I

  Chapter 882 878【What I saw in Guangzhou】

   "So tall, so bright!"

  Under the starry sky and above the sea, Prince Charles looked at the lighthouse and expressed emotion.

  Not only him, the envoys from France, Portugal, Persia, India, and Arabia are all staring at the bright lighthouse with dumbfounded eyes at this moment.

  The lighthouse was built on Naozhou Island. The last emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty once established his capital here and upgraded Naozhou Island to Xianglong County. Then there is the Yashan sea battle, Shenzhou Lu Shen.

   Zhang Ruifeng and Fan Chao were also quite surprised when they saw the towering lighthouse.

  Because when they went to sea, construction had just started here.

  Maritime merchants from Gaozhou Prefecture and Leizhou Prefecture donated money to build a Tianhou Palace. Then, relying on government funding and donations from believers, a 36-meter-high Mazu Pagoda was built in Tianhou Palace.

  In addition to belief, the real function of Mazu Tower is actually a lighthouse.

  And the top uses a glass lens to block the wind, which is somewhat similar to an Argonaut lamp. Due to the difficulty of making giant convex lenses, existing glass technology is expensive and heavy. Therefore, only a large convex lens is used in the middle part, and many small convex lenses are used up, down, left, and right, which makes it feel like a Fresnel lens.

  No matter what kind of lens light it is, the brightness has been increased several times anyway.

  The Guangzhou Navy has moved here, turning Naozhou Island into a military port. Of course, there are also civilians on the island, supplemented by farming and mainly fishing. Except for the military port, other ports and fishing villages are densely packed with fishing boats at night.

  As for trading merchant ships, they can follow the lighthouse at night and stop at Haikang, Wuchuan, Zhanjiang and other ports.

  Zhanjiang was still a small fishing village at this time, but it was engaged in smuggling in the Ming Dynasty. After Emperor Zhao opened the sea, it quickly rose to become the outer port of Suixi County, where a small lighthouse was also built in the port.

  That night, the fleet of envoys and envoys from various countries stopped in the military port to rest.

  Because of the smooth sailing, they arrived at Guangzhou Port smoothly on the second night.

   It was already midnight, and the outside of Guangzhou was still brightly lit. Envoys from various countries were allowed to disembark and walk around, but they could not run around and had to follow Chinese officials all the way.

   "So many lights, how much does it cost for one night?" The messenger from Mughal felt like he was in heaven.

  Prince Charles looked excitedly at everything around him: "Is there really a city that never sleeps?"

   At this time in Europe, the French nobles are the most luxurious, and they often stay up late at night to have fun. But it is only limited to the nobles of Paris, because only the French royal family has the money to hold a dance with hundreds of candles.

  As for the city of Paris, it is pitch black at night. Therefore, excrement workers are high-risk occupations. They are not allowed to work during the day and can only dig excrement in the dark at night. Every month, excrement workers fall into the latrine and drown. No decent person is willing to do this work, resulting in a shortage of excrement workers, and the whole city stinks.

   As for China, lanterns are lit at night and cheap grease is used for lighting.

   There is no need for street lamps either. This shop has a lantern, and that shop has a lantern. Small vendors along the street light oil lamps at their stalls, and then put a cover on them as the light source.

   "Aren't the city gates open at night?" Charles asked.

  Pan Wei explained: "The gates of the city will be closed at night, but there is also a night market in the city."

  The rise of the night market has brought a heavier management burden to the government. The public security issue is still secondary, mainly because the firefighting work must be done well. There are wooden houses all over the city, and if you don't pay attention, they will accidentally catch fire.

  As night markets appeared in more and more cities, the imperial court also made corresponding regulations.

  First, classify a certain area of ​​the city as a legal night market to facilitate centralized fire management. Blocks that are not designated as night markets are not allowed to set up stalls and light fires at night.

  Second, in the police force, set up a special "sailor" whose main duty is to guard the night market and carry out firefighting. Shops and vendors operating in the night market must pay an additional "water fee" every month.

  Charles was unable to enter the city at this time, so he could only follow the Chinese officials and wander around the night market outside the city.

  The night market outside the city mainly serves business travelers.

   Food stalls can be seen everywhere. Hungry sailors rush to the night market to eat and drink if they dock with the ship in the middle of the night. Of course there is food on board, but it is not comfortable to go ashore to eat, and I want to step on the ground more after holding back for too long.

  Senior staff such as captains and cashiers also have corresponding mid-to-high-end consumption places.

   Walking to a street corner, Pan Wei looked at it, and immediately turned back.

   "Why don't you go to the front?" A Persian official asked.

  Pan Wei said, "It's dirty there."

   In the red-light district of Huajie and Liuxiang, there are high, medium and low-end brothels, which are a must for large ports. The crew stayed at sea for a long time, and once they landed, they thought about drinking, eating, and finding women.

   However, there are very few local prostitutes.

  Especially in middle and low-end brothels, there are almost no local women.

  Families with difficulties in life can apply for immigration. Guangzhou mainly immigrates to Nanyang to enrich the population of various overseas territories.

  In Coconut City (Batavia), there is a severe shortage of Han women, and women often file for divorce. It has been widely spread that a woman living in Guangzhou who has no one to rely on goes to Yecheng and becomes a baby instantly. There are even special marriage agencies running around the coastal cities of Guangdong. Women under the age of 30 go to sea, with full board and lodging all the way, and they can get married immediately when they arrive in Yecheng.

  Who wants to be a prostitute when there are better options?

  The middle and low-end brothels in Guangzhou City are all women bought from overseas. Moreover, it is very convenient to "purchase goods". There is an underground slave market in Macau, and the government turns a blind eye to this.

  The rich people in the coastal areas also raised domestic slaves again.

  For housework that is pure labor, you can directly buy slaves to do it, and you can also bring it with you when you go out. However, the maid who served the tea and the servants who greeted them had to hire local talents. The overseas slaves bought were too stupid.

  This has led to the improvement of the status of maids and servants. It is difficult to find those who are comfortable to use, and they can only sign a five-year contract at most. When the contract expires, they can choose to change jobs.

  As long as they are smart and able to do things, the maids and servants have a good life, and they are regarded as confidantes by their employers. In order to win over them, the employer will also help them as a matchmaker, send some dowry gifts and dowry, and help them get married and settle down.

  Early in the morning, envoys from various countries wanted to go to the city to have a look, but the fleet did not leave, and needed fresh water vegetables.

   Before entering the city, I saw a team leaving the city.

   Leading the way are highly paid veterans. There were only two or three veterans, and their subordinates were all dark-skinned domestic slaves, and they couldn't tell where they were from overseas.

  The person carrying the sedan chair was also a domestic slave, with darker skin, probably from a small country in India.

  The servant next to the sedan chair is obviously Chinese. This young man was actually wearing silk clothes, and he walked like a majestic man. Those who didn't know thought it was some young man.

   Behind the sedan chair, there are some domestic slaves.

  Calling in front and hugging in back, the pomp is great.

  Zhang Ruifeng also planned to go for a stroll in the city. Seeing this scene, he couldn't help asking passers-by: "Which family is this master?"

   Passers-by replied: "Master Chen is in the sea business, the Chen family has dozens of ships."

  Zhang Ruifeng muttered: "Even the nobles in Nanjing don't dare to have such a big show. These sea merchants are really rich and courageous."

   After everyone entered the city, they saw another luxurious carriage.

  Because of regaining the Monan Grassland, the imperial court completely opened up the trade of horses. Ever since, more and more rich people bought good horses to show their status, and this trend quickly spread to Guangzhou.

  Tianjin, Lushun and Tamna (Jeju Island) transport a large number of horses southward every year.

  At the beginning, the rich in the south snapped up good horses, and gradually, they began to compete in horse-drawn carriages. Pasting gold and silver plating is the basic operation. Some people even use brocade to make carriage curtains, and the styles of carriages have become various.

   There is even a shock absorbing device, and craftsmen are hired to make springs out of fine steel to prevent the carriage from being too bumpy.

   After shopping all morning, I didn't finish shopping in Guangzhou City.

  Thomas, who came from the countryside on the outskirts of London, looked at the pedestrians on the street and the dazzling array of shops, and whispered to Charles: "Your Majesty, this is the largest and richest city in China, right?"

  Charles shook his head: "I heard that Nanjing, the capital of China, is bigger and richer than here."

  Several young men with obvious European characteristics, with scribes swords hanging from their waists, one of them was still red-haired, walking towards the envoys from various countries talking and laughing.

  A Portuguese envoy couldn't help but stepped forward and asked, "Are you Portuguese or Dutch?"

The red-haired young man who was questioned was furious, drew his sword and roared: "I am not Portuguese, I am a Chinese citizen, I believe in Mazu, I have already graduated from middle school, and I studied at Guangzhou University (at my own expense)! You foreign barbarian, dare to talk nonsense again, believe it or not, I will cut you with a sword?"

  The Portuguese envoy backed away in fright, muttering: "You are not Portuguese, how can you speak Portuguese? And you have red hair."

The last sentence was heard by the red-haired young man, and he became even more angry: "In two or three generations, my descendants will be black-haired, and have nothing to do with you barbarians!" Then he said in Cantonese, "Qi I'm dead, I was treated as a barbarian, I must dye my hair black today!"

  Pascal, a scientist from France, observed all this silently.

  He was troubled by the conflict between faith and science. At this moment, when he heard that the red-haired boy believed in Mazu, Pascal's expression immediately became very strange.

  Can beliefs really be changed at will?

  Being a heretic, will God send down punishment? But the Chinese here do not believe in Jehovah, yet they live well and build such a prosperous country.

  What kind of existence is God?

  The other scholars sent by the Queen of France are all writers and artists. They automatically screened questions about beliefs, watched Chinese buildings and costumes along the way, and recorded them casually. Many small gadgets made them amazed.

  The task of the Portuguese envoys was to ask the Chinese emperor to marry him.

   Halfway, they learned that the Portuguese port of Ceylon had been taken away by the Netherlands. Seeing the prosperity of Guangzhou now, these Portuguese envoys are very excited. As long as they marry with China, Portugal's Asian colonies will be stable!

  The Persian and Mughal envoys were simply shocked. They made up their minds that they must persuade the emperor to make friends with China after returning home.

  Just one city of Guangzhou has already convinced the envoys of various countries.

  (end of this chapter)