As soon as the man heard someone walking up to him and calling himself "I" to ask him a question, he immediately became curious and raised his head to look over.
This is because the officials he usually interacts with, whether intentionally or not, are full of official accents, and they always refer to themselves as "my official, my official", unlike this person who usually calls himself "I" like ordinary people.
When he raised his head and saw the person in front of him, he found that he was a young man with no official authority on his face. He looked like a scholar he met on the roadside. The nervousness in his heart suddenly improved a lot.
He is also a man who has experienced great storms, but what he did was not tolerated by the court.
He usually felt uncomfortable meeting small officials and minor officials, but now he suddenly met high-ranking officials of the imperial court, and even the emperor. In front of the person who could decide his life or death with just one sentence, he lost his usual majesty and his air of being able to speak like someone who could bring the dead back to life.
of clever tongue.
Now that he saw the high-ranking official of the imperial court in front of him, he was somewhat relieved from his abnormal nervousness, and he quickly replied: "Sir, if you have something to say, the common people will tell you everything they know."
Seeing that his nervousness had eased somewhat, Zhong Jinwei continued to ask: "What is your last name and where is your surname?"
When the man heard that he was asking these most common questions, he answered without hesitation: "My name is Li Wei, a commoner, and he is from Yantai, Shandong."
Having said this, he turned to look at Xu Guangqi, and suddenly fell to his knees again, with his head bent and said: "The common people are guilty, please sir, please ask the emperor to punish you."
It turned out that after Li Wei introduced himself, he found that he could not avoid the things he had committed no matter what. In addition, Xu Guangqi had told him before that as long as he behaved well, he would be guaranteed to be pardoned for all his past sins.
He was also a person who came through strong winds and waves. He saw that he couldn't avoid it, and the person who heard the news was not an unreasonable person, so he simply attacked first. This feeling of fear was really unbearable.
As soon as Zhong Jinwei saw his posture, he turned to look at Emperor Chongzhen.
Emperor Chongzhen nodded to him and indicated that he would handle it.
So Zhong Jinwei said to Li Wei who was kneeling on the ground: "Li Wei, you get up first. As long as you answer truthfully and help the court, not only will the emperor pardon your crimes, but it is not impossible to even give you an official position."
When Li Wei heard this, he felt happy. It seemed that he had made the right bet. He felt relieved and quickly thanked him and stood up.
"Tell me all your experiences without any concealment or exaggeration. Do you understand? Today may be a good day for you to prosper, but it may also be the day of your death. Everything depends on whether your answer is true.
.”
When Li Wei heard Zhong Jinwei say the word "death", he suddenly felt a pressure from him, his heart trembled, and he replied repeatedly: "The common people dare not, the common people must answer truthfully."
He can be considered a person who has experienced bloody storms, so he is very sensitive to Zhong Jinwei's aura that he has cultivated from the battlefield and from his long-term leadership experience.
"Say." Zhong Jinwei said in a calm tone again.
"The ancestors of the grassroots people were originally military households. Because they could not survive, they simply went to sea to make a living. At that time, there were many people who went to sea, and they traveled north together, and finally found a way to reach North America."
When Li Wei was introducing his experience, because he had heard from Xu Guangqi that it was North America, he wrote down the term and used it at this time.
"In this generation, the grassroots people did not want to live under the rule of Westerners, so they returned to the Ming Dynasty on a ship. However, life was not easy, so they started doing business on the sea. Please, your lord, the emperor will convict you." After the confession, Li
Wei felt as if a stone had fallen to the ground in his heart, and he knelt down to apologize again.
Zhong Jinwei had no time to pay attention to this, he was just a pirate, the biggest pirate leader Zheng Zhilong was already an official at this time.
He stopped Li Wei and said, "Don't keep kneeling back and forth. Let me ask you, what do you mean by living under the rule of Westerners?"
When Li Wei saw that Zhong Jinwei was preventing him from kneeling down, he stopped insisting, but still replied respectfully: "There is a place in North America that requires a long sea voyage. The Westerners killed all the local indigenous people and established a
The city is where people like us who came from the Ming Dynasty are trying to make a living. But because we, the Ming people, are good at craftsmanship, we have taken away the work of the Western craftsmen, and we are not of the same race as the Westerners. So they went to sue the officials, making our lives as people in the Ming Dynasty extremely difficult.
"
Zhong Jinwei didn't quite believe what he heard, but it seemed that Li Wei was not cheating, so he turned to Emperor Chongzhen and said, "Your Majesty, can you bring out a map?"
Emperor Chongzhen knew that Zhong Jinwei wanted to combine the map so that he could ask more detailed questions, so he nodded and asked Wang Chengen to take a copy of the map from the imperial table, hang it on the screen and push it in front of Zhong Jinwei.
Levi was a man who made a living at sea. Once he saw the map of the world, he couldn't take his eyes off it. He kept staring at the map, looking for the familiar places in his mind.
"Li Wei, where is the place where Westerners ruled you?" Zhong Jinwei asked, pointing to the map.
When Li Wei heard this, he hesitated for a moment, then took a step forward and pointed to a place and said: "This place is called Mexico City."
Zhong Jinwei took a look and realized that it should indeed belong to Mexico, but it was not clear whether it was Mexico City or not.
"Please tell me more about the situation in Mexico City," Zhong Jinwei ordered.
Of course, Li Wei didn't dare to stop talking, so he went through all the relevant situations in Mexico City.
It turns out that in the 16th century, after the Spanish invaders defeated the Indian civilization in Central America, the Aztec Empire, they razed the empire's capital Tenochtitlan and rebuilt it on the ruins.
Mexico City.
Around the thirteenth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, people from the Ming Dynasty wandered around and were left behind because of their various craftsmanship.
But because they were not of my race, they were discriminated against by the Spaniards and treated as inferior, as if they had returned to the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties.
Because of no choice, all the people in the Ming Dynasty believed in Christianity, and the situation improved.
But later, due to the exquisite craftsmanship and low prices of various craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty, including barbers, tailors, silversmiths, carpenters, etc., it was difficult for Western craftsmen to compete with them, and the defendants went to the city hall. The Spanish officials naturally favored them.
People of the same clan made life difficult for the people of Ming Dynasty.
Because of this, Li Wei traveled thousands of miles back to the Ming Dynasty, working as a pirate and a smuggler, and becoming familiar with the route to and from North America.
If Zhong Jinwei had read the "History of Latin America" published by the Commercial Press in later generations, he would not have had to ask Li Wei to explain so much.
Then Zhong Jinwei asked about the situation of some routes, and Li Wei pointed out to Zhong Jinwei one by one on the map and described some situations along the way.
His descriptions are basically consistent with the memories brought by Zhong Jinwei from later generations. From this, we can be sure that what Li Wei can say in such detail is definitely not just hearsay, but must have been experienced personally.
So, Zhong Jinwei turned to look at Emperor Chongzhen, nodded and said: "Your Majesty, what this person said cannot be false."
But unexpectedly, Emperor Chongzhen still frowned and seemed confused after hearing the affirmative answer. This made Zhong Jinwei a little puzzled and asked: "Your Majesty, don't you believe it yet?"