Dragon Sea Empire

After reorganization, the Chinese navy and navy unified the classification and names of ships; giant cannon ships such as Feizihao became "main battleships", three-masted gunboats were called "gunboats", and light warships with two masts or less were called "gunships". Clippers", the entire fleet now has ten "main battleships", and the entire army is divided into three squadrons; the first fleet governs the Flying Wolf, the Flying Leopard and other battleships to patrol the Yellow Sea and the Ryukyu waters in the north of Taiwan Island, where the base is located. Bagang, also known as the Northern Fleet: The Second Fleet is the main fleet stationed in Hong Kong, Taiwan. It has five main battleships, and Taipei Chicken Coop is the auxiliary base. It is the most powerful and faces the entire southeast coast of China: The Third Fleet Also known as the Nanyang Fleet, it has the most fast ships and the largest sea area to be responsible for. Its main base is in Manila Port on Luzon Island, and Nanya State in West Borneo is its auxiliary base.

In order to respond to Yin Feng, after discussions between the leader of the Chinese Army and the company's security department, Zeng Jingshan, who was the interim chief, ordered the mobilization of the Second Fleet, declaring it to be an exercise.

At this time, Yin Feng, who had no knowledge of the danger he was facing, was chatting with missionary You Wenhui and others in his cockpit of Xinxing.

Zeng Qi was also sitting on the side, smiling faintly, listening to the narration of this Chinese Jesuit monk.

Lin Xiao would be very surprised if he saw that Mr. Zeng was also here; the envoy he sent to Quanzhou to inform Zeng Qi of the situation only arrived in Penghu. Most of the yamen servants are from Yinfeng Zhonghua Company, most of the guards in Quanzhou have been bought by Yin Feng's Zhonghua Company, and the inspectors and Xun soldiers of the Jinmen Inspection Department are all sent by Yin Feng, so Mr. Zeng secretly left Quanzhou Shang No one knows about the new number.

Yin Feng was going to Hangzhou to attend the shareholder meeting in person. This was an open purpose. In fact, Yin Feng went to Hangzhou to meet important figures in the imperial court. This was the result of Zeng Qi's years of hard work in making connections.

The inseparable relationship between the Zhonghua Company and the Ming Dynasty in the coastal area has always been a persistent ailment in Zeng Qi's heart. After Zeng Qian's death, he devoted himself to Yin Feng's career and his own family's destiny. He did not want Yin Feng and The imperial court finally moved to the point of confrontation, but they also knew that although Yin Feng acted a little impulsively and was immature in officialdom and politics, he was a person with his own opinions, and it was impossible for him to change his way of doing things. Good track to run.

The governor of Fujian has changed again. The former Chen Zizhen offended the tax supervisor Gao Cai and was transferred to Yunnan. The current governor Ding Jisi is a master who doesn't want to be troublesome, and the previous two governors Chen Xingxue and Chen Zizhen left a lot of mess to keep him busy. So basically there is no time to plot against the Zhonghua United Company on Taiwan Island. The tax eunuch Gao Cai plotted against Yin Feng several times but failed. Now that the anti-tax supervision sentiment in Fujian Province is spreading everywhere, his actions have also restrained a lot. Therefore, the Chinese company and the Fujian government have basically been at peace with each other in the past few years. Taiwan and Hong Kong have increased the tax money handed over to the Fujian government to 12 taels of silver each year, which has exceeded the overseas trade tax money of Yuegang in Chenghai County. At the same time, Yin Feng also sponsored the government to open schools, helped poor scholars to take the imperial examination, or hired those poor scholars who had passed the imperial examination to work in Taiwan. Therefore, the whole class of officials and gentlemen in Fujian seldom opposed the Chinese company.

Zeng Qi felt: We should take this opportunity to connect with senior court officials in the capital and consolidate Yin Feng's current position.

In the past, whether it was recruiting security or fighting, Yin Feng was always facing the government representatives from Fujian, and had never had direct contact with the imperial court of the capital.

Li Tingji, who is now the Minister of Rites of the Prince Taibao in the cabinet, and the scholar of Shudongge University, is from Jinjiang, Fujian; Ye Xianggao, the chief assistant of the cabinet, is a Jinshi in Fuqing, Fujian. ) In May, Ye Xianggao became Minister of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of Dongge University, and became the prime minister. The following year, the chief minister Zhu Geng died of illness, and he was promoted to the chief minister. Some people called it "the only minister".

At that time, Shenzong had ignored the imperial court for a long time, and Li Tingji, a cabinet minister, was attacked by public opinion and ignored politics at home. In fact, only Ye Xianggao was left in the cabinet. There were other vacancies and mining tax suspensions, but the emperor did not respond. Ye himself is a bureaucrat who still retains the conscience of a scholar. Although he is a veteran of the Donglin Party, he has been an official for many years. He did not act impulsively, tried to be safe, and could live in peace with the Zhejiang party. Therefore, he also mediated disputes among various factions within the imperial court several times, but due to the deep grievances between the parties, the mediation was difficult to achieve results.

However, Nanzhili, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Huguang and other provinces have been flooded year after year, and a large area of ​​farmland has been submerged and has not retreated. Millions of people have been displaced. Floods and wind disasters occurred continuously every year, and refugees were scattered everywhere. Many went to Taiwan and Luzon Island to escape from famine to make a living. Ye Xianggao had a lot of affection for his hometown in Fujian. He was rescued with the help of Qian and the government, and he has a good impression of Zhonghua Company.

Ye Xianggao's cousin Lin Shangjiong (named Bingqing) is a wealthy Fujian businessman who has been in business in Beijing for more than ten years and is one of the leaders of the Fujian Guild Hall in the capital; Ye Xianggao's cousin Xue Mingqi and uncle Xue Rugang are well-known in Fuzhou City A wealthy businessman has close trade relations with Zhonghua Company. Xue Mingqi also bought ten shares of Zhonghua Company, invested 5000 taels of silver, and became a shareholder; Trade has earned a lot of money, and through the relationship of these people, Zeng Qi finally got in touch with Ye Xianggao, the chief minister of the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty.

"Ye Lao's nephew, Ye Chenggao, has invested in our company and is considered a shareholder. If he goes to Hangzhou, he will come, and he will come with a letter from Ye Ge. If our Chinese company can set up its headquarters in Quanzhou, It also means that the imperial court has formally recognized our sphere of influence," Zeng Qi is over sixty years old, and the elder is still traveling at sea, Yin Feng couldn't bear it, he bowed his head in meditation, listening to him.

"...As long as the imperial court acquiesces that our company can practice in Taiwan, then our army will be justified..."

Listening to Zeng Qi's nagging, Yin Feng always felt a little unreliable. He tried his best to build a good relationship with the court. It took only a day or two to do so, but he never got any definite promise or promise from the government. Recognized by the law, on the contrary, there are many stabbings in the back and stumbling blocks. After recruiting, he has held the title of a thousand households on his head for several years. He defeated Japanese pirates and helped the court wipe out many pirates along the coast of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong. I didn't get any credit, and I haven't been promoted to an official position.

Of course, it doesn't matter whether the official position is promoted to Yin Feng, but the subtle attitude of the imperial government towards the status of the Chinese company is a key issue. Every year, the business office of the Chinese company in Beijing and the inside line of the Fujian government will regularly send a copy of the mansion to Taiwan. , and provided it to Yin Feng and other company executives to understand the dynamics of the court. From some memorials copied by the mansion, Ye Xianggao and others have also heard about it: the official is fairly clean, and he has a good impression of the businessman, and he even set up a monument for the businessman. It is extremely rare among senior officials at the same time. More importantly, Ye believes that there is not much difference between running a business and being an official. The purpose is to obtain profits, but the means of making profits are different. This is a rare frank statement among high-ranking officials in the Ming Dynasty. His hometown is in Fujian. As a member of the coastal area, he understands that the coastal residents "feed hard for the people" and "take the sea as their field". Therefore, he has a tolerant side towards businessmen. However, as the chief assistant, Ye Xianggao had to support the imperial court's maritime ban policy, advocating the strict prohibition of Japanese trade and cracking down on smuggling maritime merchants.

Therefore, Yin Feng believes that it is impossible for Ye Xianggao to violate the ancestral system and fully open the sea ban, nor is it possible to violate his Confucian cultural background and make major adjustments to the economic structure of the Ming Dynasty; therefore, Ye Xianggao has no way to fully The reform of the political system in the late Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty has reached the end of Wanli, and it is already like a patient suffering from a serious illness. It is hard to return. Unless there is a drastic and thorough reform, there is no hope. However, such reforms will inevitably affect various interest groups. It is also unknown whether the sick and weak body in the early years of the Ming Dynasty can survive such a strong medicine-so, the situation in the early Ming Dynasty is that if there is no reform, it will die, and if it is reformed, it may die.

Since Yin Feng confronted Chen Xingxue and Gao Cai a few years ago, he has completely lost confidence in the Ming government.

Zeng Qi didn't leave until very late. He had been teaching Yin Feng how to deal with scholars and officials, and taught him the so-called "three points in doing things and seven points in life".

This may be the characteristic of traditional Chinese culture; everyone has to spend a lot of energy to "be a human being", but there is less time for real things. Tangled in the relationship network, trying to be a human being, if this continues, China's backwardness is inevitable.

Yin Feng reluctantly and patiently listened to Zeng Qi's instruction, and respectfully sent the old man back to his own cabin, and then returned to his own cabin rubbing his head.

Li Lihua smiled and handed over a hot towel and said, "Wipe your face, I see you have a headache."

"It's not my father-in-law who caused the trouble. I think it's useless to have direct contact with Mr. Ye Ge. If it wasn't for his old man's insistence on asking me to meet Ye Chenggao, I wouldn't waste this time."

Li Lihua didn't say anything, she sat quietly by the bed and looked at Yin Feng with her chin on her hand.

Yin Feng opened a blue-covered Western book on the table, looked at it, and said to Li Lihua: "I am really unable to translate this "On the Movement of Celestial Spheres". You have studied Latin, so you should do the translation." ,"

The book in front of me is the second edition of "On the Movement of Celestial Spheres", which can be called Copernican's scientific masterpiece known to all. It was brought back in a blue cloth letter case with a calf leather cover, and on the title page was the Latin name of the missionary Luo Yagu who came to China with Jin Nige on the same boat.

Since Gutenberg invented movable type printing in 1453 in Europe, a tradition close to the style of ancient manuscripts has been popular for about 200 years. The printing house only provides the pages as the inner core of the book. Everyone who buys this book, It is necessary to find another person to do book binding or book binding. This kind of binding can be carried out completely according to the buyer's personal likes and dislikes. Therefore, at that time, for the books printed in the same edition, each volume can have its own characteristics, and each volume is different. In the same way (some people like to bind more than one kind of books in the same volume), the practice of binding each volume printed in the same edition in later generations became popular until the 17th century, so "On the Movement of the Celestial Spheres" "The first edition (Nuremberg, 1543) and second edition (Basel, 1566) are treasures in the collection of ancient books for later generations.

Yin Feng asked Jinnige for this book only because he was interested in the well-known "On the Revolution of Celestial Spheres". Unfortunately, when it comes to Copernicus' "De Revolutionibus" (De Revolutionibus), there is almost no one. People don't know, but people who have really read this book, even if they just browsed it without asking for a deep understanding, or just flipped through it casually, are probably very few. Even in the European scientific community at that time, only a few people read it. I understand, so this book won a title later, "The Book No One Has Read".

The words written by Copernicus back then were completely at the top of the Tower of Babita for a poor liberal arts college student like Yin Feng. Yin Feng almost couldn't understand them at all. Li Lihua studied Latin systematically with missionaries Wen and some mathematics knowledge, she can occasionally understand a word or two.

Li Lihua spread her hands together: "I can't understand what this book is talking about, forget it, aren't you going to Hangzhou to find Father Guo Jujing, he should be able to help you,"

Yin Feng threw aside the second edition of "On the Movement of Celestial Spheres", which is worth tens of millions of gold, and said with a smile: "You are right, translating these books is too much brain work, let's do something less brain-intensive." Let's do it," he flung himself at Li Lihua...

Ten days later, in the early hours of the morning, the Xinxing and the five three-masted warships escorting them suddenly encountered the officers and sailors from the Changguo Water Village in Zhejiang in the sea west of the Zhoushan Islands.

There are about a dozen ships in the navy, all of which are single-masted flat-bottomed offshore fast boats. In the past, they rarely patrolled the sea off Zhoushan.

Lin Haisheng, the captain of the Xinxing, was in his thirties, Danmin, Quanzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province. He was a sailor of the Fuxing Ship recruited by Yin Feng when he went to Manila to rescue people. He was the earliest direct descendant of Yin Feng.

He came to Yin Feng's cabin and called out in a low voice: "My lord, there are navy officers and soldiers blocking the way, saying they want to board the ship for inspection."

Lin Haisheng thought to himself: Captain Yin seems to have become a little lazy recently, and the habit of practicing with the sailors every morning seems to have disappeared.

Yin Feng opened the door and came out while wearing his clothes, and said a little uncomfortably: "...What's the matter, did you show them the flag of the Fujian Navy?"

"They said they acted on the orders of Zhejiang General Shen Yourong, and they ignored us at all,"

"It's strange, go and invite Master Xu and Mr. Zeng, let the fleet stop first, take a defensive posture, and prepare for battle,"