New Shun 1730

Chapter 559: The Eve of the First World War, the Confluence of Destiny

It's like what Dashun often says, either the sun rises from the west, or I do something.

Clive's answer seems to be two choices, but in fact it means almost the same thing.

The most imaginative people at this time did not think of causing the order of Dashun to collapse and creating chaos suitable for the so-called "heroes" and "legends".

So what Clive meant by this sentence is that he hopes to go to India and find an exciting life there. India is finished, the Persians have broken through Delhi, the original order has collapsed, and the princely states are fighting in chaos.

Compared with the orderly Dashun, where even the East India Company has to abide by the rules, it is obviously more attractive to Clive.

As a company employee for many years, Old John had to persuade Clive.

"Behind those legends and stories, there must be hundreds or even thousands of failures. It's just that people don't spread the stories of failures, but only the legends of success. Moreover, companies don't like to publicize the endings of those failures."

"Your father used a lot of connections and gave a lot of money to get you a job at the Chinese trading house. You have to know that once the staff is full this time, it may take a long time for a vacancy to appear. The environment here in China is much better than India. You haven't lived there, you don't know the horror of the tropics, and there are many unimaginable diseases."

Clive had made up his mind after seeing the Royal Navy's fleet was forced to lower its flag. He just said mischievously with an indifferent attitude: "That's better than living a dull life in such a place. I will find an opportunity to go to India. Since my father sent me to the company, he has despaired of me. I don't think he cares whether I am in China or India."

Old John shook his head, thinking that this child is hopeless. If your father really doesn't care about you, how could he send you to China? Does the company lack employees willing to work in such an orderly place?

But for a sixteen or seventeen-year-old child, it's useless to say too much. Old John thought, maybe after a few years in India, he would know that it was better here. Just like every rebellious child, only after being beaten by society can he know how useful his parents' nonsense is. But before experiencing it, those are just nonsense.

"If you really want to go to India, it's easy. It's hard to come to the Chinese trading house, but it's still very simple to go to India. There is always a shortage of people there. But I won't tell you about this, otherwise I can't explain it to your father."

Clive thought to himself, who wants you to take responsibility? This is my own plan. But since it's easier to go to India, it's simple, I can just say it myself.

After saying that, he looked at the fleet that had been led into the port and disappeared on the surface of the Lingdingyang Sea, thinking that even the Royal Navy's fleet had to lower its flag, it was really not a place where heroes and legends could be born.

…………

The Centurion, which had lowered its flag, docked at the military port on the Kowloon Peninsula.

Under the threat of the artillery on both sides, heroes and legends could not be born here.

Dragons must coil and tigers must lie down.

The Centurion is a legend in the history of navigation. It is not an exaggeration to call it a dragon and tiger among ships.

But now, it is still squatting obediently in the naval port under the threat of the gun turret.

Among the warships, the Centurion is just a battleship with 60 guns, which is not even ranked in the sequence of the British Navy.

But in a few years, people may not remember the names of the British battleships with 100 guns at that time, but they must remember the old Centurion.

Harrison, the carpenter who did not go to school much, but defeated Newton and Galileo, and forced Euler to lament that he wasted 30 years of his life to solve the three-body problem and look at the moon, made the H1 marine clock, the first in human history that can know for sure where you are. The first voyage test of the marine clock was on the old Centurion three years ago, but the captain at that time was not George Anson.

With this marine clock that keeps accurate time despite the wind, waves, heat, humidity and bumps at sea, humans can calculate the longitude by comparing the London time on the clock with the local time calculated by the sun, so that humans can know where they are and their east-west direction in any corner of the earth.

It can be said that the Greenwich Observatory can become the prime meridian, formulate the rules of longitude and latitude for the world, and all world maps in later generations must abide by this longitude division. The source can be traced back to this old warship.

In the history of navigation, Columbus was the first to complete a circumnavigation of the world. The Centurion was the first to complete a circumnavigation of the world by a fleet of warships, which opened up a real era of great struggle at sea and meant that traveling across the seven seas was no longer a joke.

The later use of vitamin C to treat scurvy is also closely related to the Centurion. In history, George Anson's fleet sailed with 1,980 people, and only 185 survived after returning to Britain, mostly dying of scurvy. This incident greatly shocked the British Navy. The 90% mortality rate was too scary, and it was difficult to recruit sailors that year. James Lind, who was a naval doctor at the time, also witnessed the tragic return of the Centurion, and finally found Orange Lemon a few years later.

This is a milestone ship in the history of human navigation. Regardless of the dirty deeds of the colonists behind it, this is a ship that will be remembered tens of thousands of years later, even if humans fly out of the sun and start the interstellar era.

And now this ship, with its sails down and its flags lowered, has no power to resist under the gaze of the artillery.

Without the halo of science, this is just a warship that the British Navy is preparing to use for battle.

Amid the rumbling of salutes, British officers lined up on the deck, waiting for Liu Yu and others to board the ship.

The premise is that they don't need to kneel down to greet like the merchant ships docked in Guangzhou, it's just a simple military exchange.

George Anson, who felt dissatisfied and insulted, welcomed Liu Yu and others to the captain's room. Fazakle was like a butterfly flying through flowers, introducing each other on board.

"This is Commodore George Anson of the British Royal Navy."

"This is Liu Yu, the Marquis of Siberia of Dashun and the Deputy Envoy of the Privy Council. Next to him are Michael, the fleet captain of the Dashun Southern Navy, and Du Feng, the deputy fleet captain."

"This is Dupleix, a senior staff member of the French Oriental Company and the French commander in Pondicherry."

Since it was just a military exchange, the other party also lowered the sail and the flag, and still followed the rules of the sea and stretched out his right hand to shake hands to prove that he did not hold the index finger of his right hand on the trigger.

The captain's room looked similar to the one on the Dashun warship, and was covered with all kinds of sea charts.

Compasses, triangles, quadrants, sextants and other strange instruments were piled on the table.

The only difference was that a huge copper box about one meter high and one meter wide was carefully hung on the upper part of the captain's room with heavy iron chains, and the clock on it was ticking.

The officers who came with Liu Yu saw the familiar captain's room and also noticed the unfamiliar large copper box. They looked at the carefully fixed box with curiosity and finally recognized that it was a clock.

Historically, Harrison's H1 marine clock did not follow the Centurion for a second test and circumnavigation to obtain more complete proof.

Because the Centurion had to go from South America to the Philippines, there was basically no supply along the way, and the people of the Wang Family Society were worried about any accidents.

But this time, the marine clock was still placed on the Centurion.

Since Dashun woke up and started to conduct diplomacy with other countries, Britain had enough confidence to obtain sufficient supplies in China. The fleet that attacked the Philippines with the marine clock would be even more powerful. In history, George Anson's fleet miscalculated the longitude in South America, directly reimbursed one-third of the ships, and a large number of sailors died of scurvy.

It was also because Halley, who supported Harrison, felt that his time was coming. The next director of the Greenwich Observatory was Bradley, who measured the speed of light. In the Battle of Longitude, this person was a "lunar phase law science school" rather than a "mechanical clock engineering school", so Halley hoped to use the opportunity of being the director before his death to send the hope of the "mechanical clock school" he recognized on board and complete a test of a round-the-world voyage.

Liu Yu guessed that this might be the marine clock he had always coveted, and couldn't help but sigh slightly.

This time when I went to Europe, besides being a troublemaker, my biggest goal was to take advantage of the opportunity of "Russian coup, new and old parties cleaning up Germans" to "visit the thatched cottage three times" and bring those bigwigs of the Russian Academy of Sciences to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which was about to be established in Beijing.

In the long run, it was to lay a mathematical foundation like Russia and the Soviet Union in the future; in the short term, it was to invite great men like Euler to perfect the "moon phase method", develop an astronomical calendar, and calculate longitude by mathematics.

After all, he knew that Dashun's biggest weakness was precision machining, and Dashun really couldn't make a marine clock at this time.

But after all, in the prerequisite of dominating the seven seas, "longitude measurement", the British were ahead. Even if I successfully took advantage of Russia's opportunity to clean up the Germans this time and took those great men away, I'm afraid it would be at least ten years later.

I know in my heart that Dashun looks big now, but in terms of "forming a system and moving forward spontaneously", there is still a big gap. It is easy to chase the navy and army cannons and muskets, but the scientific atmosphere, precision instruments, theoretical science and other things that are difficult to chase are still far behind.

But at this time, he was on a British ship. Even though he was infinitely envious, he could only look away and pretend that he had no idea what it was.

George Anson noticed the gazes of these people. He seemed to have found a way to fight back after being pointed at and oppressed by the 74 gunboats of Dashun.

Seeing Liu Yu look away, George Anson said in a rather dissatisfied tone: "Mr. Marquis, the warships of the Royal Navy should not be treated like this."

Liu Yu frowned secretly, thinking that this is also a woman. Either you refuse to lower the flag and go to war directly at sea, or you don't talk about this anymore.

He sneered and said, "If the imperial court of the Celestial Empire had invited you, your warships could certainly raise their flags and enter the port. But the imperial court has never invited your warships to come. Why, it seems that you are very dissatisfied with lowering the flag to enter the port?"

"Well, can I also take the warships to the mouth of the Thames, without lowering the flag or reporting, and directly enter the port?"

George Anson straightened his body and said in a disdainful tone: "Excuse me, Mr. Marquis. Your country's warships cannot reach the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps merchant ships can, but the only fully equipped battleships that can reach the mouth of the Thames from here is our Royal Navy."

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like