In September 1656, Li Zhi stood by the bed in the study of the Qianqing Palace, quietly watching the drizzle outside the window.

Today's weather in Beijing is cool, and the drizzle has made the early autumn weather even clearer. Raindrops poured down on the ancient palace of the Forbidden City, washing the walls of the palace made of golden glazed tiles and granite very clean. The two old pine trees in front of the Qianqing Palace seem to be rejuvenated and green under the washing of the rain.

Some raindrops drifted in through the glass window and sprinkled on Li Zhi's hands. However, Li Zhi did not move his hand, but stretched out his hand to feel the cool raindrops, and just stood in front of the window, silent.

The attendants around saw that Li Zhi's palms were gradually wet, and they couldn't help but glance at each other. However, they were soldiers of the Tiger Ben Army who absolutely obeyed orders, and they did not dare to speak until Li Zhi asked them to speak.

Li Zhi did not use eunuchs in the Forbidden City, Li Zhi was a time-traveler after all, and felt that the profession of eunuch was too inhumane. And Li Zhi does not hide three thousand beauties in the harem like other kings - Li Zhi only has one wife, Cui He, and sleeps with Cui He almost every day, so there is no need for a huge team of eunuchs to serve the women of the harem.

Li Zhi's choice was to let the palace maid serve in the harem, and let the Tiger Benjun guards be in charge of guarding the front hall. Such rules are closer to the world practice of later generations, making Li Zhi more comfortable.

Li Zhi was still looking at the drizzle in the Forbidden City, but Li Xing, who was standing behind, couldn't hold his breath, bowed down and said: "Brother, now there are more and more spies bought by Europe, and many traitor spies have been caught in every county of one town and nine provinces. ”

Li Xing frowned and said: "Brother, if we don't take a way, I'm afraid we will really be stolen by Western barbarians." ”

Li Xing is now the governor of the nine provinces of Daqi.

The situation described by Li Xing is now a big problem in one town and nine provinces. The Europeans, not knowing what had suddenly gone mad, began to frantically send spies to Daqi. Although white people are wary of China everywhere and cannot spy on intelligence, white people can buy traitors. The entire European colonization has accumulated countless riches over the centuries, and now this silver has become a powerful sugar-coated cannonball for Europeans. Under the temptation of the white man's massive amount of silver, a considerable number of Han Chinese were carried away by the interests and secretly became the white man's spies.

If a hundred taels of silver is not enough to tempt a poor man, the Europeans will throw a thousand taels of silver, or even five thousand taels. After all, the silver mines in South America in this era were all in the hands of Europeans, and the Europeans had silver.

One town and nine provinces are industrial clusters of Daqi, and now these areas are at risk of being spied on. According to Han Jinxin's estimates, the number of spies and traitors active in one town and nine provinces now exceeds 500.

Hiring 500 spies costs hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, but it puts Daqi at risk of technology theft.

Li Zhi turned his back to Li Xing and did not speak.

Cui Changwu groaned and said, "Holy Lord, the minister thinks that the reason why the white people can buy spies is because our merchant ships trade in Africa and South America. Both continents were essentially white colonies, so whites were in heavy contact with our folk trading companies. If we stop trading with these white colonies, then there is nothing the white people can do. ”

Hearing Cui Changwu's words, Zheng Kaicheng frowned and disagreed. Although Cui Changwu cares about the people of the world, Zheng Kaicheng feels that his thinking is a little closed.

The crown prince Li Huan stood behind Li Xing in a prince's suit, thought for a while and said, "We trade a lot from South America and Africa and import raw materials. If the emperor had sealed the border in order to prevent espionage, the industry in one town and nine provinces would probably be greatly affected. ”

Zheng Kaicheng looked at Li Huan, nodded and said: "What the prince said is very true, although the prime minister's countermeasures are easy to operate, it is a little inappropriate to give up raw materials in order to prevent espionage. ”

Cui Changwu looked at Zheng Kaicheng lightly and did not speak.

Speaking of which, Cui Changwu is Li Huan's maternal uncle, and Cui Changwu should have been consistent with Li Huan in political affairs. However, under Li Zhi's management, the culture of the top level of Daqi is very particular about facts. In fact, Cui Changwu, as a talented literati, and Li Huan, who was educated in a new-style school, have different views on many issues. Most of the time, the crown prince Li Huan is more compatible with Zheng Kaicheng and others.

Of course, Cui Changwu supports Li Huan no matter what, and Li Huan's support from Zheng Kaicheng means that the future crown prince has a more solid ruling foundation. Choi Chang-moo welcomes this. Choi Chang-wu was a man with no selfish motives, and his greatest concern was that the prince's authority was insufficient, and the overseas colonies would not listen to Li Zhi's command after a hundred years. So sometimes he often creates opportunities for Zheng Kaicheng and Li Huan to speak out together, constantly pushing Zheng Kaicheng to the camp of the crown prince Li Huan.

Lee Sik was aware of Choi Chang-moo's thoughts.

Hearing everyone's discussions, he finally turned around and glanced at Cui Changwu playfully.

Then Lee Sik asked Han Jinxin, "What are the movements of those barbarians in Europe?" ”

Han Jinxin bowed down and said: "According to the reports of the informants we bought in Europe, Europe has now formed a broad alliance. With the exception of Portugal, which has taken refuge in us, almost all European countries have joined this alliance. Now the European allies exchanged military technology for free, and even joined forces to use all the top craftsmen to develop the steam engine. ”

Hearing the last sentence, Li Zhi frowned.

Europe is united, and this is not good news. The Netherlands or England are no rivals to the Great Qi, but a united Europe is not to be underestimated.

And if these countries develop scientific research together under pressure, the technology will catch up very quickly.

Technology is a thing that is very difficult to explore without direction in the dark. But if you learn the direction from Li Zhi and carry out targeted experiments according to the direction discovered by the spy, the speed of the chase is very fast.

In fact, with the progress of Daqi science and technology, because the specific scientific and technological details and industrial drawings that Li Zhi remembers are limited, Li Zhi cannot directly provide technology to scientific researchers. As a traverser, now Li Zhi only gives the Daqi craftsmen a research direction, so that they will not take detours. Under the direction provided by Li Zhi, Daqi's scientific research is still very efficient.

Later generations need a century to master science and technology, because Li Zhi has a clear direction here, and Daqi's scientific research workers can achieve a leap forward in 20 or even 10 years.

It is conceivable that white Europeans are now desperate to engage in scientific research under the pressure of survival. They found the direction of technology from Li Zhi, and gathered the top scholars and craftsmen from all over Europe, so it won't be long before they can break through one technological hurdle after another.

Europe has formed an alliance to climb the tech tree together, and that's definitely bad news.

Zhong Feng arched his hand and said: "I think that the most terrifying thing now is the scientific research strength of the Europeans. Their combined population is not less than that of Daqi, and their overseas colonies are not less than that of Daqi, and their outstanding scholars and craftsmen are probably more than Daqi. If they are desperate to catch up and steal our technology, I am afraid that in ten years they will become a fierce rival of our Great Qi..."

Taking a breath, Zhong Feng said: "When the time comes, let alone conquer Europe, I'm afraid it will be very difficult to snatch Africa and the New World from the Europeans. ”

Li Zhi didn't speak, turned around and looked at the drizzle outside the window again.

After a long time, Li Zhi said slowly: "The global interests of the Han people cannot be challenged, and the European alliance must be destroyed. ”