Although Zhu Youxiao was not worried that his opium trade in the Ming Dynasty would not be effectively protected by force, he did not want to use military force to assert hegemony now.

Once the war is activated, it will more or less intensify the contradictions, make some Europa countries have national sentiments, and therefore boycott the Ming goods, thereby affecting the economy and trade between the two countries, so that the Ming Dynasty will not get long-term high returns after obtaining huge war returns in the short term.

At the same time, it is difficult to guarantee that it will not further stimulate these Westerners to awaken to the avant-garde people, and then even learn from the pain and catch up, and it is unknown whether it will become a hidden danger in the future of the Ming Dynasty.

If it is to be fought, it should be when the national wealth of these Europa powers is almost drained by themselves, that is, when the opium trade is saturated.

Of course, no one can predict when there will be a war because of the opium trade, and Zhu Youxiao is not an immortal after all.

The benefits of the opium trade are not only reflected in the increase in national income, but also directly reflected in the improvement of the quality of life of the people of the Ming Dynasty at all levels.

For a faculty official like them, he is no longer a poor official like a professor in the state capital and county school, and he has no other oil and water except to make a profit by accepting bribes from some school members, and now the salaries of these professors under the new education system such as Wei Min'er and Zhang Dai have long been comparable to those of the current dynasty.

What's more, whether it is liberal arts, science or engineering, these so-called professors are all leaders in their fields, and His Majesty now attaches great importance to academic research, and these people also have part-time jobs or undertake projects in society, so they also have a lot of income in other aspects.

Because it was the snowy season on this day, all major primary and secondary schools had winter vacations, and Wei Min'er called a rickshaw to go to her villa in West Lake.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty had begun to popularize rickshaws, a combination of human and mechanical vehicles favored by the upper class of today's society, especially intellectuals who like to carry it, this way of travel is more stylish than riding a bicycle.

Zhang Dai also took a rickshaw to Wei Min'er's West Lake villa at this time.

He is now the editor-in-chief of Daming Daily, with the official title of the right attendant of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, and can be regarded as the top three royal literati under Zhu Youxiao, almost Zhu Youxiao's loyal fans and tongues in the academic world.

Because he has a long reputation in the academic world and is the big housekeeper of the official public opinion of the Ming Dynasty, the current Zhang Dai is naturally not the one who will be reduced to the situation of being driven by the two concubines and picking up dung for irrigation.

And now the urbanization process of Daming is accelerating, the city housing prices have already risen sharply, the rich buy land to build houses, and no longer open up acres of land for people to rent, and Zhang Dai also prefers to buy gardens and villas, of course, not only him, the entire upper class of society has been accustomed to buying houses from all over the world, speculating on land from east to west.

"Lao Dong, it looks like the New Year is coming, have you done all the New Year's goods, and how much money have you got this year", unlike Wei Min'er's temporary beckoning rickshaw, Zhang Dai, who has the title of waiter, is a rickshaw driver at home, of course, the rickshaw is also bought by him, and this rickshaw master is a slave of Dong Qichang's family, but the Dong family has hated His Majesty today, so his house was raided, and this Dong Qichang's slave also had to take refuge in Zhang Dai and specially pull a car for Zhang Dai.

This Master Dong is full of physical strength, pulling Zhang Dai, who has already made a fortune of two hundred pounds, on the bluestone pavement is as light as a swallow, trotting all the way without panting and can answer Zhang Dai's question: "If you go back to your father, it is all done, my eldest son has an errand in Meisheng Company, and now he has been selected to go to Liverpool in England to be a deacon, and he just sent back more than 40,000 silver dollars this year, saying that it is for us to buy a few more properties, hehe." ”

"Yes, dare to love your eldest son when he entered the training school of China Merchants Steamship Bureau, but he didn't expect to get such an errand in Meisheng Company, but this Meisheng Company is really profitable, and all the blood of the foreign fans is almost sucked by him", Zhang Dai, as the editor-in-chief of Daming Daily, has become accustomed to chatting with people from every class to collect materials, even his own drivers.

As a high-ranking official in the field of Daming media, he naturally knows what kind of business Meisheng Company operates, and now seeing this, he can't help but think about writing a few articles to report on this Meisheng Company and talk about the argument that the country is strong and the people are rich.

And Zhu Youxiao's policy for this year's palace examination is also about the topic of national strength and people's wealth, so it also coincides with Zhang Dai's editorial article in Daming Daily, and those who are only obsessed with fame and fortune have since thought that Zhang Dai is good at speculating on His Majesty's mind and accurately foreseeing new topics, and because of this, his editorial in Daming Daily has attracted countless fans for a while and attracted the attention of countless people.

And the sales of Daming Daily also ushered in a small climax again, Zhang Dai will also calculate, and simply published a few books such as "Zhang Dai's Commentary on the Palace Trial of the Past Years", which also sold well, and he made a lot of money for a while.

Sun Chengzong is over eighty years old, and has been retired to the home for two years, he now gets up early in the morning and sits under his own pear blossom stand to read the newspapers and periodicals he subscribes to.

However, when he saw the newspaper and press record that the Ming Dynasty was about to build the first railway, and had successfully manufactured the first thermal generator and what electric lights, he couldn't help but be a little curious and wanted to ask the little grandson who entered the new-style school because he didn't like the Four Books and Five Classics, but when he saw the pictures in the newspaper, he would still smile and say: "It would be nice if I had the opportunity to go back to the capital and see it with my own eyes." ”

In fact, the electrification of the Ming Dynasty at this time has indeed made great progress, in addition to because Zhu Youxiao's golden finger gave scientific research workers a lot of cheapness, but also related to Zhu Youxiao's house to spend money, now to get the highest science and technology award of the Ming Dynasty is not a little impressive invention is very difficult, and human potential is always unlimited, and because of this, it can be regarded as a foreshadowing for the Ming to meet another industrial era.

Of course, many aspects are still immature, and it is difficult to directly enter the electrical era in less than twenty or thirty years, not to mention, with the further update of technology, the social level and ideological level will further change, and it is also a question whether Zhu Youxiao, the emperor, can continue to be dictatorial.