In the first half of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Portugal engaged in "trade exchanges" with the Ming Empire, repeatedly using various means such as war, fraud, plunder, and condescension.

The Portuguese's dedication to trade in the East finally paid off: in 1553, Portuguese ships landed in Macao in a storm, prevaricating Ming officials on the pretext of drying their goods, and never left; In 1557, after a series of foreshadowing by fabricating his identity and bribing Ming officials, Portugal finally obtained the right of abode and trade in Macau at a ridiculously small annual rent. Even though the Ming Dynasty still held symbolic sovereignty, it did not stop Portugal's slowly unfolding colonial management in Macau.

How many cats were there in the first place to allow the Celestial Empire to be occupied by people under their noses in a grand manner, and the details of history are difficult to figure out. However, it is undeniable that the successful victory of Macao is also the first successful understanding and application of the Eastern philosophy of politics and official status by Europeans. In this process, how the Ming magistrates explained to their emperor was obviously more reliable than the reasons concocted by the Portuguese, and it was inseparable from the strong ability of the Ming border and sea merchant groups themselves to appeal for interests.

……

Sunday, May 24, 1637.

Although the beginning of summer has long passed, North America during the Xiaoice River period is also in a stage of climate uncertainty, and this year's rain is extremely low, and even the temperature is still around 20 degrees.

According to the pessimistic forecast of the Ministry of Agriculture, even with all-out drought measures, this year's local agricultural harvest will be the worst since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the output of several major cereals is expected to decline by more than 25 percent. Fortunately, the country's strategic grain reserves have been bursting almost every year in the past few years, so the impact of this year's agricultural disaster on domestic grain prices will not be very large.

While the major agricultural towns in China were carrying out large-scale drought-fighting and disaster relief campaigns, Su Zining, a senator, was sitting in his garden, reading a personal academic work just published this year by Descartes, a professor of mathematics at an Ivy League university, "The Methodology for the Correct Use of Reason and the Pursuit of Truth in Science," which is available in Latin and Chinese.

The "street lamp" program, which has been implemented for seven years, has allowed many emerging or promising scholars to flow into the United States, and now a large number of classical basic disciplines are being studied and educated.

Inspired by the "reverse" of later knowledge. A large number of theoretical studies in basic disciplines have emerged, which has allowed the bigwigs of the Commission of Science and Technology to clearly witness the "germination" and growth process of modern scientific development, which can not help but make people ecstatic. And the European scholars who were stimulated by the knowledge reserves of the traversal people are also like madmen who do not care to get to the bottom of everything, for fear of missing the greatest happiness in this life.

However, their academic achievements do not directly contribute to the restoration of modern science in Huamei, but serve the basic education of the country as a whole. The gradual progress of basic education and the combination of a little breakthrough in applied disciplines is the most important tone of scientific research and development at present, and from this point of view, the Science and Technology Commission has fallen into a knowledge gap in many aspects.

After all, there are not many scientific categories that can be covered by the traversal itself, and many of them are only application-level. In order to fill in the gaps and continue to develop, it is necessary to reorganize and popularize the basic theoretical education of the next generation, and cultivate the correct scientific method of the next generation, and the greatest value of these European scholars is also here.

Looking at the more than 100 pages of "Geometry" in the appendix at the end of the book, Su Zining, who was so-so, couldn't help but admire lightly.

"Su Zining, Yan Xiaosong is back, it seems that there is something urgent to find you." was flipping through the book with great interest, and suddenly saw his wife Yuan Xinyi coming from the side.

"He's been leading the team for months, and he's been around most of Western Europe. I don't say take a good rest. As soon as I come back, I will ask the teacher for sin! Su Zining put down the book with a smile, saying that he had roughly understood the other party's intention.

……

In the study, Su Zining just sat and kept a smile, while Yan Xiaosong in front of him looked very bad.

“…… All right. I agree with what you just said, we still have to wait for the opportunity, keep a cautious distance from the local gentry of the Ming Dynasty, and import a small number of primary industry projects. Cultivating the emerging class of Hainan Island. But how do you explain what happened on Hong Kong Island? Didn't Wu Yuanyi know that this was to lay the root of history in the future? Yan Xiaosong turned around a little angrily, put his hands in his pockets, and his face was extremely unhappy.

"Whose bane?" Su Zining said lightly.

He didn't answer his friend's rhetorical question. Yan Xiaosong unbuttoned his shirt and calmed down: "Ren Changle, they are a little too much, the state has made a lot of adjustments to their industrial operation restrictions in the Far East, and they are still fighting the idea of Hong Kong Island." What a desecration of Chinese history this would be, they overplayed it. ”

"Yan Xiaosong, do you remember one of the first topics we talked about?" Su Zining did not defend the private agreement between Ren Changle and others, Wu Yuanyi and Guoxing Group on "one for one", but changed the topic.

"The First Opium War of 1840 was a good thing or a bad thing for China. Similarly, when the Qing army entered the customs in 1644, what happened to the fate of China? After Su Zining finished speaking, he continued to take down three publications from the bookshelf and played with them lightly in his hand, "In my opinion, '1644' and '1840' are no longer historical topics in later generations, but psychological topics...... So if those two events hadn't happened, would history have really changed? ”

"No answer." Yan Xiaosong grimaced, returned to his seat, and looked at Su Zining opposite, "What do you want to convince me?" Prove that Da Ming is hopeless again? ”

This is not a problem of the Ming regime, but the fundamental problem of the entire modern Oriental nation entering the bottleneck of progress. Look, these are the results of the 'Oriental Literature and Art Rescue Project' promoted by An Shaoqing in the Commission of Science and Technology. Su Zining threw away the book in his hand, "The original of Xu Guangqi's "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" took a lot of thought, otherwise it would be a few years before I could see the revised version of Chen Zilong...... The other is also the "Chongzhen Almanac" compiled by Xu Guangqi, and the third is the first manuscript of Song Yingxing's "Heavenly Creation", which also took a lot of twists and turns, and they are the representative works of the highest academic achievements of the literati in the late Ming Dynasty. ”

"Xu Guangqi is such a high-powered Ming bureaucrat and such an open-minded master. It has only done the three major events of "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", "Geometric Original" and "Chongzhen Almanac", of which "Geometric Original" has not yet been translated, and it is only a semi-finished product. To put it bluntly, these three 'magnum opus', which we have been instilled with great pride in our childhood education, are not at all on the same level as their European counterparts. ”

"Geometric Original" shocked Xu Guangqi, but what is it? Or the basic mathematics knowledge of Euclid in ancient Greece, a people who once studied the Pythagorean theorem, actually had the opportunity to ask a two-knife missionary for advice in the 17th century to translate the basic mathematics of ancient Greece. What kind of journey has this nation been closed to before? How popular has it been since it came out? Fortunately, no matter what, there was at least one Xu Guangqi in the 17th century, otherwise "Geometric Original" does not know when it will appear. ”

"Because of the close connection between the celestial phase and the emperor's mandate, since the Han and Tang dynasties, the empire has forbidden folk research on astronomy. Looking at the "Chongzhen Almanac", a bunch of 'geocentric theory' that has been abandoned by mainstream European scholars in this period is still being used in large numbers and regarded as the most cutting-edge academic achievements of astronomy in the Ming Dynasty. ”

"From the perspective of national self-esteem and pride. We have to desperately raise the value of the well-known oriental popular science books in these textbooks, and desperately try our best to make them look like they have their own merits and are equal on the balance of modern civilization. But I deeply know that these oriental popular science books, which can only be regarded as 'repeaters' in essence, still remain at the level of 'empiricism'. It is the same as the writing mode and ideas of ancient popular science books thousands of years ago, and there is no progress at all, and compared with the European books of the same period that are taking shape with modern scientific methodology and the establishment of a basic scientific theory system, its connotation is even worse than I don't know how many grades. ”

Even Xu Guangqi, who is closest to modern European scientific methodology in scientific research. Its greatest political influence and achievement can only be the translation and promotion of Western-style basic mathematics. More than 90% of the content of a "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" is still recorded by citing ancient documents, and less than 10% of the content of his own research is still used. Unconsciously fulfilled the ideal of an oriental literati to write books. And less than 10% of the content is still too reluctant to say research, and the inheritance of experience is still the dominant idea. I even wondered what he would have done without these ancient documents. ”

"Even a 'scientific masterpiece' such as "Heavenly Creations" only summarizes and classifies a large number of practical technologies and things that have been stored in the people, rather than real scientific research, how much patience and memory does it take to 'collect and organize' it? While I admire it, I also feel sad in my heart. To put it mildly, if the common people were missing a few things, the book would have fewer pages, and never a new one. ”

"After the development of ancient Chinese science and Guo Shoujing in the Yuan Dynasty, there was no progress in basic science and methodology. Missionaries like Matteo Ricci passed on scientific knowledge to the Ming Dynasty that was at least a hundred years behind European contemporaries, and made masters like Xu Guangqi and Li Zhizao happy. Was China's backwardness really the beginning of the Manchu Qing Dynasty? ”

"Some people say that if the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not enter the customs, the Ming Dynasty, which had survived the crisis and was peaceful and stable, would open the country to actively develop and liberate the productive forces...... It's a pity that I only saw the Ming Dynasty in its heyday, and when Zheng He went to the West, he still used similar equipment to the Song Dynasty hundreds of years ago. ”

"I only saw that after the Portuguese introduced the Franco cannon at the beginning of the 16th century, the Ming Dynasty copied thousands of them in response to the Japanese invaders, and then used them for nearly a hundred years, and then they were stunned by the Hongyi cannon again. The main firearms of the Ming army in the 17th century were still at the Portuguese level in the early 16th century, and they even lagged behind the Southeast Asian sultanates that we considered barbaric in terms of tubular firearms. When Xu Guangqi was alive, he could still promote the hiring of Portuguese technicians, and Xu Guangqi died and returned to zero, but he could still say that 'firearms are China's long skills'. ”

"With the invasion of the Mongol and Yuan dynasties, the Song Dynasty produced a large number of firearms in response to the crisis in the north, and then fell silent after hundreds of years of dynastic change and peace, and by the 17th century, the Ming Dynasty's firearms self-research and development capabilities were far inferior to those of the Song Dynasty! I only saw Foshan, Guangdong, which was known as the most developed iron smelting in the Ming Dynasty, without the consent of the government, the local iron-smelting workshop did not even have the power to privately design a pot and build a hoe, let alone a craftsman who would never turn over! ”

"Our precocious civilization, two thousand years ahead of the surrounding backward peoples, has habitually stopped developing as soon as the crisis of war is eliminated. The Eight Eyes of Confucian University, 'Knowledge, Sincerity, Righteousness, Self-cultivation, Family, Governance, and Peace'. In the Ming Dynasty, it was castrated, and the last four things were left, and they only moved their mouths. The basic attitudes and ideas of studying objective things and acquiring knowledge are thrown into the trash, and the reader's preference for moral philosophy far overtakes science and technology. The cart before the horse is turned upside down, and if you give the Ming Dynasty another 300 years of peace and ease, it is pure nonsense to expect it to be enlightened and work hard. In addition to raising more 'great sages' who 'cultivate themselves and rule the country and level the world', what is the use? What is the use of not really opening up the wisdom of the people, liberating the labor circle of the people at the bottom, and the main body of the ruling class not accepting scientific ideas, and then 'collecting and sorting' the ten Yongle canons that have been shelved to show the royal prestige? ”

"The year 1840 was 'a change unprecedented in a thousand years,' and it was aptly said. For thousands of years, the Chinese nation, which has stopped developing, has actually planted the seeds of tragedy since the Ming Dynasty, how can it be reversed by a handful of non-mainstream enlightened literati who can only be regarded as special cases or a few books with 'historical value' that have been shelved in the cabinet? Who will be the baton and bear the infamy in the future history. Lin Zexu, who presided over the gunsmoke of Humen, has a braid on the back of his head, in fact, it doesn't matter anymore. ”

Someone in later generations made a very interesting summary: China's history of the alternation of the Ming and Qing dynasties, to put it mildly, is a history of an ignorant and backward dynasty being replaced by an even more ignorant and backward dynasty. To put it mildly, it was a jar of moldy vinegar mixed with a lump of feces. A person who eats 10 kilograms of arsenic and is fed 10 kilograms of potassium cyanide is essentially a death, and after a few hundred years, there is only the difference between 'dying miserably' and 'dying even worse'. ”

Su Zining continued to speak, while snatching the three books in Yan Xiaosong's hand. Reluctantly, he put it back on the shelf.

"As long as we, the descendants, can 'escape' the most humiliating history and stand and speak without backache...... Can you guarantee a real window to stop China's decline? Yan Xiaosong stared at his friend's distressed expression and suddenly smiled.

"No, but I know. This is the best opportunity for an ancient and precocious civilization to enter the 'redevelopment' under the severe crisis and external stimulus. Whether it can decline or not is still to work hard, instead of us giving it another 300 years of peace like a nanny doorman, so that it can continue to live with peace of mind, crying and begging it to progress. The more peaceful it is. The more difficult it is to stop the closed inertia. Su Zining spread his hands and finally told the truth, "I also don't believe that one Hong Kong Island can really solve the problem." But looking at it now, Hong Kong, which is simply regarded as a port of interests by the Oriental Union Group, is the biggest springboard for you or some people to directly intervene in the affairs of the Ming Dynasty in the future. When you chose Hainan Island and supported the eastward movement of the interests of the Oriental Union Group, didn't you have this consideration? ”

"History has given us a new opportunity, and if we want to save China in this time and space, it is not just a trivial matter to prevent a piece of feces from falling into a moldy old vinegar jar. Getting rid of ignorance and spreading the branches and leaves for this new China is our truly responsible attitude towards this ancient ethnic group, not just a 300-year feudal regime or a narrow political territory of 9.6 million square kilometers. But we must also be aware that in this process, the interests of our brand new country will always be paramount! I don't mind the obscene idea that only one Chinese nation is still alive and kicking in this world hundreds of years later, but I really mind if there will be two superpowers in this world. ”

"Okay, I agree with your crooked heresy, let's wait and see......" Yan Xiaosong sighed, leaned back on the sofa, and his eyes stayed on the bookshelf in the study, with a wry smile on the corner of his mouth.

……

A few months later, on August 18, 1637, a lease agreement was signed between Huamei and the Ming Empire over Hong Kong Island.

“…… For the people of Nanyang Fanpingbian, at the invitation of Miyi, he painted the barren beach of the outer ocean island in Xin'an County, Guangdong, relocated the people to live in the interior, and the quasi-Miyi ship merchants landed and rented, dried the goods and built a habitat warehouse. According to the rules of Macao, Miyi paid 800 taels of silver in the year to fill the tax of the city's foreign merchants. In addition, non-court officials are not allowed to enter the inner territory, and there are inspectors in the two places......"

The true content of the edict issued by Emperor Chongzhen to Zhang Jingxin, the governor of Liangguang, is not very clear, and there is even reason to believe that Emperor Chongzhen may still be kept in the dark and does not know all the details of the lease. However, the documents transferred from the Guangzhou Prefecture can be regarded as the best annotation for the final signing of the agreement, and the Ming Empire signed the agreement was only the Guangzhou Prefect Yamen.

The legal status of this local agreement, which is not yet a treaty, is not in the scope of Huamei's concern, and the final result is the most important thing. And unlike Macau, there are also official institutions of the Ming Dynasty. Hong Kong Island, as defined in the agreement, is already a veritable independent concession.

What is intriguing is that the Huamei government and the Oriental Union Group have gone to such great lengths to agree that the lease term on Hong Kong Island is only 10 years, but they retain such an inconspicuous phrase as "renewal and revision".

The highlight of the signing of the agreement was that Anil, at the behest of some people, fought with the prefect of Guangzhou for almost three days over how much "tribute silver" should be paid in a year.

"Miyi does not understand etiquette, Huadi does not distinguish, and Song Yizhi's statement is boastful and exaggerated. However, the desire for profit is consumed, and the baht must be compared. The heart of chasing flies and small profits is very heavy, and there is no climate in the end. ”

This was a gorgeous evaluation that Zhang Jingxin, the governor of Liangguang, later received from his subordinates. can "tribute" a large amount of ordnance, but it is so narrow that he argues for a few hundred taels of silver, which really makes Zhang Jingxin very disdainful for a while.

In return, the Oriental Union Group will sell no less than 5,000 21B flintlock rifles and 60 breech cannons of various types, as well as at least 200 tons of high-purity saltpeter capable of making high-quality black powder, to the Ming court every year, through the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce in Guò Macau, and the price will be implemented with reference to the first "tribute".

For the first large-scale export of arms to the Ming Dynasty, domestic arms manufacturers were smiling. But the Oriental Union Group, whose intermediate profits have been pressed to the bottom, can't laugh. If you include the freight, the sale of these arms to the Ming Dynasty is basically a loss-making transaction.

Less than ten days after the official signing of the contract, on August 27, an OUCC 800 merchant ship carried the engineering team of OUCC Group. and two infantry companies of the Foreign Legion stationed on Pearl Island rushed to Hong Kong Island, and then swaggered ashore in front of hundreds of Ming farmers and fishermen, preparing to plan the future construction plan of the Hong Kong Island Concession.

In the past few months. The sailors of the Chinese merchant ships who landed on the shore had a very good relationship with the local people and children, and they distributed all kinds of novelty and sweet food as gifts, and generously bought vegetables and fresh fish from the local people. The people are happy to deal with these Nanyang merchants.

But now, when a number of officials from Xin'an County appeared on the island with Huamei soldiers, the people felt that the atmosphere was not right.

After several inquiries, the people of Hong Kong Island, who knew nothing about the outside world, learned that the imperial court had "lent" the entire Hong Kong Island, and immediately made a fuss.

If it weren't for the officials or inspectors of Xin'an County who were eyeing them, it is estimated that some ordinary people who were encouraged by the local village elders to ask for explanations would have surrounded the landing ground of gorgeous merchants with their own nail rakes or harpoons.

In the end, I heard that the imperial court had officially ordered the demarcation and relocation of the people, and no matter how sophisticated the people were, they also knew that this time the imperial court completely ignored the lives of the people on Hong Kong Island, and some villagers always knelt in front of the ancestral grave and wept. After dying and living, some prestigious old people took the half-understood villagers, carrying the "land exchange silver" issued by Huamei Oriental Union Group, packed up those worthless belongings and began to go north.

The remaining farmers and fishermen who are really reluctant to work in their homes, or hundreds of ordinary people who have enjoyed the gorgeous "friendly treatment" in poverty, watch their former neighbors leave with their last complicated expressions. For these people who stay, eating enough or guarding their ancestral property is just a kind of inertia of life, not to mention that these gorgeous Fanyi are not so difficult to get along with.

Under the watchful eyes of the officers and men of the Huamei Foreign Legion, a contingent of more than 100 Hong Kong Island civilians who were unwilling to be "trapped" slowly walked to the shore with their burdens and wooden carts in their pockets, and with tears in their eyes. There, a few hard sailing boats were docked, and a group of Ming troops guarding the Qianhu Office in Dongguan and the government soldiers of Xin'an County were greeting the people who had been evacuated from the "land exchange" with an absent-minded attitude.

said that it was to welcome, but in fact, except for erecting a wooden sign indicating and a few cauldrons of boiling gruel, basically no one cared about these faltering people. And the night before leaving, almost every household on Hong Kong Island received a stone of grain from Huamei Fanyi to "buy people's hearts". Compared with the two, the people who were preparing to leave the island sighed again, and even some of them had already sprouted a trace of remorse.

When the last group of departing civilians left, a group of officers and soldiers of the Huamei Foreign Legion appeared in front of the officers and soldiers of Xin'an County and the Ming officers and soldiers of Dongguan Guarding Qianhu with more than a dozen military trailers.

Thousands of taels of broken silver, 100 stone of rice, a few carts of attractive military canned food and exquisite and practical gorgeous seafood became the gifts of Huamei to "reward" the Ming official reception of the departing people. The soldiers of the Ming army, the officials of Xin'an County, and the petty officials who had been waiting for these for a long time were all smiling, and it seemed that they had a deep friendship with these Fanyi in just a few days.

Seeing those colleagues who had made the treaty delivery come back one by one, I knew that life in Huamei Fanyi was more comfortable than in the city of Guangzhou. This made the soldiers of the Ming Army Guard Office in Dongguan have a strong envy, and as for the slogan of "repaying the country's kindness with death" that is often nagged on weekdays, it has long been drowned in the heavy gifts of the car.

"The legendary non-cession of land, no reparations, no harmony, and no tribute are really written on paper. It is ironic that in history, there have been successive cases of ceding the three guards of Wuliangha, giving up Annam, giving up Liaodong, giving up the border land, giving up Taiwan, and leasing Macao, why did they leave such a big 'good name'? ”

Jin Xiaohan, who was standing on a certain hill near the bay and watching, turned his head a little uncomfortably, and his self-deprecating smile never disappeared from the beginning.

"Because many people will seriously tell you: giving to others, being occupied by the enemy, voluntarily giving up, renting and ceding land are several different concepts!" Liu Chenxu, who came from South Africa to be in charge of the military defense construction of Hong Kong Island, smoked a cigarette and also sneered, "However, we are different from Britain in the 19th century. In later generations, Hong Kong was the blood transfusion port of the Qing Dynasty, and the current Hong Kong is the blood transfusion port of the Ming Dynasty. ”

"Brother Liu, do you really think that the current Congress and Cabinet will take Da Ming so seriously? I'm afraid I won't take less than the afterlife, right? I heard that the treaty has not yet been signed, and the governor of Hong Kong appointed by Wu Yuanyi is already on the way, and the cabinet really can't wait! Jin Xiaoleng smiled coldly, turned around and walked down the sentry tower, leaving the commander-in-chief of the military alone.

"That's called paying interest in advance...... In any case, the next history of the Ming Dynasty will not be so ugly. Faced with Jin Xiaohan's reprimand before leaving, Liu Chenxu seemed indifferent in his own words.

……

Elson, who was promoted from former consular officer to Governor of Hong Kong in Amsterdam, was first to hold the inauguration ceremony of the local government of the Governor-General of Hong Kong upon his arrival on Hong Kong Island. In the square of the future governor's residence, which had just been bulldozed by steam bulldozers, hundreds of heavily armed officers and men of the Huamei Foreign Legion and the Asian Fleet Navy saluted the raised national flag in unison.

On the southern shore of Victoria Bay, hundreds of Hong Kong people, cooperating with the Chinese American engineering corps and army engineers, were sweating profusely to build the port. The five-masted schooner cargo ship of the Oriental Union Group from Pearl Island is unloading its cargo at the temporary wharf, a steam tractor is being carefully lifted ashore by two heavy steam cranes, and more construction materials and livelihood commodities are also being stacked on the wharf.

The monthly salary is 3 US dollars, which is equivalent to two taels of silver, including food and lodging, which is the labor remuneration paid to the people of Hong Kong by the engineering team under the Oriental Industrial Company. This is a much better treatment than a good year, and it immediately makes the worried people happy.

Fragrant Nanyang rice, oily canned meat, crispy and sweet canned tropical fruits, and strong shochu, the food shipped from Pearl Island once again conquered the farmers and fishermen of Xin'an County, Daming. The "delicious dry biscuits" (compressed biscuits) that I ate from the Huamei crew soldiers a few days ago have become a beggar's diet in comparison, and God knows what these Huamei Fanyi usually live in!

When the National Assembly announced the official establishment of the Viceroy of Hong Kong, a grand celebration was held at the headquarters of the Oriental Union Group, which caused cynicism from the Guoxing Group.

There are those who are secretly envious, and there are those who openly accuse them of "forgetting their roots", but no matter what, after the turmoil of the Oriental Union Group in Qiongzhou, the business strategy of Far Eastern Group has ushered in a turning point. (To be continued......)

PS: (End of Volume 5)