The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 37 Taking risks
Faced with the current predicament, Joel Freeland, manager of the English Hanzhou Trading Company in Daxing, is in a dilemma.

Although the military police of Qi State have not yet found their head, as time goes by, the senior researcher of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Qi State who was hidden in the business building will be discovered sooner or later.In recent days, there have always been some idle people wandering around the business building, seemingly monitoring the entire business building, and it is not ruled out that there are counter-intelligence agents from Qi among them.

Joel Freeland couldn't imagine how cruel the Qi people would treat them once things were revealed.Abducting senior scholars involved in scientific secrets from other countries will most likely be convicted of espionage and either hanged or shot.Of course, it is also possible to be sentenced to life-long hard labor and eventually die tragically in an unknown mine.

Alas, I was still too adventurous!

In order to covet the high bounty money for steam engine technology in England, I suddenly thought that I would make a crazy move to lobby and abduct a Qi scientist. In the end, I may have to pay the price with my life!

That Mr. Pastor Gray is a third-generation naturalized citizen of Hanover - well, a fellow countryman of our King George I of England. Perhaps influenced by his family, he has a devout faith in Christ.During a church service, Joel Freeland chatted with him and talked about some Christian doctrines and creeds.

Pastor Gray was surprised to find from the conversation between the two men that many of the doctrines and creeds of Christianity in Qi, whether Catholic or Protestant, were obviously different from those in Europe, and seemed to have undergone major changes.Many of these doctrines and interpretations tend to maintain imperial rule, requiring believers to be loyal to the country, the nation, and the royal family, and to submit to secular rule.

In order to save a confused believer, Joel Freeland gave Pastor Gray his private collection of Bible texts and became a good friend with him.Every time he went to Chang'an, he would occasionally bring him some small gifts, sit down and have a glass of wine, talk about doctrine and the situation in Europe.

Later, as we gradually became familiar with each other, Pastor Gray would also talk about his work and life.As a senior researcher of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Qi, his treatment is undoubtedly very generous. In addition to having a mansion with a yard in Chang'an City, he also has a house on Zhongliang Mountain on the outskirts of the city (today's Tyburto, fifteen kilometers southeast of Toowoomba, Australia). Pushan), and a holiday villa.As for the monthly salary, even foreign business representatives like Joel Freeland are jealous, and the amount is as high as more than 80 pounds.

Pastor Gray also told him that the Royal Academy of Sciences of Qi can obtain financial allocations of up to several million yuan every year - well, converted into pounds, it is also a huge 300 million (Qi State began to implement the gold standard as early as 1688). The system stipulates that each gold yuan coupon is equivalent to 7.5 grams of pure gold, which means that each gold yuan coupon is equivalent to 0.82 pounds. Note 1).Moreover, outside the budget, if a certain research institute or scholar has made major scientific progress and requires additional funding, the Qi royal financial institution will not hesitate to increase the funding after careful evaluation to ensure the continuity of scientific research. .

Undoubtedly, the Royal Academy of Sciences of Qi is definitely a dream place for any scholar who is interested in scientific research.Decades ago, their founding emperor once said a very philosophical statement, "Science and technology are the primary productive forces."Looking at the rapid rise of Qi over the past few decades, as well as their current achievements, as well as the endless technological inventions, it is enough to fully prove the correctness and forward-lookingness of this sentence.

Countries in Europe, including England, are coveting Qi's technologies and inventions all the time.Cement was first introduced to Europe, a great invention that could change the history of world architecture.From then on, European countries no longer went to the mountains to collect stones, but only relied on a pile of limestone, clay and a lot of water - oh, the cement in Europe is of course "low-grade" cement that has been heavily improved - Europe Countries can also easily build huge churches, magnificent palaces, solid residences, and strong fortresses.

The introduction of cement also profoundly changed the pattern and process of war.Decades ago, the War of the League of Augsburg (the War of the Grand Alliance) and the War of Spanish Succession broke out. If it were not for the large amount of cement to build solid fortresses one after another, the powerful French army would have once again ravaged Nieder. Netherlands, Germany, and Austria.

Without cement, the Holy Roman Empire, which was mired in European wars, would probably not be able to hold the Ottoman Empire firmly on the Austrian-Hungarian border with only a small number of fortress troops.

After years of sparing no effort to steal and plagiarize the country's technology, coupled with unremitting research and experiments, England also took the lead in deciphering the operating mechanism and manufacturing methods of steam engines, from the earliest blowers to water pumps, and then successfully manufactured a few years ago The power output can drive a simple steam locomotive weighing thousands of pounds.

Today, large and small coal mines in England are filled with pumps of various powers, which has brought England's coal mine development to a stage of rapid development. Its output ranks first in Europe, which has greatly promoted England's mining industry and fossil fuels. development of.

In the metal smelting industry, inspired by Qi's use of coal to make iron, many iron smelting plants in England finally discovered the secret of coke iron-making after decades of continuous testing and summary, thus completely getting rid of England's dependence on charcoal iron-making. Therefore, the massive coal resources within the territory can be fully utilized.

After seeing the huge advantages of Qi's railway development, countless businessmen and scholars who traveled to Qi State unanimously believed that this transportation technology will greatly change the way of travel in the future, promote the rapid flow of domestic materials and people, and then effectively promote domestic market unification.

In view of the state's blockade of steam engine technology, many domestic institutions and business alliances, including the Royal Academy of Sciences in England, offered huge bonuses for the introduction and "invention" of this technology, amounting to as much as [-] pounds.

Therefore, when Joel Freeland learned that Pastor Gray was engaged in the improvement and optimization of steam engines at the Royal Academy of Sciences' Dynamic Research Institute, he immediately came up with the idea of ​​​​smuggling him to England to obtain the huge domestic bonus.

You must know that during this period, the average wealth of England's nobles was about [-] pounds. As for an ordinary British businessman or craftsman, their wealth may only be a few hundred or thousands of pounds.If Joel Freeland can get a huge bonus of fifty thousand pounds, then he will step into the wealthy class, marry Bai Fumei, and reach the pinnacle of life.

Joel Freeland worked hard for this and tried his best to persuade Pastor Gray with many reasons such as religious beliefs, hometown nostalgia, serving as a senior professor at the Royal Academy of England, and presiding over domestic steam power research. , tempting him and his family to "defect" to Europe.

However, Joel Freeland still underestimated the management strength and emergency response speed of Qi's security personnel for scientific and technological personnel.After careful arrangements, when Pastor Gray was smuggled to Daxing in disguise, before he could arrange for a ship to leave the port, he discovered that the entire external travel window of Daxing City was monitored by Qi State military and police personnel, and any departure from the country was prohibited. All personnel will be subject to strict review and screening.

In fear, he could only hide the six members of Pastor Gray's family in the business building, waiting for the Qi people to relax their control before choosing an opportunity to leave.

However, a month has passed, and winter is about to enter June - Oh, God, the seasons in Qi are actually opposite to those in England - whether it is the train station or the port terminal, although it seems to be back to normal on the surface , there were not many military and police personnel stationed, but the suspicious Joel Freeland still found through careful observation that there were still a number of counterintelligence agents in civilian clothes at these departure windows.They scrutinize and screen every departing passenger very vigilantly.

Oh, this is too bad!They are trapped in Daxing City.

Although Hanzhou is a vast continent, and there may be more than 2000 million Qi people living on this continent, the government of this country can strictly control everything through an efficient management system at all levels, just like they produce The machinery manufactured is general, and every gear, chain, and set of transmission shafts are running in an orderly and precise manner.

This makes any outsider or illegal saboteur feel a sense of powerlessness when facing this strict system, making them appear so weak and helpless.

"Mr. Freeland, I think that continuing to hide the defected senior scholar and his family in the business building will be a very dangerous move for all of us." Rami Calomon, the company's purchasing director "We must take... decisive measures to avoid possible risks," he said seriously.

"Calomon, your suggestion is..." Joel Freeland's heart tightened and he stared straight at the other party.

"Yes, Mr. Freeland." Rami Carlomon's eyes flashed with a fierce look, and he looked at Freeland without avoiding it. "Their family's goal is too big. Due to the strict control and layers of inspections by the Chinese, we simply cannot bring them back to England. Even if we can leave Daxing, what will we face next? Don’t forget that the entire Indian Ocean Rim region belongs to the Qi people. The sphere of influence and every port where supplies are docked is controlled by the State of Qi. It is impossible for us to return to Europe safely with a few living people."

"So..." Joel Freeland still had some hesitation in his heart.

"So, it should be much easier to dig a few pits and hide a few corpses in the empty courtyard of the commercial building."

"But..." Joel Freeland's face turned very ugly, "Mr. Pastor Gray is..."

he is my friend!

"Sir, there are a total of nineteen Englishmen in the entire business building, including you."

"..." Joel Friland closed his eyes in pain when he heard this.

　注释1：1717年，英国将每盎司黄金的价格固定在3英镑17先令10.5便士，即每英镑约等于8.7克纯金。至1816年6月，英国议会正式通过《金本位制法令》，规定每英镑金币含纯金123.27格令（1格令=64.8毫克），相当于每“金磅”含金近8克。

　　
　
(End of this chapter)