Chapter 235
"We are hostile countries to the Holy Roman Empire!"
Catherine thought that Cheng Shijie did not know the relationship between the Holy Roman Empire and the City-State Republic of Venice, so she spent a full quarter of an hour telling the story of the grievances between the Holy Roman Empire and the City-State Republic of Venice.
In fact, the dispute between Venice and the Holy Roman Empire actually stemmed from religion. It was also the original origin of what is now the Thirty Years' War in Europe. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, new sects emerged from Catholicism during the European Reformation: Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism, and more sects that subsequently differentiated from these denominations. Protestantism is also known as "Protestantism", "Protestantism", and "Jesusism".
The state religion of the Republic of Venice was Protestant, so the Pope was unhappy. The Pope gathered Spain, France, and the Holy Roman Empire, and the Three Kingdoms Alliance jointly attacked the Republic of Venice. The Venetian City-State Republic was unfortunately defeated and its territory was shrinking.
Catherine smiled bitterly and said: "We have always been wary of the penetration of the Holy Roman Empire into our Venice, let alone absorbing their population..."
“I don’t mean to accuse anyone, whether it’s Protestant or Catholic, but it’s not without a chance!”
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "You have lived in Liaodong for more than a year, right? Do you think the Ming court did not infiltrate into Liaodong? The court actually sent a large number of key intelligence personnel to infiltrate into Liaodong, but in fact, as long as there are enough For profit, a person’s left hand can sell his right hand, let alone his soul?”
Regarding this point, Cheng Shijie actually did a good job and selectively screened. Not all refugees and refugees will immediately obtain the status of Liaodong citizens and have the rights of Liaodong citizens when they arrive in Liaodong. This is a problem that everyone knows.
Especially the officers of the Ning Navy. Among them are the officers of the Denglai New Army who were born in Dengzhou, and the officers of the Ning Navy who were founded by Dengzhou Guard Zuo Qianhu. This is the direct lineage. In addition to the Denglai New Army of the Shandong Army, the largest group A large number of soldiers actually came from the Dongjiang Army. Of course, now they also include the officers and soldiers of the Guan Ning Army who were absorbed by Cheng Shijie. There are quite a few of these officers and soldiers of the Guan Ning Army, more than 8,000 people.
Can it be said that all the more than 8,000 officers and soldiers of Guan Ning Army are innocent? They not only had Zu Dashou's retainers, but also Wu Xiang and Wu Sangui's retainers. Cheng Shijie did not believe that they had not infiltrated Ning Haijun.
But the problem is that Ning Haijun can give fair treatment to soldiers no matter what their origins are. They serve in Ning Haijun and can enjoy military positions. They can kill enemies for Ning Haijun and perform meritorious service, and they can also enjoy rewards for meritorious service. They are in Ning Haijun. If you get promoted in the navy, you can also get promoted and make a fortune.
Ning Haijun's biggest temptation for everyone is not rewards for meritorious service, nor promotion and wealth, but collective welfare. As long as they become Ning Haijun soldiers, their children can go to school for free, and their families can enjoy tax exemption for five years and half tax for ten years. If you are sick, you will be treated by a doctor. Even if you die in battle, your wife and children will be supported by Ning Haijun.
As long as the family members of Ning Haijun's fallen soldiers enjoy tax exemptions, tax refunds, legal protection and other rights in Liaodong, this is something Zu Dashou and Wu Sangui cannot give to their servants. These servants know very well that once they are killed in battle, their families will definitely So sad that I can't even live.
Admiral Ning doesn't have to worry about this.
"You can set up the Venetian Foreign Legion and let them directly participate in military operations against the Ottoman Empire. If they achieve military exploits, you can give them certain rewards and let them enjoy certain rights as citizens of the Venetian City-State Republic!"
Catherine shook her head: "Your Excellency, your thoughts are too simple. We Venetians are different from you Ming people. You Ming people have no faith, but we, not all Europeans, have faith!"
"It's a good thing to have faith. Are you sure all of them Europas have faith?"
"I am sure!"
Cheng Shijie turned to Cheng Shi and said, "How many Spanish prisoners are there in Luzon now?"
"Reporting to Commander-in-Chief, there are a total of 4,653 people. There were originally 4,752 people, but..."
Cheng Shijie didn't care how many Spanish people were killed. He looked at Catherine and said, "Bishop Tian is the state religion of Spain, right?"
Catherine nodded and said: "Yes! The Spaniards are all damn Catholics."
"You also have a Protestant pastor around you, right?"
“Get your ministers ready to baptize the Protestants!”
"ah!"
Catherine looked surprised.
Cheng Shijie is very clear about this. The so-called national integrity is not worth mentioning in the face of interests. Especially people on the grasslands have no national integrity. When the Huns were strong, the entire grassland was full of Huns.
After the rise of the Xianbei people, the entire grassland was Xianbei. Later, the Turks rose and most of the entire grassland called themselves Turks. After the Tang Dynasty defeated the Turks, they called themselves Tang people. The Tang Dynasty was weak and the Uighurs rose. , they are also called Uighurs. Of course, there is also the rise of the Jurchens. Once upon a time, the grasslands all claimed to be Jurchens. After the rise of the Mongols, all the grasslands became Mongolians.
Cheng Shijie is now using the 4,653 captured Spaniards to teach Catherine on the spot.
Navy officers Ning did not abuse prisoners, but they definitely did not manage them like uncles.
Children are the future and children are hope. This is the consensus of Cheng Shijie and the entire Ning Haijun Group. Because Cheng Shijie wants to establish Ning Haijun's public education system in Luzon.
Therefore, it is urgent to establish Luzon College.
The manpower shortage problem in Luzon is very serious. Of course, this does not include the indigenous population of Luzon. In fact, neither the Spaniards nor Cheng Shijie regard the indigenous people as human beings.
It's just that Ning Haijun has sufficient and rich experience in managing prisoners of war. First, Ning Haijun will select prisoners of war who usually have low status and are bullied from these groups of prisoners of war, give them power, and let them serve as foremans and be responsible for managing prisoners of war. In this way, , these prisoners of war who have gained power will be impatient for revenge.
At the construction site of the future Luzon College, a total of one hundred and ninety-three Spanish foremans were selected, and other prisoners of war, including the Governor of Luzon and Colonel O'Moore, were working.
There was no way to stop working. As a prisoner, there would be no food. After Governor Juan was hungry for a day, he lowered his noble head.
Even if they work hard for twelve hours a day, they can only get enough food to not starve to death, and the food has little oil and water. Ning Haijun is not a good person.
In order to encourage prisoners of war to work voluntarily, for example, if they work overtime for two hours, they can get an extra meal. This is good white rice. Prisoners of war have no chance to eat it. If they work for four more hours, they can get an extra meal. On the basis of rice, you can get a piece of sea fish and a bowl of egg soup to have a free meal of white rice.
As the Spanish army colonel in Luzon, Omor actually came to Luzon not voluntarily. At first, he was under the command of Lieutenant General Francisco, the commander-in-chief of Spain in the Netherlands. During one of Francisco's inspections, he came to Luzon under his command. During the musketeer drill, one of Omore's soldiers sneezed while shooting.
The muzzle of the soldier's musket shook because he sneezed, and it shot at Francisco at a very outrageous rate. Of course, Francisco was very lucky and was not hit, but the bullet fired But it hit Francisco less than two meters away.
As a result, Omore, the unlucky guy, was kicked from the Spanish army stationed in the Netherlands to Luzon. Omol actually loved his wife Maria very much. After becoming a prisoner of Ning Haijun, the people Maria had offended before began to come back with revenge. In desperation, Omor began to compromise with Ning Haijun.
She works sixteen hours a day just to earn some white rice for Maria.
If you want to have enough to eat, there is only one way to do more work than others in Ning Haijun's prisoner-of-war camp.
In the afternoon of one day, a Protestant priest, carrying a large amount of food, and led by Ning navy soldiers, entered the Spanish prisoner-of-war camp.
Of course, these foods cannot be good. There are potatoes boiled in white water, sweet potatoes roasted directly on the fire, and local fruits in Luzon. The best food is a piece of pure Western-style baked bread.
“You can get more food by joining the Protestant Church!”
The news spread quickly among the Spanish prisoner-of-war camps.
In later generations, due to the principles of the policy, Shaomin could have two children, get tax exemptions, and get extra points in the college entrance examination. Taking advantage of the loopholes in the policy, many Han people actually changed the ethnicity on their ID cards to Shaomin. There are such examples around the author.
Therefore, many people change their ethnicity and ancestry when they see the benefits. At first, they are just looking for immediate benefits and have no awareness that they are minority people. But after two or three generations, the long-standing falsehood becomes true and the national concept naturally forms. .
Contrary to the ridiculous "conversion of Han into Hu" in later generations, the Ming Dynasty has been converting Hu into Han. Without the Ming Dynasty's reform and return, I am afraid that Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi would still be in disarray.
Cheng Shijie naturally had no intention of converting the Spaniards into Han, but he could use profit to drive them to change their beliefs.
Of course, at first this pastor was scolded and yelled at by a group of Spaniards.
But the problem was that at night, Omore came to the pastor's tent with a sad face and said to the pastor: "I converted to Protestantism, can I get a piece of bread? Maria is sick, and she really wants to eat bread!"
To be fair, Omore is an out-and-out good man. He works sixteen hours a day so that Maria can have enough to eat. In order to make Maria live a good life, he does whatever it takes to make money. Now it was even possible to give up one's faith for Maria's sake.
However, the problem is that Maria has been cuckolding Omore, even when Juan became a prisoner of war. Maria used the food that Omore earned for her through hard work to share with Juan, a fat man.
In fact, there are too many poor and pathetic men like Omore.
"Of course, you can, child, God is merciful, the lost lamb..."
In the beginning, only Omore, a depraved wife-loving maniac, compromised with the Protestants. However, as the Luzon College project progressed, the prisoners of war were fed worse and if they moved slower, they would be whipped by the Spanish overseers.
Moreover, these Spanish prisoners of war also discovered that as long as they converted to Protestantism and were baptized by a priest, not only could they get more food, but more importantly, the overseers would no longer beat them, and they even became priests like Omore. The daily work of the red men around him was just to distribute supplies to the Spanish prisoners of war who came to convert.
In fact, these people from the Spanish colonial authorities are not high-end talents. As long as they can get along at home, who is willing to go abroad to a place where no one can shit?
Most of the members of the pioneering teams in these colonies were criminals, thieves, perverts, and people with weak wills. Facing the temptation of interests from Protestant pastors, more than a thousand prisoners of war became Protestants in just a few days.
This suddenly subverted Catherine's three views.
"how so?"
Cheng Shijie did not hide his secrets. He also hoped that Venice would last longer in Europe and have a more intense conflict with the Netherlands and Spain.
"Catherine, didn't you find out when you were living in Liaodong?"
"What did you find?"
"The refugees I attracted in Liaodong were never aristocrats or high-end talents, but the most ordinary and poorest people. They were already desperate in their original living environment, and I gave them hope!"
Cheng Shijie actually did not intend to attract the gentry class, because the gentry class already had enough, and he could not give more to the gentry stage.
It's like buying off a poor person. A few hundred thousand yuan is enough, but a few million yuan is not a big deal. If you use millions to buy a certain horse, it is an insult to others and it is simply impossible to do it.
"First of all, when Venice absorbs people from the Holy Roman Empire, it must be principled and planned. There are three principles. The first is not to attract famous celebrities, and the second is not to attract nobles, unless the nobles are no longer in the Holy Roman Empire. A place to stay. In the end, we insist on not wanting those so-called talents!"
As soon as Cheng Shijie finished speaking, Catherine asked in confusion: "Then our city-state Republic of Venice also lacks talents!"
“If you don’t have talented people, you can train them, especially the second generation of immigrants!”
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "When I was in Liaodong, I opened many primary schools. Education must start from childhood. Wouldn't you be more assured of the talents you cultivate yourself?"
"There's still something wrong!"
"What's wrong?"
"If they leave after they finish their studies, wouldn't we, Venice, lose everything?"
Catherine said: "It costs at least twenty ducats per year to raise a child in Venice, and it may even be more. If there are 10,000 people, the annual expenditure is two hundred thousand ducats. This is not a small sum of money!"
Catherine's thinking is very normal. After spending money, of course she wants to get a return. Those children who may run away after completing their studies naturally become the objects of their worries. If you run away, where can I get my investment back?
"After completing your studies, you just left? How could that happen!"
Cheng Shijie pointed at a Ning Haijun soldier and said: "If you were a pauper with nothing and learned a skill in a school in Liaodong, would you pat your butt and walk away?"
"Just pat your butt and walk away? Are you out of your mind?"
Cheng Shijie pointed to another soldier and said, "Now I will give you a sum of money to move to Beijing or Nanjing. Will you agree?"
"It's weird that I would agree! The taxes in Beijing and Nanjing are extremely heavy. All year round, I'm either being forced to pay taxes by tax collectors or being chased by landlords for debts. I can't even breathe!"
The soldier smiled bitterly and said: "Beijing and Nanjing are very good, but they are places for rich people. Where is Liaodong as good as Liaodong? After eating and drinking for a year, I can still have seventeen or eighty taels of silver left to be comfortable. My family has two The child is studying in Liaodong. If he dares to move to other places after completing his studies, see if I don’t break their legs!”
"Do you understand it?"
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "Your city-state Republic of Venice, also called the most noble Republic of Venice, am I right? You actually have a very strong attraction among European countries. As long as you give those talents the corresponding status and benefits, there is no need to be afraid. Did the talent run away?”
(End of chapter)
