No matter in Deng Ming's previous life or this life, Defoe's masterpiece "Robinson Crusoe" is called the pioneer of modern Western novels. After the first edition was a great success, Defoe learned through the publishing house that the great man in the East had also ordered one of his books. For this reason, Defoe specially added a dialogue between Robinson and Friday when the work was reprinted. , in return for the big man¡¯s attention to himself, the background of the conversation was Robinson telling Friday about the armies of various countries in the eyes of the British:
"When fighting the Spaniards, we don't need to leave camp before eight o'clock, because the Spaniards will get up on time at seven o'clock, enjoy a hearty breakfast, and then spend half an hour eating dessert; when fighting the French, , this time will be delayed by an hour, because the French need to look in the mirror, perm their hair, spray perfume and tie themselves with colorful bows - leaving the camp early means standing on the battlefield waiting in vain."
¡°What about the Chinese?¡± Friday asked.
¡°Oh, those Chinese, they don¡¯t fight during the day.¡±
¡¡
Decades later, Deng Ming burst out laughing after seeing the translation of this passage. Before solemnly collecting the book signed by Defoe, Deng Ming also showed it to his guests, Defoe's old friends, and Look at John of Scotland - in Deng Ming's previous life, John was an outstanding mathematician, a suave playboy and a famous swordsman; he was also a "credit currency", "equity", "option", "through tax cuts and The inventor of concepts such as "appropriate inflation to stimulate economic circulation", the financial world three hundred years later is still using the monetary and economic model designed by John, but has modified it to make it more suitable for the times.
In another seventeenth century without Deng's name, when John was fourteen years old and went to university in Edinburgh, he seduced the principal's unmarried twin daughters. When their angry brothers came to challenge John for a duel, they were also killed by John, who had superior swordsmanship. Seriously injured. Unable to stay at the university, John went to London to sell his nascent credit currency and central bank ideas to the King of England. While accepting the King's hospitality, John had an affair with the King's mistress, and later had a duel. He stabbed to death the brother of the British king's mistress with a sword. After fleeing the UK as a wanted criminal, John came to France, where the economy was on the verge of collapse. In Paris, where the unemployment rate was as high as 90%, John actively promoted his currency and central bank to the aging King of France. A noble lady and a nun were expelled for having an affair.
The old Louis XIV died soon. At that time, France was at the end of its rope. Even though it had levied more than a thousand exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the tax revenue for one year was still not enough to cover three months of expenses. The Prince of Orleans, the regent, made a desperate decision to appoint this Protestant and wealthy man. A wanted criminal in the UK who lived with his wife and had constant scandals with nuns became the Minister of Currency. He opened the first central bank in human history and issued the first set of credit currencies that were decoupled from gold and silver.
A few years later, John's career reached its peak. He served as France's Minister of Taxation, Finance Minister and Bank Controller. He decided how the French government should make money, how to spend money, and how to formulate economic and monetary plans. . Under John's mathematical management, France abolished 90% of the original taxes, rebuilt the national economy, and vigorously developed Louisiana. At John's peak, the French changed their cheers to "God bless the king and John" and "Long live the king and John"; the European powers even exclaimed that France only needed John's banks and currency to bring its old enemy Britain to its knees; The word millionaire was invented by John, and the right investment could make the Duke's coachman overnight a man far richer than his master, who in turn would fawn over the servant of the day before. Montesquieu later recalled that it was the earth-shaking John era that made him realize that there was no insurmountable gulf between nobles and commoners.
At that time, in John¡¯s office, the ladies and ladies who came to visit him started queuing up from the door, and the long queue passed through the lobby, corridors, all the way out of the main entrance and extended to the road. These most beautiful female aristocrats in France all said that as long as John was willing to sell them stocks, they would do anything for John. The Prince Regent, Prince Orleans, also recalled sourly that after breaking into John's office, he saw four aristocratic ladies from noble families at the same time, none of whom were wearing tops
These fragrant stories impressed Deng Ming deeply after reading them in his previous life, and he still remembered them decades later. He probably still remembered that the regent secretly printed billions of francs for himself, which led to the complete destruction of John's mathematical model. and when the big collapse caused by hyperinflation came, the angry French suddenly remembered that John was a sinful Protestant, a hateful British guy, and he also openly lived with a married man in Paris, seduced nuns, and insulted the sacred. The church and the faith of the French people John fled to Switzerland and died there. His failure was summed up by financial scientists in the next two hundred years as: John was proficient in mathematics, but did not understand that human greed is infinite, so pure A credit currency is never feasible but must be linked to gold and silver and reserves must be guaranteed.
But this time John did not go through ups and downs, nor did he go to Switzerland to die in depression. Instead, he was taken to China by Deng Ming after hitting a wall with the Sun King. The central bank, currency, stock and futures systems being implemented here made John very happy. There was a sense of familiarity. Of course, he would not think that this was the alien technology derived from his mathematical model. Instead, he would think that someone had the same idea as him. John was a guest here and taught mathematics and economics in the college - even though China had already had decades of experiments with central banks, equity, and futures, which were earlier than John's experiments, and there were some regulations even older than John's. It is still more advanced, but Deng Ming knows that he actually does not understand any mathematical principles, and this playboy is the inventor of this batch of alien financial technologies. His mathematical and economic ideas are very important compared to the central bank of Deng Ming, a cat-drawing tiger¡ª¡ª Of course, for the sake of safety, even though John was already quite old, Deng Ming still strictly prohibited his female family members from getting close to John and warned other friends.
Tonight¡¯s battle was the beginning of Deng Ming¡¯s name being mentioned on a large scale by people in Europe.
¡¡
It was already midnight, and everyone on the flagship opened their eyes wide, carefully searching for enemies in the darkness. By this time, the lights in the Spanish captain's room had already been turned off. On the cloudy sea, a soldier approached the bridge in the dark and lowered his voice to Li Siming next to Deng Ming for instructions: "Major, should we slow down or launch rockets?"
"Of course we will slow down as planned." Li Siming said without thinking, while also trying his best to lower his voice.
The soldiers retreated quietly. According to the prior plan, the Ming army would continue to advance until it formed a rough outflank on the Spanish fleet before launching an attack. However, the distance between the two armies should be very close at this time. The Ming army could only make a very rough estimate of the parking location of the Spanish fleet just now. At this time, the error range of the calculation of its own speed is also very large. The Ming army ships It is very likely that it will suddenly collide with an enemy ship, which will become dangerous if it does not slow down. Now that Deng Ming has not given Li Siming new orders, he certainly will not change his advance plan.
Deng Ming felt that he had not reached the predetermined position, but this was entirely his feeling. Maybe when the lighting rockets were launched later, he would find that the Ming army and the enemy had actually missed it - but it would be better for the ship in front to pass by than to reach it. At that time, we discovered that we were still far away from the enemy, so at least some of the ships could launch an attack immediately.
Although he knew that Li Siming and Feng Xifan were nearby, Deng Ming had no intention of talking to them. No one dared to say whether there were no hidden enemy ships around or whether they would hear the chatter in the wind.
"Our army has a total of 120 warships and 1,300 cannons." Deng Ming once again weighed the strength comparison between the two sides silently in his mind: "The Spanish have more than 30 warships, and there should be no more than 40. , they should have from one thousand to twelve hundred cannons."
It sounds like the number of artillery pieces on both sides is about the same, but the caliber is very different. The largest artillery of the Ming army is the 18-pounder cannon on the two battleships; the armed merchant ships mostly have 12-pounder and 9-pounder cannons, and even smaller ones. six pounder gun. Had heavier cannon been used, these boats would have been in danger of capsizing due to recoil.
But the Spaniards have many heavy guns of more than thirty pounds, and the opponent's sixty-gun flagship even has a powerful forty-eight-pound gun. In the past, in order to show off their force, the Spaniards also showed the power of their battleships to the Ming army. The sixty gunboat had a double-layered gun deck. When the firepower was fully activated on one side, it could fire projectiles weighing a thousand kilograms in one salvo. , even the flagship of the Ming army could not withstand several volleys at close range.
After several years of exploring the center of gravity, Chongming Shipyard has just begun to try to build an ocean-going battleship with a double-layer gun deck. The battleship is a brand-new European design that requires both speed and combat performance. This is a challenge for Chongming, which lacks experience in European-style battleship design and manufacturing. It's not easy to say. Relying on the beginning of a large number of students who graduated from Sichuan Academy and received mathematical training, the design of battleships has progressed very quickly. A large number of model experiments even made the designers feel that the underwater part of the hull is not the point with the least resistance, but it is still the same after five years. It is not enough that the Ming army has a batch of self-produced powerful warships.
"If there are a few more years" Deng Ming couldn't help but think.
At this time, a muffled sound interrupted Deng Ming's thoughts. It sounded like a violent collision occurred far away.
Hiss, hiss, hiss.
A moment later, a series of rockets rose into the sky several miles away. They flew into the air and then exploded violently, turning the dark clouds in the sky into dark red.
This was the lighting fireworks of the Ming army. With this faint red light, Deng Ming saw huge black shadows emerging from the sea.
Almost at the same moment, several Spanish rockets with long tails also shot into the air. That Ming army warship is launching? Immediately after the collision, it warned friendly forces, and the Spanish did the same. Now that the ship had been exposed, it launched rocket reconnaissance unscrupulously. Moreover, the Spanish reconnaissance range was larger and the number of rockets used was greater.
When a burning rocket slid towards Deng Ming and released its last light, they all saw the dark outline of a battleship not far away. The huge size of the black shadow made Deng Ming and the people around him gasp. The enemy ship closest to the Ming army's flagship looked like a hill.
Almost at the same time that the Ming army looked up at the majestic hull and took a collective breath, they also heard the rapid ringing from the enemy ship close at hand. This was the Spanish calling their sailors to enter the combat position.
"The double-layer artillery deck is the flagship of Guiyi!" Li Siming shouted, jumped up and shouted: "Full searchlights, full cannons!"