prosperous age

"Except for the Portuguese deputy envoy, the others are pretty average."

Yu Dayou replied.

The Portuguese deputy envoy was a short and fat man. He was not a nobleman, but a wealthy businessman who bought the position of deputy envoy at a huge price.

Both the South China Sea Navy and the Embroidered Uniform Guard had infiltrated the trenches long ago and obtained a lot of Western technology.

Naturally, he also had a clear understanding of the various forces in Haojing.

"I see."

Wei Guangde nodded and smiled.

To be honest, I don’t know if anyone in later generations has paid attention to the height of ancient people.

What happened in later generations gave people the impression that Westerners were tall and had long legs, much taller than Chinese people.

Of course, this is also supported by real data.

Who the hell could have imagined that at this time in the Ming Dynasty, Westerners were actually short and ugly, not even as tall as the Han people.

In fact, most of the evidence that ancient Han people were taller than Europeans comes from archaeological discoveries in my country.

Take the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin, a typical representative of the ancient Han people. It is well known that the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin were buried with Qin Shihuang, and each of them was based on a real person.

However, few people know how tall these terracotta warriors are.

According to archaeological research, among the Terracotta Warriors, the tallest is about 1.9 meters tall, and that is a general-level warrior, while the shortest ordinary soldier is about 1.75 meters tall.

From this, it can be calculated that the average height of the Qin Terracotta Warriors is roughly around 1.8 meters.

Of course, these are just speculations based on the Terracotta Warriors.

However, in other archaeological studies, the bones of the bodies in the coffins were indeed used for splicing and calculation.

Take the skeleton of the ancient Yi Hai in Shaanxi for example. Archaeological experts have speculated through the skeleton that the body of Yi Hai was 1.9 meters tall, which is also one of the strong evidences of the height of ancient Chinese people.

In the "Records of the Three Kingdoms", it was also described that Liu Bei was about seven feet tall and Zhuge Liang was about eight feet tall.

To convert, one foot is about 30 centimeters. By this calculation, Liu Bei was at least 1.8 meters tall, and Zhuge Liang was 1.9 meters tall.

Next, let’s take a look at how tall ancient Europeans were at that time.

Archaeological research has discovered and calculated that the average height of Europeans at that time was about 1.65 meters.

The height of ancient Japanese people at that time was less than 1.6 meters, which is why Japan was called Wokou.

Wo actually means short.

If this question were asked to Europeans, the so-called genetic theory might emerge.

In other words, Europeans generally believe that the reason for their height comes from their own race and genes.

However, this conclusion is actually wrong. If we compare the ancient Han people before the Qing Dynasty with the Europeans, the average height of Europeans at that time was lower than that of the ancient Han people.

The reason why we use ancient Han people before the Qing Dynasty for comparison is that the ancient Han people after the Qing Dynasty generally became shorter in height. This is also one of the important reasons why Europeans suddenly grew taller.

This was closely related to the social conditions at the time. Under the circumstances of internal and external troubles, being able to solve the problem of food and clothing was the greatest satisfaction for them.

In addition, at that time, large quantities of opium were being sold to my country from foreign countries, causing both young and old scholars to become addicted to opium if they were not careful.

It is conceivable that not only is the nutrition in the normal diet insufficient, but if one is also addicted to opium, then it would be a blessing if the body does not collapse immediately.

In such a living environment, can you still expect to grow taller?
But it was at this time that Europeans discovered the "secret" to growing taller.

I believe many people have heard people around them say something like "Drink milk and grow taller."

In fact, this statement is not groundless.

As we all know, Europeans like to drink milk, eat bread and foods like steak, and these foods themselves contain a lot of high protein.

High protein can promote the development of bones and brain in the body, thus achieving the purpose of growing taller.

Many people have heard of the idiom "playing the lute to a cow", but the current view is that the ancient Chinese seem to have mastered an extremely remarkable knack for raising cattle.

Yes, that is to let the cows play music. It is said that classical music in particular has a particularly good effect on both dairy cows and beef cattle.

The dairy cows that listen to music have stable milk quality and higher production, and the meat yield of beef cattle is also improved.

In fact, most cattle farms now play music to the cows, which is called playing the lute to the cows.

This special breeding method is actually used in farms both at home and abroad.

The next day, not long after Wei Guangde got up, he received the new ritual notes from Zhang Juzheng. It seemed that Yu Dayou had rewritten the new ritual notes overnight.

After all, the naval review was only two days away. Once it was decided, he would have to return to the ship in the next two days to personally arrange and prepare for the entire process of the review.

Wei Guangde took a quick look and was satisfied with Yu Dayou's abilities, so he wrote down his opinions directly and asked someone to give it to Shen Shixing.

Afterwards, he went to the emperor's palace, and together with Zhang Juzheng and others, he followed the little emperor to meet with some representatives of foreign delegations in private.

In the meantime, he also took some time to read some memorials sent from the capital. In fact, they were not a big deal. Zhang Siwei had already drafted them, but the contents of these memorials also needed to be told to the three people in the cabinet outside.

This was how I spent the next two days, constantly receiving foreign delegations.

It was not until the afternoon that someone outside came quietly and whispered something in his ear. He then took his leave from the emperor, saying that he had some small matter to take care of.

"Master Wei, go and get busy. Master Zhang is still here, as are other ministers."

The little emperor just nodded at Wei Guangde's departure and let him go.

The young emperor was about to receive Yelaquan's delegation, so it really didn't matter whether he was there or not.

Wei Guangde went to the side hall next door, which was actually a separate wing room.

Since this place temporarily became the emperor's palace, the wing rooms became side halls.

"Is this the result of your efforts in the past two days?"

Only Liu Shouyou was in the room, and in front of Wei Guangde was a long scroll nearly two meters wide. It was very similar to the world map of later generations in Wei Guangde's impression, but the difference was also very huge.

"Is this Ming Dynasty?"

Wei Guangde asked, pointing to the approximate location of China.

"Yes, Mr. Wei Ge."

Following the map, Wei Guangde viewed the entire South Seas and finally entered Central Asia.

It was also very chaotic there at this time, divided into many countries and it seemed that they were not yet in a state of disarray. That is, Wei Guangde only knew the names of some of the wealthy countries in the Middle East in later generations, but he was not sure how their territories were divided.

Moreover, these countries at that time were very different from later generations. After all, it seemed that the territories in the Middle East were distributed with the help of the British and did not follow the history completely.

However, when Wei Guangde's eyes fell on Europe, he was also shocked.

Well, on the map, the location relationship between Portugal and Spain is relatively reasonable, although it is still written as "Falangji" and "Esibalya", and further east is "Francha".

Wei Guangde was not sure whether this "France" was France or some other country.

The main thing is that there is a peninsula next to it with the word "Italy" written on it.

Well, this is a map, the world map that the Jinyiwei learned from the British, Spanish and Portuguese delegation members in the past two days.

For the Asian part, of course, most of the information is based on the information that Ming Dynasty already has.

For other places, we can only roughly delineate them based on the descriptions of knowledgeable and well-traveled Europeans.

If this map could be preserved, it would undoubtedly be the first edition of "Kunyu Wanguo Tu".

After looking at the entire map carefully, Wei Guangde had a general idea in mind.

Although these names were decided during the Ming Dynasty, Wei Guangde was still able to know the countries they represented in later generations.

Italy is the easiest to understand, and there are also Roma, Bohemian, etc. Wei Guangde can roughly guess what they were later changed to.

Wei Guangde soon lost interest in the map and turned to Liu Shouyou and asked, "Is there a detailed record of the national strength on it?"

Drawing a world map was certainly not the main task that Wei Guangde assigned to the Jinyiwei.

Although he couldn't draw an accurate map of this thing, he still knew its approximate location.

In fact, the order he gave to the Jinyiwei was to find out the real political, economic and military intelligence of European countries, including population, military and other information.

Of course, it's just a rough idea and doesn't require absolute accuracy.

In fact, collecting this information at this time is of little significance to the Ming Dynasty, but Wei Guangde wants to use it to understand the situation of the entire world.

Because there are more and more signs that some views of later generations do not seem to be in line with this era.

In order to avoid mistakes, Wei Guangde considered trying to understand the basic information about Europe first.

Of course, in Wei Guangde's mouth, this information is a business reference. He estimates the wealth of Europe through population and other factors, and uses this to determine how much goods the Ming Dynasty can sell there.

When issuing this order, Wei Guangde deliberately told Liu Shouyou the news that Zhang Juzheng planned to add Tianjin and Guangzhou as trading ports.

Otherwise, the Jinyiwei would not know which direction to start with when getting the information.

In fact, this matter was kept secret from the Minister of Rites Chen Yu, because the old man looked down on the Jinyiwei and would glare at them when he saw them.

Fortunately, Chen Yu spent most of his time with the little emperor, accompanying the emperor to receive foreign delegations.

The members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard only needed to stay with the officials of the Ministry of Rites who were entertaining foreign delegations. In name, they were providing protection, but in reality they were collecting all kinds of information.

As for the people who actually came forward to collect information, they were a number of translators proficient in foreign languages ​​who were temporarily transferred by the South China Sea Navy. They had been on the ship with the members of the diplomatic mission for a long time and were already familiar with each other.

Through these people, the Jinyiwei managed to figure out the general situation of various European countries.

At this time, Wei Guangde was looking at the basic information of some major European countries recorded in his hand, and Liu Shouyou next to him was also narrating the situation in Europe that the Jinyiwei had learned about.

“Although the European countries are nominally like countries, according to the statements of those in the delegation, it seems that their kings and countries are completely different from what we understand.

Their lands seem to be owned by titled nobles, who elect their kings.

If the nobles are willing to accept the king's orders, it means that this place belongs to the kingdom.

But if for some reason the title is inherited by a foreigner, the land may change."

Liu Shouyou was talking about what the Jinyiwei had found out about Europe. Many of the things they couldn't understand were beyond their comprehension, so they could only tell it as it was. Whether they could understand it or not was up to the cabinet.

Anyway, if they try their best to do what the cabinet has instructed them to do, there will be no mistakes.

"For example, the King of Portugal just died. Since the King of Spain is related to the King of Portugal and there is no closer heir, in principle the King of Spain can inherit the title of the King of Portugal.

Once this legal relationship is confirmed, he can legitimately govern Portugal and become the king of the Western and Portuguese barbarians.

In fact, it is said that many nobles in Portugal now support the King of Spain to inherit the title and rule Portugal. "

Liu Shouyou was still talking when Wei Guangde suddenly interrupted and asked, "Do most of the Portuguese nobles support the King of Spain?"

"Only a portion, about 40%, are against it, and most seem to be ambivalent."

Liu Shouyou also found it difficult to understand what the Europeans said about the situation in their country, but he could still understand some things.

“Waiting for a price.”

Wei Guangde smiled.

"That should be the case. They have no chance of inheriting the throne, but they can have a say in who will take the throne."

Liu Shouyou continued to talk here because Wei Guangde was obviously more interested.

“The current King of Spain already holds several noble titles, including Prince of Gasilan, Duke of Isibalya, etc. As far as we know, it is a country united by several kingdoms and principalities, which is somewhat similar to the Qin Dynasty’s annexation of the six kingdoms.

Now they set their sights on merging with their neighbor Portugal, and this information was provided by the Eredivisie mission.

It is said that Spain's neighboring country, Franca, also opposes their annexation of Portugal. It is said that Elia and Franca intend to jointly put pressure on Spain in the hope of maintaining Portugal's independence.

Liu Shouyou was still telling his story when Wei Guangde suddenly interrupted and asked, "Where did you get the news?"

Wei Guangde was not aware of this period between Spain and Portugal, but on the maps of later generations, there were indeed only these two countries left on the peninsula. Moreover, Spain was much larger than Portugal, but it failed to annex it, which was indeed very strange.

"The information was provided by the Eliya delegation, and we also noticed that the Eliya and Portuguese delegations were in frequent private contact."

Liu Shouyou said immediately.

At this time, because Britain was a latecomer, it put all its energy into catching up with Spain, including but not limited to pirate plundering, which led to very bad relations between the two countries.

Naturally, at this time Spain wanted to annex the powerful Portugal, which was naturally something Britain did not want to see.

As Spain's largest neighbor, France is also very opposed to this. Although the relationship between the two countries is very tense, their attitudes towards Spain are consistent.

Of course, the British representatives would never tell the Ming Dynasty that their relationship with France was not good and that this alliance was actually very loose.

"It's quite a mess."

Wei Guangde smiled and said, "Jinyiwei has done a good job. Keep improving this information and try to piece together the true situation in Europe. I want to know what the relationship is with other countries besides these three countries." (End of this chapter)