Harry Potter’s Morning Light

   Chapter 2130 Flower War (thirty-eight)

   When Nick returned to the hospital, he found a lot of officers and soldiers with lanterns standing at the door. He walked past the door like an unrelated person.

   When there was no one there, he blew out the lantern, and then looked around to the hospital.

   Someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind, and Nick nearly took out the Spanish jackknife.

   "It's me." He walked to the light and pointed to his nose, "Come with me."

   After he finished speaking, he took the lead into another alley.

  Nick followed Qiu Ren and walked for about two minutes. They came to the second floor of a building, from where they could see part of the hospital.

  Cao Xi walked around the yard with his hands behind his back, while the priest stood motionless, with a serious expression.

   "He's waiting for me." Nick looked at Cao Xi and said.

   "Cao Zuoling is searching all suspicious foreigners." Juren said, "Have you heard of the 'Queen of China'?"

In 1784, in order to break through the British economic blockade, the Americans who had just completed the War of Independence took Philadelphia businessmen Robert Morris and Daniel Pike on Washington's birthday on the ocean-going sailing ship "Queen of China", which was jointly equipped with the New York Company. More than 40 tons of American ginseng left New York Harbor and came to Guangzhou via the Cape of Good Hope.

After being bumpy at sea for more than half a year, the "Queen of China" first arrived in Macau. Excited Americans fired 13 shots to pay tribute to the city on behalf of 13 states in the United States. A week later, it arrived at the final destination. The destination of Guangzhou, and repeated the same trick. This time, Guangzhou people who were celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival were startled, thinking that pirates were coming, or they were going to fight. As a result, many casualties were caused.

In fact, the Americans just wanted to be exempted from paying the "first trade tax". After the accident, they immediately lied that they were British. When they found that the officials who boarded the ship were very disgusted with the British, they hurriedly explained that they were from the United States. Emerging country under British rule.

  Many Chinese people do not understand the outside world, and although the United States has succeeded in independence, its government has not been recognized by all countries in the world. Coupled with the fact that the Americans were very disciplined and law-abiding after they went ashore, the officials of the "Celestial Empire" finally reported the incident to the foreigners without courtesy.

   Could it be that another emerging country that appeared out of nowhere came to Guangzhou and "fired a cannon to salute" like the Americans?

  Nick looked at the officers and soldiers who were fighting with open flames. They didn't seem to be here to ask questions, but to arrest him.

   The last time an admiral helped him, this time he might not be so lucky.

   "I can't go back now." Nick looked at Juren and said in a low voice, "I have no fame, and Cao Zuo understands that he will torture me."

   "Oh, by the way, it's the right way for a 'literati' to get a job title." He said, "Those Shaoxing masters thought they could keep accounts and manage documents, and they thought they were Zuomu, which is really a joke."

It is necessary to explain the difference between the Chinese-style shogunate and the Japanese-style shogunate. Japan used to have a dual politics for a long time, divided into the public family and the samurai family. The public family mainly pays attention to etiquette and ignores the government. Establish a shogunate to govern the whole of Japan. The samurai regime created by Ashikaga Tsunji was called the Muromachi shogunate, and the samurai regime created by Tokugawa Ieyasu was called the Edo shogunate.

There is no dualistic rule in China. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao had many advisers such as Guo Jia, Xun Yu, and Sima Yi, as well as Sun Quan and Liu Bei, but there were not as many advisers as Cao Cao in Shu Han and Eastern Wu, so Cao Cao's shogunate was the most competent to manage the country. practical experience.

The Shaoxing masters mentioned by Juren not only need to keep accounts, but also advise their "masters" like the advisors of the Three Kingdoms period. However, these "masters" do not have high official positions like advisors. They are only subordinate officials in the yamen. Not even the subordinate officials, because the subordinate officials may be the quota in the official hall, and the term of office of the officials is usually three years, and they have to go with credible people, so the master is more like a professional consultant hired, sometimes They also do some behind-the-scenes work for the master.

   In the late Ming Dynasty, the friends of the screen were basically from Shaoxing, Zhejiang, so they were called Master Shaoxing. They exchanged information on the basis of the friendship of their fellow villagers. As for the imperial examinations, they hardly took the road. Instead, they relied on the recommendation of the master, just like Fang Guancheng, the governor of Zhili, or took advantage of the master's incompetence and took advantage of his incompetence. Just one stroke, just like Wang Jiwang.

  Nick felt that his trip around the world might have to change a bit, such as not continuing his next trip in China, but before he left he had to escape tonight's manhunt.

   He asked Juren to take him in, Juren readily agreed, and said with a smile that as long as he was not afraid of hanging ghosts.

  In the end, they went to Juren's residence, a place not much better than the ruins. Although Juren said he was not afraid of ghosts, he still put "knife coins" by the bedside. It is said that it has the effect of exorcising ghosts.

   He gave the "bed" to Nick, and he made the mat and made the floor. This time he didn't tell Nick the story like he used to.

  Nick looked at the beam above his head, and even though he knew there was no body hanging there, he couldn't sleep with his eyes open.

  There are two main ways to leave China. The first is to take a merchant ship of the East India Company. The second is to go to Japan first, and then find a way to go to other countries from Japan to take a ship.

   Since the decline of the Central Plains dynasty established by the Han nationality, especially after the Manchu and Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the surrounding tributary states, including Korea, only recognized the culture of the Celestial Dynasty, but did not recognize the Central Plains regime.

   They called themselves "Little China". Toyotomi Hideyoshi's request for North Korea to pay tribute to him was equivalent to ending the "Greater China" system. Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty won that war.

  Due to the seclusion of the Ming Dynasty, Japanese merchants spread all over Southeast Asia, plus they produced silver and copper mines, the Sea of ​​Japan has basically become the main trade artery of the entire Northeast Asia.

  Vietnam was almost entirely reliant on Japanese trade, and their ports fully accepted Japanese Zhuyin ships, providing a place for "joint trade".

  During this process, Vietnamese white sandalwood and raw silk were also imported to Japan, while Japanese copper coins flowed to Vietnam.

  As Japan's copper mines were exhausted, the Edo shogunate promulgated the "Zhengde New Regulations" to curb copper exports. As a result, the Vietnamese raw silk business that relied on Japan began to decline, and businessmen from Britain and other countries stopped going to Vietnam.

  At that time, Vietnam was in a divided state. In order to fight against the Nguyen clan of Hanoi and Quang Nam, the economic base had to be transferred from the occupied South China Sea trade to the plundering of the countryside.

At that time, the Zheng clan in Hanoi was weak and incompetent, but relied on the support of the Qing court to continue to rule, and the looting of the countryside by the Nguyen clan in Quang Nam finally triggered a peasant riot. , Xishan Nguyen quickly defeated the Quang Nam Nguyen clan, and also defeated the Hanoi Zheng clan, and finally faced the Qing army. In 1788, the Qing army entered Vietnam, and the following year defeated the Qing army on the outskirts of Hanoi, giving the last blow to the Le Dynasty, and then the Si Son Nguyen became the first regime to unify Vietnam.

  Their victory was supported by Chinese pirates. The newly established regime not only gave the pirates official positions, but also provided them with venues. In order to further strengthen the naval power, the pirates were equipped with warships, cannons and other weapons.

At this time, the Qing government used a method to grant an edict to the third son of the three Nguyen brothers, King An Nam, and the eldest son of the Nguyen family who actually commanded Xishan was neglected, and the conflict between the brothers intensified. One is back in the country with the support of Britain and other countries.

There are three main trade routes between Japan and China, the first is the Nagasaki line, from Nagasaki, Japan to Zhapu, Zhejiang, the second is the Busan-Japan Tsushima route, the third is from Fuzhou to Ryukyu, and then from Ryukyu to Satsuma , but Nick asked Captain Yao to go to Xiamen last time, at first because Captain Yao was worried about pirates, and later because Captain Yao was warned, he could not make the trip.

  Since the East India Company assembled countryship-class ships, pirates rarely attacked British ships. The "Queen of China" has 380 tons and is already a huge ocean-going ship. The countryship-level East India Company's special ship is 1,200 tons. It is much higher than the water surface, and it can't climb up even if you get close to it, not to mention that there are 20 cannons on it and American hired sailors. .

  Unless you plan to sink it and then salvage the sunken ship, the countryship is almost unimpeded in the South China Sea. This feeling of powerlessness makes some pirates feel that it is time to "wash their hands with gold."

   But even so, the East India Company did not dare to use real money when sending money to the country, unless the British navy was dispatched, so the East India Company had to pay the funds needed for the army and military supplies sent by the country.

Last time, the Macartney envoys measured a route from Guangdong to the north. They also met the tributary envoys from Ryukyu in Fuzhou. It was precisely because of the intelligence collected and the inaccuracy of the original map that Harrock hired Nick. map.

  If you want to escape, you need to plan your route, not like Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

   However, the conclusion Nick came to was not wonderful. He wanted to run very hard, unless he went to Southeast Asia, which meant that he had to go back to the hospital to get the map hanging on the wall.

  Nick took out his pocket watch, it was already midnight, and Juren was already asleep.

   He crept up from the bed and opened the door. Just before he stepped out of the room, he put 300 silver dollars on the table, which was enough money to bring people to Beijing again.

   Then he left the "house".

   (end of this chapter)