In April 1656, Alexander VII stood on the deck of a steamer, chatting with King João IV of Portugal.

After two months at sea, Alexander VII was now off the coast of China. According to the estimation of the old Portuguese sailors on board, the ship has now passed through the strait between the Shandong Peninsula and the Liaodong Peninsula and entered the Bohai Sea.

The fact that it took only two months to reach China surprised the Pope.

If the previous understanding of steamships was still on paper, this personal experience made the Pope understand once and for all what "Oriental technology" is. You must know that the average speed of wooden sailing ships in this era was only about four or five knots, and it took six months to travel from Europe to China. The steamer turned the six-month period into a third of what it was before.

This speed can arguably change the geopolitics of this era. Previously, Europeans could invade Africa and the New World on a two-month voyage, but not yet on China, a six-month voyage. And now, Li Zhi only needs two months to ship cannons and rifles to Europe, what does this mean?

If two countries with a similar level of technology travel for two months, it means exchange and trade. Civilizations with similar levels will sell their own special products and technologies to each other at a certain price, so as to bring each other's development levels closer together in communication, and finally maintain a strategic balance.

Now, however, Lee Sik has changed that balance. Europe, which had been advancing by leaps and bounds, was complacent, but suddenly found that China in the East had become an unstoppable monster. The white race, who thought they could conquer the world, were developing their colonies, but suddenly found that the Chinese were pressing over like a steamroller.

Now that Li Zhi had ascended the throne and China was now known as the Great Qi, Alexander VII understood that China would become even more powerful in the future.

It means war.

Clever people can see that with the increasing number of steamships under Li Zhi's command, the strategic balance between Europe and China has been disrupted. It is no longer a question of how Europe will grab colonies with the Chinese. Knowing whites understand that it will not be long before Europe will be invaded by the Chinese.

The 800-ton steel ship cleaves the waves in the sea, like a sword, and travels at high speed through the waves. This is a technology that should not have been in this era. The Pope looked back at the ship's chimney, at the billowing black smoke coming from it, and sighed.

A number of seagulls appear above the boat, and these waterfowl circle around the ship, occasionally resting on the railing. In general, seeing seagulls means approaching the shoreline.

The Chinese sailors on board were a little excited, probably happy when they were close to their hometown. These sailors who sailed to Europe could only go home once in half a year, and only had the opportunity to hug their wives and children twice a year. No matter how much the captain gave them a month, their lives were still unsatisfying.

Presumably, life is not satisfactory, and these Chinese sailors are not very friendly to the Europeans. Alexander VII, who had been on the ship for two months, knew this very well. He minimized conversations with the Chinese and spent most of his time chatting with the King of Portugal.

Suddenly, the lookout on the mast let out a loud roar, and then the Chinese sailors on board cheered in an instant.

King João IV of Portugal patted the railing with delight, took out his telescope and looked to the west.

"Your Majesty, I see the lighthouse! In front is the port of the Chinese. ”

Then Joao IV excitedly waved his hand to a five-member band next to him: "Tianjin in front, play music!" ”

The Pope frowned and looked at João IV, not understanding why the king of this vassal state of China liked music so much. The Portuguese music was not religious, which made Alexander VII a little disturbed.

However, the king of Portugal is Li Zhi's red man, and even the pope does not dare to offend easily. The Pope narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction of the west.

At first he couldn't see anything, but as the ship moved a little bit, he soon saw a huge harbor that shocked him immensely.

The Pope also visited Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which is an impressive city of Palembang. The Dutch port was the center of trade in Europe. The Pope thought that there could be no port bigger than Amsterdam in the world, but what he saw completely shattered his judgment.

On the coastline on the west coast of the Bohai Sea, countless berths for steamships appeared in front of Alexander VII's eyes. He couldn't count how many there were, but he knew that from south to north, all the wharves and berths in his field of vision were there.

Generally, the ports of this era were built in bays. The entrance to the bay had to be small so that the defenders of the harbor could set up sentry posts and defenses at the entrance to the bay to protect the ships in the bay.

However, Li Zhi's Tianjin Dagu port did not consider the problem of defense at all, and expanded wantonly along the bare coastline from north to south. Because Li Zhi did not believe that anyone would dare to go to East Asia to challenge his sea dominance.

The farther you go, the more ships you have. Alexander VII thought that the 800-ton steel steamer he was on was already a giant ship, after all, there are very few 1,000-ton ships in Europe.

However, the actual situation is that the 800-ton cargo ship is only at the upper middle level in Tianjin Port.

After more than 20 years of development, Li Zhi has begun to mass-manufacture large ships of more than 1,000 tons. Alexander VII soon saw a huge cargo ship, with a steel hull and white paint, twice the size of his own ship, several times larger. The ship was full of gray containers, and there was a pulley crane on board.

His Majesty watched in amazement as the giant ship drove past him. He calculated that since the cargo ship could be so big, how far could Li Zhi's warship go?

Two thousand tons?

Large ships, small boats, and steamers laden with goods formed two long queues on the waterways in and out of the port. The closer you get to the shoreline, the higher the density of these two long dragons. Arriving at the back, Alexander VII felt that the gap between the ships was less than a hundred meters.

How much cargo does Dagu Port send out in a day?

How much trade was there between Daqi and the overseas colonies? The bustle of the port of Dagu in Tianjin was completely beyond the imagination of Alexander VII.

This is not the center of a country, this is the center of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The steamer entered the harbor and gradually approached the berth assigned to it.

Alexander VII soon saw John Tang waiting for him on the docks. When he was still an ordinary priest, he worked with John Tong, who was erudite and talented, and Alexander VII was a long-sleeved dancer, and both of them were quite famous. Over the decades, John Tong became the most famous missionary in China, and Alexander VII became pope.

However, what surprised Alexander VII was not John Tang's outright Chinese hairstyle, but the three horse-drawn carriage-like transports on the docks.

Under the operation of the three coachmen, the three vehicles, which were not towed by horses, drove autonomously and docked on the dock without external power. The cars even reversed a few times to find the best place to stop at the dock.

Alexander VII's eyes widened and he didn't react for a long time. He pointed to the big black carts and asked in a loud voice to the Portuguese sailors beside him:

"Tell me... That... What is that? ”