On the way to Quanzhou, in addition to the guards outside the carriage, there were still those people in the carriage, the difference was that there were two more exotic figures in the carriage, but at the request of these two people, Zhang Fan specially changed to a very large carriage and was in the same room with them.

"No, no, you don't understand," Zhang Fan was talking eagerly with Richard and Joanna in English, while Yingyue and Luo Ling'er on the side looked at it with interest...... This one...... The central government pays taxes and listens to orders, and after arriving, there are fewer and fewer princes with different surnames having their own fiefs, and now at the beginning of our dynasty, Emperor Taizu stipulated that no kings with different surnames should be crowned, so now only some of the direct descendants of the royal family can have fiefs, and more are just the name of a prince,"

"Your country's heaven...... Isn't the prince afraid that these princes will raise an army," Richard asked with interest, after all, in his heart, the prince who had his own fiefdom would surely hoard the army on a large scale.

"This is naturally scary," Zhang Fan explained, "but this continent has experienced countless dynasties for thousands of years, and people have already figured out a way, these princes with fiefs not only have to pay a large amount of taxes and silver to the emperor every year, but also the number of their own private soldiers is regulated, basically only enough for them to show off when they go out, there is no big storm," Zhang Fan said bluntly this time, after all, there is no fourth person here who can speak English.

Richard and Joanna were surprised to hear this, and Joanna asked, "These princes are so obedient, won't they keep private soldiers in private?"

"Of course it will, but the emperor will send people to investigate and deal with it every three years, and once it is found that there are too many private soldiers, then this prince will be unlucky," Zhang Fan said, "Moreover, although the princes are in charge of the taxes on the back cover, a large part of them have to be paid, so if they want to save more private soldiers, they will have to spend more money, but it is estimated that none of them can stand this kind of 'hard' life,"

These words really opened the eyes of the two, although the feudal system is the most basic composition of feudal society, but the people in the land of China have developed this theory to the extreme, and the most primitive feudal rules are still being implemented on the European continent, this kind of rebellion of the princes often happens from time to time, Zhang Fan's words are very shocking to the two of them, they can hear how great the power of the emperor who rules this vast land.

The two of them had to follow this time because they heard that Zhang Fan was going to supervise Haiphong, and the two of them are now accustomed to seeing the prosperity of the land south of the Yangtze River, and they have long been no longer surprised by Zhang Fan's deliberate display, but the two are very curious about what kind of army such a prosperous country will have, and this time they heard that Zhang Fan was going, and the two made up their minds to follow to see what happened.

Zhang Fan is looking for an opportunity to show the two of them from the military strength, and is worried that there is no chance, these two people will take the bait, Zhang Fan is naturally happy to agree, but Zhang Fan also has some luck in his heart, the most powerful army of the Ming Dynasty has always been in the north since the founding of the country to its demise, where it shoulders the mission of preventing the remnants of the Yuan and Mongolian remnants from attacking again, so the Ming army in the north is very strong, especially now, the north has Wang Chonggu, Li Chengliang, Qi Jiguang, three famous generals who have seen the entire Ming Dynasty.

And the army in the south of the Ming Dynasty is relatively loose, perhaps because it is really a flashy world here, people in addition to the desire for wealth is yearning for stability, the army here has not been very good, especially the southern coastal defenders in the Zhengde period, the combat effectiveness can be said to have reached a trough, but over the years, relying on some generals led by Qi Jiguang, the Ming Jun in the southern coastal area has once again restored the momentum that a soldier should have, so that Zhang Fan will let Richard and Joanna follow, otherwise he will be disgraced.

However, the two of them still couldn't understand why the projectile island country in the east of such a huge empire made them rush to this land to plunder.

Zhang Fan told them that the civilization of the people in that land was very backward, and the Japanese who came to loot in groups were also some outlaws, who came to rob despite the orders of the big names in their country, but the emperor of the Ming Dynasty recognized the identity of Fusang's vassal state, but he couldn't control the intrusion of the displaced people, which formed the current situation.

The two listened to Zhang Fan's words, and they didn't quite understand, according to their thoughts, the Ming Dynasty had such a vast territory, a huge population and army, and advanced ships and weapons, so they didn't care about the nonsense of the Fusang regime at all, and it was not better to capture it directly.

Zhang Fan was a little helpless when he heard their words, he didn't think about it even in his previous life, but the Han people's emotions of courtesy and death for thousands of years have prevented the development of this matter, and Zhang Fan is powerless about it.

"By the way, there's something I've always wanted to talk to the two of you," Zhang Fan suddenly said to them, "It's just that I have some things in the past few days, and I haven't taken time to spare,"

"The Earl is a powerful man, and we can understand that he is busy with official business on weekdays," said Richard, who immediately took on the expression of a standard diplomat, "but we are on our way now, and it will be a long time before we arrive...... This one...... Quanzhou, Lord Earl and we have time to say,"

"That's good," Zhang Fan thought for a moment and said, "Your country and my country also had a past many years ago,"

"Yes, at that time our country sold a number of Franco-machine cannons to your country," said Joanna, who was familiar with military affairs, at once.

"Exactly, these weapons have greatly helped our country to harass from all over the region," Zhang Fan said, "and that's exactly what I'm talking about,"

The two looked at each other a little, they didn't know what Zhang Fan was going to say, but no matter what era, countries were very cautious about weapons between countries.

"What does the Earl want to say," Richard asked cautiously.

"The loading method used by these guns is very convenient, which undoubtedly increases the chances of survival for the soldiers," Zhang Fan praised and said, "It's just that the Franco cannons that my country purchased from your country today are all fifty years ago, and now there are problems with many artillery,"

The two originally thought something was going on, but when they heard Zhang Fan say this, they breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Zhang Fan wanted to buy artillery from them again.

"I want to ask you if you can buy another batch of Francophone guns from your country," Sure enough, Zhang Fan said what they had in mind.

"There is no problem with this matter at all, I don't even need to ask the country to agree to the Earl's request," Richard said immediately, the two did not have much objection to this proposal, fifty years ago, the Franc cannon as a relatively advanced artillery in Portugal would be sold to the Ming Dynasty by them because it was too far away from their territory, and it was difficult for the two countries to have any conflict, and the Ming Dynasty bid very generously at that time, they had no reason not to make this deal, not to mention now, Although the Franco cannon is still an advanced artillery equipped with a large number of them in the army, they will not refuse this business, and before the two of them went abroad, the Portuguese royal family told them about this matter, after seeing the prosperity and strength of the Ming Dynasty, both of them have the intention of developing here to become their allies in the East, how could they refuse this matter, but Zhang Fan's next words made them a little embarrassed.

"But this time, the design drawings of my country's connected Franco cannons were also bought, and the price is up to you," Zhang Fan said the words of the other two embarrassed, the power of this batch of artillery, the Ming court has long known, and a batch of successful imitations was successfully made in the Jiajing period, but due to various reasons, the range and service life of the artillery are not as good as the original Franco cannon, the former is okay, after all, the range is not much shorter, it is enough to prevent the Japanese and the Tartars; But the service life is too short so that the Ming Dynasty has to have an early batch every once in a while, which is a big burden for the treasury, just now Zhang Fan said that those artillery has been too long, in fact, the Ming army is now using the Franco cannon is all imitation of the Ming court, and those original imported ones have long been gone.

This matter made the two think about it, yes, Zhang Fan gave a very generous condition, the price of the Franco cannon that year, Daming out of 100,000 taels of silver, although Europe did not implement the silver standard, but 100,000 taels of silver for gold is also a lot of money, now Zhang Fan opened his mouth to design drawings, and with them to offer, after the two of them knew the wealth of Daming, they could naturally guess that those drawings could be exchanged for a lot of gold, but the two also understood that once Daming had a design drawing, there was no need to buy from them in the future, Then this kind of business, which could have been a trickle, has become a one-shot deal.

Originally, the two could have refused immediately, but the relationship between the island country of England and them was getting worse and worse, the two countries on the Iberian Peninsula were actively preparing for war, but there was a lack of funds, the king borrowed money from those princes and dukes, these people were always procrastinating, and most of the money was used to enjoy a luxurious life, which is why they were now in a hurry to colonize India and plunder wealth, Zhang Fan's sentence "The price is up to you" made them very excited, after all, this is also a lot of money.

Zhang Fan patiently watched the two of them discuss in a low voice in Portuguese, and he also knew the situation in their country, so this time he opened his mouth and even bought the design drawings.

The two discussed for a long time, and then they turned around, looking at Zhang Fan with a little embarrassment, but Zhang Fan didn't care, he could see that the two of them didn't want to refuse but couldn't say embarrassment, but ......

Sure enough, Richard opened his mouth and said: "Lord Earl, I can agree to the artillery now, and when I return home next year, I will personally come here again with the artillery, just the drawing matter......"

Joanna on the side hurriedly said: "Lord Earl, please don't be surprised, the matter of drawings is not up to Richard and me, we have to wait until we return to China to ask Your Majesty for instructions,"

Zhang Fan didn't feel angry at all when he heard this, and said generously: "I understand this, just to trouble the two of you not to forget this matter,"

"Thank you Lord Earl for your understanding, we will never forget," Richard quickly replied when he saw that Zhang Fan was so easy to speak.

Zhang Fan is really not in a hurry, although the world is full of dangers now, it is still stable, he is just preparing, but he must get this batch of artillery and blueprints, in this era, the rate of fire of the rear-loading artillery is its greatest power performance, but of course Zhang Fan will not only rely on Richard and Joanna to go back to dredge, he also has to trouble Zhao Xiande, who has a lot of influence in Europe.

The carriage is still carrying the people forward,