Dragon Sea Empire

When Yin Feng heard Xu Guangqi's name, he suddenly thought that Xu Guangqi was farming in Tianjin at this time.

"Let's go and see Master Xu, how about it," Yin Feng said, "It's because he happens to have no official position. If we can invite him to Taiwan, then my proposed college can be formally established."

In the 38th year of Wanli, the year of Matteo Ricci's death, Xu Guangqi's term of guard expired and he returned to Beijing to resume his post. Since then, except for a few temporary errands, he has been serving as a reviewer of the relatively idle Imperial Academy.

Unlike ordinary literati and officials at that time who were keen on socializing with pen and ink, Xu Guang spent more time on scientific and technological research such as astronomy, algorithm, agronomy, and water conservancy, and engaged in a lot of translation and writing in this field. During this period, Xu Guangqi cooperated with missionaries to re-edit "Elements of Geometry" and published the second edition.

While studying science from missionaries, Xu Guangqi also participated in religious activities as a Catholic, helping missionaries publish religious books, and sheltering missionary activities. He disagreed, so he wrote a letter to become an official, purchased land in Tianjin, planted rice, flowers, medicinal materials, etc., and between the 41st and 46th years of Wanli (16l3, 1618), he was engaged in agricultural experiments in Tianjin, and wrote it as "the rule of excrement" (fertilization method ), and wrote the outline of his later masterpiece on agriculture, "The Complete Book of Agriculture", and spent most of the rest of his time traveling between Beijing and Tianjin. The leadership of the Jesuit Chinese diocese, such as Long Huamin and Xiong Sanba, had a very close relationship with him This time, they all went to Xu Guangqi's house in Tianjin. Therefore, when You Wenhui came to the door, there were only some missionaries who had just arrived in China in the Xuanwumen church, and almost no one recognized You Wenhui.

You Wenhui was very happy when Yin Feng said that he was going to visit Xu Guangqi: "Paul Xu is the pillar of our Chinese church in the interior, and you, the owner of the ship, are the protector of our church in the coastal area. You should meet."

Before Yin Feng could say anything, Zeng Shan shook his head and said, "Master Xu is an upright official with good conduct, completely different from those corrupt officials. Because of this, I don't think he will go to Taiwan."

You Wenhui asked anxiously: "Mr. Zeng, why is this?"

Zeng Shan said: "When I was traveling in the capital, I also had a meeting with Mr. Xu. I don't know much about other aspects, but he has a heart of worrying about the country and the people. He is a loyal minister of the court, and our Zhonghua company's position is very embarrassing. If the name is not right and the words are not right, Mr. Xu will never go to our Taiwan,"

Yin Feng nodded: "Second brother, you are right, I didn't expect this: although Xu Guangqi is a Catholic, he is first and foremost an official of the imperial court, and he is a loyal minister." He shook his head regretfully: "It's a pity, Mr. Xu Guangqi is talented and intelligent, but he did not pass the imperial examination until he was 47 years old and started to study this technology. It was a waste of the most creative age in his life. If he started to study mathematics and other knowledge from Taixi 20 years in advance, then How many inventions will there be?"

Zeng Shan, Xu Hongji, Chen Zhongji, and You Wenhui looked at each other, not understanding what Yin Feng was talking about.

"Forget it, there is nothing to do here in the capital, everyone, let's leave the capital tomorrow and head south,"

Zeng Shan, a literati who had stayed in the capital for several years, lost his temper and said quickly: "Brother Feng, since you have come to Beijing, let's take a tour of Beijing city. Since the Liao and Jin Dynasties, it has been said that there are 'Eight Views of Yantai' in this Beijing. Menyan tree, Yuquan hanging rainbow, Lugou Xiaoyue, Xishan boundary snow, Taiye Qingbo, Qiongtai spring cloud, Jintai sunset, Juyong Dengcui, the scenery is worth seeing. ',..."

Yin Feng shook his head and interrupted Zeng Shan: "Forget it, we'll talk about it next time, we will come back one day,"

Only then did Zeng Shan realize that he was not here for fun, so he shut up and sat down embarrassedly.

……

The next day, Yin Feng and his party left the capital and went south to Nanjing along the canal.

Yin Feng still kept You Wenhui and asked him to wait for Long Huamin and others to come back in the South Hall, and then told them the request for additional missionaries. Yin Feng also asked You Wenhui to take a batch of books from the Jesuit Catholic Church , are all works recently written and translated by Xu Guangqi: the first 6 volumes of "The Elements of Geometry" (co-translated with Matteo Ricci), "Measurement Method", "Measurement Similarities and Differences", "Sweet Potatoes", "Pythagorean Justice", " Jian Pingyi Said", "Taixi Water Method".

There is no such thing as intellectual property rights in this era. Yin Feng plans to print and publish a large number of these books after returning to Taiwan, and some of them will be used as teaching materials.

However, on the third day after Yin Feng and others left, Long Huamin, Xiong Sanba and Xu Guangqi returned to the capital. Yin Feng and Xu Guangqi failed to meet each other, leaving infinite regrets.

You Wenhui’s mission was not completed either; after Long Huamin took over Matteo Ricci’s post, he pursued a missionary policy that was completely different from Matteo Ricci’s. Words such as "God" are no longer advocated for missionaries to learn from Matteo Ricci. Matteo Ricci's missionary policy of "opening the way for missionary work with science and technology" and "respecting traditional Chinese customs" has been abandoned. You Wenhui failed to learn from Longhua Long Huamin even asked the diocese in Taiwan not to waste time on disseminating scientific and technological knowledge, but to concentrate on the work of "saving people's hearts for God".

This directly led to another conflict between the Chinese United Company and the Jesuits.

……

Yin Feng, who didn't know anything about these situations, was heading south along the Grand Canal. They were on a boat of a Ganzhou businessman who was closely related to the Huaxing Alliance. No., Huaxing Bank and Bank No.

At the same time, the main battleship Dingyuan and Xinxing, led by Mai Dahai, left the Bohai Sea together with other warships of the task force, bypassed the Shandong Peninsula, and headed south close to the coast of the Yellow Sea. This time, the fleet still broke through the Denglai River at night. In the flood season, he entered the Yellow Sea without any surprise or danger.

Near Jingqu, the situation along the road is relatively stable. When the group entered Shandong, they saw groups of refugees wandering around. When passing through Bazhou, Yongqing, etc., the group saw that the houses along the way were empty** Most of the mulberry jujube trees were cut down, and there was no cattle or sheep in the field. Residents helped the old and the young, or scraped up the soil for food, or picked up grass for food. It turned out that Shandong was hit by locusts four years ago, and most of the land had no harvest. ;Because the officials did not organize manpower to repair the water conservancy, Shandong has been hit by disasters year after year. Since the beginning of spring this year, it has not rained for more than three months.

Yin Feng and the others went south along the canal. Because there were many water transport ships going south and north along the river, the conditions along the way were good. If you leave the canal for a while, you can see the tragic scene of fields abandoned and starvation everywhere.

Near Linqingguan, the boat of Yin Feng and others was blocked by a banknote pass on the canal. Linqingguan is the first customs tax payment office in Shandong, where the capital goes south along the canal. There are two iron cables locked across the canal. Across the two banks, in front of the Linjinguan Guanlou, there are five floating boats connected with iron cables to cross half of the river.

The boat that Yin Feng was on had already been taxed twice in Hebei, and just after entering Shandong, there was another bill pass. He couldn't help sighing: "This bill is everywhere, almost catching up with the expressway tollbooth."

Xu Hongji was accompanying him and asked curiously, "What is the highway?"

Yin Feng hurriedly changed the subject: "How many gates are there on the road going south?"

Xu Hongji thought for a while and said: "Four years ago, when the tax envoy Eunuch Yang was in chaos in Shandong, I passed through Shandong and went south to Fujian and Zhejiang. There were at least three bank gates from Shandong to Nanjing, both in Zhenjiang and Nanjing, but these were established by the imperial court. The checkpoints, the checkpoints set up privately by various places and the tax customs temporarily added by the tax eunuchs, these are not counted, "

Yin Feng sighed again: "This is a heavy burden for long-distance trafficking,"

Xu Hongji sneered and said: "This is also for ordinary businessmen. Those wealthy businessmen with high-ranking officials and nobles as their backers can pass without paying taxes at all. These subordinate officials are also bullying the weak and fearing the hard."

Downstairs in Linjin Pass, private small boats come and go, and the floating boats on the shore will open a small opening every day, called Xiaoguan, to allow those local civilian ships to pass, but larger merchant ships must stop for inspection.

The ship that Yin Feng was on had to stop to pay the road money, and the merchant ship had to pass customs and pay taxes. All kinds of participants were required to fill in the list. A certain place to live and sell, or a certain place to sell goods", and then fill in the goods sold, such as "how many or dozens of satin silk boxes, how many pieces of a certain satin in the first size, how many pairs of a certain satin clothes", etc., and "someone in the boat, shop Someone from the household, someone from the owner of the pond, someone who writes the bill, and prepares the details to open the report." The boat owner fills in the list, indicating the head of the beam and the quantity of the goods carried, such as "a certain county in a certain county, a certain person from the boat household, or leave the customs, Or enter the customs, a certain number of Liangtou, install a certain person from a certain place, or a certain amount of rice and wheat, or a certain amount of certain goods, or have a ticket to pay for a license, or report to a certain person at the port, write a certain person, and the ship will probably carry rice and wheat Most of them, if they carry goods, they must be the same as those reported by the merchants, so that they can be checked.” Related to this, “every shopkeeper, owner of the pond, and wharf” must report a list, explaining that “the goods that go out of the customs are bought by the shopkeepers, Counting by shopkeepers; writing on behalf of the pier when exiting the customs, passing by the pier, entering and exiting goods, but when passing through a pond somewhere, the owner of the crossing pond will hand over the count." In short, fill in the details, which is more troublesome than the toll booths of later generations up.

After the merchant handed in the list, the tax officer "checked the same", according to the current regulations, calculated the amount of tax paid, "registered and filled in the card", ordered him to go to the tax office, and paid in turn. Note in the middle, "This merchant reports the goods, and the banknotes should be paid and converted into silver. In addition to issuing the officials to collect them, they will also be issued a ticket license, and the customs officers will check and cut the corners and release them immediately." When the merchant passes through the customs, the official The service must check the cargo invoice, if it does not meet the requirements, it will not be allowed to enter and exit the customs.

In addition, merchant ships have to queue up to pass the customs. When entering the customs, they are allocated [-] black chips; when they exit the customs, they are given [-] red chips. Hold the ticket, and the ship owner will take the money to pass the customs. Of course, if you are willing to pay some bribes and silver taels, you can pass the customs in advance. ", and silver is "white wax". Yin Feng only did business overseas before, and he was not good at it.

Xu Hongji was right. Yin Feng and his party were intercepted eight times at least along the way before they arrived at Zhenjiang by the Yangtze River.

Ahead is Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Empire,