Wen Tiren's worry was not unreasonable. Sure enough, some of them had heard that Westerners were powerful, especially when they heard that the Ming Dynasty's firearms, from small blunderbuss to Hongyi cannons, had to be purchased from Westerners. Their faces turned pale.
If after arriving in North America, he worked hard to open up the vassal state, but the Westerners turned out to be foreigners, would it be possible that all the hard work would ultimately benefit the Westerners, and he might even end up leaving his life in North America?
Animals like humans are not afraid of anything else, but they are afraid of scaring themselves. The more these feudal princes and clans thought about it, the more they became afraid, and the more they thought about it, the more they thought about it.
After seeing Marquis Zhongxing say this, other vassal princes and clans who didn't know how powerful Westerners were, saw that some of their relatives had become like that, and couldn't help but wonder, could those Westerners be very powerful?
Most of their faces showed hesitant expressions, and a few even asked their pale-faced relatives for news.
Seeing this, the civil servants in the palace also looked at Zhong Jinwei with dissatisfied expressions. What kind of thing is this? They were about to announce that this meeting was a satisfactory meeting and a victorious meeting and ended it. However, Zhongxing Hou was so frightened that the vassal state was defeated.
If there are many people in the royal family who are unwilling to go to North America, wouldn't it make things difficult for the court and force them to go?
Although the civil servants here really want to turn these parasites of the Ming Dynasty into help for the Ming Dynasty and help the Ming Dynasty go overseas to expand its territory. However, they do not want to be said to be forcing the feudal princes and clans to go overseas, because if they are forced, there will be
A noun is called exile.
However, the only exception was Emperor Chongzhen who was sitting on the imperial chair. He did not show any dissatisfaction because Zhong Jinwei had mentioned it to him in advance, but because he thought of this relatively late, he did not have time to tell other civil servants.
The scheduled meeting time has arrived.
I saw Zhong Jinwei asking the vassal princes and clan members in the palace with a relaxed look: "Are some of you afraid of the Westerners' powerful ships and cannons? Are you worried that after you finally get to North America, you will be picked by Westerners? Or even
And you put your life in their hands?"
Without the lord and clan to speak, no one would be stupid enough to say: "Yes, we are so scared."
After hearing Zhong Jinwei's words, some members of the vassal princes and clans who had not understood before understood the reason why their relatives were pale.
Although these lords and clans had never heard of them before, they could estimate the power of Westerners from their relatives, so their enthusiasm for doing something big just now also cooled down.
Liang Tingdong, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, stared at Zhong Jinwei dissatisfiedly for a few times, then went out and spoke loudly to repair the hole made by Zhong Jinwei: "What's wrong with the Westerners? We Ming Dynasty can't beat the French people in Macau to listen to us."
If so?"
The feudal prince's clan, who didn't know the situation, heard that it was like this, so the Westerners had nothing to fear.
Although those vassal kings and clans who knew the situation did not dare to argue verbally, they despised them in their hearts: The Westerners had come thousands of miles away, and they were already at the end of their strength when they reached the Ming Dynasty sea area. Of course, they could not defeat the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, if there were almost the same number of people and they were all natives
If we fight, see if we can defeat them!
In fact, what these feudal princes and clans were murmuring in their hearts was not unreasonable. At least in the hearts of Westerners, they also despised the Ming Dynasty's combat power.
They thought that Da Ming was a ball of dough in their hands, and they could knead it as much as they wanted, but now the dough was too big to knead.
For this reason, some Westerners reported to the country and asked to send troops for reinforcements, hoping to stir up the dough.
The Dutch among the Westerners were the first to do this. After receiving reinforcements, the Dutch in Taiwan invaded the Ming Dynasty in the near future in the hope of colonizing the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, these are all things for later.
After Liang Tingdong finished speaking, Zhong Jinwei immediately continued: "Master Liang is right, the Westerners are not as powerful as some people think. As long as you deal with them properly, with the current equipment and capabilities of the Westerners, it is not easy to defeat them.
How much effort is needed?"
Zhong Jinwei's words were really not meant to comfort the vassal king and clan, because he came from a later generation and had a vision that the ancients did not have, and he knew the power of firearms as well as their shortcomings.
As long as you deal with them properly, with your current level of firearms, you really don't need to mess with them.
At this time, Zhong Jinwei's identity came into play again. The feudal princes and clans all looked at Zhongxing Hou with their eyes, hoping that he would give more convincing reasons.
After hearing this, those civil servants could not help but put aside their dissatisfaction with Marquis Zhongxing and prepare to listen to what he had to say.
Zhong Jinwei did not disappoint them, and said in a relaxed tone: "The most advanced firearms in front of us should be flintlock guns, which may already be available in the Western countries."
"Marquis Zhongxing, what is a flintlock gun?" Xu Guangqi, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, asked quickly after hearing this. He was very curious about this.
Zhong Jinwei smiled after hearing this, then turned to look at Emperor Chongzhen.
Emperor Chongzhen said to the chamberlain on the side: "Pass Fan Jun."
Fan Jun, the eunuch of the Military War Bureau, immediately came out of the back hall, holding two muskets in his hands, and came to stand in front of Zhong Jinwei.
Zhong Jinwei pointed at the musket in Fan Jun's hand and said: "Everyone, this is the flintlock gun. Our Ming Dynasty has also successfully developed it. It is still being further improved. It won't be long before it can be used in the Ming army."
Everyone in the palace, not only the vassal and royal family, but even the civil servants were very curious about the firearm in Fan Jun's hand. They wondered what kind of flintlock gun it was. Could it be the most advanced firearm?
At Zhong Jinwei's signal, Fan Jun gave one of the flintlock guns in his hand to the clan members and one to the civil servants, letting them watch.
At the same time, Zhong Jinwei introduced on the side: "Actually, there is nothing mysterious about this flintlock gun. It's just that the ignition device has been changed. There is no need to use a match rope to ignite it."
Then Zhong Jinwei introduced to them the advantages of flintlock guns over matchlock guns, and then continued: "Even if all Westerners use these flintlock guns, it is not a big deal. Because these flintlock guns are also afraid of rain and tide.
, the rate of fire per minute has not increased much. More importantly, anything can be dealt with as long as it is dealt with properly."
Speaking of this, he gave an example and said: "In America, first of all, it is not easy for Westerners to reach the west coast of America, and it is not easy to meet you. It is impossible for Westerners to appear in large numbers. Secondly, even if we use cold weapons,
No, just say that those native Indians use cold weapons, as long as they are dealt with properly, they can still kill the Westerners and make them regret coming to America."
Zhong Jinwei is really not bragging, because there is indeed such a thing in history.
After the Indians had many contacts with the Westerners, and because some Westerners used the Indians to fight for them, gave them iron tools, and taught them how to make iron, the Indians massacred many Western settlements and even Westerners.