Although the scale of Dianshan Port is not large compared with the ports of Guangzhou, Quanzhou and Ningbo, it is not a small port, and it is not a small port when it is built, and it is planned by Song Yingxing and Tang Ruowang, two experts in China and abroad, and adopts some of the regulations of the wharf that Ji Qingwen saw in later generations, so the design and construction is quite scientific and efficient, and there are special waterways for ships to enter and exit, and it is difficult to have the phenomenon of harbor congestion.

Therefore, when Ji Qingwen saw such a scene, he was also a little curious, and hurriedly got off the ship to inquire, only to know that it was almost the end of the year, and the maritime merchants wanted to dock the ship in the harbor to celebrate the Spring Festival, and planned to wait until the Lantern Festival before pulling anchor and setting sail, which led to so many ships anchored in the port.

The reason why the maritime merchants chose to park their ships at Dianshan Port instead of any other seaport was because of the good security here, and there were no officials from the government to harass and extort them, so they could rest assured that they could live a good year.

This can be regarded as a kind of trust in Ji Qingwen.

Therefore, when Ji Qingwen heard such a situation, he also felt a little emotional, knowing that this was all the credit of the German missionary John Tang, who was entrusted by him to manage the harbor.

So Ji Qingwen settled down a little, and then went with Li Yan to visit Tang Ruowang.

According to Ji Qingwen's opinion, since John Tong was entrusted with the management of the entire harbor, he must have worked in the high-rise building in the middle of the harbor, but when he inquired, he learned that John Tang had set up his office in his church and did not work in a small building.

So Ji Qingwen and Li Yan moved to the north and walked towards the church.

This church was specially applied by John Tang to Ji Qingwen to build, and was designed and supervised by John Tang himself, using Gothic style, the appearance looks a little like the smaller Notre Dame Cathedral, which is extremely eye-catching among the Chinese buildings inside and outside the docks.

When Ji Qingwen came to the church, the church was in service, he looked in, but saw that the rather spacious atrium of the church was already full of believers—at least two or three hundred people, and the one standing in front of the shrine to read the Bible was the missionary John Tong.

Li Yan, who was beside Ji Qingwen, was a Confucian scholar and a follower of Confucius, and he looked down on these Western religions in his heart, so he saw that John Tang had gathered so many believers in just two months, and he was a little disapproving, and sneered: "This John Tang, in the end, is not of my race, and he actually used the absurd doctrine of Christianity to bewitch so many people." ”

Ji Qingwen came from later generations, but he was quite tolerant of religious beliefs, so he comforted: "Why should Brother Li be like this? A person of insight like you will naturally not believe in Western religions, and although he is not lacking in talent, he may only be able to recruit fools and stupid women......"

"What about Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua, as well as Zheng Zhilong, a maritime businessman?" Li Yan immediately asked.

These words really stopped Ji Qingwen, and after thinking for a long time, he finally remembered a special name in the history textbook, and replied: "I think these people are just 'middle school for the body, Western learning for use', they learn Western science and technology, and in the end they are still doing things for the Ming court, and they are still practicing the way of Confucius and Mencius." ”

Although it was much behind the theories of bourgeois reformists, bourgeois revolutionaries, and proletarian revolutionaries, it was already two hundred years ahead of the end of the Ming Dynasty in the middle of the 17th century.

Therefore, when Li Yan heard Ji Qingwen's words, he immediately admired his five bodies, and praised him repeatedly: "Brother Ji is very knowledgeable, and he is far beyond reach, far from being able to reach him." ”

While the two men were talking, the service finally ended, and the congregants who were still worshipping began to stream out of the church.

Ji Qingwen deliberately took this opportunity to observe and saw that among these believers, one-third of the blond-haired and blue-eyed foreigners who came to China to do business accounted for one-third, and the remaining two-thirds were Chinese; And in these Chinese there are all kinds of people - farmers, fishermen, and rich landlords......

Seeing this, Ji Qingwen secretly thought in his heart: "Christianity may not be much better than the orthodox Confucianism in China, but they stipulate that all people are equal in doctrine, and in this regard it is more advanced than Confucianism, which openly and secretly divides people into three, six, nine, and so on, and it has also been proved from history that it is more suitable for the needs of capitalist development and more in line with the general direction of historical development......

He thought and waited, and when he saw that the worshippers were almost gone, he walked into the church, and when he opened his mouth, he greeted John Tang, who was packing up his belongings, and said, "Old Tang, I haven't seen you for two months...... You seem to have lost some weight......"

When Tang Ruowang heard Ji Qingwen's voice, he hurriedly greeted him, and arched his hand: "It turned out that Lord Ji was back, so why didn't you report it, and set up the banquet in advance to pick up the wind and wash the dust for the adult!" ”

This John Tang was white-skinned and bearded, and at first glance he looked like a Westerner, and he was wearing a full set of Western missionary clothes, but he spoke fluent Chinese and practiced standard Chinese etiquette, which was quite a bit of joy from the contrast between China and foreign countries.

Therefore, Ji Qingwen couldn't help laughing, pretending to be angry, and said: "Old Tang, I have been gone for two months, and you have recruited a lot of believers, but I don't know how you helped me take care of this port?" ”

Tang Ruowang hurriedly said: "I don't know how to study economics, so I can only stick to the old ways and act according to the established rules of Lord Ji, oh, and Mr. Li." I have written down the receipts and expenditures of the dock in the past two months, and I am waiting for the adults to come back to check and check! ”

As he spoke, as soon as John Tang turned around, he took out a large account book from the bookcase and handed it to Ji Qingwen.

Li Yan was originally in charge of wharf affairs, and he was also very curious about what John Tang had been doing in the past two months, so he took the account book first and opened it to check.

But Li Yan turned two pages, his face became unhappy, and he said in a somewhat dissatisfied tone: "How can this foreigner remember some crooked words?" They all look like earthworms and tadpoles, and they are not at all as important as my Chinese characters. Maybe it's still some kind of secret secret text that is tricky! ”

Ji Qingwen knew that John Tang was German, so he naturally used German to keep accounts, and German is also a phonetic script spelled in the Latin alphabet, which naturally looks like an earthworm tadpole in the eyes of people who don't know German.

So Ji Qingwen poked his head over and took a look, but found a series of Arabic numerals that he was very familiar with, so he smiled and said: "Brother Li, this is wrong to blame Lao Tang, he uses his native language, not some code language." ”

"Oh? So Brother Ji knows Western characters? ”

Ji Qingwen smiled proudly, held the account book, carefully identified it, and looked for a long time in the account book, but he couldn't find half of the words he knew, fortunately, the series of numbers followed by the words, he was very familiar with it, it was the Arabic numeral that wrote "0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9".

So Ji Qingwen confidently stretched out his hand and pointed to Li Yan and introduced: "Brother Li, have you seen it?" These tadpole inscriptions are the ...... used by Westerners to represent numbers."

As he spoke, he flipped to the end of the account book, chose the largest number, and said, "Brother Li, here is the income of the dock in the past two months, a total of ...... One, ten, hundred, thousand, thousand...... and it was three hundred and thirty-five thousand seven hundred and forty-eight taels of silver...... actually earned more than when Brother Li was in charge of port affairs! ”

Li Yan refused to believe it when he heard it, and hurriedly said, "This ...... How is this possible? Brother Ji didn't read it wrong, right? ”

Ji Qingwen smiled: "How could I be wrong......"

"Lord Ji really misunderstood...... but heard Tang Ruowang say, "These 330,000 taels are income, not profits, and the expenses of the first 140,000 taels of silver should be subtracted, and after that, these 190,000 taels are the income of these two months......"

As he spoke, John Tang stretched out his hand and gestured in front of a line of much smaller numbers.

This time it was Li Yanxi's turn to smile and say, "Brother Ji, don't talk so much in the future, be careful that you will be accused after blinking." ”

With that, he laughed out loud.