"It's so high, it's so bright!"

Under the stars, above the sea, Prince Charles looked at the lighthouse and sighed.

Not only him, but also envoys from France, Portugal, Persia, India, and Arabia all looked at the bright beacon in amazement.

The lighthouse was built on the island of Jinzhou, the last emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, who once set his capital here, and upgraded the island to Xianglong County. Then there was the Battle of Yashan, and the land of Shenzhou sank.

Zhang Ruifeng and Fan Chao were also quite surprised when they saw the towering lighthouse.

Because when they went out to sea, construction had just begun here.

The maritime merchants of Gaozhou and Leizhou donated money to build a Tianhou Temple. Then, relying on government funding and donations from believers, a 36-meter-high Mazu Pagoda was built in the Tianhou Temple.

In addition to faith, the real function of Mazu Pagoda is actually a lighthouse.

And the top uses a glass lens to block the wind, somewhat similar to an Algon's lamp. Due to the difficulty of making giant convex lenses, they are expensive and heavy with existing glass technology. Therefore, only the large convex lens is used in the middle, and many small convex lenses are used on the top, bottom, left and right, which makes it taste like a Fresnel lens.

No matter what kind of lens lamp it is, anyway, the brightness has increased several times.

The Guangzhou Navy has moved here, turning the island into a military port. Of course, there are also civilians on the island, supplemented by farming, and mainly fishing. In addition to the military port, other ports and fishing villages are densely packed with fishing boats docked at night.

As for the trading merchant ships, they can follow the lighthouse at night and go to Haikang, Wuchuan, Zhanjiang and other ports to dock.

Zhanjiang was still a small fishing village at this time, but it was engaged in smuggling during the Ming Dynasty. After Emperor Zhao opened the sea, it quickly rose to become the outer port of Suixi County, where the port also had a small lighthouse.

That night, the envoy fleet and the envoys of various countries stopped in the military port to rest.

Due to the smooth sailing, they arrived at the port of Guangzhou smoothly the next night.

At this time, it was already the middle of the night, and the lights outside Guangzhou were still bright. Emissaries were allowed to disembark and move around, but they were not allowed to run around and had to follow the Chinese officials all the way.

"That's a lot of lights, how much does it cost in one night?" Messengers from the Mughals, feeling like they are in heaven.

Prince Charles looked excitedly at everything around him: "Is there really a city in the world that never sleeps?" ”

At this time in Europe, the French aristocracy was the most luxurious, and they often stayed up late at night to have fun. But it was limited to the Parisian aristocracy, because only the French royal family had the money to light a few hundred candles for a ball.

As for the interior of Paris, it is pitch black at night. Therefore, dung diggers are a high-risk occupation, they are not allowed to work during the day, they can only dig in the dark at night, and every month there are dung diggers who fall into the pit and drown. Serious people are reluctant to do this work, resulting in a shortage of dung diggers and the whole city stinking.

On the Chinese side, lanterns are lit at night and cheap grease is used for lighting.

There is no need for street lights, one lantern for this shop and one lantern for that shop. The small vendors along the street light oil lamps at their stalls, and then cover them as a light source.

"Won't the gates be open at night?" Charles asked.

Pan Wei explained: "The city gates are closed at night, but there is also a night market in the city. ”

The rise of night markets has brought a heavier management burden to the government. The problem of public security is still secondary, mainly because the firefighting work must be done well, and the city is full of wooden houses, and if you don't pay attention to it, you will accidentally catch fire.

As night markets appeared in more and more cities, the imperial court also made corresponding regulations.

First, a certain area of the city is classified as a legal night market to facilitate centralized fire management. Neighborhoods that are not designated as night markets are not allowed to set up stalls and light fires at night.

Second, in the police force, special "sailors" have been set up, whose main duty is to guard the night market and conduct firefighting. Shops and vendors operating at night markets are required to pay an additional monthly "water fee".

Charles was unable to enter the city at this time, so he could only follow the Chinese officials and wander around the night market outside the city.

The night market outside the city is mainly for business travel.

Everywhere you look, you can see food stalls, hungry sailors, if they dock with the ship in the middle of the night, rush to the night market to eat and drink. Of course, there is food on the boat, but how can it be comfortable to eat ashore, and if you hold it for too long, you want to step on the ground more.

Senior staff such as captains and bookkeepers also have corresponding high-end consumption places.

Walking to a street corner, Pan Wei looked at it and immediately turned back.

"Why don't you go to the front?" A Persian official asked.

Pan Wei said: "It's dirty there. ”

In the red light district of Willow Lane, Flower Street, there are high, medium and low-end brothels, which is a must for large ports. The crew stayed at sea for a long time, and once they landed, they thought about drinking, eating, and finding women.

However, there are very few local prostitutes.

Especially in low-end brothels, local women are almost not seen.

Because families with difficulties in life can apply for immigration, Guangzhou mainly immigrated to Nanyang to enrich the population of various overseas territories.

In Coconut City (Batavia), there is a shortage of Han women, and women divorce at every turn. The woman who lives without a child in Guangzhou went to Coconut City and instantly became a baby, which has long been spread. There are even special marriage intermediaries, running around in the coastal cities of Guangdong, women under the age of 30 go to sea, all the way to the accommodation package, and they can get married immediately when they arrive in Coconut City.

Who wants to be a prostitute when there are better options?

The low-end brothels in Guangzhou City are all women bought from overseas. Moreover, it is very convenient to "buy goods", and there is an underground slave market in Macao, and the government turns a blind eye to this.

The wealthy people in the coastal areas also raised domestic slaves again.

Purely labor-based housework is done directly by buying slaves, and can also be brought with it when going out. However, the maid who pours tea and water, ushers in the small maid who is sent to her, and has to hire local talents, and the overseas slaves bought are too stupid.

This has led to the improvement of the status of the maid and the servant, and it is difficult to find it when it is easy to use, and it can only sign a five-year contract at most, and you can choose to change jobs when the contract expires.

As long as she is smart and clever, she has a very good life, and she is regarded as a confidant by her employer. In order to win them over, employers will also help to act as matchmakers, give some dowry and dowry, and help them start a family and settle down.

Early in the morning, the envoys of various countries wanted to go into the city to have a look, and the fleet did not leave the shore, and needed to supply freshwater vegetables.

Before I entered the city, I saw a team leaving the city.

Leading the way ahead are highly-paid veterans. There were only two or three veterans, and their men were all dark-skinned domestic slaves, and they couldn't tell where they came from.

The sedan chair was also carried by a domestic slave, with darker skin, and was estimated to come from a small country in India.

And the little guy who followed the palanquin was obviously Chinese. This little guy was wearing silk clothes, and he couldn't walk for a lifetime, and he didn't know which son he thought it was.

At the back of the sedan chair, there were some house slaves.

The front and back hugs, the pomp is huge.

Zhang Ruifeng also planned to wander into the city, and when he saw this scene, he couldn't help but ask passers-by: "Which master is this?" ”

The passer-by replied: "Master Chen, who is engaged in maritime business, the Chen family has dozens of ships." ”

Zhang Ruifeng muttered: "Even the nobles of Nanjing, they don't dare to have a big show, these maritime merchants are really rich and bold." ”

When they entered the city, they saw a luxurious carriage.

Due to the recovery of the Monan grassland, the imperial court completely opened up the horse trade. As a result, more and more wealthy people bought good horses to show their status, and this trend quickly blew to Guangzhou.

Tianjin, Lushun and Tamna (Jeju Island), a large number of horses are transported south every year.

At first, the rich people in the south snapped up good horses, and gradually, they began to compete in horse-drawn carriages. Gold and silver plating is the basic operation, and some people even use cloud brocade to make car curtains, and the styles of carriages have become varied.

There were even shock-absorbing devices, craftsmen were hired, and springs were made of stainless steel so that the carriage would not be too bumpy.

After a morning, I didn't finish the city of Guangzhou.

Thomas, who came from the countryside outside London, looked at the pedestrians on the street and looked at the dazzling array of shops, and whispered to Charles: "Your Majesty, this is the largest and richest city in China, right?" ”

Charles shook his head: "I heard that Nanjing, the capital of China, is bigger and richer than here. ”

Several young men with obvious European characteristics, all with scribe swords hanging from their waists, one of them still red-haired, walked towards the envoys of various countries laughing and laughing all the way.

A Portuguese envoy couldn't help but step forward and ask, "Are you Portuguese or Dutch?" ”

The red-haired young man who was questioned was furious, drew his sword and roared: "I am not Portuguese, I am a Chinese citizen, I believe in Mazu Niangniang, I have graduated from middle school, and I am studying at Guangzhou University (at my own expense)!" You foreign barbarian, dare to talk nonsense again, believe it or not, I slashed you with a sword? ”

The Portuguese envoy was so frightened that he retreated again and again, muttering, "You are not Portuguese, how can you speak Portuguese?" And it's redheaded. ”

The last sentence was heard by the red-haired youth, and he immediately became even more angry: "As long as two or three generations pass, my children and grandchildren will be black-haired, and it has nothing to do with you barbarians!" As he spoke, he said in Cantonese, "I'm so angry, I was treated as a barbarian, and I must dye my black hair today!" ”

Pascal, a scientist from France, silently observed all this.

He was plagued by the conflict between faith and science, and when he heard that the red-haired boy believed in Mazu, Pascal's expression immediately became very strange.

Can faith really change at will?

If you become a heathen, will God punish you? But the Chinese here do not believe in Jehovah, but they live well and build such a rich kingdom.

What kind of existence is God?

The other scholars sent by the Queen of France were all writers and artists. They automatically blocked out questions of faith, watched Chinese architecture and costumes along the way, and recorded many gadgets that amazed them.

The task of the Portuguese envoys was to ask the Chinese emperor to marry.

On the way, they learned that the Portuguese port of Ceylon had been taken away by the Dutch. Now seeing the wealth of Guangzhou, these Portuguese envoys are very excited, as long as they marry China, Portugal's Asian colonies will be stable!

The Persian and Mughal envoys were simply shocked, and they made up their minds that after returning to China, they must persuade the emperor to make peace with China.

Only one city of Guangzhou has already subdued the envoys of various countries.

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