Under the watchful eyes of several chamberlains and forbidden officers and soldiers in the Forbidden City, the three luxury carriages flying the flag of Qi slowly started, drove away from the square, turned into the wide Yudao Street, and headed towards the bustling traffic and pedestrians of Jinzi Street.

"Uncle Dan, the emperor of Qin doesn't seem to be very kind to us." Qi Zexuan lowered the heavy curtains, turned his head, and said with a smile to Qi Weining, the special envoy of Qi and the king of Dan, who was opposite: "During the one-hour meeting, we almost didn't give us any good looks, making us feel like we owed him a lot of money. ”

"Emperor Qin lost his mother, the whole country grieved, plus such a big country, I don't know how many government affairs to deal with, and being able to spare an hour to meet our uncle and nephew is already a great face." Qi Weining looked indifferent, "You haven't seen those foreign envoys, and even the first assistant of the cabinet of the Qin State will not come forward to meet them, let alone meet the emperor." ”

"No, Uncle Dan ......" Qi Zexuan shook his head and said, "I don't think Emperor Qin is too sad because of the death of the Queen Mother, so he will put on a cold face. In and out of his words, there was clearly a trace of resentment towards our Qi country. Don't you feel it? ”

"Lee Lin-zuo, the governor of the southeast of Korea, wrote to the king of Joseon a month ago, asking him to be crowned the king of Silla County." Qi Weining said: "You must know that the title of the king of Korea canonized by Daqin is only the king of the county, and he has the right to know the state affairs of Korea. And Li Linzuo's move is tantamount to sealing the territory of the country and wanting to stand side by side with the Korean state. Tell me, if he hadn't been instigated and instigated by Beiming in the future, would he dare to do such a thing? ”

"So, Emperor Qin thinks that our Qi State is also involved in this matter?" Qi Zexuan was dumbfounded.

"What do you think?" Qi Weining stretched out his hand and flicked the hair on the fox's fur, sighed, and said: "Look at this posture, Beiming is definitely going to make a big battle in North Korea." ”

"The Northern Ming and the Qin State are going to fight another Korean War?" Qi Zexuan frowned and said, "With the strength of Beiming, I'm afraid I can't beat the Qin State." ”

"For so many years, Beiming has relied on the belief of returning to the Central Plains and restoring the Ming Dynasty to the present. Otherwise, as time goes by, sooner or later the whole country will lose their temper and settle for the status quo. Qi Weining said: "The gap in strength between the two countries is huge, if there is no chaos or turbulence in the Qin State, the counterattack on the Central Plains is tantamount to a fool's dream." The monarchs and ministers of the Northern Ming Dynasty actually understood this, but in order to maintain the legitimacy and justice of their own dynasty, and also to unite the hearts of the people and assimilate the nation, they could only be completed through wars after wars. ”

"Yes, I heard that Beiming recruited many Japanese and barbarians from Yunzhou and Andingfu (Japan's Mutsu region, that is, the northeastern part of Honshu Island) to accompany them, and all of them were transferred to Korea, I am afraid that the purpose is to consume them." Qi Zexuan said with a smile: "Our Qi country has shaped and formed the main nation of our Qi country through one war after another, coupled with the assimilation education that spared no effort. This Northern Ming Dynasty has learned from each other, completely copying the road we have walked, so as to establish their unique Ming Kingdom. ”

"Not bad." Qi Weining nodded with a smile and said: "Moreover, the development level of Beiming cannot be lower than that of Qin, and the exploitation and oppression of the people cannot be worse than that of Qin, and it is necessary to formulate policies to attract all kinds of talents." In this way, it can rely on its comparative advantage of economic ability, as well as various measures to benefit the people, to form a certain attraction to the people in the territory of Qin. In the case of a long-term confrontation between the two countries, it is possible to avoid being disintegrated by the Qin State internally. ”

"That's true." Qi Zexuan played with a jade ruyi given to him by Emperor Qianyuan, and thoughtfully, "Since ancient times, only those who win the hearts of the people can win the world." Whether it is Beiming or our Qi country, only when people can see the gap between inside and outside can they perceive their good days. Only in this way can we unite people's hearts, no matter where they come from, they are proud of the people of the country where they live. ”

Qi Weining's eyes showed an approving look.

Their uncle and nephew arrived in Qin by boat as early as mid-August, and on the orders of Emperor Taiping, they came to visit the Empress Dowager of Great Qin on behalf of the imperial family of Great Qi to show the closeness of the royal families of the two countries.

Of course, if the Empress Dowager is seriously ill and dies, they will serve as condolence envoys in the name of the Great Qi Imperial Family to mourn the Empress Dowager of Great Qin.

After all, this old empress dowager of the Qin State is the daughter of Taizu, and in terms of seniority, she is still the aunt of Emperor Taiping. As a younger member of the royal family, it is not too much to worship himself, burn a few sticks of incense, kowtow a few heads, and put on a few couplets.

But unexpectedly, although the Queen Mother was bedridden and could not take care of herself, under the careful care of the imperial doctor of the Qin State, she still supported her sick body until this early winter.

Hearing the news of the death of the Queen Mother, the uncle and nephew changed into plain clothes for the first time in the early morning of the next day, took a carriage into the Forbidden City, and worshiped in front of the Empress Dowager Zi Palace in the name of the Daqi royal family, thinking that they were mourning.

In the following days, as the younger generations of the Queen Mother, the two participated in a series of state funeral ceremonies of the Queen Mother's "small funeral" and "big funeral" along with the princes, grandsons, princes, hundred officials, princesses, princesses, princesses, officials, and wives of the Great Qin.

On this day, when Emperor Qianyuan knelt down to worship the Empress Dowager, he saw his uncle and nephew, expressed his gratitude, and took an hour to have an informal meeting with the two of them in the Wuying Palace.

Emperor Qianyuan gave Qi Zexuan his favorite jade ruyi, and comforted him, placing high hopes on the future friendship and cooperation between Qin and Qi.

As the eldest grandson of the Great Qi royal family, Qi Zexuan naturally received systematic political education since he was a child, and he also had an in-depth understanding of the Qin State, and also knew that the current relationship between Qin and Qi was somewhat delicate, and there was a little vigilance in the closeness, and there was also a trace of confrontation in the cooperation.

It stands to reason that with Qi Zexuan's noble status, if he would not brave the risk of wind and waves at sea, he would come all the way to Qin to comfort (worship) the Empress Dowager of Great Qin, which would inevitably cause the royal family to shake, and then affect the succession of the empire.

However, when he accompanied the Dan King Qi Weining to visit the Qin State this time, he took a "big iron ship" that was considered to have a very high safety factor, and along the way to supply convenient ports and strongholds, it took only one month to reach the Qin State smoothly.

After decades of development, the shipbuilding industry of Qi has made great progress. Following the successive entry of several ironclad ships into service by the Qi Navy, civilian steel ships have also begun to be put into operation on a small scale in the domestic maritime transportation industry.

In May this year, an iron ship with a displacement of more than 6,500 tons, named "Great Eastern", was officially commissioned after several rounds of sea trials and began to engage in the transportation of passengers and goods between Hanzhou and Qin.

Construction of the iron ship began in early 1724 and was ready for launch in October 1726.

On the Great Eastern, the end seams were connected by two rows of rivets, while all the side connections were joined by a single row of rivets. Workers at the Daxing shipyard used about 3 million rivets to assemble about 30,000 small iron plates into a seamless iron hull. With the exception of a few particularly large iron plates attached to the tail frame, none of the rest of the plates are more than 300 centimeters long and 90 centimeters wide.

The iron boat was built on its side to the Daxing River (present-day Brisbane River), and due to the width of the water, it took a lot of effort to move it from the dock into the river.

In November 1726, the Great Eastern made an offshore-seaworthy voyage to Elysium (present-day Tasmania) and discovered a number of problems, some of whom had some concerns about its performance.

After three months of repairs and improvements at the port of Daxing, the ship sailed to Quang Ninh (present-day Cilegon in the northwest of Java, Indonesia) in February 1727, and some of its fears were quickly confirmed.

If the vessel were to be handed over to a well-trained captain and manager, it would not be difficult to maintain a speed of 14 knots per hour with minimal fuel consumption, as it had done in previous sea trials.

According to the original ideal design, the large-tonnage iron ship will sail at a speed of 14 knots per hour, and the ship will need about 75 days of start-up time to complete the circumnavigation of the world. Excluding the coal consumed by chance, the ship normally consumes only 130 tons of coal per day, and the total consumption of the circumnavigation in 75 days will not exceed 10,000 tons.

In fact, in order to achieve the design requirements of 6500 horsepower, it consumes much more fuel, so that its daily coal consumption is about 180-200 tons, more than the design requirements of 40-50%, which is also speechless.

However, even though the iron ship's coal consumption greatly exceeded the design requirements, its safety performance and long-distance seaworthiness, as well as its tonnage size, are enough to prove that the ship is still a relatively successful product - of course, you have to exclude the excessive coal consumption and the additional operating costs.

At the beginning of August, after arriving in Qin, with official permission, the "Great Eastern" iron ship set off from Shanghai County, along the mouth of the Yangtze River, all the way to Shuo, and arrived in Nanjing.

When it was moored in the center of the river - no way, the tonnage was too large for it to dock at the pier by the river, causing a huge shock from the residents on both banks.

The people of Qi not only built such a huge ship, but also built it with steel, what a miracle!

Every day, countless gentry and people of the Qin State came to the center of the river in small boats to see this big iron ship up close.

The hull with a cold metallic luster, several thick chimneys, long iron chain anchors, towering towers, and a pair of smug sailors on both sides of the ship all made the mood of the Qin people who came to watch extremely complicated.

These Qi people have come up with an amazing "novelty"!

Moreover, they drove all the way along the Yangtze River to Nanjing in such a big way, obviously showing off to our Great Qin!

"If we send a powerful fleet, can we also kill all the way from the mouth of the Yangtze River to the city of Nanjing, like the 'Great Eastern'?"

Qi Zexuan did not return to the Sifang Pavilion with Qi Weining, but separated in Confucius Lane and continued to tour Nanjing City with several Praetorian Guard officers.

"Jiangnan beautiful land, Jinling Imperial State".

This poem "Song of Entering the Dynasty" written by the Xiao Qi poet Xie Hao is based on the grand occasion of the princes and princes entering the court, and the pen is bright and imposing, depicting the magnificence and prosperity of the imperial capital of Jinling.

The land in the south of the Yangtze River is vast, the scenery is beautiful, the products are rich, Jinling has a long history, the king is angry, and the capital of the nine dynasties (Sun Wu, Eastern Jin Dynasty, Liu Song, Xiao Qi, Xiao Liang, Chen Dynasty, Southern Tang Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Great Qin) makes the whole city shine with a brilliant and brilliant style.

Huaxia Shenzhou has a history of thousands of years of civilization and a complex space spanning tens of thousands of miles, and in such time and space, there were more than 200 places that used to be capitals.

The situation of these two hundred or so places is of course very different, either it is still a prosperous metropolis, or it has become barren and uninhabited.

Among them, the so-called seven ancient capitals - Xi'an, Beijing, Luoyang, Nanjing, Kaifeng, Hangzhou, and Anyang.

From the long history of thousands of years, it is not difficult for us to find that Nanjing has shown a very obvious fate of ups and downs, that is, Nanjing will decline when Shenzhou is unified, and Nanjing will prosper when the north and south are divided.

The prosperous Nanjing, which is written by Zuo Si of the Western Jin Dynasty in "Wu Du Fu", "the circulation of the four seas, the meeting of all nations", and also the description of "the beautiful land in the south of the Yangtze River, the imperial state of Jinling" described in Xiao Qi Xie Hao's "Song of Entering the Dynasty".

The declining Nanjing, that is the Tang Dynasty Liu Yuxi's "Wuyi Lane" poem "Wild grass flowers by the Vermilion Bird Bridge, Wuyi Alley mouth sunset slope", is the former Ming Dynasty Tian Mu wrote "Traveling to Nanjing Ming Xiaoling Feelings" "How many things in the past, a flash in the pan like a meteor".

Such a Nanjing, is it also "Jinling Wangqi" when it becomes and "Jinling Wangqi" when it is defeated?

Is this kind of Nanjing a capital city with a very strange historical process, a rather embarrassing political status, and a fate that is often controlled by others?

In fact, according to the geographical situation of Nanjing, it is very suitable for building a big city and a capital. In the era of cold weapons, in order for a place to become the capital, it must have good military geographical conditions, and it must be attackable and retreated.

Nanjing's offensive and defensive performances are:

To the north and west of Nanjing is the Yangtze River, which is very wide and difficult to cross. Since ancient times, even if the northern army wants to cross the Yangtze River and attack Nanjing, it will not cross the river from the Nanjing River, but either go to Yangzhou (such as the Qing Dynasty to attack Jiangnan in the south), or go to Hexian.

Between Yangzhou and Zhenjiang, there is Jiangxinzhou in the river, which can be used as a springboard; Between Hexian and Taiping (now Ma'anshan), the river is relatively narrow, and there is also Jiangxinzhou. After crossing the river from these two places, you can outflank Nanjing from Zhenjiang and Taipingfu.

Another situation is that if the middle reaches of the Yangtze River are lost and the northern army goes downstream, then the danger of the Yangtze River is shared by the north and the south, and the importance of Nanjing, a military pass, is obvious.

After crossing the Yangtze River, there is a wide Qinhuai River on the periphery of Nanjing, which is known as the "small river", which can accommodate a large number of merchant ships and warships. There is Shogunate Mountain in the north of Nanjing and Zhongshan Mountain in the east, which makes the whole city surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the natural mountains and rivers constitute the natural defense line of Nanjing.

As far as the Nanjing region itself is concerned, it is also quite suitable for the construction of a large city, such as convenient transportation, convenient water intake, and not easy to be affected by water damage. According to the ancient concept of feng shui, Nanjing can be called a treasure land of feng shui, Nanjing "four elephants" are complete, that is, the east is Zhongshan Longpan, the west is the stone tiger, and there are the place names of Zhuque Bridge and Xuanwu Lake in the north and south.

Nanjing, as a treasure of feng shui, is also manifested in the economic aspect. The economic production of Nanjing's mother river, the Qinhuai River Valley, can partially meet the needs of Nanjing as a capital city and as a large city.

Nanjing and the Sanwu area and Taihu area, which are known as the "granary" -- however, in recent decades, the grain crops in this area have been decreasing day by day, and the crops with high economic value such as cotton mulberry have been planted to meet the grain self-sufficiency, and the water and land transportation are also very convenient.

Relying on such natural conditions and economic foundation, Nanjing has a long history of development and the history of the capital.

However, "the rise and fall of personnel and the empty terrain of mountains, rivers and rivers", Nanjing City has been repeatedly attacked and destroyed several times in the course of thousands of years of history. There are even high-level strategists who said, "Since ancient times, there has been no one who has been able to go north to recover...... That's why it's contemplative."

The emperors of the past dynasties set the dingding, and those who are in the Yellow River valley account for the majority, and according to this, they are moved and polluted by the phenomena of the outside world, and their scale is often grand, their situation is often magnificent, and their spirit is often majestic and heroic, and there is the sigh of the clouds and clouds across the desert.

And those who built their capital in the Yangtze River Basin, except for Hongwu, most of them have not started a business, or they have failed, and those who have survived are also in peace. Its external phenomena are moved and polluted, its scale is often beautiful, its situation is often hidden, its spirit is often weak, and there is a view of the moonlight painting boat slowing down the song and dance.

The southern part of the country is beautiful, secluded, and weak, and naturally cannot defeat the grandeur, magnificence, and majesty of the north militarily.

However, the clouds in the north are across the desert, and culturally they are the opponents of the moonlight painting boat in the south?

However, Nanjing at this time is also the capital of the Great Qin, which has gone through 51 years (1676, Sun Kewang was expected to be the Emperor of Chan Ming, Jianshuo Daqin), prosperous and prosperous, the population is numerous, and the economy is abundant, which can be the most in China.

Despite the death of the Queen Mother and the great mourning of the whole country, the soldiers and civilians in Beijing, men went to crown tassels, women went to jewelry, and they were dressed plain for 27 days, and they were not allowed to sacrifice, and they were not allowed to marry and have fun within 100 days. However, the huge city of Nanjing is still bustling and lively, with all industries thriving and people buzzing.

Accompanied by a team of Qin troops and Great Qi Imperial Guard officers who protected him, Qi Zexuan wandered through the streets of Nanjing, looking at the noisy cityscape, and suddenly had a thought, and whispered to a Praetorian Guard officer beside him: "If so, if you can conquer Nanjing City in one battle, will you be able to destroy or defeat the Qin State?" ”

When Li Yanliang, the captain (captain) of the Imperial Guard of the Great Qi Imperial Guard, heard this, he immediately smiled bitterly, and then said softly: "If we only send a fleet to kill, our Qi State will not be able to capture Nanjing City." …… They have already made all the defensive preparations against our Qi country! ”

(End of chapter)