This Ming Dynasty is too fierce. Chapter 824: Zhili, Songjiang Prefecture, Shanghai County, in the south of the Celestial Empire.

It has been twelve years since the second year of Gansheng, Emperor Gansheng opened Shanghai into a commercial port and established Shanghai County.

Once upon a time, Shanghai County was just a small county town in the Huangpu River, although it was close to Songjiang and was known as the richest area in the south of the Yangtze River.

However, the prosperity is far from comparable to the present. After all, as a port, Shanghai has its own natural advantages located in the estuary of the Yangtze River!

The Yangtze River stretches for thousands of miles and flows through several provinces. The rivers and lakes along the coast connect Zhuhuguang, Jiangxi and other places. All of these areas are rich in resources and are not available to any other river in the Ming Dynasty.

The goods from these places, such as Jingdezhen porcelain, Suzhou and other places, can be transported to Shanghai quickly along the river, then transported through the Huangpu River, and then flowed from the Yangtze River to the sea.

The world is bustling for profit, and the world is bustling for profit.

After Shanghai opened its port, with its unique geographical location, its importance quickly surpassed Ningbo, Guangzhou, Xiamen and other ports, and soon became the busiest ports in the world.

As a commercial port, Shanghai is now prosperous and even less than Nandu. On the spacious streets, there are crowds of people, endless carriages, shops and restaurants are waving, and goods from north to south are flooded.

The development of foreign trade has made Shanghai gathered in commercial halls from all over the country. Moreover, foreigners of different skin colors can be seen everywhere in Shanghai, but there are no foreign commercial halls here.

After all, the Ming Dynasty was both open and conservative.

The Ming Dynasty merchant ships are now traveling all over the world, but foreign merchant ships are prohibited from directly traveling to the Ming Dynasty. In fact, this is not only to protect and promote the Ming Dynasty's navigation and trade, but also to keep it confidential, so that the Ming Dynasty's advanced technology will not be quickly spread. For example, the construction of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway last year meant that Jiangnan also entered the railway era.

As for those foreigners... they are often just maids of wealthy businessmen!

Although foreign ships cannot sail to the Ming Dynasty, foreigners can come to the Ming Dynasty on ships. This is true for scholars and messengers.

However, even the envoys needed to go to Nanjing with permission from the court after arriving in the Ming Dynasty. While waiting, Matsuhira Nobutsu and Sakai Tadakiku, who were representatives of the shogunate, always seemed to be in high spirits. It seemed that everything in the city of Shanghai was so exciting in his eyes, and even the people from the Chinese who came into contact with them could surprise them.

And they often exclaimed, "This is a treasure that should be admired on their knees", "It is really worthy of being the supreme country of the Celestial Empire"... The Japanese people's exaggerated personality caters to the spleen and stomach of the Chinese people. These "carrot heads" from Japan have become model barbarians who are well-educated in the eyes of many people.

However, what everyone didn't know was that behind these humble smiles, Matsuhei Nobunaga and others had a complex mentality. When they were praising the prosperity of the dynasty, their mood was complicated.

After all, compared to the prosperity of the Celestial Empire, Japan suffered an unprecedented severe blow. In the once peaceful and prosperous era, the barbarians occupied Kansai and surrendered to the shogunate Daming, who was also in disgrace, tried to overthrow the shogunate rule.

In sharp contrast to the domestic and foreign troubles of Japan, the thriving Ming Dynasty was in an unprecedented prosperous era. Seeing the prosperous and bright Shanghai city in front of me, Sakai and others would inevitably think of the tragic scenes of their own country.

Of course, they were not angry, but they were full of envy. Another idea emerged in their hearts, which made them willing to follow the strong and become slaves of the strong. Of course, whether they are loyal depends on whether the strong will continue to be strong.

"Sakura, how do you feel when you visited the prefecture of Chateau today?"

Matsuhira Nobuzu looked at Tadaki Sakai and asked.

"The prosperity of the Celestial Empire is far beyond our imagination. Who would have thought that there would be such a vast library in a mere county school. The building contains classics from all countries in ancient and modern times. The prosperity of the Celestial Empire is really unimaginable."

In fact, Tadaki Sakai didn’t know that the reason why Shanghai Prefecture School had such a large library was that it was allocated by the imperial court, and it was donated by the local government. What is the most in this place and the most merchants!

Anyone donated a few hundred taels of silver, which is tens of thousands of taels of silver a year. With so much money, let alone buying books, even academies can build several. What's the big deal about seeing a few libraries?

Being rich means being willful!

Such willfulness is the same in education.

Tadaki Sakai, who is only in his twenties, is not the shogunate who monopolized the power and even undermined the general after a few dozen years. As a young man, he is even more curious about the Celestial Empire. After all, the Celestial Empire's strength has long been engraved in his heart, but it is only now that he has a little understanding of how powerful it is.

"Yes Sakai, you have to know that this is just a small Shanghai county, which is already so amazing. How prosperous Nanjing should be!"

Speaking of this, Matsuhira Nobuzuka and others couldn't help but look surprised in their eyes.

All of this is something they admire and jealous.

However, the people in front of them even offered extremely clear goals from the beginning to invite the "prince to return to China".

Returning to China?

Yes, it is to invite the prince whom Emperor Akimasa to give birth to return to China!

It is true that Emperor Mingzheng is the concubine of Emperor Ming, but her son is also the heir to the throne of Emperor!

The Emperor can't stay abroad forever!

Although the public invited them before them, they were the shogunate! It represents the "King of Japan" enthroned by the Emperor of Ming Dynasty.

Well, the Tokugawa family was indeed the King of Japanese who was conferred by Emperor Ming Dynasty. And it was also conferred by Emperor Qiansheng.

As for the Emperor... everyone pretended not to know.

It is precisely because of this that, as the representatives of the "King of Japan", they stayed in a polite hotel in Shanghai, waiting for permission to go to Nanjing.

"Toi, you have been to Nanjing in Shangguo for six years. I heard from Ming Shang that Nanjing is a city like a paradise, right?"

Doi Toi was born in the Doi family. His ancestor was a relative of Tokugawa Ieyasu's mother and was also an important genealogy daimyo. In fact, the people who visited the Ming Dynasty this time were all confidants of Tokugawa's family. Why? Because this is a big deal, I feel uneasy to leave it to others.

Unlike others, five years ago, Doi Takita came to Nanjing, but at that time he came to ask for help, but his request was rejected by the emperor.

"Ah, yes. Nanjing is the most prosperous city I have ever seen, and even a hundred Edos are not as good as Nanjing. In fact, the cities of the Ming Dynasty are very prosperous, but what is really surprising is the steamer."

Doi Tachida shook the rice wine in his glass and said in an extremely surprised tone.

"It's another steamer. It seems that the last time you came to Daming, you found nothing, and you found the steamer!"

"Oh, you don't know,"

Doi Takita said.

"After a few days, after you see the steamer, you will know that the steamer is the greatest thing of the Tang people."

Although hundreds of years have passed, the Japanese are still used to calling the Han people "Tang people", even if they are called "Ming Kingdom" or "Celestial Dynasty", when people are used, they still use the "Tang people".

"Don't you know? The reason why the Heavenly Kingdom is powerful is not because of swords, or even guns, but their science, and steamers are the symbol of science..."

Although Doi Takita is just the second son of the Doi family, this vision is extremely unique.

"Many people say that the Heavenly Dynasty was able to defeat the Hulu, thanks to the Tang people's firearms. They were as proficient in science as the Southern Barbarians, so they could create sharp artillery guns. But I think developed technology and academics are the fundamental reasons. Compared with steamer trucks, artillery guns seem insignificant."

"Oh, you're so exaggerating, how could that be?"

Tadaki Sakai immediately retorted. Like many young nobles in Japan, he was full of respect and longing for the Celestial Army with powerful force. He imagined that one day the shogunate would have such power to arm the shogunate army with advanced muskets and artillery.

Of course, the shogunate army now also has a large number of muskets and artillery.

It’s just that the size of their army and the quality of weapons are far from keeping up with the Ming Dynasty.
Chapter completed!