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Chapter 1068 Luxurious lineup
Johann Baptista van Helmont was born into a noble family in Brussels, the Spanish Netherlands, and graduated from the Catholic University of Louvain. He was convicted by the Inquisition for publishing an article opposing the theory of the four elements.

If the Ming Empire's envoys abroad had not paid bribes to the local cardinal, he might have been even worse off than Galileo, not only being confined to his home but also potentially imprisoned.

Why did the empire's envoys abroad spend money to help him get through? It was not for personal relationships, but for official business.

As early as 1622, he published a paper on the existence of two elements, air and water. After the paper was sent back to China, the emperor gave him a concise evaluation, with only three words: chemist! Since there was no such subject as chemistry in Europe, people who liked to tinker with such experiments were collectively called alchemists.

This time Helmont was persecuted, which gave the envoy an opportunity. After handing out 2000 pounds, the Inquisition immediately pretended not to notice and allowed the people to be stuffed into the carriage and left.

William Harvey was born into a civil servant family in Kent, England. He graduated from Cambridge University and was a member of the Royal College of Physicians, a physician at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and a royal physician.

In 1628, he published the book "Anatomical Studies of the Cardiovascular Movements of Animals", which discussed the blood circulation system in detail. He was selected by the Emperor of the Ming Empire and was thus targeted by the envoys to London.

However, it was quite difficult to convince a royal doctor to abandon his family and career to go to a mysterious country in the East to continue his research. He had money, reputation, and status, so why should he give up and start all over again?

The reason why he was able to agree to come for a short-term academic visit this time was entirely due to the Duke of Buckingham's personal testimony, in which he described the Ming Empire in all its glory and the emperor as second only to God, and also because of the reputation of the Mason Society.

But once they come, Hong Tao will find a way to keep them. You like to do pathological research, right? That's great. Not only do we have endless anatomical specimens, we can also provide advanced experimental equipment such as microscopes, constant temperature boxes, culture media, etc. There is absolutely no religious inquisition.

If that's not enough, Hong Tao plans to talk nonsense again and talk about the pathological research results summarized by the Taoists through practice over the years. For example, the application of cowpox, the prevention and treatment of schistosomiasis, and the treatment of typhoid fever. I don't believe that medical students will turn a blind eye to them. Just stay and work like a slave!

The last one was Thomas Hobbes, from Wiltshire, England. He graduated from Oxford University and was the tutor of Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire.

But like Descartes, his profession was just a cover. Hobbes's real accomplishments were not in education, but in philosophy. When Hong Tao saw that the translator of "History of the Peloponnesian War" was named Thomas Hobbes, he remembered who this person was.

In later universities, unless you are just a casual student, you will more or less come into contact with the history of Western philosophy, among which Hobbes' philosophical thoughts cannot be avoided.

He made unique insights into concepts such as individuals, contracts, and the state, which were called Hobbesianism. In the history of philosophy, no one can be called a coward.

Hobbes first learned about the trip from Merson, but he did not want to take the risk of traveling thousands of miles to the far east, but later changed his mind because he heard that Descartes was also going.

Hobbes and Descartes had never met each other, but these two great philosophers had conflicts in their ideas. They would argue with each other from a distance for no reason and neither of them would give in.

Since Descartes was going to preach in the East, Hobbes thought he had to go there as well, and not let his opponent's wrong ideas take root in the East. "Student astronauts, Tan Mingming, Zhu Haiou, pay their respects to His Majesty..." He finally found an excuse of being busy with official duties to trick the two ancestors away, and just when he was about to lie down in the back hall, a figure swayed at the door again.

"...What's the matter?" Hong Tao was a little confused. Could it be that it wasn't the honey badger that was clever, but the real thing?

"Your Majesty, the war in Colombo has begun. The Portuguese are a little overwhelmed and are transferring troops from Goa. If the Portuguese are allowed to increase their troops smoothly, even with weapons, equipment and food aid, the Ceylonese natives will not be able to gain much advantage in the siege.

If time passes, the Imperial Navy's involvement in the Ceylon dispute and its covert assistance to the natives might be leaked. For this reason, the General Staff and the Naval Staff developed a contingency plan based on local conditions."

The three officers had no idea what the emperor had just experienced. They came to ask for instructions on how to seize the port of Colombo. As he spoke, he opened the folder and handed over the new plan.

"…Is it necessary for the navy to intervene?" Hong Tao did not look at the plan immediately, but confirmed the necessity again.

According to the previous plan, the Imperial Navy should have been hiding in the dark and making trouble, instigating the local natives to fight to the death with the Portuguese invaders.

As long as Colombo was captured, the Imperial Navy could act as a peacemaker, persuading the Portuguese to take a step back and at the same time using force to intimidate the local natives not to push their luck.

The ultimate goal is to turn Colombo into a neutral ceasefire zone, temporarily garrisoned by the Imperial Navy, and take over the right to use a large area of ​​land without bloodshed. Once the naval base is built, I will stay and not leave, and no one can stop me!
“Your Majesty, the local natives are too weak in combat! Unless we really give them muskets and cannons, and send people to teach them how to use them, relying solely on armor and crossbows may be enough for guerrilla warfare in the mountains, but it will not be very effective in attacking Colombo City, which is heavily defended by weapons.

The Portuguese were hiding in the city and not daring to fight back because they were short of troops. Once reinforcements arrived, the thousands of native troops gathered outside the city would scatter like birds and beasts. If they wanted to organize a large-scale attack in the future, they would have to spend more aid money, which was not worth it.

The students thought that it would be better to take advantage of the opportunity when the Portuguese reinforcements have not arrived and the locals are besieging the city more and more tightly to make a last effort and capture Colombo first to avoid any more trouble.

Navy Chief of Staff Zhu Haiou still felt guilty about the plan being thwarted. When the plan was first made, the intelligence provided by the Navy Statistics Department was not very accurate and ignored the parameters of the indigenous people's fighting determination, but it was not too late to make up for it now.

"...Good fellow, this is the thief crying "Stop thief"! What does the General Staff think?" Upon hearing this, Hong Tao lowered his head to look through the plan, rubbing his cheek as he read, as if he had a toothache.

The naval staff believed that it was hopeless to rely on the natives to break through the city, so they thought about providing more explosives. As long as the city wall could be blown up, the lack of numbers of the Portuguese defenders would be exposed.

But they couldn't just hand over the explosives to the natives, as that would be too obvious. So the Navy Staff came up with a plan to play a trick with the natives, pretending that the base was attacked and all members fled to the ship in a panic. As a result, some of the weapons and ammunition stored in the warehouse were not moved in time and accidentally fell into the hands of the natives.

(End of this chapter)