Chapter 809: The Tea Trade

The Opium War.

For any citizen of this country, this is an eternal pain!

A tragedy for Huaxia civilization!

Zhou Chonglin and Tai Junlin call it the "Tea War," differing from the many previous names and interpretations: "'Opium War,' this highly controversial term, was coined by The Times on April 25, 1840" (Timothy Brook et al., *Opium Regimes*; many Western scholars call it a "Trade War" (as does Zheng Guanying in his *Words of Warning in a Prosperous Age*); other scholars view it as a "Silver War" (Frank, *Silver Capital*; Lin Man-houng, *China Upside Down: Currency, Society, and Ideologies, 1808–1856*) or a "Currency War" (Song Hongbing, *Currency Wars*; Han Yuhai, *Who Has Written History Over the Last Five Hundred Years*), and so on!

Yet Britain was unwilling to see this silver flow continuously into Zhongguo.

Therefore, they attempted to use opium to replace silver in exchange for Zhongguo's tea.

But to put it simply.

The root of this war lay in the fact that Zhongguo had earned a vast amount of European silver through tea.

A tragedy for the nation!

The pain of the nation!

Facts proved that they succeeded!

: rg

From then on, Huaxia civilization entered the most humiliating period in its history!

Ling Chen.

Remained silent for a long time.

This time, in the documents brought by Guo Chao.

Liu Zheng had written of the importance of tea in red font.

"Congratulations to the Emperor, felicitations to the Emperor!"

"Hahahaha, since it is the Young Master's order, although Ling Chen does not understand it, these two commands will certainly be completed one hundred percent!"

Guo Chao then breathed a sigh of relief and bowed deeply.

Longyan Jinghua.

Inside Taihe Hall.

"Congratulations to the Emperor, felicitations to the Emperor!"

At this moment.

Grand Eunuch Zhou was chanting the fiscal revenue of the Longyan Dynasty for this quarter on the side.

Doubled!

The civil and military officials knelt and shouted in unison.

Xie Tianyao listened quietly.

Following the passage and formation of the Liaodong Economic Special Zone plan.

This time, Xie Tianyao took drastic measures and directly lifted the Sea Ban. Of course, the resistance was immense. The forces of the scholar-officials in the wealthy Jiangnan region were naturally the least willing to see maritime trade opened. The reason was simple: if the imperial court lifted the ban, how could they smuggle? Those enormous profits would vanish just like that.

Directly doubled!

With this, the members of the Scholar-Official Group who had been obstructing the opening of maritime trade did not dare to let out a single peep.

This was handled by the imperial court, with various localities coordinating the delivery of goods.

However.

Economic trade between Longyan and other countries belonged to the Imperial Merchant.

For example, a certain country would order so many bolts of silk, so many pieces of porcelain, and so many tons of tea from Longyan.

Over these years, they had accumulated enormous wealth through smuggling.

Sure enough.

Despite this, over these years, many countries in the Western Ocean still tried every possible way to buy silk, Spice, and tea from Longyan.

This gave the scholar-officials the opportunity to make money through smuggling.

Xie Tianyao was also very happy today. Although there was still no news of the Imperial Jade Seal or Vice Minister Liu, the surge in fiscal revenue still made him feel much more at ease. He laughed heartily and waved his hand: "My beloved ministers, tell me, who are these people coming to our Longyan to buy silk and tea?"

The whole hall burst into laughter.

Once maritime trade opened, their income would immediately be halved.

Longyan had already opened up maritime trade, so why still smuggle? They could only try to find ways to put together inferior goods and adopt a low-price strategy, attempting to maintain their considerable income.

"Is that for real?"

"Yellow-haired monsters?"

One person said: "Emperor, they are nothing but a group of barbarians dressed up in human clothing!"

"Hahahaha, Emperor, I heard that these people have very long hair on their bodies, and the hair is yellow!"

In fact, for a long time, various foreigners had still come to Longyan, but they could only travel around here and then quickly flee. Even those merchants from the Netherlands could only make contact with traders and found it very difficult to ascend to the 'halls of high culture.' Therefore, these people had absolutely no understanding of what foreigners looked like.

"Yellow-haired monsters?"

"How can this be allowed?"

A group of people began to chatter and discuss.

An official walked out with a smile: "Emperor, this time, there happens to be a person from the Western Ocean who wants to see the Emperor to facilitate our tea trade."

Xie Tianyao was in a great mood and raised an eyebrow: "Is that so? Where are they? Summon them! Let me see!"

Xie Tianyao smiled faintly: "I have heard of them, and they speak a mouthful of bird language. Can such people actually learn the tea ceremony of our vast Longyan?"

The whole hall burst into laughter again.

During the prosperous Tang Dynasty, these Westerners came to Longyan quite often, but after the Tang King fell, the Longyan Dynasty began a policy of isolation, and all subsequent Westerners were driven out of Longyan. Counting it up, several hundred years had passed.

Summon them!

The others were also filled with curiosity.

After all, they had only ever seen Hu people at most before.

Everyone was craning their necks in anticipation.

Sure enough.

Summon the Western Ocean people to audience!

The order was passed down, one level after another.

When he appeared before so many people, these civil and military officials naturally began to click their tongues in wonder and point fingers.

Some could not help but cover their mouths, while others could not hold back at all and burst into loud laughter.

Soon, a man with blonde hair and blue eyes, dressed in Longyan official robes, walked in.

Under the instructions of several eunuchs, he performed the three bows and nine kowtows.

That comical appearance made people want to burst out laughing.

Xie Tianyao could not help but slap his thigh: "Hahahaha, good, good, good! Who comes before me? State your name!"

A Western Ocean person wearing Longyan official robes!

He truly looked somewhat incongruous, and he was even mimicking these Eastern rituals, putting on a show.

Who would have thought, before these words were even finished.

The entire hall erupted in laughter once again, incessantly.

The Western Ocean person opened his mouth, and to everyone's surprise, he spoke in rather stiff Chinese.

"Emperor, I am a man of the Netherlands, Davis. This time I have come to—"

"Hahahaha, what kind of bullshit name is that!"

In their eyes, this person was nothing more than a clown.

"What the hell? What is he called?"

"Dai-wei-si?"

"Tea leaves?"

People were not surprised at all.

Xie Tianyao also suppressed his laughter: "Good, Davis. Having traveled ten thousand miles to come to my Celestial Empire, what is your business?"

Davis bowed: "Emperor, this commoner has come for the tea trade."

The Dutch had already begun promoting tea in Europe, and the previous shipments of tea had already made them pots of gold.

This time.

Recently, more and more people have come to Longyan to purchase tea. This time, the portion of the Longyan Dynasty's quarterly fiscal revenue that surged was entirely due to the profits generated by tea!

What they did not know was.

Davis wore a sincere expression, but his heart was incredibly resolute.

If the trade rights for tea were held in his hands, the Netherlands would achieve unprecedented development!

They were here to secure a monopoly!

It must be a monopoly!

Davis answered honestly: "A population of two million, occupying land—"

"A tiny speck of land!"

Who would have thought.

Xie Tianyao was not in a hurry and continued to ask: "Davis, just how big is this Dutch Empire you speak of?"

"Hahahaha, just this?"

"He dares to come to court with this? Absurd!"

"Two million?"

"He dares to call himself an empire with just this? It kills me with laughter."

A small country from a tiny speck of land dared to spout such nonsense, wanting to come and talk business with the Longyan Emperor!

If this isn't absurd, what is!

"How much tea can you even buy?"

A group of people shook their heads one after another.

Davis continued to answer honestly: "Three million shi of low-grade tea, two million shi of medium-grade tea, and one million shi of high-grade tea."

"The price—"

Some had even begun to summon the Imperial Guard to drive this yellow-haired freak who was making a joke of himself out.

Who would have thought.

"Can be negotiated."

Silence.

The entire hall fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone's expression.

Froze abruptly.