The hall used for business negotiations was enormous. The spot where Qi Xuansu sat resting against the wall was some distance away from the long table where the negotiations were taking place. The space itself was not huge, yet it somehow accommodated numerous samples of firearms, models of warships, and even a Kun opera troupe, which was undoubtedly Xie Jiaofeng’s doing. He had always been good at arranging such things. Only he could come up with having weapons on one side and musical instruments on the other. The effect was surprisingly good.0

At that moment, Chen Shuwen and the Westerners’ representatives rose and walked toward Qi Xuansu.0

Qi Xuansu also stood up. Without needing any instruction from him, Chen Jianchou stopped his report about Zhang Yuelu.0

“This time they ordered eight 4,500-tonne ironclad warships, four troop transports, and six cargo ships,” Chen Shuwen said with a smile to Qi Xuansu. “The total comes to 9.1 million Taiping coins!”0

The Westerners, unlike the people of Nanyang, certainly had the technology to build ironclad warships. However, constructing such warships required time. With the ongoing war, there...0