However, while the surrounding countries were discussing the affairs of the States of Cai and Xiao, the matter was no longer discussed in the Kingdom of Shang.
Cheng Jiming had already led 70% of the Shang Kingdom's air force, including more than 300 supersonic aircraft, more than 5,000 general propeller aircraft, and even hundreds of large flying platforms, and had set off in the early morning.
Since the troops have been dispatched, Li Xian will no longer pay attention to these matters. He believes that Li Yulong will definitely handle it cleanly.
As for the so-called offensive and defensive mutual assistance agreement signed by multiple parties, it was clearly written at the time that it was for "external use". Internal use? Of course, he was beaten so hard that he didn't even recognize himself.
These "small problems" had already been noticed during the negotiations.
While the surrounding countries were discussing the war here, Li Xian was chatting with Zhao Ming, the crown prince of Zhao; and next to him, Ji Buxian, the minister of the Zhao State, was negotiating with Xu Ren and others.
The negotiations include many, many items and many more details.
Ji Buxian, Xu Ren and others negotiated the major projects and main directions; the remaining assistants negotiated the minor details. The more than 200 elites from Zhao were so busy that they didn't even have time to drink water. Every project negotiated here cost millions or even hundreds of millions of taels of gold.
Of course, it was impossible for the State of Zhao to come up with so much gold, and the State of Shang would not be so foolish as to only ask for gold. There were still many conditions and privileges that needed to be negotiated.
For example, if the people of the Shang Kingdom were bullied in the middle of Yingzhou and their legitimate interests were damaged, it would be too far to go to the Shang Kingdom; at this time, the Zhao Kingdom would have to step in. This was also within the scope of the negotiations.
In exchange, if the people of Zhao were bullied or in trouble in the east, they could seek help from the Shang Kingdom.
There were countless conditions like these. Agreements were signed one after another.
As Li Xian and Zhao Ming chatted, they kept signing and stamping the documents that had been negotiated. But occasionally, some documents would be rejected by Li Xian or Zhao Ming.
In fact, such negotiations have been going on for many days; today is the final confirmation.
This continues until the evening, when everything is finally settled.
At this moment, Xu Ren stood up and said formally: "Master Ji, our Shang Kingdom has a big plan and wants to cooperate with your country. This is another cooperation project and another negotiation project."
"Oh?" Ji Buxian looked at Xu Ren. He was also very curious about how the think tank of the Shang Kingdom paid so much attention to him.
Xu Ren said: "We are going to build a major artery, a railway, to connect the Kingdom of Shang and the Kingdom of Zhao. The straight-line distance between our two countries is about 150,000 kilometers; if we build a railway, the length will probably reach 180,000 kilometers. During this period, we will have to pass through at least 40 countries."
Ji Buxian was not shocked, but puzzled. "Such an artery would probably cost hundreds of millions of taels of gold, right? Let me calculate. If a double lane is used and the current standards of the Shang Dynasty are used, the average cost of one kilometer of railway is as high as 1,500 taels of gold. 180,000 kilometers will require 270 million taels of gold. This is still the visible hard cost. In fact, if you want to build such a railway, all kinds of investment should be calculated tenfold. Moreover, such an artery is also very fragile and can be easily destroyed. If there is a problem in a village along the way, the entire artery will not be able to operate. War is inevitable now, and this 180,000-kilometer artery will be difficult to maintain intact. It may even be impossible to complete the construction!"