Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1233 The sky is round and the earth is round, the world view of China in the center collapses
In order to reward Bai Yingli, Wang Yan gave him the official title of minister of the Ministry of Industry. He heard Wang Yan's voice, so he walked to the edge of the map, first saluted Wang Yan, and then said: "Lord Supervisor, colleagues , here is Holland, and here is Spain!"

Bai Yingli has stayed in Daming for many years, and he speaks the same Chinese as the Ming people, but with a little Cantonese accent, and it doesn't take much effort for everyone to hear it.

Seeing that he pointed to two lands, both of which were extremely far away from the Ming Dynasty, almost several times the distance from Beijing to Guangzhou on the map, everyone was shocked.

Wang Yan experienced the shock of this distance when he first went to Macau, and he is still amazed today, especially when he is standing in the center of the map, the feeling is very subtle as if he is in the middle of the map.

Wang Yan immediately waved his hand and said, "Come on, paint it out! Everyone, come and watch!"

As soon as he gave an order, he saw a few painters carrying the dye in wooden barrels, using a brush as thick as a baby's arm, after dipping the dye, following Bai Yingli's instructions, they first painted the location of Spain in scarlet red. , and painted the Netherlands green.

After hearing Wang Yan's words, Wen Wu in the main hall surrounded him curiously.

After coloring, the territory of the two countries became more intuitive. They saw that the golden Ming Dynasty in the middle occupied a large area in the center, while Spain was only the size of Fujian. The sense of superiority in the territory immediately suppressed the shock of the distance just now. A censor laughed and said, "The small country of Danwan really knows how to live and die!"

When they saw the territory of the Netherlands, the feeling of heaven and heaven came back immediately, and someone pointed to the Netherlands and said, "The booger is a small country, Yelang is arrogant."

From the perspective of the territory, even if Spain and the Netherlands are added together, the Ming Dynasty is still more than ten times their size. Although the territory does not represent everything, it can explain many problems, especially in traditional agricultural societies. The area of ​​the land determines the population and cultivated land. The number of countries also determines the strength between countries.

At this time, Bai Yingli said, "My lords, this is just the territory of Spain before Ming Zhengde! According to the Western calendar, it was probably before 1506 AD, and it has been more than 100 years since today. During these 100 years, due to geographical Great discovery, Columbus discovered a new continent, and Spain quickly became a great empire! The Netherlands is a piece split from Spain, and now it has become one of the strongest countries in continental Europe, it can be said that it spans the world."

Although Bai Yingli likes Ming Dynasty very much, he is still very dissatisfied with the attitude of the people of Ming Dynasty who are superior, regard themselves as China, and regard the world as barbarians.

In fact, the attitude of the Ming Dynasty was much milder and more civilized than that of the West. Although China had a superior and self-satisfied mentality, it still regarded the surrounding ethnic groups as human beings, more like aristocrats.These ethnic groups came to pay tribute, and China gave them books, culture, laws and regulations to teach these ethnic civilizations. After the Westerners become stronger, it will be different. They will not treat blacks and Indians as human beings at all. It is a direct and barbaric massacre. After that, they will become civilized people.

Gu Yuanjing, a scholar of the cabinet, frowned when he heard about the world, and felt a little unhappy, and said: "What a big empire, what is the world, I went to the Western Ocean with the Sanbao eunuch, and went tens of thousands of miles to the extreme west. I heard that it is far away from my Heavenly Chaoshang Kingdom, and I have never heard of any great empire."

Many officials heard Bai Yingli's words, and most of them frowned in displeasure, feeling that this Westerner was not too shameful.

In this world, who dares to call the Great Empire in front of Daming?Besides, Da Ming went out to see it, and he really didn't see anything that could threaten Da Ming's existence. Isn't it a joke to talk about the great empire and the world?
Gu Yuanjing's words immediately aroused a burst of applause, and the hall suddenly became noisy.

After Wang Yan summoned Bai Yingli, he naturally talked with him in advance. He had some understanding of the world today, so he decided to call all the officials to listen. When he saw the commotion in the hall, he immediately waved and said, "Quiet!" , Listen to Bai Shilang and finish!"

When Wang Yan spoke, everyone could only shut up. Bai Yingli followed Wang Yan's instruction and continued, "Guanguo, everyone, let me talk about the Netherlands first. It clashed with Spain because of religion and other reasons, and it split to establish a republic. , and then rose rapidly. In a few decades, the Dutch first seized some colonies on the west coast of Africa from the Portuguese, then captured the Cape of Good Hope to enter the Indian Ocean, established a stronghold on the west coast of India, and occupied Ceylon, which is the eunuch of Sanbao The recorded lion kingdom finally reached Nanyang and occupied Malacca, Java and other places.”

As Bai Yingli said, the painter painted the areas he only visited in green one by one, and each time they painted, the Ming Dynasty officials around the map saw the green Netherlands, from the far west, along the coastline Step by step to the east, approaching the Ming Dynasty, they couldn't help feeling tense, and frowned unconsciously.

However, after all, the Netherlands has a small population and is a commercial country, so the colonial area is relatively small, mainly snatched from the weak Portuguese, and distributed in dots on the air route. The momentum is not very ferocious. Many officials of the Ming Dynasty just frowned.

At this time, Bai Yingli continued, "The following is talking about Spain!" As he spoke, he walked around the edge of the map from the west of Wang Yan to the east of Wang Yan, stood at the location of Central America, and continued Said: "Since Columbus discovered the New World of America, the whole of Central America has been occupied by the Spaniards. Here, and here, paint them all!"

The painter immediately followed his request, and painted a large area of ​​scarlet land on the American continent in a short time, making the territory of Spain several times larger in an instant, almost catching up with the Ming Dynasty.

All the officials of the Ming Dynasty were stunned, and the censor Qian Qianyi couldn't help it. He raised his arms and said loudly: "Wait a minute!"

Qian Qianyi stepped out from among the angry officials and accused: "It's a bunch of nonsense and deceitful words to confuse the public. According to Bai Shilang's words, Spain and the Netherlands are in the far west, how can they occupy the far east? And that grid Lunbu, how could he find this place? Besides, this land is so big, is there no one on it? It is so easy to be occupied?"

Many ministers also realized that from the map, Spain and the piece of land called America are on both sides of Ming Dynasty, separated by Ming Dynasty, and there is an ocean. The Spaniards will not be able to fly. Nonsense.

"Everyone be quiet!" Wang Yan raised his hands and pressed down. He had to control the situation again. He waited for everyone to calm down, and then waved his hand to the officials of the Ministry of Industry to bring out a three-foot-diameter globe with a map of all countries on it. connected.

Wang Yan said, "It's hard to explain this incident alone. This is a globe made by Bai Shilang. They think the world is round and people stand on a sphere, but we think the sky is round and the place is completely different. Gu, like you, has many problems and thinks it is impossible. If the earth is round, how can people survive on it? But Bai Shilang told me a few points, such as the farther north you go, the higher the North Star; , the Polaris is lower, and you can see some new stars that cannot be seen in the north, and Bai Shilang claims that they have completed the voyage around the world."

The earth is round, and the Huayi world view of "the sky is round and the earth is in the middle" for thousands of years has completely collapsed.

This time even Wang Yan couldn't suppress it, the whole hall became a mess, many people started to get angry, suggested to kill Bai Yingli, drive all Xiyi out of Daming, and set up another teaching plan.

Of course, there are also calm people among them, and there are many people who have heard of this theory long ago. After all, Western learning has spread eastward for decades, and there have been many Western barbarians who have been active in the territory of the Ming Dynasty in these years. Many people have heard of this theory before. In addition, ancient China also had the theory of a round earth, Chu Ci's "Heavenly Questions", and the ancient Confucianists observed the sea water and Dongting Lake water high and vertical, and the phenomenon that the sun rises from the earth at different times in different provinces, etc. It was once proposed that the earth is a sphere and is covered by the sky.

Seeing that the noise was getting louder and louder, Wang Yan couldn't help but stomp the ground to calm everyone down again.

This meeting, the hall has been out of control several times, which shows that it has had a great impact on the officials of the Ming Dynasty. Rational ministers will think about it, and irrational ones will want to burn these Xiyi who spread heresy directly to death.

"This matter, Gu has asked the Ministry of Industry to send people to confirm it, and will send a fleet to sail eastward to see if the fleet can finally return to Daming as Bai Shilang said." Wang Yan waved, "So don't argue about this now. Bai Shilang said that two years is enough time, so let's see how the fleet will turn out after two years of departure?"

Wang Yan shouted a little hoarsely. He said so, and the hall was settled down again.

Bo Yingli was a little frightened. He felt that he was like those who provided heresies in the Inquisition, and he might be burned to death at any time. For the first few questions, you only need to prove that the earth is round. These few questions will be proved after the fleet sails around the world once, so I won’t explain it anymore. The last question is to ask if there is anyone in the New World. Yes, there are two large countries with a population of more than [-] million, but they have been destroyed by the Spaniards."

The faces of the ministers in the hall were stunned. Su Guansheng saw that under Bai Yingli's instructions, the territory of Scarlet continued to expand, and turned his head to the cabinet ministers beside him, "What did you think of?"

"Meng Yuan!" Chen Bangyan said suddenly.

The other members of the cabinet did not make a sound, but nodded. These Westerners are rising like the Mongols back then, sweeping the world, destroying the country, and killing the wild.

Not long after, Bo Yingli finished introducing the Netherlands and Spain. These two countries, starting from the European continent, one went east and the other went west, forming a pincer attack on Daming.

This is because the Pope once drew a line for Spain and Portugal to divide the world equally, and the two countries stood on each side. After the rise of the Netherlands, it mainly robbed the interests of the relatively weak Portuguese, so it happened to be on each side with the Spaniards.

Wang Yan was silent for a while, and then asked, "Bai Shilang, you can also explain the forms of other western countries, and finish drawing the map!"

At present, Bai Yingli used other colors to draw England, France, Poland, Luocha and other countries one by one.If everyone sees the Netherlands and Spain, one green and one red are only forming a pincer attack on the Ming Dynasty, then when these European countries are drawn on the map, the golden territory of the Ming Dynasty will seem to be surrounded, surrounded by all sides. There are enemies coming.

The current situation is like a huge Go board, with the Ming Dynasty occupying the middle, but the four corners of the world are occupied by Westerners.Wang Yan stood in the middle of the map, watching the various colors approaching him, he only felt that the Ming Dynasty would gradually be surrounded...

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(End of this chapter)