Dragon Sea Empire

These days, Yin Feng took people to hang out in some literati gathering places, such as Shanxi Merchants Guild Hall, Anhui Guild Hall, Chenghuang Temple, and Hongjia Old Shop. The engraving and printing industry was developed in this dynasty, and Beijing was the political and cultural center. Although the printing industry was not developed, the country Books from several major printing places were gathered in the capital for sale. The Hongjia Old Shop located along the Xihe River was a well-known bookstore in the capital at that time.

There are four major book markets in the country, namely Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. Among them, there are very few printed books in Beijing itself. It appears in the market from time to time, so it has become a famous book market. Most of the bookstores in Beijing are on the right of Daming Gate, outside the Ritual Department, and west of Gongwei Gate. Every time the imperial court will try to raise children, the book market will be set up in the meeting and examination place. Before, three days after the Huachao Festival, it will be moved to the Lantern Market. On the first lunar month and the fifth day of the last ten days, it will be moved to the Chenghuang Temple. The Chengbi Temple is located in the Xichenglong Temple of the capital. The city, with Bijiaofang in the east, has a three-mile-long row of shops. These book shops and nearby restaurants and restaurants often become meeting places for candidates and scholars from various provinces who are rushing to take the exam.

These days are the opening days of the market, and the merchants gather together, the big ones carry the car, the small ones carry the load, and there are also those who carry large and small bags, coming and going, and the products from home and abroad are salty.

Although natural disasters and man-made disasters continue all over the world, the capital, as the center of the world and the gathering place of noble and giant businessmen from all over the country, shows a kind of abnormal prosperity, which is incompatible with the turbulent situation around the capital. Zeng Shan also made friends with several Quanzhou fellow villagers.

It was the first time for You Wenhui to go deep into his own country with Yin Feng. He drew a lot of sketches along the way, and even drew a map of the coast of the Liaodong Peninsula. He was not allowed to go to the Catholic Church in Xuanwumen to meet his friends and teachers without permission.

As one of the first batch of Chinese Jesuit monks, You Wenhui grew up in Macau and had very limited knowledge of the mainland. His painting talent and map drawing skills were learned from Matteo Ricci and Jesuit missionaries. Yes, as the first batch of Chinese believers who were baptized by Matteo Ricci, he has always respected Matteo Ricci.

Although You Wenhui is an assistant to the chief priest and priest in a Taiwan church, he is also a staff member of the business affairs department employed by the China United Company. Therefore, he adheres to the business spirit of keeping promises and keeping promises, so he has to obey Yin Feng's words and stay obediently in the Hanhai Inn.

These few days, Yin Feng and others went out before dawn without knowing what they were doing. They had to wait until dark to return to the inn. You Wenhui received a completely European-style Catholic education. Therefore, most of the time during the day, You Wenhui had to stay alone in the inn, sorting out some map materials drawn along the road.

Next to the Hanhai Inn is "Taipinglou", a restaurant opened by a Shanxi businessman. Since this restaurant is named under the name of a certain father-in-law in the palace, basically government servants, local ruffians, etc. will not come to make trouble, so business Also very good.

On this day, Yin Feng and the others did not go out again, but were discussing something in the house. You Wenhui finished his morning prayers in his own room. Chen Zhongji, Xu Hongji and others knocked on the door and brought some books into the house. Hui Yikan: Taiwan's movable type version of "Geometry", Yin Feng's "Western Observations" and Taiwan's translation and publication of "On the Movement of Celestial Spheres", Frenchman Wei Da's "Introduction to Analytical Methods" (introducing a large number of algebraic symbols, improving three , Quadratic equation solution, pointed out the relationship between roots and coefficients, and is the founder of symbolic algebra) Tataria's pioneering work on ballistics "New Science" and so on --- these books were brought by Kinney Court and others from Europe Due to the lack of corresponding translation talents in Taiwan, the translations of Western science and technology books are all done by missionaries who are well-versed in both Chinese and Western cultures. Jinnige brought thousands of Western books, and it took several years to translate and publish thirty or forty books. Some of them have been used as teaching materials in technical schools and military academies.

You Wenhui also contributed to the publication and printing of these books, and he drew some of the illustrations in the books. He raised his head and asked curiously: "Mr. Chen, Mr. Xu, what do you mean?"

Chen Zhongji said with a smile: "That's right. The owner of the ship hopes that the Chinese diocese of the Jesuits can send more people to Taiwan to serve as school teachers. Of course, you can also allow more churches. Regarding the increase of missionaries who are proficient in Chinese, we still have to ask the Longhua Ministries Association Captain to help, so the owner thinks you can go to church,"

You Wenhui stood up excitedly, and crossed himself on his chest: "God bless Your Excellency, I will go right away and bring these books so that Father Long can see our achievements,"

Chen Zhongji smiled and said, "That's what the owner of the ship meant,"

When You Wenhui was excitedly going to Xuanwumen Church, Yin Feng and Zeng Shan came to the second floor of the "Taiping Building" next to the Hanhai Inn. They sat in front of the window and drank sadly. After a while, Chen Zhongji and Xu Hongji also came He said in a low voice, "Mr. You has already left."

Yin Feng nodded: "Sit down, too. How about it? Let's talk about it. How are you dealing with those scribes these days?"

Chen Zhongji sat down with a wry smile, shook his head and said: "You often say that today's literati's academic style is empty and useless, and their big words are useless. Now I have seen it. These literati's speech is always stereotyped in scientific research, and all the books they read are stereotyped. Standard articles, or just empty talk about Taoism, good Buddha and Zen, as far as I can see, today's world is already in troubled times, and these scholars can only be said to be useless. If foreign enemies come to the city at this time, these scholars can do What, they usually talk about their hearts with their hands, and when things come to an end, they will probably have to die to repay the king, what can the people and people do, you can’t count on these scribes to revitalize the country, "

Yin Feng also smiled wryly and shook his head: "I still wanted to recruit some people with real talents, but... it seems that there is nothing to see in this capital. Taking the capital as a lesson, scholars from all over the country, Probably nothing more than that."

After all, Zeng Shan was one of these literati students, and he still wanted to protect the face of the scholar class: "It can't be generalized, there are also people who worry about the country and the people among the scholars in the world, such as the emperors of Donglin, and those who have a solid heart. Master Xu Guangqi who does practical things..."

Xu Hongji had no nostalgia for his original literati life. He said bluntly: "In my opinion, apart from setting an example in politics and morality, the literati and bureaucrats also have a lot of hobbies like prostitution and alcoholism. The matters that the parties are fighting with in the court have nothing to do with the practice of saving the people from the fire and water, and are equally useless to the country. The norms advocated by the lords of Donglin today are, in the eyes of those advocates, They are worthless at all, more and more people in the officialdom are greedy for profit and forget righteousness, and lose loyalty and filial piety. In the eyes of the world, they are deviant and shameless. Who would believe this kind of self-deceiving preaching?"

Yin Feng also said: "In the recent residence newspaper, Liu Zongzhou, the pedestrian secretary, wrote to the court saying, 'The world is not suffering from lack of talent, but only from lack of heart. He blindly urged the emperor to follow the way of Yao and Shun, and learn from Yao and Shun. The big plan should be based on laws and disciplines. When laws and disciplines are repaired, people will be respected, and people will be respected, and people will be ordered. This statement seems to be correct on the surface, but it is impossible to implement at all, and there is no possibility of actual implementation. First of all, The question is, is there any way for him to turn the current emperor into a 'Yao and Shun',"

Zeng Shan said unconvinced: "The lords of Donglin want to stop the mining supervisor and tax envoys, and exempt business tax. It's a good thing after all."

Yin Feng shook his head and said: "Second Brother's remark is inappropriate. There is nothing wrong with the country's tax collection. The problem is what is the tax used for? If all the tax revenue is used for officials, gentry, nobles, luxury, luxury, and debauchery, then it is to exhaust the people of the whole country to support a group of moths; If it is used to relieve refugees and open up land for people to cultivate and live, then why not,”

Zeng Shan was confused by this unheard of theory, and he was speechless for a long time.

Yin Feng continued: "The main source of taxation in this dynasty is agriculture, but the expenditure of the court is getting bigger and bigger, and the mergers of powerful and powerful are becoming more and more serious. There is nothing wrong with the source of taxation, but what the mine supervisory tax envoys do is actually exploiting industry and commerce, only collecting taxes but not protecting them; Turning a blind eye to the massacre of merchants like us in Luzon, this is the court's negligence, taking our tax money but not protecting us,"

"If you take the tax money, you will protect us," Zeng Shan was stunned by this theory, which is similar to the "contract theory".

Yin Feng nodded and said: "Of course, what else do we have to pay taxes to the country, so I stipulated in Taiwan that the government, gentry, businessmen and the people pay taxes together, and if they pay taxes, they can be protected by our Chinese army. Today's emperor... …The imperial court thinks about collecting money regardless of the method, while the civil officials think about reducing the tax burden. None of them think about how to release water to raise fish and cultivate tax sources. If so, the mine supervisor tax envoy is a kind of plundering, and the people are dissatisfied , the civil officials objected, and the emperor's income was limited, resulting in a three-lose situation, and the real winners were the eunuchs and their minions who did specific things."

Zeng Shan's mind was buzzing and he couldn't react. Xu Hongji was also stunned by Yin Feng's argument. Chen Zhongji said with a smile: "These words of the captain are often said to those students in the military academy. I thought All the people in the world pay taxes and silver for the imperial court, and the imperial court has to protect the people. This is a matter of course, it is the same as when we do business, we pay money and deliver goods at the same time.”

Zeng Shan almost spit out the wine he drank in his mouth: "This, this, how can this national event be confused with business,"

Yin Feng smiled and said: "The court and the people have no definite relationship at all. The so-called water can carry a boat and overturn it. If the court can't let the people live a good life, why should we pay him taxes? To pay taxes to the court is to let the officials of the court do things for us. If they don’t do things for us, we don’t pay taxes.

Zeng Shan finally came to his senses, and said with a wry smile: "I forgot, we were originally businessmen of the Zhonghua Company, but the court of the Ming Dynasty was not a businessman. Since ancient times, there has been no court like this in all dynasties."

After You Wenhui came back in the evening, he informed everyone that Long Huamin, the president of the Chinese Diocese of the Jesuits, and missionary Xiong Sanba were not in the church. They both went to Xu Guangqi’s residence in Tianjin.