Because Fang Yizhi knew that his father had always hoped that he would be able to take the imperial examination and follow the path they had taken. But now that he had privately embarked on the path of a researcher and devoted himself to the research and development of steam engines, it was tantamount to giving up on the imperial examination.
In the past, he had been worried that his father would disapprove, which eventually forced him to interrupt this interest.
But not anymore. As long as he works hard and successfully develops a practical steam engine, he will be the first person in his family's history to receive a title. This is basically difficult for people who came from the imperial examination to obtain.
Yi Zhi believes that his father will no longer oppose the path he has chosen.
He also secretly made up his mind to work hard and strive to develop a practical steam engine as soon as possible so as to defend himself and become the first in the family.
As for whether Zhong Jinwei's words were lies, Fang Yizhi never thought about it. Because he had been in the capital for so many days, he already knew all about Zhong Jinwei's deeds in the capital. He also knew the importance of Zhongxing Hou in front of the emperor, not to mention Song Yingxing.
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After Zhong Jinwei came out of the Power Research Institute, he went directly to the palace.
He wanted to talk to Emperor Chongzhen about the steam engine, and also reported the promise he had just made to Emperor Chongzhen, so that he could get Emperor Chongzhen's endorsement and promulgate it directly, which would be more effective.
In addition, Zhong Jinwei also planned to ask Emperor Chongzhen to deploy more skilled craftsmen to work together and try to solve the problems that caused the practical use of steam engines as soon as possible.
While Zhong Jinwei continued to inspect various research institutes and tried hard to increase the wealth of the Ming Dynasty, there were people in Batavia, Java Island in Southeast Asia, who were thinking about the wealth of the Ming Dynasty.
The headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in Asia is in Batavia. The current owner of its Governor's Palace is the third Governor-General Yan-Peterssen Kun, who is considering matters related to the Ming Dynasty at this time.
Kun can be said to be a very influential person in the Dutch East India Company. He proposed three very important policies for the East India Company.
First, the Dutch had to control Indonesia's sea lanes and have a firm base in the area from which to operate;
Secondly, the source of profit must be mainly Asian trade, which should expand to a vast area, reaching the Persian Gulf, India and Ceylon in the west, the Spice Islands in the east, and the Ming Dynasty and Japan in the north;
Finally, only a few ships each year can sail long distances to Europe with carefully selected goods to reduce transportation costs.
These three policies of his established a general model for the rise of the Dutch commercial empire and greatly expanded the Netherlands' sphere of influence in the East.
Kun had just received news at this time that China had sent a mission to Europe. If people from other European countries heard the news, they might be happy. But he was the opposite, which can be seen from his frowning brows.
come out.
There is no other reason. The Dutch have always pursued profit maximization. And one of the most commonly used means to maximize profits is monopoly.
In order to achieve this, the Dutch would do anything, including sacrificing their own companions.
An example is that Peter Nuits, the third governor of the Dutch East India Company in Taiwan, fell out with the Japanese during the Hamada Yabei Incident, which led to the interruption of trade with Japan.
In order to re-open trade with Japan, Kun sent Hans Putmans to take over as the governor of Taiwan in 1629, withdrew him, and then sentenced him to two years in prison, in order to please the Japanese and reopen trade.
In the original history, Kun also extradited Nuiz to Japan in 1632 and asked the Japanese to imprison him. Although Nuiz himself was ransomed by the Dutch after being imprisoned for several years, his son was
He died of illness in a Japanese prison.
It can be seen from this that the Dutch have reached the point of obsession in pursuit of maximizing profits.
In the past, in order to monopolize the trade with the Ming Dynasty, Kun did not hesitate to threaten the Ming Dynasty with force and asked the Ming Dynasty not to trade with Portugal, Spain and other countries, but only to trade with the Dutch. Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty did not agree, and there was no fight at that time.
The Ming Dynasty finally had no choice but to occupy Taiwan.
But the letter from Putmans not long ago made Kun reconsider this idea, because the letter said that at the beginning of the year, the capital of the Ming Dynasty was almost captured by the nomads from the north.
Putmans believed that the Ming Dynasty was now even weaker. With the Dutch's advanced cannon weapons and fast battleships with excellent performance, it should be easy to win.
But Kun was still more cautious. After all, the Ming Dynasty was a huge empire. He thought twice and thought about waiting until the Ming Dynasty was weaker before using force to threaten the Ming Dynasty in order to gain a monopoly on trade with the Ming Dynasty.
But now the Ming Dynasty actually sent an envoy to Europe, which will obviously further strengthen the relationship with European countries. If the Ming Dynasty envoys reach any agreement with the kings of various European countries, it will be even more difficult for them to achieve the goal of monopoly.
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It's not that Kun didn't think about killing the Ming Dynasty envoys, but the Ming Dynasty envoys were involved with the church. If he wanted to kill the Ming Dynasty envoys, he would obviously have to kill the church's ships as well, so Kun couldn't do it yet.
Dare to do such a thing.
Therefore, after much deliberation, Kun could only reach an agreement with the Ming Dynasty before the Ming Dynasty envoy returned from Europe. The agreement brought by the Ming Dynasty envoy from Europe would be invalid.
In this way, the battle against the Ming Dynasty was inevitable, and the Dutch fleet was also required to win in a short time.
But the Ming Empire is too huge, and with fewer troops sent there, it will be more difficult to win quickly.
But now the East India Company has a total of forty warships in Southeast Asia, and they are also responsible for the task of protecting Indonesian sea lanes. It is impossible to send them all.
However, Putmans mentioned in his letter that the solution to this problem was to use the pirates of the Ming Dynasty to assist the Netherlands in achieving their goals. Kun thought about it and felt that this was a good idea.
Kun thought about it for a whole day, and finally decided to bite the bullet and send out thirty-bow warships. This trip would not only threaten the Ming Dynasty to reach a monopoly agreement, but also coerce Japan.
He found that it was too soft to deal with the Japanese. They had been soft to Japan for so long, but they still had not reopened trade. They had to be tough and fight them.
Just in case, Kun authorized Putmans to use all means to achieve the purpose of sending troops.
Under the flapping of Zhong Jinwei's butterfly wings, the Netherlands was originally scheduled to send troops to the Ming Dynasty in 1633, but it was brought forward. Moreover, in the original history, the Netherlands sent a total of thirteen warships, and now it has more than doubled.
Thirty warships were dispatched at once.
A maritime crisis began to envelope the southeastern coast of Ming Dynasty, and no one in Ming Dynasty knew about this crisis yet.