Although the steam locomotive test on March 22 of the 7th year of Xingqian was a success, although the next day all the newspapers reported on the steam locomotive with enthusiasm, and even the Governor's Office of the Fifth Army sent a special person to contact the railway company and the inventor, and to coordinate the joint production of steam locomotives by various factories to solve the problem of future transportation of military supplies.

However, the steam locomotive did not cause too many waves in the South Seas, compared with the enthusiasm of the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, especially the merchants in the north, for the steam engine, the steam engine did not cause any sensation in the South Seas, of course, this is also related to the fact that most of them are now based on agriculture.

In addition to agriculture, navigation was also the foundation of the South Seas countries. Without exception, the capitals of Nanyang Zhuxia are all by the sea, and they all have ports, after all, they all came from the sea back then, which is also the need for national development.

On April 18, the seventh year of Xingqian, on this day, the two ships sailed into the old port of the capital of the Zhou Kingdom, and when the pilot of the old port saw the "envoy flag" raised by the ship, he immediately notified the shore.

"Special envoy, this is the old port, and now all parts of Nanyang, except for Greater Luzon, have basically been all feudal for me."

As the captain of the "Taixi", Du Cheng was stationed in Nantianmen in the past, and he knew a lot about the nature here.

"The old port is now the capital of the Zhou Kingdom, and it used to be where my Daming Old Port Propaganda Division was located."

Looking at the old port in front of him, Hua Yixiang's expression looked a little complicated. He can be said to be extremely aware of the changes in Nanyang, and there are many of his peers and classmates who have served here. The fate of people will always inadvertently change a lot, when he was admitted to Tanhua, it was originally the spring breeze when he was proud, but who would have thought that Changzhou fell for the "Haikou", and then in just a few years, the changes in the world exceeded his imagination, and the seemingly invincible Manchu Qing Dynasty fled in a hurry, as for him, the former Hanlin, has long lost his official body, and those fellow villagers who fell off the list back then, but because they defected to the present, became the minister of the dragon.

If it weren't for their care, I'm afraid he wouldn't have the opportunity to serve as a special envoy to the consulate today, this is the official body of the fourth grade, although it is said that a term of office is three years, counting the time spent on the road, it is almost four years, but it is worth exchanging four years of time for the official position of the fourth grade.

As the envoy of His Majesty the Emperor, Hua Yixiang naturally had to pay attention to etiquette when he went ashore, and after the warship sailed into the port, first of all, the guests of Zhou State went on board, and then invited Hua Yixiang to land as a guest on behalf of the King of Zhou, and to determine the time of landing. Therefore, Hua Yixiang decided to go ashore at 9 a.m. the next day.

At the scheduled time, Hua Yixiang landed in accordance with the usual rituals, accompanied by the entourage of the whole holiday. Not long after Hua Yixiang left the ship, an official of the Zhou State and several gentlemen and ladies came from the shore to visit the "Taixi". Adjutant Cummingde entertained the dignitaries with the gift of receiving them, and they expressed great satisfaction. There was a very beautiful woman among the guests, which naturally surprised the attachés who had just come from China, but the officers and men on the ship were accustomed to it, and it was not uncommon for Nanyang women to show up and participate in social occasions.

In the afternoon of the same day, Li Weize, as an attaché of the mission, landed in a dinghy. His task was to look after the ambassador's entourage

luggage. It was transported by boat and then by horse-drawn carriage to the gate of the royal inn in the city, the best inn in the old port, where most of the wealthy maritime merchants lived, and then Li Weize supervised the local servants in the hotel to distribute the luggage to each person's room.

The envoy and his son lived together in the "Chaozong Pavilion" next to the palace, the so-called "Chaozong Pavilion" means "Hajj Suzerain", and each Ming feudal vassal had a similar pavilion, which was specially used to receive "angels". The hotels where the attachés lived, there was also a difference between the top and bottom.

At noon that day, Hua Yixiang, who was the emperor's envoy, was invited by the king of Zhou to the king's palace. At the welcoming banquet, he met with the high-ranking officials of the Zhou state. The final procedure of this reception of the Zhou State was a grand dinner and a dance party - the dance party may not have been in time in the Ming Dynasty, but in Nanyang, it was surprisingly popular with the people, not only the official dance party, but even the village community will also hold a dance party, perhaps because the weather here is too hot, dancing late at night, people are more likely to fall asleep. The grand welcome banquet lasted until after midnight.

Of course, Li Weize, as an attaché, did not have the opportunity to participate in this grand banquet, he was just the most ordinary attaché, and even had no rank, which also meant that he was not qualified to attend the official banquet, of course, this also gave him the opportunity to observe the country up close.

In the early morning of the next day, Li Weize was enjoying breakfast in the restaurant, and the breakfast in Nanyang has the characteristics of Nanyang - there are many fruits, bananas, pineapples and other fruits.

"You can't eat so many fruits in Daming......

Just as Li Weize was muttering to himself, he suddenly heard a scream that he had never heard before, which sounded numb, and the scream was extremely miserable, as if someone had been subjected to terrible torture.

"What's going on?"

Driven by curiosity, Li Weize hurriedly finished his breakfast, and then looked in the direction where the sound came from, and found that the terrible scream came from a native servant, who was hung on a wooden frame, and a strong native man stood behind him, whipping him with rattan incessantly.

"What's going on?"

Li Weize hurriedly asked.

"Back to the master, this dog slave actually gave the wrong dish when he was working before, if he didn't teach a good lesson, he wouldn't be able to remember it well, so the villain's owner ordered him to be punished."

It was the Turen who were punished, the Turen who executed, and the Turen who oversaw it, and they were all extremely humble in front of the Ming people without exception.

And the rattan who was next to him beat the native, and stood in the backyard with his hands tied with ropes, and was whipped by another servant with a rattan stick, and as they beat him, he continued to let out a miserable scream, until at last he fell unconscious, but even so the punishment continued, until the poor man's back and ass were torn open with the skin of the whole body, and the innkeeper ordered the whipping to stop, and then he shouted so loudly that the sinner, whose back and hips had been broken, to go back to his work. Completely ignoring the wounds he had just been tortured on.

Looking at the blood dripping on the ground, Li Weize was stunned, although he had heard of "playing boards", but now Yu Daming can't play boards at will, even if he plays boards, he must be under the premise of breaking the law. And here Li Weize didn't expect that he had witnessed such a cruel punishment, although it was his servant who was punished, it still made Li Weize ask with some indignation.

"Why do this to them? These dozens of whips are going on, and people are about to be killed, just for such a little thing! Is it worth it? ”

When confronted by his questioning, the innkeeper replied with a smile as if he had become accustomed to it.

"The master has just come from China, I'm afraid I don't know, these native slaves are all treacherous people, seemingly tame, but in fact they are extremely hateful. If you don't punish them with the most resolute and severe punishment, warn them to be small, and let them become docile, they will inevitably harm our people in the future, and besides, the natives don't know how to educate, otherwise they can't be educated. As the saying goes, there is a filial son under the stick! ”

In the face of the innkeeper's answer, Li Weize had nothing to say for a while, for Nanyang Zhuxia, he had too much imagination, he had imagined how those natives happily greeted the clan sent by the kingdom of heaven, how to happily destroy the barbaric and ignorant temple, and then accept the teachings of the Ming Dynasty, but who would have thought that the so-called indoctrination was actually such a indoctrination.

Why is this happening?

In the following time, Li Weize could not get peace for a moment, and the blood that fell on the ground would always appear in his mind, and the servants who thanked their master for sparing their lives in blunt words after being tortured.

And what made Li Weize even more unacceptable was that things like this did not stop there, and the same harsh punishment continued to appear in front of his eyes again in the following time, although the nature was different, but the encounter was the same. In order to remove the dishes on his breakfast table, the two servants accidentally broke a plate, which was not worth much, only a dozen cents. But which of the servants broke the plate, for the two of them blamed each other, so that the master could not tell for a moment,

So both of them were whipped at the same time, and according to the master's orders they each held a rattan whip, and then beat each other, because there were two other servants with bamboo sticks to supervise them, and the two of them could not relax the whipping of each other, and occasionally with a light blow, the servants on the side would use the sticks in their hands against them.

"Master, you see, these natives, all by nature, are cunning, if they are not punished, they don't know what the rules are, in fact, the plate is not valuable, even if it is broken, it will be broken, but what makes people annoyed is not the plate, but they blame each other, this punishment is their prevarication, in fact, this is the ...... of education"

The owner of the inn obviously didn't think there was anything wrong with what he had done, and he even had to say to Li Weize quite proudly.

"You see, I have more than 100 male and female servants here, and in just a few years, they already believe in Confucianism, speak Chinese, and follow Chinese customs, isn't this just education!"