Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1183 Diplomacy and Trade
After getting drunk once, Woking decided to quit drinking! He would quit drinking until the negotiation was over! Before that, he planned to never drink again!
This left Xiao Wang, who learned about the situation at the time, speechless.

【Do you have any misunderstandings about quitting drinking? 】

Of course, despite all the complaints, Xiao Wang still encouraged the other party with a smile. After all, whether Woking drinks or not has no effect on them.

"Lord Woking, it's time to set off. The carriage is waiting downstairs."

The negotiation location was not far from the Diplomatic Hall. It would only take about ten minutes by carriage and only two turns to get there.

After getting off the carriage and walking into a large building, Woking couldn't help but ask a question as he looked at the busy hall.

"Comrade Xiao Wang, where is this?"

“This is the National Church Office.”

After simply stating his location, Xiao Wang obviously had no intention of explaining further.

The main reason is that it is difficult to explain this matter to foreigners.

As they were talking, Xiao Wang, holding his work ID, took Woking into the office area unimpeded, and then pushed open the door of the reception room.

"Please rest here for a while. I will go and inform our minister."

About ten minutes after Xiao Wang left, a middle-aged man wearing a black Mao suit and with his hair combed meticulously walked in with a smile.

Looking at this strange yet vaguely familiar face, Woking unconsciously felt a little nervous.

On the other hand, the other party was much more relaxed and stretched out his hand directly towards Woking.

"Hello, I am Kong Daqian, the person in charge of this project. We have met before at a banquet."

When mentioning the previous banquet, Woking felt even more embarrassed, but this time he did not stand there in a daze. He shook hands with Kong Daqian very quickly.

Because life has indeed been better in recent years, Kong Daqian seems to be getting younger and younger, and there is no sign of the old farmer he used to be.

Within their Great Zhou, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is under the Propaganda Department, and now diplomatic trade is an extension of diplomacy. As a result, after all this matter has come full circle, it still falls on the head of Kong Daqian, the Minister of the National Religion Propaganda Department.

But at the same time, we have to admit that Kong Daqian's talent of "eloquence" is indeed useful in this field, and it is a case of those who are capable getting more work.

The current situation is that Woking will talk to Kong Daqian first. It would be best if they can reach an agreement directly. If they cannot reach an agreement and Kong Daqian cannot make the decision, then he will go and ask Zhou Xu for instructions, and then talk again after getting Zhou Xu's reply.

Some people may find it strange at this time. Can't Zhou Xu just talk to Woking directly?
The answer to this question is no, or it is not appropriate.

Just like after the arrival of their Great Zhou reinforcements, the person who mainly discussed and communicated with them was Bale Tonglu, not Otto Tonglu.

In terms of status, the person who should be equal to Zhou Xu should be King Otto Copperhearth of Copperhearth, not his youngest son.

At the same time, according to Zhou Xu's status, if he bargained with Woking over some diplomatic and trade matters, this action itself would damage his image, and his ministers tried their best to stop him.

After a brief handshake, Kong Daqian sat down opposite Woking.

"Then let's start now."

As Kong Daqian spoke, he flipped open the document in front of him.

"Let me confirm first. You want to trade gunpowder from our Great Zhou, right?"

"Yes." Woking nodded and straightened his body unconsciously.

"Is it pure gunpowder, or is it a blasting bomb after it's finished?"

Kong Daqian asked the question again.

Faced with this question, Woking hesitated.

They, Tonglubao, traded gunpowder with Dazhou, which must have been done with the intention of conducting research.

If you're just looking for research, pure gunpowder will do.

But if they want to obtain gunpowder weapons quickly, they need to choose explosive bombs instead of buying gunpowder and then researching and processing it into weapons themselves.

They are in the mood, but the greenskins on the opposite side may not wait for them.

From the perspective of Copperforge, they definitely want to end the war with the greenskins as soon as possible. After all, the longer the war drags on, the greater the risk they will have to bear.

If you want to quickly improve your combat effectiveness, the best way is to obtain ready-made gunpowder weapons directly from the Great Zhou.

As for research, you can do it slowly later.

In just one breath, Woking had sorted out the thoughts in his mind clearly.

"If possible, it would be best to have both gunpowder and explosives."

"It's not easy to make gunpowder and collect raw materials..."

As soon as Kong Daqian opened his mouth, he raised the value of gunpowder to facilitate subsequent negotiations.

In fact, the manufacturing cost of gunpowder is indeed not low. The raw materials are not available everywhere, and the transportation cost is even higher.

Of course, Wokin is not aware of all this at the moment. Even if we only look at the performance of the Great Zhou's explosive bombs on the battlefield, they are willing to pay a heavy price for it. And his uncle Bale had already told him the whole thing long before they set out.

When two countries trade, if there is no unified standard, their respective currencies will definitely be useless, and gold and silver will not work well either.

Currency and gold and silver essentially represent purchasing power, but there is no unified standard among countries today, so where does the purchasing power come from?
Therefore, for transactions like this, the most primitive method is often chosen, which is barter!
When it came to the bidding phase, Woking was quite straightforward and said directly...

"We can trade with our Copperforge Heavy Crossbows. You may not know that our Copperforge Heavy Crossbowmen are the strongest in the entire coalition. Many forces in the coalition are jealous of our heavy crossbow equipment."

Speaking of which, Woking did not forget to add some gold to their individual heavy crossbows.

Just as Shi Lei and Bale had judged before, as long as he didn't confront his elder brother Baron, Woking himself was definitely a smart and capable person.

But what Vol'jin and the others didn't know was that Shi Lei had already mentioned the dwarf's individual heavy crossbow in his previous report.

According to Shi Lei's close observation, to be honest, the dwarf's individual heavy crossbow is indeed more powerful than their Great Zhou's individual crossbow, and its range is also longer.

However, according to Shi Lei's observations, the fundamental reason here is most likely due to the power of the dwarves.

To give an example that is not so relevant, if you are strong enough to operate a city defense crossbow alone, then the power and range will definitely be able to blow up the dwarf's individual heavy crossbow. To put it bluntly, it is a question of equipment specifications.

The dwarves of Copperforge relied on the physical advantages of their race and equipped their crossbowmen with heavier individual crossbows.

(End of this chapter)