Long before Batavia set sail, old William prepared two sets of suits for Crowley. Old William knew that if he wanted to cultivate this old friend and nephew who came to his door, he must establish a relationship with a certain force.

Old William was convinced of this. He relied on this to transform himself from an old mercenary who chewed tobacco leaves and worked for others to the current Mr. William, a respected wealthy businessman.

So old William pays great attention to details.

So, Crowley dug out the two sets of simple clothes from the suitcase that he had never worn before.

"Very well, now let's go into the city and bring our clothes and parchment."

"Is it those parchments I was thinking of?"

"Yes, there are people at the party who care about it. I saw them yesterday."

——————————————————————————————

It is very convenient to go to Hongjibao from the pier. After getting off the boat, there is a thin brown and black Annan slider driver wearing a neat orange vest to collect customers.

Since Crowley came to the East, he has ridden on sliding poles in many countries and city-states, and their shapes are similar. So he and old William naturally hired two pairs of sliding poles and entered the city one after the other.

The pier is very close to the west gate of Hongji Fort, only 300 meters away, which is exactly within the best coverage of artillery fire at the top of the city.

However, what caught Crowley's attention was not the cannon at the top of the city, but the cinder road at his feet.

The cinder road mixed with stones is black and smooth, leading from the dock all the way into the city. Sitting on the slider and looking around, there are several similar cinder roads to the east of the dock leading inland. There is a constant flow of Annan people on the road.

Pushing the trolley, the black coal was pushed into the cabin along the slope.

"Uncle William, was it very cold in the Ming Dynasty? Why was coal exported in large quantities at the port?"

"It's not cold, at least it's not cold in Macau and Dayuan."

Crowley's question was a bit profound. How could old William in the seventeenth century have any knowledge of the relationship between industrialization and coal? After thinking about it, Old William finally gave an ambiguous answer: "Maybe it's the arms factory and the mint."

The reason is that the earl needs a lot of muskets and cannons to maintain the security of the territory."

Crowley turned his head again and glanced at the large coal transport team. He temporarily suppressed his doubts and accepted Old William's statement. However, he made a slight modification in private: "It's not maintenance, it's territory expansion."

Soon, the slide team arrived at the brand new west gate of Hongji Fort.

Today's Hongji Fort, at least on the periphery, is already a formal Ming-style city. The city wall made of red bricks is majestic and thick. Even if the cannons on the city head are not included, it gives people a solid and safe feeling.

Feel.

As usual, there were troops guarding the city gate, and there were a lot of them. Sandbags and wire fences were all available, and the war readiness was obvious.

The reason is still caused by the slow transmission of information in this era.

Although a contract was signed not long ago in the capital of Thang Long, there is a process between the signing and the effective date of the treaty. This has resulted in the Annan people still not withdrawing their troops. After the defeat in the last brief encounter, the Annan people were immediately transferred from the Zhengjiang line.

No less than three armies, totaling about 10,000 people, were deployed outside Hongji.

There are many people entering and leaving the city gate, and the inspections at the city gate are also very strict.

Generally speaking, it will be difficult for local indigenous people to enter the city. However, it is very convenient for Ming people to enter the city because everyone has documents.

Regarding documents, ordinary people have cardboard cards with stamps and codes, but people like old William have a class A passport with a cowhide cover produced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A-level passports are rare in number and are issued to certified Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish immigrants. The content on the passport is not much different from that of later generations, especially the color mugshot, which is quite vivid.

Old William, who held a license, easily took Crowley into the city.

Considering military reasons, the total area of ​​Hongji Fort is not large, which is convenient for construction and defense. In fact, Hongji Fort is not even comparable to many small counties in the Ming Dynasty. To be precise, this is a large military camp.

After Crowley entered the city, he took a look inside the castle at a glance.

The entire Hongji Fort is divided into four functional areas: military camp, ordnance, storage, and administrative areas. The neatly divided interior of the city is all separated by straight cinder roads, which looks simple and clear.

"Brand new castle."

When he said this, Crowley suddenly realized something: since he came to Hongji Port, all the roads he saw were neat and clean, and there was not a piece of garbage on the ground.

,

Not to mention the feces and urine that fill the streets of London.

You know, this is a busy port. He came to East Asia from England and saw too many port cities along the way, but none of them were as clean and tidy as this one, as if it was the living room of his own home.

Realizing the problem, Crowley said with emotion: "Uncle William, the owner here likes to clean the courtyard...a kind of respectable Eastern thinking."

Old William laughed loudly: "This is just a simple settlement that we just got. When we get to Dayang, you can see the real heaven on earth! Oh, my God, forgive me, the kingdom of heaven is actually inhabited by yellow-skinned people.

of East Asia!”

While talking, old William poked the bearer's back with his cane and directed them to the administrative area.

Old William, who was very familiar with time-travel forces, even when he came to Hongji Castle for the first time, he could easily find the standard supporting facilities of a city under a certain force: a bathhouse.

Crowley naturally would not refuse the service of bathing.

It is now the 1730s, the Renaissance trend of thought is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, the mainstream European thought is transitioning to pragmatic capitalism, and the dirty life concepts of the Middle Ages are being questioned and abandoned.

Not to mention in Hongji, since Crowley came to the hot South Asia, he has taken a bath frequently.

The Dutch in Batavia have now long been on par with the leaders in terms of urban hygiene, and have built several new bathhouses in the city.

Some things cannot be blocked, even if the time traveler strictly controls the transmission of knowledge.

The Dutch were one of the smartest people in the 17th century. They had lived in Dazhan for a long time and watched with their own eyes as the city was gradually transformed into a prosperous city by travelers. They also saw with their own eyes that there had never been an epidemic in this city.

.

In this process, the red-haired people have made inseparable guesses about how to prevent people living in concentrated communities from getting the Black Death and dysentery; about the connection between public health and large-scale infectious diseases.

Even imitations can have great effects. This is a bad era. If you pay a little attention to public health, the city can get good returns.

The black-smoky boiler room provided the administrative area with clean drinking water and bathing water around the clock. After sending the bearers away, Crowley and the others entered the bathhouse and spent only a small amount of money to take a shower with a large iron shower head.

Afterwards, Crowley put on a brown thin cotton suit and tied a blue tie with the skillful help of old William.

Although it was a bit unaccustomed to him, Crowley was educated by an aristocrat after all. He had all the basic physical etiquette of holding his chest up and raising his head to maintain his temperament. The suit upper body, coupled with his mustache and slightly fat figure, gave him a strong aura

The old-fashioned gentleman flavor comes out.

After the two of them came out of the bathhouse, it was already three or four o'clock in the afternoon. Old William walked to the car with a cane and walked straight to the center of the administrative district.

In the center of the administrative district, there is now a square courtyard. In the courtyard is a two-story red brick building with eight-shaped podiums on both sides, which is very similar to early Soviet architecture.

After checking the registration and showing the invitation, old William took his nephew into the compound after passing two sentry posts.

The legendary banquet has not started yet, but Old William and the others arrived at just the right time: the handover ceremony before the banquet was about to be held.

The first thing that caught Crowley's eyes was the venue.

About a hundred wooden chairs were placed on the cinder patch in the middle of the courtyard, leaving a passage in the middle.

Opposite the chair is a simple rostrum formed by a row of long tables.

The phalanx of chairs now had an attendance rate of 70%. Among them were not only Easterners in long robes and soft hats, but also many white-skinned and blue-eyed Europeans sitting behind them. In addition, some people at the front of the phalanx immediately gave way to

Lawley understood the origin of the clothes he was wearing: they all had the same style.

The next moment, old William gently touched his nephew with his elbow, and then whispered: "Crowley, open your eyes wide. I will point out those big shots to you. They are the most powerful people in the East, and they are us."

The source of wealth!”

"I understand, Uncle William."

Next, old William first went to the back row of the phalanx, greeted a group of foreign businessmen, mainly Dutch, and introduced his distant nephew to everyone.

After that, old William sat in an inconspicuous corner with his nephew and began to point out to the latter the identities of the various people in the phalanx one by one: which ones were the traditional nobles of the Ming Dynasty, which ones were the local Annan indigenous nobles, which ones were

They are the time-travelers... There is no need to identify them. Generally, the time-travelers, in this season in Annan, are all wearing thin suits or jackets, and they are tall and majestic, so they are easy to identify.

Soon after, as the guests arrived, a simple handover ceremony began.

First, Shao Qiang, a member of the traveling group, came on stage and said a few words with a smile. Then, as the guest master of ceremonies, he led two Annan people to the front of the stage.

The two Annamites were civilized and military, one old and one young, wearing official robes and armor respectively.

After that, another member of the audience came on stage and exchanged something like a document with the old Annan official amid the friendly applause of the audience.

Later, another traveler wearing an army general's uniform came on stage and symbolically handed a matchlock gun to General Annan who was smiling... There was a freeze frame between the two sides here, facing the audience, probably

This is for the convenience of taking pictures.

Next, the most solemn scene of the day appeared: the guests stood up collectively and walked to the side of the venue with the host.

A large object covered with a tarpaulin has been placed here for a long time. Crowley privately estimated that the thing under the tarpaulin should be about the same size as a four-wheeled carriage in his hometown.

There is also a piece of red cloth hanging on the mysterious object, seemingly waiting for the leader to cut the ribbon.

Of course, the leader will not miss the opportunity to cut the ribbon.

Soon, amid exclamations of surprise, a large mortar with a ferocious shape, a short and thick barrel, and a caliber of 170 mm appeared in front of everyone.
Chapter completed!