Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 151 Staff Travel ([-])

Languedoc in April is sunny and sunny.

Mo Ming galloped on the rural plains of southern France with a few entourages.As one of the most prestigious wine-producing regions in France, Montpellier's country roads are lined with endless vineyards.

Due to the war with Spain, there were fewer hard-working farmers who had been working tirelessly in the fields, and French cavalry in all kinds of clothes could be encountered everywhere in the countryside.Mo Ming paid attention to watching it a few times. Generally speaking, the faces of these French cavalrymen are very relaxed, and you can't even see the tension before the war.

Blame it on this strange war.Spain's elite Flemish Legion fought repeatedly against the French in North France, while the Spanish army in Roussillon as a supporting party fought a sit-down war with the French in South France.It's no wonder that Spain's elite troops are all in the north, but the mainland has always lacked a strong standing army due to financial difficulties. As a result, when France declared war on Spain, Spain could only temporarily recruit troops to deal with it.The morale and combat effectiveness of such temporarily recruited troops are naturally quite suspicious.

In this way, it is not difficult for everyone to understand the weird situation between the two armies in southern France.Of course, there were no big battles, and there were still a few small battles from time to time.Mo Ming and a group of agents from the Intelligence Bureau have encountered the Spanish cavalry who came to fight the autumn wind several times, but they avoided them in time.

Avoiding a frightened French peasant girl like a deer on the side of the road, Mo Ming in a hunting suit skillfully reined in his horse and stopped, and looked up at a small sloop moored on the sea not far away. The docks of Montpellier.

"Mo, we've arrived at the port." Frank, also in a hunting suit, stood by the pier and looked at Mo Ming with a smile.

Frank Reyer is the youngest son of Baron Reyer of Toulouse, he is just 20 years old this year.Without the right of family inheritance, like the second son of many noble families, he was sent to the local bishop to study theology, but this lively guy did not show even the slightest interest in boring theology, which made his father sad. Brainstorming.

When Mo Ming arrived in Toulouse through the introduction of the Pasquale family in April, Frank, who was in charge of the reception, hit it off with Mo Ming at first sight.Mo Ming, who was born in the Intelligence Bureau, should not be too handy with this fledgling noble young man. The two chatted from theology to astronomy, and from astronomy to the New World. Mo Ming's profound knowledge and good conversation made this young noble For appreciation.No, knowing that Mo Ming wanted to go to Italy, Frank, who was bored, immediately stood up and expressed his willingness to go together.

Mo Ming is naturally unwilling, because many things cannot be done with a mop bottle by his side.However, considering that Frank's mother is from a noble family in Tuscany, he obviously has rich connections there. After weighing the pros and cons, Mo Ming felt that it would be more convenient to bring this guy.

Incidentally, Mo Ming's trip to Italy via Toulouse and Montpellier this time was a plan that was made at the end of last year.At that time, Mo Ming, who returned to the National Intelligence Agency to report on his work, received an order from Director Jiao Tang: to conduct a staff trip to several provinces in southern France and the Lombardy region, to collect and record local social, economic, political, military and other aspects. At the same time, pay attention to recruiting local skilled craftsmen or scientists, and try to find a way for these people to settle on the east bank.

If this matter is done well, there will be many benefits. First, it can enhance the technology and scientific research strength of the east coast, and second, it can weaken the technology and scientific research strength of Europe. There is no reason for the East Coast Republic not to do it.

Of course, Mo Ming's trip to these areas also bears the heavy trust of the Ministry of Trade.After handing over Hugo to Baron Reyer of Toulouse, the East Coast Republic successfully established a relationship with the powerful baron in the Haute-Gallon area. As he wished, he entered the two major provinces of Haut-Gallon and Languedoc.

Of the [-] bolts of cotton cloth that came with the ship, [-] went to Toulouse for sale.Not surprisingly, the cheap and high-quality East Coast cloth swept across Toulouse and sold out in a short period of time, completely driving out the rough and expensive local cotton cloth from the market.

Cloth merchants from the entire Haute-Gallon, Languedoc, and even Provence regions came to Toulouse, hoping to buy the legendary East Coast cloth wholesale, but the quantity was limited, so they had to give up.Such a hot sales situation naturally made Mo Ming and others happy, secretly thinking that the production capacity of 20 horses after the expansion of Ping An Machine Weaving Factory this year may still be a bit conservative.Looking at the current situation, it is not a problem to sell 60 million horses a year.

These are all things for later, now Mo Ming's first task is to go to Italy.According to the plan of the National Intelligence Agency, Mo Ming will go to Florence to see if it is possible to contact Galileo who is currently under house arrest.Galileo, a giant of science, is absolutely famous in this era. He is currently being convicted by the Holy See for defending Copernicus’ heliocentric theory in his book “Dialogue on the Two World Systems of Ptolemy and Copernicus” and is under house arrest. at home.

The poor scientist is 72 years old this year, and is frail and sickly, even suffering from severe cataracts.Because Pope Urban VIII hated him for deceiving himself, he repeatedly refused Galileo's request to go out for medical treatment.And the next year, in 1637, Galileo was completely blinded by cataracts.

According to the information recalled by the "historical expert" Gao Mo, the Holy See's supervision of Galileo has been very loose in the past two years. Many people have been allowed to visit Galileo in his house or discuss academic issues with him, including Galileo. Torricelli, secretary of Castelli, an early student.Torricelli was only 28 years old at this time, and Castelli had already introduced him to Galileo as an assistant, and he was very highly valued by Galileo.And he is obviously an important target of Mo Ming.

At the end of April, the sloop on which Mo Ming, Frank and others were riding docked in Pisa, and then the group went straight to Accetri near Florence in a carriage—at this time Galileo was under house arrest here.

Archetri is a small town.

Italy's economy has become more and more sluggish in recent years. Since the once glorious textile industry was gradually defeated by the rising star Netherlands and the British, the life of the Italians has become more and more difficult.In recent years, a large number of Italians have traveled to the New World with their families to try their luck.

The difficulty of life is evident from this.

I heard from Frank, who was in the same business, that there was a large textile factory in Acetri before the textile industry in Florence a few years ago.At one point, the workshop employed hundreds of workers and used large hydraulic spinning machines.This hydraulic machine can spin 6 yarns at a time, which is much more efficient than human manual work. It is said that this hydraulic spinning machine refers to the blueprints handed down from the East.It is only because of the difficulty in making this kind of hydraulic spinning machine, high cost, frequent failures and failure to work normally during the dry season of the river, coupled with the overall decline of the Italian textile industry, that it has not become popular.

After hearing this, Mo Ming was terrified. The existing hydraulic spinning machines across the world only spun 30 yarns at a time.Although a spinning machine that can spin 80 yarns at the same time has been successfully developed, to put it bluntly, there is no essential difference between this machine and the machine that spins 6 yarns. The principle and idea can be said to be the same. The difference lies in the design and manufacturing. Craft up.

"Don't believe it, Galileo and his student Castelli once served this workshop." Seeing Mo Ming's thoughtful expression, Frank, who thought he didn't believe him, hurriedly explained, "Castelli He used his knowledge of water conservancy to improve the river channel here, and at the same time used his knowledge of mathematics to design some key components in this spinning machine. During this process, Mr. Galileo gave guidance in many aspects."

Mo Ming nodded. Scientists in this era are not Frankensteins who stay at home all day.They either acted as mathematical or philosophical advisors to dignitaries, or they personally solved engineering and technical problems for businessmen and factory owners in exchange for funds to continue their scientific research.So it is not so surprising that Castelli and Galileo did these things.

The only thing to worry about is how much impact this kind of textile machinery will have on the textile industry of the East Coast Republic once it spreads out.

According to Frank's estimation, this kind of machinery may have appeared more than 100 years ago.It is said that the missionaries who returned from the Yuan Dynasty in the East copied back the design drawings of the local Chinese textile machinery. This design drawing was kept dusty in the library of Venice for nearly a hundred years, and was later spread to the outside world by chance. After optimizing and improving the design, Italian craftsmen flowed to Germany and France.

In other words, the technology of this primitive water-powered spinning machine has actually spread to all parts of Europe.

Mo Ming was a little worried. The Europeans were not stupid. They also knew that the people on the east coast had mastered some kind of technology that could produce a large amount of high-quality cotton cloth in a short period of time. Maybe it was some kind of machinery.With the huge profit in the cotton cloth market at this time, sooner or later someone will invest in the research of new textile machinery. At that time, this primitive hydraulic spinning machine will definitely be a good reference object.

Many things, as long as you pierce a layer of window paper, you will find that it is not as mysterious as you imagined, such as the hydraulic spinning machine.

Mo Ming let out a long sigh. This kind of matter must be reported to the General Intelligence Bureau and the Executive Committee as soon as possible, so that everyone can prepare as soon as possible.

①When Galileo was first allowed to write this book, Pope Barberini (Urban VIII) asked Galileo to put Ptolemy’s geocentric theory and Copernicus’ heliocentric theory on the same footing, and regard heliocentric theory as a hypothesis look at.But Galileo tried his best to defend the heliocentric theory in the book and mocked the geocentric theory, which caused the Pope to be extremely angry.Coupled with the complicated political situation at the time, Urban VIII, who was worried about losing his position, took Galileo as a victim and agreed to the church's trial.

(End of this chapter)