"No objections. Although Dilireba is a woman, she is very capable. I admit that I am far from being one-ten-thousandth of her. I have no objections to Your Majesty's arrangements. Even if she becomes the Minister of Works, I will agree with both hands.”
Lu Zhenming was really convinced. Diliraba was talented and did not fight for power. His character was worthy of respect.
From the start of the workshop until now, the knowledge she had displayed had convinced everyone. They did not dare to underestimate this little girl.
"Master Lu, Reba is still young and needs to be trained. So what if she has talent? Without the ability to plan the overall situation, she is not suitable to be the Minister of Works, a position that is related to the rise and fall of the empire. Master Lu, you have to worry about her.”
Hearing this, Lu Zhenming was moved. It seemed that His Majesty still trusted us old subjects the most.
"Thank you for your trust, Your Majesty. I will definitely not disappoint Your Majesty!”
"Okay, go do your work! He would strive to produce 5000 Type 1776 rifles within seven days. The war was about to begin.”
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. With Dilireba's machines and enough materials, we can produce 5,000 rifles in seven days with 4,000 people working at the same time!”
Lu Zhenming smiled and said," Actually, we should also thank Mianqing. There are actually 2,000 tons of refined iron that will be sent to Beijing by sea in the warehouse of Guangzhou's 13th Bank. It just so happens to be for our use."”
"In addition to the twenty thousand flintlocks we seized, we can refine them again to obtain a lot of steel, which is enough for our current needs.”
Zhu Weichu nodded." Zhen will remember. If you can't complete it, bring your head to see me!"”
"Yes."
Lu Zhenming bowed and continued to instruct the craftsmen in high spirits.
Zhu Weichu played with the new gun in his hand and looked towards the west, his heart full of anticipation.
As long as they won this battle, it was only a matter of time before the Mie Qing were destroyed.
Qianlong, are you ready?
……
As the Ming and Qing armies were busy preparing for the Second Guangzhou War, in a mansion in Macau, Pan Zhencheng, the CEO of the Thirteen Houses of Guangzhou, was frowning.
Who was Pan Zhencheng? In 2001, the Asian Wall Street journal did a survey. In the past 1000 years, among the 50 richest people in the world, six of them grew flowers. They were Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, He Shen, Liu Jin, Pan Zhencheng, and Song Ziwen. Pan Zhencheng was the only businessman among the six.
Pan Zhencheng was the head of the Thirteen Merchants in Guangzhou. He was the largest, wealthiest, and most influential merchant gang in the 18th century.
In 1757, Emperor Qianlong issued an edict to close the country. As a port that opened to the outside world, Guangzhou was also set up as a trading organization consisting of thirteen chambers of commerce, which was equivalent to imperial merchants.
From then on, the Thirteen Branches were in full swing. The export of tea leaves was monopolized by the Thirteen Branches of Guangzhou. In addition to tea leaves, there were also hundreds of kinds of silk, porcelain, sugar, cloth, and rhubarb.
The Thirteen Traders relied on their rich products and the trading privileges granted by the imperial court to become the world's largest, wealthiest, and most influential merchant gang!
Among them, the Thirteen Lines had a relatively stable number of 10 foreign companies. The total trading volume was the largest, usually reaching half of the Thirteen Lines. As the head of the Thirteen Lines, Pan Zhencheng, one could imagine how rich he was.
However, the richest man in the world in the 18th century had to face a fatal problem. The Ming army returned and took Guangzhou. Because they chose not to cut their braids and leave Guangzhou, the property of the Pan family and other businesses was confiscated by the Ming army. They did not bring a single copper coin with them.
After returning to his mansion in Macau, Pan Zhencheng felt even more upset. He was unwilling to let his decades of hard work go to waste.
"Father, why don't we go back? The Ming army had completely occupied Guangzhou and killed more than 100,000 Qing soldiers. Although the Qing army had gathered 400,000 to 500,000 soldiers and wanted to take back Guangzhou, it was very difficult!”
"You've seen the giant steel ships at the mouth of the Pearl River. They're simply peerless artifacts created by the gods. Those giant cannons can shoot dozens of miles away, all the way to the west gate of Guangzhou City.”
"Let's go back. The Ming army will definitely need steel. The five million catties of refined iron that the Pan family has stored in the secret warehouse will definitely be put in an important position if we contribute it to the Ming army.”
His 21-year-old fourth son, Pan Youdu, saw his father's sad face and tried his best to persuade him to return to Guangzhou.
Unlike Pan Youdu, who was talented in business, his second son, Pan Youwei, who happened to be attacked by the Ming army when he returned to his hometown to visit his family, was a scholar who participated in the compilation of the Four Treasury Books. He was firmly opposed to betraying the court.
"Fourth Brother, do you want the entire Pan family to be executed?”
Pan Youwei said in a deep voice," The Qing Dynasty is currently at its peak, with millions of soldiers. The current Emperor is an unprecedented sage king. His civil and martial arts are peerless, and the four seas submit to him. Although the Ming army's surprise attack on Guangzhou won a temporary victory, defeating the imperial court's army was an opportune move.”
"Once the Emperor has adjusted his forces and the army is ready, a mere 10,000 Ming army can be wiped out with a wave of his hand. So what if the firearms are strong? What was the use of the giant ships on the sea after destroying the Ming infantry in Guangzhou? Can we drive it on land?"
This analysis was reasonable and well-founded, leaving Pan Youdu speechless.
The situation seemed to be like this. The Ming army that had taken Guangzhou City could not stop the siege of the Qing army. So what if they had giant ships? At most, they would seal off the coastal areas of the Qing Dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty was vast in land and resources, and it could prosper without trading with overseas countries. It was just that there was less tax.
The problem was that the Ming army had sealed off the coast. What about the Pan family, who relied on foreign trade to become rich?
"Second Brother, I agree to submit to the Ming Dynasty. It's fine if the Ming army can't restore the country. Those steel warships are enough to dominate the sea. With the help of the Pan family, the Ming army can easily seize overseas land and establish the Ming Empire!”
A girl in a blue dress walked in. Her black hair fell vertically over her shoulders like a waterfall, and her face, which was like white jade, was slightly red.
Pan Zixin, Pan Zhencheng's youngest daughter, was sixteen years old this year.
Among Pan Zhencheng's dozen children, Pan Zixin was the smartest. She was nicknamed the female Zhuge and had been involved in the Pan family's business since she was twelve years old. She was good at planning and planning.
"Besides, Second Brother, have you ever thought about it? If the Ming army could build such a majestic steel ship, would they not have territories overseas?”
" Great Britain is starting to replace manual production with machine production. Mining and steel smelting technology are also advancing by leaps and bounds. The world will undergo earth-shaking changes because of these technological advances that increase the speed of commodity production.”
"The fact that the Ming army can build tens of thousands of tons of steel warships means that they have world-leading smelting technology and many advanced technologies that we can't understand at all.”
"What's there in the Qing Dynasty? They believed that the science that Westerners advocated was a strange and obscene technique. The powerful force that the Ming army displayed this time was not created by science and technology.”
"Therefore, the Great Qing will definitely lose!"
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。