"Hey, Oliver."

"Hey, George."

In the port of Guangzhou, the sea breeze was just right, and a sea ship flying a red and white striped flag sailed into here, and on the deck, two young men met with suitcases in their hands and greeted each other.

The burly man named George, wearing an off-white leather coat and a sword at his waist, looked like a military attaché, looked at the nearby harbor, and turned to Oliver.

"This is my first time in China."

Oliver smiled slightly: "George, Captain Cook has repeatedly reminded you that you can't read the Khitan, the people here have driven the Khitans away, you have to call them Daming (Daming) or Zhongguo (Zhongguo)." ”

"Da Ming?" George pronounced the awkward pronunciation, then shook his head helplessly: "It's just a name." ”

"They take this very seriously."

Oliver emphasized again: "There is a saying here, called following the local customs, which means that when you go to a new place, you must respect the habits of the new place, not only food, travel but also etiquette, if we call them Khitan, they will be very angry, and it is not a wise thing to make the host angry." ”

"Alright, my honorable Councillor Oliver, you don't want to take a lesson with my vulgar down-and-out knight here." George waved his hand repeatedly: "I just want to get off this damn boat now, put my feet on the earth, smell the scent of the earth, and see if I can meet a beautiful lady here and spend an unforgettable evening." ”

Oliver's eyes darkened: "I'm no longer a councillor, Charlie has dissolved the council, and now I'm just an ordinary farmer." ”

"The illustrious Cromwell family farmer?"

George squinted his eyebrows and joked, "A farmer who owns thousands of acres of land in Huntingdon, even I want to give up my position with the East India Company and become a farmer with you." ”

Oliver scoffed: "Sir Ernest would not want his beloved youngest son to return to damned London and be at the mercy of those ugly politicians." ”

"Haha." George laughed and put his arm around Oliver's shoulder: "Don't talk about it, this is your first trip abroad, wait for the boat, let's have a good look, I heard that China is very big, if there is a chance, we may be able to go to their capital Beijing." ”

"I heard that there has been a war here in recent years, and I'm afraid it's not peaceful."

"Don't listen to the Dutch." George put down his suitcase and spread his arms to make an exaggerated circle motion: "Do you know how big China is, I heard that there are hundreds of millions of people here, and the city we are here in Guangzhou now has nearly a million people living in one city.

God, a million, our whole country is only five million people, what a powerful country, how can there still be enemies of China in the world, this is nothing more than the exaggerated tricks of the Dutch talking nonsense, a bunch of bards cheating money.

I heard that this group of Dutch was defeated in Taiwan by a man named Zheng, and this Zheng was just a pirate, not a Chinese soldier, and the Dutch were arrogant and arrogant, and they even wanted to occupy Chinese land, which is simply stupid. ”

Oliver nodded, feeling that George had a point.

How powerful a country with 100 million people should be.

I'm afraid that the army is more than the people of my entire country, how can there be enemies in such a powerful empire.

"The Dutch love to talk nonsense, but they do have a very developed seafaring industry."

As the ship entered the port, Oliver disembarked and said to George: "They have nearly 2,000 seagoing ships in India and in the Far East, which is more than ten times more than we have here.

Europe is too small and doesn't have too many resources to use, but India and the Far East are different, there are a lot of resources here, so we must vigorously develop the maritime industry, and if we want to gain a firm foothold here in the Far East, we must break through the Dutch hegemony over the sea.

The future must belong to the sea, and whoever has the hegemony of the sea can own the world. ”

George looked at Oliver and smacked his lips, "Well, I don't understand what you're saying, but I do like sailing, and when you can talk in London in the future, remember to make me the captain." ”

"You're going to be Admiral."

"Hahahaha."

Both laughed, and stepped off the ship behind the crowd and set foot on China, a land that was foreign to them.

The officials of the Yamen of the Guangzhou Department were already waiting for them at the port, and an official came up with an interpreter.

"Welcome, friends from England, entrusted by our imperial court, I, Senator Ye Chengxiu of Guangzhou, will be the reception officer of your visit."

The visitors of the East India Company, which Zhu Youzhen had been thinking about, finally arrived.

-----------------

"Futai, the East India Company has arrived."

In Nanjing, Cen Wanrong, the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites, found Wen Tiren and reported the situation to the latter: "They got off the port in Guangzhou. ”

Wen Tiren, who was reading a book, put down the book and was slightly stunned: "Guangzhou? Isn't it Quanzhou? ”

Cen Wanrong explained: "Zheng Zhilongna and the Dutch fought again, and the place in Kinmen was constantly shelled all day long, and the sea was restless. ”

"I see." Wen Tiren nodded: "People come from afar, we can't be rude as the Heavenly Empire, so you personally take people to Guangzhou and invite this group of guests from the Waiyi, oh no, England to Nanjing."

And the people of the mission all explained, our people can't call people a foreigner, a barbarian, a guest is a guest, we as court officials, every word must have the dignity of the court, this kind of contempt can no longer be used. ”

"Yes, Futai rest assured." Cen Wanrong bowed his hand, then turned to leave, stopped when he walked to the door, and turned around to make a gesture: "Xia Guan Shi forgot, Luan Guoyin, the prefect of Xuzhou, came to report seven days ago, saying that the people of Pei County are making more and more trouble, and I implore us to send troops to suppress it as soon as possible." ”

Wen Tiren frowned: "Pei County? ”

"Yes."

"Xuzhou can't make trouble." Wen Tiren said: "Especially Xuzhou is close to Suzhou, which is the maiden home of Empress Xiaoci Gao, I am shocked, I am afraid that I will inevitably be blamed by the imperial court, in this way, you let General Li take out a charter for sending troops as soon as possible, go to suppress it, do not seek total annihilation, just drive out of the Xusu area, and restore the peace of our Nanzhili as soon as possible." ”

Cen Wanrong bowed and said yes, and then left to cover the door.

Wen Tiren picked up the book again, but his mind was obviously not on the book.

It's good, why did there suddenly be so many civil unrest in the locality?

Intuition told Wen Tiren that this matter was boring.

Thinking of the recent escape to Beijing by wealthy gentry from Anhui, Henan and other surrounding provinces, Wen Tiren quickly came to his senses.

I'm afraid the emperor did this again.

The reason why the central government decree cannot be issued at the local level is that the huge interest groups that have long been formed in the local government have long been intertwined.

With this group of mountain forces with big roots in the local area forming a party to confront each other, it is no wonder that the central government can have prestige in the local area.

"Once you leave the land, the gentry is not a fart."

In China, land is everything, the only means of production, so those who control the land are the landlords and the wealthy people.

But once it leaves the land, it is a rootless duckweed.

Therefore, as a traditional agricultural country and agricultural social system, the importance that Chinese attach to land is something engraved in their bones.

Fallen leaves must return to their roots and never leave the land until death.

To be able to force these local wealthy squires to leave the land and flee to Beijing is a major, even a major political victory of absolute significance!

Power is about to be reshuffled, and the resulting result is a redistribution of political dividends.

Thinking of this, Wen Tiren stood up a little unseatedly and paced back and forth in the room.

He is now in Nanjing, far away from Beijing, the center of power, and a lot of inside information cannot be obtained at the first time, so it is difficult to figure out the holy will all the time, but he can't lag too far behind.

It is necessary to understand what Zhu Youzhen is thinking and what he plans to do, so that he can occupy a place in the political officialdom in the future.

"You can't let Zhou Yanru snatch away any benefits."

Wen Tiren had an idea in his heart.