.At the end of the twelve year of Hongguang, the construction of the Madeira Islands was basically over. Although it cannot be said that the two islands are as solid as a soup, they are not easily captured by pirates and ordinary troops. Tens of thousands of acres of land have been reclaimed, thousands of livestock and tens of thousands of poultry have been raised. In addition to grain, they have to buy out, and other vegetables, meat, poultry and eggs can be self-sufficient.

The mission of the fleet has been completed, and the goods brought by the fleet have been sold almost the same, and a large number of European goods have been purchased.

The products that the Ming Dynasty bought the most were all kinds of books from Europe. This was a special request by the emperor and was treated as the first priority by the entire fleet. As soon as the fleet gained its foothold in the Madeira Islands, Liu Guoxuan immediately entrusted the Portuguese to purchase them on his behalf. Three sets of each book were purchased. Later, after establishing diplomatic relations with various countries, Liu Guoxuan entrusted merchants from various countries to purchase. When the caravan was about to return, the Ming Dynasty spent more than 5 million taels of silver.

In addition to books, the Ming Dynasty also purchased a large amount of copper, art, dyes, coal, etc. Because the Ming Dynasty imported too much copper, the price of copper directly increased by 30%. However, these imports were not enough to provide the export value of the Ming Dynasty. In addition to these items, there were more gold and silver. In addition to the purchase items, the island stored more than one million taels of gold and more than 30 million taels of silver.

The merchants were not willing to take gold and silver back. After all, if it was goods, they could make a profit when transported to the Ming Dynasty, but their ships could no longer be put down. The goods from the Ming Dynasty were light and expensive, while the goods from Europe were stupid and heavy, so they had to set aside a warehouse to transport gold and silver.

After leaving about 2,000 people to station, Liu Guoxuan led the fleet back, while Bugat Road remained in Europe. When the fleet returned to the Ming Dynasty, it was already June of the 23rd year of Hongguang, and two years had passed since they set off.

In the past two years, news about fleets has been heard from Europe. Every time the news comes, it will cause heated discussions in the newspapers. But how can such news really cause a sensation in the fleet?

On the day the fleet entered the port, the entire port was crowded with people, and the streets near Shanghai Port were crowded, far exceeding the number of people who saw off when the fleet set off two years ago.

"Dou." The whistles of the two ironclad ships sounded, frightening the crowd waiting at the dock.

"That's an ironclad ship, the Ming Dynasty's ironclad ship."

"Ah, it's really an iron-clad ship, it's so powerful."

"Is it really iron-made? Why doesn't it sink?"

"Stupid, have you heard your boy say about buoyancy? As long as the buoyancy is greater than the weight of the ironclad ship, the ironclad ship will not sink."

...

In recent years, with the increasing number of ironclad ships built by the Ming Dynasty, it has been difficult to keep them confidential, especially since many immigrants have been on ironclad ships. After their oral transmission, the people have become more and more curious about the appearance of ironclad ships. The court has lifted the protection of the appearance of ironclad ships. Anyway, there is no steam engine, and even if the barbarians know that the appearance of ironclad ships cannot be copied.

When a box of goods was brought out from the ship, the crowd of onlookers heard a burst of marvels. Needless to say, gold and silver were always short of copper in the Ming Dynasty. This time, bringing back thousands of tons of copper from Europe can greatly alleviate the Ming Dynasty's copper shortage.

What everyone is most interested in is the artworks brought back from Europe. These artworks are full of exotic styles and greatly satisfy the audience's curiosity. There have been merchants who cannot accept them to estimate these artworks, and their prices are often stunning.

A few months later, the value of all goods has been estimated. In addition to the gold and silver brought back directly, the remaining goods are worth about 120 million silver. Two years ago, all merchants' principal was only more than 10 million taels. When they arrived in Europe, they lost some of the goods, but they sold more than 70 million taels. After taking out half of the gold and silver, they returned to the Ming Dynasty. The value was as high as 100 million taels. The imperial court collected taxes at one time. It was indeed a huge profit for sea trade.

After some blood exchange, the newly replaced officials were obviously more leaky than the original old ministers. After the telegrams were connected on the Shanghai-Beijing Railway, both officials and businessmen saw the huge value of the telegrams. The officials in the North Koreans vigorously promoted them without hesitation. In just one year, the two eighteen provinces in the Ming Dynasty, except for the five newly established provinces too remote, the other two and three provinces in the other two and thirteen provinces have completed the telegram lines. Although they only reached the provincial capital, the transmission of messages has been greatly accelerated.

This news spread rapidly across the country with the telegram lines, and naturally there was another hot discussion on the huge benefits of maritime trade.

Compared with the tax of tens of millions of taels, Wang Fu was more concerned about tens of millions of books brought back from Europe. As soon as this batch of books arrived in Shanghai, Wang Fu immediately issued an order to transport the books to Nanjing by train and store them in three places.

"Congratulations to the emperor, with this batch of books, the reality of Europa is under the control of the Ming Dynasty." Fan Yue, the newly appointed chief assistant, congratulated Wang Fu.

"Haha." Wang Fu smiled relaxedly. In fact, with this batch of books, it is not as simple as mastering the reality of Europe. The collision of two civilizations will be of great benefit to which side. If the scholars of the Ming Dynasty can absorb the nutrients in it, the Chinese civilization will have no shortcomings, and the Ming Dynasty can maintain its current advantages for a long time.

"I bought so many books, but if I don't have any translation, it would be useless. I want to set up a Tongwenguan, which is specifically responsible for translating these books into Chinese. I wonder who I have any recommended one for you."

"Tongwenguan, the good name given by the emperor." Fan Yue thought for a moment and said, "I wonder what the emperor thinks Gu Jikun?"

"Gu Jikun?" Wang Fu hesitated for a moment. Gu Jikun was the famous Gu Yanwu. Wang Fu actually admired Gu Yanwu, who proposed that "the rise and fall of the world is responsible for the rise and fall of the world." It was just that his identity as a Donglin Party member and his book proposed the idea of ​​restricting the power of the monarch, so that he did not use it.

Even if Wang Fu tried his best to suppress the Donglin Party, he had to admit that the Donglin Party was indeed full of talents. The three people who were regarded as leaders by Tulin: Wang Fuzhi, Huang Zongxi, and Gu Yanwu were all from Donglin. These three people made books and criticized the supremacy of the monarchy. If Wang Fu was still an ordinary person, he would probably applaud their courage and theory. However, as an emperor, Wang Fu, although he did not arrest the three people and listed their books as **, he would never like them.

Among the books transported from Europe this time, there must be many books that oppose the monarchy or restrict the monarchy. If Gu Yanwu was asked to preside over the Tongwenguan, after coming into contact with these Western books, he would probably put forward a sharper view.

Just thinking about it again, the development of the Ming Dynasty could not always allow the monarchy to be supreme. At least when I was in power, no one could shake my monarchy. Why should I be afraid that Gu Yanwu would put forward a sharper point of view? What's more, instead of letting others come forward, it's better to control it in your own hands.

"Since my dear thinks Gu Yanwu is competent, I will choose him. However, there are no books transported from Europa, and it is all-encompassing. It is not realistic to translate all books into Chinese in a short time. I think it is possible to limit the translation of books first, starting from basic disciplines to make up for the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty in basic disciplines, other astronomy, geography, novels, dramas, philosophy, etc., and it will not be too late to translate them later."

"Yes, I understand." Fan Yue replied.

Wang Fu was not the first to translate Western books. As early as the 35th year of Wanli, in 1607 of the Western calendar, Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricci collaborated to translate the book "Measuring Methods". Later, it became uncontrollable. Xu Guangqi, Xiong Sanba, Li Zhizao, Fu Fanji, Wang Fengsu and others launched a large-scale translation of Western books, either independent or cooperative with others. For decades, more than 7,000 books including "Textory", "Taixi Water Method", "Geometric Origin", "Synonyms of the Same Text", "Huanyouxuan" and other books were translated into Chinese, which was a large scale.

Although Xu Guangqi, Li Zhizao and others who translated these books were all officials, they had little power in the court, so naturally they could not become mainstream. Most of the translated books were only published on a small scale, which had little impact on the scholars at that time.

It was not until the seventh year of Hongguang that the imperial court promoted education that some basic knowledge adopted the content of books such as "Geometric Originals" and "The Relationship between the Earth's Surface Circumference and Its Diameter", and these translated books began to receive more attention.

Now the Ming Dynasty wants to translate books not hundreds, thousands, but tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. The Tongwenguan naturally cannot make a small fuss. After appointing Gu Yanwu as the Tongwenguan Library, the court began to issue an order to recruit translators, and the first batch recruited more than 200 people. Among these people, in addition to most of them were scholars of the Ming Dynasty, more than 50 were Europeans, including Bi Fangji, Qu Shawei, Nan Huairen and others.

At this time, the craze for the return of the fleet had not yet dissipated. Taking advantage of the large-scale translation of European books by Tongwenguan, the newspaper also selected some books being translated for serialization. Some books introducing geography and customs were welcomed by the people, while books introducing the basics of science and technology were welcomed by students and technicians. The European craze that was just about to dissipate became popular again.

The Royal Daily of the Ming Dynasty launched a review article in a timely manner, which advocated that "times change and things change, keep pace with the times." At present, the Ming Dynasty has achieved unprecedented achievements and an unprecedented change. Confucian culture should be inclusive and inclusive, eliminated some outdated theories, defined Confucian culture again, and finally put forward the slogan "New Culture, New Confucianism."

With the advancement of industrialization in the Ming Dynasty, some cultures in Confucianism have gradually become unacceptable, and many people have long realized it, such as "My parents are here, not traveling far away", "Government, agriculture, industry and commerce", Confucianism's contempt for strange and ingenious techniques, etc., but no one has systematically proposed. This article is undoubtedly the first time that it is proposed to transform Confucian culture.
Chapter completed!