I

Page 477

First, a complete truce with Spain, no longer pretending to be pirates to rob Spanish ships.

Second, the number one enemy is determined to be the Banten Sultanate.

Third, try to make peace with the Matalan country, and it would be best if you can conquer the Wandan country together with the Matalan country!

Wandan Kingdom, a country of the Green religion, once perished the Sunda Kingdom that believed in Hinduism.After the capital was captured, the city was massacred, and all the people who did not convert to the Green Cult were killed.The land is in the west of Java, the south of Sumatra and the west of Borneo.

The country of Mata Lan, a country of the Green Church, is located in the middle of Java Island.

Banten and Matalan have been attacking each other, and at the same time they are at war with the Netherlands.

In particular, the country of Banten, the Batavia colony of the Netherlands, was snatched from the country of Banten.And Banten City is another trade center in Nanyang. Chinese maritime merchants ship goods to Banten for sale, and European countries import goods from Banten.

The Dutch East India Company wanted to repair relations with all enemies, and wanted to concentrate on destroying Banten, and then further monopolize the trade between the East and the West.

It can only be said that the two governors, Van Diemen and Van der Lin, have completely different styles of doing things.

Van Diemen chose to expand in all directions, sticking here and there, and wanted to be the overlord of the Far East.

Van der Lin attacked them one by one, first to kill the Wandan country completely, and then to completely kill the Matalan country.Consolidate the base camp of Java Island, and monopolize the trade between the East and the West to the maximum extent, so as to capture more practical commercial profits.

This product even took the initiative to shrink the trade between Japan and Holland, allowing Chinese maritime merchants to invade the Japanese market.As for the Dutch merchants, they can just wait for the Chinese merchants to ship their goods in Java Island, so that the trade volume and profits can be steadily increased.

As for ten or 20 years later, Chinese maritime merchants will develop and grow, and may even threaten the Dutch colonies.In that case, it's none of Van der Lin's business?He has already resigned and returned to China, and he is a good governor with excellent performance.

Chapter 596 [Social Conditions]

How can the Netherlands repair diplomatic relations with Mata Ram?

Let's fight first!

The Sultan of Matalam, Ladeng Langsang, is a man of great talent. He resisted the Dutch invasion externally, developed law, culture, calendar, and economy internally, and expanded the country to its full glory.However, the sultan died last year, around the same time as the Dutch governor Van Diemen died of illness.

The successor, Sultan Amang Gutla I, liked luxury and cruelty.

The strategy of the Netherlands is very simple, let the warships continue to plunder the opponent's trade fleet.Although Matalam is based on Java Island, its territory includes many islands. Once the fleet suffers a huge loss, the domestic inter-island trade will be over. Not only will the economy suffer heavy losses, but the central government’s rule over the islands will also weaken.

Coupled with the fact that the current Sudan is greedy for pleasure and economic downturn, it will inevitably increase the exploitation of the people.

In this way, an uprising would break out in Matalam, and the Netherlands would jump out to help the Sudan suppress the rebellion, and then tie the Sudan to the Dutch chariot.

In this way, wouldn't it be possible to establish friendly diplomacy with Mata Ram?

Historically, this is what the Netherlands did. The rebel army once captured the capital... and the Netherlands not only controlled the current Sudan, but also waged three succession wars, splitting Matalam into two, and both countries became the Netherlands vassal.

Looking at Britain at this time, it was extremely jealous of the Batavia colony of the Netherlands, and also wanted to build a large commercial city on Java Island.

Therefore, the United Kingdom also set its sights on the country of Mataram, and coincidentally joined with the Netherlands to rob Mataram's merchant ships in a cold-hearted manner.

In less than two months, facing the double aggression of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the inter-island trade of Matalam directly collapsed.Seeing this situation, the Banten Kingdom actually sent troops to invade Mataram, and Java Island fell into a war, and a large number of war prisoners were sold to China.

These captives, many of whom were nobles from the white Matalan country, were descendants of Arab merchants.

Especially noble girls, first sold to Batavia and Banten, where there are manors of Chinese merchants.Chinese businessmen invited scholars from the former Ming Dynasty to teach these aristocratic girls Chinese, and also taught them piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. After a year or two, they could pretend to be Persian girls and transport them back to China to sell at super high prices.

A colony, a breeding ground for evil.

After the rebel army in Matalan appeared, the rebel army also joined the ranks of slave traders.They stormed towns, plundered noble goods, and captured noble women.No matter what skin color it is, the richer it is, the fairer its skin color, and the higher the price it sells to Chinese merchants.

The poor and crazy Spaniards are also expanding the slave trade.The natives of the southern archipelago of the Philippines, whoever does not convert to Christianity, will face Spanish attacks, and piles of prisoners of war will be sold to China.

Then, the price of slaves collapsed, and low-level slaves could be bought in Macau for only one or two silver dollars.

……

Songjiang Mansion, Huating County.

Liu Chuanzong couldn't get along in the Nanjing police system. The emperor knew this well and appointed him to be a clean government official in the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Although he is only the lowest-level member of the clean government, from the ninth rank, but compared to the previous small patrolmen, he is already a carp jumping the dragon's gate.

It was only two months after being transferred to the Metropolitan Procuratorate. After getting familiar with the work, Liu Chuanzong went to Songjiang Mansion with him.

This time, he did not investigate official corruption, but learned about the textile industry in the Jiangnan area, which was a special mission arranged by the emperor.Not only the clerks of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but also Xu Ying's black-clothed guards.

"A few angels, please!" Xu Zhiyuan smiled.

"I'm bothering the son-in-law." The officials in black and white attire collectively bowed.

Consort Xu Zhiyuan, with the eldest princess Zhao Zhenlan, has moved back to Huating County from Nanjing.

The reason is simple, Xu Zhiyuan opened a new factory and used steam engines extensively.He had to go back to Huating to watch it in person, and at the same time carefully summarize the pros and cons of steam engine weaving, so as to prescribe the right medicine and improve it.

As soon as Mei Zhuyou entered the factory area, he felt very big. This son-in-law is really rich.

Xu Zhiyuan introduced while walking: "There are three main processes for spinning cotton into cotton cloth, namely: ginning, spinning, and weaving. In the factory below, there are no ginners, and ginning is done by farmers or small workshops. .”

Cotton ginning is to roll cotton into cotton skin, and the traditional tool is a churn.

Spinning is to spin cotton sliver into cotton yarn, and the traditional tool is spinning wheel.

Weaving is to weave cotton yarn into cotton cloth, and the traditional tool is loom.

When Mei Zhuyou inspected the textile factory, Liu Chuanzong and others were investigating in the Jiangnan countryside.

At this time, it was the cotton harvest season. Although the production was greatly reduced, the rural areas were still very busy and were not affected by the steam engine.

After the cotton farmers harvest the cotton, they cut the cotton and remove the seeds, card the cotton and remove impurities, and use cotton bows to flick the cotton by themselves.There is a mixer in the family, who gins cotton husks or even slivers; if there is no mixer, they sell the cotton to small workshops in the town.

There are also two types of mixers, one is the traditional mixer, which requires three people to operate at the same time.One is a new type of agitator, which was available during the Tianqi period and can be operated by only one person, but its defects obviously cannot be promoted, and it has gradually become popular after improvements in recent years.

More and more carpenters know how to make new mixers.

It is difficult to protect the invention patent for improving the mixer.Carpenters are hired everywhere in the countryside to build new-style mixer trucks for their own use, and officials can go door-to-door to fine them?

Seeing someone removing seeds and impurities in the yard, Liu Chuanzong walked over and asked, "My fellow, how is the harvest this year?"

The whole family was busy with work, the woman looked at Liu Chuanzong curiously, but did not answer due to the difference between men and women.

The old farmer was working swiftly, and said with a smile, "Is the guest here to collect cotton lint or cotton yarn?"

Liu Chuanzong said: "All accepted."

The old farmer said with emotion: "There is a severe drought this year, and the cotton harvest is not good. If the customer collects cotton, the price should be higher, otherwise we will not sell it."

Liu Chuanzong asked: "Now there is a new machine that can burn coal to spin yarn. The price of cotton yarn dropped last year. Do you still spin yarn yourself?"

"Last year, the price of cotton yarn was lowered because the cotton harvest was good, so what's the point of shutting down new machines? Don't lie to me." The old farmer obviously regarded Liu Chuanzong as a profiteer.

This is also one of the reasons for the price reduction of cotton yarn. Last year, not only Jiangnan had a bumper harvest of cotton, but Shandong, which was gradually recovering, also had a bumper harvest, which led to a sharp drop in the price of cotton yarn throughout China.

This year's reduction in production will surely increase again.

Liu Chuanzong asked: "With the new machine, has the farmers' income decreased?"

The old farmer said: "That's it."

in the factory.

Xu Zhiyuan introduced: "During the Ming Dynasty, the speed of spinning was far behind that of weaving. After hydraulic spinning, the situation eased a little. Only in the towns near the big waterwheel, the speed of weaving could not keep up. Spinning. Later, some craftsmen improved the spinning wheel and barely raised the spinning speed.”

The situation of the textile industry in the late Ming Dynasty was that the loom was too advanced, and the spinning wheel was seriously hindered.When weaving, there will be no yarn during weaving, and cotton yarn is always looted by merchants.

"This is the steam spinning machine." Xu Zhiyuan pointed forward.

When everyone looked up, they saw workers shoveling coal in front of several large stoves, and the boilers drove the spinning machines to work.

Mei Zhuyou asked: "How does the steam spinning machine work?"

Xu Zhiyuan smiled wryly: "It's not that bad, to be honest, I've already regretted it. The steam engine is like a waterwheel, it can only spin roving. If you want fine yarn, you have to let the workers finish it again with a spinning wheel."

In the process of spinning cotton sliver into cotton yarn, it needs to be twisted continuously so that the sliver has a certain strength without breaking.

With the combination of steam engine and workers, fine spinning is temporarily impossible, and only semi-finished roving can be spun.

The roving is then finished using a traditional spinning wheel to make the cotton yarn finer and make the cotton fibers straight and parallel.

Xu Zhiyuan took everyone to the warehouse, where he saw many women queuing up.

Xu Zhiyuan explained: "They are all peasant women from nearby villages and towns. When they finish spinning their own cotton, they go to the factory to get the roving, and when they go home, they spin it into spun yarn and then send it to the factory. The steam loom is very useful, and the spinning speed is really fast. The spinning speed can’t keep up. Since the completion of my steam factory, there are no farmers spinning cloth in the three towns around, and they all help my factory spin yarn. Even so, there is still not enough cotton yarn.”

The traditional handicraft industry that Zhao Han was worried about was destroyed. This situation has not happened for the time being, but is developing towards the opposite situation.

The advent of steam looms led to a shortage of cotton yarn.

Today's farmers no longer weave their own cloth, but are all engaged in ginning and spinning.As a result, their income has increased, and no matter how much yarn they spin, they can sell it. The only worry is that there is not enough cotton.The trouble of steam factory owners is that there is not enough cotton yarn.

"Those boiler burners aren't Chinese, right?" Mei Zhuyou asked, pointing at the workers with darker skin.

Xu Zhiyuan replied: "Nanyang slaves... hired workers."

Mei Zhuyou asked again: "Among the textile workers, are there any Nanyang hired workers?"

Xu Zhiyuan said with a smile: "Nanyang hired workers are very stupid, how dare they let them touch spinning wheels and looms? Even if they burn boilers, they have to be taught repeatedly. Everyone is as stupid as a pig."

Mei Zhuyou walked over and asked a Nanyang slave: "Where are you from?"

The slave shook his head.

Mei Zhuyou asked again: "How are you doing?"

The slave grinned and said, "Okay."

This is not a lie. Burning boilers in a factory and being able to eat every day is better than life in Nanyang.Today there are no electric lights, and no work is done at night. It is impossible for workers to be forced to work fifteen or sixteen hours.

Hours of work depend entirely on the length of the day.

The lengthening of the working hours of the English weavers has been paralleled by the development of lighting equipment.Before the invention of electric light, there were Algonquin lamps, gas lamps, etc., which enabled workers to work at night.

early winter.

More than a dozen investigation reports were placed in front of Zhao Han.

The appearance of the steam engine did not destroy the small-scale peasant economy and traditional handicraft industry, but instead promoted the development of traditional hand-woven textiles and increased the income of spinning farmers.Zhao Han was very pleasantly surprised by this status quo. He even thought that it would be best to maintain this status quo if the technology stopped improving.

Once the steam engine can weave spun yarn, it will definitely be a huge blow to weavers.

The use of foreign slaves has become common in several southern provinces, which far exceeded Zhao Han's expectations.

Especially the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, more or less, have several Nanyang female slaves in their families, and many male slaves are farming the fields.

This winter, another imperial decree was issued: male migrant workers are not allowed to marry and have children in China.Migrant women hired workers, and the government encouraged marriage. After marriage and childbirth, the household registration fell into the husband's family, and the status was equivalent to that of a Chinese, and no additional poll tax was paid.

As soon as this order came out, the slave trade was further stimulated, and a large number of female slaves were sold to the north where women were scarce!

Many northern men who can't marry wives save money to buy Nanyang women.Anyway, the lowest one is only a few yuan, and according to the imperial decree, you can still go to the government to settle normally.

Chapter 597 [Books, Calligraphy and Painting]

"Leave the idle ship, retreat the idle ship!"

On the Yangtze River, the Datong Navy, which has not existed for a long time, suddenly mobilized collectively this winter.

More than 300 large and small warships sailed towards Nanjing in a mighty way. Gu Jianshan, the governor of the Datong Navy, led the team in person.

More and more people gathered at the pier to watch the excitement, and they didn't know what happened. Some people even suspected that there was a rebellion somewhere.

Immediately, the police force in Nanjing was dispatched.

Three steps and one post, five departments and one post, from the pier to the Forbidden City.

Fei Ruyi sat in a palanquin, summoned friends and came, and all stood at the pier watching strangely.This guy's opium addiction has been forcibly given up. During the detoxification period, he almost died. After that, his temperament changed a lot and subsided a lot.

"The idle retreat, the idle retreat!"

The ones who came this time were actually the guards of the imperial city, they are rarely dispatched...

Both business travelers and passers-by were all driven to the side of the road, as if some important person wanted to pass.

Many officials came again, and even the palace ladies.

The warships of the Datong Navy docked one after another, and many merchant ships that were berthing at the pier were ordered to leave temporarily to make room for the naval warships.

This battle was too outrageous, and the common people became more and more curious.

Gu Jianshan was sitting on the deck of the flagship supervising the battle. Qian Qianyi and other officials from the Imperial Academy and Qintian Academy also got off the naval battleship.

The officers and soldiers of the navy and the guards of the imperial city lifted boxes one by one from the ship.

Every box must be opened and inspected when landing, and handed over after confirming that it is correct.

只听有官员喊道：“北京文渊阁书目，总计43200册,遗失者众多,只剩10237册。现交接前明皇帝御制御注诸书，及前明皇帝礼法政教及实录书本。《明太祖实录》初修本遗失殆尽；二修本共165册、183卷，全部保存完好；三修本共250册、257卷，现存248册、255卷半。请予清点交接！”

One box after another is opened for inspection, and each box must be counted three times.