After having lunch at Desai's house, Alphonse and Badis returned to the house in the same car. In the car, Badis hesitated several times, but finally Alphonse took the lead and said: "If you have anything to say, just say it."

Say, if you hesitate again, I will send you to the workshop."

"Can you really use money to help William Desai become an earl?" Badis asked.

"You want to do this too?" Alphonse smiled.

"I don't want a count, I want to be a general. I was about to be promoted to colonel, but because the Marigold was injured and retired, I was discharged." Badis replied with a wry smile.

"It's not difficult. Just come forward when the country needs it. I will lend you the boat then." Alphonse smiled and said: "These are troubled times. The British came to me today to buy rapid-fire cannons. I just

One look at his attitude, and you know that within the next two years, the British will definitely go to war with us."

"Why?" Badis asked strangely.

"Because of the rapid-fire cannons." Alphonse laughed: "Maybe our rapid-fire cannons are so good that the British can't do anything to us, so they might as well kill us and there will be no more rapid-fire cannons."

"Then you're still selling it to them?" Badis said angrily.

"They won't study carefully what they can buy. They can really figure it out by themselves. They can modify any caliber of artillery. Then we will die even more miserably." Alphonse waved his hand and continued:

"But for now, it is still beneficial. If the British fight against us, they will naturally force the army to rebuild the navy. With these few ships, it is useless to give you a general, not to mention a marshal."

"Are you going to Boulogne next month?" Badis thought for a while and asked.

"In 1940, the first Fronde movement triggered a riot, which resulted in the death of my grandfather and uncle. At that time, the Duke of La Rochefoucauld was assisting the Duchess of Longueville, and Prince Condé led troops to Paris to suppress the rebellion."

Alphonse narrowed his eyes and replied: "Although the second Fronde movement is revolting, from a personal emotional point of view, the one who has enmity with me is still the Duke of La Rochefoucauld, and the one who is kind to me is still the Duke of La Rochefoucauld."

He is the Prince of Kongdai, and this cannot be changed."

"Then you're not going?" Badis nodded. After all, the political ecology of Paris is a bit far away from them, but the blood feud of relatives is still in their ears.

"No, of course I want to go. Otherwise, how would the Duke of La Rochefoucauld know how many sins he had committed when he casually served as the vanguard for the Duchess of Longueville?" Alphonse said lazily.

Rochefoucauld is a literati, and literati can bully him, especially since he has turned against the law, so he urgently needs to atone for his previous sins to avoid being liquidated again sooner or later.

"Don't put too much pressure on me." Badis patted Alphonse on the shoulder and said.

"Practice your sword with me." In fact, the blood feud did not have much restraint on Alphonse at the moment. He was just ashamed because he would use this matter to blackmail La Rochefoucauld.

"Yeah." Bardis nodded, understanding that Alphonse used sword practice as a way of release.

When the two arrived at the house, they each took out their own swords and competed in swordsmanship in the empty back garden.

Bardis uses a half-hand knight's sword (a heavy knight's sword with one and a half hands, which can be held in one or two hands). Nowadays, it is generally popular to use knight's sword as a light and slender stabbing sword that is good at thrusting. This shows that

Badis' family still inherited the knightly swordsmanship with a very personal martial arts style, but why he chose the navy, which generally uses bayonet swords, instead of the army, which still has sword cavalry, is another story worthy of scrutiny.
p>

What Alphonse took out was a Mughal sword. The Mughal sword was formed by merging the strengths of the three sword-making families of Mongolia, Persia and India. It has always been the pinnacle of the cold weapon era, and Alphonse

The Mughal sword made of Damascus steel in Fang Si's hand is a treasure collected by the Mohler family at some time.

"Do I need to wear armor?" Badis raised the knight sword in his hand and said: "The sword is too heavy and may not be able to hold it."

"Being injured in your hands now is far better than being injured in the hands of the enemy in the future." Alphonse smiled: "Besides, I may not be worse than you, you should be more careful."

"Heh." Bardis curled his lips, pulled out the knight's sword, dropped the scabbard, held the knight's sword in both hands and said: "Come on."

Alphonse also pulled out the scabbard, cut the air with the tip of the knife like cutting through water, and pointed it straight at Bardis' chest!

"Cang!" Badis's knight's sword split Alphonse's long knife outwards quickly and accurately. At the same time, as soon as the knight's sword moved, it directly hit Alphonse's chest with the handle. Alphonse naturally

He swung the knife and slashed again, but Badis, whose blade was still pointing outwards, continued to use exquisite blocking skills to deflect Alphonse's long knife, but his body got closer to Alphonse!

"Bang!" Alphonse forced Badis away with an elbow, and then struck Badis with his long knife. This time Badis no longer avoided, but held the sword with both hands and came straight for a head-on collision.

Chop!

"Qiang! Qiang! Qiang!" This time it was Alphonse's turn to feel uncomfortable. The one-handed sword and the two-handed epee were slashing at each other. This was not much different from seeking death. Although there was still no gap due to the strength of Damascus steel, but

Alphonse was still unable to follow up. As soon as his hand was forced to soften, Badis put a knight's sword on his neck!

"Okay, I have a problem with my brain, so I'm trying to hack and slash with you." Alphonse reluctantly pushed Badis's knight sword away, and then continued to ask: "Isn't it that knight sword skills generally involve hacking and slashing on horseback?

?Why is yours a close fight?"

"My family has been a court knight since the Hundred Years' War between England and France hundreds of years ago. Therefore, we rely on swordsmanship in close quarters and use lances on horses. Naturally, we will improve the sword riding skills of two-handed swords." Badis said with a smile.

: "On the other hand, you seem to have never learned any systematic fighting swordsmanship?"

"For a fight, what kind of routine do you want?" Alphonse smiled and said, "Why, how about you teach me?"

"Swordsmanship requires training from an early age to form a habitual counterattack. Without enough time to hone physical strength and practice shooting speed, it is impossible to enter the real threshold." Badis shook his head and said: "You should go to practice musketry."<

/p>

"Even if it's just to lie to me." Alphonse sighed. He thought there was some secret method that could quickly create his own personal martial arts, but after thinking about it, he took it for granted. If it was on the battlefield just now, Badis would probably be the first to use it.

When he split his long sword with a sword, he stabbed himself to death instead of turning the sword around and stabbing himself with the hilt. Just relying on his proficiency and hand speed to kill someone with just one hand,

It can't be accomplished in a year and a half.

"It seems I missed some exciting part?" Just as the two stood chatting in the open space holding swords, An had already walked over from the corridor waving a small fan and said with a smile.

"At least I can safely leave my back to Badis." Alphonse put the long sword into its sheath and continued: "By the way, Badis, you have retired, where are the soldiers under you? Can you summon them?

Come work for me?"

"It's been more than half a year since I retired. I don't know what their situation is, but I can try writing letters." Badis thought for a while and then said: "But there won't be many, probably only about ten people."<

/p>

"You are a dignified lieutenant colonel, the leader of a battalion." Alphonse said angrily.

"The lieutenant colonel and battalion commander are in the Army establishment, and I am the lieutenant colonel and captain." Badis replied seriously.

"Okay, Mr. Captain, considering that I will build a fleet next, I need hundreds or even thousands of sailors. You need to help me recruit as many outstanding sailors with service experience as possible. 20 li a month

Foer's salary is as much as you want."

"I can only say give it a try." Badis thought for a while and replied.

"First get your people back. By the way, writing a letter costs a lot of money, right?" Alphonse asked again: "A letter costs 50 livres, how much do you have to send?"

"I am sending a letter to retired soldiers. I can just go to the post office and send the letter. Although it will take about a month to arrive, it doesn't cost much." Badis shook his head and said.

"Okay, now I'm getting more and more troubled about how to release the investment of half a million livres in the Louvre." Alphonse walked towards Anxiao again and said, "Benjamin Hawkins came over just now.

I bought the rapid-fire gun paper and paid for the 200 rapid-fire cannons. Where are you?"

"Benjamin is here?" An's eyes lit up. Hearing Alphonse ask about the Oton family again, he curled his lips and said: "The two taverns are full of drunkards, and there are also those unclean women.

Damn it, I saw them doing that kind of thing in broad daylight!"

"Ahem, I'm going to write a letter first." Bardis coughed and ran away.

"Why is he anxious?" Alphonse glanced at Badis's back strangely and continued: "How much do you think it is worth?"

"Perhaps they are relatively well-informed in terms of information. Those drunkards seem to have no clue after drinking. But it is hard to say whether it is true or false, and whether it is useful or not. On the contrary, it is easy to be used by people with ulterior motives." An frowned and continued: "For example,

Speaking of outsiders, if you want to know our situation, you can sit in the tavern for two days and even know the route you take from the house to the workshop."

"Uh..." Alphonse touched his nose in confusion and said, "Is that so exaggerated?"

"Don't worry, they made it all up themselves. These drunkards don't even know that the artillery workshop has moved away a long time ago." An shook his head and said: "But it still revealed a lot of real news, that is, there is indeed this route.

From the house to the golden anchor workshop."

"Well, it is indeed a problem. The most important thing is that we haven't been able to stop their mouths." Alphonse said helplessly. These drunkards drank and didn't even know what they said. How could you expect them to keep anything secret?

Secret? This in turn shows that he needs to pay more attention to the protective power around him. It is even better to get a big boat and float on the sea all the time, so that he does not have to worry about those who do evil things.

"So the value of us buying the pub is probably to let the bartender pay attention to some useful information for us, and at the same time remind the drunkards not to discuss matters related to us." An replied:

"There is a tavern under the crooked neck tree on the east side of the pier, called the "Old Gun Tavern". It has been at least thirty years old and has a very good business. Because it sells blended wine that everyone can afford, it can't make a profit in a year.

A few dollars; just to maintain this store, an investment of one thousand livres is enough.

The other one is in the downtown area, the "Red Rose Tavern", which has about thirty locations. The business is average, but two people are assigned to guard the place to prevent drunkards from causing trouble, you know, so two thousand livres is about the same."

"Francis Otong will never accept your assessment." Alphonse smiled.

"Of course, he valued the Calais House at 15,000 livres, but he still had a loan of 8,000 livres, so I quoted him 10,000 livres. He insisted that the business at the Old Gun Tavern was very good and the reputation was good, so he wanted at least 2,500 livres.

Livre; the Red Rose Tavern is even more outrageous. He said that those women have to pay to serve in the tavern, so the income is much higher than I thought, and it is worth at least 4,000 livres." An shook her head and said.

"Look, in fact, the one he quoted closest to you is Calais House. He has a loan of 8,000 livres. If you quote 10,000 livres and share 4,000 livres for him, it will already be livres." Alphonse

He smiled and said:

"He quoted a very high price for the hotel, but it is actually of no use to us, so the negotiation can be viewed from a different perspective. We insist on the hotel price of 10,000 livres; the hotel can do whatever he wants. After all, the hotel has no debts and the money is invested.

If he does, he will manage the renovation carefully and it will be easy to negotiate."

"Then why not just invest in Calais House?" An Qi asked.
Chapter completed!