In 1245, two major events occurred in Asia, first of all, the Great Song Dynasty, which had been passive, launched a counterattack at the beginning of the year, gathering 120,000 elite troops from the two directions of Xiangyang and Luzhou, and at the same time launched the Northern Expedition, aiming directly at Bianjing and Xuzhou along the Yellow River. If this was placed in previous years, most people would not think that the Great Song Dynasty could succeed, and if it was not done, it would be another big rout.

But now it is different, the Great Song Dynasty not only has a new type of naval warship that can escort the fleet to the army as a logistical supply, but also has a new army of tens of thousands of people, and the Northern Expedition is based on the new army as the main force.

On the other hand, the Mongol Empire, its strength has dropped greatly over the years, and most of its elites have been lost in the Three Kingdoms Naval War that year, coupled with the struggle for the throne in recent years, the entire empire has actually been torn apart. Even if the two sides of Guiyou and Meng Ge, who were vying for the throne of Khan, temporarily reconciled because of the Northern Expedition of the Great Song Dynasty and united with the outside world, there was no absolute certainty that this war could be easily resolved.

The first battle between the two sides has already reflected from a certain angle the advantages of the two countries. It took only one day for the new army of the Great Song Dynasty to go north from Luzhou to conquer Yingzhou, which was heavily guarded by the Mongol army, and then turned the front of the troops, and approached Caizhou to the west, and five days later with another new army from Xiangyang to the north in Caizhou City and bloodied the Mongolian defenders, with 8,000 against 20,000, the battle was less than two hours, and the most elite troops on the southern defense line of the Mongol Empire were defeated, and they were chased for dozens of miles, and only more than 3,000 people could escape back to Xuzhou.

Since these two battles, the two Northern Expeditionary armies of the Great Song Dynasty can be said to have won more and lost less, and even if they lose, they are all small losses, which will neither affect the trend of the battle nor affect part of the morale. If it weren't for the fact that the new army relied so much on logistical supplies that it didn't dare to stretch the front too long and scatter, it is estimated that it would not take more than three months to be able to deploy troops along the Yellow River, and it would not be a dream to recover the three sides.

Another major event occurred in the south, when the Golden River Empire, which had been in the fog, revealed its true colors and opened the two ports of Golden River City and Mayi Port, allowing foreign merchant ships to enter and exit freely under the premise of abiding by the laws of the empire. At this time, not only the merchant ships of the Great Song Dynasty, which had always had an ambiguous relationship with the Jinhe Kingdom, came to sightsee, but even the maritime merchants of Southeast Asian countries also crowded Luzon Island together, and even some merchant ships from Japan and Goryeo. They would rather divert to the ports of the Great Song Dynasty and then sail with the merchant ships of the Great Song Dynasty, but also to see what this legendary powerful empire looks like.

But the Jinhe City they saw was not a glorious metropolis, let alone brilliant, I am afraid it was not even prosperous. The tallest building in the city is the Imperial Library, and the Imperial Government Building is actually shrunk in the corner of the city, not only compared to the imperial city of the Great Song Dynasty, but also the palaces of Japan.

In terms of architectural style and architectural art alone, the biggest feature of Jinhe City is that there is no style and no art. The whole city was gray, and eighty percent of the houses were identical, not even the width of the steps or the number of steps. If there are no clear signage, let alone outsiders, slaves who have lived here for several years, but do not often enter the city, will get lost, because every street is the same.

Compared with Jinhe City, the newly opened wharf area on the north bank of Jinhekou is more lively. Since inns and restaurants are not allowed in Jinhe City, those restaurants and hostels that are outside the city can only be opened here. One of the largest restaurants is called Jinhelou, three floors, located next to the dock, and his boss is called Ba Song, like Cixi, who was also the first slave captured by Hong Tao, and he probably forgot what his original name was.

As for where did a slave-born immigrant get the money to open such a large restaurant, and also hired many chefs to specialize in cooking dishes from various countries, this has to ask the Imperial Supervision Department. Nominally the property of Ba Song, it is actually the intelligence station of the Internal Affairs Bureau of the Imperial Supervision Department, and many of the waiters and cooks are intelligence officers of the Internal Affairs Bureau, who are responsible for collecting information and information about merchants from various countries here, summarizing them and recording them as a database. Although Cixi resigned, the methods of intelligence work in later generations that he learned from Hong Tao, as well as many of the methods he created, were well inherited.

At this time, it was noon, according to the habit of Jin Heguo, a day is morning, noon and evening plus supper four meals, it is just the meal, so the restaurant is already overcrowded, especially the highest three floors, there is not even an empty table. Since the building has a flat roof and is still built with a cement frame structure, it is surrounded by large windows on all sides, and except for a few tables in the middle, it is all window-by-window viewing seats. Sitting here while drinking and eating food while condescending to look at the exotic scenery outside is also a pleasant thing for these tourists.

On a table in the southeast corner sat two middle-aged people, on the table there was a copper hot pot, which is the most famous flavor in Jinhe City, called the emperor's hot pot, in fact, it is a thick mandarin duck pot. With the chili peppers that Hong Tao brought back from Central America, the mandarin duck pot quickly became a high-end delicacy, it didn't matter what ingredients were used, as long as the chili peppers were added, the value would have increased several times. If the residents of Jinhe City want to have a treat, they will usually ask each other first, do you want to eat the emperor? Most of the time, the other party will laugh and answer loudly, yes, yes, yes, we will go eat the emperor!

These two people should be dressed as maritime merchants from the Great Song Dynasty, and their seats just happened to see Jinhe City in the east and Jinhe in the south, at this time, the red oil in the hot pot was boiling thick blisters under the charcoal fire, but their eyes were not on the hot pot and the dishes on the plate, but stared out of the window from time to time.

"Brother Wu, could this be an ordinary seaport in Jinhe Country? Just like Quanzhou and Guangzhou in our Great Song Dynasty, its capital should have other places, right? The one who spoke wore a soft-footed hood, a green robe, and a fan in his hand, a typical Southern Song Dynasty maritime businessman.

"It's hard to say, Brother Sun may not have been to the navigation school in Ximaozhou, where the appearance is the same as this Jinhe City, and it should have been built by Emperor Hong. It is said that the nautical school should also be the Taixue of Jinhe Kingdom, the emperor himself served as the principal, and he often went to lectures, but it was still this kind of boxy house, without too much decoration. It's not that Jinhe Country has no money, but that their Emperor Hong advocates economy and opposes all unnecessary embellishments, as long as the function is not outward. Brother Sun should have seen it just now, the library and other houses were built not at all in accordance with the regulations, not only tall but also magnificent, and the floor was covered with fine Persian carpets, do you know why? ”

The middle-aged man sitting by the window was dressed in a short dress, without a hood on his head, but tied his long hair together, which was equivalent to combing a big ponytail. His jacket actually had two covered pockets, which were somewhat similar to the Royal Navy's uniforms. The clothes on his feet were not the cloth shoes or leather boots common in the Great Song Dynasty, but a pair of leather sandals with open toes, still with metal buckles.

Compared with his companions, his dress is much more foreign in the words of later generations, and it shows his identity very much, he is a maritime merchant, and it is very likely that he is a maritime merchant in the strait company. Because only these maritime merchants who have been in contact with the people of Jinhe all the year round will wear this kind of Jinhe costumes imitated by some tailor shops in Guangzhou and Quanzhou. Just like when the mainland had just reformed and opened up, many people in Guangzhou took the lead in changing into suits and leather shoes and wearing sunglasses because of their proximity to Hong Kong.

"Their emperor likes to read?" The merchant surnamed Sun pondered a little and came up with an explanation that he thought was more reasonable.

"Brother Sun is very smart, this emperor not only likes to read, but also requires the students in the school to read as many books as possible. You have to read not only books related to your studies, but also other books that have nothing to do with you. In his words, books are a mentor and friend to all. When I was studying at the nautical school, although I was not a regular student, I was able to enter the school library and browse through the collection of books, and there were basically all the books that could be found on the market, and there were many books written by foreigners, all of which were written in foreign languages. Before graduating, each of the senior students of Jinheguo had to go to the library and use their spare time to help Tongyi translate these books into Chinese. The library in front of me is many times larger than the one of the Navigation School, and there should be more books in it. If you can make me wait to go in and take a look, the task given to us by Dexin may find the answer in a few days. ”

This is a very foreign maritime businessman, his identity is not a maritime businessman, but just a pretend. His real identity is a four-grade official of the Southern Song Dynasty court, who is responsible for supervising the construction of the new warships of the Southern Song Dynasty naval division, and he is also a core member of the Wenhao Bosom Friend Society, named Wu Xiuyan. He also has a twin brother named Wu Xian, who has the same official position as him.

"Why don't we ask the shopkeeper here? Doesn't it mean that as long as you are a person from Jinhe Country, you can casually enter that library to consult it, and there is no charge. If we can find someone here to help us go in and have a look, wouldn't it be twice the result with half the effort? "Since Wu Xiuyan is not a maritime businessman, then this Boss Sun should not be a maritime merchant either, the purpose of their coming to Jinhe City is self-evident, they are here to inquire about intelligence.

In this regard, no country in the world is as powerful as Jinhe Country. With the continuous efforts of Hong Tao and Cixi, the Jinhe Kingdom has established a complete set of military and civilian intelligence collection, collation, and analysis systems, and has received strong support from the imperial government. Because this thing is really easy to use, and it has the benefit of being seen and touched. If you can sit in the office and know what is happening thousands of miles away, it is worth spending a little more money, which can be regarded as an important resource left by Hong Tao to future generations, in the fashionable words of later generations, it is soft power.

(To be continued.) )