The Royal Merchant of the Red Chamber

In a word, it attracted everyone's attention.

Xue Pan and the others walked up to the barbarian with a smile, and asked softly, "If you have any important information, please tell me."

"I will only speak out if you promise to let me go." The barbarian fixed his eyes on Xue Pan and said with hope.

Xue Pan turned his head and looked at the others.Seeing that there was no reaction from the crowd, he turned around and said with a smile: "Talk about it first. If it is really useful, I will not only let you go, but also give you money to help you settle down in Shenjing, okay?"

The barbarian pondered for a while, then asked, "Is what you said true?"

"You can only trust me now, can't you?" Xue Pan shrugged disapprovingly, and said with a smile: "Hurry up, my patience is limited."

So the barbarian swallowed his saliva, pointed to the cell not far ahead and said, "Prince Arthur, the second heir of our country, is in that cell. If you pass the news back to my country, they will spend a lot of money to redeem him." Back to Prince Arthur."

In an instant, only the sound of reprimands in the prison was heard.

"Anthony, you traitor—"

"You violated the loyalty of a knight, you shameless—"

Xue Pan frowned and shouted loudly, "Quiet!"

The minister of Honglu Temple winked at the surrounding yamen servants, and saw the yamen servants beating the wooden cage with their heavy weapons, while yelling: "Shut up."

"How can you allow me to make noise in front of you—"

But for a moment, the cell fell silent.Xue Pan winked at the Minister of Honghe Temple, and saw that the two servants dragged the barbarian named Anthony out of the prison under the orders of the Minister of Honghe Temple, and asked, "Which one is your King Arthur?" Son, point it out?"

Anthony looked around, pointed to a young Yiren with blond hair and green eyes in the corner and said softly, "That's him."

The barbarian sighed softly, stood up, bowed courteously and said: "Ji Li Gu Lu Kiri Wow..."

Xue Pan glanced back at Lin Mozhi in a daze. Although some pronunciations of the barbarian's words sounded familiar to him, Xue Pan was not good at foreign languages ​​in his previous life. Even when he went abroad to study, he always brought a translator with him. He didn't understand and studied hard, so he naturally didn't understand what the barbarian said.

Lin Mozhi also pondered a little.Language is constantly evolving, and the language commonly used by later generations is definitely different from that of hundreds of years ago, so Lin Mozhi can only guess roughly.He frowned slightly, and was about to explain to Xue Pan.Prince Zhongrui said nonchalantly, "Hello, let me introduce myself. I am Arthur, the second prince of Yinglun Kingdom. Although this situation is embarrassing, I still want to say that I am very happy to meet you."

Xue Pan looked at Tu Huang blankly, not knowing what kind of nerves he was having.

Tu Huang glared at him viciously, and said, "This is what the barbarian said just now, and I will translate it to you verbatim."

It was only then that Xue Pan remembered that Prince Zhongrui, who claimed to be proficient in multiple languages, was sent by the Emperor to translate for him.Xue Pan didn't take it seriously at the beginning, but now it seems that he really shouldn't be underestimated.

Being preempted by an ancient man's proficiency in foreign languages, although Xue Pan didn't care, Lin Mozhi was a little surprised. He glanced at Tu Huang unobtrusively, and listened to Tu Huang who followed him with a light smile: "Sixth brother I like to tinker with these Western things, and I am very proficient in their language. That's why the emperor sent the sixth younger brother to help the young master, just because he was afraid of language barriers."

Not only that, Prince Zhongrui also compiled a set of code words using various foreign languages ​​when he seized the heirloom, and presented it when he handed over to Tu Zhen last time.After Tu Zhen's research, he slightly modified this set of code words and used them in the daily communication between the blood droplet and the sticky stick.For a while, the secrecy was much higher.This is a later story, so I won't mention it for the time being.

Let’s say that Xue Pan and others ordered the Minister of Honglu Temple to take Anthony down to take a bath and eat, and then escorted Prince Arthur, who was betrayed by his subordinates, to the dark room next door.The closure of the space and the darkness of the light made Arthur frowned a little uncomfortable, looked around for a moment, and asked with a smile: "I don't know what I can do for you?"

After hearing Tu Huang's translation, Xue Pan laughed softly and said, "You are quite calm."

Although Arthur didn't quite understand what being calm was, it didn't hinder his deal with Xue Pan.So he said with a smile: "If you can put me back, I promise to give you a large ransom."

Xue Pan raised his eyebrows indifferently, and said with a very cold and humorous smile: "We are not short of money."

Lin Mozhi rolled his eyes helplessly.

That Prince Arthur continued to persuade: "As long as you promise to let me go back, I will definitely help if I can do anything."

Xue Pan glanced at Tu Huang, and asked, "You guys are good at studying things in the West, do you know how to purify plants?"

Upon hearing this, Prince Arthur smiled proudly: "Of course, I graduated from the Royal Academy of Yinglun Kingdom. I know all these things."

"The person who taught us, I can consider letting you go back." Xue Pan made the condition very directly.

That Prince Arthur agreed without hesitation: "No problem."

Seeing that he agreed so simply, Xue Pan frowned a little worriedly.Subconsciously looked back at Lin Mozhi.

Lin Mozhi nodded and smiled, "Go out first, I have something to say to him."

Before others could speak, Tu Huang first smiled contemptuously and said, "You? Can you do it? Can you speak their words?"

Lin Mozhi hooked the corners of his mouth indifferently, and said to Arthur in a foreign language: "Although your attitude is very cooperative, we people in the Central Plains have always liked to plan ahead. Therefore, before you cooperate, I need to confirm some things."

Although the pronunciation was somewhat different, Arthur still understood what Lin Mozhi wanted to express very well.Immediately nodded with a smile.Lin Mozhi turned his head, and licked the corner of his mouth at Tu Huang very reservedly.

Seeing this, Xue Pan laughed out loud.Tu Huang and the others had nothing to say, and everyone left the dark room one after another, leaving only Lin Mozhi and Prince Arthur.

The waiting time is always long.Xue Pan stayed for a while, but couldn't sit still anymore.He dragged Tu Huang from the beginning to the end of the prison, and ordered Honglu Temple Minister to divide all the prisoners into several categories according to the skills they mastered.Since most of them are in the navy and their knowledge level is not very high, very few people understand advanced scientific knowledge.Xue Pan can only draw from their mouths about the form of overseas appearances and the level of naval armaments of various countries.As for the idea of ​​making money in their minds, it will not be realized for a while.

Fortunately, Xue Pan already had a charter in his heart, so he didn't take it seriously.It's just that Tu Huang's face was a little dark because he just made a trip for nothing.

Seeing this, Xue Pan couldn't bear to ask: "You say you are a prince, why do you like making money so much?"

"It's just a hobby. Wen can make a country safe, martial arts can make a country stable, but money can make a country rich. My ideal is to be as rich as an enemy, okay?" Because the goal has not been achieved, Tu Huang is not in a good mood, so he naturally speaks a little aggressively . "Didn't your family use money to bribe the Holy One to be named Marquis. That's why it's said that wealth can pass through the gods. Otherwise, why would you ask Xiao Wang to cooperate with you as a first-time merchant?"

Xue Pan didn't care about being stabbed.He poked Tu Huang with his arm, and said softly, "I have a deal, do you dare to do it with me?"

Tu Huang's heart moved, he looked at Xue Pan pretending to be calm and asked, "What business?"

Xue Pan narrowed his eyes and said softly, "Nightclub."

"What?" Tu Huang didn't understand.

"I have the opportunity to explain to you, the most important thing is to do business now." Xue Pan waved Tu Huang away casually, because Lin Mozhi had already come out of the dark room.

Xue Pan went forward and asked with concern, "How is it?"

"It's no problem." Lin Mozhi nodded and smiled.By the way, he handed a stack of rice paper to Xue Pan, "This is the purification method you want."

Xue Pan smiled and took it and stuffed it into his arms.He glanced at Prince Arthur who had come out of the dark room, and found that he hadn't changed much except that his face was a little pale.

Xue Pan couldn't help raising his eyebrows curiously, and asked, "Prince Arthur, you don't look very well, do you want to cook some chicken soup for you?"

Prince Arthur nodded gratefully, and thanked in very blunt official words: "I haven't eaten for many days, thank you very much."

Hearing Prince Arthur's answer, Xue Pan glanced at him in surprise.Nao couldn't understand why he kept communicating with them in a foreign language just now since he could speak official Chinese.Just as he was about to ask, he heard steady footsteps coming from outside. Everyone followed the prestige, and saw that they were wearing a pure white hairpin and silver-winged king hat, wearing a river cliff seawater five-clawed dragon white python robe, and a jasper red robe. Shi Shiran, the king of Nan'an County with the belt, walked into the prison.The handsome and impeccable face moved slightly when he saw Xue Pan and others, a friendly smile appeared on his lips and said: "I didn't expect you to come so early, it makes Xiao Wang a little lazy."

With the highest official title, after Xue Pan and Lin Mozhi had presented the ceremony to the King of Nan'an, Tu Huang raised his eyebrows and asked in dissatisfaction, "What are you doing here?"

The King of Nan'an smiled warmly and said: "The little king has appointed the Holy Majesty to be in charge of building ships and artillery. This time, I am looking for craftsmen."

Tu Huang frowned and said, "You have been dealing with this matter since years ago. Could it be that you haven't even found a craftsman?"

"I have searched a lot before, and after several months of research and development, I have some clues. However, Xiao Wang heard that the overseas caravans of the Xue family were directly equipped with these sea-ship artillery. There must be more than Xiaowang. This time, Xiaowang came here specially to look for the young master." Nan'an County King explained slowly.

Xue Pan blinked silently after listening to Nan'an County King's words.As a qualified fan of overhead time travel novels, Xue Pan naturally knows the ratio of black powder by heart.But he didn't want to tell Nan'an County King that his preconceived hostility made him have no good impression of Nan'an County King's Mansion. Even after getting along with him, he felt that Nan'an County King was a good person, but he couldn't change Xue Pan's perception.After all, the communication between people is very complicated, and it is not enough for two good people to see each other.What's more, Xue Pan thinks he is not a good person.

Furthermore, the king of Nan'an County is a king with a different surname.Since ancient times, it has been a taboo for the emperor that the military power is stronger than the imperial power. Now that Xue Pan thinks that he is with Tu Zhen, he will naturally consider him.So even if Xue Pan wants to speak out one day, he will also tell Tu Zhen the inside story.It's not Nan'an's turn either.

The king of Nan'an County didn't know how much Xue Pan's heart was aroused because of his words.He took out a jade tablet from his pocket and handed it to Honglu Temple Minister, and told him to choose some artillerymen to take back.Then he smiled at Xue Pan: "I heard that your Xue family also has a shipyard in Jinling, and the merchant ships they build are this kind of firearms?"

"Of course not. The imperial court regulations clearly stipulate that civilians are not allowed to hide soldiers. Our Xue family is the most law-abiding merchant, how can we know the law and break the law!" Xue Pan shook his head. Both the Xue family and the pirate group on the sea have related.When the caravan passes through the sea, it will be protected by the local pirate group, so the merchant ship is not equipped with artillery.After all, for a merchant to build firearms privately, that would be a crime of ransacking the family and exterminating the entire family.Their Xue family couldn't afford to take the risk.But in private, some torches will be hidden for self-defense, so it is true to prevent pirates from cheating.

The King of Nan'an believed what Xue Pan said, so he just said that these were just foreshadowing.The real purpose is something else.

"You Xue family has been engaged in maritime business since your ancestors, and you must be familiar with other countries! Can you help Xiao Wang connect with the country outside the feudal domain? Now the development of artillery has reached a bottleneck stage. If there is no more information, I'm afraid we will fall short. You are also a citizen of the Great Yong Dynasty, and you don't want the Great Yong Dynasty to lose in the future sea war!"

Xue Pan pondered for a moment, and then said: "One of my family uncles has been wandering in the sea all year round, and he is very familiar with the forms outside the feudal domain. He also has good friendships with high-ranking officials from many countries. If you can afford the money, he can Help you unblock it."

That's how Tu Zhen got the information on building the gunboat.

The king of Nan'an County was overjoyed when he heard the words, and immediately nodded in response: "That would be great. I can discuss with the Holy Master how much to spend. As long as I can get the information on building the gunboat, I believe no matter how much it costs, it will be worth it."

Xue Pan replied with a smile: "It's good if you can think so. It's just that my clan uncle just passed the New Year's wine and went to sea with the caravan. I'm afraid it will take half a year to come back. I will arrange for you immediately after he comes back." Meet him."

Knowing that Xue Pan's clan uncle was not in the Dayong Dynasty, the King of Nan'an pursed his lips in disappointment.But there was nothing he could do about it, it was a half year delay that made him a little uncomfortable.

Seeing this, Xue Pan had no choice but to suggest: "In fact, there are many caravans in Gusu and Yangzhou that are engaged in maritime trade. You don't have to wait for my uncle to come back. Just go to Gusu and ask, maybe you can gain something. Woolen cloth!"

At Xue Pan's mention, King Nan'an's eyes lit up immediately, he nodded and smiled and said, "This statement is justified, this statement is justified."

Prince Arthur, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said, "If you can agree to my request, I can tell you how to build sea-going cannons."

All of a sudden, everyone turned their attention to Arthur.

"You?" Nan'an County King took the lead in attacking, "Who are you, why should I trust you?"

Prince Arthur politely put his right hand on his chest, bowed and said, "I am Arthur Yibai, the second heir to Yinglun Kingdom, and I know all the information you want."

The king of Nan'an County looked Arthur up and down for a while, and asked, "What do you want?"

"After the ship's cannon is completed, your country will send troops to help me return home to fight for the throne." Arthur smiled lightly and said softly.

The King of Nan'an laughed and said, "Xiao Wang will report this matter truthfully to the Holy Majesty. As for how the Holy Majesty handles it, it is beyond the scope of Xiao Wang's ability."

Arthur curled his lips, nodded and said, "Deal."