Chapter 47: Wind and rain from all directions come to Qiongya (1)
On the seventh day of the first lunar month in the fifth year of Chongzhen, the sky above the west side of the Taiwan Strait along the coast of southern Fujian in the Ming Empire
Under the rising sun, the thin morning fog quickly dissipated. The sky above the Taiwan Strait was cloudless, and the blue sky was as pure as sapphire.
Under this clear sky, as the morning fog dissipates, a group of huge and bloated aerial monsters are revealing their true features bit by bit, piece by piece, piece by piece - more than twenty ships have just been emergency The large airships painted with the five-star red flag, the sickle and hammer party flag and the August 1st Army flag, like a lot of cigars, white radish and baguettes, are forming a loose formation and flying south along the coastline. In those long oval semi-embedded pods with a row of small portholes, more than 700 fully armed special passengers were carried.
——Due to the limited capacity of the space-time gate, these large airships of various shapes are not the masterpieces of a copycat industrial country, but are the 22nd century black technology toys purchased by Doraemon on behalf of Doraemon, and then they swiped some emblems urgently: Of course , because it is just a toy, so like the exploration ships and other props that Doraemon once used, even the models and specifications are not unified, and they can only rely on temporary replacement of paint to maintain consistency.
Although these large airships, which are majestic and beautiful in appearance, fly slower than airplanes, they can stay in the air for longer and can carry more people and cargo. Moreover, once the engine loses power, the aircraft usually immediately turns into a pile of garbage. Even if all the engines are damaged, the airship can still stay in the air with the help of its own buoyancy, and then slowly release the gas in the air bag to achieve a safe landing.
Therefore, in the time and space of the late Ming Dynasty when there were no airports along the way, which was equivalent to "enemy-occupied territory", the safety factor of using airships was much higher than that of airplanes. As for worrisome storms and other issues, you can completely rely on Doraemon's mini weather satellite for real-time monitoring to avoid them. Fortunately, according to satellite cloud images, the entire eastern coast of China has been affected in the past two days. The weather is sunny and clear, and the intensity of the northwest wind is at an acceptable level. It is the most suitable weather for bulky aerospace vehicles like airships to set off on long voyages.
However, even though these airships come from a future world with highly developed technology, since they are just "toys", apart from a fool-proof intelligent fully automatic operating system that even children can play with, their technological content is no better than that of the 21st century. How much higher is a modern airship.
At this moment, Wang Qiu was sitting on a silver-white airship at the forefront of the entire "air fleet". Like the leader of migratory birds, he was leading more than 20 airships of various sizes towards the southwest at full speed. Relying on the automatic navigation adjustment of the intelligent system and the full push of eight electric propellers, the airship's cigar-shaped thick body is like a leisurely dolphin, gliding happily in the blue sky.
For Wang Qiu, who has only obtained a small car driver's license at best, driving an airship is really a new and exciting challenge. But in fact, through actual contact and experience, he found that it is really not difficult to drive this kind of smart airship. It is basically easier than playing an air combat game. As long as you input a few rough instructions on the touch screen, the next step will be done. Everything can be automatically controlled and adjusted by the computer on the boat - if you think about it, even a primary school student like Nobita Nobita can control a "large toy", how could a college student like Wang Qiu not be able to play with it?
In the belly of the airship, in a protruding pod about the size of an ordinary minibus, senior Ma Tong and mother Wang Meiling were leaning curiously against the aluminum bulkhead, looking down through the solid portholes. With the scenery at his feet, he casually opened a small triangular glass window a small crack, and the cold winter wind with a hint of chill suddenly blew in from the crack of the window, making a sharp whistling sound.
At this time, this huge airship formation was soaring over the southern Fujian coast on the west coast of the Taiwan Strait.
Looking down from the cockpit of the airship, the right side of the pod is the endless sea, with the undulating waves shining in the sun. The left side of the pod is the land of southern Fujian, with green hills and fields, leisurely and leisurely. The various pedestrians walking around, the slowly wandering small boats, the carved pavilions and pavilions, and the temples hidden under the towering pines and cypresses all give people infinite poetry, just like a series of pleasing landscape paintings, so beautiful that it makes people feel enchanted.
Then, the formation of airships soaring over this southern Fujian scenery was like a group of running bulls breaking into the garden, messing up all the poetry, leisure and elegance - every airship passing by Almost all the fishing boats floating on the sea and estuaries, as well as the pedestrians and carriages on the farms and in the mountains, were frightened by these unheard of giant beasts in the sky, and then fled in a hurry.
However, when the people on the ground realized that the giant beasts in the sky did not seem to be dangerous, they stopped running away. Instead, they emerged from the woods or huts one after another, and pulled out their own boats from the reeds and fjords, as if watching. They followed and watched the airship in the sky like a diorama.
In the densely populated port towns along the coast, the sudden appearance of such a large group of aerial monsters attracted a large number of onlookers. When the airship passed over a certain town, the ground was completely deserted. With all kinds of noisy shouts, some people knelt on the street and prayed silently, while others rushed outside or climbed to high places. Countless heads moved along with the trajectory of the airship. This scene was really spectacular.
Both Ma Tong and Wang Meiling were very interested in this. Not only did they lie on the floor and use binoculars to look down, they would even occasionally make some noise, throwing things like firecrackers, or scattering shiny confetti in the air. Debris, and the other thing is to use a chimney to blow out a long stream of colored smoke, and then watch with amusement the ant-like crowd below running around and commotion thinking that "the monster is angry", just like those naughty children teasing crickets.
It's like a person throwing a meat bone and watching a group of wild dogs fighting for food. It's just a farce to pass the time.
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On the other side, Wang Qiu and Professor Guo were more impressed by the abnormal weather along the way than watching the movements of these Ming Dynasty people with telescopes.
"...Hey, is this the so-called Little Ice Age in the late Ming Dynasty? Looking at the ice and snow on the shore along the way, I can't tell whether this is China or Russia! It's really hard to imagine a Little Ice Age like this. , what should the real Ice Age look like! ”
Feeling the biting cold wind blowing in from the cracks in the window, Wang Qiu muttered while looking at the navigation map on the screen.
In short, as far as Wang Qiu saw with his own eyes, the Little Ice Age in the late Ming Dynasty, which ruined the fate of the Ming Dynasty, was indeed well-deserved - the airship formation came all the way south from Vladivostok, not to mention the Jiangnan water town that should have a warm climate. At this time, overlooking It was Qianli Xueye. All rivers and lakes are frozen, and farmland and tidal flats are all white. Even Wenzhou, Ningbo, and Zhoushan, where snow rarely falls in later generations, are actually covered in silver and covered with snow. Even further south in the Fuzhou area, snow can be seen everywhere. In the 21st century, it never snows in Fujian.
It was not until Quanzhou and Xiamen further south, where the airship formation was currently located, that traces of ice and snow were basically gone on the land, at least large tracts of snow were no longer visible. But the surface temperature is still hovering near zero, and the biting cold wind is like a knife. It makes people completely unable to feel that they are not far from the Tropic of Cancer, and will soon enter the tropics with year-round high temperatures...
"...If it is a real ice age, then the polar glaciers can extend from the Arctic Ocean to Hunan and Jiangxi, and even the Philippines and Vietnam will have heavy snowfall in winter!" Professor Guo frowned and replied, "...but even this Little Ice Age, all over the world The civilized world of the world is already in trouble - the nomads on the grasslands have suffered from drought for many years. If they don't go south to rob, they will starve to death. The farmers in North China will have no harvest for almost eight years in ten years. If they don't rebel against the bandits, they will starve to death. And the decadent Ming Dynasty government did not talk about organizing disaster relief. , but it is still intensifying to push the victims to death... It is not the worst now. In a few years, the entire Central Plains will be full of bones and desolate, and the social order in the north is that the landlords rely on the lives of grass-eating people to survive. life, the common people only Can eat each other's human flesh and bones, or kill themselves with Guanyin soil. This kind of damn society has no productive and constructive nature. It can only be maintained by cannibalism and being eaten. It is more cruel than the colonial plunder of the West in the future. How can it be maintained? Go down?”
"...Actually, the situation in the Ming Dynasty is very scary now. I once organized farming in Liaodong, but I tried all kinds of methods, but there was still no harvest from the crops in the field, so I had to rely on supplies from the rear. In addition to Liaodong, The entire nine-border land from Gansu to Datong is also suffering from severe frost damage and no harvests. Military households either fled or starved to death. The remaining ones had no choice but to rebel. The empire's border defenses have completely collapsed..."
Huang Shi, the only one on the boat wearing the armor of a Ming Dynasty general, couldn't help but come up and sigh, "...The situation in the mainland is equally bad. Those gentry who talk about benevolence, justice and morality actually don't regard the common people as human beings at all. Natural disasters It is clear that there are so many, but the government and the gentry do not provide relief, but they intensify their extortionate extortion, but they only want to take away the last grain of wheat from the peasants' homes. I didn’t know how to organize production to fight the disaster. First, ordinary farmers were forced to sell their autumn crops at low prices to pay off debts, and then in the spring they had to borrow loan sharks to survive. If this cycle continues, they are already on the verge of death, and then they will have to pay a fortune. With wages, the land of plenty in the south may be able to barely sustain it, but it’s no wonder those farmers in the north who have had no harvests for years can survive!
What is ridiculous is that during the Taiping War in the late Qing Dynasty, the lower-level bureaucrats and landlords at least knew how to maintain the necessary force to maintain their rule in the face of the surging peasant uprising. But now, the group of civil servants in the Ming Dynasty are simply a shame in Chinese history. They have knives on their necks, but they still want to be regarded as dead professionals. They would rather be looted by bandits and Tartars than allocate a tael to the army. Silver..."
Recalling the arrogant attitude full of disdain and contempt used by the civil servants of the imperial court towards the generals, and the disgusting attitude towards the army that "the credit goes to me, you take the blame, and you provide your own food and pay", Huang Shi was filled with nameless anger and anger. Don't hit any place.
"...That's because you mistakenly regarded them as officials. Comrade Xiao Huang, if you regard these gentry and talented people in the Ming Dynasty as religious sticks, you will feel that their behavior is not surprising at all - God Is there any religion out there that doesn’t defraud money and food and then defraud people to death?”
Professor Guo touched his beard and said disapprovingly, "...Think carefully, is there any crime committed by Aum Shinrikyo and modern American cults that these scholars in the Ming Dynasty have not committed? To put it bluntly, They are actually no different from the ancient Japanese ministers and the Brahmins in India. Aren’t they all examples of people who think highly of themselves but have no power and only know how to work hard to die?”
"...Well, you are right. The Confucian scholars of the Ming Dynasty these days are indeed very similar to those magicians. They obviously have no ability, but they feel so good about themselves...First of all, they feel that no matter who wins the country, they are noble All the scholars are of the same class, and they can all make humble warriors equal to the king. Second, I feel that I am born with the right to evade taxes and commit crimes, and no one can touch me. Third, I have no obligation to tolerate each other for the sake of the country. On the contrary, the country should enshrine me as an ancestor - this is not true. Are they as virtuous as the Brahmins of India and the living Buddhas of Tibet? ”
Huang Shi was stunned for a moment when he heard this, but then he quickly fell into deep thought and couldn't help but reveal a wry smile, "...If you leave the country to the control of such a professional who feels very good about himself but has no sense of responsibility, how can he not rush into the streets? What a tragedy!”
"...In fact, the big banker consortiums in the United States in later generations are also developing in this direction. No matter how bad the country's situation is, their interests must not be touched. Even if the relief funds and food stamps to help the poor are cut, the Taxes from the treasury are used to support China It can be seen from this that any unproductive group that controls power, whether they are magicians, Confucian scholars or bankers, can quickly hollow out the foundation of a country from the inside, making the decline of a once great empire extremely difficult. Qu He rushed to the street..."
Professor Guo said with some emotion, "...In comparison, even the militarism of a warrior country is much stronger than this method! After all, it uses swords and guns to plunder wealth from foreign countries. From a domestic perspective, it can be regarded as a special form of ‘development production’.”
"...Ahem, let's stop talking about this topic! Now that we are not far from our destination, we should make some preparations."
Wang Meiling, who had been overlooking the scenery on the ground, stood up from the observation window on the bilge floor, raised her head and said, "... Speaking of which, we spent a full week in Vladivostok this time, which wasted a lot of time. In During this period, did Guo Yi, who continued to stay in Guangzhou, reveal any clues that the time traveler senate in Lingao County, Hainan Island, might have discovered or even been punished by the intelligence agency there? "
"...I'm afraid you are a little worried, mom. According to the secret message sent by Guo Yi using Doraemon's magical props, everything in Guangzhou is as usual at the moment, and it has not attracted any attention from the Lingao Senate. Because from Badawi The joint diplomatic expedition fleet of Australian and American travelers from Asia arrived at Bobu Port in Lingao County five days ago, followed by a large number of cargo ships. Merchant ships from Holland, Britain, France, Portugal, Spain and even Denmark - more than 20,000 uncontrolled foreigners poured into Lingao at once, and soon there were countless riots. The Traveler Senate devoted all its energy. It’s not enough to maintain public security and diplomatic negotiations, so how can we take care of Guo Yi, a marginalized person left in Guangzhou?”
While Wang Qiu adjusted the height and heading of the airship on the touch screen, he muttered disapprovingly, "...Besides, although we were a little worried when we first left, we thought about it carefully and found out that 'Boss Guo's father Even in the eyes of Ming Dynasty people, such an ordinary family matter as coming to Guangzhou to see their son was not big news worth talking about. If you go to Lingao from Guangzhou, you may not mention this matter. Even if you mention this matter in a teahouse or hotel, I am afraid that no one in the audience will care - because from a human perspective, this matter is really too ordinary. There are no news media or paparazzi in Ming Dynasty today. When this matter reaches the ears of interested people, no one knows that it will be the Year of the Monkey and the Horse.
In addition, according to Comrade Guo Yi and Huang Shi, there should be no indigenous intelligence personnel within the Lingao Senate to monitor the time traveler elders - because of this distrustful attitude towards one's own people, if exposed, it would be very difficult It can easily be misunderstood that it is the prelude of a secret plan by the Supreme Executive Committee to carry out a major purge within the time travellers. By then, everyone will be in danger and the cohesion of the entire team will be lost. What's the big deal? ”
——In the feudal dynasty era, the speed of dissemination of various information was very slow. Since there are no professional news media such as newspapers, the information that ordinary people can obtain by relying on hearsay often occurs months or even years ago, and the amount of information is very limited.
For example, in the 17th year of Chongzhen, when Li Zicheng led his troops to besiege Beijing, the capital fell on March 29, and Emperor Chongzhen died with his head hung on Meishan. But it took until April 17 for Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, to receive the news.
——It took nearly a month to reach Nanjing from Beijing to Nanjing through relatively convenient canals and sea routes, such as the safety of the capital and the life and death of the emperor. So for most of the trivial matters that are not very important, the place where the incident occurred simply cannot be reported at all.
For example, the scandals and scandals of modern movie stars may spread all over the world in an instant relying on online media. But in the late Ming Dynasty, the romantic affairs of those romantic talents on the Qinhuai River in Nanjing were probably unknown to anyone in Huguang and Shandong.
Even in this time and space that has been greatly changed by many time travellers, the "Lingao Daily" founded by Hainan Island travellers, but the content is also focused on editorials, policy propaganda and popular science knowledge, and the news only occupies a very small space , and there are no permanent reporters outside Hainan Island. Therefore, except for a few major world events that have happened for a long time, the news page of "Lingao Daily" mainly publishes only local events. By modern standards, its timeliness is almost a tragedy. Fortunately, "Lingao Daily" has no competitors in this time and space, so it has not been criticized.
Therefore, in the week after contacting his father and later government departments, Guo Yi's life in Guangzhou was still very peaceful. Except for a few acquaintances who briefly talked about this episode during their New Year greetings, everything was as calm as usual - no one took this as a big deal.
However, this false calm caused by information lag has now come to an end.
——The "Great Collision between Heaven and Earth", which was postponed by the trip to Vladivostok for a week, is about to happen today.
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Although Marshal Huang Shi once requested the airship formation to land in Quanzhou so that his wife and daughter could be picked up, Professor Guo, as the highest commander at the scene of this operation, rejected his request after a brief thought—— The most important thing now is to complete the mission, not to cause trouble: when such an aerial formation suddenly descends on the Ming Dynasty city in the seventeenth century, God knows how much incredible chaos it will cause.
So, more than two hours later, the huge airship formation finally arrived at the southern end of the Pearl River Estuary, the Hong Kong Naval Base under the jurisdiction of the Lingao Traveler Senate, and had its first real confrontation with this traveler force in southern China. The contact immediately aroused a huge commotion—— Accompanied by the clanging alarm bells, roaring signal flares and hoarse shouts, more than 20 "cigars", "white radish" and "long bread" appeared on the blue sea and green mountains, slowly parading in the blue sky and white clouds. , can be said to block out the sky and the sun, covering almost the entire sky for a while.
Most of the ants on the ground felt dizzy immediately when they saw so many huge spaceships flying through the sky. They climbed to the top of the mountain, rooftops, bell towers, lighthouses, and masts to watch them - even if they were already in the space of the travelers. Although we have entered the steam age ahead of schedule, flying into the clear sky is still an incredible dream. The few sober people, like modern people who encounter alien flying saucers, try to communicate and contact each other - for example, Wang Qiu noticed that at the top of a watchtower on the ground, someone was trying hard to wave two flags. Don't know what signal is being sent.
"...The guy on the ground seems to be sending us a semaphore. I don't know the content, because I have never learned this stuff - but there should be some navy people on board the airships behind. , need to ask on the radio? ”
Overlooking the noisy chaos on Hong Kong Island like an ant nest being flooded, Wang Qiu asked Professor Guo with interest.
"...No need to go to so much trouble. Although I don't understand naval flags, I know that this is definitely asking about our identities."
Professor Guo curled his lips, "... Now it's time to show our identities - Comrade Xiao Wang, immediately draft a clear message and send it out on the frequency commonly used by travelers in Lingao County! Tell these ignorant people Guys, we’re here!”
"...Uh, how should I write the specific content of the message?" Wang Qiu asked while using the touch screen on the bridge to call up the communication software. "...Well, just say: We are the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and we are here to take you home!" Professor Guo thought for a while and replied.