I want to ruin the country

Prince Gong laughed heartily.

"My Great Qing is rich and powerful, with vast territory and abundant resources. How much are a few dozen ironclad warships worth? What's the problem?"

John said disdainfully,

"Your Highness, your country is incredibly wealthy, yet I heard that you had to raise money from all over the place to compensate us with silver dollars."

Prince Gong became unhappy when he heard this. Damn it, why don’t you hit someone in the face? I came to your house to spend money, and you hit me in the face. You are such a piece of shit!

"Prime Minister John, who doesn't get sick and suffer from disasters sometimes?

It is normal to have a headache or fever. As an old saying goes in China, a hero should not be judged by his temporary success or failure!

The days are longer than the leaves. Let’s take it slow and see. It’s still unclear who will have the last laugh!

Take Mr. John, the Prime Minister, for example. Has he always lived a peaceful and healthy life since he was a child?

Even if you have been safe from childhood to adulthood, can you guarantee that you can live safely in the second half of your life?

There are unexpected events in the world, and people are subject to misfortunes and blessings at any time. Maybe one day you will also be the one with the short stirrups. People always have to wait until the coffin is closed before they can finally judge. Are you right? "

When the translator translated these words, John's face changed immediately. He said that my horse is too high but my stirrups are too short. Isn't this a curse on me to death?

However, what the other person said made sense, and he had no way to refute it, so he could only laugh it off.

"Don't worry, Your Highness. I'm in good health. There's no need for you to worry about me!"

Prince Gong looked at John's face, which had turned purple with anger, and was delighted.

Damn it, if a tiger doesn't show its power, do you really think I'm a sick cat? I may not be able to beat you in a real fight, but I've never been defeated by anyone when it comes to talking!

He said with a smile,

"Prime Minister, it's fate that we meet, so please don't be polite!

If you feel unwell, I have an imperial physician with me. He was an imperial physician five generations ago and has excellent medical skills. Why don't you let him take a look at you, otherwise you might get into trouble someday!"

When John heard that Prince Gong was getting more and more excited, and was about to treat him, he felt so annoyed!

He also felt that this young man was young but had a sharp tongue, and he would probably be defeated in an argument, so he quickly changed the subject.

"Your Highness, I'm fine. Let's get down to business!"

Prince Gong was delighted when he heard this and said with a smile,

"Is there something important? I thought there was nothing important, so let's talk about it!"

John asked, holding back his breath.

"Excuse me, Your Highness, are all the warships you need purchased in Great Britain?"

Li Hongzhang shook his head.

"I, the Great Qing Emperor, have said that we must compare and choose the best among Germany, France, and Britain!"

John felt uncomfortable. He came to Great Britain and had to compare prices from different stores?

“Your Excellency, we have an Armstrong shipyard in Elswick, Great Britain. It is the largest and most powerful shipyard in the world.

Most of our Royal Navy's warships come from their shipyards, so there's no need for Your Highness to run around everywhere!"

Prince Gong smiled and said,

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, you are right, but the French and German ships are also good!

Besides, we’re afraid of getting ripped off, so it’s worth comparing prices before shopping around.”

John Road,

"Their strength cannot compare to ours, and their artillery is also outdated!"

Prince Gong smiled again.

"If you were in my shoes, would you put all your eggs in one basket? This is a huge business worth tens of millions of silver!"

The Qing people were indeed cunning. John put away his contempt and said,

"Prince Gong has made a good point. If so, Your Highness, please give priority to our ironclad ships under the same conditions. We guarantee that you will not regret it!"

Prince Gong said with a smile,

"Don't worry, Prime Minister. Under the same conditions, we will definitely give priority to the shipyards in Great Britain!

However, we need a large quantity and a very tight timeline, which is also an important factor we need to consider!"

John Road,

"Why is the Great Qing Emperor in such a hurry to purchase so many warships? Is there going to be a war?"

Prince Gong smiled again.

"We in Daqing are facing both internal and external troubles, so we have to take precautions.

Now many cowards and bastards are coming to our house with their powerful ships and guns to bully us!

We don’t want something like what happened in the Gengzi Year to happen again!"

John was a little embarrassed. As the prime minister of a country, he was certainly not a useless person. He also knew that the Gengzi Year that Prince Gong was talking about was the Opium War they launched in 1840.

What’s more, Prince Gong even called them cowards and bastards, which is really infuriating. But there are people who pick up silver and money, but are there people who pick up insults?

John thought it was time to change the subject.

"Your Excellency, did you encounter any major problems on your journey westward?"

Prince Gong and Li Hongzhang were both moved. What was supposed to come had finally come.

Prince Gong said,

"Master Li, please tell us what happened on our journey!"

"Huh!"

Li Hongzhang briefly recounted the encounters with pirates, storms and other things on the way.

John asked,

"What kind of ship is the pirate on, and how many people are there?"

Li Hongzhang said,

"There are about one to two thousand pirates. They have all kinds of ships, including two that are similar to our warships.

We lost two or three hundred lives before we finally drove the pirates away. It was truly thrilling!"

When John heard this, he sneered in his heart. The Daqing warships were all sailing ships, without a single ironclad ship, and the pirates' ships were far inferior to theirs.

It took hundreds of lives to repel pirates like this. Can such a shitty combat capability destroy our armored fleet?

John asked again,

"Has your fleet ever encountered our Royal Navy?"

"The Royal Navy?"

Li Hongzhang shook his head.

"no!"

John stared into Prince Gong's eyes and asked,

"Are you sure?"

Prince Gong replied,

"no!"

John looked at Prince Gong and Li Hongzhang, who were both very calm, and asked again,

"Just now you said that we encountered a big storm in the Indian Ocean and the ship almost capsized?"

Prince Gong stood up excitedly, as if he was still extremely frightened.

"Yes, the waves were surging. If we hadn't been in a safe harbor, we would have been drowned!"

John asked hurriedly,

"Are there such strong winds and waves?"

Prince Gong said,

"This is my first time out to sea. Encountering such strong winds and huge waves, I was completely frightened!"

Li Hongzhang said,

"Our most experienced crew member said he had never seen such huge waves before."

John muttered,

"There's such a big storm?"

Li Hongzhang said,

“According to our most experienced crew members, they have never seen such strong winds and waves!

They said that if it were in the ocean, no ship would be able to escape such a storm!"

"Understood!"

Through the conversation, John became more convinced that the Royal Fleet was most likely swallowed up by a storm in the ocean!