made, of course I should keep it for myself! After all, gold pounds and gold marks are all made of gold!
Some people love white silver, let alone yellow gold.
As for betrayal, that’s not the case.
Business is about making money, there's nothing shameful about that.
"Your Majesty, selling saltpeter to the British and Germans can indeed weaken the Europeans to a certain extent, but the United States also needs saltpeter. Although the American DuPont Company acquired the Indian saltpeter mine many years ago, if the British government requisitions it, it will definitely affect the saltpeter supply in the United States. For every ton of saltpeter we sell to Britain, the United States can get an extra ton of saltpeter from India, and they will inevitably be turned into explosives and used in the western battlefield, which will definitely cause casualties on our side."
Qian Zizhuang's worry made Emperor Zhu nod and then speak.
"There's nothing we can do about it. Everything has its pros and cons. Choose the lesser of two evils!"
Emperor Zhu certainly knew that selling strategic materials to the enemy during a war would bring unnecessary losses to his own side, but sometimes such transactions were inevitable. Even in another world, during World War II, Russia continued to export oil, coal, iron ore and other materials to Japan by land and water until it declared war on Japan. Even 42 years later, Russia did not hesitate to transport materials from mainland Europe to the Far East and sell them to Japan. For its own interests, Russia was very close to the devil.
The interests of allies?
What does it matter?
It’s just our own casualties... This problem is indeed difficult to deal with!
But many things are like this, a double-edged sword, if you are not careful you will hurt yourself.
After thinking about it, Emperor Zhu said.
"Well, I will instruct the navy to increase interception efforts at sea."
For the empire, the only thing it can rely on is the navy's interception at sea.
Just after Emperor Zhu hung up the phone to the Navy Department and asked them to increase the intensity of maritime search and interception, the aide-de-camp came in and delivered a telegram from France. After receiving the telegram, Emperor Zhu was stunned and then muttered to himself.
"The Marne . . . The Marne!"
The old group is down, so I created a new book club group: 739209015. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.
(End of this chapter)
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