Gan Tang chuckled and patted Li Mo'an's shoulder, and said, "With people like you, we will always have hope...... Now that I'm a little bit of power, I'll do my best to support you. Asking for money and people is a matter of your words. ”

Li Mo'an's face was faintly complicated when he heard this, but after all, he was still grateful, looked at Gan Tang and said: "Although you have intercessed, but the family is still annoyed, if I can't break into the hall, I am afraid that it will be difficult to enter the ancestral hall if I die." Lord, it's all up to you. ”

Gan Tang nodded solemnly and said, "Don't worry, in less than ten years, people who look down on you will definitely regret their short-sightedness." ”

Li Mo'an waved his hand again and again when he heard this, regained his spirit, and said with a smile: "It's my own choice, when I listened to His Highness's high-level comments that day, I had the idea of studying these, I have loved this since I was a child, so I didn't go to Jiangbei to take up the county order, and I asked your idea to come here." I haven't thanked you for interceding with my dad yet......"

Gan Tang smiled and asked, "How is it, what are your feelings, what can we learn from, the stones of other mountains can attack the jade ------"

Li Mo'an nodded and said, "Small items such as pocket watches can already be repaired." We are afraid that it is not possible to make it ourselves, the steel cannot be rolled, and the gears are also difficult. As for firearms, it's simpler, but we still have to learn ......."

At this point, he saw Jia Cong and a middle-aged young man he didn't know behind him all solemn.

Li Mo'an no longer hesitated, and said in a low voice: "In the past year, foreign banks have secretly traded with foreign ships that come and go, and a total of forty-eight various long firearms have been purchased at a high price, as well as a number of sub-medicines. There is a workshop for building and repairing firearms, and I often go there to watch, and the craftsmanship is not difficult. If you really want to imitate it, it's not impossible.

It's just that the prince, this thing must not be kept privately, it's a big crime......"

Gan Tang's eyes rolled when he heard this, and he quickly calculated in his heart, and after a little effort, he smiled at Li Mo'an, who was full of worry and concern: "It's okay, ten years ago, I have obtained the approval of the emperor and obtained the will of self-research and development, and I have set up two workshops for the research and development of firearms in Kyoto and Nanyang...... By the way, Mo'an, now I am ordered to go south to patrol the coast and eliminate pirates. Therefore, you don't have to worry about righteousness, and you don't have to be anxious, you can thoroughly study the skills of Western firearms, and then compare them with our firearms to learn from each other's strengths.

Gan Tang knew that in the East and the West, firearms had not yet been truly used on the battlefield.

One hundred taels ago, in the process of contact with Great Xia, the West learned to make gunpowder.

In the application of gunpowder for 2,000 years, China only knew how to make fireworks and firecrackers for fun. There are two types of firearms used in war in Great Xia, that is, the Divine Fire Crow, that is, large fireworks tied to bows and arrows for long-range arson.

In the past, there were muskets, but their weight was seventy or eighty pounds, and the shooting distance was only thirty paces, which was mainly due to the fact that the formula of gunpowder was not accurate enough, and every time the gun was fired, a large amount of residue remained in the chamber, and the gunpowder was not completely burned at this time.

The proportion of gunpowder burned was different each time, and if the gunpowder was refilled too much, the proportion of gunpowder burned was too large, and the barrel would explode. The reason is that the formula is not scientific, and the quality of the steel is not up to standard.

After the West obtained the manufacturing technology of gunpowder, under the invasion and blow of the Yan Empire, it gave birth to the development of weapons, and in the history of mankind, every large-scale war can promote the development of industry, which is also the sadness of mankind.

After the West obtained the manufacturing method of gunpowder, many countries have a large number of people involved in research, from the formula of gunpowder to the refining of steel.

However, the West now also has its own obstacles that cannot be overcome for the time being, that is, the 'nitrate' for making gunpowder has only the Asian continent and the American continent on the earth, and the Asian nitrate is mainly concentrated in China's Sichuan and Inner Mongolia, and Chile in the Americas has the world's largest nitrate. Europe and Africa are not open to gunpowder.

Before Columbus discovered the American continent, Europeans could only ferment gunpowder by urinating artificially, and in this case, they could not meet the needs of war.

However, through Li Mo'an's understanding here, Gan Tang has taken the lead in the study of firearms, and now they are using trade to smuggle a large amount of 'nitrate stone' from Great Xia, and it is estimated that the time for it to be used on the battlefield is not far away.

Gan Tang was a little eager to try.

"Is the collection of Western books still going well?" Gan Tang asked.

Li Mo'an replied, "This is a bit troublesome, these Yangyi are very strict with the management of books, there is a private library established by a French monk here, I inquired, it is difficult to enter if it is not his friend." I don't understand Yi and have a hard time communicating. The translators I hired were of low status and couldn't take on the top of the hierarchy here. ”

"Mo'an, let those two translators come in and see me."

Li Mo'an responded, and it didn't take long for him to walk into the front hall with a man and a woman.

The woman turned out to be a prostitute, wearing a green scarf with a silver hairpin, a soap-colored half-shirt, and a silk robe embroidered with dancing butterflies. Over thirty years old, the face is ordinary, painted with light makeup, the corners of the eyes are charming, the cherry mouth has a slender waist, you can see that you have a posture when you are young, and you can know at a glance that she is not a woman from a good family.

The man was even more unexpected, he was an old man over fifty years old, with a dark complexion, thick finger joints, and enough exposure to the wind and sun, and he was a figure begging for life on the sea. Dressed in a worn monk's black robe, with a cross on his chest and a thick book in his hand, he stood in the hall without humility or arrogance.

But his hands were shaking.

"The slave family visits the master, what is the matter with calling the people's daughter!"

There was a hint of ridicule in the prostitute's words, perhaps because she had forgotten Wang Hua after living in Macau for a long time, or maybe it was due to her profession, and she didn't forget to throw an old flattering eye at Gantang.

The Xia monk's words were a little stiff, as if he hadn't spoken Chinese for a long time, and he opened his mouth to cherish the words like gold, "Meet the little people, my lord." ”

Although Gan Tang is young, he has been in a high position since he was a child, and he has a momentum, sitting on a chair, leaning back slightly, his eyes are focused on the hands and waist of the monk, his hands have calluses formed by holding the sword for a long time, and the buckle of the saber and sword is on the belt around his waist.

This is not only a Xia monk, but also an old Western warrior.

"My surname is Gan, and I am the commander of the Great Xia Imperial Shift." Gan Tang sat upright, put one hand on his knee and the other on the tea table, and asked the two, "What are your names, where are you from, and what are your identities?" ”

Seeing that Gan Tang didn't eat this set, the prostitute bowed and saluted, and said coquettishly: "The slave family is called Dieniang, a native of Quanzhou, Fujian, who makes a living in Haojing, of course, she is a woman from a good family." ”

Look how much I believe in you!

Gan Tang didn't want to pay attention to her, raised his hand to let her sit aside, turned his eyes to the monk Mingren, and motioned for him to speak.

"The old husband, the Jesuit monk Anthony, who served Father Xavier, has lived in Ho Jing O for more than 20 years and has been to many places." The Ming monk Anthony arched his hand and said, "Your Excellency, if there is anything I can help with, please command." ”

After saying that, the old man still took the cross on his chest and waved it from side to side to write it down, which looked much more decent than asking him to bow his hand.

Gan Tang wanted to ask if this old monk who didn't even have the name of the Xia people still regarded himself as a common person of the Xia Dynasty, but it was in vain to ask.

Anthony gave him a strange feeling, as if they were equal in status, when in fact they were in no way equal.

In this era, whether Eastern or Western, Buddhist or Catholic, there is no equality.

Therefore, Gan Tang is more likely to regard this demeanor as a sense of superiority, and he does not like this kind of revealing superiority very much.

Like a colonizer facing a colonized.

"I know, I heard that there is a French priest in Xiamen and a collection of books from Western countries, how can I get in touch with this person?"

Gan Tong had a lot of questions about the summer gate, and the Jesuit monk was undoubtedly the longest-lived monk in Australia, and the most suitable candidate.

But he also felt that it was not a good time to reach out to missionaries, but because of his status, he had to seize the opportunity.

When he understands Xiamen like a blank slate, whoever listens first will cause preconceived notions. And if he had to be preconceived, he would rather listen to the prostitutes of the Xia Dynasty than accept the crazy believers whose minds were filled with religion.

The monks who can persistently travel across the sea to preach in the East are naturally fanatical believers, and the servants taught by fanatical believers are, of course, also fanatical believers.

But the monk's unfazed appearance of the blessed monk made Gan Tang admire.

Anthony seemed to have expected this to be the result, even if he was called to come and go, there was no surprise, nodded and said: "I'll go and report to the people of the church, as an adult, the priest should be able to meet Your Excellency, I don't know if it is convenient for adults to reveal their identity?" ”

Gan Tang nodded, and then ordered Shao Huan to send Anthony out.

Anthony followed Shao Huan out step by step, still struggling.

"Hmph, fake Fanyi!"

As soon as Anthony left, Dieniang sneered at Anthony's back with disgust, turned her head and looked at Gan Tang with a smile on her face, and said, "Oh, Lord Commander, you want to find someone who can speak, why are you looking for him, can he be of the same heart with the court?" Fanyu slaves will too, and they know everything about Haojing Ao, so they don't wait for you to ask. ”

Gan Tang exhaled a breath of turbidity, leaned back in his chair, and looked fixedly at the carved beams for a moment.

"You say that he can't be trusted by fake Fanyi, so you can believe it, Chen Mou, the mother-in-law of the widow?"

Ordinary people can't leave their homes for a long time, and it is not difficult to imagine how this northern woman came to Xiamen.

"Credible! It's much more credible than Fanyi! ”

Accepted, admitted?

Gan Tang frowned, he just said casually, he really didn't expect Dieniang to admit that she was a widow in front of herself, a court official.

Seeing Gan Tang frowning, Dieniang's eyes widened, and then the scarf covered the cherry blossom mouth, and chuckled: "The commander is very bad, and he cheats the slave family." ”