Chongzhen and I became partners

Chapter 669

On the way to conquer Luzon, the imperial court's Luzon Expeditionary Army stopped by and wiped out the Dutch Empire's army entrenched in Dongfan, and it had arrived at the capital a month earlier.Therefore, when most of the common people saw Xiyi being escorted to the capital, they could guess at a glance that they were probably prisoners of war of the Dutch Empire.

They guessed right, these Xiyi were Dutch captives who were escorted to the capital for trial.

At this time, under the heavy snow, Kuiyi and the others were escorted off the boat by the soldiers of the Ming army. When they looked up and saw countless buildings, they were shocked.

Are you going to say they don't know it?it's out of the question!

They traveled from Holland to Batavia in Southeast Asia, and then to Dongfan. Some of them have also been to the country of Wa, and some towns along the coast of Daming have also seen it.

This insight is not uncommon!
However, they have never seen such a big town, and there is no city wall!

Even when it was snowing heavily, there were still pedestrians on the road. Judging by the scale of this pier, it was the largest they had ever seen.

All these things made Kui Yi sigh with emotion: "I have always heard that the capital of Ming Dynasty is the largest city in the world, but seeing it now, it is indeed so!"

Along with him, there was another translator who belonged to the Zheng family.

Because the official Chinese of these Dutch daimyo is too bad, and they can only speak common language, and they can't speak a little more complicated words.

In front of the emperor, of course, there can be no language barrier between the two sides, so the translation is naturally there.

At this time, upon hearing Kui Yi's explanation, the interpreter immediately chuckled and said proudly: "This is only Tianjin Wei, and the capital is still far from here!"

"Ah?" Hearing this one by one, Kui was surprised and said in disbelief, "Isn't this your capital?"

After hearing this, the interpreter didn't want to pay attention to him, so he became a bumpkin and even regarded Tianjin Wei as the capital!

As soon as Kui saw it, he still wanted to ask more questions. Suddenly, an unusual voice rang out: "Ang..."

When Kuiyi and the others heard this, they were startled. The sound was definitely not a sound that a human could make: a monster?

But when he came back to his senses, he was relieved to see that Ming people were acting as if nothing had happened. Even if they were monsters, they were not cannibals.

At this time, the general of the Ming army who led the team had already communicated with the local officials who greeted them, and took the prisoners to continue on the road to the train station.

The cold wind was howling, and Kuiyi and the others walked timidly. Thinking that they were still far away from the capital of the Ming Dynasty, they couldn't help but feel very miserable, so they hurriedly asked the translator: "Where are we going?"

The interpreter heard him, glanced at him and said: "Of course I'm going to the capital. I'll send you to the capital before the year. Maybe taking advantage of the Chinese New Year celebrations and the emperor being happy, your crimes will be lessened!"

Offering captives a year ago is considered a congratulatory gift to the emperor.But the translator was right. For these Dutch captives, if the emperor is happy, good things may happen!
As soon as Kui heard his words, he was overjoyed, but immediately worried and said: "With such heavy snow, isn't the capital far away? It seems that your Chinese New Year is only a few days away? Even if we are all frozen I'm afraid it's too late to die, right?"

The interpreter listened and ignored him.In fact, although he had heard of steam trains, it was his first time riding them.It's snowing now, can this steam train still go on its way?This is a problem!

About half an hour later, the train bound for the capital started, and the carriage was full of people, but everyone was shocked and stunned.

Through the glass window, you can see that the train has left Tianjin Wei, and the snowy wilderness is really completely white.

"Bang, bang..."

Between heaven and earth, it seems that only this rhythmic sound is left.

I don't know how long it took, but Kuiyi finally came back to his senses, and couldn't help exclaiming: "God, there are such miraculous things in the world!"

At this time, the steam engine has not been seen in the West at all, and as for the steam train, it will take hundreds of years.Seeing it with their own eyes, sitting in the train, experiencing unimaginable things, their shock will definitely not be smaller than that of the Ming people at the beginning.

Hearing his voice, the other Dutchmen came back to their senses, completely forgetting that they were captives and that they were being escorted to the capital of the Ming Dynasty for trial. They just marveled at everything in front of them.

"Such a heavy snow can move forward at the same speed as a carriage, which is really amazing!"

"It's more than that, don't you look at it, can the carriage pull so many people at one time? How many horses will it take to move it!"

"It's really worth it to ride in this car once, this time!"

"..."

Listening to these Dutch captives amazed again and again, and understanding the translation of their words, I am very proud!

Even those soldiers of the Ming army who couldn't understand Dutch could tell from their expressions.Originally, they also wanted to marvel, but instead of marveling, they also showed proud expressions.

This is our Daming!

Under the heavy snow, the speed of the train dropped a lot compared to usual after all.The time to go to the capital is longer than usual.

The soldiers of the Ming army and the Dutch captives all ate and slept in the carriages; while the snow was still flying outside the carriage windows.

Like a moving house, the Dutch even forgot their identity as captives, and they couldn't experience the feeling of taking a train.

When the train arrived in the capital the next day, the heavy snow had stopped.

Needless to say, the Dutch were once again shocked by the size of the capital.

Originally they thought that Tianjin Wei was already the largest town in the world, but unexpectedly, they saw a bigger and more prosperous town!
They even saw the houses on the capital's side, which were generally two-story, and they could also see five-story houses. Everything on the capital's side made them unable to see it at all.

It can be said that they were a little less shocked after taking the train for a day, but after seeing the capital, they were shocked again.

In the past, Marco Polo's travel notes gave Westerners an impression that there was a very wealthy country in the far east.Some Westerners don't believe it, some Westerners believe it, exploring the road to the East, and thus the Age of Discovery.

After so many years, many Westerners have arrived in the Far East, and they all think that they already know this Far Eastern country.The same is true for Kuiyi and others.

But today, at this moment, they realized that their understanding of the Far Eastern Empire was still too shallow.

Not to mention anything else, the prosperity of this country is far beyond their previous exaggerated imagination!

From now on, they will have to re-understand this Eastern Empire!
........................

On Emperor Chongzhen's side, the Chinese New Year is approaching, and they are already summarizing the end of the year.

In the 18 years of Chongzhen that are about to pass, the biggest thing is that the Southwest War has basically ended, and a large number of the main force of the imperial court has been transferred back to the north.The imperial court has begun to adjust the national policy of focusing on strategic defense in the north and Liaodong, and is gradually transitioning to a national policy of strategic offensive.

In addition to the military, the reform of the land and returning to the local people has basically been completed, which is also a very big harvest.

In addition, in the 18th year of Chongzhen, the compulsory military service system for all people was also implemented, and expeditionary troops were sent overseas for the first time.

These things have never happened before and will definitely be remembered by history.

The financial revenue brought by the rectification of the local area in the past two years is becoming more and more effective.The treasury revenue for the whole year reached nearly 3000 million taels.

Of course, there wasn't much left in the treasury.

According to Liu Weichao's suggestion to Emperor Chongzhen, it is better to use money to make money than to keep money in the treasury to rot. Spending money is the correct way to manage money.

The money in the national treasury was generously allocated by Emperor Chongzhen for the construction of roads, railways and water conservancy in various places.The mileage of railways is increasing.

The second big head, of course, is military spending.This military expenditure includes not only the equipment and rations of the existing army, but also the money for developing a new generation of weapons, including rifled guns and real iron-clad warships.

The third cost point is the promotion of Gewuxue.Including the promotion of free education nationwide, the innovation of the entire education system, and the research and development of science and technology.

Of course, the so-called research and development of technology, at this stage, is more about building machines based on the drawings provided by Liu Weichao, and studying how to use the existing conditions of Daming to achieve mass production.

One thing that must be mentioned is the research and development of Tieniu.Using steam engines as power, mechanized farming is carried out on the plains of the Central Plains and the North China Plain, which can save a lot of manpower.It is of great significance to the Ming Dynasty just coming out of the war.

As for the development of the textile industry, it has been greatly improved two years earlier, which has reduced the cost of clothing for the people of Ming Dynasty a lot.

The four most basic aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation are all making great strides.In the prosperous times in history, it is estimated that there has not been such a good improvement!
In addition, the imperial court also issued a lot of loans to the people of Ming Dynasty through the banks in the capital and Nanjing.In the process of rebuilding their homes, all the people with brains participated in it, and it was booming.

No matter from which aspect, Emperor Chongzhen was very satisfied, so he was in a very good mood.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen received a report from the Ministry of Punishment, saying that the Dutch prisoners had been escorted to the capital, and how to deal with them?

As far as the Ming Dynasty is concerned, if it is rebellion, it is basically death, and there is nothing to say.However, if it is a small foreign country, it is not necessarily so.Depending on the emperor's mood, there were death sentences and pardons.

Even in the disposal of the Japanese captives back then, Emperor Wanli cut off some of them, asked after the autumn to kill some, and then released some.

Now, in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, the Dutchman is a proper small country of Fanbang, and the Ministry of Punishment must ask for an order.

(End of this chapter)