A new round of negotiations began. Following Zhou Xu's line of thought, Kong Daqian brought up those questions, and Carlton immediately found himself in an awkward spot.
Because that was indeed exactly what they had in mind.
Have them prove that this steam-powered armor could be built?
How could they prove that?
If they could build the thing themselves, they wouldn't be bringing it out to trade for other things.
Confronted with these questions, Carlton could only give two awkward coughs.
"Minister Kong, I'm afraid we can't prove that. I can only say that these blueprints were passed down from our ancestors. Our ancestors shouldn't have lied to us descendants."
Then, probably to increase the blueprints' credibility, Carlton added...
"Among the blueprints passed down from our ancestors, quite a few describe things that Copper Furnace Fortress has already developed. There shouldn't be any mistakes."
To some extent, he was fairly honest, and his words could be considered sincere.
But from the perspective of a transaction between two countries, this deal involved enormous interests and could even have a significant impact on national development.
Although Carlton's words were sincere, the matter itself still had no basis whatsoever. Kong Daqian obviously couldn't simply accept it.
On this point, Kong Daqian said exactly what needed to be said.
Carlton had deliberately brought out blueprints that they themselves couldn't build as bargaining chips, so he was already feeling guilty in this deal. After this round of negotiations, he appropriately made a concession.
"To show our sincerity, we can add this set of blueprints as well."
As he spoke, Carlton placed another sheet of blueprints on the table.
Clearly, this was a contingency plan they had prepared long ago. After all, they themselves had some idea of how things stood.
As before, there was only