Value determines attitude.

The French could not ship or buy goods, and Count Morpa received an official reception in Guangdong, but as a treaty port, the officials saw more foreigners, and did not receive much courtesy.

Before coming, I heard from the missionaries that the emperors of China liked to put on a show, and the envoys of the rest of the countries came here as tribute, and they would give them rich food all the way to the capital.

But in Guangdong, except for a meal at the local official's, all kinds of supplies had to be bought with money.

And after eating, the local officials said that considering the climate and typhoon, they were advised to go north to Songjiang immediately, where someone would lead the way directly to Tianjin.

The news of Dashun's ban on religion reached Europe, and among the people who visited this time, there were no missionaries for missionary purposes, only a few missionary translators who were familiar with China and knew some Chinese.

In addition to sailors and missionaries, translators, the rest of the ships were some "commercial spies".

More than 20 years ago, when Dashun was still forbidden to teach, some missionaries sent by Louis XIV were able to preach everywhere under the affection of Bai Jin, and they also traveled to many places by helping Dashun draw maps.

Someone sneaked into Jiangxi, and in the name of preaching, secretly learned the firing method of porcelain, and knew the most important thing of porcelain...... Kaolin.

However, although these missionaries also have a certain level of education, they are like mountains separated by interlaced lines, and even if they read it, they have not learned the essence.

This time, the French envoys also brought some craftsmen from the porcelain factory, and some even technicians invited from Meissen, Meissen's porcelain is much stronger than France, Meissen porcelain is also a famous European porcelain, but there is still a big gap between Jingdezhen porcelain and Jingdezhen porcelain in some details.

In addition to the porcelain craftsmen, there were also silk craftsmen on board, and there were many raw silk in the Middle East and Persia, but the French silk weaving technology was still a little worse, and they also hoped to take this opportunity to steal silk technology from China.

The craftsmen had a specialization in the arts, and the Count of Morpa, as the admiral of France at this time, also specialized in the arts.

After observing the naval division in Guangdong along the way, he was quite disdainful in his heart, the ships of the naval division could neither fight in the open sea, nor did they have the ability to fire a salvo from battleships, and it was obvious that this was a far backward navy, and it could not even be called a navy.

However, for this navy, Count Morpa did not underestimate it. The experience of the Dutch proves that on the open sea, the Chinese navy is vulnerable, but in the ports near the coast, with a large number of fire attack ships and port batteries, there is still a fighting power.

Although he had heard that his Chinese counterpart, who seemed to be the Minister of the Admiralty of Dashun, was building a navy, Count Morpa doubted that he could really build a working navy on such a basis.

For the first time, a naval minister, nicknamed the "executive navy" in Europe, found a sense of superiority over the navy of a great power that it had not had for a long time.

"Perhaps, the blueprints of the new 74-gun battleship could be used as a weight in exchange for porcelain, silk and tea secrets."

After leaving Guangdong, he had such an idea.

When the ship arrived in Songjiang, it was treated the same as before in Guangdong.

After welcoming them off the boat, they were invited to a banquet, the dishes were very rich, with Zhejiang's rice wine, and it tasted very good.

But when he asked Duplex to offer a tour of the city, the officials on the other side immediately shook their heads.

"It's windy and rough here, and there can be typhoons. It is advisable to leave as soon as possible. If you can get permission from His Majesty the Emperor, you can visit the city again in the future. ”

Obviously, these part-time translators who have lived in China for a while have clearly translated the voice-over of these words, that is, it is not allowed.

Tian Ping was reminded by Liu Yu, and at this time he came up with standard diplomatic rhetoric: "Although the DPRK is switched on, all Westerners are not allowed to buy houses and real estate on the shore, so as not to repeat the incident in Macao." It is also forbidden to wander around the interior without permission, and the missionaries used to have permission to do so, but now the country forbids religion. ”

"Your country's religion is not adapted to the soil and water in your country, and some Buddhists and Catholics are attacking each other, and I am worried that you will be attacked by Buddhists in the interior, and we cannot afford such a responsibility."

"In the Celestial Empire system, officials are responsible to the Son of Heaven. The Son of Heaven ordered us to entertain you and send you to Weihai as soon as possible. We dare not take responsibility for the possibility of being attacked by Buddhists. ”

Referring to the wars of religion, Buddhism is not the state religion of Dashun, jumping out of the truth about preventing commercial espionage, and also giving a reason that Count Morpa cannot refute.

Seeing his resolute attitude, Count Morpa thought to himself, sure enough, this is a perfect and powerful empire, with a high degree of centralization, which is lacking in France and even in the whole of Europe.

At this time, it was the era of absolutism advocated by European countries, and whoever was more authoritarian was stronger, even Britain with the Channel blocked, thanks to the Lord Protector who had taken that step.

France has been as centralized as possible since the time of Louis XIV, and the French aristocracy is also accustomed to being centralized, but it is still far from the extent that there is no aristocracy in places like Dashun and all taxes go to the central government.

This time, the envoys of the Fortune Kingdom only stopped in Guangdong and Songjiang, which were the richest places in Dashun, and the propaganda of the Enlightenment in Europe made the crown of the Chinese emperor even more important in the eyes of Count Morpa.

Although the navy is much inferior, when it comes to government and wealth, it is incomparable to France.

Seeing that the order to evict the passengers had also been issued, the helpless Count Morpa had no choice but to leave Songjiang after purchasing supplies, led by several navigators who were already familiar with Weihai.

As they approached Weihai, a fleet of six cruisers appeared on the surface. Dashun now does not have a single official battleship, and although the French Navy has been reduced to the current level, it can still come up with seven or eight battleships.

The fleet of cruisers did not shock the French legation.

The commander of the fleet, Mantou, also knew very well that this fleet would not bring any shock to the French, after all, two ships in it were still bought from the French.

And Dashun's first outdated design of the 64-gun battleship was still on the slipway, and it would take some time before it was launched.

The envoy of the embassy on the opposite side was the French Minister of the Navy, so Liu Yu's order to give the captains of this group of ships was to show their own advantages as much as possible.

If Dashun's naval hardware has an advantage, at least at this time, the only advantage is artillery.

When the ship was still some distance away from the French mission, the steamed bun had the flag raised and fired three salvos to greet him with a salute.

Inside the gun deck, the original nine-pounder guns had been dismantled and replaced with a recast twelve-pounder naval gun. All were expensive brass bronze cannons, not iron cannons, and the weight could be lower while maintaining firepower.

At this time, the official currency of Dashun was silver and copper coins, and where the copper cannon was a cannon, it was clearly a copper coin stacked together.

Behind the cannon, a flintlock structure was mounted, which was lit by a lasso, rather than by a fire arque, as in the previous naval guns of the French.

There are no open flames in the entire gun deck.

Gadgets such as flintlocks can also make the cannon react faster, eliminating the need to insert the fiery rope.

This may be the most advanced place in Dashun's naval hardware, or it may be the only advanced place in hardware.

In terms of software, the navy of Weihai is still confident in this. A high proportion of officers, professional non-commissioned officers, and excellent gunners who practice once every three days, rely on the quality of money, which is another place that the French Navy is far from at this time.

It was not until a few years later that the French navy, which trained for an average of one shelling a month, was able to obtain enough funds to train once a week, at the strong urging of the Count of Morpa.

Zhang Erbiao, who has become the commander of a cannon, lazily holds the cable of the flintlock machine, and has the impression that this is the second time he has fired a salute.

The last time he fired a cannon, he had only been on board for a short time, and it happened that the Duke of Eguo came to Weihai and fired a salvo.

It's been a long time since the last time, and there have been drills every three days over the years, and the study of cultural classes has also increased.

As in every drill, the Powder Monkeys quickly carried the powder packets from behind, loaded and pulled.

The ropes pulled by the huge recoil rattled, and the cannon that retreated along the track was stuck just in a suitable position for reloading.

I reload mechanically and fire again mechanically and take out the speed at the time of the weekday assessment as a ceremony to welcome.

Zhang Erbiao thought to himself, I wonder if the French gunners are also like this? This was uncertain, but he was sure that the French warships were better than the ones in Dashun: at least when the French died, they were buried in the sand of the cabin, left to rot, and laid to rest when they reached the shore. However, Dashun's navy, at the request of Liu Yu, was put in a cloth bag after death, stuffed with Jiang rice and red dates, decorated with cannonballs, and thrown to the bottom of the sea as a big zongzi.

After three mechanical and numbing salvos, the gunners came out and praised the gunners, signaling that there would be a meal in the evening and that it would not be fish, and there was a thunderous burst of joy.

The three salvo salutes did shock Count Morpa, and his previous contempt for the Great Shun Sailor gave him a great sense of naval superiority.

But this time the welcome salvo made him sigh heavily.

Thinking of the glitz and opulence he saw in Canton and Songjiang, Count Morpa thought to himself, money, money...... Chinese are really rich. As long as there is money, the gunner will have a faster rate of fire; As long as there is no money, the gunner's rate of fire will not be fast.

Gunpowder training costs money.

Judging from this fleet, it seems that what they thought before was not correct. The Earl and the Admiral on the opposite side, it only took a few years from scratch to have a fleet with such a rate of fire, which is really a bit terrifying.

Duplex, who was on the side, was also a little shocked and spread his hands helplessly.

"Lord Count, the last time I came, they didn't shoot a volley. And now, they probably already have the best naval gunners in the world. At least, in terms of rate of fire, faster than the British. ”

"No country's fleet is for defense. The fleet will bring unprecedented ambitions to the Chinese, and the first victims of this ambition may be the Netherlands and Britain, so please consider my opinion. ”

"A better fleet will give them greater ambitions. Greater ambition will allow them to go further south from the sea. Southeast Asia, which we don't need, is big enough to accommodate their ambitions. ”