Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 108 Three Hundred Portuguese Soldiers
Five large bungalows, plus a stream dug temporarily, are where the Fire Gun Bureau of the Daming Ordnance Institute is located.

Zhu Youjian was sitting beside a pile of coal fire, looking at Tang Ruowang and three hundred Portuguese soldiers with tall noses and blue eyes.

The three hundred Portuguese soldiers were well-organized and mighty, all of them holding heavy-duty matchlock guns and some percussive flintlock guns in their hands.

At the same time, it is also equipped with three Franco cannons.

Zhu Youjian knew how powerful the Portuguese soldiers were.

In this era, the United Kingdom has not yet risen, and the world, especially the ocean, is still dominated by Spain and Portugal. Of course, the sea coachman in the Netherlands has begun to fade away.

In other words, the Portuguese army at this time should be one of the strongest armies in the world today.

In the original history, the famous anti-Qing official Qu Shixu once relied on a group of borrowed Portuguese soldiers to defeat the Qing army and regain many lost territories.

Except that Tang Ruowang still looks like a Westerner, his demeanor is no different from that of Chinese people, and he wears a fifth-rank official uniform.

Zhu Youjian first asked the three hundred Portuguese soldiers in front of him: "Which one of you is the chief, can you speak the words of my Ming Empire?"

At this time, wearing a white skirt, wearing a gray vest, wearing a red top hat, with yellow curly hair around his ears, and about the same height as himself, the Frang robot walked in front of Zhu Youjian with a command knife on his shoulder, and pointed at him Zhu Youjian saluted.

"His Majesty the Emperor of Ming Dynasty, Your Majesty, Baron Chadley, has brought three hundred Portuguese soldiers here to receive the order."

"Chadri, right? You are still a baron. I will also give you an official title, and you will be appointed as the general of the Second Guards Army directly under the Western Battalion. From now on, until the contract employment is terminated, you will be an official of my Ming Dynasty. I will give You deserve treatment, but from now on, you must obey the command of me and your immediate superior, He Xin, the commander-in-chief of the Second Army of the Royal Horse Guards, including your life, which I can take away at any time .”

Chadley was a little dazed, and quickly waved his hands: "No, no, His Majesty, Emperor Ming, I can accept serving in your country, but my life cannot belong to you."

"It's up to you, show the might of our Daming Guards to this Chudley Knight who came all the way!"

After Zhu Youjian finished speaking, he took a few steps back, and then, an iron wall fell from the sky, blocking Zhu Youjian inside.

At the same time, the guards stationed at the ordnance station began to gather, all with bird guns, and some armed with three-eyed gun cavalry, and surrounded the three hundred Portuguese soldiers.

Portugal was once defeated by the Ming Dynasty, so they did not dare to be as arrogant as the Westerners of the later generations in front of the Qing army. In addition, the Ming army in front of them clearly has the home field advantage, so although the Portuguese soldiers have better firearms and even better individual capabilities Strong, but at this moment he has to give in.

"Well, I choose to obey. You are really a domineering emperor, but this is not mentioned in the employment contract you gave me."

This Chadley was very aggrieved. He thought that he could really earn a lot of real money and get more commercial and trade privileges and religious propaganda privileges by being a mercenary for the rich emperor.

But he didn't expect that he would hand over his life to His Majesty the Ming Emperor in such a muddle-headed manner. He was very worried that Zhu Youjian would be an extremely cruel emperor.

"It doesn't matter whether you mention it or not. If you go against my will, it will be easy for me to kill you. You need to tell me now, how many people around you can speak my official language?"

Since Zhu Youjian spent a lot of money to hire a group of Portuguese soldiers from Macau, he naturally would not simply let them give away their heads like Qu Shixu.

If there are people here who understand Daming's official language, Zhu Youjian hopes to let these people work for Daming in the ordnance station and the martial arts hall.

But unfortunately.

Chadley expressed his regret that his soldiers basically did not understand Fengyang Mandarin, except for a few Hakka dialects in Guangdong, Guangxi and the area.

This is related to the fact that there is no Mandarin standard in Ming Dynasty.

The wind is different for ten miles, and the customs are different for thousands of miles. It is naturally difficult for Folangji people who learn the Chinese language by ear to be familiar with the dialects of all places in Daming, even the people of Daming cannot do it.

Whether it is domestic exchanges or international exchanges, Zhu Youjian feels that the comprehensive popularization of Ming Mandarin is also very important.

Of course, this matter can only be implemented after Liu Zongzhou from the Ministry of Rites finishes his work on Enke.

For the three hundred Portuguese soldiers in front of him, Zhu Youjian couldn't let them fight for a while. After all, before the spring of Chongzhen's 18th year, Shenzhou was relatively quiet at this time.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian pretended to be very disappointed and said: "I don't understand my Ming Dynasty official language, how can I obey the order, go and call Yingtianfu Cheng Qu Shisi to me, and let him help you popularize Daming official language to your soldiers, two After a month, if you fail to learn the official language of Daming Fengyang, I will definitely punish you severely!"

Chadley did not expect to come to Daming, the first thing His Majesty the Emperor of Ming asked him to do was to bring his own officers and soldiers to learn the official language of Daming.

This made Chadley heave a sigh of relief. Learning a language is better than working hard on the battlefield. Anyway, the mercenary money is the same, so why not do it.

However, after a few days, they would rather choose to work for Zhu Youjian on the battlefield than follow Daming Confucian scholars Nian Zhihu Zheye.

Although Bi Maokang was seriously ill, there were still many literati and scholars in the Ming Dynasty who had studied or accepted natural science.

Although Zhu Youjian couldn't remember much, under the recommendation of Song Yingxing and others, Qu Shiqi, Fang Yizhi, Sun Heding (son of Sun Shiyuan) were all included in the list of key training, including Tang Ruowang and Ai Julian. scholar.

Among them, Ai Julius is a good friend of Qu Shixu, and Qu Shixu is also a Christian.

Jin Yiwei successfully hired [-] Portuguese soldiers from Macau because Qu Shixu went to Macau through Ai Julius to complete the matter.

Now that Zhu Youjian asked Qu Shixu to lead this group of Portuguese soldiers, it is naturally convenient for these Portuguese soldiers to communicate with the people of Ming Dynasty more conveniently, and at the same time, through this move, Qu Shixu was incorporated into his guard system.

Fang Yizhi is a member of the Fushe, and although the officials of the Imperial Academy have a lot of research on Western learning, they are not as focused on technical research as Bi Maokang, and they are more theoretical. Zhu Youjian did not let him participate in the work of the Ordnance Institute. It is planned to let him preside over the establishment of the Daming Academy of Sciences.

As one of the four princes in the late Ming Dynasty, a Jinshi in high school, and an official in the Imperial Academy, Fang Yizhi's influence and connections in the academic circles of the Ming Dynasty, especially in the Jiangnan area, are naturally unmatched. Let Fang Yizhi call on the world's miscellaneous scholars The establishment of the Daming Academy of Sciences by talented people will naturally have the effect of getting twice the result with half the effort.

However, Ai Julius is not very professional in the casting and development of guns. According to Qu Shixuan, this person is good at geography, especially surveying and mapping. "The Complete Map of the World" was completed by this person in cooperation with Yang Tingyun and others.

Zhu Youjian also sent Jin Yiwei to call this person into Beijing to participate in geographical surveying and mapping.

However, it is impossible to expect any help from this person in Ordnance. Zhu Youjian can only use one person now, and that is Tang Ruowang in front of him.

(End of this chapter)