"Extra! Extra! The British East India Company intended to sell the Cape Town colony, and the Dutch East India Company was rumored to be interested in taking over, and negotiations between the two sides were already underway. ”

"In June, the King of England formally demanded that the Scots withdraw unconditionally from the territory they occupied in England, or he would send an elite royal model army to strike at them."

"The Spanish navy and army suffered successive defeats, and they were completely inferior in the contest with France."

"The Grand Fleet of the Dutch Navy has left the port, ready to find the main force of the Spanish Navy for a decisive battle!"

"For the first time after the Smolensk War, the Tsar publicly admitted that he would order a large number of weapons to the east coast and re-improve the armament of the Russians!"

"The Polish-Lithuanian federal government is disturbed by Russia's irresponsible military buildup."

Outside the Rodriguez Merchant House, a ten-year-old newsboy walks with a stack of freshly printed newspapers and shouts. This week's publication of Pravda, the only legally published newspaper in the Eastern Republic, is a weekly newspaper sponsored by the Ministry of Education and a list of recent national and international news. The newsboy in front of him was shouting the headlines of the new issue of the newspaper to attract the attention of passers-by.

In the middle of this year, at the executive committee meeting, Du Wen, a member of the Education Committee, proposed that the Ministry of Education should come forward to sponsor a national newspaper in order to guide domestic public opinion, purify the social atmosphere, unify thinking, and enhance national cohesion. After a little discussion, the members of the Executive Committee approved the proposal and issued a document under the Ministry of Education to attach a new organization - the Publication Department. The first thing it did when the Publishing Office was established to manage all kinds of books and periodicals distributed in the country was to approve the Ministry of Education's bid for Pravda. At the same time, some of the "pheasant publications" (such as Menghu's "National Geographic" that were originally run by the public were turned into regulars. Give it the status of a legal publication.

After the establishment of the Publishing Office. In the future, anyone who wants to publish any publication needs to obtain a license from the Publishing Service, otherwise it will be illegal. Founding illegal publications is the same crime as spreading a cult, and depending on the severity of the offense, the offender will be punished by fines, imprisonment, exile, and even hanging. Along with the Publishing Division, there is also a newly established press censorship system, that is, the Publishing Division will conduct random inspections of the content of all publications under its jurisdiction at any time, and those who violate the regulations will be held accountable.

It can be seen that the East Coast Republic has very strict control over public opinion, and there are actually very realistic considerations in this. The people of the East Coast come from all over the world, and it is originally a hodgepodge of national melting pots. Nowadays, they rely on propaganda, brainwashing, and high-pressure control to change customs. Forcibly assimilate immigrants from various countries and strengthen the sense of identity of newcomers to the country. In this process, if people with ulterior motives preach freedom of belief, national customs, or so on, it will inevitably cause great confusion in the minds of the people and cause irreparable losses to the great cause of assimilation of the government. Books and newspapers have always been the most effective way to disseminate illegal ideas, and everyone in the 21st century understands the importance of mastering the front line of public opinion, which is why there is a system of censorship today.

Alvarez shouted, and the newsboy's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he jumped over a few steps and asked, "Sir." Do you want to buy a newspaper? Today's new Pravda newspaper costs only five cents. It's very informative. Including the current situation in Europe, it is definitely worth buying a copy and reading it carefully. ”

"You know the situation in Europe even as a child?" Alvarez was a little amused, and reached into his pocket, ready to pull out the money.

"Why don't I understand?" The child suddenly became a little angry and said, "I am in the fourth grade this year, and I know most of the commonly used words. The teacher said that it would not be too difficult to read these articles. ”

The smile on Alvarez's face froze a little. In Europe and the New World, where the majority of adults are illiterate, there may never be another country or region that places such a high value on national education as the Eastern Coast Republic. Adult nationals of the Eastern Republic regularly attend evening remedial classes in the evenings to learn about culture; School-age children receive compulsory primary education, the number of teachers and teaching materials is provided by the state, and families who send their children to school receive a small subsidy from the Ministry of Education. On the other hand, if the parent refuses to send the child to school, then he will be punished.

As a result of this multi-pronged approach, the literacy rate in the Republic of the East Coast is actually very high. When the literacy rate rises, then the sales of newspapers, impurities, and other periodicals will be widespread. Of course, ordinary people are not willing to spend money to buy newspapers to read, and they are more willing to listen to the anecdotes of various places dictated by the itinerant preaching team. Moreover, a newspaper for five cents a piece is definitely not cheap, and it can even be said that it is a little expensive. However, most of the people who are willing to buy newspapers are concentrated in government departments, the military, and factories, and the purchasing power of these people is generally relatively strong. Spending a few dimes a month to buy some newspapers and periodicals to come and read them, you can get a lot of useful information, and it is very fashionable, so the sales of Pravda are actually quite good.

Alvarez took two five-cent coins out of his pocket, stuffed them into the little newsboy in front of him, and then took the newspaper. With the development of the East Coast economy and the circulation of commodities, as well as the gradual increase in the purchasing power of the people, the demand for the auxiliary currency of cents in the market began to increase gradually. In order not to hinder the development of commerce, the mint began to mint several styles of cents in succession a few years ago, with denominations of one, two and five cents. It is round in shape and made of copper, but it is doped with a large amount of base metals such as tin and lead, and its weight is also very light, and its fineness is far worse than that of coins with full fineness such as one and two corners.

After the advent of this currency, it is difficult to see a dime or dime in the market. Without him, bad money drives out good money, and everyone keeps the dime coins at home for collection, and takes out the cents to use. Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Finance decided to exchange all the dimes, dimes, and five dimes for silver coins after application, which slightly stopped the momentum of such bad coins driving out good coins.

The topic is far away. As the eldest grandson of the Rodriguez family, Alvarez has worked hard to learn Chinese, and he is now able to read Chinese without much difficulty. So he took the newspaper and read it carefully.

The first three editions are generally European news, and Alvarez flipped through them at random, and found that most of them were war news such as you fight me and I fight you, and it seems that it has not been interrupted for all these years, and he has long been numb to it. Only the fourth edition will contain news from the New World, Brazil, Peru, New Spain, and La Plata. On the contrary, there is not a lot of news about the East Coast, and if there is, it is mostly editorials and other critical articles written by some high-ranking people on the East Coast.

After reading the news, Alvarez found that the newspaper still had a supplement inside. There is only one edition of the supplement, called "Businessman Special Issue", which contains some market supply and demand news. For example, someone wants to buy twenty cows, someone wants to sell ten barrels of wine, someone recruits a number of orchard gardeners, etc., these small businesses are naturally not attractive to Alvarez, but he still finds them interesting. After all, newspapers are still new these days, and the willingness to publish business information in newspapers is even newer.

Only the East Coast people can always give people a sense of freshness! Alvarez smacked his lips, then tucked the newspaper under his armpit and walked briskly into the mall.

"Is Captain Leo up?" Alvarez asked, taking off his top hat and handing it to the servant.

"Yes, he's finished breakfast and is waiting for you in the room." The servant hung his top hat on the hanger and said respectfully.

Alvarez nodded, then walked briskly through the living room and into the inner room. Captain Leo was hunching on the table at this time writing something, and when he saw Alvarez come in, he nodded slightly, and then asked, "Alvarez, do you hear anything?" ”

"Nope." Alvarez shook his head in frustration and said, "My dear friend Wang, who has been assigned to the Northwest Territories as a circuit judge, and the president of the local court has changed. And Bai, who was said to have been a big man, has now lost his power and is now doing a job like a scholar, so he basically can't help us anymore. ”

Captain Leo paused the pen in his hand, then frowned and said: "Then let's go directly to the military headquarters of the people on the east coast, if you want the people on the east coast to sell us naval equipment, you must not be able to bypass their military headquarters." Unfortunately, Xiao, whom I know, seems to have been sent to South Africa last year for beating his superiors — well, it seems like he was beating Bai — otherwise he could have been asked for help. ”

"That's what my father meant." Alvarez nodded in agreement and said, "I'm still a little surprised that the bureaucrats of the West Indies, who have always been high up, will one day turn to us, but we were the only ones who had their share in the past. ”

"It's different." Captain Leo sighed and said, "The Imperial Navy has suffered great losses in successive battles with the French and Dutch, and is in urgent need of replenishment. The local shipyards are short of timber and under-employed; And the shipyards of the New World such as Havana alone did not have time to replenish so many warships in a short time. There is no way, now there is only one way to turn to the East Coast for help. The ship-building skills of the people of the East Coast were inherited from the Flemish people, which was not bad, and more importantly, their naval guns were quite good, which was sure to add great combat strength to the kingdom's navy. ”

Alvarez nodded in agreement. Despite all the grievances with the policies of the kingdom, the attitude of the Dutch and the French was always the same with that of the native peninsulars. (To be continued......)