I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 647 Rubber
Names on the gold medal list, hairpins paraded through the streets.

The emperor and his ministers were very satisfied with this year's new Jinshi. The emperor did not reject the rankings they proposed, but only slightly adjusted the rankings between the number one and the second.

This made the ministers feel a rare respect. His Majesty is indeed a wise and wise king and respects scholars like them.

As the territory of the Ming Dynasty continued to expand, and there were not many wars in the past two years, the finances became increasingly abundant. The number of new Jinshi this year was as high as 432, which is close to the number of Jinshi admitted in the early Qing Dynasty.

The two new scholars at the end belong to the places of Yecheng and Luzon.

As the number of new Jinshi scholars increased, the hairpin parade became quite crowded, and the streets and alleys of the city were filled with onlookers who came to see the new Jinshi scholars.

Fortunately, the Wucheng Military and Horse Division had already prepared and mobilized most of the soldiers in advance to maintain order.

"Don't be crowded!"

"Go back, go back, don't rush towards the champion's horse's hooves."

"Don't throw handkerchiefs and heavy objects..."

"Nang Xipi, who is throwing melons and fruits...

"Oops, come quickly, the champion has been knocked off his horse!"

In a flurry of excitement, even though there were five cities of troops to protect him, the people watching were too enthusiastic. Qin Yongjun, the number one scholar promoted by the emperor, still suffered a "bloody" misfortune.

Fortunately, the soldiers of the Wucheng Army and Horse Division fulfilled their duties. As soon as the champion fell off his horse, two soldiers came up, carried the fainted man away.

The remaining No. 2 and No. 3 overall picks were also shocked, and the leading scholar, the No. 1 Scholar, was carried away, so the parade of new scholars was announced to be over in advance.

However, the new scholars were not depressed, because they had already walked most of the street, they had already pretended to be cool, and all that was left was to go back to drink, have dinner, and exchange feelings.

When the news that the new champion was knocked unconscious by the common people came back to the palace, the emperor just laughed it off and said, "I know, someone will send a bowl of ginseng soup to replenish the champion's strength."

……

In the city of Nanjing, new scholars were named on the gold medal list and hairpins were paraded through the streets.

Far away on the Yinzhou continent, the first colony established by Ming Dynasty in Yinzhou, Boxu Port, has been almost completed in a few years.

This was due to the support of the Spanish in Mexico and the establishment of the supply port on the Sandalwood Islands, which greatly reduced the cost and time of Ming merchant ships traveling to and from Yinzhou.

In today's Sandalwood Islands, the indigenous leaders of the main island, the Alayala faction, who first came into contact with the Ming fleet, have gradually realized that the Chinese are not their Longnuo gods.

But he did not publicize it to the tribal people, not only because the Chinese have had more and more giant ships (merchant ships) traveling to and from the Sandalwood Islands in recent years, but also because he realized the power of the Chinese.

In the past few years, rival tribes from other islands have tried to attack them. This is also the tradition of the indigenous people of these islands, and they will fight each other from time to time.

War will produce a large number of slaves for sacrifice and consume the excess population to maintain the balance of the island's ecological chain.

It seems barbaric, and it is indeed barbaric, but the reason is that there are only so many resources available on the island, and the tribe can only maintain its existence through involution.

It wasn't until the British colonists discovered this place and brought various industrial products and goods here that they gradually changed the primitive and barbaric ecological chain here.

But now, with the arrival of the Ming Dynasty, they have replaced the British colonists from another time and space. The Alay'ala faction is not really an ignorant indigenous chief who blindly believes in the gods.

Otherwise, if the unlucky British captain left and returned, the Alai'ala faction would not have led the island's natives to kill the gods. You are just a god in the Kingdom of God, not a mortal chief.

You have come down to earth, and as a mortal chief, I have already served you, so you should return to the kingdom of God obediently.

If you don't want to go back, then I will send you back.

After the British captain died, the natives on the island were very happy to hold a sacred burial for him and pray for him to return to the kingdom of God.

Ever since the Alai'ala faction saw the Chinese repelling the indigenous tribes on other islands, his ambitions began to gradually become apparent. Since the Chinese are not gods who came to snatch his position as chief, and the Chinese are so powerful, can they start from Buy some of their powerful weapons from the Chinese.

Unifying Hawaii... no, it should be the Sandalwood Islands, this idea lingered in his mind.

When some Chinese businessmen were supplying here, they once expressed the concept of "emperor" to the Alai Ala faction. Since the Chinese can be emperors, why can't they become the "emperors" of the Sandalwood Islands?
Historically, it was his son who really accomplished this.

The Ming Dynasty still doesn't know that the Aleiya faction wants to unify the Sandalwood Islands and become the "emperor" of the indigenous people. It may be even happier if they know.

Because in this way, we can further develop the Sandalwood Islands and continue to colonize and expand in the later period, which will also save a lot of time in educating the indigenous people. Moreover, if the other party wants to unify the archipelago, it must increase commercial transactions with Ming China, so that it can continue to strengthen China's economic control here.

Even now, the price of sandalwood in Guangzhou has shrunk by almost one-fifth.

It was those Guangzhou maritime merchants who realized that this was not going to work, so they joined forces and began to reduce the shipment volume of sandalwood and stabilize the price of sandalwood.

That's the case for the Tanxiang Islands and Boxu Port Colony for the time being, but when Kang Zifei came to Yinzhou this year, the Spanish's northern port actually received exciting news.

"You said you discovered rubber?" Kang Zifei was surprised and happy.

There were a total of five businessmen summoned by him, each of whom had accurate information, and three of them also brought corresponding rubber products.

Searching for rubber was an order issued by the emperor. After all, steam engines had made huge breakthroughs, so rubber must also be on the agenda.

As early as last year, with the gradual improvement of the Yinzhou route, Kang Zifei issued a reward order to Spanish and Han merchants in Mexico so that they could help find the rubber the emperor needed.

I never thought that in just one year, there would already be news about rubber.

This is normal. The history of rubber in Yinzhou is too early. As early as around 1600 BC, the indigenous Indians here had records of using rubber.

It's just that the native Indians don't know how to purify softened rubber or use it for industrial production. They simply know that the sap scraped from this tree can be used to make leather balls, shoes, etc.

Interestingly, as early as the time of Columbus, he had discovered that indigenous Indian children could play with a very elastic leather ball. Columbus found it interesting and took one back with him.

Then there is no more then.

No one realized that this thing was made of rubber. They just thought that this ball was so elastic that it was indeed a new thing from the New World.

Hundreds of years later, Spanish and Portuguese colonists also discovered that the Indians used some special rubber products, and then... they thought it was the mysterious witchcraft of the Indians.

More than two hundred years have passed since rubber was discovered by European colonists, and no one has ever really paid attention to the value of this thing.

By the way, if nothing else, it must have been in the past two years that the French finally discovered the source of rubber products in Peru, and published a book "Travel Chronicles of the South American Mainland" for this purpose.

The origin of rubber trees, methods of collecting rubber and making rubber balls are discussed in detail.

(End of this chapter)