Xu Guangqi and other members of the imperial mission were taken by Zeng Yue to the original inspection site of Sicheng Village, which is now the headquarters of Zhonghua Company. They were arranged to rest in the "Anhaiguan" inn run by the company. Yin Feng got off the ship and went to the dock to participate. Triumphal ceremony of the Taiwan Fleet of the Navy.

This made Sheng Yihong and others very dissatisfied. Even Yuan Chonghuan, Zhang Ye and others could not restrain their annoyance. They all saw that the person Yin Feng personally boarded the ship to greet was only Xu Guangqi, not the imperial envoy. all members of.

At the company headquarters, only some servants were arranged to help them carry the gifts. Even Zeng Yue, who had been accompanying them, disappeared in a flash. Yuan Chonghuan wanted to go out to inquire about the situation, but was blocked by several black soldiers who looked like black charcoal at the door. Yuan Chonghuan was from Guangdong and had been to Guangzhou. He had seen local gentry and officials buying black slaves from Macau. He did not regard these black people as monsters, but they could not understand him. No matter what he said, they would not let him go out.

The more than 30 people who were recruited by the Ming Dynasty to appease the imperial envoys are now under house arrest here. Although the Anhai Pavilion is luxuriously decorated, the rooms are spacious, and the furniture combines Chinese and Western styles for comfort and convenience, after all, they are here to negotiate a peace treaty with the pirates, not Come to travel.

Sheng Yihong, Zhang Ye, Yuan Chonghuan and others gathered in front of Xu Guangqi and asked to discuss with Yin Feng: What is the reason for such neglect of the imperial envoy.

But Xu Guangqi glanced at everyone, sighed, and said lightly: "After you entered the city, you came all the way. What did you see and hear?"

Everyone looked at each other for a moment, and Yuan Chonghuan spoke first: "Scholar Xu, my student Qianjian: The only people who can threaten the Ming Dynasty today are the Chinese pirates."

Sheng Yihong snorted dissatisfied: "Huh, Chief Yuan, please be careful. The Ming Dynasty is as stable as Mount Tai. Now it is the pirates who are the first to beg for peace, but you talk like this. This is alarmist."

Xu Guangqi, Yuan Chonghuan and others were helpless at Sheng Yihong's stubbornness and ignorance of world affairs. At the moment, they could only pretend not to hear. Xu Guangqi sighed and said: "What I heard and saw all the way here is that this pirate army has strong soldiers and horses, and huge ships." Cannons and sharp firearms, and what’s even more amazing is that in the land they occupy, all industries are prosperous, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, which has become a national phenomenon..."

He took out a stack of documents, which were the newspapers from Jiangnan half a month ago. "Let's take a look. They put these newspapers in my room..."

Everyone gathered around to take a look, and struggled to read the blurry printed Di Bao. They were all speechless. This Di Bao was not published by the capital, but was based on the Beijing Di Bao, with some "illegal" local gossip added. "Tabloid, printed and distributed in Suzhou, where the printing industry is developed, is commonly known as "tabloid" by the common people.

It is easy to see that this printed matter was printed with movable type. Many of the characters are not aligned. It can be seen that it was illegally printed by the private sector. If Yin Feng had not invented ink and was the first to use lead movable type printing in the area under his control, the Ming Dynasty would have The use of movable type printing to publish newspapers would have to be postponed for another twenty years.

Xu Guangqi took out a stack of paper again and placed it on the table: "Look at these again. This is the so-called "Business News" and "Shiwen News" published and printed locally."

Everyone gathered around to take a look and found that it was also printed with movable type, but its printing quality was significantly higher than the pirated "Di Bao" published in the Ming Dynasty's ruling areas.

Newspaper printing in ancient China originated very early and achieved initial development in the Song Dynasty. It stagnated in the Yuan and Ming dynasties. What is the reason? One is the restriction of printing technology, because newspaper printing is different from book printing and has a strong Timeliness requires publication and distribution as soon as possible. Traditional woodblock printing obviously cannot adapt. Furthermore, woodblock printing is labor-intensive and time-consuming, so it is suitable to be stored and reprinted. Newspapers are one-time printed matter and will not be reprinted after printing. Using woodblock printing to print newspapers not only The speed cannot meet the requirements, and it is not economical. Therefore, woodblock printing is not suitable for newspaper printing, so wax plates and bean curd plates came into being. However, wax plates and bean curd plates can solve the problem of carving woodblock speed. problems, but the quality was very poor. Under the social conditions at that time, the only solution was to use movable type printing. However, the development of movable type printing in the Ming Dynasty was slow, and it always remained at the level of manual operation, and it did not make much difference in newspaper printing. Traditional woodblock printing uses hand-written printing, and the fonts are the most popular and loved by the society at that time, such as Yan, Liu, Ou, Yu in the Tang Dynasty, Zhao Ti in the Yuan Dynasty, etc. For official and private printings, which font do you want to use? , just write in which font, which cannot be achieved by movable type production. Furthermore, the number of printings of ancient books is small, and the engraving plates can be stored and printed as needed, while the movable type version does not have this convenience. In addition, in feudal society, emperors, generals, ministers, and literati Poets love calligraphy and pay attention to elegant fonts in books and periodicals, and these have been deeply ingrained in the minds of people in the past dynasties and formed traditions, making it difficult to develop and popularize movable type printing, which restricted the printing of newspapers from the perspective of process technology.

During the days when Xu Guangqi was forced to suspend his duties, in order to publish his own translation of "Elements of Geometry" and "Agricultural Books", he had dealings with booksellers in Nanjing and the capital. Naturally, he knew the relationship between printing and cultural communication. However, he did not We are not lamenting the advanced printing technology of the Chinese Army.

He pointed at these two piles of printed matter and said with a wry smile: "You must understand, the newspapers they published also reproduced the news from the Capital Newspaper. Guizhou and Chengdu have been besieged, She'an rebels have appeared in Guilin, and half of the southwest is in danger. Ah, comparing the two sides, this matter should be true,"

Sheng Yihong said angrily: "This newspaper said that Wuchang, Wuhu and other places had been recovered at the end of last month, and the imperial court should mobilize troops to go south to suppress the barbarians in the southwest as soon as possible."

"Where did the soldiers come from? The siege of Jinling City has just been lifted, and the imperial court has assembled these 80,000 troops in the south of the Yangtze River. There are still 80,000 troops in Wuchang, Anqing and other places... They are all staring at the maritime pirates in the south of the Yangtze River. We can't make peace in one day. The imperial court cannot go all out to suppress the rebellious barbarians in the southwest." Yuan Chonghuan said, taking out the "Shiwen News" of the Zhonghua Company, pointing to a piece of news and saying: "Here it is said that the imperial court mobilized troops to march westward to the Liaohe River. what's going on,"

Sheng Yihong was very dissatisfied with Yuan Chonghuan rushing to speak, and he didn't bother to compete with the sixth-rank official, so he kept silent. At this time, he couldn't help it anymore: "What does the matter in Liaodong have to do with us? Mr. Xu, let's do it together." How to deal with the current situation? It seems that the pirates are trying to play tricks again and plan to delay the peace talks."

Xu Guangqi also felt the same and nodded and said: "Brother Zikuan is absolutely right. Now the imperial court is in urgent need of peace talks. They can delay it, but we can't afford it. Before we went to sea, I had already sent a memorial to the imperial court. I came to Taiwan this time. During the peace talks, everything will be done according to the authority, and the safety of the country and the country will be the top priority. I will bear all the consequences alone,"

"grown ups,"

"Scholar Xu,"

Everyone looked surprised, and then gathered around and said: "It can't be like this. Since I came on the same boat, we should work together..."

Yuan Chonghuan's eyes lit up and he looked at Xu Guangqi with admiration. Some people were secretly pleased and hoped that they would not be held accountable by the court.

Regardless of whether everyone was worried about him or not, Xu Guangqi waved his hand and said: "No need to say more, everyone, in this negotiation, we aim to reach a peace agreement as soon as possible and maintain the dignity of the court as much as possible. If there is any investigation by the court afterwards, I will be responsible for everything. ,"

He stood up and stepped out. At this time, it was almost dusk, and a series of horse hooves and neat footsteps could be heard outside the inn.

A high and powerful voice shouted: "The king has arrived,"

The black guard pushed open the door of the inn, and Yin Feng stepped in surrounded by everyone. He cupped his hands to Xu Guangqi and said, "I've been neglecting you a lot. I'm here to invite you to a banquet."

Sheng Yihong was angry and refused to go away, claiming that he was ill. Yin Feng and the people in the Chinese Army did not force him and left him and his entourage in the post.

Everyone came to the Leshan Building outside the east gate of Inspection Sicheng Village. Except for the third floor permanently reserved by the owner for Yin Feng to entertain Xu Guangqi, Zhang Ye, Yuan Chonghuan and others, the entire Leshan Building has been booked by Yin Feng. , used to entertain the imperial court and appease the imperial envoys.

Among the major directors of the China Company who were present, except for the major director Zhao Tie who represented the army, the other major directors were here. Bernardo and the rabbis of the Jewish community in Hong Kong were also present, as well as a large number of Western businessmen and various Southeast Asian businessmen. Representatives of Chinese business companies arrived. The large Leshan Building was packed with people, surrounded by a large number of residents watching the excitement, black guards standing guard, and bustling pedestrians. The entire Leshan Building was filled with people and people.

Xu Guangqi and others have become familiar with "bandit affairs" these days. They know that people from the Chinese Army and the Chinese Company do not care about the officials of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, they follow the Romans and do not pride themselves on their status as imperial envoys. They quickly get along with everyone, from the Ministry of Rites and the The dozen or so people in the Kedao Censorship Department were unwilling to join in, but their integrity and courage had not yet reached the level of stubbornness, so they just stayed around to drink and eat, and occasionally chatted with those vulgar merchants. Nonsense nonsense.

The whole banquet seemed lively and slightly chaotic. Yin Feng's partners and subordinates are now eligible to participate in the Leshan House banquet. Except for Xu Hongji and the Zeng family, who are considered traditional literati, most of the others are pirates and maritime merchants. Although they are now They are extremely wealthy and are at the top of the first maritime armed group in East Asia, but in terms of cultural accomplishment, they cannot compare with the civil servants from the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

In the eyes of Xu Guangqi, Yuan Chonghuan, Zhang Ye and others, although these people are well-informed, calm and generous, and full of confidence, their words and actions occasionally smell like copper. Some people, such as former pirates like Lu Shitou, become addicted after drinking. It seems vulgar.

In short, Xu Guangqi and others could not figure out why the Ming Dynasty was forced into such an embarrassing situation just by relying on these people to set up a company.

Throughout the banquet, there was another question that made Xu Guangqi very impatient: Yin Feng repeatedly toasted to everyone in the imperial envoy, but he never mentioned a word about the ultimate purpose of everyone coming to Taiwan.
Chapter completed!