Although Valdes, whose mind was in a mess, did not agree to Chongzhen's request on the spot, his mind seemed to be a little clearer before being taken down, and he assured Chongzhen with a respectful enough attitude that he would think about it for a while and think about how to meet the other party's request.

After watching the Spaniard leave, Xu Xinsu turned to Chongzhen and said, "Your Majesty, do you really plan to join forces with these Spaniards?" They didn't treat my people much better than the Dutch. And if the spice trade is really so profitable, why should we join forces with these people? With my own strength, I may not be able to take the Spice Islands. ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled at Xu Xinsu and said, "What's the matter, you also see the huge benefits of the spice trade?" ”

Xu Xinsu defended himself quite weakly: "This, this, the minister thinks that it is better for the fertilizer water not to flow into the fields of outsiders." Now one Spanish peso is equivalent to a Ming silver dollar, according to the Spaniard, this year's spice trade income is tens of millions of Ming silver dollars.

If the minister is not mistaken, the income of the Taicang silver of the household department last year was less than 10 million silver dollars. If we could control the spice trade, wouldn't it be equivalent to doubling the revenues of the treasury? ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said: "You think too well, let's not talk about whether the Spanish captives deliberately exaggerated the scale of the spice trade." Even if we control the entire Spice Islands and have a monopoly on spice production. But in order to monetize the spices produced each year, the spices had to be shipped to Europe.

Now the largest number of merchant ships traveling between Europe and Asia are still the Dutch. Without the Dutch merchant ships, we would not have been able to safely transport so much spice back to Europe, even if we had a monopoly on spice production. And if we want to cultivate our own ocean-going merchant ships, it is by no means something that can be accomplished in three to five years.

In addition, spices are not necessities, but only a condiment for cooking. Europeans can now pursue it, but they can't ignore it. The Dutch have been monopolizing the spice trade for more than a year or two, and I would not believe that these Dutch would have hoarded spices and profited from them.

So if we can't find a few European friends on our side, the Dutch will cut off the spice trade routes and choose to fight a lose-lose trade war with us. Anyway, they can rely on the hoarded spices to meet the needs of the European market in a short time. ”

Hearing Chongzhen's explanation, Xu Xinsu, who was still a little excited, was suddenly a little disappointed. If the proceeds of the spice trade were just a piece of the pie drawn out of thin air, then his desire to get a hand in it was not so strong.

Xu Xinsu changed the topic knowingly and said: "Your Majesty is really wise, I hope this person can think clearly and make a wise choice after he goes back." ”

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while before he spoke: "No matter what choice these Spaniards make in the end, the most important thing is that we make solid preparations ourselves.

In the final analysis, whether it is the Spaniards or the Portuguese, the biggest significance of their standing on the side of the Ming Dynasty is the icing on the cake. You can never expect these Europeans to be in trouble, but beware of them taking advantage of the situation when we are in trouble. ”

Xu Xinsu: "..."

After leaving Xu Xinsu's residence, he sat in the carriage and was silent, looking at Zhu Youzhen, who was coming and going on the street, and suddenly said: "If that Spaniard has figured it out, let him go to the Army Military Academy to take classes first, and see if he really wants to cooperate with us, or if he has other ideas." ”

Wang Chengen, who was sitting diagonally opposite Chongzhen, immediately agreed respectfully. The horse-drawn carriage, painted black on the outside, was driven by a skilled driver, and in the sound of "squeak", slowly rolled over the cobblestone cement road towards the west Fuchengmen.

Less than 300 meters away from Fuchengmen, it is Fuchengmen Station, the starting point of the Beijing-West Railway. The railway took nearly eight months to build, and today it is finally completed in its entirety.

The most troublesome section of the Jingxi Railway is to build a small bridge of about 45 meters over the small river north of Shijingshan. In the past, there was a small, dilapidated wooden bridge over the river that could be used by horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians with heavy loads, but if you want to use the railway, you can't afford it.

Moreover, the wooden bridge is easily damaged, and it needs to be overhauled almost every 3-5 years. Therefore, the officials of the Ministry of Works, who presided over the construction of the Jingxi Railway, decided to replace the wooden bridge with a sturdy stone bridge that would allow both the railway and pedestrians and carriages to pass.

Building a stone arch bridge is not a problem, but to build such a stone arch bridge, it not only costs a lot of money, but also requires at least 2 years of construction time.

After the Ministry of Industry officials handed over the bridge repair report to Chongzhen, it was naturally rejected. For Chongzhen, a small bridge less than 50 meters long and only 25 meters wide is naturally impossible to build in three years.

After obtaining the geological data of the bridge location from the officials of the Ministry of Industry, he dug out from memory the bridge mechanism suitable for the technical capabilities of this era.

That is the double-curved arch bridge, this kind of bridge structure invented by the Chinese themselves after the founding of New China, which was once all the rage on the land of China. It is known for the advantages of no need for arch construction, saving wood, arch ribs, arch wave prefabrication, segmented assembly, easy installation, light form, and fast construction progress.

The use of reinforced concrete bridges is obviously much simpler and more convenient than arch bridges made of pure stone blocks. Both the officials and the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry had a certain degree of skepticism about the construction of this new bridge.

However, the plan designed by the emperor himself made them only keep this suspicion in their hearts. Chongzhen, on the other hand, was unable to go to the site in person, and was also quite worried that his design would have problems during construction. In the end, he simply called several teachers and students from Yenching University who study mechanics to the construction site, so that they could connect theory with practice and study whether there would be problems in the construction of this bridge.

Zhu Youzhen's move got an unexpected result. These teachers and students of Yenching University, when studying the mechanical problems of bridge construction, worked together with several officials and masters of the Ministry of Industry to complete a complete set of research papers on the mechanical system of double-curved arch bridges.

Generally speaking, in the future, the Ministry of Engineering will build a double-curved arch bridge, and it is no longer necessary to follow the construction method to copy the rigid set, but according to the actual geological conditions, through mechanical calculations to the design drawings of the double-curved arch bridge. As a result, in the craftsman school opened by the Ministry of Industry, there is another course in engineering mechanics.

However, these tedious little things have nothing to do with Chongzhen, he secretly came over today, just to take a horse-drawn carriage, to take a tour of the Beijing-West Railway, and by the way to see the double-curved arch bridge.

The starting point of the Jingxi Railway is Fuchengmen Station and the end point is Mentougou Longquan Station, with a total length of more than 70 miles. The average speed of a horse-drawn carriage is about 16 miles per hour, and if it doesn't stop, it can be completed in more than 4 hours.

When Chongzhen took Wang Chengen down from the carriage, a special horse-drawn carriage for him was already waiting on the railway.

Ordinary horse-drawn carriages are arranged in a group of 4 cars per row, or 2 passengers and 2 goods, or a full truck group. However, it was not a last resort, Wang Chengen, who arranged this matter, would not let the emperor sit in the carriage of ordinary people.

First, the speed of the four-car formation is too slow; Second, ordinary carriages pursue efficiency, and naturally there will be no comfort at all.

The special train arranged by Wang Chengen has only two carriages, although it looks similar to an ordinary carriage on the outside, but the interior is far behind.

In the back of the carriage, there is a separate private room, which not only fixes the beautiful furniture of each other, but also wraps the edges and corners of all the furniture.

When Chongzhen walked into this carriage, he felt as if he had traveled back in time to a 19th-century American movie, and the interior of this carriage was so decorated that it was too similar to the luxury box used by the rich American in the 19th century when they rode the train.

The only thing that's a bit of a pity is that when the car starts, there are a few less whistles, and the noise of rumbling steam locomotives. Although the train had only two carriages, the horses used were still 12, so it was clear that the horse-drawn carriages had exceeded the maximum speed measured by the railway authorities.

It was originally scheduled to take 4 and a half hours, but it was completed in 3 hours and 20 minutes. When Zhu Youzhen first started, he was quite interested in looking at the natural scenery outside, but he soon fell asleep in the rickety march of the carriage, and he didn't even see the double-curved arch bridge he wanted to observe.

Although when he woke up, he was quite regretful. But he didn't feel much annoyance in his heart, after all, he could still see it on the way back. The hour saved made him quite happy, which allowed him to inspect Mentougou well.

He came this time mainly to see the coal mine and the iron-smelting plant. Although several industrial and mining farms in Mentougou have developed well since the beginning of this year, Zhu Youzhen, who has not been able to witness it with his own eyes, is still a little uneasy.

Although thanks to his efforts, he has won a lot of freedom for himself. However, if you can't make a day trip to leave the capital, there will still be many obstacles.

That is, taking advantage of the opening of the Beijing-West Railway today, Zhu Youzhen was able to stay away from the capital for nearly 100 miles for the first time to take a look at the coal and iron production base of this era.

When Zhu Youzhen got out of the carriage, several palace eunuchs and officials who had been waiting here for a long time greeted him.

Without waiting for these people to speak, Zhu Youzhen said with some eagerness: "Go to the coal mine first, and then go to the iron smelting plant." Hurry up, I'm going to finish reading it all today. ”

Naturally, several eunuchs and officials who greeted him did not dare to object, and asked the emperor to sit on another section of the railway, and he could go directly to the largest coal mine in Mentougou.