This really surprised Li Zhaoyu. He already felt that Wen Luo should have understood his purpose, so he just said harsh words to Japan. This is very clear. This is just a follow-up call, but the finger pointed at his own neighbors, which exceeded Li Zhaoyu's expectations.

Although in his impression, Wen Luo was somewhat arrogant, he was a feudal aristocrat. In politics, Wen Luo was still very gentle. At least in Li Zhaoyu's understanding, Wen Luo performed very peacefully at the Eastern Alliance Conference.

At that moment, Li Zhaoyu felt that perhaps this was a way for Wen Luo to reject him, but it turned out not. If it were rejections, Wen Luo would not continue to talk with him. The fact is that Wen Luo was not only willing to talk, but also had already prepared.

After Li Zhaoyu had a deep conversation with him, he realized that Wen Luo's theory of insects was not limited to the small circle of the empire's vassal states. In his eyes, the biggest insect was the official in charge of the Imperial Foreign Ministry who was responsible for this talks.

Although Li Junwei used some means to exclude Japan from the Eastern Alliance, the means could not determine the result. The Nanyang vassal states also had their own motivation to exclude Japan. For these vassal states, Japan was no different from European countries.

Why do European countries look lukewarm when trade in Southeast Asia? It is because their trade itself is not profitable to other countries, and the same is true for trade with Japan.

Japan hopes to open up the Nanyang market and export textiles and some primary industrial finished products, but the question is, what products can Japan accept from various countries in Nanyang?

Rice? Japan can be self-sufficient. Coal? Japan is the main coal exporter in the East. Iron ore and other minerals? The problem is that there are not much production in the Southeast countries at present, and all the outputs are swallowed by the empire in one bite?

Apart from a small amount of spices and ivory, Japan needs almost nothing from Southeast Asia, which is contrary to the empire's trade principles.

This Oriental Alliance Conference was actually mainly the Oriental Alliance Economic and Trade Conference. The meeting principle formulated by the empire was to solve the trade deficit problem of various countries.

The countries in Southeast Asia generally import industrial products from the empire and export raw materials to the empire. However, the problem is that countries have trade deficits for the empire. In today's era of precious metals as the main medium, it will definitely cause the outflow of precious metals, lead to social unrest, and then trigger the ruling rights of the monarchs of various countries.

This is also the reason why countries are unwilling to open up on a large scale. The empire wants to bridge the trade deficit by increasing imports of goods from various countries in Southeast Asia, thereby promoting the opening up of various countries and allowing countries to fully integrate into the empire's economic system.

The trade between Japan and the empire can be complementary, but even if Japan takes advantage of the Southeast Asian countries, it will naturally be opposed by various countries.

Wen Luo pointed out that although countries oppose it, they also have their own little ones. Wen Luo believes that it is impossible to unite with other countries to expel Japan and just find a heavyweight representative to take the lead. The most important thing is to give common interests among the countries in Southeast Asia.

This common interest is the main reason why Wen Luo believes that officials of the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs are also the main reason for the insects.

There are two themes of the Oriental Union talks today. One is whether to accept Japan. The other is that there is uneven distribution in various parts of the country in Southeast Asia.

The main reason for the uneven distribution of internal interests is that almost all countries in the South China Sea are major rice exporters, especially the five countries of Madalan, Annan, Siam, Zhenla and Myanmar. In fact, the Nanzhang Kingdom is also the same, but because it does not rely on the sea, its rice is not competitive in overseas markets.

In addition to the same thing, such as rice, wood, sugar, etc., the largest export market for these commodities is the Empire.

It is precisely because of this reason that countries come to negotiate happily, wanting to get a share of the pie.

In fact, the most important way for the empire to improve the trade deficit is to accept minerals, coal, iron, copper, tin, etc. All countries also have plans to get a share of the pie, so a very interesting scene occurred. Many countries have begun to ask for the share of these minerals when they don’t know what minerals they have in their territory, so they have to pay.

Because the countries in Southeast Asia are not united, it is naturally impossible to reach an agreement on whether to expel Japan, and it is useless for someone to take the lead.

Li Zhaoyu had a long talk with Wen Luo, but when he left, it was already evening, but Li Zhaoming was fascinated by the elephant and was unwilling to leave.

Fortunately, the royal family had many industries on Chongming Island, and it was easy to have villas nearby, so it was easy to find a place to live. The next day, Li Zhaoyu invited Wen Luo to the Royal Villa for dinner. Of course, he still had to bring the elephant with him. The two of them had a talk for a long time, and then Li Zhaoyu took his younger brother and returned to Shenjing.

Li Zhaoyu did his homework in advance when reporting this to his father, and he chose to enter his father's study after dinner.

After briefly introducing the talks with Wen Luo, Li Zhaoyu said: "Wen Luo's main meaning is to first resolve the conflicts between countries in Southeast Asia, especially the countries in the Indochina Peninsula, so as to unite and deepen cooperation with the empire. As for expelling Japan from the Eastern Alliance, Wen Luo believes that it is just a small matter."

"How can we unite the countries on the peninsula together?" Li Junwei asked.

Li Zhaoyu opened a map and said: "Wen Luo means to link the development of minerals in various countries on the Indochina Peninsula with railway construction, and even said that the construction of the railway network should be promoted first, and then the issue of mineral development and export."

On the map, Li Zhaoyu marked several railways, one of which was to go south from Vientiane, the capital of the Nanzhang Kingdom, enter the Siam capital Ayutthaya, then go south to Bangkok Port, and then go west, pass through the southern prefecture of the Siam Kingdom, enter the empire's Nanhua Province, and gather with the Upper Peninsula Railway on the Malay Peninsula.

The Peninsula Railway connects Penang, Hwaseong and Temasek (Singapore), and is a railway around the Malay Peninsula.

The other one is to use the Annan King Capital as the core, enter Kunming, Yunnan to the northwest and Guangxi to the northeast. These two sections are already under construction, but the railway will continue to extend southward to the Kowloon Province of the Empire in the Mekong Delta.

In the middle of this railway, there is a one along the river valley through the Changshan Mountains, heading west into the territory of the Nanzhangwang, and finally arrives at the Vientiane City.

The third is to directly connect the railway between the Kowloon Province and Vientiane.

If the naturalization of these three railways is realized, it will connect the three provinces of Nanzhang, Siam, Guangnan, Annan, Zhenla and the empire Kowloon, Nanhua and Penang, communicating more than 35 million people, and further making the Nanzhang, which is deep inland, have three railways to connect with the outside world, and the trade between Nanzhang and foreign countries has truly established a foundation.

"Does Wen Luo have such a big vision?" Li Junwei asked. He thought it was a good idea and a good strategy.

Because this Oriental Alliance Conference is mainly to promote mineral development in various countries, to make up for the trade deficit, and then to promote trade development.

The problem is that the transportation on the Indochina Peninsula is really not very convenient. There are too many north-south rivers and mountains on the peninsula. Although it is located in a subtropical area and has sufficient water, the problem is that there are huge gaps in major rivers, including the Mekong River.

The two thousand-ton ships that are common in the empire can only reach Phnom Penh, the capital of Zhenla Kingdom, and there are many waterfalls between them.

The Nanzhang Kingdom is actually close to the ocean to the east, but the Changshan Mountains block it from Annan and Guangnan.

Railways, only the construction of railways can promote the development of the Nanzhang Kingdom.

Li Zhaoyu handed the prepared materials to his father's desk. Judging from the materials, Wen Luo, who had been studying in the empire for many years, studied economics in college, rather than political science and military disciplines often chosen by foreign aristocrats.

This is mainly because Wen Luo has not been trained as an heir for a long time, and learning about the economy may be more away from political troubles for him.

However, through studying economics, I have indeed had a more comprehensive and clear understanding of the fact that Nanzhang's economic development relies on railways. Li Zhaoyu also provided some other information, that is, after Wen Luo officially became a prince, he took the initiative to make friends with many upper-class people in the empire.

This is one of the main purposes of foreign powerful children coming to the empire to study. However, the list provided by Li Zhaoyu is a list of people who often interact with Wen Luo. Li Junwei looked at it and found that none of them knew each other. After focusing on their surnames, Li Junwei understood: "Aren't these nobles?"

"Yes, these people are bankers, senior executives, or their children. I boldly guessed that even if you don't take the lead in organizing this Oriental Alliance meeting, he will seek to build a railway from Vientiane to the port. After all, Kowloon Province and the Nanzhang Kingdom bordered the Kingdom of Nanzhang." Li Zhaoyu said.

Li Junwei smiled: "A prince who attracts investment is interesting."

Li Zhaoyu also said: "Father, son also learned about a situation. After the former prince Luce was banned, the military summoning money was not returned to Wanxiang, but was used by Wen Luo. In the past two and a half years, Wen Luo used the only 640,000 yuan left in his hand to make the money back to its original scale. It was through this part of the money that he met many capitalists in the empire. Although more than 700,000 yuan of imperial silver dollars could not be built, this foundation was enough to attract considerable investment."

"It looks like a hard-working guy, it's good, very good." Li Junwei praised.

Li Zhaoyu thought for a while and said, "Father, Wen Luo is young after all, and after the Nanzhang returned to the main body, the relationship between the Empire and the Nanzhang has always been very... very subtle. His identity may not be able to take off this head."

"You mean that the Nanyang Congresses think that he was specially selected by the Empire to take the lead?" Li Junwei asked.

Li Zhaoyu nodded, and Li Junwei asked again: "Do you think Wen Luo doesn't know this?"

"Maybe he knows this, but he is not so active. Perhaps he is in a situation where he is lucky to gain and loses his life." Li Zhaoyu said.

Li Junwei smiled and said, "Child, don't underestimate Wen Luo, nor underestimate anyone. Some people's talents are only limited by their status and are not shown. Just like Wen Luo, even if he is extremely talented, he is just a prince of the Southern Plate and cannot do anything that will change the world. And your bloodline is destined to affect the whole world by exerting your talents."

"Please give me some advice." Li Zhaoyu lowered his head.

"The so-called leading-minded means uniting the countries of the South China Sea to align with the empire on issues of Japan. How can other countries obey the leading-minded person? It is not possible to have a common interest.

Whether Japan is expelled from abroad will not affect the interests of various countries at all. The industrial products that Japan can provide can also be provided by our country. For all countries, at most, just wait for Japan to join in and treat it coldly.

The real lead is to represent the countries in Southeast Asia to gain benefits from us," said Li Junwei.

"You mean that Wen Luo wants to gain support from various countries in Southeast Asia by challenging the empire."

Li Junwei nodded, but said: "The word challenge is not very good. If Wen Luo is fighting for improper interests, he is challenging, but if others are fighting for only legitimate interests, then how can it be said to be a challenge? Just like the policy changes in Portugal we talked about before, it is their freedom to trade with whom their own country and their colonies."

As he said that, Li Junwei stood up, smiled slightly, picked up the wine glass from the table, poured himself a glass of wine, and said, "Of course, the wording is inappropriate, but the meaning is correct. Wen Luo just wants to do this. If Wen Luo can win benefits for all the countries in Nanyang from the empire, then he is the leader of the Nanyang vassal states, and he can take the lead. All countries will, under his leadership, expel the Japanese from the Eastern Alliance with the empire."

"How specific?" Li Zhaoyu asked.

"It's these railways." Li Junwei pointed to the map and continued: "I don't want to tell you the inside story, so what you eat is the steamed buns that others have chewed. You can take the initiative to explore it, just like when you were in middle school, you will never forget to understand the method, but the method taught by the teacher will forget it in some cases."

After Li Junwei finished speaking, he picked up his pen and marked a very short section on the railway network, which is called the Manchester City Railway, a railway line with only 80 kilometers.

Li Zhaoyu took the map, nodded slightly, and asked, "So, what else do I need to do besides this?"

"If you figure this out, you can talk to Wen Luo directly. You can also participate in the Eastern Alliance Conference." Li Junwei said.
Chapter completed!