Daming: I help my wife be the empress

On the third-tier battleship Silver Lion, senior officials and officers of the Dutch East India Company, such as Oward, Marin, Gerd, Delong, and Connor, who originally lived in small cabins, were allowed to go to the deck in the evening to relax.

The sea breeze blows, making the heat of July a little less.

Several people looked at the huge and vague figure of the mainland in the west, and discussed again.

"Gerd, when will we be able to reach the capital of the Ming people? We have been sailing by boat for half a month in such hot weather, and I can hardly take it anymore." Owald asked with a grumble.

Among these people, apart from Delong, Owald is the oldest.But because of the comfortable life for many years, Owald is the one who can't endure hardship among the Dutch.

Gerd said: "Your Excellency Governor, I think you should ask Delong this question. He has been in the East for many years and knows much more about Ming than I do."

Delong knew that even if he was a prisoner, Owald would have a higher status than him when he returned to the Netherlands in the future, so he was happy to explain Owald's doubts.

Immediately said: "Your Excellency, Governor, it is said that the Chinese have three capitals, Beijing, Nanjing, and Zhongdu.

I heard that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty and their senior court officials are all in Nanjing, which is the closest capital to Formosa.

So we are lucky, if there are no accidents, we will be there in the next few days. "

"Three capitals?!" After hearing this, the others were all amazed that Daming had three capitals.

Connor said: "Damn Ming people like building capitals so much?"

Gerd said: "We have only one capital city in the Netherlands, and that is Amsterdam. England, Spain, and France also have only one capital city. Why did the Ming Dynasty have a capital city?"

De Long explained: "First, of course, it is because their country has a vast territory - in the past half a month, after we set sail from Formosa, we basically walked along the southern coastline of the mainland of Ming Dynasty, but so far, we have all Have not crossed their southern frontiers.

So you can imagine how big Ming is.Our Dutch proper, plus French proper, may not be half as large, and perhaps England and Spain should be added. "

Immediately, Owald and the others were stunned.

Before that, they also knew that Ming Dynasty was very big, but they didn't have a specific concept of this big country, and they subconsciously regarded Ming Dynasty as a country with relatively low organization and productivity in Southeast Asia.

Now, they know that Ming is a powerful country in terms of production, military, and technology, and this powerful country has such a vast territory, so its comprehensive strength is very scary.

"If I had known that we were facing such a giant, even if I didn't know the strength of the Ming army, I would not have agreed with the company to go to war with it." Owald's face turned pale, and he regretted even more in his heart.

Connor said bluntly: "If their artillery, muskets and other weapons are not better than ours, with the quality of their soldiers, they may not be able to defeat us!"

Gerd came back to his senses, but couldn't help but refute Connor, "Maybe their soldiers are not as good as ours in handling guns and sailing ships, but they have a large number and are not afraid of death, which is enough to defeat us."

Connor opened his mouth to speak, but found it irrefutable.

He commanded the soldiers to fight against the Ming army, and he knew that the soldiers of the Ming army were indeed brave and not afraid of sacrifice.

Then, Delong told a few people about other things he knew about Daming to pass the time...

In the morning of the next day, when Owald and others were fighting against the heat in the narrow cabin, they suddenly heard cheers from outside.

Delong, who understands Chinese, listened carefully and said happily, "We seem to have arrived!"

"It's here?" Gerd showed doubts, "Didn't you say yesterday that Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty is not by the sea, but on the south bank of a very long river?
So far, we have been sailing on the sea, and have not entered any river. How did we get to Nanjing? "

Delong was stunned for a moment, and then said awkwardly: "Maybe I heard wrong, or maybe I've arrived at an important port in the Ming Dynasty?"

Gerd said: "This fleet also replenished in the coastal cities before, but the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty did not cheer like this."

Delong didn't know how to explain it for a moment.

When the ship docked, they were not required to stay in the cabin like when the fleet docked for supplies, but were escorted off the ship.

Walking onto the deck and looking around, several people showed shock again.

I saw that this was a port, and there were countless sailing ships of all kinds around, covering a large area of ​​the sea like white clouds.

There are a large number of soldiers and a small number of officials near the pier, which seems to be nothing; but farther away, there are huge crowds of people, and you can't see the end at a glance.

Although they passed through port cities such as Wenzhou and Ningbo before, they had never seen the prosperity there because they stayed in the cabin.

While being shocked at this moment, I thought this must be a famous or very large port city in the Ming Dynasty.

"Excuse me, where is this place?" Delong couldn't help asking the Ming soldiers who were escorting him in Chinese.

The Chinese that Delong learned was actually Hokkien. Fortunately, the escorts were also Fujian soldiers. He heard the words: "Songjiang Prefecture Shanghai County Wusongkou Wharf."

Delon was confused.

Because his understanding of the Ming country is actually limited. As far as he knows, some counties in the Ming country are remote and impoverished like rural areas, but some counties are very prosperous, and they are prefectural cities or even provincial capitals.

He couldn't figure out the difference at all.

So he said: "This place is so prosperous, it must be the largest city in your Ming Dynasty, right?"

The Fujian soldier next to him smiled, "What kind of big city is Shanghai County? Songjiang Prefecture is not here. It is just an ordinary coastal county. I heard that the imperial court opened the sea, and it has only become more prosperous in the past two years."

Another soldier next to him who wanted to show off answered, "Red-haired man, listen carefully, in a county like Shanghai, our Ming Dynasty has fifty if it doesn't have one hundred, it's nothing!"

Oward and others curiously asked Delong what he had talked with the Ming army soldiers. After Delong translated, they were all shocked.

Such a prosperous port city is just an ordinary place in the Ming Dynasty?
How prosperous the Ming country should be.

After getting off the boat at Wusongkou Wharf, Owald and the others were very puzzled by Da Ming's arrangement.

Through inquiries, Delong learned that it was still [-] kilometers away from Nanjing, but the Ming people who escorted them seemed not to be planning to take the boat any longer.

"Could it be that the Ming people want us to walk hundreds of kilometers to Nanjing? This is too cruel!"

"That's right, I don't understand. Why don't you take a boat when you can obviously take it? Are you afraid that a group of us captives will spy on the hydrology of the Yangtze River?"

"Ming people are too careful?"

"···"

Overward waited for the Dutch prisoners to complain all night, and waited until the next day to find out why they disembarked in Shanghai and changed to land.

After breakfast, they were escorted to a strange place.

In a super large yard, there are some public facilities similar to docks.

And at the edge of the yard, there is a very strange road stretching into the distance - this road is paved with fine stones, but there are a few infinitely long iron bars on it, and there are countless short horizontal bars connected to the iron bars .

After watching for a while, all the Dutch captives couldn't help discussing in a low voice——

"Are the people of the Ming Dynasty stupid? Just spread the iron on the road like this, so they are not afraid of being stolen?"

"Perhaps this is a way for Ming people to show off their wealth—haven't you heard that this mysterious oriental country is full of gold."

"Why did the Ming people send us here? They wouldn't let us build roads for them, would they?"

"···"

When most Dutch people were puzzled, Delong asked the soldiers next to him by taking advantage of his ability to speak Chinese: "What is this place for? Why were we brought here?"

At this time, the Nanyang Navy and the soldiers of the garrison who were in charge of escorting the prisoners were very excited and in a good mood.

Hearing this, the soldier quickly replied: "This is Wusong Railway Station, we are here to take the train!"

train?

Delong was puzzled and thought it was some kind of carriage, so he said with a smile: "You don't mean to use the carriage to send us all to Nanjing, do you? There are thousands of people here, and you Ming Dynasty is really rich. .”

He had just finished speaking when he heard a piercing but long siren.

Woo-!
Second more.

Good night~