Chapter 1114

“The Ottoman Empire and Persia have had a thousand-year-long grudge. They are mortal enemies, and both countries have the ambition to dominate Central Asia.”

“That is true. However, their conflicts in the past were only on a small scale. But this time, the problem seems a little serious. It is said that the Ottoman Empire has received many advanced firearms from Europe and is training a massive army. The scale of the conflict is also expanding.”

Pang Yukun explained.

“Then what do you think we should do? Should the Empire send troops to support them?” Xiao Ming wanted to deliberately test Pang Yukun.

Now that the Empire’s system was mature, he needed everyone to use their talents, rather than having to personally plan everything himself.

After a moment of thought, Pang Yukun said, “The current conflict between the Ottoman Empire and Persia clearly has the shadow of the West. Although they were defeated in Asia and chose to sign a ceasefire agreement, they will not give up any opportunity to hinder the Empire’s growth.”

Xiao Ming nodded slightly. Pang Yukun’s analysis was very accurate. International relations were often a mix of cooperation and conflict. There was no such thing as a pure relationship between friends and enemies. The eternal bond was nothing more than interests.

For example, the reason he agreed to this ceasefire agreement was that the cost of continuing the war was much higher than signing the agreement.

And he had already obtained what he wanted through the agreement, so there was no need to obtain it through a war that would be exhausting to the people and resources.

“However, I believe that it is also inappropriate for us to send troops to help Persia.” Pang Yukun continued, “As the saying goes, ‘when the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman gets the spoils.’ The Ottoman Empire’s threat to Persia is the fundamental reason why we can easily obtain petroleum from Persia. Once we help Persia heavily defeat the Ottoman Empire, Persia will become the hegemon of Central Asia. At that time, they will probably no longer allow us to extract petroleum from their oil fields for free.”

Xiao Ming laughed. In the past, Pang Yukun was only skilled in domestic affairs, but his words now were enough to show that he had put in a lot of effort in international politics during this time.

“Chief Grand Secretary Pang is indeed Chief Grand Secretary Pang. You and I can think alike on some issues. The European nations think that by using the Ottoman Empire, they can weaken Persia and affect our petroleum extraction. But they never thought that this will only make Persia more dependent on us.” Xiao Ming said calmly.

“So the Ottoman Empire still needs to exist, but we must also give Persia support in technology and funds to maintain a balance of power in Central Asia.” Pang Yukun stroked his beard.

“That’s it. After you return, you will organize the supply of materials to Persia. Our oil field has just begun to produce oil. I do not want anything to happen to any of our oil fields.” Xiao Ming instructed.

Pang Yukun responded and turned to leave.

After Pang Yukun left, Xiao Ming went to the world map and carefully looked at the Empire’s territory.

As time passed, his sense of crisis grew stronger and stronger. Xiao Yi was now sixteen years old, and he was entering the middle stage of his life. How much time did he have left to protect the empire he had built himself?

His gaze swept over the areas of North America, Tsarist Russia, Europe, Africa, and South America, and he sighed slightly.

He was once very confident that he could unify the world in his lifetime, but now he was increasingly realizing that he might not be able to achieve this goal.

This world was too complex, with various cultures, religions, and races. Some of the conflicts between them were irreconcilable. Even in the modern world, the source of conflict was these three things.

So after thinking for a long time, he decided that during his reign, he would accumulate as much wealth as possible for the Empire, just as the West plundered the world in modern times, and at the same time, he would leave behind powerful weapons for the Empire to protect itself.

In this way, even if the Empire were to decline, no country would dare to invade it. At the same time, even if he could not eliminate the Western powers, he would do everything he could to weaken them.

His agreement to Henry’s conditions was for this purpose. A chaotic Europe would provide the Empire with an opportunity to extract wealth from Europe.

Looking from Western Europe to Tsarist Russia and North America, Xiao Ming’s eyes narrowed. He was more wary of Tsarist Russia and America than he was of countries like Britain and France.

Coming from modern times, he was naturally very clear that if these two countries were given a chance, they would grow into terrifying monsters.

At the same time, he believed that Europe would also find ways to cause trouble for these two. He had already seen Britain’s conspiracy to cause chaos in Central Asia.

However, Queen Victoria of Britain was still too inexperienced to play a game of intrigue with him. Not to mention that he came from modern times and was used to all kinds of international struggles, the information in the technology crystals alone was enough to find many similar cases.

His eyes slowly became firm. Xiao Ming walked out of the Imperial Study with his hands clasped behind his back. He had been in a period of confusion for a while after the victory in Southeast Asia.

But now, he was clear about what he was going to do next.

Strategically, he would continue to squeeze the living space of the European nations. Financially, he would officially internationalize the Empire’s dragon coins, making them a hard currency that circulated in the world like the modern-day US dollar.

Industrially, he would gradually establish a complete industrial system, obtain cheap resources from all over the world, and produce industrial products.

Commercially, he would achieve economic colonization of Europe, completely control the European market, and also let Europe have a taste of exchanging millions of pieces of clothing for a car.

However, a long road still lay ahead to realize these ideas, because squeezing the European nations’ living space meant that there would be continuous conflicts with them.

For the dragon coin to become a world currency, he had to have a massive gold reserve, or, like the modern-day US, control the currency used for oil settlements.

As for industry and commerce, Europe would not so easily allow him to carve up their market. In the future, he would probably have to exchange some technology for market access.

He was just thinking when the telephone in the Imperial Study rang.

He turned around to answer the telephone. Lin Wentao’s voice came through. “Your Majesty, the first tank from the tank factory has officially come off the assembly line. I have been ordered to report this to Your Majesty.”

“Hmm, I will be right over.” A faint smile appeared on Xiao Ming’s face.

Generally speaking, if a country could produce cars, producing tanks was basically not a problem. So after the first car with an internal combustion engine was produced, he demanded the establishment of a military factory to produce tanks.

The facts proved him right. After more than a year of preparations, the first tank was successfully produced.

He called for Qian Dafu, and Xiao Ming notified his personal car to come and pick him up to go to the tank factory.

Ever since he had a car, his safety when traveling had increased significantly, and the car’s fast speed also allowed him to get to any place easily.

So, he had been traveling more frequently during this time. This was a good thing for him, but for some officials, it was like a catastrophe.

This was because his sudden visits on government business would result in a large number of officials being dealt with, which made all the officials fearful. The officials around Qingzhou did not dare to be careless, fearing that the Emperor would pay them a surprise visit