New Shun 1730

Being used by Liu Yu as a bargaining chip to scare the Russians, Lenat didn't know the details. In September, he and a group of Swedes who were captured together followed Liu Yu to Weihai.

The French envoys will then arrive in Tianjin by boat. After staying in Weihai, they will wait for the monsoon to rise and return.

Liu Yu will return to Weihai first, and also prepare the candidates for craftsmen to study in France, as well as the first European merchant ship trip of Dashun.

The first ocean-going merchant ship made of military oak and Taiwan cypress has been completed, and Liu Yu named it "Free Trade".

The scheduled goods have also been prepared in the south, and the people of the trading company have extensive connections.

Whether it is silk or customized porcelain and tea, they have been stored in the warehouse, waiting for the Free Trade merchant ship to go to Songjiang and Fujian to load goods, and go to Sweden with two sailing ships of the Swedish East India Company in January next year.

Not only Liu Yu has high hopes for this cargo ship, but the shareholders of the trading company also have high hopes for this merchant ship.

Trade with Japan has been close to saturation, and the Nanyang trade is controlled by the Dutch. Now that Japan has survived the famine, it has begun to tighten monetary policy again. The permission to carry smuggled rice may be abolished next year.

In this regard, Nagasaki explained that Japan is an agricultural country that values ​​agriculture over commerce. The salaries of samurai and feudal lords are all rice. If the price of rice is too low, it will seriously affect the interests of samurai. One of the major goals of the shogunate reform this time is to maintain the price of rice in a high range.

Although I am very grateful for the monetary policy proposed by Liu Yu and the sweet potato famine prevention technique sent by Liu Yu, the shogun of the shogunate has granted this rice transportation trade for another year.

Therefore, this trip to Sweden has become the growth point of the trading company next year. Shareholders hope that the profits brought by this voyage can make up for the profit loss after the abolition of smuggling to Japan, or at least keep it flat.

Now it seems that most shareholders are still optimistic, and the stock price of the trading company has not dropped too much because of the bad news from Japan.

Mantou accompanied Liu Yu on board the Free Trade, an ocean-going merchant ship with a displacement of about 1,200 tons. Among the selected sailors, there were 20 trainee sailors who had just served.

The ship was also equipped with ten cannons, as well as a batch of muskets and swivel guns.

Mantou was selected as the captain of this voyage, and he understood that Liu Yu valued him.

Because there was an unfinished battleship on the shipyard, he handed over his position as the captain of the cruiser at this time. As long as he could return safely, he should be the captain of the first battleship of Dashun.

"Ziming, I'm not worried about anything else. The main thing is that after we arrive in Nanyang, the Dutch may intercept us. The Dutch dare not declare war on us, nor dare to really fight us, but it is possible to do some small actions."

"For example, seizure, inspection, etc. The purpose is to miss the monsoon and delay time so that these scarce goods will not affect the sales of the Dutch East India Company. Do you know what to do if you encounter such a situation?"

Mantou smiled and said, "Don't worry, sir. Be neither humble nor arrogant, and be polite and decent. If he dares to seize the ship, I will open fire. The monk can escape, but the temple cannot. Isn't there a Dutch trading house on the shore?"

Hearing this, Liu Yu was relieved.

"Yes. If they really dare to intercept, you can open fire. I will say hello to Songjiang. If something really happens, don't worry, the court will stand on our side. At that time, we will directly seize all the Dutch ships and confiscate the trading house."

"Of course, if the Dutch are not so aggressive, it is best not to provoke them. Just hang our flag along the way. Don't provoke them for the time being."

Turning around and pointing to the shipbuilding platform and dock in the distance, Mantou understood.

"When you get there, you will take charge of the overall situation of trade, and the people from the trading company will be responsible. I have also explained that side. You are also an official appointed by the court. After you get there, you will mainly hire some people with wood tar distillation technology. I have also said hello to Lenat and others, and they will help."

Mantou wrote down these words of Liu Yu one by one, and followed Liu Yu to meet the people other than the trading company on this voyage.

Those who were responsible for surveying, drawing sea charts, and the captain of the merchant ship who was designated in the future, all gathered together to listen to Liu Yu's instructions.

"Most of you are veterans of the fleet. You have followed Bering to draw the coastline map of the Whale Sea before, and you have mastered various techniques. I won't say much about such technical matters."

"I have also told you about the precautions for long-distance voyages, and you also know what scurvy is and what to eat to prevent it. Although Westerners have been running this route for more than 200 years, there will always be various accidents at sea. Try to come back alive, and your military rank will be promoted one level after you come back."

"Warriors go out to fight, and we need to say goodbye. I will hold a banquet tomorrow night, and then I will talk about some details."

After these people dispersed, Liu Yu went to the shipyard again and selected some young craftsmen from it. These people were going to the French shipyard for internship.

These people alone were not enough, so Liu Yu went to the orphan charity school that he took in that year in Jiaodong Wilderness to select talents here.

These people are different from craftsmen, and they may stay in France for ten years or even longer.

Adults have already formed their values, but these ten-year-old children have not yet formed their values. Moreover, they were taught by him, using the teaching materials he created.

Since the great famine, these people have hardly left Liugong Island.

Live a life that is almost isolated from the outside world.

Many years have passed, and they have forgotten the outside world, the stories their parents told them before they died, and have received the same enlightenment as Liu Yu, carrying almost the same cognition of the world.

Teenagers don't know much, but just like children in later generations, they don't know why the earth is round, but they firmly believe that the earth is round.

In the classroom, they have learned about the level of sixth grade in elementary school. There are ready-made teachers for writing, arithmetic, geometry and Latin, and some other courses such as common sense are taught by Liu Yu himself.

These are the seeds of change for him, and he is particularly concerned about them. He knows exactly what level each person is at.

Common sense of nature, Liu Yu can teach.

Liu Yu can even say that if these people are sent to France, they may not learn as well as the children who stay on Liugong Island in terms of science and mathematics.

But some political common sense, Liu Yu cannot teach.

If he dares to teach, the emperor will be scared first.

Therefore, the smartest and best should be sent to the "old revolutionary areas" for further study.

They will learn by chance when they come back.

Standing in the corridor, like every class teacher in later generations, he tiptoed through the glass of the corridor to observe the students inside.

On the blackboard, there were some words, and they were teaching the history summary compiled by Kang Budai. To leave Dashun, they must first know who they are and where their motherland is.

On the podium, the teacher who was selected with a high salary was reciting a poem in a rhythmic manner according to the textbook compiled by Kang Budai.

"The shame of Jingkang has not yet been avenged..."

The children below also followed the teacher's tone, reciting this poem that was hundreds of years away from them, listening to the teacher's explanation and looking at the simple map drawn in the book.

It seems that the history class has not yet learned about the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

The concise history textbook compiled by Kang Budai also conforms to the nationalist view of history of the Dashun ideology. It is mixed with some private goods of Liu Yu's class view of history, but it is not so explicit. It only talks about issues such as land annexation.

The teacher did not feel uncomfortable. He felt that there was nothing wrong with what he said, and there was no talk of disloyalty to the emperor and father.

Those who can pass the imperial examination will not teach here. Liu Yu does not accept the remaining poor scholars. The main force of teachers is still those marginalized people who have received camp education but cannot inherit the status of good family children.

When they are teachers, there are fewer noises of "learning less from the words of the saints and putting the cart before the horse". With more than three taels of silver every month, they will not go looking for trouble.

Glancing at the course schedule on the blackboard, the next class after the history class is mathematics class. Liu Yu quietly stared at the bell outside to end the get out of class.

When the bell rang, the children were about to run out to play, and Liu Yu pushed the door in.

The faces of the few who ran fast suddenly showed the unique emotions of children. It seemed that they knew that the break would be occupied this time.

Liu Yu called out the names of several people in unison. These people stood out nervously and followed Liu Yu carefully.

Thinking of the memory of being hit on the palm of the hand before, each of them was recalling whether they had caused trouble again?

These children have a special feeling for Liu Yu. When the disaster happened that year, the oldest was only ten years old.

The tragic scene of their parents starving to death will never be erased from their memories. They clearly know their status and have experienced the rich people's wine and meat and the frozen bones on the road with Liu Yu.

Liu Yu let them survive, and they also learned to recognize words and common sense with Liu Yu.

All children have serious psychological problems.

It is easy to go to extremes.

Liu Yu is not doing an experiment in socialized upbringing, but the cruel reality makes this child naturally become such a test subject.

Both parents are gone, and the remaining relatives and brothers have either gone to Vladivostok or are in the army, so there are few opportunities to meet.

Everyone grew up together, ate together, bathed together, and slept together, until some girls started bleeding, and then they separated.

However, they have not witnessed the loving scenes of other parents around them. This collective life has been deeply imprinted in their minds and has become a habit.

They respect Liu Yu but are not afraid, afraid but not afraid, and more of a kind of love.

Liu Yu will give them a common sense class every once in a while, and will also take time to care about their lives on weekdays, and can even call out each of their names.

Today, these children do not know that their fate will change as much as the famine that year. They followed Liu Yu to the office tremblingly, all of them lowered their heads and stared at their toes in a daze.

"You guys are going to France this winter. Come on, stand up and show me where France is?"

He casually pointed at a stunned child, called out his name, and the child walked to the map drawn by the missionary and pointed out the location of France naturally.

He also recited naturally: "The capital of France is..."

After reciting, a brave child asked: "Sir, are you going to France too?"

Liu Yu shook his head and smiled: "I won't go. You go there to live for a few years, and I will send someone to take you back in a few years. When you get there, you must be obedient."

Although these children were somewhat surprised, they did not feel the slightest bit of uneasiness about this unknown journey.

They were all orphans. They had been without parents for all these years on Liugong Island. In their eyes, France was just a very far place, and life was still similar to here.

Moreover, the common sense classes and the world map hanging on the walls of the classrooms that they could see every day broadened their horizons. They could find distances of tens of thousands of miles on the maps on the walls.

Compared to their parents, who felt it was out of reach from Jiaodong to Shandong, they and their parents and even the vast majority of the Chinese people in Dashun were no longer in the same circle.

"Sir, what are we going to study in France?"

"You can study anything you want to study."

Liu Yu was not worried about this. The basic education these people received and the habits they developed since childhood made it very likely that they would mix with the group of enlightenment scholars in France.

Some of Liu Yu's private historical views learned from history textbooks, as well as their special childhood experiences, made it very likely that they would become a group of the most radical people after graduating from French universities.

Different people have different perspectives, which is why Liu Yu did not want the Dashun government to send some government-sponsored students.

Government-sponsored students must come from wealthy families, or simply be good children of the royal family, and their butts will be bent on the side of the royal family and the aristocracy.

If they are Confucian scholars, after going there, they will either see "leading beasts to eat people" or "no king and no father".

The world today has not reached the point where the knowledgeable people are completely desperate as in the late Qing Dynasty, and the gap between the East and the West has not reached the point where the three views are shattered when seeing a steamship going against the current.

Sending "knowledgeable people" at this time will only make them more conservative and reactionary, and Liu Yu still knows this in his mind. Just as he was panicked that day when Chen Zhen followed the Qi State envoys to Europe.

He hopes that the group of people in France who are talking nonsense in the salon will say what he wants to say but dare not teach these children on Liugong Island.

There are many schools of thought in the Enlightenment.

These people who lost their parents, experienced hardships, lived in a collective life, and received Liu Yu's private education are most likely to accept the Encyclopedia School, the Equality School, and the Digging School.

This is related to their lives since childhood, just like negative electricity and positive electricity, they will inevitably smell the school that suits their taste best from the complicated enlightenment schools.

But... if these people really take this path, they will definitely die. Because it is not feasible at this time.

Perhaps it will be Liu Yu who suppresses them in the future, but someone must die on this road and be the founder.

These are all the best boys among the orphans. Thinking of their possible future, Liu Yu swept away the fleeting sadness in his heart and poured a small glass of fruit wine for each of them.

"A man is determined to leave his hometown, and he will not return until he has achieved fame. Why bury your bones in your hometown? There are green mountains everywhere in life."

"I have taught you the common sense of this world that has nothing to do with people."

"Those reasons about people, why there are rich and poor, why the rich live in luxury and the poor die in the streets, you have to explore them by yourself. When you figure it out in the future, don't forget to come back and tell me."