Born in a family full of adventurous Jin merchants, Qi Taiyu is not a vegetarian, and often says something in Tang Ning's ear, "Lend me 3,000 city management, and return me to the Grand Duke of the World", Tang Ning finally replied to him, and when his injuries are healed, he can go to Singapore to train an army dominated by Chinese, with Hessian chasseurs as instructors. Therefore, Qi Taiyu did not go to Japan with Tang Ning, but prepared to return to Singapore.

The Crystal Shipyard is now able to build a Great Eastern-class ocean-going giant ship every six months, and now, the second giant ship is nearing completion, and the Grand Duke, who is planning to destroy the Qing Dynasty, requires the bow to be equipped with two main guns, and two more stern ships, becoming an armed cruise ship with six heavy guns. The Belgian arsenal began to develop cannons and howitzers with fixed shells, as well as a top-secret weapon, the hydraulic recoil suction system, which makes the gun not move after firing, and can increase the rate of fire from one round every two minutes to more than two rounds a minute. This is the Grand Duke's ultimate weapon to dominate the seas.

And this battleship, which is equipped with hydraulic naval guns, will never allow idle people to get close and peep, and it was approved as a "heavy cruiser" by Tangning. The difference between a cruiser and a frigate and a destroyer is mainly in the supply capacity, the cruiser can perform ocean-going missions, and the latter two are smaller in size and require the cooperation of the supply ship. Battleships are the great treasure of the navy, which requires frigates to form a deep defense line, while destroyers are mainly used to fight at low intensity against weak enemies, and can also be used to defend battleships, which have more overlap with the combat objectives of frigates. The so-called heavy cruiser is a heavy battleship that can pose a threat to the battleship, and the firepower is close to the battleship, and the most bullish battleship of the German Navy in history was sunk by the British Royal Navy heavy cruiser after attacking the British port, because the cruiser is faster than the battleship, and it is suitable for pursuing the enemy ship that tries to escape.

By the time Downing's heavy cruisers went to sea, it was estimated that they had already used "numerical control machine tools", which could process more complex curved surfaces and greatly improve the thermal efficiency of turbine steam engines, especially the fluid chemistry of giant propellers, and the speed would also increase.

This heavy cruiser is estimated to take several years to develop, and now, it is still quite advanced to purchase Krupp's rifled guns. This second Great Eastern class ship was named Fan Zhongyan in order to commend the elder brother of Jin Shangqi who was worried about the world, haha.

When the Chinese edition of the Telegraph announced the name of the ship in Shanghai, it immediately sparked a duke fever in China, and since the Grand Duke of Luxembourg was so interested in my Greater China, the Chinese also became interested in this guy who actually knew Pham Van Zhenggong. Not long after, the Chinese edition of the Telegraph had a report that the Grand Duke was developing Chinese typewriters and Chinese typewriters, jointly developed by the Hong Kong and Singapore headquarters of the International Business Machines company, and in the future, the Chinese printing industry will be reshuffled.

Qi Taiyu saw Tangning boasting him as Fan Wenzhenggong, he really blushed like a monkey's ass, this master is too faceless, but don't say it, such a no-lower limit of praise really makes Qi Taiyu's reputation in the minds of the Chinese quite high, and the psychology of the people is like this: If there is no dry goods, can the Grand Duke of Luxembourg be inspired by a businessman's "worries and worries of the world"?

Now Qi Taiyu's old friends call him Wen Zhenggong when they meet, a rather shady nickname, and these old friends know what kind of goods he is.

Xu Rongcun hoped that Tang Ning would invest in Shanghai and do something, but Tang Ning was not interested in tossing the investment now on the grounds of "unstable regime", and waited to win the Qing Dynasty in the future, according to the original plan, he left Shanghai and went to Edo, Japan.

Downing found the best Japanese translator of the time in Shanghai, a legendary Japanese Yamamoto Otoyoshi.

In 1832, the Japanese fishing ship Hoshun Maru left Edo to go fishing, encountered a storm, was floated in the Pacific Ocean for a total of 14 months, most of the crew died, and when it was blown to Cape Arawa in Washington, USA, only 29-year-old Iwayoshi, 16-year-old Kuyoshi and 14-year-old Yamamoto Otoyoshi were left.

Cape Arawa was inhabited by Indians, and the three slaves were immediately "granted" green cards, and the first Japanese immigrants in North America lost their freedom. This matter was arrested by the British Hudson's Bay Company's John? When MacLachlin found out, he found the slave owners and exchanged them for the goods from the Indians, and was overjoyed to find out that it was really Japanese, because the shogunate was closed off from the country, and the outside world did not know about the situation in Japan, so he immediately found a ship to send them to London, hoping that the government would open the Japanese market to them. He traveled halfway around the world at sea and arrived in London in 1835. When the British Foreign Office received a letter from McLaclin, he said that now that the Chinese market has not even been opened, how can it have the energy to ponder Japan?

The British Empire was still very powerful, and the government paid for them to be sent to Macau. So the three Ji went around half the world to Macao, and after disembarking, the British government left it alone and let them find a way to return to Japan on their own.

After these three disembarked, they were killed by the German Karl? Guo Shili took it, Guo Shili was a priest, because he knew Chinese, he worked as a translator for the British, and the London side thought that both Chinese and Japanese spoke Chinese, so they handed it over to him. When Guo Shili asked, he found that the Japanese did not understand Chinese. Fortunately, everyone could communicate in English, and Guo Shili was very excited and asked the three to teach him Japanese and at the same time translate the Gospel of John into Japanese. Soon after, the Philippines sent four more bears who had been shipwrecked to translate the Bible together.

In 1837, the American businessman Charles? Under the pretext of sending these men home, King drove the Morrison to the port of Uraga on the edge of Tokyo Bay, where he was bombarded and left, and then went to Kagoshima, the southernmost part of Japan, and fired on the shore, so he had to return to Guangdong, put a few Japanese in Macao, and continue to help the British and the church translate things.

Young and active, Yamamoto Otoyoshi first went to Shanghai and later went to work on an American ship. He married an English woman and became a British citizen himself. In 1849, as a translator, he came to Uraga with the Royal Navy Sailor to conduct topographic surveys and returned to Japan for the second time.

Japan has a law that if a Japanese person goes overseas, he or she will be beheaded. So he called himself Chinese, and when people asked why he was so fluent in Japanese, he explained that he learned it from his father, who had been doing business with Nagasaki and would speak Japanese for a long time.

After Perry opened the door to Japan, the British Far East Fleet arrived in Nagasaki, Japan, and the two sides signed the Japan-Britain Peace Treaty, at which point Yamamoto Otoyoshi returned to Japan for the third time as the best Japanese translator. This time he no longer pretended to be Chinese, and Japan also urgently needed talents like him, hoping that he would stay, but he refused, and returned to Shanghai, where he and his British daughter-in-law had their home.

Coincidentally, the company where Yamamoto Otoyoshi works is Baoshun Foreign Company, where Xu Rongcun is located, and it is too wasteful for a top Japanese talent to engage in work that is not very related to Japanese in Shanghai.

At this time, the Japanese shogunate's attitude towards openness was not very sincere, and there were two small ports in the open ports signed in the Japan-Britain peace treaty, of course, it was impossible to have Edo, where the shogunate was located. Yamamoto Otoyoshi is also used to it, these foreign lords are all bullying masters, Perry's 3,000-ton wooden steam and sail hybrid ship led by the Mississippi can scare the shogunate into not daring to fire, not to mention the deterrent power of the world's largest ship that is three or four times larger, and it is estimated that the timid Japanese will not dare to use force. There are two kinds of vertical axis windmills on the Great Eastern, such as Ф-type resistance type and S-type semi-lift and half-resistance type, how strange and terrifying it is, that is, the Taiping Army sailors dare to do it like a stunned youth, and the Japanese are still deeply rooted in their hearts for the big ship. The main reason is that the Qing Dynasty relied on the prestige of the Celestial Empire to maintain the legitimacy of its regime, and the Japanese shogunate knew that its country was small and the people were weak, so it was not like a joke to defeat the foreigners of the Qing Dynasty to pinch Japan to death?

Otherwise, I'll also sign a Japanese-Ruan-pro-peace treaty for our Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ha, that's a good idea, many times Downing almost forgets that he is now a European monarch. It seems that the "big" principality of Luxembourg is actually pitifully small, or ...... Well, send an offer to all the members of the German Confederation to see if they can ask for an errand to do on behalf of the entire German Confederation.

So, on behalf of the Archduke of Luxembourg, the Reuters branch in the German states sent invitations to Austria, Prussia, Bavaria and other states, and our Archduke of Luxembourg is now going to Edo, Japan, do you want to sign a contract with me, I know that you are far away from Japan, and you have not had time to take care of it, it just so happens that I have time to work, why don't you give me an authorization, and I will sign the peace treaty for you!

Hey, and this kind of good thing, small states such as the Duchy of Hesse and the Kingdom of Saxony (the former nest of Prince Albert) quickly agreed, and the king of Prussia asked Bismarck, who was in charge of the foreign affairs of the Confederation, and Bismarck simply set up a meeting in Frankfurt in his capacity as vice president of the German Confederation to discuss what status to give the Grand Duke of Luxembourg so that he could sign a treaty of trade with Japan on behalf of the Confederation.

The Kingdom of Hanover is also more aggressive, as it has a Cuxhaven and a small number of merchant ships are likely to go to the Far East, especially when it is well known that Temasek Capital will be developing the East Indies. And Austria now owns Venice, and it is also a good thing to trade with the Far East. The unprecedented friendship and unity of the German Confederation conferred on the Grand Duke of Luxembourg the title of "Diplomatic Plenipotentiary of the German Confederation against Japan".

The only small question is what kind of flag should be hoisted, the current Confederacy generally uses the black and gold bicolor flag of the Austrian Empire, but Prussia does not recognize this large flag, and the black, red and gold tricolor of the Frankfurt parliament that has been dissolved, Austria of course does not agree, and finally Bismarck said, let the Grand Duke of Luxembourg decide. The third eldest of the Kingdom of Bavaria also seconded the proposal and let the Grand Duke of Luxembourg decide, so the Grand Duke shinished on the stage of European politics and reactivated the German tricolor! The second and third supported the Archduke of Luxembourg, and Hesse and Saxony supported the Archduke, and the Habsburgs experienced a minor diplomatic setback, only allowing Austrian ships to use the tricolor when running to the Far East.

France is larger than Britain itself, and the entire German Confederation is much larger than France, so Downing can claim to be the plenipotentiary of the largest country in Europe. (Russia is often not seen as a European country, otherwise it is an insult to the word "big", the size of Russia is too perverted)

After receiving the authorization, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg triumphantly changed into the German tricolor, which was majestic, and I don't know where the materials came from on this big ship to make a flag.

The mercenaries from Hesse now have a double sense of belonging, wow, Hesse is also a member of the German Confederation, and this time it seems to have become a service to the motherland, yes, the sense of honor is great, and it feels very good. Follow Feng? Windsor adults are mixed, eat and drink well, dress well, have good weapons, good medical care, and get a salary, and now they are actually serving the motherland.

In the battle with the Taiping army Zhenjiang defenders, the marines on the Great Eastern consumed two-thirds of the bullets, but the Japanese military strength was far worse than the Taiping army, and the 10,000 people in Zhenjiang could simply destroy the Japanese country. The Japanese soldiers are all professional soldiers, and they don't fight in peacetime, and no one can afford to raise so many people, so the remaining ammunition can also give Downing enough confidence to go straight to Edo without disgrace to the German Confederation, otherwise he will give the whole of Europe a laugh to death.

In addition to planning the plenipotentiary of the German Confederation, in the process of sailing, Downing also learned some Japanese, he often learns foreign languages, has mastered the know-how, the key is the mastery of nouns, a small number of common words and a large number of nouns, so that learners can have a strong ability to express themselves in a short period of time, this is a habit formed from the time of the English simple textbook, what hundreds of land names, hundreds of numbers, 100 dates, 100 names, 100 objects, 100 events, a learnt, Tang Ning can basically listen to a few sentences and say a few words.

Oops, the Yiren are here again! This is the nth time that the citizens of Edo feel bullied by foreigners, and they are used to it, and the fort does not dare to fire the cannon as usual, just kidding, this thing is so big, although it seems that there are no cannons, and they don't dare to mess around, report to the general! The citizens of Edo looked at this beautiful ship with curiosity, and yes, the citizens of Edo, who had a good taste in art, admired the beautiful appearance of the metallic azure Great Eastern in the sun, and pointed and talked with relish.

This time, the "Blue Boat Sailing" seemed to be friendlier than before, because there were not only tall and strong German soldiers coming down from the Great Eastern, but also little girls like Linfell, who may have a stronger ability to learn languages than Downing, and when she came to the onlookers, she smiled sweetly, waved her hand and said: "Pot mud chicken frog!" All the Edo people were upset, and they all "pot mud chicken frogs", and bowed and returned the salute.

I saw the Edo people ask Linfell, "Where did you get the fight?" Downing felt that it was too right to bring little Phil, and gunboat diplomacy suddenly turned into beautiful girl diplomacy.

At this time, Japan was short of food, there were many Buddhists, vegetarians, protein and calcium were insufficient, and they were very small, with men over 150 cm and women over 140 cm. The German GIs used 180 cm as the benchmark, and the German and Japanese people were in stark contrast.

The petite women of Edo curiously circled around the GIs, and even reached out to touch the GI's strong body and fled, and the atmosphere of friendship and friendship was very strong, and one GI said to his buddies worriedly: "The Grand Duke will not go to war with Japan, and it is completely ...... to attack these civilians It's hard to start. In their eyes, the Taiping Army was as weak as the "civilians".

His buddy thought of the past when the Grand Duke of Windsor inexplicably broke into the Zhenjiang Killing Realm, so he had to sigh: "I hope not......"

When a person from Edo begged to visit the Great Eastern, Otoyoshi Yamamoto asked Tangning for instructions. Tang Ning was waiting for the reaction of the Edo shogunate, and he was idle and agreed, anyway, this is not a battleship, it is good to let the Japanese people see the gorgeous technology of our Great Eastern, or this kind of contact will make the shogunate have a more intuitive understanding of the strength of his newly appointed German plenipotentiary, which will help the negotiation between the two sides.

Yamamoto Otoyoshi announced to the Edo people that 50 people would take turns to walk around the Daito at a time, and he would act as an interpreter for everyone to introduce the world's largest ship. Tang Ning instructed the captain to introduce all the high-tech on the ship, such as wind power generation, turbine steam engines, reverse osmosis membrane desalination, and marine cold storage.

The people of Edo have always had a tradition of communicating with foreigners who came to the sea, and when Perry came, he brought some dioramas and model trains with him to explain the train to the people of Edo, and the people of Edo were stunned. This time, the Great Eastern directly allowed the people to board the ship, and there was a breakthrough. The people lined up in a long line for the once-in-a-century hunting trip.

Tokugawa Iekei, the shogun, fell ill and died in 1853 while discussing countermeasures with his men when the black ships arrived, and the most influential official at the time was Masahiro Abe, who was the "old man", and he even influenced Shogun Iekei, who had no political opinions, to change the original shogun's successor. Lao Zhong is equivalent to Shangshu, in charge of national government affairs, but there are many daimyo at the same time, is the shogunate second only to the "big elder" of the senior position, the big elder is equivalent to the temporary regent, not often established, now there is no big old in the shogunate, Abe Masahiro is the first among the old middle.

In 1854, the shogunate under the rule of Masahiro Abe finally signed a treaty of trade with Perry, who came to the second voyage, from this point of view, Abe was a "founding faction", and his political opponent was the "Zaoyi faction", advocating "maintaining the integrity of sovereignty and insisting on closing the country to the outside world", and the Zai faction controlled the navy, but the navy could not beat the foreigners, and finally Abe chose a limited opening of the country, and the supreme admiral of the navy resigned in anger. At this time, Japan's national crisis was at the head, and the authority of the shogunate was declining, and it was forced to recruit a large number of "foreign daimyos" who had no participation in political power to the shogunate to discuss countermeasures. The elders of the last two generations are all members of the Ii family, and the authority of Naobi is quite remarkable, and Abe really can't do it anymore, so he gave the first seat of the old middle school to Hotta Masamu, who was the founder of the country.

Therefore, the current ostensibly chief consul of the shogunate is the first Hotta Masamu, and both Abe Masahiro and Ii Naobi have considerable authority.

This time the blue ship came to sail was peculiar, only one came, and it was not like a battleship, Abe Masahiro and Ii Naobi went to the port side under the protection of the guards to overlook the Great Eastern, and were shocked by the scale of the 10,000-ton giant ship and the strangeness of the vertical axis windmill.

Looking at the tricolor flag flying high, Abe smiled wryly: Nima has a new country coming.

Yamamoto Otoyoshi, an old friend of the Japanese people who had just finished a round of translation, saw the battle of high-ranking shogunate officials in the distance, and came to Abe and Ii to salute alone.

Jing Yi said straightly: "Otoyoshi, aren't you playing for the British?" How did you change the owner this time? ”

Yamamoto Otoyoshi introduces the two adults to Downing's eccentric identity, being British, monarch of the German Confederation, and plenipotentiary of the German Confederation.

Masahiro Abe: "This ship is so big, how many ships are like this in Europe?" ”

Yamamoto Otoyoshi: "Lord Hui, this is the world's largest ship, the Great Eastern, and there is no other ship bigger!" The Great Eastern was built in London by my employer, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, who was the great inventor and who invented the magical wireless telegraphy. We are in contact with Europe thousands of miles away on the Dongdafang! ”

Jing Yi Zhibi exclaimed: "Was it invented by the monarch himself?" ”

Otoyoshi Yamamoto: "It seems to be! And...... The Grand Duke also had many other inventions, and instead of fire, electricity was used for lighting on ships, which was a kind of ...... I don't know what it is, but the two adults saw that the two big windmills that had been spinning on the ship were used to produce electricity, that is, this technology could convert wind into light! ”

Masahiro Abe: "It's too godly...... I saw people on the boat, and they allowed us to visit? ”

Yamamoto Otoyoshi: "Yes, this is a cruise ship, not a battleship, welcome to visit, do you want to take a look?" ”

Masahiro Abe and Naobi Ii looked at each other, nodded to each other, and with an order, the two highest-ranking rulers of Japan finally couldn't resist their curiosity and walked towards the Great Eastern. （http：／／.）。

The big official came, and Tang Ning dismissed the people of Edo and personally received the two high-ranking officials of the shogunate.

The color, size, speed, food, hygiene, and lighting of the Great Eastern completely subverted the imagination of the two shogunate officials, and if this represented the advanced level of Europe, then Japan was simply a wild place. Tang Ning personally explained these technologies and inventions, which made all the Japanese officials accompanying him "start, drunk, and crazy".

These founding officials have now realized that if Japan is not founded, it will be completely finished, absolutely finished, and Downing even briefly introduced the technology of the Krupp rifled gun, also in order to frighten the Japanese officials.

Tang Ning didn't mention any conditions this time, but Jing Yi Zhibi asked the Great Eastern to stay for two more days, he wanted to take a look at those stunned Qingla of the "Yi faction", this kind of Yi technology, can you get it? Of course, in return, Tangning's men were allowed to move around Edo in the company of shogunate officials, and were treated in the same way as the Hulu barbarians who paid tribute to the Celestial Empire.