"Tell me about the civil war in China," although the Dutch East India Company had been established for many years, and there had been a long confrontation between the mercenaries of the South Sea East India Company and the mercenaries of the Council, China was still a very mysterious country to most Dutch, and General Ned was very interested in this great power in the East: "What is their navy, how is their army?" ”

"Presumably the generals have already heard of the Marquis Huang of China?"

"Yes, his heir also visited Amsterdam a few years ago."

"Now this venerable nobleman is a duke."

General Ned whistled softly, in most European kingdoms, a duke was the highest rank a nobleman could attain, and most of these titles were given by kings to their own brothers: "I remember that this duke is from a commoner's background, right?" ”

"The general has a good memory, the duke is indeed a commoner, for thousands of years China has continued to seize large colonies from barbarians and turn them into natives, as far as I know, every Chinese general who seized a large new territory for the emperor, even if he was born a commoner, will receive hereditary nobility......"

"Naturally, this duke has seized a lot of land for his emperor." There was a sense of envy in Ned's tone, he didn't know anything special about Yellowstone's experience: "What duke? ”

"Like us in Europe, it was named after the duke's fief, but that name is not easy to remember, but it gave the duke an alias, called Duke Panshi."

"Is it used to describe the Duke's temperament, or is it the style of war?"

"Yes, and it's also related to the name of Duke Panshi."

"I see." General Ned nodded.

"His Excellency the Duke of Rock has a slightly different experience," the East India Company man honestly reported to the Vice Admiral his understanding of the political situation in China and the life of Huangshi, "Forty years ago, China lost its wise, sophisticated, and brave old emperor, and with the death of the old emperor, the mighty navy and army he had built were also in vain, and the barbarians began to fight back. The Chinese lost their new territory, about the size of Europa, and the colonies on it were either turned into barbarian slaves or slaughtered, and the barbarians even tried to sack the capital of the empire. ”

"A territory the size of Europa, tsk-" the vice admiral commented, "how can such a large land be easily indigenized?" ”

"Generals should not underestimate China's ability to colonize, they have endless manpower, and such a large land can become a native in just a few decades." The East India Company told the General that, as far as he knew, China had more than 50 million men: "The rate at which China colonized new territories was very rapid, as far as we know, as long as the colonies which had been firmly occupied for more than fifty years for thousands of years had become Chinese proper." ”

"Well, let's move on to the Duke of Rock." General Ned couldn't help but think that if the Netherlands had such a population, the colonies in North America would have been localized long ago, no, even if there were dozens of times more land, they could be localized very quickly.

"The Duke of Rock was a young general, and he blocked the gates of the capital and annihilated all the barbarians who tried to sack the capital, and for this merit he received the status of a marquis, and no one at that time doubted that the general would seize a large new territory for the country, because of such a merit he could even establish a new kingdom larger than France. But the marquis's enemies at court, jealous of his merits and honor, persuaded the emperor to strip the general of his military power and exile him back to his own remote fiefdom. And those who took over the army were stupid rice buckets, and not only did they not regain the lost territory for many years, but let the barbarian armies ravage the territory of the empire again and again, empty the imperial treasury, and humiliate the emperor's army and ministers......" The East India Company gradually spoke of the beginning of the civil war: "The emperor was surrounded by the general's political enemies, and after so many years, the general never seemed to regain military power, and finally even the general's champion knight defected to the rebels and became another champion knight who claimed to be the leader of the rebel army who had the right to inherit the throne... … The traitors around the emperor accepted the gold of the rebels and betrayed the city gates to the enemy, and the desperate emperor committed suicide in front of the gates of the imperial palace......"

General Ned listened quietly to the interesting story, and the representative of the East India Company then told him that the duke, after the loss of most of the territory, was holding the emperor's young son (the Dutch were not very well aware of the relationship between the Chinese royal family). Fleeing to the south and continuing to resist, there is now a glimmer of victory: "Before I came, I heard that the crown prince of China had intended to make the duke king, but the people were not satisfied, believing that the old royal family was no longer worthy of the crown, and that the people wanted to be able to carry the crown on the duke's head. ”

"What a remarkable country," said Ned, heartily, "a brave soldier who repelled the barbarian attacks, led the people to defeat the rebels, and was proclaimed king and emperor, which I had only heard of in fairy tales before." If you don't have a bloodline worth mentioning in Europe, then you can't get the crown no matter how talented you are. ”

After a series of compliments, Ned asked again, "What about the Duke's former champion knight?" ”

"The knight remained loyal to the new Emperor, a knight who had a good reputation for mercy, who had never plundered his army, and who had on many occasions generously released noble prisoners of war without asking for ransom, not even their armor, weapons, and jewels; And those civilian soldiers who can't pay the ransom, the knight will let them eat and let them go......" The East India Company introduced Xu Ping's experience, which is also his understanding: "The knight seized a colony about the size of two Europa from the barbarians, and got his own kingdom, with tens of thousands of troops capable of conquest...... Although the war was becoming increasingly unfavorable and the Duke of Rock had guaranteed the rights of the nobles who surrendered, the knight did not betray the emperor who gave him the title in order to preserve his fiefdom. ”

After listening to the introduction, Ned said, "This knight is a respectable gentleman, he must be from a famous family?" ”

"No, he's from the same civilian background as the Duke of Rock."

"I am really surprised by the upbringing of the Chinese commoners, I think even few of our nobles can do this well," Ned shook his head, "It's a pity that he has no noble blood, otherwise I would have thought that this knight is fully qualified to be our king." ”

The East India representative laughed: "The council will not agree to give a crown to a commoner, and this knight is not good at naval warfare. ”

"This is where we are inferior to China, and it doesn't matter if the king doesn't understand the naval battle, I don't want His Majesty the King to seize two euros for us, as long as there is a France the size." Both Ned and the delegate burst out laughing.

……

Oxford, United Kingdom,

His Majesty the King had determined to seize the North American colonies of the Netherlands for England, thus proving that he was no worse than Cromwell's traitor, and that if the traitors could defeat the Dutch, England under the King would have achieved more brilliant results.

"The Dutch East India imported a large number of machines from China," and the British were of course concerned about the movements of the Netherlands, especially for the other side's efforts to rebuild their navy: "We also bought some." ”

After the crown prince of England returned to China to be crowned, France had sent an envoy sneakily to discuss the partition of the Netherlands, the French king thought that this alliance could strengthen the relationship between the two countries, before France had been taking in the exiled British crown prince, the French king thought that the other party should also repay, and the French king thought that the request was not too much, he only wanted to annex the Netherlands mainland and divide the Dutch overseas territories with Britain equally.

Although the King of France had a good guess about the contradictions between Britain and the Netherlands, the First Anglo-Dutch War had turned the two countries hostile to each other, and one wanted to expand the victory, and the other wanted revenge, so they were ready to fight again. But the British king was dismissive of the French king's greedy secret agreements, and the British sought to seize large amounts of Dutch overseas possessions and digest them for themselves. As for the rest, it would be best if the Dutch could hold on so that Britain could continue to capture it in the future, and the presence of the Dutch mainland would therefore be necessary to ensure that the Dutch would maintain control of the remaining territories and not be touched by other powers until Britain had succeeded in digesting the fruits of this victory.

Since the annexation of the Netherlands and the division of her territory could not be achieved, the King of France immediately secretly excluded secret envoys from the Netherlands, intending to form an anti-British alliance with the Netherlands: declare war on Britain after the outbreak of the Anglo-Dutch War, try his best to support the Dutch war against the British, and carve up the British overseas territories with the Netherlands.

This secret agreement was a great success, and the Dutch and France hit it off and reached an offensive and defensive alliance against the British. However, in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, after General Ned invaded the Thames, destroyed the British fleet and shipyards, and forced the British to surrender, the Dutch did not consider the interests of France, but were happy to simply benefit themselves. The French king, who worked for the Netherlands in vain, felt that he had been deceived and insulted as an honest man, so he turned around and went to the battered British to discuss the division of the Netherlands, which led to the third Anglo-Dutch war - the Netherlands surrendered to Britain for the second time, ceded a large number of overseas territories, spit out the fruits of the last victory, and then dug the seawall and drowned the French king's army, at this time Britain began to secretly support the Netherlands against France for the sake of balance: the three wars before and after allowed Britain to obtain a lot of benefits from the Netherlands, But His Holiness still didn't get anything.

Needless to say, after discovering that the Dutch had purchased machines from China, the British also hurriedly asked the Spaniards to help acquire a few, and the British were not unaware of the foolish actions of the French king, and they mended their relations with Spain and now found a potential enemy for the French back. At the same time, the purchased machine tools and power machines were shipped to London, intending to study and copy a few of them.

Now there are several Nanming manufacturers in the production of steam engines, and there are product descriptions along with them, and the descriptions of various machine tools are more detailed. The Chancellor of the University of Oxford, marveling at the effects of these new machines, immediately stated that he had in mind a candidate to study and imitate them: "But the word imitation may humiliate him, so let's say improve." ”

Although they had never seen the machine master in person, the headmaster's tone, attitude, and words made the officials suddenly respect the master they had never met, and the headmaster led the officials who sent the machines to the depths of the campus, and led them to an apple tree, and when they saw that the person lying under the tree looked to be a hairy boy in his early twenties at most, the officials were all surprised.

Although the headmaster was confident in this person, it was difficult for the officials to imagine that this person would be worthy of the kind of praise that the headmaster had just given, and that he would be so proud that he could not "imitate" the word "copy" in front of him. They couldn't help but feel that the principal might have made some mistakes in judgment and overestimated this person. But none of them thought that the most confident person in this young man was not the principal, but the ruling minister of Nanming hundreds of millions away, to be precise, the ruling minister of Nanming was the crazy admirer of this fledgling young man. In the original world of Yellowstone, there were some worshippers who were even more crazy than him called this man who was born on the same day as Jesus Christ the second Son, a prophet, and an oracle of God, believing that his writings were not his own thoughts, but that God had told the world through his mouth some secrets that belonged only to God.

In Yellowstone's impression, this prophet-like figure, in addition to inventing calculus because he felt that the existing mathematical tools for the study of physics were not at his disposal, also seemed to have invented screws, various machine tools, and many other industrial tools when he felt that the existing mechanical tools were inconvenient when he minted coins for the British king; I casually browsed the article Huangshi many years ago, and I can't remember it clearly, but it seems that the other party doesn't have a steam engine to solve the problem of stable power output, and this Nanming has been tinkering with Huangshi for decades under the guidance of the traverser. If Huang Shi were here today, he would have thought that the expectations of the university president were not too much at all, because in the past, this gentleman had figured out the screw and machine tool on his own without a reference object, and now it is obviously not a problem to improve it in kind.

When the headmaster walked to the apple tree, the young man seemed to be asleep in the shade, when a gust of wind came out, and a plump fruit shook twice in the wind, and suddenly broke away from the branch and fell to the ground, and smashed it at the young man's head.

"Be careful," the headmaster snapped the apple and bowed his head and shouted, "Wake up!" ”

"I'm not asleep," the young man slowly opened his eyes, clasped his hands to his chest and stared at the apple in the headmaster's hand, "I was thinking, how do you prove that the same force that makes the apple fall to the ground is the same force that governs the planets in the universe?" ”

……

When passing through Fengyang, Xu Ping went to visit Zhu Cihong, who still lives here, since the last time he left, Xu Ping has been running all over again, and has never had the opportunity to come to Fengyang again. Zhu Cihong found that Xu Ping was quite pessimistic about the war, and kept mentioning the offensive in the south wave after wave.

"I have trained 20,000 recruits this year, and more than 100,000 in the south, and at the same time, Qi Gong has also launched a full-scale offensive in Yunnan and Huguang, and even their offensive on the Jianghuai battlefield is getting stronger and stronger." After withdrawing from Jiangnan, Xu Ping took turns to withdraw all field battalions to the rear for training, including the guards battalion and the armored battalion, and Xu Ping let them enter the training camp for the second time to participate in this large-scale military training activity. Under Xu Ping's strict supervision, the combat effectiveness of the Shun army has reached the highest peak in recent years, both in quantity and quality, but Xu Ping feels that the gap with the Ming army is still widening, the quality is constantly being equaled, and the enemy's quantitative advantage continues to increase: "At the same time, the south still maintains the garrison of Shandong Binhai and raises a huge navy, and the Duke of Qi still has spare strength and I don't have it." ”

Due to the constraints of the imperial court, Xu Ping estimated that the resources he got would become less and less, but he would not mention this to Zhu Cihong.

Although it was not very far from the front line, Zhu Cihong only saw the news of himself in the north and did not have access to newspapers in the south like Xu Ping, he knew that the Shun army had been retreating but never knew that the situation had deteriorated to this point: "Will my cousin be defeated?" But didn't my cousin win more with less many times and beat Qi Shizi to the ground? ”

Although the other party is under the banner of Ming, Zhu Cihong is obviously still biased towards himself, Xu Ping smiled bitterly, and hesitated whether to reveal Huang Naiming's secret to Zhu Cihong, but Xu Ping felt that it was not necessary for the time being, although according to the current military situation, the defense of the Shun army in the Jianghuai battlefield would collapse sooner or later, but Xu Ping thought that he could still hold on for a few years: "I can't wipe out all the troops of Nanming at once, and the officials of Nanming are honest and have sufficient taxes, and they will make a comeback again and again, Each time the army is much stronger than the last, and if I miss it once, it will be doomed. ”

The two chatted for a while, Xu Ping got up to say goodbye, Zhu Cihong tried his best to persuade him to leave after dinner, and quipped: "These are all cousin's cooks, it's really good, cousin hasn't tasted their craft once." ”

Lunch Xu Ping is a little bit to deal with casually on the road, a steaming meal is indeed a big temptation for him, but Xu Ping hesitated and refused: "Next time, this time I have to rush to Beijing as soon as possible, if I finish this time, next time I can come to Fengyang and my brother for a while." ”

Knowing that Xu Ping hurriedly returned to Beijing from the front line the day before yesterday, Niu Jinxing, the cabinet and the six ministries were all very nervous, worried that Xu Ping's hurried return to Beijing this time was to have a showdown with the civil official group in front of King Shun.

But to everyone's surprise, Xu Ping did not come back to fight with everyone this time, and he did not meet Li Zicheng secretly, but took the initiative to invite Prime Minister Niu Jinxing to discuss together. After Niu Jinxing arrived, Xu Ping immediately said that he proposed to try to make peace with Nanming immediately.

"Peace?" Niu Jinxing shouted: "Now? ”

"Yes, while we still have large territories that we can bargain with."

"What is a bargaining territory, do you want to cede the territory?" Xu Ping's words made Niu Jinxing even more shocked.

"That's what I mean, if Nan Ming is willing to negotiate peace, I don't think it can't be considered even if it is to cede some land."

Niu Jinxing shouted, and said to Li Zicheng that Xu Ping's remarks were no different from Qin Hui's.

"We are not facing a foreign race, and I didn't agree to negotiate peace before, even if it was hard to negotiate peace when I was surrounded in Kaifeng, because I knew that the people under the rule of Duming were not happy...... "Xu Ping's current desire to fight has regressed to the point that it is only because Nanming is unwilling to fully pardon the Changsheng Army and Li Shun's officials, in addition, he still feels that it is necessary to observe Nanming for a while, to see if the benefits brought by Qi Guogong's policy will be just a flash in the pan.

"In the remnant of the Ming collar, the father and the elder look forward to the king and the master like nectar." Niu Venus retorted.

"I doubt what the prime minister said," Xu Ping handed Li Zicheng some newspapers: "In the opinion of the ministers, the new policy of the Duke of Qi has much to emulate, and if peace can be negotiated, our dynasty should also learn from it." ”

"Gong Qi is corrupted by the dynasty," Niu Jinxing retorted, Xu Ping's proposal to remove a scholar from a scholar with six coins of silver made him just feel ridiculous: "Is it worth it to make such a big fuss, spend so much energy, mind and silver, just for six coins of silver?" With this kung fu and money, wouldn't it be good to do something else? ”

"Did the prime minister only see six pieces of silver? If that's the case, what are we going to do with Yushi? What are these people doing? It's worth it to be noisy all day long? ”

"At least the cases they found out were higher than theirs."

"Yes, the more you check, the bigger it gets, it's great to be greedy for a few dozen taels in the first year of Yongchang, and now it's hundreds or thousands of taels to catch one, and it's not strange to raise it for a few more years." With the dirty things between the military and the bureaucracy, Xu Ping felt that it might not be a strange thing, but today he didn't come to argue about this: "If they can also find out the people who are greedy for six dollars, it will be worth raising several times more imperial history." ”

"Is General Xu here today to teach this official how to govern the country?"

"Insatiable desires and insatiable greed. This is absolutely true, since the new deal of Qi Gong, I dare not say that there is no corruption in the south, but in the past few years, the case has become smaller and smaller, and we are getting bigger and bigger here! Xu Ping suddenly found that he was off topic again, he came today to persuade Li Zicheng and Niu Jinxing to consider peace, instead of arguing with the Prime Minister's Mansion about corruption, this is just one of the reasons why he asked for peace. Xu Ping said to Li Zicheng that the strength of the army directly determines the survival of the country: "The military strength comes from financial strength, of course, strong financial strength is not necessarily strong army, just like the Ming Chongzhen Dynasty, corrupt officials are everywhere, even if there are one hundred taels of tax silver, the army may not be able to use one or two; Therefore, financial resources and official governance are the two that determine the strength of the army, the last one is the existing army, if there are no soldiers in hand, it is too late to pay high taxes and clear the rule of officials, but first, the army of the Southern Ming Dynasty is not so weak that we can win a battle; second, Nanming's taxes are ten times that of ours; Third, an official in Nanming will be dismissed if he takes two bottles of wine, and we ...... here."

"Who said there were corrupt officials in the court?" Niu Jinxing interrupted Xu Ping.

"Prime Minister! There is nothing that a husband cannot say to others. Today is talking behind closed doors, it is a matter of life and death for the country, what is the use of fighting for this breath and a little face? ”

"It's really not, General Xu, tell me, who is a corrupt official?" Xu Ping's words not only did not comfort Niu Jinxing, but stimulated the other party to be even more angry.

Xu Ping shook his head and sighed, turned back to Li Zicheng and said: "Even if it's just as good, Nanming's tax revenue is ten times that of ours, and even if our officials are all the same incorruptible, then the soldiers they train and the army they can maintain are also ten times that of our dynasty." ”

"Where is the tax there, they are reckless." Niu Jinxing still scoffed at Xu Ping's words, and recently the south proposed a bill to abolish the two yuan, and Niu Jinxing explained this to Li Zicheng: Nanming has scavenged everything they can from the people, and now they have begun to issue currency indiscriminately and begin to sell people's wealth, or rob people's money, in short, this is Nanming's last madness.

And after Niu Jinxing repeated what he said to Li Zicheng to Xu Ping, the latter was not as convinced as Li Zicheng, and immediately shook his head: "No, the Nanming government allows people to exchange paper money for silver, and the tax only collects paper money, which is not a forcible robbery of people's wealth." ”

Xu Ping also happened to bring back some newspapers in the south, and several of them even reprinted the debate on this proposal at the Constituent Assembly of the Southern Ming Dynasty: "Doesn't the prime minister read the newspapers in the south? ”

"Hmph, do you need to see those nonsense things?"

"Listening is clear."

"This official is not stupid, he has a brain and can think for himself." Niu Jinxing himself is also convinced of the things he told Li Zicheng, because the people around him agree with Niu Jinxing's analysis, and they have all come to the same conclusion, as for the newspapers in the south because the cognitive gap with Niu Jinxing and others is too big, it is completely unacceptable: "This is obviously a forcible robbery of people's property, and it will definitely make the south angry and resentful, such a big chaos is not far away, it is conceivable that the people in the south must be looking forward to Wang Shi early in Jiangnan day and night to relieve their suffering." ”

Xu Ping pointed out that the morale of the volunteers in the Southern Ming Dynasty was still high, and the people of Jiangxi, for example, were very supportive of the Ming army, and after the establishment of the Qing Yuan in Zhejiang, the people of Zhejiang also quickly had a sense ......of belonging to the Nanming regime, which was very different from the previous attitude of not caring about themselves and watching Shunming fight for the world. Now the Southern Ming Army no longer thinks that the fighting will of the Zhejiang volunteers is below the old five provinces, and Xu Ping has a similar feeling.

However, Xu Ping's explanation could only make Niu Jinxing feel that he was making excuses for himself to fear the enemy and avoid war, and it was still very unexpected for Xu Ping to be so negative that Niu Jinxing expected, he really couldn't imagine that Xu Ping would be able to say the idea of cutting the land and seeking peace, which has been a traitor since ancient times.

In the face of Niu Jinxing's criticism, Xu Ping still had a shameful face: "The last general will not negotiate peace in private, and today's words come from the mouth of the last general, into the ears of His Majesty and the Prime Minister, and there will be no fourth one to know, the last general just thinks that His Majesty and the Prime Minister should really think about this issue." ”

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