Dragon Sea Empire

Members of the imperial mission, including Xu Guangqi, were taken by Zeng Yue into the former inspection department, Chengzhai, and now the headquarters of the Zhonghua Company were arranged to rest in the "Anhaiguan" inn run by the company. Yin Feng went to the pier to participate in the The Triumph Ceremony of the Taiwan Fleet of the Navy.

This made Sheng Yihong and the others very dissatisfied. Even Yuan Chonghuan, Zhang Ye and the others couldn't hold back their anger. They could see that the person Yin Feng boarded the boat to greet was only Xu Guangqi, not including the imperial envoys. all members of .

At the company headquarters, only some servants were arranged to help them carry the salute, and even Zeng Yue, who had been accompanying him all the time, disappeared in a flash. Yuan Chonghuan wanted to go out to inquire about the situation, but was blocked by a few black soldiers who were like black charcoal groups at the door. Yuan Chonghuan was from Guangdong and had been to Guangzhou. He had seen local gentry and officials buy black slaves from Macau, but he didn’t regard these black people as monsters. It’s just that these people couldn’t understand him. No matter what he said, they just wouldn’t let him go out.

The more than [-] members of the imperial envoys of the Ming Dynasty are now under house arrest. Although the Anhai Pavilion is luxuriously decorated, the rooms are spacious, and the furniture is a combination of Chinese and Western, they are here to negotiate a peace treaty with the pirates, aren’t they? to travel.

Sheng Yihong, Zhang Ye, Yuan Chonghuan and others gathered in front of Xu Guangqi and asked to argue with Yin Feng: What is the reason for neglecting the imperial court envoys so much.

But Xu Guangqi glanced at the crowd, sighed, and said lightly: "After you enter the city, come all the way, what can you learn from what you have seen and heard?"

Everyone looked at each other for a moment, and Yuan Chonghuan spoke first: "Bachelor Xu, my student's humble opinion: the only one who can threaten the Ming Dynasty today is the Chinese pirates."

Sheng Yihong snorted dissatisfiedly: "Hmph, Mr. Yuan, please be careful what you say. The Great Ming Dynasty is as stable as Mount Tai. Now it is the pirate army who is the first to beg for peace, but you talk like this. This is scaremongering."

Xu Guangqi, Yuan Chonghuan and others were very helpless to Sheng Yihong's stubbornness and ignorance of the world, and they could only pretend that they didn't hear it at the moment. The warships, cannons, and firearms are sharp, and what is even more surprising is that the land it occupies is prosperous, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, which seems to be the atmosphere of a country..."

He took out a stack of documents, which were the residence newspapers from Jiangnan half a month ago, "Let's take a look, they put these residence newspapers in my room...,"

Everyone gathered around to take a look, and looked at the vaguely printed mansion newspaper with great difficulty. They were all silent. "The tabloid, printed and distributed in Suzhou, where the printing industry is well developed, is commonly called "the tabloid" by the common people.

It is easy to see that this printed matter is printed with movable type, and many of the characters are not aligned. It can be seen that it was printed illegally by the people. If Yin Feng hadn't invented ink and was the first to use movable lead type printing in the area under his control, Daming The move to publish newspapers using movable type printing will have to be delayed for another 20 years.

Xu Guangqi took out a stack of papers again and put them on the table: "Let's take a look at these again. These are the so-called "Business Daily" and "Times News" published and printed locally."

Everyone gathered around to take a look, and found that it was also printed with movable type, but its printing quality was significantly higher than the pirated version of "Di Bao" published in the Ming Dynasty's ruling area.

Newspaper printing in ancient China originated very early. It developed initially in the Song Dynasty, but the Yuan and Ming dynasties stagnated. What are the reasons? One is the restriction of printing technology, because newspaper printing is different from book printing and has a strong Timeliness requires publication and distribution as soon as possible. Traditional woodblock printing is obviously not suitable. Moreover, woodblock printing is labor-intensive and time-consuming, so it is suitable for reprinting after storage. Newspapers are one-time printed products and will not be reprinted after printing. Using woodblock printing for newspapers is not only The speed cannot meet the requirements, and it is not economical. Therefore, woodblock printing is not suitable for newspaper printing, so wax plates and bean curd plates have emerged as the times require. However, the quality was very poor. Under the social conditions at that time, the only way to do it was to use movable type printing. However, the development of movable type printing in the Ming Dynasty was slow, and it always stayed at the level of manual operation. It did not do much for newspaper printing. Traditional woodblock printing uses handwriting on the board, and its fonts are all popular and loved by the society at that time, such as Yan, Liu, Ou, and Yu in the Tang Dynasty, Zhao Ti in the Yuan Dynasty, etc., which fonts do you want to use for official and private engravings? , which kind of font can be written, which cannot be achieved by the production of movable type. Moreover, the number of ancient books printed is small, and the engraved block can be stored and printed as needed, while the movable type version does not have this convenience. Mohists love calligraphy and pay attention to the elegant fonts of books and periodicals. Moreover, the above-mentioned things have been deeply ingrained in the minds of people in the past dynasties, forming a tradition, which makes it difficult to develop and popularize movable type printing, which restricts the printing of newspapers from the perspective of technology.

During the days when Xu Guangqi was forced to suspend his job, he had dealt with booksellers in Nanjing and the capital in order to publish his own translations of "Elements of Geometry" and "Nongshu". He naturally knew the relationship between printing and cultural transmission. It's not because of the advanced printing technology of the Chinese Army.

He pointed to these two piles of printed materials, and said with a wry smile: "Everyone understands, the newspapers they published also reprinted news from the Jingshi Mansion, Guizhou and Chengdu have been besieged, the She'an rebels have appeared in Guilin, and the southwestern half of the country is in jeopardy Ah, comparing the two sides, this matter should be true, "

Sheng Yihong said angrily: "The residence newspaper said: Wuchang, Wuhu and other places have been recovered at the end of last month, and the imperial court should mobilize soldiers to go south to suppress the southwestern barbarians as soon as possible,"

"Where did the soldiers come from? Jinling City has just been relieved of the siege, and the imperial court has assembled [-] troops on the front line of the south of the Yangtze River; there are still [-] troops in Wuchang, Anqing and other places... They are all staring at the pirate army in the south of the Yangtze River. The imperial court cannot go all out to suppress the rebellious barbarians in the southwest," Yuan Chonghuan said, took out the "Shi Wen Bao" from the Zhonghua Company, pointed to a news and said: "Here it is said that the imperial court dispatched troops westward to the Liaohe River. what's going on,"

Sheng Yihong was very dissatisfied with Yuan Chonghuan's rush to speak, and he didn't bother to compete with the sixth-rank officials. How to deal with the current situation, it looks like this pirate is going to play tricks again, planning to delay the peace talks."

Xu Guangqi also felt the same about this, nodded and said: "Brother Zikuan said it is very true. Now the court urgently needs peace talks. They can delay it, but we can't. Before we go to sea, I have already sent a memorial to the court. This time I will come to Taiwan In the peace talks, everything will be subject to authority, and everything will be based on the safety of the country and the country. I will bear all the consequences alone,"

"grown ups,"

"Bachelor Xu,"

Everyone was astonished, and then gathered around and said: "It can't be like this, since I came in the same boat, I should help each other..."

Yuan Chonghuan's eyes lit up, and he looked at Xu Guangqi with admiration. Some people were secretly relieved, hoping that they would not be held accountable by the court.

Xu Guangqi waved his hand regardless of whether everyone was worried about him, and said, "You don't need to say much, this negotiation, we aim to reach a peace agreement as soon as possible, and maintain the court's dignity as much as possible. If the court pursues it afterwards, I will be responsible for everything ,"

He stood up and stepped out. At this time, it was almost evening, and a series of horseshoes and neat footsteps sounded outside the inn.

A high-pitched and powerful voice shouted: "The king is coming,"

The black personal guards pushed open the door of the inn, Yin Feng stepped in surrounded by the crowd, cupped his hands to Xu Guangqi and said, "I've been negligent just now, I'm here to invite you all to the banquet,"

Sheng Yihong was angry and said that the illness would not go away. Yin Feng and the Chinese army did not force him, so they left him and his entourage in the post.

Everyone came to the Leshan Building outside the east gate of Chengzhai of the Inspection Department. Except for the third floor permanently reserved by the owner for Yin Feng to entertain Xu Guangqi, Zhang Ye, Yuan Chonghuan and others, the entire Leshan Building has been taken over by Yin Feng. , used to entertain the imperial court and appease the imperial envoys.

Among the major directors of the Chinese company present, except for the major director Zhao Tie and others who represented the army, the rest of the major directors came, Bernardo and the rabbis from the Jewish community in Hong Kong were also present, and there were also a large number of Western businessmen and Nanyang merchants. Representatives of Huashang Company arrived at the scene, and the Leshan Tower was full of people. There were also a large number of onlookers, black guards standing guard, and pedestrians bustling around.

Xu Guangqi and others have become familiar with "banditry" these days. They know that the Chinese Army and the Chinese company do not care much about the officials of the Ming court. The dozen or so people in Ke Dao Yushi Department are unwilling to join forces, but their integrity and courage have not reached the level of stubbornness, so they just stay on the sidelines to drink and eat, and occasionally chat with those vulgar sea merchants Mild nonsense.

The whole banquet seemed lively and slightly chaotic. Yin Feng’s partners and subordinates are now eligible to participate in the Leshan Tower banquet. Except for Xu Hongji and the Zeng family who are regarded as traditional literati, most of the rest are from pirates and maritime merchants. Although they are now They are all rich and powerful, and they are in the top ranks of the No. [-] maritime armed group in East Asia, but they cannot compare with the civil servants from the Ming capital in terms of cultural accomplishment.

In the eyes of Xu Guangqi, Yuan Chonghuan, Zhang Ye and others, although these people are well-informed, calm, and full of self-confidence, they occasionally smell like copper when they speak and do things. It looked vulgar.

In short, Xu Guangqi and others couldn't understand how they could push the Ming Dynasty into such an embarrassing situation just by relying on these people to set up some kind of company.

During the whole banquet, there was another question that made Xu Guangqi very impatient: Yin Feng repeatedly toasted to the imperial envoys, but he never mentioned the ultimate purpose of coming to Taiwan.

Of course, no one in the entire building of Leshan mentioned the peace negotiations between the Ming court and the Chinese army.