Chongzhen Undergraduates

"I think so, the transliteration is similar." The follower didn't veto it, and couldn't veto it either.

This is Zhu Youjian's cleverness. There are so many tribes of Indians. Is it difficult to find a tribe with a similar transliteration to a certain area in Ming Dynasty?

"Is there a Sioux tribe in Ming Dynasty?" Duke Menrosa asked Zhou Peigong.

"Yes. For example, the silk on the governor's body and the embroidery on the handkerchief all come from Suzhou." Zhou Peigong looked serious.

"Really?" Duke Menrosa turned to the officer behind him again.

"That's true. All the silk imported from Daming comes from a place called Suzhou." This time, the official admitted it clearly.

"But the Sioux are in the north." Duke Menrosa obviously felt a little guilty, and began to argue.

"They also often go south, and marry the Apache and Comanche tribes, leaving many descendants in these two tribes." Zhou Peigong returned calmly.

"This" even involved descendants, and Duke Menrosa obviously couldn't answer.

"But the place you occupied was ours first, and a gold mine was discovered there." A Spanish official finally couldn't help it, and said nakedly.

"Does the governor mean that as long as there is gold, it belongs to the Spaniards? If so, shouldn't I, Ming, go to see if there are any descendants of Ming people in Peru?" Zhou Peigong is no ordinary person.

Some people think that they should go to war with the Spaniards directly, but Zhu Youjian thinks this is unrealistic for the time being.Let’s say that Spain has been operating in Central and South America for 200 years. If you go directly to grab the Caribbean Sea, you will undoubtedly want the lifeblood of the Spaniards, and they will fight you directly.

Regardless of the fact that the Spaniards lost to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, it was because the regular army was defeated, not the colonial militia.What's the difference?Is the civilian army better than the regular army?

Indeed.The settlers of the colonies were the proletarian rogues, pirates, and robbers who had no scruples, and those who were barefoot were not afraid to wear shoes.Even if Zhu Youjian wants to fight this battle, it's not now.

"No, no, no, we're just discussing the ownership of the Northern Territories." What is Duke Menrosa most afraid of? He is most afraid that someone will bring the Spaniards to South America.

The dominance of South America is the bottom line of the Spaniards.

"There is nothing to talk about in the northern territories. I am here this time to help you Spaniards rebuild Panama." Zhou Peigong waved his hand and skipped the topic.

"What do you mean?" Duke Menrosa was a little confused.

"It's like this. The emperor of our country heard that the prosperous city of Panama, which had traded grain with Ming Dynasty before, was destroyed by a group of pirates. This is not conducive to the trade between the two countries. Therefore, His Majesty the wise emperor decided: use gold mining The gold from China, loan to New Spain, and help rebuild Panama." After Zhou Peigong finished speaking, he drank a large glass of wine in one gulp.

"Help us rebuild, it won't take so much gold." Duke Menrosa began to think about whether it was a good deal.

"We have the strength to rebuild ourselves," Duke Menrosa replied.

"I'm not only talking about Panama City, but also the canal connecting Gatun Lake." Zhou Peigong finished speaking with pride on his face.

"What?" Duke Menrosa could no longer calm down.

In fact, the Spaniards also wanted to build a canal. Of course, they knew how far it would take to bypass the entire South America.However, the Spaniards were too keen on gold, and their emperor didn't care about any infrastructure. In the end, the Americans paid for it and the French built it.In the seventeenth century, in terms of technology itself, the Spaniards were powerless to build canals.

"We will give you a loan, and then you will hire Chinese technicians to jointly build this canal. Please pay attention to the governor: our loan is interest-free." Zhou Peigong continued to throw out two big baits, and directly took Duke Monrosa was drooling with hunger.

Chapter 744: Panama Canal

Why is this bait Duke Menrosa greedy?

Because of gold.

Not to mention that Europe is a gold standard currency, while Ming Dynasty is a silver standard. Even in Mexico, it is also a typical example of cheap silver and precious gold. There are also large silver mines in Mexico, and Yingyang is the Spanish silver coin minted in Mexico.

What Ming Dynasty loaned to New Spain was gold, but what New Spain paid to Ming's construction workers was silver dollars.As long as Daming doesn't want to repay the loan immediately, New Spain will make a profit.

"How many years is the loan period?" Duke Menrosa immediately asked the key point.

"The great emperor of our country said that there is no deadline for loans, but there are conditions for repayment." Zhou Peigong stroked his sleeves and replied with an ambiguous sentence.

"What condition?" Duke Menrosa was a little disappointed, thinking that the condition must be very harsh.

"Condition 100: After the completion of the canal, [-] years of jurisdiction will be used as collateral." Zhou Peigong pointed out a finger.

"Don't think about it." A Spanish official retorted immediately.

Just kidding, 100 years of jurisdiction?Who signed such a traitorous treaty before a big country?That was the terms on which the great powers bullied the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty, which claims to be great, actually accepted it.

"Condition [-]: offset the debt with the amount of local grain." Zhou Peigong said the second condition.

"That's about the same." The Spanish official's face eased a lot.

"When will the repayment start?" Duke Menrosa asked again.

"That depends on our demand for food." Zhou Peigong said grandly.

Duke Menrosa was beaming, and it could even be said that he was happy in his heart.According to Zhou Peigong's statement, this business is simply not too profitable.

What is food?Food is a resource that can be regenerated every year, and it is worthless after crop after crop; as for gold, gold is a non-renewable resource, so it is precious.I have heard that people bought food in Panama, presumably because there are too many people mining gold in the north, and there is not enough food.

But if it is not enough to eat, how much food can the north need?New Spain only needs to take out part of the food every year and pay it off slowly. It can be said that there is no debt pressure.

"I need to ask the king for instructions." Duke Menrosa was happy in his heart, but his mouth was pretending.

The duty of the governor of the Spanish colonies is to find gold for the Spanish king, but he actually has a lot of power.Does the King of Spain care about the livelihood of the people in the colonies?Besides, it's a canal.

Two months later, the Spaniard's reply arrived.

"Since the reconstruction of Panama City requires a lot of money, my king has decided to triple the loan amount from Daming on the basis of the original loan." When the Spanish officials announced the conditions, even Duke Menrosa blushed. Well, his greedy king probably only recognizes gold but not people.

"Of course, but the money may need to be paid in batches. After all, mining gold mines takes time." Zhou Peigong seemed a little embarrassed.

"Of course I understand." Duke Menrosa hastily and sincerely expressed his understanding.

Building canals is nothing new to Ming Dynasty. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal left by the ancestors alone is a typical case.

However, building the Panama Canal with the current technology is really difficult for Daming, and it needs to pass a series of technical hurdles.Because the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal uses small tugboats.When all the big ships arrived in Yangzhou, they had to change their ships and replace them with a series of small tugboats to pass through the canal.

If the Panama Canal is built like this, it might as well not be built.At most, the Panama Canal must be able to pass thousands of tons of sea ships.It sounds scary, but it's not a big deal, it's only a few thousand tons, and it can't compare with the later generations that can handle tens of thousands of tons.

The technical difficulties that need to be overcome include: hydraulic propulsion, engineering anti-seepage, engineering surveying and mapping. After all, it is already a modern project.The Spaniards have never made it, and it is also related to these things.The whole world knows that compared with other European countries, the scientific spirit of the Spaniards is not very good.

At this time, Zhu Youjian had already returned to Daming, and specially went to Nanjing to hold a national technical seminar on thinking about this matter.

"Your Majesty, for this job, we must leak the steam engine to the Europeans." Fang Yizhi reminded.

"If it's leaked, let it leak. There's nothing to do about it. You can't keep going without development." Zhu Youjian was depressed, as if he was also very reluctant to let go.

In fact, he is the only one here who knows that during this period, some people in Europe began to propose the concept of the steam engine, and also made a prototype, but the technology of the steam engine did not mature until Watt appeared.After all, it is a layer of window paper.

"The main thing is not to be afraid of divulging technology. There is no problem on my side." Fan Laogen said simply.

"You are so confident. It seems that your engineering and construction company has conquered a lot of technologies over the years. Then tell me about your design!" Zhu Youjian suddenly became interested, and wanted to know that there were no suggestions from him at all. Next, how did Daming build such a large-scale project.

"That minister made a fool of himself. First, the largest engineering volume of the Panama Canal is divided into two parts. The first is the three lift locks on the east and west banks; the second is the excavation of the 36-mile-long canal. Among them, the difficulty of the locks does not lie in the engineering Size, but technology. Our engineering department intends to use fully reinforced concrete to complete the three ship locks. All the required building materials will be shipped from North America, which will also drive the development of heavy industry in North America.