The tenth day on which the Spanish battleship Maria was trapped in the dock of Taiwan Port.
The Chinese United Company sank four sailing ships around the Maria, blocking the channel through which the Maria could escape at all costs. Two 24-pound bronze cannons were added to the fort in Taiyuan Port two miles away. The mouth was always pointed at the Maria. Most of the guards around Pier C were replaced by young student soldiers who had just entered the military academy. Although they now have high fighting spirit and strong blood, they inevitably appear immature and have lax military discipline. In addition, they They had jagged swords, guns and old matchlocks in their hands. The Spaniards didn't pay much attention to them. They were just very wary of the cannons of the Dajuan Fort.
However, after the negotiation with Li Lihua collapsed, the Chinese Company began to provide limited food and drinking water to the Spaniards.
On this day, Li Lihua will go to Macau on behalf of the Chinese company to sign a specific commercial and trade agreement with the Macau Portuguese City Hall. The content that has been discussed with the city councilors who came to Taiwan to negotiate in the early stage will be clearly confirmed in the form of a written agreement.
Before Li Lihua boarded the ship, she asked Yin Feng who came to see them off: "What do you plan to do with these Spaniards?"
Only Yin Feng came to see him off. Others used various excuses to avoid it. Yin Feng did not think there would be any danger in Li Lihua's trip. He only asked Chen Zhongji to escort Li Lihua to Macau; at the same time, Lin Xiao also sent several men. After preparing to reopen the Macao Commercial Office of China United Company, these people will be assigned as supervisors; from now on, Macao will be the company's most important intelligence work base, because only in Macao can it be easy to obtain information about the Spanish people in Luzon.
Yin Feng always felt a little guilty when facing this beautiful woman who bore the title of "Madam". Of course, when Yin Feng came home and saw his wife, he also felt guilty.
He moved his eyes away from Li Lihua's beautiful face and looked at the Spanish ships on the dock in the distance. He smiled coldly: "There is no way. We can only waste our time. There is absolutely no way they can agree to our request. We also feel that we cannot agree to it. There is no need to talk to them about their conditions. Our purpose of trapping them is just to kill their morale and confuse them with illusions to make them relax their vigilance."
He turned around and stuttered a little: "When you go to Macau this time, you, you, you have to be careful. Now is an extraordinary period. It can only be that..."
Li Lihua smiled and gave him a Western courtesy. She said nothing and got on the boat with a smile.
Yin Feng sighed and watched as the merchant ship Li Lihua boarded left the dock. This season, the southeast monsoon will soon prevail on the East Asian sea. Li Lihua estimates that it will take half a year to return to Taiwan. At least within this six months, Yin Feng will not have to face it awkwardly. Li Lihua.
The senior officers, sailors, and soldiers on the Maria were on the verge of mental and physical collapse. Although the Chinese company provided food and water, the amount provided each time was only enough to feed half of the people on the Maria. After even distribution, most of the sailors and soldiers were hungry all day long. The most unbearable thing was that the land was close at hand, but they could not set foot on the beach. More than a hundred people were trapped on the ship in a small space. Everyone's emotions are a little out of control. And there are already signs of the disease spreading.
Don Fernando could no longer maintain his usual aristocratic demeanor. His collar was torn open and he was holding a fan on the bow of the boat. While fanning himself vigorously, he was observing the coastline with a telescope. Father Catalina still wore a black robe. Wrapping himself up and sweating profusely, he walked over from the bottom cabin.
"Captain Andrei is very ill. We'd better make demands to the physiologists...the Chinese," the priest said anxiously.
"What's the request?" Fernando was a little impatient now.
"Demand to be treated. We need medicine and doctors: a quarter of the people on the ship are sick."
Fernando let out a long breath and punched the boat: "Oh God, wouldn't this just allow these Chinese people to succeed in their conspiracy? Don't they just want us to beg them?"
"I think the only important thing we have to do now is to get out of here." The priest maintained a calm attitude: "No matter what we promised, we can not admit it when we return to Manila; because of a promise of this nature It was not a result of fair negotiations. It was a false promise that was forced to be made."
At this moment, Yin Feng is inspecting the first movable type printing house owned by China United Company.
This movable type printing house is the product of Yin Feng's personal name and the joint venture with the Zhangjia Printing Book House in Nanjing. However, the production technology of this movable type printing house was developed by the Portuguese technical school under the personal leadership of Yin Feng. It was jointly researched by teachers and Chinese students.
Early movable type printing used clay movable type. Clay movable type inspired wooden movable type, which in turn inspired tin, lead, copper and other metal movable type. During the Hongzhi and Zhengde years of the Ming Dynasty, in the economically prosperous Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, copper movable type gradually appeared and It became popular. The most famous ones include the Hua family in Wuxi, the Anjia family in Suzhou, and the Zhang family in Nanjing. The books they printed and sold with copper movable type were widely circulated. The Ming Dynasty's Ye Dehui wrote in the book "Shu Lin Qing Hua" It was pointed out in the book: "In the Ming Dynasty, the movable type books, which originated from the Xishan'an country, were the most widely circulated." However, the copper movable type has not been promoted and popularized. The main reason is probably that copper is the main raw material for government coins. Its production, transportation and The use was controlled by the government, so the copper movable type had to die young. There are very few books printed with the copper type. Most of them are sealed in the palace and the government, and are basically invisible to the world.
Of course, copper movable type printing itself also has big problems. People in the Yuan and Ming dynasties also developed tin movable type and lead movable type. They tried it for a while, but the results were probably not satisfactory. Or there were still technical difficulties that could not be overcome for a while. Therefore, it has not been handed down and was abandoned midway. Yin Feng remembers that it is recorded in books related to the history of technology that after the Ming Dynasty tried printing with lead movable type, they felt that the quality of lead type printing was not as good as handwriting; the melting point of tin movable type was low. The hardness is not enough. It will be easily damaged if printed too much. In addition, when printing with metal movable type, you need high-quality ink. And most of the printed matter in ancient China used ink, which cannot be firmly attached to the metal material, resulting in poor printing and blurred writing. and unclear.
Therefore, although metal movable type printing had already appeared in China, it gradually declined during the Ming Dynasty. It was finally caught up by Gutenberg's movable type printing in Germany.
Clay type and metal type had to give way to wood type because of their own shortcomings and weaknesses. Since our country mainly used smoked ink and no ink, this was one of the reasons why woodcut printing was still used until the Qing Dynasty. Of course. Wooden movable type also has its weaknesses: If you use wooden movable type to print a book, about 200 copies will be printed. The characters of the typeface will swell and blur due to absorbing the moisture in the ink. However, the weakness of wooden movable type is greater than that of clay movable type and metal movable type. Much less. It needs to be pointed out that even wooden movable type, whether in the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty after the Ming Dynasty, its status and weight have never exceeded that of woodblock printing. Block printing finally withdrew from the Chinese printing industry. It had to wait until the Qing Dynasty. The eve of destruction.
Yin Feng was determined not to let China's printing technology fall behind. Therefore, he encouraged his technical school students to come up with ink and officially overcome the first difficulty of movable type printing. Gutenberg boiled linseed oil and cooled it until it became movable.
Dark black. Mix turpentine obtained by distilling a small amount of pine resin with carbon black and leave it for several months to become ink. Since the pattern drawings of the Gutenberg printing press were obtained from the Portuguese in Macau, Yin Feng.
His subordinates spent a lot of time on the process of developing ink. Fortunately, there was no shortage of raw materials such as flax and pine trees on the island of Taiwan. Therefore, it took half a year to finally come up with the ink. The rest was done by the Zhang family in Nanjing quickly.
With the experience of my own workshop, I have figured out the entire process of ink plus metal movable type printing technology.
"In addition to the printing company "Business Daily", we have now begun to print books." Workshop leader Jingyue enthusiastically introduced the situation of the printing workshop to Yin Feng: "We have printed the entire version of "The Peony Pavilion". We also printed Yin Da
My employer's "Journey to the East and West" has been reprinted."
Yin Feng nodded and thought: Although it is more than a hundred years later than Gutenberg, and although it is based on Gutenberg's printing press prototype, this is after all a metal movable type printing technology developed by the Chinese themselves. It can be regarded as a kind of printing technology.
"Fill in the gaps".
"Yin Dadong's family is very thoughtful and ingenious. The structure of this printing press is really convenient. Although our Zhang family has been printing movable type for hundreds of years, we have always used the engraving printing method. I just didn't expect to use this kind of printing press.
How to print it."
Yin Feng blushed a little for this kind of praise from the Zhang family. He deserved it: Gutenberg used the principle of the vertical press used to press grapes or wet paper in Europe and transformed it into the world's first metal press.
As for the movable type printing press, Yin Feng just copied his design principles and then independently manufactured it by those technical school students. He did not dare to put the title of inventing the printing press on his own head. He quickly said: "Where is it? I
It's just a matter of borrowing the principles of Western printing presses. It was the young students who made it."
Zhang Jingyue didn't notice Yin Feng's embarrassment at all. He still said enthusiastically: "The big boss is really humble. Don't worry. Your students can already operate independently in each process. Our Zhang family's apprentices have also started to use the machine.
Operation. According to our agreement, the Zhang family will be able to use this printing technology in Nanjing after two years. We will definitely abide by this promise."
…
After coming out of the printing workshop, Yin Feng went straight to Pier C of the port. He asked a temporary commander of the military academy on duty: "What's going on with the Greeks?"
The little sentry captain was only about 15 years old. He was the son of a Zhangzhou fisherman who was rescued from Luzon Island by Yin Feng. He excitedly saluted Yin Feng: his left hand was placed across his chest, and his whole body was straight: "Report to the captain.
From morning to now, the Ganlu sailors have been sent twice. Each time about 20 people wanted to get off the boat to get water, but we drove them back. Three of us were injured in the conflict, and five of the Ganlu sailors were injured."
"Very good. Our people did not suffer. You did a good job. Now, go and notify the relevant Latin people and ask their leaders to come down for negotiations. You only need to take two people off the ship." Yin Feng decided to end the Spanish problem.
From the beginning of the year to now, the Chinese Company has fully begun to prepare for war. It has no time to waste time on the Spaniards. The Spaniards on the Maria have been tormenting for so long, and the Spaniards have also been able to see the company's determination.
No need to add extraneous details.
Fernando and Father Catalina saw a group of people suddenly appear at the pier. A group of men in black with matchlock guns lined up neatly, surrounded by a tall Chinese man.
"The Musketeers." The priest muttered to himself as if dreaming. During the Manila incident, Yin Feng's Sailor Musketeers had always been the most dangerous enemy of the Spanish. However, the Spaniards had never figured out the details of this small force.
Fernando said with surprise and joy: "This should be the mysterious physiological musketeers team. Father, I think their big shot is about to appear."
"Big shot." The priest didn't react for a moment.
"Father, you have forgotten. According to Portuguese legend, there was a Chinese businessman who led the Physiological Man to guard Beishan Pass. He used his ship to rescue a large number of Physiological Man rebels. The main founder of this Chinese company was the one who escaped. The physiological rebels in Luzon Island. I think the person below should be the Chinese businessman." Fernando became excited: "I think we can negotiate directly with their top leader. We have a chance to leave this ghost. It’s a place.”
Negotiations started again in the Chinese-style courtyard of the company's port management office. Yin Feng looked at the two Spanish envoys sitting at the bottom and spoke first: "Father Catalina, you were involved in the Manila Massacre in 1603 AD. In the Dominican monastery of Manila. You did not participate in the war. Your hands were not stained with the blood of the Chinese; Don Fernando, governor of Pampanga Province in the Philippine colony. Your indigenous troops participated in the battle and massacre under the city of Manila. You killed a large number of Chinese people; you also participated in the pursuit of the Chinese fleeing team... In a word, your hands are stained with Chinese blood."
The opening of this negotiation immediately discouraged the two Spanish envoys. Fernando was very puzzled and frightened; why did this Chinese know so much about the internal situation of the Spanish? Could it be that he learned about it through the Portuguese? Fernando shook his head with difficulty. He shook his head and said, "Mr. Yin, do you have any specific views on the peace negotiations between us?"
Yin Feng sneered and said: "My meaning is very clear. You are the executioner who massacred us. You have no right to negotiate business trade with us. We also refuse to negotiate with you. If the Spanish authorities in Luzon are sincere in doing business with our company, please contact us. A guy with clean hands came to negotiate with us."