was used by Liu Yu as a bargaining chip to scare the Russians, and Renate did not know the truth of this. In September, he and a group of Swedes who had been captured together followed Liu Yu to Weihai.

The French delegation would then arrive in Tianjin by boat, and after a stop in Weihai, wait for the monsoon to rise and return.

Liu Yu returned to Weihai first, and also prepared for the selection of craftsmen to study in France, as well as the preparation of Dashun's first European merchant voyage.

The first ocean-going merchant ship made of military oak and Taiwanese cypress had been completed, and Liu Yu gave him the name "Free Trade".

The ordered goods have also been prepared in the south, and the people of the trading company have a wide range of contacts.

Silk, custom-made porcelain, and tea were all hoarded in warehouses, waiting for the free trade merchant ship to go to Songjiang and Fujian to load its cargo and go to Sweden in January next year, with the two sailing ships of the Swedish East India Company.

Not only Liu Yu has high hopes for this cargo ship, but also the shareholders of the trading company have high hopes for this merchant ship.

Trade with Japan was saturated, the Nanyang trade was controlled by the Dutch, and now that the famine on the Japanese side had begun to tighten monetary policy again, the permission to carry rice and smuggled goods may be abolished next year.

The explanation from Nagasaki was that Japan was heavy on agriculture and light on commerce, and the samurai and feudal lords were all rice, and if the price of rice was too low, the interests of the samurai would be seriously affected. One of the major goals of the shogunate's reform this time was to keep the price of rice in a high range.

Although he was very grateful for Liu Yu's proposed monetary policy, and also grateful for the sweet potato preparation technique sent by Liu Yu, the shogun allowed this rice trade to be maintained for another year.

Therefore, this trip to Sweden will become a growth point for the trading company next year, and the shareholders hope that the profits brought by this voyage can make up for the loss of profits after the abolition of smuggling with Japan, at least equal.

It seems that the majority of shareholders are still in a positive and optimistic mood, and the stock price of the trading company has not dropped much due to the bad news from Japan.

Mantou accompanied Liu Yu aboard the ocean-going merchant ship Free Trade with a displacement of about 1,200 tons, and among the selected sailors were twenty trainee sailors who had just served.

The ship was also equipped with ten cannons, as well as a group of muskets and swivel guns.

was selected as the captain of this voyage, and Mantou understood that this was Liu Yu's respect for him.

Because there was still an unfinished battleship on the shipyard, he handed over his position as captain of the cruiser at this time, and as long as he could return safely, he should be the captain of the first battleship in Dashun.

"Ziming, I'm not worried about anything else. The main thing is that after arriving in the South Seas, the Dutch may intercept it. The Dutch did not dare to declare war on us, nor did they dare to really fight us, but it was possible to make some small moves. ”

"For example, seizures, inspections, and so on. In order to miss the monsoon and delay the time, these tight goods would not affect the sales of the Dutch East India Company. Do you know what to do in case you encounter such a situation? ”

Mantou smiled: "Sir, don't worry." Not humble or arrogant, polite and courteous. If he dares to arrest the ship, I will shoot it. If you can run, the monk can't run the temple, isn't there a Dutch merchant house on the shore? ”

Hearing this, Liu Yu was greatly relieved.

"Yes. If you dare to intercept it, you will open fire. I'll say hello to Songjiang, and if something happens, don't worry, the court will be on our side." When the time comes, all the Dutch ships will be detained and the merchant house will be copied. ”

"Of course, if the Dutch are not so aggressive, it is better not to provoke them. Just hang our flags along the way. Don't provoke them just yet. ”

Turning around and pointing to the shipyard and dock in the distance, Mantou understood.

"When you get there, you will be in charge of the overall situation of the trade, and the people of your own trading company will be in charge. I'll explain it over there, too. You are also an official of the imperial court, and when you get there, you mainly hire some people with wood tar distillation technology. I also said hello to Renate and the others, and they will help too. ”

Mantou wrote down Liu Yu's words one by one, and followed Liu Yu to meet people other than the trading company on this voyage.

The captain of the merchant ship, who was in charge of surveying, drawing nautical charts, and the future of the merchant ship, all gathered and listened to Liu Yu's precautions.

"Most of you are old men of the fleet. I had also followed Bering to draw a coastline map of the Whale Sea before, and I had mastered all kinds of skills. I won't say much about this kind of technique. ”

"I also said the precautions for the voyage, and you also know what scurvy is and what you should eat to prevent it. Although Westerners have been running this route for more than 200 years, there will always be all kinds of accidents at sea. Come back alive as much as possible, and raise your rank by one level when you come back. ”

"The warriors are going out to say goodbye. I'll have a banquet tomorrow night, and I'll talk about it in more detail when the time comes. ”

After these people dispersed, Liu Yu went to the shipyard again, and some young craftsmen were transferred from it, and these people went to the French shipyard for internship.

Only these people are not enough, Liu Yu went to the orphan school that was accepted in the year of the Jiaodong Great Wilderness to select the talents here.

These people, unlike artisans, may have to stay in France for ten years or more.

The three views of adults have been determined, but these children who are about ten years old have not yet been determined, and they are taught by him, using the teaching materials he started anew.

Since the Great Famine, these people have hardly left Liugong Island.

Living a life that is almost isolated from the outside world.

Many years have passed, they have forgotten the outside world, forgotten the stories their parents told them before their deaths, and accepted the same enlightenment as Liu Yu, carrying almost the same cognition of heaven and earth.

Teenage children don't know much, but like children in later generations, they don't know why the earth is round, but they are convinced that the earth is round.

In the classroom, they have learned to about the level of the sixth grade of primary school. Text, arithmetic, geometry, and Latin all have ready-made teachers, while some other courses, such as general knowledge, are taught by Liu Yu himself.

These are the seeds that he cares about as a seed to change the world, and he knows exactly what level each person is about.

The common sense of nature, Liu Yu can teach.

Even Liu Yu can say that sending these people to France, in terms of science and mathematics alone, they may not learn as well as the children who stay in Liugongdao.

But Liu Yu can't teach some political common sense.

If he dared to teach, the emperor would be frightened first.

Therefore, it is still necessary to send the smartest and best to the "old revolutionary areas" for further study.

Borrow chickens to lay eggs, and when they come back, they should really learn.

Standing in the corridor, like every class teacher in the future, he walked through the glass of the corridor and observed the students inside.

On the blackboard, there are some words written, and a brief version of history written by Kang Buxian is being taught. To leave Dashun, they must first know who they are and where their motherland is.

On the podium, the teacher who had been selected with a high salary was reading a poem in a subdued tone according to the textbook written by Kang Buxi.

"Jing Kang is ashamed, and it is still ...... snow"

The children below also followed the teacher's tone, reciting the poem, which had been hundreds of years away from them, listening to the teacher's explanation, and looking at the simple map drawn in the book.

It seems that history lessons have not yet learned about the Ming Dynasty.

The concise historical textbook written by Kang Buxian is also a nationalist historical concept in line with Dashun's ideology, which is mixed with some private goods of Liu Yu's mixed class historical view, but it is not so explicit, just talking about issues such as land annexation.

The gentleman who taught did not feel any discomfort, felt that there was nothing wrong with what he said, and there was nothing to say without a king and a father.

Those who can take the exam will not teach here, and the rest of the poor talents Liu Yu will not accept much, and the main force of teachers is still those who have received camp education but cannot attack the marginal people of the society.

When they are teachers, they have a lot less noise of "learning less about the words of the sages and putting the cart before the horse", and they take more than three taels of silver every month, and they will not go to find trouble one by one.

Glancing at the class schedule on the blackboard, the next lesson in history class was math class, and Liu Yu quietly stared at the bell ringing outside for the end of class.

As soon as the bell rang, the children were about to run out to play, when Liu Yu pushed the door in.

The faces of a few fast runners suddenly showed the child's unique joy and anger, and it seemed that they knew that this time the recess was going to be occupied.

Calling out in unison, Liu Yu read the names of several people, and these people stood up nervously and followed Liu Yu carefully.

Thinking about the memory of being beaten before, they are all recalling if they have caused some trouble again?

These children have a very special affection for Liu Yu, and when the catastrophe happened, the eldest was ten years old.

Their memories will never be erased from the tragic situation of their parents being starved to death, and they clearly know their status, and they have also followed Liu Yu to personally feel the stinky wine and meat of Zhumen, and there are frozen bones on the road.

Liu Yu let them survive, and they also learned to read and write and common sense with Liu Yu.

All children have serious psychological problems.

It's easy to go to extremes.

Liu Yu is not doing an experiment of socialized parenting, but the cruel reality makes this child naturally become this kind of experiment.

The parents are gone, and the remaining relatives and brothers have either gone to Vladivostok or are serving in the army, and there are few opportunities to meet.

Everyone grew up together, ate together, bathed together, slept together, and didn't separate until some of the girls started bleeding.

However, they did not witness the loving scenes of other people's parents around them, and this kind of collective life has been deeply reflected in their minds and has become a habit.

For Liu Yu, they are respectful but not afraid, afraid but not afraid, more of a kind of love.

Liu Yu will give them a general knowledge lesson every once in a while, and he will also take time out to care about their lives on weekdays, and he can even call each of them by name.

Today, these children didn't know that their fate would change no less than that of the disaster, and they followed Liu Yu to the office tremblingly, all of them lowered their heads and stared at their toes in a daze.

"You guys, you're going to France this winter. Come, stand up, show me where France is? ”

Pointing to a stunned child, the boy walked over to the map of the territory drawn by the missionary, and naturally pointed to the location of France.

It is also natural to recite in the mouth: "The capital of France is ......"

When he had finished reciting, a bold boy asked, "Sir, are you going to France too?" ”

Liu Yu shook his head and said with a smile: "I won't go." You go and live there for a few years, and in a few years I will send someone to bring you back. When you get there, be obedient. ”

Although these children were a little surprised, they did not feel the slightest uneasiness about this unknown journey.

They are all orphans, they have been without parents for all these years on Liugong Island, and in their opinion, France is just a far away place, and life is still similar to here.

In addition, the general studies class and the world map that they could see every day and hung on the wall of the classroom broadened their horizons, and they could find tens of thousands of miles away on the map on the wall.

Compared with their parents, who felt out of reach from Jiaodong to Shandong, they and their parents and even Dashun at this time the vast majority of Chinese people were no longer in a circle.

"Sir, what are we going to study in France?"

"You can learn anything, you can learn whatever you want."

Liu Yu is not worried about this, the basic education and habits that these people have received since childhood make them have a high probability of mixing with the group of enlightenment scholars in France.

Some of Liu Yu's historical views of private goods learned from history textbooks, as well as their special childhood experiences, are very likely to make them the most radical people in the group after graduating from French universities.

Different people's perspectives are different, which is why Liu Yu doesn't want Dashun to send some official students.

The official students must have a wealthy family, or simply a good family with a royal blade, and their butts will be crooked to the side of the royal family and nobles.

If it is a Confucian student, after you go, what you see is either "leading beasts to eat people" or "no king and no father".

In today's world, it has not yet reached the level of complete despair of people of insight in the late Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the gap between the East and the West has not reached the extent of seeing the steamship moving against the current and the three views are shattered.

At this time, sending "people of insight" will only be more conservative and reactionary, and Liu Yu still knows this in his heart. Just as he panicked that day, Chen Zhen followed the Qi delegation to Europe.

He hoped that the French people who sat in the salon would say what he wanted to say but didn't dare to teach these children on Liugong Island.

There are many schools of thought in the Enlightenment.

These people who have lost their parents since childhood, experienced hardships, lived in a group since childhood, and received Liu Yu's private education are most likely to be exposed to either the encyclopedic school, or the egalitarian school and the digger school.

This has something to do with their life since childhood, just like negative electricity and positive electricity, and they will inevitably smell the school that best suits their tastes from the complicated Enlightenment schools.

It's just that...... If these people really embark on this path, they will surely die. Because it doesn't work at this point.

Perhaps, it will be Liu Yu who will suppress them in the future, but someone will have to die on this road and be the founder.

Thinking about their possible future, Liu Yu swept away the sadness that flashed in his heart and poured a small glass of fruit wine for each of them.

"The boy is determined to go out of the countryside, and he will not return if he can't learn to become famous. Why bury bones, there are green mountains everywhere in life. ”

"I have taught you the common sense that this world has nothing to do with people."

"Those truths about people, why there are poor and rich, and why there are frozen bones on the stinky road of Zhumen's wine and meat, it is up to you to explore it yourself. When you figure it out in the future, don't forget to come back and tell me. ”