Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 191 Wolf ambitions! Every one counts, all of them!

Chapter 191 Wolf ambitions! Every one of them counts, all of them!

Hou Chengzu and Xiang Rensheng left quietly, but Zhang Guowei was still wondering what was wrong with the Crown Prince's words. At this time, the only two people in the cabin who still had a clear mind were Shen Tingyang and Zhu Cilang.

According to Shen Tingyang's job, leading troops to fight had nothing to do with him. It was only because the country was in crisis that he was forced to become a "general".

Up to now, although the war situation in Jiangnan may still be reversed, the court has finally turned the tide under the efforts of His Highness.

Even if there are battles to be fought later, generally speaking, there will be no need for his unprofessional "commander" to be of any use.

Therefore, his visit was actually more of a formality, but he never thought about what task he would be given.

But who knew that when he thought that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was going to leave with Generals Xiang and Fang, he heard a questioning voice.

"Mr. Shen, you are an expert in maritime affairs. Do you know how far behind our navy is compared to the Red-haired Devils and the French?"

“There is no difference.”

Ok? !

It can be imagined that after hearing this, Zhu Cilang was only surprised and had no other reaction.

In the concept of later generations, China has gradually fallen behind the West since the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

After the Manchus came to power, this backwardness became increasingly serious due to various factors, and eventually even formed a generation gap in civilization.

Therefore, after defending Yingtian and sorting out the things at hand, he set a somewhat ambitious goal for himself.

Seize this wave of dividends of the times.

This was the beginning of a millennium of change. Western countries took advantage of this situation to obtain extremely huge resources, and then dominated the world for hundreds of years.

Fortunately, this is just the beginning. Even the future empire on which the sun never sets is just beginning to stir.

If the Ming Dynasty could intervene after regaining a certain amount of power, not to mention other things, the fact that it could save future generations from hundreds of years of detours would be enough for Zhu Cilang to place this matter on the same level as expelling the Tartars.

Of course, that is a matter for the future. The biggest task facing him now is how to end the battle in Jiangnan.

However, this did not prevent him from learning about the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding technology in advance.

just
"Your Highness, please understand. Although our dynasty does not attach importance to maritime affairs, our various technologies are not comparable to those of the barbarians. Even the treasure ships of the past were far more powerful than those of the Westerners."

Shen Tingyang obviously saw that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was puzzled. Although he didn't know why His Royal Highness, who was used to sailing, didn't know his family's shipbuilding capabilities, he still followed up with an explanation.

But how could he know that if he didn't mention the treasure ship, Zhu Cilang might just skip this question. But when the word "treasure ship" came out, someone actually stood up.

"Treasure ship? The kind Cheng Zu used when he sailed to the West?!"

"Yes."

"You have the blueprints? Can you build it?!"

"Yes."

After the brief conversation, Zhu Cilang intuitively felt that everything he knew in his mind seemed to be completely inconsistent with reality.

In his impression, all the relevant drawings and files of Zheng He's seven voyages to the West were burned by an official named Liu Daxia during the Chenghua period.

But if it was really burned, why did Shen Tingyang claim that he had the drawings and could make it?
Could it be that it was not burned cleanly?

"How many files from the voyages to the West are still left?"

"I have only transferred the blueprints here. The rest should be in Beijing."

Hearing Zhu Cilang's question, Shen Tingyang began to answer, but at the end he paused before whispering the place name.

Zhu Cilang probably didn't care about this. He only had one question in his mind.

"Didn't Liu Daxia destroy those files?"

"Liu Daxia?"

"Ah."

After confirming the name of the person Zhu Cilang was asking about, Shen Tingyang thought for a moment and then asked, "Your Highness, are you talking about Liu Daxia, who served as the Minister of War during the Chenghua period?"

"Well, I think so."

Zhu Cilang only knew a rough outline of this period of history, but didn't know much about the specific information of the person involved. He then asked, "Didn't they say that a certain eunuch wanted to obtain information so that he could go to the West again, so Liu Daxia simply burned all the files and hid them?"

Without specific information, Shen Tingyang didn't have to think hard, but when he heard the whole story, he had to rack his brain.

"Your Highness, what you are talking about is the incident during the Chenghua period when war broke out in Annan and the Western Factory Governor Wang Zhi suggested sending troops to quell the rebellion.

At that time, Liu Daxia felt that it was a waste of money and that victory was difficult, so he refused when Wang Zhi consulted the records of the military campaign against Annan during the Yongle period.
As for the voyage to the West, I really have no recollection of it."

After a while, Shen Tingyang realized that he could not find what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said in his memory, so he said the most similar thing he could think of.

In fact, he didn't say a word.

Who is Liu Daxia? He has thousands of ways to prevent others from reading the files just by taking advantage of the system procedures. So why would he risk the death penalty to burn the court files?
Zhu Cilang naturally had no idea of ​​what he hadn't finished saying, but there was a great possibility that even if he said it, it would not cause any reaction from Zhu Cilang.

Not destroyed? Still in Beijing? If it wasn't lost in Beijing, even Shen Tingyang would have been able to access it?

Then why can't we find any relevant information in later generations?

Could it be that someone destroyed it in the past few hundred years and then put the blame on Liu Daxia?
But who has such ability? Who has such motivation?
Could it be
Questions emerged in Zhu Cilang's mind one after another, and he finally thought of an incident in which more books were destroyed than collected.

In the early days, he did not have much prejudice against this later dynasty, and he just felt that the general trend was like this, and the result would be the same no matter who was in power.

But after thinking about the large-scale destruction of Chinese civilization in the name of organization, he suddenly realized.
If those classics were still there, if the development of Chinese civilization had not been suppressed.

Maybe
Maybe it will be a little different?
Damn it!!!!

After cursing in his heart, he stopped dwelling on the matter.

After all, he has come here, and if the situation develops as it is now, the future will be very different.

Then, under Shen Tingyang's puzzled gaze, Zhu Cilang abruptly changed the topic to ships and sea routes.

"Having a conversation with Mr. Shen today is indeed better than reading for ten years."

"Your Highness is very smart. Some details take even an old minister a long time to comprehend. I never thought that you could understand the key points after just listening to the beginning."

Facing Shen Tingyang's praise, Zhu Cilang was not too proud. After all...right.

"I had even found some people to help you, but it seems unnecessary given the current situation."

"Your Highness, this is wrong. One can learn from others' strengths. If others have strengths, I will humbly seek their advice."

By the time the two of them talked about this, Zhang Guowei had already recovered.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince probably just said those words to save his face.

Even if he had the opportunity to interrupt now, why would he still get entangled in the issue of whether to send troops?
After all, he was not a nobleman like Xu Yu who had no power at all. If he resisted when His Highness made up his mind, the nature of the matter would change.

"Mr. Zhang, this battle may take some time. You and Mr. Shen will have to take care of the transportation of military supplies." Seeing that he was no longer making a fuss, Zhu Cilang finally felt relieved.

He did not think about it as Zhang Guowei did. At most, he felt that the old waiter was sensible and did not embarrass anyone.

"Don't worry, Your Highness. With the support of Taihu and Hangzhou, we will ensure that the food supply route is smooth."

"Ah."

Zhu Cilang responded softly without deliberately praising him, and then glanced outside the cabin.

At this time, it had been quite a while since Xiang and Hou left. According to his estimation, Hou Chengzu was a little slow because he had to pack his luggage, but Xiang Rensheng should have finished packing.

But when he was about to get up and look outside the cabin, he saw a familiar figure blocking the door.

"I, Wang Fuping, pay my respects to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

"Get up, get up."

After saying this twice, Zhu Cilang looked at the person who came with a face full of joy.

To be honest, although Wang Fuping was also in Hangzhou, the two of them had not seen each other for quite some time.

Anyway, the tasks he was assigned now were all open and honest, so Zhu Cilang did not hesitate to expose him to everyone's sight.

However, Wang Fuping, who was usually very well-behaved, had no reaction after hearing the words of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and even buried his head even deeper.

"I have acted recklessly, Your Highness, please punish me."

Seeing this situation, Zhu Cilang was a little puzzled. The task he gave to Wang Fuping this time was just to find a few people. Even if they didn't find them, it was far from this.

So, after thinking about it for a while, he asked doubtfully, "Did something go wrong?"

"Your Highness, I have found all the Western missionaries you asked me to find. However, during the screening process, I found that they seemed to be deceiving the world and stealing their reputation, so I came here to report first."

Suspected of deceiving the world and stealing fame?

How did you say this?

After talking with Tan Changyuan, Zhu Cilang thought about finding some Western missionaries to help Shen Tingyang build the ship. But now there were some unexpected things happening with Shen Tingyang, and who would have thought that there were also twists and turns with the missionaries.

Seeing that the Crown Prince was full of confusion, Wang Fuping explained the whole story in detail without waiting for him to ask any further questions.

After suppressing the "civil uprising" in Hangzhou, he received an order to search for Western missionaries.

Although he had already worked with the local Jinyiwei in Hangzhou for a while, he was still trying his best to get in touch with other places, so he was not idle.

In addition, although so-called Western missionaries were not common, there were one or two in every major city.

So he couldn't say that he cared much about it.

Sure enough, one day after he passed the order, the Jinyiwei in Hangzhou found a missionary named Ai Rulie in Hangzhou.

Speaking of which, this person is of great background. He has been in the Ming Dynasty for several decades. Although he has mostly preached in Fujian, he also has some connections with the top leaders of the Ming Dynasty.

A few months ago, he was invited by Shi Kefa to go north to discuss preparations for anti-Qing activities in Macau, but when Shi Kefa arrived in Pukou, the Qing troops had already entered Beijing.

As a result, Ai Ruliu had to turn back, and Wang Fuping was able to find this Western missionary in Hangzhou.

Originally, when things got to this point, Wang Fuping should have waited for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to return and then take the man away, but something that happened afterwards made him doubtful.

"Your Highness, I cannot understand what the Western missionary wrote, but he frequently mentioned a man named Aristotle in his book and claimed that all the words in his book came from that man."

Hearing this, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but feel a little confused.

He knew Aristotle, who was probably considered a saint in the West, and whose status was roughly similar to that of his own Confucius.

He wrote works of more than three million words in his lifetime, covering everything from astronomy to geography.

just
Does this have anything to do with Wang Fuping not bringing Western missionaries to see him?

Seeing the Crown Prince's puzzled look, Wang Fuping gritted his teeth and continued speaking.

"I didn't pay much attention to it, but there is an old soldier in the Jinyiwei in Hangzhou who is responsible for checking the military intelligence of Westerners. According to him, Ai Ruliu has a good friend whose Western name is translated as Aristotle."

"So you think that the Aristotle mentioned in his book is just a fake friend's name? So you think that bringing him here will make you guilty of deceiving me."

"Yes."

After understanding the general situation, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but laugh.

Aristotle probably did have this, but it is difficult to draw a conclusion as to whether he was omniscient or all-knowing.

However, there is one thing he can be sure of: the time when the so-called Renaissance occurred in the West was basically the same as the time when the ocean trade routes were opened, and the more popular goods in these ocean trade routes happened to include various Chinese books.

As for whether there are Westerners who use the names of ancient sages to misattribute knowledge and culture originating from China,
He didn't know, and he didn't dare to ask.

Anyway, he probably wouldn't believe that he could only skin one sheep a day from raising three hundred sheep.

"Don't worry too much about this matter. Just bring those missionaries to Mr. Shen when you're done."

Zhu Cilang saw it quite clearly. After all, the book had already been passed on, so it didn’t matter to him where the entanglement came from.

After all, the gap between the East and the West has not opened up that big at this time. As long as there is a stable environment, I think they will catch up again in just a few years.

By then, the so-called Western-centrism has not yet been formed, and China has not lost its spirit, so everything will not be too late.

"Your Highness, the entire guard is ready to go."

Just when Zhu Cilang was about to give Wang Fuping some more instructions, Xiang Rensheng's voice came into the cabin.

He thought about it for a moment, and felt that according to the current situation, there was no need to rush to do that matter, so he stood up and adjusted his armor.

"Everyone, please come with me and take a look."

As he spoke, he walked out of the cabin, and the others followed him.

At this time, nearly a thousand guards had lined up on the shore. Although they did not look overwhelming from the boat, after several tough battles, this group of people had already revealed a sense of confidence that they could defeat the enemy in front of them.

"Your Highness, please say a few words."

After hearing Xiang Rensheng's words, Zhu Cilang did not refuse, but in his opinion, this group of people did not need this method to boost morale.

So he thought for a moment and shouted loudly: "Since Duoduo refuses to live, then you should keep him here for me!"

"Leader!"

"Leader!"

"Leader!"

(End of this chapter)

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