Peace in the world - this is the ambition of every Chinese citizen from the heart. God knows what kind of vicissitudes and pains are contained in these four words? How many tears are contained in the implicit smile of this nation?

Peace cannot be obtained, nor can it be tolerated. It can only be stolen from the sky and from people. In a world of great struggle, if you keep your complacent and indulge in the existing glory and achievements, you will soon fall behind others and endure humiliation and become fish on the plate.

"I wish to win peace for China!" With such a low voice, the emperor poured himself a glass of wine.

Since the New Year's Day this year, the weather has been very good, often sunny. In the western suburbs of the capital, the cloudless blue sky is tilted upside down on the vast earth, and the air is still refreshing in the cold.

Because I have just passed through the middle of winter, the peaks everywhere are full of yellow scenery. Only the springs falling from the mountain stream can find some vitality for the New Year. This is a continuous mountain peak. Looking around, the majestic peaks stand proudly, as if they are lying on the dragon and tiger. The Taihang Mountains also start here and finally divide the northern land into two sides.

Such a magnificent scenery has been praised by literati and scholars in the north since ancient times, and is considered to be the best place to see the scenery around Yanjing. Since ancient times, the western suburbs of Yanjing have always been a tourist destination, and there are private manors of royal relatives and nobles in places with lush mountains and rivers.

However, among the important roads between the mountains leading to the capital and Shanxi, a huge artificial building has already stood up.

The building covers a wide area, with the outer wall about two meters high and slightly inclined. The entire exterior wall is in a strange hexagonal star shape, like a starfish entrenched on the earth. On the platform inside the exterior wall, another inner wall is also built, which is also two or three meters high.

There are chest walls in the middle of both walls, and there are places for cannons to be placed. Although the predetermined gun position has not been filled with cannons due to the initial construction, there are many cannons that have been arranged. The dark and scattered artillery fire aimed at every direction outside the bastion behind the chest wall, giving people a feeling of being heavily guarded.

Whether it is the inner wall or the outer wall, they are straight-line, and the outer layer seems to be piled with thick soil, so it looks yellow and red, and it is indescribable.

The crude aura of this artificial creature will destroy the original landscape and landscape shape. If there are literati and scholars here, they may have a great sigh of disgrace.

However, at this moment, people who were observing this bastion did not sigh like this in their hearts.

On a mountain peak not far from the basin, there is a small pavilion. This pavilion looks like it was built a long time ago. The bricks and stones have been mottled, and the wood has already collapsed. At this time, a group of people were standing in the pavilion, looking down at the basin in the distance from a high place. Many people were holding telescopes in their hands so that they could observe more carefully.

"Your Highness, the Crown Prince, this basin is recently built. It is very strong and built according to our latest design ideas and concepts." Just as this group of people were observing, a middle-aged Westerner with high nose, deep eyes and gray hair in the middle spoke in a very fluent Chinese. "Under the garrison of rigorously trained and determined troops, it can withstand the siege of the enemy for a year or two, or even longer, and it guards the only way for the capital to lead to the west. As long as it can withstand the siege of the enemy, the enemy from the west can threaten the capital-it and other bastions we built can make your capital rest assured within a century or two."

The speaker was François Misulle, a Western engineer. He was employed by the Han court for a long time and participated in the construction of the defensive project of the capital city.

Although what he said was a bit exaggerated, it was not a baseless boast.

At this time, the West, due to frequent wars between countries, military tactics and scientific developments have made rapid progress. In the previous era, Europe was an era of feudal lords' separatist rule, with castles of noble lords standing everywhere. Since the introduction of cannons, the defense function of these castles has become very weak, because as long as the cannons bombarded, they can eventually blow up these brick and stone castles.

During the years of war, new styles of bastions emerged. This bastion has been tested in actual combat and has very well designed, which can be used as a support for an army and can resist the long-term siege of the enemy army.

In the eyes of this engineer, there was no way to conquer this bastion in the enemy northwest of the Han Dynasty, and there was a granary in this bastion, which could meet the needs of the defenders for two years when filled with food. Even the most elite troops in Western Europe today had to pay a huge price to conquer a bastion - and in the foreseeable centuries or two, Western European countries would definitely not be able to send large troops to China.

In the current European wars, even if one side fails in field battles, as long as there is sufficient bastion defense base, there will be enough time and capital to make a comeback. Therefore, protracted sieges often occur in wars. Although building a bastion is quite energy and wealth, it takes more energy and casualties to siege it. Sometimes a siege often lasts for months or even years. In the limited seasons suitable for war every year, if the commander can conquer one or two, it is considered lucky.

For example, before, the Spanish Empire and the Netherlands fought an eighty-year war of counter-insurgency. Because the Spanish army was very elite and the field battle was irresistible, the Netherlands widely used the bastion as a defensive means, which made the Spaniards difficult in the Netherlands. The Spanish consumed a lot of manpower and financial resources because of the counter-insurgency, and their national power declined day by day. In the end, they had to recognize the independence of the Netherlands.

Inspired by the actual results, countries on the mainland competed to build large fortresses. For example, France's king spent a lot of effort to build a series of fortresses around the capital Paris, turning the entire capital area into a large fortress.

As a French engineer, François Misoule has been involved in these fortification projects for many years and has gained a lot of experience. Because he had contact with the Han marshal Louis in his early years, he was invited to China when the Han Dynasty was first established and was hired by the Han court with high salaries to engage in fortification and fortification.

He was quite versatile and good at ease, so he was appreciated by the Han Dynasty's chief Xu Housheng very early and was particularly important. He has now become the director of the bastion project.

Now, there are many Westerners who come to the Han Dynasty and are appointed by the court, active in the fields of architecture, navigation, machinery, astronomy, etc. Among them, they can be roughly divided into three types:

The first is missionaries who come to China with religious enthusiasm and hope to spread the glory of the masters in China. Although they are willing to share their knowledge and experience, they only regard this as an auxiliary to missionary work. Therefore, such people are restricted by the Han Dynasty. Although they do not exclude their help, they cannot hold extremely important positions and their scope of activities is also limited.

The second type of people do not have that great religious enthusiasm. They come to China just to earn a generous income. Since European countries are generally not as rich as China, they can only get several times their previous income here. However, although they make money here, they still have their hometown in their hearts and plan to go back to reunite with their families after making some money. Such people are less restrictive and can hold certain management positions.

The third type of people have no religious concepts. They do not mind that China is a pagan country, but are happy that they have had the opportunity to do a big fist. They are generally willing to integrate into Chinese society and hope to stay in China.

Marshal Louis and François Misulle were such people. After staying in China for a few years, the thoughtful Misulle practiced Chinese hard in her spare time. She quickly mastered Chinese proficiently, and won the appreciation of his immediate superior, Duke, and Minister of Industry Xu Housheng with a diligent and cooperative attitude.

After winning appreciation with his professional knowledge and loyal attitude, he chose to become a subject of the Emperor of Han like his friend Louis and obtained an official position in China. What's more, in order to better reflect his inclusion, he gave himself a Chinese name Misu - those who don't know thought he chose this name because he admired Chinese calligraphy.

Misu did not regard his current position as his end. He wanted to rely on his superiors to climb to a higher position. Although he knew that the culture and system of China and France were very different, he felt that the duke must have an incredible influence in the government and the palace. He wanted to use this influence to gain greater benefits for himself, and it would be best to become a noble master of a great Han country, so that the little local nobles in his hometown would be jealous of them.

Therefore, when Xu Housheng really brought the prince to him and told him to be careful to guide the prince to inspect the bastion project, he felt sincerely happy and wanted to take the opportunity to please the prince, so his introduction was also very exaggerated - after all, young people like exaggerated words.

Unexpectedly, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was not as happy as he thought, and had no expression of his warm words. Instead, he continued to calmly hold the telescope and look at the castle in the distance.
Chapter completed!