Seeing Caesar furious, Henry finally spoke up.
"Caesar, protecting the prosperity of trade in the Mediterranean is our common goal. We will not let your anger spoil it for all of us, so please calm down."
Caesar stared at Henry, "Scoff, f**k the common goal."
When Henry saw that, a cold glimmer flashed through his eyes, "Since you insist on going alone, we have no choice but to use our own squadrons to restrict the Roman Squadron."
Caesar had undoubtedly fallen into Henry's trap.
"You dare!"
Caesar was even more furious; it was to the point where he smacked the table and stood up.
Looking at the Mediterranean Lords that stood at the sides, Caesar's heart was slowly sinking. Not to mention the medium and small-sized countries who listened to Henry, even Casillas did not oppose his words.
Seeing this, Caesar felt a chill run down his spine.
"Scheme, this is all a scheme!"
Henry and Casillas, these two enemies of his, were going to use this chance to crush the Roman Squadron.
Although this gave the Gaul Squadron a chance to become bigger, it also gave the Spanish Invincible Squadron a chance to overtake the Roman Squadron.
Win-win!
In this huge show, the only one that was going to lose was Caesar.
Caesar was furious. The humiliation he felt in front of everyone meant that he could not stay any longer.
"All of you wait!"
Before leaving, Caesar threw down those words.
Henry was really calm; he turned around, looked at Zi Luolan, and smiled, "The people that do not matter have left. Can we officially sign the agreement now?"
Zi Luolan was shocked and surprised when she saw these events unfold. These Lords were so vicious, crushing one without even blinking.
"Yes!" Zi Luolan kept her emotions, smiling charmingly.
'Who cares how they fight, the Great Xia has reached our goals!'
Thinking back to the man who was controlling these negotiations from thousands of miles away, Zi Luolan thought to herself, 'Did he predict all this?'
'When did this fellow's thoughts become so deep like an ocean?'
Nothing much happened in the following signing, apart from an additional term, "The Mediterranean Lords will protect the safety of the Great Xia merchants. If the merchants are affected, the Mediterranean Lords will take responsibility."
To take responsibility, the Mediterranean Lords would store a mortgage sum based on the amount of trade.
The moment the Great Xia merchants were harmed, the Four Seas Bank would deduct from this mortgage sum.
With Ouyang Shuo's suggestion, Meng Zhida had executed it, and the Insurance Industry had gotten on the right path.
Especially ocean dangers; not only did the Great Xia merchants get insured, but even the merchants of other territories had gotten insured.
Meng Zhida's next goal was to use Xingzhou Prefecture, Somalia Province, and Morocco Province to push out the Insurance Industry to the rest of the world.
The water tight plan of the Great Xia left the Mediterranean Lords in awe. Luckily, the mortgages they stored in the Four Seas Bank would grow from interest. If not, it would be a huge loss of money.
At 11 AM, with Kalia as the witness, the Great Xia Dynasty and the Mediterranean Lords signed the Cross Mediterranean trading partner agreement.
The main terms of the agreement were as such.
First, ports.
The ports of the members of the agreement would be opened to all other members, and there would not be any obstacles to entry.
Secondly, tax.
They would lower the port tax of members going in and out to increase trade development.
Thirdly, investment.
Lower investment guidelines would be set to allow chambers of commerce of members to invest and not restrict them.
Without a doubt, the agreement was really close to a free trade agreement in real life. In regards to the game world, this was a milestone event.
Through signing the trade agreement, they would remove large amounts of taxes and other obstacles to open up investment, promote more trade, and other aspects for common development.
There were many benefits to free trade.
First, through lowering trade costs and transport costs, they would increase freedom and convenience, which would in turn promote voyage trading.
Since the costs were lowered and things were more convenient, more chambers of commerce would throw themselves into voyage trading, which would give rise to a new wave.
Secondly, increase investment would achieve more efficient allocation of resources and industries.
Between territories, especially between the east and the west, due to a difference in background and technology, their industries were different, so they complemented one another.
This had many benefits, so it was no wonder that Caesar would be so furious when he learned he was excluded. Losing this chance was a huge blow to Caesar City.
Moreover, to protect trade interests, Henry and the others would not allow him to cause waves in the Mediterranean.
In the afternoon, Zi Luolan, Henry, Casillas, and the other Lords all attended a news conference to announce the signing of the agreement.
The moment the news went out, the world was in shock!
Some people cheered, some were crestfallen, some were shocked, while were some uneasy.
No one expected the Mediterranean Lords and Great Xia, who had so many conflicts, to cooperate and give rise to a new era of voyage trading.
As this matter was just too shocking, no one bothered about the exclusion of Caesar City.
Some people even estimated that this was the most influential thing that happened in these four years of Gaia. They said that this even exceeded the establishment of the first dynasty.
Moreover, along with this agreement being signed, the Great Xia Dynasty would become a huge trading country and would slowly develop into a trading giant.
Ouyang Shuo, who was tens of thousands of miles away, smiled when he heard the news. He was probably the clearest in the world about what this meant.
After learning about the existence of Silver Hand and the Academic Faction, Ouyang Shuo had been thinking about which side to lean toward.
Normally, Ouyang Shuo could use the advantage of the Great Xia to start huge country wars around the world, washing the world with blood and shocking everyone.
However, what would Great Xia manage to gain if they did that?
As they expanded, Great Xia would accrue more and more enemies, and these enemies would band together and unite with one another.
The changes and the remodeling of the Yanhuang Alliance was proof of this.
When that happened, Great Xia would be enemies with the entire world, and they would slowly walk toward self-destruction.
There was certain statement that said a person who relied solely on strength to rule the world would make everyone his enemy and finally die under that strength.
Hence, Ouyang Shuo thought even further.
Be it Silver Hand or the Academic Faction, they would not allow a presence that exceeded them.
If the Great Xia Dynasty truly gave up everything to strengthen its military, they might not be able to do anything in the game. However, when they arrived on Planet Hope, there were many things that they could do.
Gathering many of Great Xia's enemies to crush Ouyang Shuo was just too simple for them. Who knows, maybe Silver Hand would use the chance to gain a clean slate.
After all, they would be removing problems for the people, removing the cancer that was Great Xia.
Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo felt a shiver run down his spine.
The enemies that Ouyang Shuo needed to fight, the battles he was involved in, were not limited to the game world. He was going to walk on the true path of a ruler, so he needed to be trained and tempered.
Only then could he rise up.
Since he could not wash the world with blood, he needed to think of another way.
Through this period of observation and contemplation, Ouyang Shuo got a clear picture.
The Great Xia Dynasty needed to use the smallest price to spread their might around the world. They needed to use a cooperation method to increase their influence and drag more and more people onto their boat.
With that, Great Xia would not be shaken.
The benefits did not stop there, as these actions would help to slowly dig away at the internal alliances of Silver Hand, helping to split them up.
Forming groups based on common interests would make members abandon one another like how Caesar was abandoned by Henry.
It seemed like because of the interference of the Great Xia Dynasty, Caesar would not be able to rise up like the last life. He would not become one of the three heads of Europe.
The glow that this Roman descendant was giving out was becoming dimmer and dimmer.
Signing the agreement with the Mediterranean Lords was an attempt by Ouyang Shuo to tell the world that Great Xia did not only bring war but also profits.
The Great Xia Dynasty was not a warmongering state. Rather, it was a merchant that would push forward world trade.
The other Lords in the world did not need to have animosity and be so wary against the Great Xia Dynasty.
Of course, if they wanted to establish dominance, they needed to use force sometimes like in the cases of Somalia and Morocco and kicking Caesar out.
These actions were needed.
Without the fear of military retaliation and a strong army as a shield, nothing could take root.