1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 1014 The Spaniards' Knowledge of Hanzhou

On January 1685, 1, Songcheng (now Catherine, Australia).

As the train slowly stopped at the platform, impatient passengers rushed out of the carriage, dragging large and small bags, pushing, crowding, and complaining, as if staying in the dirty and crowded carriage for a moment Will be driven insane.

There were no fences on the platform of the railway station in this period, and vendors living nearby could enter the platform freely to sell food and other small commodities.Holding hanging boxes or baskets in their hands, they kept yelling and selling on both sides of the train. The hanging boxes and baskets contained a variety of goods, including roast chicken, stewed pork jerky, melon seeds, peanuts, Fruit and even some local specialties.They stared eagerly at the passengers in the car windows, expecting a response from them to buy the goods in the hanging box.

Count Pablo Alvarez, vice chairman of the West Indian Affairs Council of the Kingdom of Spain and special envoy of condolences (apology), stopped at the side of the carriage under the protection of several accompanying military policemen from the Qi State, looking at the noisy and lively platform, with eyes in his eyes. full of curiosity.

The main building (waiting room) of the station not far away is a three-story masonry cement structure, with blue brick exterior walls and a large red roof, a typical oriental building.The single-column umbrella-shaped promenade on the platform of the station should have been installed in recent years, using a reinforced concrete structure.If it is raining, passengers get off the train and can enter the waiting hall without using an umbrella along the way.

Well, very user-friendly design.

It may be that they saw several armed military policemen standing outside this carriage, and those peddlers were very discerning and did not come over, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble.

"Is there any shredded tobacco?" A gendarmerie officer waved and called a peddler.

"Yes, yes..." The peddler immediately put the hanging box on the ground, took off the upper compartment, and exposed several porcelain pots, "Sir, I have local shredded tobacco here, as well as Xuanhua (now Timor) The shredded tobacco from the island) and the shredded tobacco from Luzon, which kind do you need?"

"Your goods are quite complete." The military police officer smiled, and took out a pouch of shredded tobacco from his pocket, "Give me shredded tobacco produced in Xuanhua for a dime."

"Okay, sir." The peddler quickly opened a blue clay pot, and slowly turned the tobacco pouch upside down, "Who are all the people sitting in this carriage? They are from Europe again. Missions?...Hey, since this month, we have seen several groups of missions coming to our 50th anniversary of the founding of the country. You said, there is still such a long time until June, these foreign missions must be so busy Came here in a hurry? During this period, people eat horse chews, and it costs a lot, right?...Hey, it doesn’t mean that our country of Qi has been supporting them?”

"Are you worried about these major national affairs?" The military police officer said angrily, "I'm afraid you don't know anything if you haven't been to sea! European missions come to our country, not like taking a train. Regardless of any weather and wind direction, you can drive on the rails anytime, anywhere, and it’s coming. People have to travel tens of thousands of miles across the vast Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean. According to the season, come to our country of Qi a few months in advance."

"Yes yes yes... sir, you are very knowledgeable!" The peddler filled most of the bag with shredded tobacco, and then handed it to the gendarmerie officer opposite, "sir, besides shredded tobacco, what else do you need? Since you are escorting a foreign mission , presumably the destination should be Chang'an. During the six or seven days on the road, why don't you prepare some fruit and snacks to pass the long journey? Oh, by the way, I still have a few newest vernacular novels here, do you want to take them with you in the car? pastime?"

"You talk, don't you want to empty the pockets of every passenger?" The gendarmerie officer fastened the tobacco pouch, put it in his pocket, turned around and was about to leave.

Songcheng is 10 kilometers away from Jianye. It is a prefectural city located in the inland area. It has a population of more than [-] and is the fourth largest city in the northern region.Therefore, this is also a large railway station, and the train stopped here for [-] minutes.

Songcheng Mansion is one of the most important pastoral areas in the northern region. There are hundreds of large and small pastures scattered in the territory, and the number of livestock on hand exceeds 40 (only), which is five times the total local population.The world's first iron bridge is located on the Song River passing through the city, and it carries the trains from south to north.

When the train moved slowly and passed the Iron Bridge over the Song River, Count Pablo Alvarez looked at the all-metal bridge through the window, feeling extremely jealous.

The Qi people are really extravagant, using such precious cast iron as a bridge construction material, just laying it on the river!
But after thinking about it, Earl Alvarez couldn't help but smile bitterly.Now that the Qi State has laid thousands of leagues of railway tracks in its vast land, and the row after row of "big iron bulls" running on it, it shows that the production of steel is extremely huge, and there is no shortage of this point to build bridges. Material.

To be honest, Count Alvarez traveled all the way on the sea, passed one port stronghold belonging to Qi State one after another, and saw one piece after another overseas territory of Qi State. Although he was a little surprised deep in his heart, he didn't feel too much. too shocked.Because, even though our Kingdom of Spain is weak and has suffered repeated defeats on the European battlefield, it still has countless territories and sea bases overseas, which can still support a huge colonial empire.

However, when he arrived in the mainland of Qi, he was deeply shocked by what he saw.

When passing Xiaomen Island (now Bathurst Island, northern Australia), a lighthouse with a height of more than [-] meters stands not far from the shore. In the evening, it emits dazzling light, reminding ships from all over the world. The ship is about to arrive at Hanzhou Continent.

In the early morning, before the boat sails into Jianye Bay, you can see a majestic monument standing high in the port. It is said that it was built to commemorate the [-]th anniversary of the Qi people's landing on Hanzhou.

As far as Jianye Port, countless ships are berthed at the docks that stretch for several kilometers. This kind of prosperous scene is not comparable to several important ports in mainland Spain. I am afraid that it is comparable to London in England and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Compared with trading ports such as Shanghai and Amsterdam, it is not too much.

It is said that at any time, there are ships sailing from this port to major ports all over the world, even to our distant Europe.Naturally, merchants and goods from all over the world gather here, countless wealth flows here, and the annual trade turnover reaches hundreds of millions of pesos.

Jianye Port has two horse-drawn tracks leading directly to the city, and several well-decorated carriages took Count Alvarez and his delegation to the State Guest House in the city.In the car, he experienced for the first time that a horse-drawn carriage can also maintain such a smooth speed while driving.

After entering Jianye City, what the Spaniards see is a unique and magnificent city.Clean and tidy urban environment, large-scale buildings of all kinds, bustling roads and streets, healthy and vigorous citizens, bustling markets, and residential houses decorated with lights.

Accompanying diplomats from the State of Qi smiled and explained that at this time, it was the New Year, and all the residents were actively preparing for the New Year and arranging New Year's decorations to enjoy the harvest of a year's hard work.

It can be seen that this festival must be the most important day for the people of Qi. The streets are full of shopping crowds, and people wear exquisite and beautiful oriental costumes in various shapes and colors.Men in Qi State generally have ruddy complexion, tall and well-proportioned stature, while women are graceful and dignified, possessing the unique gentleness and beauty of the East.From their complexions, it can be seen very intuitively that the daily diet of the Qi people must be rich and varied, and the nutrition is extremely sufficient.

The buildings in Jianye City are generally tall and solid, which makes people feel grand and magnificent when looking at them.According to the people of Qi, Jianye City is often attacked by terrible typhoons, and thin and fragile buildings are easily damaged in the storm, causing serious loss of personnel and materials.Therefore, most of the buildings in the city are built thicker and stronger to avoid secondary disasters.

In the past, I heard that many people from the Netherlands and England admired the scientificity of Qi's urban planning and the cleanliness of the city environment, but Count Alvarez did not take it seriously.In his view, the cleanliness of a city is nothing more than the amount of feces and garbage produced.London, which has the largest population size in Europe, Paris, the center of European political power, and Amsterdam, where many banks and commercial institutions gather, the overall appearance and environment of the city are not much better than Madrid.

But after he drove through most of the Jianye city in a carriage, the straight and straight roads, neat and clean environment, well-planned blocks, and several architectural wonders piercing the sky immediately broke his existing understanding of the city. cognition.

Undoubtedly, at the beginning of its establishment, the city had carried out scientific and reasonable planning and design in advance, far from being comparable to many cities in Europe that are messy and full of filth.Climbing up to the 160-meter-high thousand-story pagoda, you can look at the whole city. The scale-level buildings are like a nine-square grid urban pattern. Against the backdrop of surrounding forests, small rivers, lakes (reservoirs), and countless farmlands, it is particularly pleasing to the eye.

Of course, Jianye City is not without its shortcomings.Compared with Madrid, which is dry and cool, this city is located in the tropics, and the climate is humid and hot. In this winter season (it is winter in Europe at this time), the temperature is as high as 30 degrees, and you will sweat after walking a few steps Dripping, it makes people feel very uncomfortable.

Oh, by the way, although the city looks very neat and clean on the surface, the air does not seem to be very fresh. There is a strong smell of coal dust, and occasionally there will be an unspeakable stench.On the east and south sides of the city, there are countless straight and tall chimneys, from which puffs of thick smoke are constantly ejected, then float in mid-air, gather together, and cover half of the city.

The Qi State staff who received their mission all showed a somewhat helpless and painful expression when asked about the thick smoke and various strange smells floating over the city.

The people of Qi claimed that Jianye City was not only a busy trading port, but also a huge industrial city.There are nearly a thousand large and small factories and workshops, including steel plants, coal chemical plants, coke plants, cement plants, ceramic plants, machinery and equipment manufacturing plants, breweries, paper mills, glass plants and other industries with heavy pollution. The huge smoke and various harmful chemical gases produced by factories and mines have always plagued the whole city.

However, before the Spaniards showed their mocking expressions, the Qi people proudly declared that it was the possession of such a huge factory that made this city the richest and most economically active place in Qi.The city's annual production value is close to 8000 million silver dollars, more than the wealth of the two Portuguese kingdoms.

Although Count Alvarez was not very clear about the meaning of the concept of gross product, he was shocked when he heard the Qi people claim that the wealth produced in their city could equal two Portugals.

Even though the statements of the people of Qi are a bit exaggerated, they must have considerable self-confidence when they dare to compare the wealth created by a city with that of a European country.Even with a [-]% discount, Jianye City can only match up to Portugal, which is a very astonishing statistic.

The Spaniards learned from conversations with the people from Qi they received that in the Hanzhou continent, they still have dozens of cities with a population of more than 1 people, many of which are large cities of the size of Jianye City, so the industrial production of these cities Even though the capacity is much weaker than that of Jianye City, the aggregate economic scale is an unimaginably huge number.

Oh, God, it turns out that our kingdom of Spain is at war with an empire that is as powerful as a dozen kingdoms of Portugal put together!
I heard that the steel plant located in Jianye City has an annual steel output of 25 tons, which exceeds the combined steel output of all European countries.And this is just a steel factory in Qi State. In the east, south, and west of Hanzhou, there are six or seven other steel factories of similar scale. If the output is added together, it will be a terrifying situation. And desperate numbers.

It's no wonder that Qi dared to send a large number of ships across the ocean, across the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, to attack Spain and Mexico.They really have the strength and financial resources to launch two transoceanic expeditions at the same time.

"Count Alvarez, the Qi people not only have strong industrial production capacity, they also have good agriculture and animal husbandry." An accompanying Spanish official looked through the car window and saw countless excellent pastures and The neat and orderly farmland, with a look of envy on his face, "We in Spain cannot even achieve self-sufficiency in the most basic food, and have to rely on the Dutch and English to transport it from the Baltic Sea. Follow along Compared with the two countries, our Kingdom of Spain is inferior to them in all aspects. Now, I agree 100% with the Prime Minister’s insistence on negotiating peace with Qi and ending the war between the two sides.”

"Dear Raul, I suddenly had an idea." Count Alvarez looked at the scene passing quickly outside the window with a strange expression, "Is it possible for our Kingdom of Spain to establish a similar strategy with Qi? Alliance relationship?"

(End of this chapter)