As a commercial port that was founded less than a year ago, Dalian is far from being compared with well-known cities like Nanjing, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, and even Linqing, but for Europeans like Van Diemen and Kuyi who have never seen the world

Speaking of which, the city in front of us is already extremely prosperous.

Since we need to investigate, we should investigate carefully.

Colonists are colonists. Even though he knew that the Ming Dynasty was an invincible giant, the first target of Van Diemen's inspection was still the fort in Dalian Bay!

In terms of sea defense, Dalian is not a fortress-type port. However, as a port city, it would be a naked beauty if it did not build forts. Therefore, two bastion-style forts were built as early as the city was founded. This is of course not

The bastion fort is made of bamboo fort baskets. Instead, the bastion is built with stone. The two bastions are medium in size and were built based on the drawings of coastal bastions in the early 19th century.

Compared with the bastions of this era, its structure is more complete and scientific. Although the bastion made of stone and cement is not as good as reinforced concrete, it is still very strong. Facing the ocean, in addition to the installation of a 50-pound truck

In addition to the dragon cannon, a twenty-seven-pound fortress cannon was also installed! It was equivalent to the thirty-six-pound fortress cannon in Europe, but this kind of giant cannon would not be cast for almost another century.

If the two bastion forts are completed, there will be eighteen twenty-seven-pound fortress cannons, plus twenty-four eighteen fortresses, and more than sixty carronade cannons, enough to attack any attempt to invade from the waterway.

Dalian's fleet dealt a fatal blow.

Although the main body of the bastion was not completed, gun emplacements had been installed on the side facing the ocean. Facing the huge fortress cannons on the emplacements, everyone chose to remain silent.

"Even in Europe, there are no such big artillery!"

At this moment, Van Diemen was heartbroken!

It wasn't because he couldn't capture the city, but because... to whom did he sell the weapons on his ship? Especially when he found out that the soldiers guarding the fort actually used flintlock guns that didn't require matchlocks, his face became even more ugly.

In fact, he really saw it wrong. Those guns were percussion guns that were more advanced than flintlock guns. However, from a distance, they looked somewhat similar to flintlock guns.

"Sir, they seem to be using the most advanced dog-lock flintlock guns in Europe."

Lieutenant Pierce's reminder made Van Diemen upset.

"I know……"

Of course he knew that these were the most advanced firearms in Europe. Even Batavia didn't have many of them. But here, they had already used these extremely advanced weapons.

Damn it must be the Portuguese who sold them these advanced weapons. That's for sure. Some Portuguese have artillery casting factories in Macau. Well, since they can sell artillery to the Ming Dynasty, they will definitely sell the muskets.

Sold to China.

"Then what we brought is a matchlock gun. I'm afraid it will be smashed into your hands."

Even if what they brought was the most advanced Sur matchlock, it was still a matchlock! It was better not to have a flintlock gun.

Kui Yi interrupted him.

"Pierce, do you know why you are still a second lieutenant until now?"

"What?"

Pierce looked at Kuiyi in confusion, apparently he hadn't noticed the Governor's face had darkened.

"Let's take a look around the city!"

Van Diemen said with some lack of interest.

As a city, Dalian is different from any other city in the Ming Dynasty. It has no city walls. Even the city planning is different from any other city in this era. In order to save trouble, Zhu Guoqiang directly chose the borrowing doctrine and directly borrowed the city walls in the street planning.

In the late 19th century, when Dalian was built as a city, the layout of the entire city was different from the chessboard layout of the traditional old city, but changed to a radial spider web of roads. The center point of the entire city street in Dalian is the 213-meter-diameter broken

There are 10 streets radiating out from Lu Square, with green spaces and gardens in the middle, and the surrounding trees, large and small, divide the space... Of course, all of this is still under construction, but it is just taking shape.

The wide Polu Street leading to the port is the main axis of the urban area, and it is also the most prosperous area of ​​the city. As the most prosperous "golden area" in Dalian, all the buildings on both sides belong to Taiping Commercial Bank, and Taiping Commercial Bank is the largest shareholder.

It is Zhu Guoqiang himself, and as for the shareholders, he is a general in the Pinglu Army. This is of course also a kind of interest bundle.

Compared with other empty streets, Polu Street is undoubtedly prosperous. On both sides of the road paved with bluestones, many Ming-style buildings have been built, and many buildings are under construction. Being on this street,

No one can doubt its future prosperity.

In fact, to Van Diemen and his party, this group of people were like bumpkins on this wide street, surprised by the prosperity here.

"Are you sure this is a newly built city?"

"At the beginning of the year, when the prince made the Northern Expedition to regain this place, it was just a barren land!"

Obviously, no one believed Yun Haiping's answer.

Who can believe all this?

At night, when the street lights in Dalian City were lit and he was in a hotel next to a small square on the other side of the city, he could see the sea in the distance from the balcony of the hotel. Fan Diemen noticed the industrial area in the distance.

There are shipyards, arsenals, cotton mills and many other factories there.

During the day, Van Diemen and the others had visited there. Although they were not allowed to enter the arsenal, in the shipyard, on the stone slipway, they saw many workers busy there, and the ships they were building were shaped like ships.

It is different from the Galenic ships in Europe and the traditional sea-going ships of the Ming Dynasty. It is a new type of ship shape. Its round bow and round stern not only lack beauty, but even look a bit ugly.

But even so, he still believed that what was being built was a warship, and those gun windows and dense ribs could not hide it from others!

There are at least three such warships on the slipway, which is indeed a worrying problem!

Although the East India Company now has nearly 60 ships, it does not have a single warship. They are all armed merchant ships. In fact, the Netherlands did not have many specially designed warships in this era. Most of them were armed merchant ships, but they had more cannons and fewer cannons.

Looks like they are building a real fleet!

Although he didn't think that the Ming Dynasty would get involved in Batavia, the businessman's intuition told Van Diemen that this was not a good thing. His brows suddenly frowned.

"Your Majesty the Governor, I don't think this is a very good business base!"

Kuiyi interrupted his thoughts.

"It's really not a good choice. It's too close to the north. The time we got here was even further away than going to Nagasaki."

Van Diemen nodded and said.

"But, on the other hand, this is also an opportunity for us. This will be the first port that we can freely enter. From here, sail westward into the Bohai Sea, which is the capital of the Ming Dynasty. If we

If we establish a trade base here, it will be easy to enter the capital of the Ming Dynasty in the future, which is a place that Europeans have never been to."

Of course Europeans have been there, but European merchants have never directly entered that city for trade. In fact, for European merchants, even if they can directly enter Guangzhou to do business, let alone the capital, it is already a blessing from God.

.

Although the Ming Dynasty relaxed the maritime ban, what is this opening? It allows the Ming Dynasty's maritime merchants to go to sea for trade, which does not mean that Westerners can come to the Ming Dynasty's ports to do business. In other words, the maritime ban that was fully relaxed during the Wanli period actually

The "Navigation Regulations" that were half a century earlier, just like Cromwell's "Navigation Regulations", were an "opening" to protect the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade monopoly. Only the Ming Dynasty's merchant ships could transport Ming Dynasty goods to overseas trade.

In order to ensure this, European ships were even banned from entering Daming Port for direct trade.

This kind of trade protection is undoubtedly extremely important for the daimyo who have just opened the sea. After all, as soon as they go to sea, they will face the maritime experts from Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands. If the ports are completely open to free competition, the maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty will

How can we compete with them? Navigation protection is of course a matter of course.

However, many people do not agree with this. In their view, Cromwell's "Navigation Regulations" were to protect Britain, but the Ming Dynasty's behavior was to close the country.

towards.

Look, those people actually have a problem with their butts. In their eyes, Qing’s farts smell good, and foreigners’ farts smell even better!

And this is also the reason why trade strongholds like Macau and Relanjia are important. This is their best choice to obtain Ming products. Otherwise, they can only sit in Batavia and wait for the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty. However, this is fatal, and it is still possible.

There are middlemen who make the difference.

This is also the reason why Van Diemen came here personally, just to get rid of the middlemen.

"Yes."

Kui nodded and said.

"However, this is still difficult to change. Its geographical location is not ideal. I have asked some Ming people and found that there are less than one million Ming people living here, and they only need to walk for a few days in the north to enter.

The territory of the barbaric Tatars, they are at war with the Ming Dynasty!"

"The territory of the Tatars? Where is it?"

Van Diemen suddenly asked.

"Just in the north, Dalian was occupied by the Tatars in the past and was recovered by His Highness, but the Tatars are still a threat to them."

Kui Yi replied.

"We can also go to North Korea, which is also the territory of the Tatars now, and even their emperor is there."

"Tatars?"

Van Diemen thought for a moment and then said.
Chapter completed!