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Moreover, only the original distillation method is used, and the utilization rate of crude oil is not high.

"Yes!" Lin Zhi didn't know what the emperor wanted to do, anyway, he just followed the order.

As the number of scientists in Qintian Academy increased, Zhao Han asked these people to communicate with various departments.For example, mints, various mines, water conservancy departments, map drawing departments, etc. under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry.There are also shipyards and gun factories of the Ministry of War.

The official establishment of scientists is still in the Qintian Academy, and at the same time they are seconded out, and they can get two salaries.

If you do a good job, you can choose to leave Qintianyuan and go to other related yamen for promotion.

Lin Zhi bowed and stepped back, but Zhao Han was looking at the ceiling.

Once kerosene is produced on a large scale, it will be equivalent to a lighting revolution, and people all over the country will switch to kerosene lamps.Of course, rich people will not, the early kerosene smoke is too big, and the throat is pungent and very uncomfortable.

Workers...can go to work with lamps at night.

Zhao Han withdrew his thoughts from Piaoyuan, and ordered: "Bring that Rakshasa ghost in!"

Chapter 893 [To deceive the emperor and cut off hands]

Baykov, who had been hungry all day, was finally taken to the emperor by the officer.

He bowed to the emperor according to the way he was training, but he suddenly heard a loud shout: "Bastard!"

The guards on both sides rushed over and instantly pushed Baykov to the ground.

The officer's face turned pale with fright, and he quickly explained: "Your Majesty, this Raksha barbarian has a bad memory, it's not...it's not Honglu Temple's disorderly teaching etiquette."

"Okay, let him go." Zhao Han raised his hand and said.

Baykov thought he was going to be executed and struggled desperately.He was let go again all of a sudden, which immediately made him confused.

The general official said with a bitter face: "How many times have I told you that you should keep your left hand out when bowing. Men left left and women right are Jibai, while men right and women left left is Jibai. Your etiquette just now is cursing the emperor."

When hearing this statement, French and Persian envoys would feel that Chinese etiquette is complicated and changeable, reflecting the majesty and elegance of the Chinese court.

But Baykov believed that the Chinese emperor was really a barbarian, and a small mistake could mobilize the army.He bowed again and said, "I'm very sorry, I misremembered."

Zhao Han didn't give him a seat, but asked, "The Rakshasa bandits in the north also lost their way?"

Baykov explained: "Your Majesty the Great Emperor, those robbers are called Cossacks, they were bandits who disobeyed the Tsar, and were expelled to Siberia by the Tsar. The behavior of the Cossacks has nothing to do with Russia."

Zhao Han didn't bother to debate this matter, so he asked directly: "In Russia, what is the crime of cheating the Tsar? How should it be punished?"

Baykov said: "It is a capital offense to deceive the Tsar."

Zhao Han laughed and said, "It just so happens that cheating the emperor is a capital offense in China. You cheated me just now, how do you think I should punish you?"

After the officer finished translating this sentence, Baykov was stunned for a moment, and explained bravely, "Your Majesty, the actions of those Cossacks really have nothing to do with Russia."

"Very well, you are continuing to lie to me. You are an envoy, and I will reserve some dignity for you," Zhao Han suddenly ordered, "All the other members of the Russian mission cut off their left hands so that the doctors can treat them well. The general officer , translate it to him. Tell him, you can continue to lie to me. If you lie to me again, your right hand will be cut off. If you lie to me twice, your feet will be cut off!"

Baykov was wondering what was going on when a guard was ordered to leave, when the officer translated the emperor's words.

Baykov immediately yelled: "This is an uncivilized behavior. Is China going to war with Russia?"

"Don't tell me the two countries are not at war?" Zhao Han asked back, "You can continue to deny it. After cutting off the hands and feet of the members of the envoy, it will be your turn to cut off your hands and feet."

Baykov shut up immediately, he was just reckless, but he was not stupid, a good man would not suffer from immediate losses.

Zhao Han said: "The two countries have nothing to talk about. I will ask Honglu Temple to write a letter of credence, written in Chinese characters and Latin, and you will bring it back to the Tsar. Those Cossacks will not leave Siberia for a day, and China and Russia will always maintain war State! I will order all vassal states to ban trade with Russia, including the Mongols you meet along the way!"

The prohibition of trade between vassal forces and Russia is not aimed at Russia, but can start war against vassals at any time.

For example, the Durbert Department of Oirat Mongolia, if China plans to send troops to conquer in the future, the pretext for declaring war is to disobey the emperor's order and trade with Russia.The reason is very good, the suzerain country is at war, how dare you secretly support the enemy!

"Take him down." Zhao Han waved his hand.

Baykov was so hungry that his stomach hurt, and he hurried back to Zhongshan Temple for dinner, but he heard groans coming from the room from time to time.

He opened the door and saw that his regiment members were all lying on the bed, each with a linen bandage on their left hand.Obviously, the emperor did what he said, and more than a dozen hands have been chopped off.

When the members of the mission saw Baykov coming back, they all cast resentful glances.

When the Chinese chop off their hands, they have made it very clear.It was because Baykov lied to the emperor many times, and he refused to admit it when he was exposed face to face, so the emperor ordered their left hands to be cut off in anger.

Why did Baykov cheat and anger the emperor, he had nothing to do with himself, but we were all beheaded?

In the evening, envoys from various countries had dinner and wandered around in twos and threes.

Hearing that the Russian envoy's hands were cut off, everyone came to watch, and then chatted and made fun of them in front of the Russians.

In the eyes of the envoys from various countries, the Chinese emperor is majestic and benevolent, and he has always treated them with great hospitality.For such a great emperor, the Russian envoy dared to deceive him many times, and he refused to admit it when he was exposed. Let alone chopping off a hand, even if he chopped off his head, he deserved it.

Those French envoys laughed even more, they had creative material, and they had something to brag about back in Paris.

From now on, in their creations, in the salons of Parisian ladies, there will be jokes about Russians.These savage and stupid Russians tried to deceive the clever Chinese emperor, and wanted to deny it after being exposed on the spot, so they quickly met the emperor's wrath.

As for how they cheated, although they don't know, they can make it up.

This story is enough to deduce dozens of versions, and it can be passed down from Louis XIV to Louis XVI.

The French envoys ran to exchange views with the Persian envoys, and the Mughal envoys also came to join them.They discussed the details of the story with each other. Don't ask how they knew it, but the Chinese officials revealed it privately.

"Chong!"

Baikov became more and more angry when he heard it, and he drew his knife and rushed to the courtyard: "Whoever dares to talk nonsense again, I will kill him!"

Several Mughal envoys, feeling threatened, immediately ran back to their courtyard to get weapons.They surrounded Baykov without saying a word, their meaning was obvious, and they hacked him to death if they dared to bully him.

If his team members are healthy, Baykov will definitely fight the Indians.

But thinking about the group of wounded in the room, Baikov turned around angrily, and returned to the room, unwilling to see anyone again.

"Haha, a strong but cowardly country bumpkin." The French envoy gloated, and even looked at the Indians more pleasingly.

They go to drink in private, of course, this will have to pay extra for the drink.

After drinking to their ears, the Mughal envoy said that when they returned to Delhi, they would definitely ask the emperor to send an envoy to visit France.The French envoy also said that when they return, they will visit the Mughal Empire by the way.

The more Baykov thought about it, the more annoyed he became, and after a long time he finally calmed down, took out a pen and paper and wrote:

"Emperor Khitan was smart, irritable, arrogant, and even cut off the left hands of the members of the mission because of a few diplomatic lies..."

"Khitan's imperial palace is very large, probably several times the size of the Kremlin. The Khitan emperor's seat is carved with pythons and leaves, and the Khitan flag also has pythons, which are four-legged pythons..."

"The capital of the Khitan people is not the legendary Khan Bali (Beijing), but a place called Nanjing further south. The city of Nanjing is very large, divided into outer city, inner city, imperial city and palace city. Listen to the damn French envoy It takes at least three days to walk around the inner city of Nanjing. It may take half a month to walk around the outer city of Nanjing..."

"The population of Nanjing City is said to be more than 100 million, which is one-sixth of the population of Russia. The Khitan Emperor announced in a newspaper that the population of Khitan has exceeded [-] million. Newspapers are very thin books. Every month or Published regularly in two or three months, with various news and literary works..."

"There is only one school in Russia, but in Nanjing, there are dozens of schools. The Khitan people here are very clean, and even the free people outside the city, many of them can read and write. I saw a farmer's son with my own eyes. Sit on the edge of the field and read while weeding and resting. I heard people say that a large part of Khitan’s national taxation is used for education funds, regardless of gender, high or low, and all children must be forced to study..."

"In the city of Nanking, there are plenty of velvet, satin, corrugated wrought iron, precious stones, pearls and silver. There are also all kinds of vegetables and fruits, including apples, pears, cantaloupe, watermelons, grapes, cucumbers, Greek nuts and Russian nuts, honey , beeswax and sugar are also abundant, and there are many other things that I can’t name. There is gold everywhere, so rich that it can flow grease. If Nanjing is captured, it can be enjoyed by nobles all over Russia for 100 years..."

"The Khitan people in Nanking City, both male and female, are strong. Rich men always wear silk and satin, while poor men wear cotton clothes, and some people wear linen clothes when doing manual work. Women wear short jackets and skirts, and their hair They comb like Germans. Khitan people have very fair complexion, and their skin is delicate, and their pores are not large. Seeing foreigners, the eyes of Khitan rich people are full of contempt, while Khitan poor people are very curious about foreigners..."

"Many foreigners live in Nanjing, including French, Spaniards, Italians, Persians, Indians, Livonians, etc. It must be noted that the exiled British prince married his sister to the Khitan crown prince , the Khitan may support the restoration of the British prince. Also, the French king has a good personal relationship with the Khitan emperor. They maintain correspondence all year round and send artists and envoys to each other..."

"Outside the city of Nanjing, there is a Buddhist pagoda. It is incomparably high, towering above the clouds, and it is hard to understand how it was built..."

"There is not only one city in Khitan that is as prosperous as Nanjing. On the way, I also passed Linqing, Jining, Xuzhou, Yangzhou and other cities, all of which have populations of hundreds of thousands or millions. According to the French envoy, they came from the sea. Yes, after passing through a series of big cities such as Guangzhou, Fuzhou, and Hangzhou. The scale of each city is far larger than Moscow..."

"I bought a map of Khitan in the bookstore. This country is unparalleled, and what I have experienced is only a small part. Around it, there are dozens of hundreds of dependent countries, and Khitan often intervenes in the dependent countries wars, and always won. The powerful Spanish and Dutch fleets were defeated by the Khitan within ten years..."

"Khitan is invincible for the time being, but the distance from Nanjing to Siberia is comparable to the distance from Moscow to Siberia. Siberia is very cold, and the Khitan people who like warmth cannot invest too much troops in Siberia. I suggest to the Cossack expedition team, equipped with More powerful weapons, only in this way can we defend the Siberian territory of the empire, so as to obtain more fur..."

"By the way, the Khitans seldom use gold coins. Their currency is copper and silver coins, and the common people mainly use copper coins. This is a good economic policy. I suggest that the Russian Empire also issue copper coins to ease the financial crisis..."

In fact, there is no need for Baykov's suggestion. The tsar, whose finances have collapsed due to the long-term war, will issue copper coins across the country in a few years.

Then, the inflation was dozens of times, and the citizens of Moscow launched a "copper coin riot". The tsar tried his best to suppress it, and ordered the abolition of copper coins the next year.

Chapter 894 [Voyage to America]

The eldest princess Zhao Furong is already engaged, and the wedding is in October. Her fiancé is Chen Zhiping, the son of a household doctor.

Chen Zhiping's hobbies are very mixed. He has both arts and sciences. He knows a little about everything, but he is not very proficient in everything.He loves to collect antique calligraphy and paintings, and sometimes studies mathematics and physics. Recently, he has become obsessed with stargazing at night. He can talk well with the princess.

This man is studying at Jinling University at his own expense and is about to graduate from university.

Why drop out of school?

Because I couldn't pass the college graduation exam!

Chen Zhiping didn't even think about going into an official career, anyway, his father was an official, his grandfather was in business, and the family had enough money to satisfy his various hobbies.

The reason why Zhao Han and Fei Rulan agreed to the marriage was because they felt that this young man had a good character.Although he seems a little out of tune and his personality has not settled down, he never goes to entertainment venues and is immersed in various hobbies all day long.If the princess marries such a person, she must have a very interesting life.

"This is a letter from Li Quan." Zhao Han said to his daughter.

"Ah?" Zhao Furong blushed a little.

Zhao Han said again: "He has already sailed to the ocean, you can take it and see for yourself."

Li Quan prepared for a year, but finally couldn't bear it anymore, and set off in Shandong in May of the lunar calendar.Going at this time can avoid summer storms and arrive at Japanese ports in a relatively safe manner.

In fact, the Spanish galleon route is the shortest route.Sailing along the Kuroshio Current in southern Japan, and then sailing into the North Pacific Warm Current, you can go directly to the west coast of North America.

But Li Quan's departure from Shandong will not be too devious.This route is mainly for the convenience of the northern provinces, taking goods from Shandong to northern Japan, and trading at the port of Sakata in Japan.Sakata is currently the largest port in Northeast Japan, and the safflower trade is just beginning to rise. Li Quan built a trading company here, and the excess money he earned stayed in the trading company. After supplying fresh water and food, he continued eastward.

Zhao Furong went back with the letter and was a little annoyed after reading it.

Li Quan said in the letter that he had received the silver sent by the princess, thanked the princess for her support, and he would give the princess some shares.

Zhao Furong didn't want any shares, she just wanted to help, so she took out the hundreds of taels of silver she had saved over the years and gave it away.She knew that she had no future with Li Quan, but she just liked this young man, he could be regarded as the eternal white moonlight in the princess' heart.

Annoyed, Zhao Furong wanted to burn the letter, but he couldn't bear it, so he put it in a book he didn't read very much.

Li Quan not only wrote a letter to the princess, but also wrote a letter to the emperor.

Since his five ships have been separated from the naval system, he doesn't know what their status is.Therefore, he registered a company and converted all the ships and the silver financed by Zhao Han into company shares.

The royal family holds 60% of the shares, the Navy Governor's Mansion holds 10% of the shares, and the remaining shareholders jointly hold 30% of the shares.

All crew members got shares, including the soldiers he enlisted, to boost everyone's motivation.In the future, the company will be responsible for its own profits and losses, and if the losses are exhausted, it will ask the royal family for additional investment.

But it is said that Li Quan led the fleet to Japan and found that there were more merchant ships in the North Japan Sea.

Since he opened up the relationship and dragged the shogun's uncle into the water for smuggling, other coastal feudal lords have also become bold.Anyway, the shogun is still young, and the power is in the hands of the old man, so he quickly took the opportunity to smuggle and make more money.Otherwise, in a few years, when the shogun grows up, he will gather power and severely ban the sea.

Five large ships docked at Sakata Port, which is more prosperous than last year.As an important commodity, safflower can not only be sold to Kyoto and Osaka, but even Chinese businessmen are buying it.

After unloading most of the cotton cloth from Shandong, Li Quan only bought fresh water and food to ensure that he would not worry about food and drink during the ocean voyage.As for the cotton cloth, it is all handled by the trading company, and it is enough to store it there and sell it slowly.

Continue sailing to Hakodate, the city of Hakodate in Hokkaido.

There is a Japanese government office here, which was set up by the Matsumae clan to collect service taxes.Although it is not a commercial port, it can also supply some food and drink, anyway, pack as much food as possible.

Sailing northeast along the Kuroshio Current, which diverged from the Spanish galleon route.

It has to make a bend to the northeast and head south, and then it coincides with the sailing route.This Kuroshio bend is the largest fishing ground in the world - the Hokkaido fishing ground!

At present, Hokkaido's fishing grounds have not yet been developed, and only the Matsumae Domain and the Ainu people use small fishing boats to fish in the offshore.

"A lot of fish!"

Li Quan was also shocked. Wherever the fleet passed, schools of fish could be seen swimming with the naked eye.

It can be developed here!

When I return from my voyage, I will recruit some merchants and bring large fishing boats to make sure that every fishing boat returns with a full load.

It is necessary to establish a stronghold nearby (Hokkaido) and recruit indigenous people to make salted fish, otherwise it will stink when it is shipped back to China.

After another half a month, the ordinary fresh water I carried was exhausted.

Those buckets with seals were opened one by one.

Many difficulties in the era of great navigation are not difficult for Li Quan.One is the improvement of storage technology, which makes the shelf life of fresh water longer; the other is that Li Quan is willing to spend money, and there are no profitable commodities on board, but it is full of all kinds of food.

Tea, pickles, and bean sprouts are all sources of vitamins.

In the Spanish galleon trade, what the crew feared most was scurvy.Although doctors said that lemon juice could cure diseases decades ago, it was written in a voyage book, which recorded anecdotes in a humorous and humorous way, but no one believed it because the content was too bland.

It will take another 80 years for Dutch writers and Austrian doctors to discover that fruits and vegetables can prevent scurvy almost at the same time.

Before Li Quan set sail, Zhao Han gave advice to the crew to eat more vegetables and fruits, and to eat tea and bean sprouts if there were no vegetables and fruits.

The fresh water that has expired and deteriorated is all used to germinate bean sprouts.

On the way, they only encountered two small storms. After more than five months of sailing, almost all of them saw the land without damage.

The only loss of personnel was that one person died of illness and dozens of people were bedridden.

If the ship is destroyed in a big storm, it is really unlucky.Historically, the Spaniards made 250 Pacific voyages in 500 years, and only more than 40 ships were sunk, including those sunk due to wars.