Joel Forryland, manager of the Hanzhou Trading Company in Daxing, England, is in a dilemma and difficult to ride a tiger in the face of the current predicament.

Although the military police of the Qi State have not yet found their heads, as time passes, the senior researcher of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Qi State who was hidden by them in the merchant hall will be discovered sooner or later. In recent days, there have always been some idle people wandering around the merchant hall, seemingly monitoring the entire merchant hall as if they were casually, and it is not excluded that there are anti-spy agents from Qi State.

Joel Forryland didn't dare to imagine how cruel the Qi people would treat them once the matter was revealed. The abduction of high-ranking scholars involved in scientific secrets in other countries is most likely convicted of espionage, hanged, or shot. Of course, there is also the possibility of a life sentence of hard labor and a tragic death in an unknown mine.

Alas, it's still too risky to yourself!

In order to covet the high bounty for steam engine technology in England, he would make a crazy move to lobby and kidnap a Qi scientist in the end, which is likely to cost his life in the end!

That Mr. Pastto Grey, a third-generation naturalized Hanoverian national -- well, a native of His Majesty George I, the King of England, may have been influenced by his family to have a devout faith in Christ. At one of the church services, Joel Fauriland struck up a conversation with him about the doctrines and tenets of Christ.

From their conversations, Pastor Gray was surprised to find that many of the doctrines and tenets of the Christians who believed in the kingdom of Qi, whether Catholic or Protestant, were clearly different from those of Europe, and seemed to have undergone drastic changes. Many of these doctrines and interpretations are biased towards maintaining imperial rule, requiring believers to be loyal to the state, the nation, and the royal family, and to submit to secular rule.

In order to save a lost believer, Joel Forryland gifted his private collection of Bible texts to Pasto Gray, with whom he became close friends. Every time he went to Chang'an, he would occasionally bring him some small gifts, sit down for a glass of wine, talk about doctrine, talk about the situation in Europe.

Later, as they became acquainted, Pastto Gray would also talk about his work and life. As a senior researcher of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Kingdom of Qi, his treatment is undoubtedly very favorable, in addition to having a mansion with a courtyard in Chang'an City, there is also a villa on the outskirts of the city on Zhongliang Mountain (now Toowoomba 15 kilometers southeast of Toowoomba, Australia). As for the monthly salary, even Joel Forryland, a foreign business representative, is very jealous, and the amount is as high as more than eighty pounds.

Pastor Gray also told him that at the Royal Academy of Qi the Imperial Academy of Sciences, financial allocations of up to several million yuan were available each year - well, when converted into pounds, it was also three million (Qi began to implement the gold standard as early as 1688, stipulating that each gold yuan coupon was equal to 7.5 grams of pure gold, which meant that each gold yuan was equivalent to 0.82 pounds). Note 1). Moreover, outside the budget, if a research institute or scholar has made significant scientific progress and needs additional funding, the imperial financial institution of Qi will not hesitate to make additional funds after careful evaluation, so as to ensure the continuity of scientific research.

Undoubtedly, the Royal Academy of Sciences of Qi is definitely the dream place for any scholar who is interested in scientific research. Decades ago, their founding emperor once said a very philosophical sentence, "Science and technology are the primary productive forces". Looking at the rapid rise of Qi in the past few decades, as well as their current achievements, as well as the endless scientific and technological inventions, it is enough to fully prove the correctness and forward-looking of this sentence.

All European countries, including England, covet their technologies and inventions all the time. The first to be introduced to Europe was cement, a great invention that could change the history of world architecture. Since then, European nations have gone to great lengths to collect stones in the mountains, relying only on piles of limestone, clay and lots of water – oh, the cement of Europe is of course a "low-grade" one that has undergone much improvement – and European countries have easily built huge churches, grand palaces, solid dwellings, and strong fortresses.

The introduction of cement also profoundly changed the mode and course of warfare. Decades ago, the War of the League of Augsburg (i.e., the War of the Grand Alliance) and the War of the Spanish Succession broke out successively, and if it were not for the construction of solid fortresses with large quantities of cement, the powerful French army would have ravaged the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria again.

Without cement, the Holy Roman Empire, mired in European wars, would not have been able to hold the Ottomans at the Austro-Hungarian border with only a small number of fortress troops.

After years of relentless theft and plagiarism of Qi technology, coupled with continuous research and experimentation, England also pioneered the operation mechanism and manufacturing methods of steam engines, from the earliest blowers to pumping machines, and then a few years ago, successfully built a simple steam locomotive with the power to drive thousands of pounds.

Nowadays, the large and small coal mines in England are full of various pumping machines of different powers, which makes the development of coal mines in England enter a stage of rapid development, and the output ranks first in Europe, which greatly promotes the development of mining and fossil fuels in England.

In the metal smelting industry, inspired by the use of coal to make iron, many iron-smelting factories in England finally discovered the secret of coke ironmaking after decades of continuous experiments and summarization, so that England completely got rid of the shackles of relying on charcoal ironmaking, so that the massive coal resources in the territory can be fully utilized.

After seeing the great advantages of the development of the Qi railway, countless businessmen and scholars who have traveled to Qi agree that this transportation technology will greatly change the way of travel in the future, promote the rapid flow of domestic materials and people, and then effectively promote the unification of the domestic market.

In view of Qi's blockade of steam engine technology, many domestic institutions and business alliances, including the Royal Academy of Sciences in England, offered huge prizes of up to 50,000 pounds for the introduction and "invention" of this technology.

Thus, when Joel Forryland learned that Pastto Gray was working on the improvement and optimization of the steam engine at the Institute of Power of the Royal Academy of Sciences, he immediately had the idea of abducting him to England in order to obtain the huge prize money at home.

You know, during this period, the average wealth of the nobility in England was about 20,000 pounds, and as for an ordinary English merchant or craftsman, their wealth may only be a few hundred or thousands of pounds.

If Joel Forryland can get a huge prize of 50,000 pounds, then he will step into the rich class, so as to marry Bai Fumei and go to the peak of life.

Joel Forryland tried his best to persuade Pastto Gray to "defect" to Europe with his whole family, citing religious beliefs, hometown feelings, serving as a senior professor at the Royal College of England, and presiding over domestic steam power research.

However, Joel Forryland still underestimated the management of scientific and technological personnel and the speed of emergency response by Qi security personnel. After careful arrangements, when he smuggled the disguised Pastto Gray to Daxing, and before he could arrange for the ship to leave the country, he found that the entire Daxing City's external travel windows were monitored by Qi military and police personnel, and anyone who left the country would be strictly scrutinized and screened.

Frightened, he could only hide the six members of Pastto Gray's family in the merchant house, and wait for the Qi people to relax their control before choosing the opportunity to leave.

However, a month has passed, and it is about to enter the winter of June--oh God, the season of Qi is actually the opposite of England's--whether it is the railway station or the port terminal, although it seems that it is back to normal on the surface, and there are not too many military and police personnel stationed there, but the suspicious Joel Forriland still finds through careful observation that there are still a number of counter-espionage agents in civilian clothes at these departure windows. They are very vigilant in scrutinizing and screening every departing traveler.

Oh, that's too bad! They're trapped in Daxing.

Although Hanzhou is a vast continent, and there may be more than 20 million Qi people living on this continent, the government of this country is able to tightly control everything through an efficient management system at all levels, just like the machinery they produce, every gear, every chain, and every set of transmission shafts are running in an orderly and precise manner.

This makes any outsider, or illegal saboteur, feel a sense of powerlessness in the face of such a tight system, and seem so weak and helpless.

"Mr. Forriland, I think it would be a very dangerous move for all of us to continue to hide the defected senior scholar and his family in the Merchant House." Rami Kalomon, the company's head of purchasing, said solemnly: "We have to take ...... Decisive measures to avoid possible risks. ”

"Carlomon, your suggestion is ......" Joel Forryland's heart tightened, staring straight at the other party.

"Yes, Mr. Forryland." Rami Carlomon's eyes flashed with a hint of fierceness, and he did not shy away from looking at Forriland, "Their family's goal is too big, I think with the strict control and layers of inspections of the Qi people, we can't bring them back to England at all." Even if we can leave Daxing, what will we face next? Don't forget that in the entire Indian Ocean Rim region, it is the sphere of influence of the Qi people, and every port of anchorage and supply is controlled by the Qi State. It is impossible for us to return to Europe safely with a few large living people. ”

"So......" Joel Forryland still hesitated.

"Therefore, digging a few pits and hiding a few corpses in the empty courtyard of the merchant hall should be much less difficult in comparison."

"But......" Joel Forryland's face had become very ugly, "Mr. Pastto Gray is ......"

He's my friend!

"Sir, there are nineteen Englishmen in the entire Merchant House, including you."

"......," Joel Forryland said, closing his eyes in pain.