Kapitel 40: Good Wine

"What is this talk about colonizing another continent?" The old King asked as he quickly picked on that.

"I have proposed a bill to your son, letting us create a joint effort to colonize Africa," Felipe explained as if it was just another ordinary matter. "I am not so sure anymore."

"…" Wisely, the current King looked at him for a few seconds and then looked down. It gave the impression that he was genuinely sorry.

Felipe could not help but sympathize with him; he remained of him in his past life. He is young, after all; he should have never gotten the position of power. At that moment, Felipe cursed internally; after all, his image of Henry was again shattered; he was just a brat. A very cruel one, but still a brat.

"Conquering Africa? Are you going to start selling slaves to the USA?" The old King said, quite annoyed and quite angry at that.

"What? No. We are going to create a new country. Increase Haiti's income from natural resources and, of course, financial income. It will be conquered, and it will be colonialism; there is nothing to lie about it." Felipe said without any filter.

"You are going to do what the French did to Haiti?"

"Yes, but without slavery," Felipe said once again.

"…"

"Aside from the main objective, which is to make money, we better the lives of the people of Africa. And, of course, by creating an empire within Africa, we will be able to obtain more power and resources." Felipe gave him a significantly diluted version of the whole plan.

The old King looked around as he wondered for some time. He was no angel; he knew that the tribes of Africa were doomed to fall to the Europeans as long there would not be any infighting within the Europeans.

"It is indeed true, if the Haitian Kingdom wants to expand, it will be through conquest." The old King said as he had some thoughts about the people of Saint Domingo on the island's eastern side. That was his objective, or at least his dream, to unify one island. Yet, the opportunity appeared in Africa.

"So be it. We should conquer Africa." The old King said with wonder and some kind of greed.

His thought about becoming a powerful nation quickly overwhelmed him. He would condemn a whole population to the same fate his country once had.

Felipe smiled. Two things made him want to still do business with them; for once, he really didn't have the manpower nor the time. And the biggest attractiveness would be the fact that Haitian People looked at him with more admiration than even the crown prince of their own country.

"We gotta first deal with your problem," Felipe said as he looked at Henry with annoyance. "The Empire will not only help you, but I will not do it alone. You will have to stand for your own. The Colombian Empire can not show itself working with the Haitian Kingdom." Felipe mentioned while being completely serious.

"But what can we do against France?" Henry asked as he felt what Felipe was asking was absurd.

"War, gorilla warfare. Let them feel the burn of trying to touch Haiti. After they have burnt themselves, then we will come in and announce a protectorate. We would probably give the French a few million marks to save face, but that would be it. If everything else fails, you will burn the entire city." Felipe said very seriously.

"A protectorate? Would not that be the same as annexing Haiti as a Colony?" The young King asked weirdly.

"Well, we are not at the same level. How can I let a tiny kingdom be the equal of the Colombian Empire? Maybe after you obtain enough power, such a relationship could change." Felipe said as he looked at the old King.

"I will take care of it." The old King said, feeling reckless.

Felipe looked back at King Henry and asked: "When was the last payment, and when will it be the next one?"

"It is bi-annually… we just paid one. 2 Months ago," Henry said with some shame.

"You have time as well. That makes things easier, actually; never mind that. We just out to prepare for war." Felipe smiled as the blood in his veins began to boil.

He first felt such a sensation after killing a whole Spanish back in the day. Nonetheless, he is not stupid as long as he can win. He would not care.

"Aside from that, you must let your father have some input. It is always wise to ask for knowledge when you don't know." Felipe said with anger in his voice as if he was scouting a dog.

"I understand," Felipe said as he felt it was a bad idea. "Congress would not like that."

"Then let their heads roll. Execute them for treason if they are willing to let their country be taken advantage of." Felipe said as if it was a regular thing.

"…"

"I am sorry I didn't teach him well; I let others teach him." The old King said with some shame.

"…" One of the most forgivable attitudes Henry showed to Felipe was his reluctance to harm his father; he had him engaged, but he was within a golden cage. Everything he wants, he would get. It was some kind of loyalty, blood loyalty. He doesn't know how strong loyalty will be when they do not include family members.

Meanwhile, in his mind, Felipe began to get annoyed; after all, he would become France's enemy in about 4-5 months.

Hopefully, it is a time for international tensions in Europe; the Germans don't trust the French, Russians, Austrians, and English and vice versa. Pacts of steel would be destroyed with zero effort, and there were only interests. In other words, if he entered into war with France, any other countries surrounding it would help him, except Spain.

"The Romans build fleets of hundreds of boats during the first Punic wars. You could do the same, but instead of looking to attack, look at how to resist. How to defend. That is the only way to make things as painful as possible to the French."

"Don't worry about that; without being limited, I can kick the French to kingdom come." The old King said as the fire of passion raged inside him. He led the rebellion that created the Haitian Kingdom; he was the leading general of the first Haitian emperor! He was the founding father. And now he was asked to do it again, to fight for the nation he had created.

For over a year, he has been closed inside his mansion; he was furious at first, then just disappointed; afterwards, he accepted such fate and began to enjoy himself. But now Felipe was like an angel coming down from the heavens to rescue him. Felipe gave him excitement! Something that nothing has been able to give him in all the time he spent among so much luxury.

"Anyways, I have to go to the USA. After all, most of my money producer is there."

"Talking about that. Have you heard about white phosphorus?" The old King asked as he looked worried about Felipe's future prospers.

"I know." Felipe nodded.

White phosphorus matches were flooding the market; Felipe didn't file a patent for them. He knew about them; after all, they were the actual first type of matches that were first ever invented. The creator didn't file a patent so the world could enjoy such a product.

Red phosphorus is also way cheaper than white phosphorus. Still, the thing was, Felipe, had put a massive markup in his product, making red phosphorus matches way more expensive than white phosphorus matches.

Felipe really didn't mean for his monopoly over matches to last that long; he predicted that the white matches would flood the market a year or so after his matches entered into phosphorus, yet, it has been around 11 years of constant monopoly of matches until that year when mass production of white phosphorous matches began to appear.

White phosphorous matches were a liability; anyone that worked with them would start experiencing fuzzy jaw, making their jaw bones fall off, plus they were smelly. Because Felipe's matches were security ones, he could use less red phosphorous by printing it only on the strips, making production cheaper and profit even larger.

"Then what are you going to do about it? Won't all the large profits disappear?" The old King asked.

"Yes, but profit will be enough to produce great quantities of money, though I am not interested in matches anymore. I have more ideas to bring the Empire, once again, millions of Reales." Being once again calmed, Felipe took the cup of wine and gave it a sip.

"What is it?"

"A sewing machine able to create hundreds of stitches in seconds. The amount of capital needed to start making them is quite large. I already got it, though."

"…" The old King knew exactly how much a person needed to make 100 stitches; if such a machine could make it in seconds, that would leave hundreds of thousands of people out of a job. The King realized how impactful such claims were. Even more impactful than the invention of the match itself.

"Anyways, let's talk detail later; it would be a crime not to enjoy this wine," Felipe said as he put the empty cup with two hands.

"…" Father and son looked at Felipe and how chill he was, yet, they were both very tense; it only took a few words from Felipe to solve their relationship and possibly the country itself.