After hearing what he said, Galileo Galileo, who came to Dhaka with Matteo Ricci, also said: "You are right. There are cries everywhere along the way. Only in the Ming Dynasty's ruling area is there laughter everywhere. It really makes people have to admit that it is more civilized here.”
As Galileo spoke, he walked up to the Ming Dynasty's imperial envoy to the West, Gu'an Bo Chen Changyan, who was looking at the statue of Qi Jiguang, and his deputy envoy Fan Qian, a Hanlin scholar, and bowed and asked:
"I dare to ask you two nobles, why did your country expand its borders and make the local chiefs respect your king without killing them like crazy?"
Every time a port is built in the Ming Dynasty, a statue of a general must be built, mainly because it has been doing this for decades to achieve peace of mind on the sea. Therefore, whenever a new port is built, statues of people like Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou must be built.
"Because the new etiquette respects people's desires and recognizes that people's desires are constantly changing and should always be based on reality to innovate the etiquette of governing the country."
Here, Chen Changyan smiled and replied after Galileo asked.
Chen Changyan was originally the younger brother of Zhu Yijun's mother. Logically speaking, except for the empress's father who could be granted a title, his son did not need to be granted an earl title. However, because he invited himself to be an envoy to the West, Zhu Yijun specially asked him to inherit the title of Duke. Amber's title in recognition of his bravery.
After all, there are not many nobles who dare to cross the ocean these days.
At this time, after Chen Changyan said it, Galileo, who had studied Chinese for several years, understood it better and couldn't help but sigh:
"What kind of country is this? It's so wise!"
Galileo said and asked again: "I wonder how long it will take to reach the capital of your country?"
"There's still half a year."
Chen Changyan replied.
Galileo opened his mouth after hearing this and did not come back to his senses for a long time.
"Don't be surprised. The Ming Empire is indeed very vast, and it takes a year and a half to reach a certain place to become an official. This is very common in this country."
Matteo Ricci explained it next, when he was alone with Galileo.
Galileo said: "I know that the territory of the Ming Empire is very vast, but I am surprised that this is not near their capital, nor is it their hinterland!"
Matteo Ricci said: "It's not originally, this is just their education area!"
Galileo also knew that the Ming Dynasty now divided the areas it ruled into native areas and enlightened areas.
Therefore, after Matteo Ricci said this, Galileo immediately understood.
But this made Galileo even more unable to help but shake his head and said: "It's unimaginable. It's really unimaginable. From what I've seen, it must be very difficult to rule a very vast area, especially an area that spans tens of thousands of miles." , basically you can only strengthen the weak branches!"
"And the monarch of such a country can only use heavy taxes to maintain a good life for the nobles and citizens in his capital. He cannot take care of the people in remote places, and will only try his best to plunder remote places. Everything makes the backcountry very bad."
"So, when I saw that this place was so prosperous and well-ordered, I thought it was not far from their country, so I asked Nagu'an Bo."
"But who would have known that this is just a teaching area of the Ming Empire, a remote place."
"And how do they make the teaching areas in remote places so prosperous and orderly?"
Galileo said, "And if it's like this even here, how prosperous must their capital and hinterland be?"
"You'll find out when you get there!"
"And now, I can only tell you, using their oriental language, that this oriental country is changing with each passing day!"
"So, I've been away for a few years, so I can't say what the Ming Dynasty's capital is like now."
"But no matter what, even the capital of the Ming Dynasty that I saw before was more majestic and even richer than Florence. You can't imagine how gorgeous those people are dressed and how elegant their manners are. It's like heaven!"
After Matteo Ricci said this, he smiled coldly and said: "What's funny is that the pirates of Franji were so arrogant that they thought they could enslave such a country! They also wanted to massacre the Ming people in their colonial area several times to test this The bottom line of the country, I want to know if the Ming Dynasty is really huge, but it is just a herbivore without fangs, and can be eaten away step by step?"
"As a result, they were wiped out by the Ming Dynasty first because they massacred the people of the Ming Dynasty!"
After hearing what Matteo Ricci said, Galileo became even more fascinated and couldn't help but said: "I really hope I can get to their homeland soon to see them."
"Sister Li, the imperial envoy has ordered you to prepare to change ships and take a steamer to Burma later."
At this time, a Japanese slave, a descendant of Gu'an Bo Chen Changyan, came over and gave Matteo Ricci some instructions.
Matteo Ricci nodded after hearing this.
Galileo couldn't help but ask at this time: "Excuse me, what is a steamship?"
The Japanese slave born in the family replied: "I don't know this either. You will understand when you take a look."
The next day.
Galileo and Matteo Ricci saw the Ming Dynasty steamship with patterns of auspicious clouds painted on its hull.
The two huge chimneys towered into the clouds, emitting thick smoke, and the iron-hulled ship was so tall that people could see their necks.
Matteo Ricci and Galileo raised their heads, stumbled up the railings and stairs to the deck, and then looked around, as if hoping to see the iron-hulled ship being able to use its mysteries while still on the ocean.
Not only Matteo Ricci and Galileo were very curious, but Chen Changyan and Fan Qian, who were the nobles and bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty, were also very curious about this. Then, these four people stared at the boiler with eight eyes. Master of coal.
"I haven't come back for a few years. I didn't expect that the country would advance to such an extent that it would have this kind of iron-hulled ship that can travel at high speed on the sea by eating coal."
Chen Changyan couldn't help but say something to Fan Qian at this time.
Fan Qian also nodded and couldn't help but murmured to himself: "How on earth is this done?"
At this time, the deputy ship supervisor on the side said: "It is said that the Steamship Manufacturing Bureau under the Central Commercial Bank of the Ming Dynasty invented the steam engine based on the steam engine built by the second son of the Jiguo Gong family."
After hearing this, Chen Changyan said: "I have always heard that the second son of Ji Guogong and Zhao Dutang's nephew have been developing steam engines in Jiangzuo Temple. Unexpectedly, in the past few years, I have not seen a steam engine, but I have seen this iron Make a big ship that eats coal."
Galileo couldn't help but ask Matteo Ricci in a low voice: "What is a steam engine?"
"It is said that it is a machine that can do work by relying on the power generated by steam."
"This involves thermodynamics, which people in the Ming Dynasty have already known. I am preparing to translate this knowledge and prepare us Westerners to master this knowledge as soon as possible."
Matteo Ricci said.
Galileo asked, "Will they?"
"They won't restrict it when it comes to basic theory. They say it's for the sake of human progress."
Matteo Ricci replied.
Galileo said: "What an enlightened and far-sighted country! No wonder it is more advanced than other countries in grasping the truth."
…
"Electricity can indeed generate magnetism, and magnetism can indeed generate electricity."
"And the magnetic field generated by electricity does conduct like waves, and it conducts very quickly. I'm thinking that this can be used to realize the function of the ear in Journey to the West, that is, people can immediately know what is thousands of miles away through this electromagnetic effect. information."
At this time, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Prince Consort Qi Xingzuo, was sharing his latest research ideas with dignitaries and scholar-bureaucrats such as King Zheng, Zhu Zaiyu, and Cheng Dawei.
These powerful bureaucrats listened very carefully.
The Ming Dynasty is now too wealthy and powerful, and the benefits gained from its massive external expansion have caused the price of subscription tickets to keep rising. As a result, the powerful bureaucrats have become very rich and idle.
Because their wealth growth is no longer based on land rent and power-seeking, nor is it even based on hard work and silver rewards and more salaries brought by promotion and promotion, but by sharing the dividends brought by the Ming Dynasty's external expansion, so now many powerful people Bureaucrats are indifferent to fame and fortune, and are more obsessed with exploring all the objective laws of the world.
Even if their research for several years or even decades yields nothing, they don't care.
Especially for the Xunqi clan, due to the new rituals implemented by the imperial court, the personality status of ordinary Han people has been elevated. In addition, the economic status of ordinary Han people has also been greatly improved, making it difficult for them to gain the majority of Han people by providing the most basic materials. That is the support and respect of the entire world.
Therefore, they can only win greater spiritual satisfaction through excellence in these knowledges, which is the so-called greater support and respect from people in the world.
This has also caused them to be very obsessed with studying various basic theories.
It's not just them.
Even many ordinary Han people have become obsessed with the study of various learnings and the pursuit of various arts after the pressure of survival has been reduced due to the reduced level of exploitation and improved welfare security.
Zhu Yijun was very happy to see this phenomenon, and he also actively participated in it, investing gold and silver celebrities in it, which also encouraged this trend.
Anyway.
Today's Ming Dynasty is most fortunate to belong to two types of people, one is those who are obsessed with studying science and technology, and the other is those who go to sea to make contributions to the country or work hard for themselves.
On the contrary, those who are conservative and would rather just do ordinary jobs at home than go overseas or study seriously are the worst off!
They bear the identity of Han people for nothing, and still use their strength to pay back the money at major infrastructure construction sites.
However, Zhu Yijun and his ruling ministers did not give up on them because of this, and would continue to favor them because of their program of governing the country to benefit the people.
After all, they are Han people, and they have the right to freely choose their careers given by the emperor.
Therefore, every time the increased revenue of the Ming Dynasty's treasury increased to a certain scale, Zhu Yijun would still issue an order to increase wages, medical care and pension welfare for these Han people who chose to exchange manual labor for income.
These Han people therefore supported Zhu Yijun even more.
"You are also a military householder, so you shouldn't be short of money, right?"
"Even if you never go out, why do you continue to work so hard?"
On the way to Nandu that day, Ren Yonggang of Zhongtun Guard in Xingzhou asked about an old military household he knew and who was finishing unloading stones with a few companions.
The old soldier replied with a smile: "I can't be supported by the country in vain. It's good to be able to contribute a little bit, and strength doesn't cost money anyway."
(End of chapter)
