In Liu Jin's mansion in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Jin was reading the telegram sent back from Hong Kong.
The telegram was sent by Hong Kong Governor Tang Bohu. The main thing he said was that he had found out that the bishop of a church was secretly translating various Christian classics into Chinese and illegally printing them.
The Ming Dynasty has always been vigilant about foreign religions. It not only strictly prohibits foreign missionaries from preaching in the Ming Dynasty, but if they are found out, it will be the death penalty. Even if you stand on the land of the Ming Dynasty, it will be the death penalty.
Regardless of whether you have ever preached to others.
Secondly, people in the Ming Dynasty are strictly prohibited from believing in and learning these foreign religions. Once discovered, they will be severely punished.
Finally, it was also forbidden for anyone to translate and spread these foreign religion-related contents and books, and it was even more forbidden for anyone to print or spread these things in the land of the Ming Dynasty.
At this point, I always persisted and performed very well.
Even in places like Black Earth Province, Nanyun Province, and Hong Kong, the same has been done. Even if there are foreign religions in these places, they are only believed in by the local aborigines.
And because of the power of the Ming Empire and the advancement of the Ming Dynasty in all aspects, people in these places are slowly converting to Buddhism and Taoism that the Ming people believe in, causing the original local religions to gradually decline.
At the same time, the Ming Dynasty also banned pilgrimages and deprived the church of its taxation rights, tax exemption rights, land and property, etc. Through these means, it was isolated and weakened, so as to eliminate the influence of foreign religions and maintain the purity of the Ming Dynasty culture.
Because Liu Jin is a time traveler and has traveled from later generations, even religion has a great influence on people. Many wars and conflicts in later generations are actually the civilization of faith in the final analysis.
Liu Jin didn't want the Ming Dynasty to fall apart because of this incident, and he had many internal conflicts.
If the Ming Empire wants to maintain such a huge territory and control the world, it must always maintain a unified situation. Only under a unified situation can it have absolute external strength and will not give any country a chance to rise.
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The matter discovered in Hong Kong was more serious than the death of two Ming Dynasty couples, so Tang Bohu had to report it to the Ming Dynasty court.
"This Tang Bohu, I originally wanted to promote him and transfer him back to the Ming Dynasty."
"You can't do this kind of thing well, but there are still people who dare to translate and print these things privately. I guess they must have developed some followers privately."
"Tang Bohu must investigate this matter thoroughly, and those Ming people who believe in foreign religions must be severely punished."
Liu Jin thought quickly in his heart.
As for Tang Bohu, he must have some talent, and he is a well-known talent, but his level of officialdom is relatively average. In a place like Hong Kong, where it is easy to achieve results, he actually does a relatively average job.
Sure enough, it is in line with the old saying that true talents are not suitable to be officials. This is the case for people like Li Bai and Tang Bohu. Those who are talented are suitable to display poetry and songs. Being an official is not as simple as writing articles.
"Charlie V wants to purchase grain on a large scale. It seems that it is for Spain and the Holy Roman Empire."
"Both of these two empires are large empires in Europe. They have large populations and strong strength. Now that they are facing a great famine, the amount of food they need is not a small amount."
"Should we export food to them?"
The telegram sent by Tang Bohu also requested instructions from the imperial court, conveying the request of Charles V, Emperor of the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire.
"Food should be exported to them, and should be exported to them on a large scale, and even if it is shipped to their local area, the price should be cheaper and of better quality than their locally produced food."
"There have been famines in the past two years, so the food production in Europe is very low. But if the weather is good in the future, the demand for food in Europe will not be too great."
"Only by completely defeating Europeans' enthusiasm for growing grain can we completely control the entire Europe with grain."
Soon, Liu Jin thought about how some large international grain merchants in later generations used grain to destroy the economies of various countries, and even used grain to plunder the wealth of various countries.
Food is the most basic strategic material for a country, because people can live without gold and silver, but they cannot live without food. Once a country runs out of food and a large-scale famine occurs, it will inevitably be in turmoil.
Therefore, this has been true since ancient times, both at home and abroad. Every dynasty and country attaches great importance to food, and food production is related to all aspects of things.
The Ming Dynasty itself has huge arable land and numerous grain producing areas. The annual grain output is very large. The grain produced in one year is enough to feed the entire Ming Dynasty for several years.
Because the output of grain is so great, the price of grain in the Ming Dynasty has always been very low, and in the three major grain-producing provinces of Liaodong, Hezhong, and Black Earth Province, there is a large amount of grain that no one buys.
As a result, grains have to be used to make wine and feed livestock. At the same time, the cultivated area is reduced, and methods such as rotational farming are used to reduce production and increase grain consumption.
If this is exported on a large scale, it can increase grain consumption, increase income for Ming farmers, and enhance their enthusiasm for growing grain.
Of course, before exporting food, the first thing to consider is your own food security.
Because we are in the Little Ice Age, the extremely abnormal climate is erratic, and no one knows what the situation will be like next year. Liu Jindu led the Ming Dynasty to build a large number of granaries to reserve grain in order to avoid having no food in case of famine.
The problem of enough food.
There is no doubt that the food security of the Ming Dynasty is guaranteed. There are many grain-producing areas in the Ming Dynasty, and now they have basically implemented the large-scale mechanized farming model. The total amount of cultivated land is large, the efficiency is high, and the output is large.
The Ming Dynasty was able to export a large amount of grain.
"The current total population of Europe is about 80 million. Even if all of them need to be purchased from our Ming Dynasty, our Ming Dynasty's grain output can easily cope with it."
"Our Ming Dynasty is fully capable of controlling the entire Europe by relying on food."
Thinking of this, Liu Jin's eyes lit up.
What is the scariest thing about the capital era?
That must be the power of capital.
The Ming Empire had a huge industry that required huge markets and sources of raw materials.
Different from the industrial revolution in Europe in history, the industrial revolution in Europe only happened in nooks and crannies like the British Isles, and the energy it unleashed was actually very limited.
If the industrial revolution broke out in the Ming Empire, its scale and speed would far exceed those of the industrial revolution in history, and the demand for raw materials and market would be even more different.
The Ming Dynasty has needed a global market and raw material market from the beginning, because only the global market can satisfy the huge appetite of the Ming Empire.
Through overseas colonization and the establishment of vassal states, as well as the development of vassal states, the Ming Empire has incorporated most of the world's regions into its own territory, which is equivalent to incorporating it into its own economic system.
These vast areas became the markets and raw material markets of the Ming Dynasty.
Europe has a large population and a huge market. This is also the market and source of raw materials that the Ming Empire has always needed.
However, the traditional feudal economy in Europe has hindered the development of Ming Capital in Europe, so the first thing to do is to destroy the feudal small-scale peasant economy in Europe.
At this point, the most outstanding performance is cloth.
The cloth of the Ming Dynasty was not only of good quality, but also the price was very low, which had a great impact on the local cloth production in Europe. For example, the Ottoman Empire had a fight with the Ming Empire over this matter, but they failed to win. In the end, not only
Not only did they cede territory and pay compensation, but they also had to completely open their market to the Ming Empire.
As a result, the Ottoman Empire's cloth handicraftsmen suffered heavy losses and almost went bankrupt. On the contrary, the Ottoman Empire's cotton and wool production increased year by year, and all were exported to the Ming Dynasty.
"Using low-priced grain to impact European grain production will make European nobles feel that growing grain has no economic benefits, so they will switch to cotton or sheep raising. Then the entire European grain will be controlled by our Ming Dynasty."
"And the whole of Europe will also be included in the Ming Dynasty's economic system and become the dumping ground for Ming Dynasty goods and the origin of raw materials."
“What a perfect plan!”
Even Liu Jin himself had to admire this bold idea and plan.
Once this plan can be completed, Europe will be inseparable from the Ming Dynasty. Once it leaves the Ming Dynasty, people in Europe may not be able to survive, because the food is firmly controlled by the Ming Dynasty.
Thinking of this, Liu Jin also took out a pen and paper and began to write a memorial, explaining in detail to Emperor Hongzhi the interests at this time, as well as its role and impact on the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty needs European markets and raw materials, and it also needs to be wary of the rise of Europe. The most suitable people to rule Europe are actually the Spaniards, because the Spanish encourage imports and at the same time protect the interests of the nobles in enclosures and raising sheep. This is natural for the Ming Dynasty.
the best.
Soon, a memorial was written, and Liu Jin was ready to take the memorial to the palace to report to Emperor Hongzhi in detail and explain the matter.
Just as he was about to go out, someone came hurriedly and said: "Sir, there is an urgent call from Europe!"
"European urgent call?"
When Liu Jin heard this, he immediately became confused. Didn't he just send a telegram back? What happened again?
I quickly opened the telegram and read it quickly.
“The Black Death has appeared again in Europe, and it’s still happening in many places at the same time!”