Xinshun 1730

Chapter 256 Pros and Cons
Value determines attitude.

The French were not allowed to ship or buy goods. Count Morpa received official reception in Guangdong, but as a treaty port, the officials saw many foreigners and did not receive too much courtesy.

Before coming here, I heard from those missionaries that Chinese emperors like to show off, and envoys from other countries are called tribute when they come here, and they will give rich food all the way to the capital.

But in Guangdong, except for a meal at the local officials, all kinds of supplies have to be bought with money.

And after the meal, the local officials said that considering the climate and typhoon, it is recommended that they go north to Songjiang immediately, and there will be pilots in Songjiang to go directly to Tianjin.

The news of Dashun’s ban on religion spread to Europe. Among the visitors this time, there were no missionaries for missionary purposes, only a few missionaries who were familiar with China and knew some Chinese to translate.

Except for the sailors, missionaries, and translators on board, the rest are some "commercial spies".

More than 20 years ago, when Dashun had not banned religion, some missionaries sent by Louis XIV were able to preach everywhere under the favor of Bai Jin. They also traveled to many places by helping Dashun draw maps. .

Someone sneaked into Jiangxi quietly, in the name of preaching, and secretly learned how to make porcelain, and learned about the most important thing in porcelain... kaolin.

But there is a specialization in the arts, and although these missionaries have a certain level of education, they are separated by mountains, and even if they read it, they haven't learned the essence.

This time the French mission also brought some craftsmen from porcelain factories, and some even invited technicians from Meissen. Meissen porcelain is much better than France. Meissen porcelain is also a famous European porcelain, but in some details At this time, there is still a big gap with Jingdezhen porcelain.

In addition to porcelain craftsmen, there are also silk craftsmen on board. There are a lot of raw silk in the Middle East and Persia, but the French silk weaving technology is not as good. They also hope to take this opportunity to steal silk technology from China.

The craftsmen specialized in art, and Count Morpas, as the Minister of the Navy of France at this time, also specialized in art.

After observing the navy in the Guangdong area along the way, he was quite disdainful. The ships of the navy can neither fight at sea, nor have the ability to shoot salvos from battleships. Obviously, this is a navy that is far behind, and cannot even Call it the Navy.

However, Earl Morpa did not underestimate this navy.The experience of the Dutch has proved that the Chinese navy is vulnerable to a single blow in the open ocean, but in the near-shore ports, with a large number of fire attack ships and port forts, it is still capable of fighting.

Although I heard that the Chinese counterpart, it seems that the Minister of the Navy of Dashun is building a navy, Earl Morpa doubts whether it is really possible to build a usable navy with such a foundation.

For the first time, the Navy Minister, nicknamed the "administrative navy" in Europe, found a sense of superiority that he had not had for a long time in front of the navy of a major country.

"Perhaps, the blueprint of the new 74-gun battleship can be used as a weight to exchange the secrets of porcelain, silk and tea."

After leaving Guangdong, he had such an idea.

When the ship arrived in Songjiang, they were treated the same as they were in Guangdong.

After welcoming them to disembark, they were invited to a banquet. The dishes were very rich and served with Zhejiang rice wine, which tasted delicious.

But when he asked Duplex to offer to visit the city, the officer opposite immediately shook his head.

"The wind and waves here are very strong, and there may be a typhoon. It is recommended that you leave as soon as possible. If you can obtain the permission of His Majesty the Emperor, you can visit the city again in the future."

The obvious rhetoric of chasing guests, these part-time translators of missionaries who have lived in China for a while, clearly translated the voice-over of these words, that is not allowed.

Tian Ping had been reminded by Liu Yu, and at this time he used standard diplomatic rhetoric: "Although I am open and closed, all Westerners are not allowed to buy houses and real estate ashore, so as to avoid a repeat of the incident in Macau. They are also not allowed to mess around in the mainland without permission." Turn, missionaries were allowed before, but now the government bans religion."

"Your country's religion is unacceptable in the country. Some Buddhists and Catholics attack each other. I am worried that you will be attacked by Buddhists in the mainland. We cannot bear such a responsibility."

"In the system of the Celestial Dynasty, officials are responsible to the emperor. The emperor ordered us to entertain you and send you to Weihai as soon as possible. We dare not bear the responsibility of being attacked by Buddhists."

Bringing the issue to religious wars, Buddhism is not the state religion of Dashun, jumping out of the truth of preventing commercial espionage, and also giving Count Morpa a reason that cannot be refuted.

Seeing his resolute attitude, Count Morpa thought to himself, sure enough, this is a perfect and powerful empire with a high degree of centralization, which is lacking in France and even the whole of Europe.

This is the era when European countries advocate absolutism. Whoever is more authoritarian will be stronger. Even Britain, which is separated by a strait, is thanks to the Lord Protector for completing that step.

France has been centralizing power as much as possible since the time of Louis XIV. The French nobles are also used to being centralized, but compared to places like Dashun where there are no nobles at all and all taxes go to the central government, it is still worse. far.

This time, the Faguo Mission only stayed in Guangdong and Songjiang. This is the most affluent place in Dashun. Coupled with the advocacy of the Enlightenmentists in Europe, the Chinese emperor's crown is even more important in the eyes of Earl Morpa. .

Although the navy is much worse, when it comes to government and wealth, France is incomparable.

Seeing that the eviction order was issued, the helpless Earl Morpa had no choice but to leave Songjiang after buying supplies and led by several navigators who were already familiar with Weihai.

When approaching Weihai, a fleet of six cruisers appeared on the ocean.Dashun doesn't have a single official battleship. Although the French navy has been reduced to the current level, there are still seven or eight battleships.

This flotilla of cruisers did not shock the French envoy.

The commander of the fleet, Mantou, also knew very well that this fleet would not bring any shock to the French, after all, two ships in it were bought from the French.

However, Dashun's first 64-gun battleship with an outdated design is still on the berth, and it will take some time before it is launched.

The envoy of the mission on the opposite side is also the Minister of the Navy of France, so Liu Yu's order to these captains is to show their own advantages as much as possible.

If Dashun's naval hardware has an advantage, at least at this time, the only advantage is the cannon.

When approaching the ships of the French mission, Mantou asked people to raise the flag, and fired three salvos to greet them as a salute.

In the gun deck, the original nine-pounder guns have been removed and replaced by recast twelve-pounder naval guns.All are expensive brass and bronze cannons instead of iron cannons, and the weight can be lower under the premise of ensuring firepower.

At this time, Dashun's official currency was silver and copper coins, and the copper cannons were obviously copper coins stacked together.

At the back of the cannon, there is a flintlock structure, which is fired by a cable, instead of being ignited by a match like the French's previous naval guns.

There are no open flames in the entire gun deck.

Gadgets such as flintlocks may also be able to make the cannon respond faster, eliminating the need to insert a matchlock.

This may be the most advanced place in Dashun's naval hardware, or it may be the only advanced place in hardware.

In terms of software, the Weihai navy is still confident about this.A high proportion of officers, professional non-commissioned officers, and excellent gunners who practiced once every three days, and the literacy piled up by money, are far behind the French navy at this time.

The French navy, which trains bombardment on average once a month, will not be able to obtain enough funds to guarantee training once a week under the strong efforts of Count Morpa until a few years later.

Zhang Erbiao, who has become a gunner, is lazily holding the cable of the flintlock. In my impression, this is the second time he has fired a salute.

The last time he fired a cannon, he had just boarded the boat, and it happened that the Duke of E came to Weihai and fired a volley.

It's been a long time since the last time. In recent years, a drill has been conducted every three days, and cultural lessons have also been increased.

Just like every drill, the gunpowder monkeys quickly carried the gunpowder bag from behind, loaded it and pulled it out.

The ropes pulled by the huge recoil rattled, and the cannons backed down the track jammed right in place for loading.

Mechanically reloaded, mechanically fired again, and took out the speed during the usual assessment as a welcome ceremony.

Zhang Erbiao thought to himself, I wonder if the French gunners are also like this?This is not certain, but he is sure of one thing, the French warships are better than the Dashun warships: at least after the French died, they were buried in the sand in the cabin, allowed to rot, and buried in the ground when they landed.But Dashun's navy, at Liu Yu's request, put it in a cloth bag after death, stuffed it with rice and red dates, garnished it with shells, and threw it into the bottom of the sea as a big rice dumpling.

After three mechanical and numb salvos, the gunner came out and praised the gunners, indicating that there would be extra meals in the evening and it would not be fish, and there was a thunderous cheer.

The three volley salutes really shocked Earl Morpa. His previous contempt for the Dashun Navy gave him a sense of superiority in the navy.

But this welcome volley made him sigh heavily.

Thinking of the glitz and affluence he saw in Guangdong and Songjiang, Count Morpa thought to himself, money, money...the Chinese are really rich.As long as there is money, the gunner's rate of fire will be faster; as long as there is no money, the gunner's rate of fire will not be fast.

Gunpowder training costs money.

Judging from this fleet, it seems that what I thought before was not correct.The earl and the minister of the navy on the opposite side, it only took a few years to have such a fast-firing fleet from scratch, which is really scary.

Duplex on the side was also a little shocked, and spread his hands helplessly.

"My lord, when I came last time, they didn't know how to fire a salvo. But now, they may have the best naval gunners in the world. At least, in terms of firing rate, they are faster than the British."

"No country's fleet is used for defense. The fleet will bring unprecedented ambition to the Chinese. The first victims of this ambition may be the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, so please consider my opinion."

"A better fleet will give them greater ambitions. Greater ambitions will allow them to get out of the offshore and go further south. Southeast Asia, which we don't need, is big enough to accommodate their ambitions."

(End of this chapter)