The decline of Venice is definitely reasonable.

More than 100 years ago, Venice developed into a port city, thanks to the handicrafts and abundance of the Milan region.

Located on the border between the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal States, it flourished due to its geographical location and the arrival of craftsmen, including later the production of glass.

In the original world, they did not gradually decline until the 16th century, when the economic center moved westward after the European discovery of the American continent.

But now, the Ming Dynasty has occupied Gibraltar and established a Mediterranean trade center based on Crete, and no matter which country trusts the Ming Dynasty, because if the Ming really wants to fight them, they can't escape anywhere.

In the face of absolute strength, they have lost the will to fight.

And the goods of Daming are more and more complete than those of Venice. Fine porcelain, soft silks, sturdy ironware, bowel-cleansing teas, and essential spices are not available in Venice.

Even the glass they are proud of is incomparable in front of the glass of the Ming Dynasty.

At first, Venice was not willing to fall and wanted to rely on its own sea power to threaten other countries.

However, the fleet of the Ming began to escort merchant ships from various countries, and when it encountered this situation, it directly sank the ships of Venice.

The Venetians began to work around, they went directly to Crete and became wholesalers, so that they would not lose money and would be safe.

But as a result, a large number of merchants left Venice and came to Crete, where the decline accelerated even faster.

However, this is the most important area for the Ming caravan, because one of the two destinations of this trip is here.

This is the southern and richest region of the Holy Roman Empire. Most of the south of the Alps can be reached via the Piave River, the Brenta River, and the Po River, the largest river in Italy, as well as its tributaries.

Not only can you reach the Duchy of Milan directly, but you can also reach the Duchy of Turin.

The Holy Roman Empire has always been the backbone of Europe, and this is a great place to learn how the principalities of northern Europe were united.

Even better, Monte's hometown is Bologna, at the southern end of the Po Plain.

Although he followed his father to the Ming Dynasty when he was a teenager, after he developed the trade from the Ming Dynasty to Europe, the relatives of the previous family were gradually found.

Their family was originally descended from a declining count of the Bologna Free State, and although it was declining, the family relationship was still there, and these families were all nobles.

The royal family and aristocracy in Europe have a complex relationship between you and me, and I have you.

It was also on these people that Munters established its own business network in Europe, and then did a prosperous business.

The more he understands the gap between the two sides, the more he identifies with Daming. He has lived in Daming since he was ten years old, and when he came to backward Europe, he actually had no sense of identity with Europe.

In the past, he was earning money and resources from Europeans, but now he is allowed to use his appearance to take Daming's spies deep into Europe and help Daming find out intelligence, and for him, there is no psychological burden at all.

Because of his poor studies, he lost the opportunity to integrate into the upper class of the Ming Dynasty. But he never gave up.

He has been waiting for such an opportunity, and now that the opportunity has come, he will definitely not let it go.

Huang Ting, as the deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Daming, is a public figure. During his time at the Ottomans, he met with many high-ranking officials and nobles of European countries.

So he was not directly involved in this operation. Followed Monte into the Holy Roman Empire were professionals from the Ming Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of General Administration.

It has been 50 years since the establishment of Yulin Weixue in the Ming Dynasty, and other professional colleges have been established for more than 40 years.

Zhu Zhanji's contributions over the years are difficult to write, but what makes him most comfortable is that he has truly turned Confucian scholarship into academics, rather than the norms of national governance.

The strength of Confucianism lies in the unity of thought and the establishment of moral norms and standards of behavior in people's hearts.

But when it comes to governing the country, it's a top-heavy monstrosity.

He established various professional disciplines mainly mathematics, professionalized the knowledge system of physics, chemistry, electricity, medicine, etc., and trained two generations of officials with new ideas, which is what really changed the world for him.

The emancipation of the minds formed by these people, the specialization of all kinds of knowledge and the professionalization of officials, is the biggest change in the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, there will definitely be no more people dying in government.

In the first year of orthodoxy, he set up a professional intelligence training school in Yingtianfu, and in the fourth year of orthodoxy, he set up a special diplomatic college.

Over the decades, these schools have produced countless professionals for Daming.

They followed Monte into Bologna and into Milan, and soon found out the rough and true background of the various situations through some rumors spread in society.

But these are not enough, because they need not to be inferreds, but also to know more about the inside story by directly entering the upper classes of Europe.

That's where Monte comes in.

It took Monte half a month to get used to his new identity. In the face of these personnel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of General Affairs who pretend to be their subordinates, they will no longer show strange expressions.

And from Venice, Monte also began to fulfill his responsibilities. An internationally wealthy businessman in the Celestial Empire is who Monte is now.

He is also not like before, staying away from politics and only talking about business. On different social occasions, he would always inadvertently comment on some current affairs in Europe as a wealthy businessman.

And his comments often attract the rebuttal of many nobles, and this kind of civilized debate often leaks a lot of information in the process.

Many people think that spies are always supernatural and omnipotent, but in fact, from ancient times to the present, 99 percent of the information has been collected, organized, and then sorted out in daily life.

All spy agencies are actually intelligence centers.

Many inconspicuous little things, when they occur, will have the inevitability and chance of their occurrence. Necessity is most of the time, and chance is only a minority.

As long as we grasp the information of inevitability, those accidental events will not affect the overall situation most of the time.

The layout of the intelligence network in Europe has always been unsmooth, mainly because of the different races, which makes it difficult for ordinary spies to enter Europe to find out information.

And using European natives and people from the Western Regions to inquire about news, their status is often not high, and they can't enter the upper circle.

But Monte now posed as a successful man, and he was indeed a European aristocrat with a small network.

But with this step, he can enter the upper social circle without hindrance and be recognized by others.

In particular, there are many European nobles, and they also hope to learn more about the news of the Ming Dynasty through their interactions with Monte.

So, the higher Monte put on the show, the more invitations he received. And among them, there are many nobles from the regions north of the Alps.

They knew that Monte had three shipments of goods, all of which were in high demand in Europe, and that even if they were sold in the Holy See State, France, and Spain, they would still be in stock.

Their invitation was the pass, and for the first time the sales network of Monte also reached the region north of the Alps.

And Meng Zheng has also aroused the pursuit of many young girls in Europe, his handsome face with a combination of things, and his sturdy physique that has been playing football for a long time, even those ladies are obsessed with it one by one.

In this pursuit, Meng Zheng felt extremely satisfied. Originally, he just graduated from college and went on a long-distance trip with his father.

His job has been arranged, and when he returns to Daming, he will enter the Polytechnic football team as a team leader, which is equivalent to the level of lecturer.

This position was reserved for him by Duan Renzhi, and in a few months, he will lead the team to the 45th Keju Tournament in March as the captain of the Polytechnic University team.

But now, he feels that this kind of life like acting is full of excitement, and it is much more interesting than being a team leader in college.

The General Administration Department also attached great importance to Meng Zheng, and after soliciting Meng Zheng's opinion, he was given all-round special training. Strive to polish him into the fine work of Daming in Europe in the shortest possible time.

At this time, Huang Yuan received a telegram from Yingzhou Port, announcing his return to Beijing.

After arranging all the affairs, he boarded a horse ship from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and set out on his way home.

The trade between Europe and the Ming Dynasty was a surplus trade dominated by the Ming Dynasty. Almost everything in the Ming Dynasty is what Europe wants, but in Europe, there are not many materials that the Ming want, and they are now pitiful with little gold and silver.

Through trade, the most important materials that were transported to the Ming Dynasty were horses and people.

The population was not transported to the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and most of them were used as coolies to build cities in South Asia and North Africa.

Horses, on the other hand, would be transported to the Ming Dynasty to become the labor of the peasant households or a supplement to the army.

Although the speed of European horses is not much better than that of Arabian horses and sweaty BMWs. But European horses are not picky eaters, they are easy to feed, and they are used to plough the land and haul goods, which are far more practical than those two exquisite horse breeds.

In particular, the European horses are extremely powerful and enduring, and they are better used than oxen to plow the land and pull goods.

Nowadays, the landlords of the Ming Dynasty like to use the kind of diesel engine machinery, but the small yeoman farmers all favor the horses from Europe.

When the ship arrived at Khurumus for resupply, Huang Yuan received news that the European coalition had launched the first battle of spring.

They did not attack Samarkand in the south, but concentrated their forces across the Volga and launched an attack on the three cities of the extreme west.

The three cities in the extreme west were the cities established by Tang Sai'er and them, and the three cities were horns of each other, forming a barrier in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty.

However, their number is too small, and the population of the three cities combined is only more than 500,000, and the maximum number of people who can be mobilized is 100,000.

Although there were still 10,000 regular troops to assist them, they were still unable to catch the menacing hundreds of thousands of coalition troops.

At this time, Zheng Hong, the governor of Samarkand, did not dare to rush to help, they were three thousand miles apart, and if they rashly sent troops, they would only fall into the encirclement of the enemy army.

However, she set fire to the city of Kazan, destroying all possible supplies that the enemy could use, and poisoning all water sources along the way, or polluting them by throwing them into human and animal carcasses.

From Kazan on the banks of the Volga, the soldiers of the three cities in the extreme west fought and retreated, stretching the enemy's front.

Although they were numerous, they did not have enough bullets because of the shortage of gunpowder. Moreover, the cooperation between different tribes is not tacit, and several contact battles between the two sides ended in a small victory on Tang Sai'er's side.

The enemy's baggage could not keep up, so they did not dare to attack again, and now they stopped their attack on the banks of the Kama River, and became distracted.

If they wanted to attack, they were short of bullets, food and grass, and the mine traps laid by the Ming people with high explosives also caused them heavy losses.

When he got the news, Huang Ting's heart was still very relieved, Tang Sai'er deserved to be a strange woman valued by His Majesty, and she could still win many battles with one as seven.

He was actually not worried about the might of the coalition forces, as they could not pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty at all. Not to mention that if they hit Samarkand, even if they hit Tanglin City, they could also exhaust their war potential.

The reason why His Majesty kept them was not because the Ming Dynasty could not deal with them, if the Ming sent an army of 500,000, they could fight directly from the Volga River to the Atlantic.

But what can you do if you fight such a poor place? Is it to let the army be surrounded by the enemy's people?

Now the Ming Dynasty can't even govern many areas in the north, and those places don't have the energy to take care of them.

Things that are not beneficial, not to mention the ministers, even His Majesty will not do it.

They are not willing to be like Meng Yuan, who laid down a large territory, and they can't govern it at all, and the people can't surrender for a few decades, so they rebel again.

They founded so many khanates, but what about today? The vast majority of the country is now white, the Turks are in charge, and the Mongol Yuan people have long lost their original power.

Only manage the system, but not govern, those places might as well not be.

Unless......

Huang Ting looked at the sky in the north, thinking that if Da Ming could repair the train all the way to Europa, then he would be able to manage it.

Moreover, the imperial court should also encourage the people to continue to have more children.

There are still too few people in the Ming Dynasty, there is a shortage of people in Nanzhou, a shortage of people in Dongzhou, a shortage of people in Xizhou, and many areas in Mobei are also short of people.

If there are enough people, the whole world can be occupied.

Samarkand. The Governor's Palace in the River.

Zheng Hong, the governor of Hezhong, sat behind the big case with an embarrassed face, and next to him stood a civil servant in the costume of a four-rank civil official, who was furious at this time. "On the tenth day of the first month, when the white coalition army marched eastward, I said that I would elevate the current situation to a state of emergency, and strictly ordered all units to inspect the defense area. But you do everything you can to prevaricate and don't want to affect the lives of the people. Fortunately, even the telegraph lines have been cut. Now that we can't receive orders from the capital, the war has been delayed, and we are all waiting to lose our heads! ”

Zheng Hong squeezed out a smile and said, "Staff Officer Hu, don't be like this, don't be alarmist." This telegraph line may have been blown down by a strong wind, and I ordered people to investigate it along the way and repair it as soon as possible. ”

Staff Officer Hu looked at him and sneered and said, "I'm afraid that the Governor has lived a comfortable life in this river for a long time and has forgotten his identity." As an important minister of the country, guarding the river for His Majesty, all your powers are given by Your Majesty. It's okay before, but before the Chinese New Year, you have noticed the movements of white people, why do you stand still? Now the situation is so sinister, the three cities of Tanglin are in danger, but Samarkand is still singing every night. Neither early aid, nor now to upgrade the wartime system, I would like to ask, what does the Governor want to do? ”

Zheng Hong was furious in his heart, but he was helpless to take the Wenchen in front of him. Although both sides are subordinate to the Ministry of National Defense, the staff officers of the General Staff not only shoulder the power of supervising the army, but also directly under the command of His Majesty.

Although he, the Duke of Wu Guo, is a super-grade master, he can't control him.

Of course, he could shoot the other party in a fit of rage, but he couldn't afford the consequences of killing this staff officer.

He slapped the case and said loudly: "Before the Chinese New Year, who knows where the other party's goal is?" It wasn't until the tenth day of the first month that it was determined that the other party's target was Tang Lincheng. The two places are 3,000 miles apart, how can I let the soldiers take the risk to rescue? You, the prison guard, just honestly report what we have done, and this war is not up to us! ”

Feeling that Zheng Neng was already inward-looking, Staff Officer Hu didn't dare to push too hard. The difference in the level between the two sides is too far, and he has already exceeded the rules a little today.

He clenched his fists and said: "The telegraph line is naturally investigated by the telegraph bureau, but the governor should also actively prepare the army, no matter if there is a problem in the area that the tribe is responsible for, it should be vigorously investigated, and don't let go of a spy." ”

The telegraph line from Yingtianfu to Samarkand in the Ming Dynasty was built along with the railway, and it took 20 years to build it.

Whether it is a railway or a telegraph, starting from Turpan, according to the distribution of tribes, it has been entrusted to the local tribes to be responsible for security.

The maintenance of the railway, the maintenance of the telegraph line, was the responsibility of the railway stations along the route, and each station was equipped with a telegraph machine, which could be inquired along the way.

And if the telegraph doesn't work anywhere, it's easy to find out.

At this time, it will be checked whether the line is aging, or the wind has blown down the power pole, and if it is man-made, the local tribe will be responsible.

Zheng Neng glared at Staff Officer Hu and said, "Now that the white people are attacking, do you still want the officials to force the people to rebel and mess up your own position?" ”

Staff Officer Hu looked at him and didn't speak for a long time, and then sighed and walked out, saying as he walked: "Lord Governor, the three generations of the Zheng family have guarded the river, you don't want to lose in your hands......"

Zheng Hong remained silent, but his group of subordinates were all resentful, and they couldn't wait to go up and beat this crow's mouth.

Staff Officer Hu's two guards stared at everyone and cautiously retreated, only then did they breathe a sigh of relief.

In the palace, Zheng Hong sent the generals away, but left behind his two sons and seven grandsons. When everyone was gone, he asked, "Do you think I'm doing something wrong?" ”

Four of the two sons and seven grandsons knelt down, and the other three hesitated and knelt too.

His second son, Zheng Fang, said: "Father, the children grew up in Yingtianfu since they were children, and they naturally know that I am full of flowers. Although the river boasts of being rich in land and resources, not to mention compared with Kannai, even Nanzhou is much better than the river. Your Majesty is wise and martial, and all the people in the world are in their hearts. There was no war before, and he turned a blind eye to my river, but now that the war is urgent, my father is disobedient, and he is really ......self-inflicted."

Behind him, the eldest grandson Zheng Shao kowtowed heavily and said: "Grandfather, the times have changed, and now it is no longer the generation that will suffer from the life of foreign kings in the past. With the telegraph, a message from thousands of miles away can reach His Majesty in one day. His Majesty gave an order, and an army of 100,000 troops could reach thousands of miles away in a few days. Raising Kou is self-respecting, yang is against yin, can such a thing be hidden from Your Majesty? ”

Zheng Hong sighed and said, "You guys, you all grew up in Yingtianfu since you were a child, and you were taught to be a good baby by that majesty. ”

Zheng Shao looked at the third brother Zheng Ji beside him, and the eyes of the two were just on the same page, and they could see each other's worries.

Zheng Shao stubbornly said: "Father, eldest brother and more than ten grandsons of the family, granddaughters are still in Yingtianfu. If Your Majesty doesn't let them go by then, my Zheng family will decline directly. My father was afraid of the birds, and he supported the army with self-respect. But is this soldier really the only one who looks after his father? ”

Zheng Hong inherited the title of his father Zheng Neng and became the Duke of Wuguo and the governor of Hezhong.

When he was a teenager, he followed his grandfather Zheng Hengnan to fight in the north, and after Yongle won Samarkand in the nineteenth year, when he inherited the title in the thirty years of orthodoxy, he went to Yingtianfu and saw Zhu Zhanji.

His Majesty the Emperor, who was wise and martial in his grandfather's father's mouth, was nothing more than a mortal in his eyes.

So, in his heart, he never really took this majesty to heart.

He knew very well that if the Zheng family wanted to ensure their power, they must have the value of their own existence.

Therefore, he has always carried out the policy of Zheng Heng when he was alive, being gentle to the hundred tribes, contacting the vertical and horizontal, and not completely following the will of the imperial court.

If all the tribes meekly attached themselves to the Ming Dynasty, wouldn't their Zheng family, the governor, be the end.

Like my father, I listen to the court for everything, and what is the result? but there was no body left.

But he forgot that if Zheng Neng hadn't directly expanded the border to Haixi (Ukraine) and laid him thousands of miles of strategic depth, how could he enjoy the peace of the past ten years.

If Zheng could have guarded the iron mines in Haixi at the beginning, the prestige of the Zheng family would definitely be far greater than now.

"Report ...... Word came from the telegraph office that it had been determined that there was a problem with the telegraph line in the dry area of Tash, and that it was sabotage. Wait until tomorrow to fix it. ”

"Does Staff Officer Hu already know?"

"The staff is at the telegraph office, and they will know when the news comes."

Zheng Hong pondered for a moment and said, "Let the Tajiks find out the perpetrator and send the head to Samarkand." ”

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but sigh in their hearts.

Let the Tajiks hand over their heads, I'm afraid that the other party will just cut off two heads to make a difference. Dealing with errands like this will be noted down by Staff Officer Hu again.