Chapter 109: The First Flight of Ten Thousand Households
On the seventh day of Shanghai's siege, seeing that neither the Qing government nor the Western countries behind them had any intention of sending troops to rescue them, the French finally raised the white flag first.
Regarding these surrendered Xiyi people, Zhu Yuanzhang followed a consistent policy and captured them all for mining. As for whether they could survive more than ten years, that is another story.
"Shanghai is lost!"
"As a result, we have lost more than half of our interests in China."
Tianjin Concession.
Representatives from Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Tsarist Russia and other countries gathered together, their faces solemn.
"That tyrant in the south is simply unreasonable!" After hearing the French representative's speech, the British also waved their fists in indignation.
"We must make him pay the price!" the representative of Tsarist Russia said with a serious face.
But in fact, he was a little bit enjoying the misfortune as if he were watching a joke.
After all, his interests in the Qing court were not along the coast, but in the northeast and northwest.
Nowadays, the Qing court is facing increasing pressure from the king in the south who is said to have resurrected from the dead. This is actually a good thing for Tsarist Russia, because the Qing court will need Tsarist Russia's help even more.
He can extract more benefits from it.
"That's right!"
"The thief beat us with a weapon he bought from us. It's ridiculous!"
"Everyone, we and other countries must unanimously block trade with that tyrant, especially in weapons, and we must not let more advanced weapons fall into his hands again."
"Otherwise, our interests in China will be affected!" The British representative gave the German representative a gloomy look.
After all, if the Germans hadn't sold all kinds of weapons to that tyrant, their British Empire's Invincible Fleet would not have been defeated so miserably.
The German representative looked quite innocent.
"I can't help it, they gave me too much!" He lamented in his heart.
When Prince Tingyi of the Qing Dynasty Zaiyuan walked into the venue, he saw this scene.
Of course, he is not interested in the overt and covert fighting between countries at all. He is here just to ask for money.
"Everyone, our Qing Dynasty is in danger. You are all our friendly neighbors. You must lend a helping hand at this time!" Zaiyuan said with a mournful face.
"Of course, that's why we are here today!" The British representative was the first to stand up and said with a smile on his face.
"We will bring out all weapons including cannons, muskets and supporting ammunition as assistance."
"Of course, these aids are not free. We need the Qing Dynasty to open more treaty ports and the Qing Dynasty's tariffs for the next twenty years as collateral!"
"no problem!"
"We can agree to everything you said!"
Zaiyuan nodded directly without any hesitation.
"But I'm afraid these are not enough. I wonder if your country can send more soldiers here. The counterfeiting is too powerful. I'm afraid we can't defeat it on our own no matter how advanced the weapons are!"
"Waste!" This thought came to the minds of many representatives of the countries at the same time.
Especially the British representative. As the country with the greatest interests in China, they contributed the most this time and provided the best weapons and equipment. But now looking at the appearance of His Excellency the Prince, the British representative is not sure whether the weapons and equipment this time are necessary.
It's all over the place.
Perhaps it would be better for the British Empire to change its support targets.
For example, Japan….
At the same time that a number of Western countries were plotting to impose various sanctions on the newly born Ming Empire, a special experiment was unfolding on the outskirts of Nanjing in the early Ming Dynasty.
The main participants in the experiment are Wanhu.
Zhu Biao was invited to participate in this experiment.
In Wanhu's own words, this was mankind's first attempt to conquer the sky.
Of course, Wanhu's choice this time is completely different from the original history.
In history, Wanhu also conducted similar experiments, but that time he chose rockets.
Of course it is not the Chang'e Moon Launch Vehicle, but a type of firearm used by the Ming Dynasty. Its power is at best slightly greater than that of fireworks.
Unfortunately, he did not realize his wish in the end. When the rocket was ignited, he was blown to pieces due to an accident.
But now, after the impact of various advanced technologies in the late Qing Dynasty, and Zhu Biao's intentional or unintentional guidance, Wanhu finally gave up on rockets and chose hot air balloons, or airships to be precise.
At this moment, a huge airship was parked in an open space.
This is an airship with Chinese characteristics, shaped like a loft, with an aluminum frame, silk skin, and rubber-filled compartments.
Its power device is a steam engine, and its fuel is coal.
"Light the fire!" Standing on the airship, Wanhu ordered his men with high spirits.
Soon the flame was ignited, the airship was gradually filled with hydrogen, and the entire airship began to slowly float upward.
"It's flying, it's really flying!" Countless people exclaimed below.
Although extraordinary phenomena are common due to the revival of spiritual energy, flying to the sky is still an extremely incredible thing in the eyes of everyone.
This is true even for a few cultivators.
They cannot do this on their own.
The most excited one belongs to Wan Hu. This great scientist who dreamed of flying into the sky finally realized his wish. He stood on the airship and danced and shouted, looking very much like a child.
Zhu Biao was also very happy.
Because this means that Ming Dynasty initially has the advantage of air strikes, and he can now think of many ways to use airships.
For example, let extraordinary people take an airship to conduct night attacks on some important enemy strongholds.
For example, use airships to bomb the enemy's main cities.
If he remembered correctly, even in the late Qing Dynasty, airships were actually used in wars during World War I.
And it's still very early from that time.
If we move the airship over now, it should be invincible in the air.
At the same time, this also means that after six or seven years of unremitting pursuit, the technological power possessed by the Ming Dynasty is finally close to catching up with the West, or has already surpassed the West in some directions.
After all, their main scientific research work has always been conducted in the illusory world of Sumeru.
There is a time difference between the Sumeru Illusion World and the outside world. In other words, it took five or six years for the Westerners outside to develop, but in the Sumeru Illusion World, the scientists of the Ming Dynasty have been catching up for nearly twenty years.
To be honest, the technological level in the late Qing Dynasty is not much different from that in the early Ming Dynasty.
After all, the early Ming Dynasty had already received numerous new technologies from the late Ming Dynasty and had been developing for five or six years. The technological level of the late Ming Dynasty was basically on the same level as that of the late Qing Dynasty.
Therefore, based on such a comparison, the technological generation gap between the Ming Dynasty and the West is actually not that big, and twenty years is enough to smooth it out.
"The next step is to surpass them!" Zhu Biao's eyes flashed with hope.
Zhu Biao is not worried at all about whether he can do this.
China is a civilization that is good at invention and creation. If the modern rulers did not pay attention to science, and the most critical hundreds of years were ruled by the Yi people, perhaps those humiliating histories would have been rewritten.
After returning from the Academy of Sciences, Zhu Biao was just preparing to eat when Sun Yuan came over again.
"Your Highness, we have good news!" Sun Yuan said with joy.
The top scorer in the first martial arts examination back then, and now the master of Qishi Mansion, has long since lost his youthfulness and has completely matured.
Over the years, Qishi Mansion has been managed very well by him, and it has successfully made a name for itself in the world, and has indeed recruited many good people during this period.
"Sit down and eat something together, and talk while eating!" Zhu Biao said with a smile.
Sun Yuan was flattered.
After Sun Yuan's report, Zhu Biao finally knew why Sun Yuan was so happy, because he finally caught Zhang Tianzhen.
This daring remnant of Shaolin assassinated himself twice and was on the run for six or seven years.
"Your Highness, I discovered something shocking this time from Zhang Tianzhen!" Sun Yuan suddenly said again.
"Oh?" Zhu Biao was successfully aroused and looked at Sun Yuan with a smile, waiting for him to explain further.
"It's a fairy mansion!"
"The only reason why Zhang Tianzhen is so powerful is because he accidentally broke into an immortal mansion and got a lot of benefits from it. This gave him strength far beyond that of ordinary immortal cultivators." Sun Yuan said.