The vast blue China Sea unfolded in front of the battleship Daming, an old ship that originally belonged to the French Navy. After Napoleon came to power, he sold it to the Ming royal navy for 880,000 francs (it is estimated that this price was negotiated by Luo Xiangmei, who is also from Guangdong). Driven by the strong sea breeze, the ship carried Luo Xiangmei, the queen of the Ming Dynasty, and Maria, the mistress of the king of the Ming Dynasty. Clementina's warship and three more cargo ships. Starting from France, passing through the Atlantic, rounding the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean, and then heading north, stopping briefly in Basra, which belonged to the Ottoman Empire, and meeting with the "goods" and ships purchased by Liu Peng, the right prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, in the Ottoman Empire, then turned eastward and sailed through the Strait of Malacca.

It was a voyage that caused a sensation in Europe, and at the end of May 1849, all over Western Europe was watching the return journey of Her Majesty, the beautiful and noble queen of the ancient kingdom of the East. She has been in Europe for more than two years, has met with prominent figures from all over Western European high society, and has been a guest of the magnates of London and Paris. With the assistance of another famous socialite, Madame de Segur, he achieved a diplomatic achievement that attracted worldwide attention - of course, any diplomatic achievement must be matched by the national strength, otherwise any conditions and agreements are a dead letter.

In the days since Luo Xiangmei's visit to Europe, the country she represents has also made surprising developments. When she first came to Europe, she was just a small Grand Duchess of Lanfang, with nothing to show for her other than her beauty and her famous rich and scientist husband. And before she left France, she was already known as His Majesty of China. It represents an Eastern power on an equal footing with the British Empire and the French Republic—perhaps the British and the French are reluctant to admit that there are powers on other continents that can be compared to theirs. But in fact. By 1849, the Ming Dynasty could confidently say no to these European powers!

In 1848, when the European Revolution was in full swing, a revolution was also being staged in the East! A new and powerful China is a product of this revolution. The number of European-style land forces that the Ming Dynasty now has has made it difficult for the powers of the entire Europe to defeat it, even if they join forces. After all, the distance across the ocean greatly limits the ability of European countries to project military power into East Asia.

And there is no doubt that Daming is still an industrialized country under construction, and the industrial revolution has already unfolded in this country. Look at how many machines have been shipped from Europe to China in these two years. How many engineers, skilled workers, managers, teachers, bankers, and scientists have been hired to China from Europe and India for about twice as much as their salaries, and you can see that the country has begun to industrialize at a rapid pace.

Finally, the achievements of the Ming Dynasty in constitutional reform and education reform have also impressed those in power in every European country. If it weren't for the even more incomprehensible Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, probably every European would be amazed by the achievements of the Ming Kingdom in the past two years, right?

Seeing all kinds of beautiful words about the Ming Kingdom in European newspapers, Luo Xiangmei, as the mistress of this country, couldn't help but want to put on her wings and fly back to her husband.

“…… The king of the Ming Dynasty was still constantly mobilizing troops to defend the Huai River, the Dabie Mountains, the Han River and reinforce the Manchurian front. All this seems to show the determination of His Majesty the King to completely eliminate the Manchus. But those who have studied Chinese history a little bit will know it. The place where the real power was decided was not in Manchuria but in the so-called Central Plains, that is, the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, and Zhili in the Yellow River Valley. But now most of these key provinces are under the control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. This state was founded by Christian heretical peasant rebels. Now it is also doing everything possible to prepare for war, and at the same time strengthen its rule over the Central Plains. In the foreseeable future, a large-scale armed conflict between the Ming Kingdom and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will occur, and perhaps at the cost of millions of casualties, the core of China will be unified. May God bless all those who have lost their lives in this civil war......"

Breakfast time Maria. Clementina brought a stack of the latest edition of The Straits Times and read it to Luo Xiangmei, word for word.

“…… In 1849, the joint examination of Hong Kong Jishi University, Guangzhou Jishi University, Shanghai Jishi University, Yingtian Normal University, Yingtian Wangjia Military Academy, Guangzhou Wangjia Naval Military Academy has ended, and the joint enrollment scale of the five schools exceeded 4,000 people for the first time, in addition to military-related subjects, there are nine subjects such as medicine, chemistry, mathematics, physics, business, engineering, engineering, biology, and education......

“…… The floods in the Yangtze River basin have become more and more intense, with the Jingjiang and Jiujiang embankments bursting again, flooding 18 counties in Hubei and Jiangxi provinces and displacing millions of people. The Ministry of Finance of the Ming Cabinet urgently allocated 10 million yuan for relief. Businessmen in Yingtian, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places have actively donated, and the Daming Relief Association has raised 4.9 million yuan. ”

“…… With the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal out of operation for more than nine months, hundreds of thousands of boatmen who depend on the canal for their livelihoods are in dire straits. Since May this year, law and order in the cities along the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has deteriorated, with robberies, thefts, murders and gang fights occurring one after another. A few days ago, there was also a kidnapping incident of a British businessman, and the British Legation in China has already made representations to the Ming Foreign Ministry on this matter, hoping to solve the case as soon as possible and rescue the hostages. ”

"A few days ago, a rice riot broke out in Yangzhou Prefecture, Jiangsu, unemployed canal boatmen gathered to make trouble, robbed more than 10 rice merchants in Yangzhou City, and also set fire to a rice warehouse, Yangzhou prefect asked the local garrison to send troops to suppress it, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries, and nearly 500 people were arrested."

"A few days ago, hundreds of Huaibei gentry submitted a petition to the Ming cabinet, asking to organize a public bureau in Huaibei and asking to take care of Huaibei salt affairs. At the same time, according to reliable sources, Miao Peilin, the governor of Huaibei in the Ming Dynasty, still refuses to hand over the Huaibei salt affairs to the supervision of the Ministry of Finance. The conflict between the central government of the Ming Dynasty and the Huaibei region over the ownership of the salt tax shows no signs of being resolved in the short term. ”

It is rumored that Du Wenxiu, the leader of the local government in Dali, had rejected the Ming cabinet's request for severe punishment of the fugitive perpetrators of the 1845 Baoshan massacre. This may mean that the negotiations between the Ming court and the local government in Dali have broken down, and war between the two sides may break out at any time. ”

Maria. Clementina put down the newspaper in her hand, smiled slightly bitterly, and looked at Luo Xiangmei, who was frowning: "Your Highness, it seems that the closer you get to China, the more worrying the news is......"

Luo Xiangmei shook her head, squeezed out a little smile, and said half-jokingly: "Maria, it seems that there is a big mess waiting for us...... Maybe there will be a revolution again! If you're scared, it's too late to regret it. ”

"Scared?" Maria. Clementina chuckled, "I'm very confident in Jason, no matter how bad the mess is, he can clean it up, and even if he can't do it, I'll help him find a way...... Your Highness, you know that I am a woman with a lot of means. ”

Luo Xiangmei sighed in her heart, Maria. Clementina, this woman is indeed very methodical, and she is also very rich, and she slept with Zhu Jishi earlier than herself, and this woman should be naïve and don't know how much trouble she will make......

At this moment, there was a sudden knock on the door of the small restaurant on the Daming Mountain, and Luo Xiangmei shouted in French: "Please come in." Then I saw a bearded, handsome young man striding in and nodding at Luo Xiangmei: "Your Majesty, Queen." Then he headed for Maria. Clementina smiled, said hello, and walked straight to the table, and while eating breakfast, she took a look from Maria. Clementina took the newspaper and read it. If Zhu Jishi saw this young man now, he would be surprised, because he was Friedrich. Engels. (To be continued......)