I m the Farmgirl You Can t Mess With - Chapter 1330: Side Story: Having the Whole World in View (7)
Chapter 1330: Side Story: Having the Whole World in View (7)
Qi Haoran felt that the current situation in the West was equivalent to the Warring States Period, being originally from the same empire initially but had since split into many countries. Meanwhile, Joao and Jose were just a side branch of the royal family of one of the small countries.
He didn’t mind using them to train his son, but he was unwilling to let them use his son like this. Moreover, seriously speaking, the brothers owed a debt of gratitude towards the King’s estate.
It was fine if they did not want to repay the debt of kindness, but they actually wanted to use Qi Haoran’s son. Seeing as they were already so ungrateful under his nose, who knew to what extent they would make use of King Rong’s estate when they returned to Portugal?
Qi Haoran raised the corners of his lips and said, “So I guess they’re reluctant to leave because of the riches of Great Qi, so they’ll want to stay here for a few more years.”
Mu Yangling mourned for Joao and Jose in her heart, but she couldn’t help but applaud her husband. After all, who asked them to bully her son?
Although Qi Haoran said that, it was not to stop Joao and Jose from returning to their home country. It was just to cut off their path to borrow the power of the King’s estate.
If they gave up on this idea, they could take a boat at the docks with a wave of their hand.
However, it was obvious that Joao and Jose did not want to give up on the connections that they had painstakingly established. Not only did they spend the past two months teaching Little Leopard to gain favor with him, but they also communicated frequently with them after they left the capital and continued teaching them through letters.
Since Joao and Jose were born into noble families, in some aspects, they were indeed better than the priest that Mu Yangling had hired for Little Leopard. Therefore, even if Little Leopard had already sensed that he was being used, he did not cut ties with them.
This kid saw the situation clearly. “Since they have the intention of using me, I won’t treat them as friends. However, we can still interact. Perhaps I’ll have a use for them in the future.”
Then, he went to persuade Qi Haoran. “Daddy, since they want to borrow the power of our King’s estate, why don’t we lend it to them? One day, we’ll take back the benefits.”
Qi Haoran looked at his son and turned to Ah Ling. “This kid has actually improved even more than Tiger Head and the others.”
Tiger Head and the others were not as clear-headed as Little Leopard when they were at this age.
Feeling smug, Qi Haoran relaxed his control over the Portuguese brothers. Of course, the duo was oblivious to this. They only felt that when they “accidentally” mentioned the name of the King’s estate when they were traveling outside, it was now more effective than before.
Qi Haoran thought that they would leave Great Qi soon and return to Portugal, but who knew that they would stay on in Guangzhou?
At this moment, Qi Haoran had already brought the children back to the capital and no longer paid much attention to the two brothers. It was only when he occasionally heard Tiger Head say that they were “greedy” that he remembered the two of them.
He immediately asked in surprise, “They haven’t left?”
Little Lion’s expression was tragic. “In the past, although Joao and Jose were a little arrogant, they weren’t that stupid. Now…”
Little Lion shook his head, disappointment written all over his face.
Little Leopard did not remember what happened when he was young, so he naturally did not sigh like his brothers. He only rubbed his chin and said, “Since they think that the support of the King’s estate is not enough, why don’t we enhance…”
Tiger Head smacked him. “They’re not your brothers. Is there a need to treat them so well?”
Little An grabbed him and said, “You have to wait for him to finish speaking.”
Little An looked at him encouragingly and asked with a smile, “What do you want to do?”
Little Leopard snorted at his brother, clenched his fists, and said, “I’ve decided to use them to open up a gap in the West. Didn’t Mother say that the four most important things to a country are the support of the people, land, military power, and economy? I won’t consider the first three for the time being, but what if we control the West’s economy first? At that time, it will be much easier for us to recruit troops and buy horses.”
Qi Haoran coughed lightly and immediately stood up. “This is a matter between you children. Take your time to discuss it. I’ll accompany your mother to practice archery.”
Little Leopard grabbed his father and said pitifully, “Daddy, one needs capital to do business. Even more capital is needed to do sea trade…”
Qi Haoran hurriedly said, “After spending all my money on the cannons, I don’t have any money left.”
Three years ago, he had reached a deal with Andre. Some time ago, the two sides had just exchanged goods and money. It was said that in order to get this new cannon, Andre had presented a prince of England with more than ten beauties and countless gold, silver, and jewelry. Therefore, this new cannon was not cheap at all. It was 20% higher than the price they had agreed on three years ago.
The cannons had already been transported over. Qi Haoran’s heart itched upon seeing this. After checking the goods, not only did he spend all his private savings, but he also went to Steward Zhu to withdraw all the money in the estate and embezzled the profits of the watch factory.
Therefore, he did not have a single cent left.
Qi Haoran broke free from his son’s grip and ran to look for Mu Yangling.
Although he didn’t have money, he couldn’t show zero support for his son since this was a big deal. Hence, he followed behind Mu Yangling fawningly.
Just as Mu Yangling picked up the watering can to water the flowers, Qi Haoran immediately rushed up to take it from her. Smiling, he said, “The water is heavy. Let me do it.”
Seeing Qi Haoran quickly water all the flowers in the flower pots, Mu Yangling said with heartache, “Don’t water my flowers to death.”
“Don’t worry, they’re not going to die.”
When Mu Yangling shot an arrow, he would help pass it to her. When Mu Yangling watered the plants, he would help carry the water. When Mu Yangling wanted to drink tea, he would help serve tea…
If Mu Yangling still didn’t know that he had something to ask of her, she would be an idiot.
Hence, in the dead of the night, after enjoying a considerate massage, Mu Yangling asked respectfully, “Tell me, what’s the big deal, hubby?”
Qi Haoran asked softly, “Do we have much money left?”
Mu Yangling calculated in her heart and said, “There’s still some left. Do you need a lot?”
Qi Haoran said, “If the children want to infiltrate the West through sea trade, they might need a lot of money.”
At present, the sea trade business of the King’s estate and Zijin was still managed by the Zhou family and Zijin’s steward, earning an annual profits of no less than 200,000 silver taels. From this, one could see how lucrative sea trade was. Even though Andre had been immersed in the sea trade for more than 20 years, he still didn’t dare to say that he had dominated the western seas. From this, one could see the money and time required.
Qi Haoran did not think that 100,000 to 200,000 taels of silver could help Little Leopard and the others dominate the West economically. Qi Haoran calculated that since his sons wanted to do this, they naturally had to go big. Hence, it would take no less than 700,000 to 800,000 taels of silver.
As for the children’s private savings, he roughly had an idea of how much they had. Little Bear was even poorer than him and probably had less than 10,000 taels in private savings. The richest among them should be Little Lion, who wasn’t like Tiger Head who didn’t control his spending. Since Little Lion earned the same amount as Tiger Head but spent less than him, he likely had the most money. But regardless, it wouldn’t be more than 200,000 taels.
Besides, as their father, he naturally had to support the children in such a huge undertaking. He couldn’t let the children go bankrupt for this, right?
Hence, Qi Haoran began to calculate on his fingers the rough cost of this sea trade business and the amount of money the children had. He expressed that the kids did not have enough money and needed strong support from them.
When Mu Yangling heard that, she immediately waved her hand and said, “Isn’t it just a few hundred thousand taels? Since this money will eventually be given to the brothers and Baozhu anyway, we can pay for it all. But you have to tell them that Baozhu has to be included.”
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