[Comprehensive History] Clothes are all over the world

That's right... This golden gradient lying on Mu Wen's lap... is actually not a cat, but a Siberian tiger cub that can grow to five or six hundred catties in the future.

The Siberian tiger mother of Xu Da’s family gave birth to four cubs after a successful blind date. This number is far beyond the normal reproduction number of Siberian tigers. Therefore, the tiger mother immediately chose to abandon the two cubs that seemed weaker. .

The little tiger that was given to Mu Wen was actually a naughty boy raised artificially.

Because he has been in contact with human breath since he was a child, the little tiger is not aggressive towards humans. After trimming his sharp nails, he was sent to the palace as a gift from his uncle.

For this little tiger, Mu Bai paid the price of twenty telescopes.

Don't get me wrong, Mu Bai really has no interest in tigers. The reason why he picks up the letter from his fourth uncle hidden in the corner is entirely because he has taken a fancy to the place where his fourth uncle Zhu Di lived - Beiping City.

If you don't count the Liaodong area that was just recovered, the Beiping City where Zhu Di is located is the northernmost town in Ming Dynasty.

In fact, Emperor Hongwu was very courageous in using his son. In the entire history of China, there are really few kings who are more able to use his son and trust his son so much.

The fiefdoms of several princes in his domain are all the first fronts against Beiyuan. Once any line of defense is defeated, the cavalry of Beiyuan can drive straight down. It can be said that Emperor Hongwu handed over his life to his sons and adopted sons. hands.

And this trust is also a sweet burden for his sons.

Qin Wang Zhu Xi was in Shaanxi, if he hadn't just recovered the Gansu area, he would have been attacked on both sides.King Zhu of Jin's fiefdom is Taiyuan, Shanxi, where the four fortresses are located. His duty is to assist the two brothers who are at the forefront, and rush wherever they need help.

The whereabouts of Zhu Di, the King of Yan, is even more dangerous. The place where he takes refuge is a thorn in the heart of all Yuan people——Beiping, which was once the capital of the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

The rolling mountains turned flat here, which also meant that Peiping had no danger to defend, and could only fight with fists and fists.

Although the Yuan court was directly defeated when the Ming army invaded Dadu, basically there was no more intense conflict between the two sides, but Beiping’s inconvenient transportation and harsh environment did not bring much popularity to it even when the Yuan Dynasty served as the capital. Its infrastructure is completely inferior to the other vassal states of several brothers.

It can be said that Zhu Di took a group of brothers to the countryside to support the border.

But that was before.

Today, Beiping, which is located at the northernmost end of the Ming Dynasty and the starting point of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal and supported by two seaports in Weiyongping Prefecture, Tianjin, has a special meaning.

This place can completely become a window for trade with the northern nomads!

As long as the ocean trade is opened with the nomads in the north, Beiping will become the largest trading center in North China, and the benefits are self-evident.As a local vassal, he also enjoys part of the local fiscal revenue.

Moreover, merchants will naturally bring a lot of goods and business. The construction of a town is inseparable from merchants.

Besides, if everyone can use money to decay... oh no, to soften the willpower of the northern nomads, it will be very beneficial to the development of Beiping Prefecture, of course.

So, if you want to say that King Yan is the best partner of Mu Xiaobai's plan, it's no problem at all!

Good friends naturally want to win over. Mu Xiaobai, who was a bit obsessed with solving the terrible homework, immediately repaired a book and sent it to Beiping Mansion with a telescope. At the same time, he also ran to Xu Da's mansion. I brought back the newly weaned Cerebellar Axe.

The cunning Mu Xiaobai made enough gestures, saying that he was not stingy at all because he didn't want to give the telescope, but that the Cerebellar Ax was not weaned and couldn't be brought back to raise.

As for whether the truth of the matter will be discovered by my uncle who is far away in Beiping... Ahem, it's not important, it's more important to read the information on the letter!

Mu Xiaobai enthusiastically extended a hand of friendship to his uncle thousands of miles away, "Uncle, when the debate begins, please be sure to vote for your lovely nephew!"

But what Mu Xiaobai didn't expect was that the letters from the other two uncles arrived before his fourth uncle responded.

This time the uncles all wrote for Mu Bai to receive the letter, so Mu Bai was overwhelmed by the sour words in the letters from the two uncles.

Why do you only love the fourth uncle and not the second and third uncles? Is it because the gift you gave last time was not innovative enough.

Why is our relationship with your father the best, your fourth uncle is cunning, don't play with him.

What's so interesting about tigers, and you can't ride them, next time uncle will bring you a camel, do you want it? In short, a group of old men are going all out to fight for favor.

But it didn't work.

All the binoculars in the workshop were taken away by Emperor Hong Wu who discovered something wrong first.

The scary thing is that Emperor Hongwu not only took away the telescope, but also took away the mirrors that had been made. I don’t know why he needed so many mirrors, but there is no way to make a telescope without mirrors.

To make matters worse, the silver reserves of the Eastern Palace have also been exhausted, and if they do it again, they will have to melt silver ingots.

In today's Ming Dynasty, gold and silver are not goods in circulation. In order to control the circulation of gold and silver, the state has strict controls.

At this point, even in the palace, gold and silver are not meant to be fused. The recent actions of the East Palace have already stepped on the minefield of the officials. Mu Bai had to suspend the silver plating in the workshop. Focus all your energy on making the threaded glass.

Threaded glass can indeed have an excellent effect of concentrating light, but limited by the brightness of the original light source today, no matter how much it concentrates and expands the brightness, the effect is not as good as the spotlights of later generations, and the effect is very limited.

Therefore, Mubai is asking craftsmen to try whether they can splice multiple pieces of threaded glass to achieve the effect of expanding brightness.

The effect of Xiao Huangsun's personal participation in supervising the work is very obvious. With the concerted efforts of the Donggong craftsmen, Jian Rong and his party who returned from Japan as an envoy faced this innovation head-on.

The emissary and his party have been floating on the sea for five days. When they left Japan, the unlucky emissary team even "ran into" a group of Japanese pirates. Seeing the other party wow wow wow wow wow wow wow .

The direction was so precise, it was obvious that they were coming for the Northern Dynasty tribute items on their ship. Now that the Northern Dynasty regime is focused on making good friends with Ming Dynasty, naturally it will not do this kind of thing that sent the tribute and wanted to get back the things.

It was obvious who was at sea.

The envoy of the Northern Dynasty who came to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty with the envoy of the Ming Dynasty was immediately furious, pointed at the Japanese pirates below and yelled at them, and immediately bowed ninety degrees to the envoy of the Ming Dynasty, saying that they did not know these people, they must be sent by the petty Southern Dynasty, please Messenger do not misunderstand this.

It doesn't matter if you misunderstand or not, Jian Rong waved her hand, and without saying a word, everyone relied on themselves as a big ship with firearms and weapons, and wiped out the other party with three strikes, five divisions and two divisions.

The envoys of the Northern Dynasties stared at the firearms held by the Ming army. When did the Ming next door have such a big killer?Although it needs to be ignited and the firing speed is slower, this weapon has a long range and does not require manpower. Once it is a protracted battle, it is an absolute advantage!

Not to mention anything else, the sound of the explosion was also very scary.

In fact, the Japanese envoy was thinking too much. Today's firecrackers can only fire three rounds at most, and any more will explode.However, in large-scale wars, after the gunner fires three times, it is generally time for a head-on confrontation. At this time, another function of the gun can also be brought into play-it is a very good percussion weapon.

It is precisely because of this that in the late Ming Dynasty, even with more useful bird guns and flintlock guns, the fire guns still did not withdraw from the Ming Dynasty's armament list.

Jian Rong stared at the stunned eyes and then glanced at the firecrackers and the Japanese envoys filling the gunpowder boxes. Not surprisingly, she asked the soldiers to clear the battle situation as soon as possible.

He wasn't worried about the secrets of the firecrackers being leaked, these soldiers who could use the firecrackers were all tight-lipped, and the most important secret of the firecrackers—the ratio and use of gunpowder were uniformly configured by the Bing Zhan Bureau. Brother himself didn't know their formula, and every time he opened the box, he had to insert the keys of the two general officers together.

↑These secrets were told to him by his little friend Huang Changsun. Mu Xiaobai, who had tried to touch gunpowder, had to say in several attempts that unless he robbed it openly, it was impossible to study it secretly.

By the way, even now that he is the emperor's grandson, Mu Bai still doesn't know the ratio of gunpowder. All adults use it: you are too young, children should not play with fire to kill Mu Bai, but he is not familiar with the structure of gunpowder. I figured it out, of course, I can't tell the outside world.

The prying eyes of the Japanese side are not enough evidence, but this match made Jian Rong realize a rather troublesome problem.

Daming's ship did have an advantage in terms of size compared to the opponent's small wooden boat, but the opponent obviously also has rich experience in robbing large ships. The small boat controlled by manpower is more maneuverable than the treasure ship that relies on the wind. There is a huge disparity in the number of people, and it is really hard to say what the final result will be.

Jian Rong felt that he had to propose to improve the ship. In addition to borrowing the power of the wind, it should also be driven by manpower like a river boat. Otherwise, once surrounded, he would not be able to escape.

Secondly, Ming's naval force is strong, but it's for war. The military officers on this ship obviously deal with hand-to-hand combat for a long time, and the robbers who deal with this kind of guerrilla tactics are obviously not rich in experience.

As long as the opponent has more people, Da Ming will be eaten away by the opponent even if the treasure ship is as big as it is.

Moreover, they were also lucky this time. They encountered Japanese pirates during the day. If the ship broke down at night, there would be no reason for the ship to be scuttled and sunk quietly. However, the sea breeze changes at night. In order to avoid losing their way, today's navigation Most of them choose to break down on the spot.

If only there was a way to sail a boat at night without getting lost.

Jian Rong planned to write down her thoughts as a memorial to the emperor as soon as she went back.Today's sea-going ship technology is not bad for driving along the coastline, but if Da Ming really plans to open sea trade with Japan and Korea in the future, this is a problem that has to be solved.

Envoy Jian, who was sorting out his thoughts while blowing the sea breeze, suddenly narrowed his eyes. He looked at the direction of the port area from a distance, he hesitated and called the officers and soldiers who were about to drop the anchor, and said, "Look at the direction of the port area. , is it on fire?"

"Fire?" The officers and soldiers were shocked and squinted.

Sure enough, there was a red light rising into the sky in the distance at the sea level. It was obviously not the color of sunset, but it should be a fire.

"What's the situation?" The soldiers all ran to the deck, looking at the distance with serious expressions: "Is it an enemy attack?"

"Could it be a beacon warning?"

"My envoy, that direction should be the direction of the meteorological station. We don't usually set off open flames, but this time it might be abnormal." An old sailor stepped forward in twos and clasped his fists at Jian Rong.

"You mean there is an enemy attack?" Jian Rong frowned, but the old sailor didn't answer. Jian Rong could guess the answer, but he couldn't say it, because if he said it, he would shake the morale of the army.

In the tacit silence of the crowd, Jian Rong took a breath, looked at the darkening sky, and asked again: "If we go at full speed now, may we arrive in Hong Kong before dark?"

"Based on the current wind direction, I'm afraid it will be after the port is closed when we arrive at the port." The old sailor stretched out his hand to feel the wind, and replied respectfully, but at this moment, he looked at the direction of the port with a murderous look.

Liujiagang is one of the two ports that Daming is still open to the outside world, and it mainly undertakes the task of envoys paying tribute. If something happens here, it must be a major event among major events.

As a sailor, he desperately wants to participate in the war in the past, but as a subordinate, his most important task this time is to protect the envoy and the cargo. If they pass by now, it is very likely that the ship will be destroyed. , The goods were also snatched away.

At that time, even if he dies, he will not be able to escape the blame.

Jian Rong thought about this too. If he was the only one on board, he would naturally not hesitate, but now there is an envoy sent by Japan on board his ship. If something happens to the envoy, it will be an international dispute, which will affect Daming's international image to some extent.

But if he knows that there is an accident at the port and urgently needs support, he will watch from a distance here...

Jian Rong clenched her fist fiercely and said, "Go forward at full speed, and I will be responsible for the consequences."

"Prepare the boat, and please get the envoys off the boat when we arrive soon." He turned to several Japanese envoys, and slightly bowed his hands at them: "Everyone, I can only offend you if this incident happens unexpectedly, and I will send some sailors to protect them. Now that it’s over, I will make an apology to you all.”

He said these few words sincerely, but he didn't get an answer. Several envoys from Japan pointed at his back, and it was hard to say.Seeing this, Jian Rong felt a little strange, and was also stunned when she turned her head.

Not long after he said that he set sail at full speed, the sails of the treasure ship had all been opened to borrow the wind, as if to help them, and the wind at sea was also favorable. Now they are closer to the coast than before, and what they see is also Clearer than before.

It was indeed a red light rising into the sky, but there was no obvious smoke, which was obviously not for calling the police.

Although the distance is still quite far, they can feel that the entire port area looks quite calm, not as it should be when facing a battle.

This……?

Everyone gathered on the deck, and a few soldiers with better eyesight were pulled to the front, "There shouldn't be a fight," one of the youngest soldiers blocked his eyes with his hands, trying to make himself see clearly, "I didn't see the battle on the city wall." There is smoke, huh huh? Has the color of the fire changed?"

You don’t need them to tell you that everyone has seen it. For some reason, the red light that shot up into the sky has changed its color, and the color has become lighter. "

As the ship gradually approached the port area, they soon knew what was going on. On the sea near Liujia Port, beams of light shot from the weather station on the sea in turn, illuminating the evening sea as if it were daytime.

And the top of the meteorological station, which everyone thought was on fire, was now glowing with warm yellow lights. It seemed like a second sun, pointing out the way home for the group of missions rushing back with full sail.

The author has something to say: There were no lighthouses in the modern sense in Chinese history. On the one hand, our country’s glass manufacturing lagged behind that of the West. On the other hand, it was not necessary during the closure of the port.

But the sailors in the past would use the pagoda as a direction mark, because the pagoda will be lit at night, and it is always bright.

Now Mu Xiaobai lights up the lighthouse for everyone, not only the lighthouse, he also lights up the searchlight, ahem.

Why do you need searchlights, of course it is to deal with grandpa!

Xiaobai is really hard at homework!