Chapter 466: The General Direction

Rhodes was truly startled by Liu Zheng this time.

In the Longyan Dynasty, few people even know of the world's existence.

For this Prefect Liu to be so familiar with European civilization, he must be the first!

He even knows about the Glorious Revolution!

The seventeenth century in England was undoubtedly magnificent. This was also the period when Great Britain truly began its rise. In fact, these European civilizations can be summarized in one sentence... from ancient times to the present, it has been a struggle between Catholicism and heretics. This is basically true for all countries. Great Britain, naturally, is no exception. The so-called Glorious Revolution occurred after Queen Elizabeth of England established the state religion; domestic Catholics and Puritans began to struggle, eventually overthrowing the state religion, which led to an armed conflict between the King and Parliament, ultimately triggering a civil war.

After the Puritan leader Cromwell cleaned up the mess, he executed Charles I and established a Republic. However, the newly established Republic was naturally not favored by the Royalists or the Catholics. Especially at this time, the already rising Netherlands also began to oppose England. After quelling the civil war, Cromwell turned from a dragon-slaying Warrior into an evil dragon... he began to dissolve Parliament and establish a dictatorship.

It was not until James inherited the throne that Parliament was restored. But it had already split into two factions: the Royalists and the Parliamentarians. After James II ascended the throne, he desperately protected Catholicism and enforced autocratic politics. The two parties cooperated to depose James II and welcomed his daughter Marie and son-in-law William as the masters of England; this is the so-called "Glorious Revolution."

A social revolution represented by the New Aristocracy that overthrew autocratic rule and established the British democratic system. It overthrew feudal rule and, in 1689, promulgated the document "Bill of Rights" to explicitly restrict royal power in legal form, establishing a Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy.

That is how the Constitutional Monarchy came to be!

This is not only a very important historical node for England, but also a historical node that affects the pattern of the whole world!

Therefore, Liu Zheng has a very deep memory of this point.

After seeing Rhodes's reaction, Liu Zheng let out a deep breath.

Good heavens...

Europe right now is at its most bustling time.

The seventeenth century!

This is a magnificent century! This is a century of colonialism, and it is also the most brilliant century, a century that connects the past and the future! This is a century of rapid primitive accumulation of capital!

How could he not go and join in the excitement?

Talent!

At this time, Liu Zheng's demand for talent was no longer limited to the Longyan Dynasty; he needed to recruit more European talent!

He waved his hand, letting Rhodes leave for the time being.

Liu Zheng began to struggle with his thoughts.

Logically speaking, he had summoned Rhodes to Liangshan to have him study opium in his stead, and incidentally establish a Chemistry Laboratory, or even a Chemistry Factory.

But now...

He felt that Rhodes alone might not be enough.

What he needed was the great opening of thought brought about by the Renaissance after the long Middle Ages ended in the seventeenth century, the capitalist thought brought about after the destruction of theological dogmatism, the liberation of productive forces, the liberation of the human spirit and thought, and following that, the liberation and rapid development of technology, science, mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and so on in various fields...

For example, in navigation, more precise Astronomy observations were required to determine the position of ships.

In military affairs, Ballistics became the central subject of research. The manufacture of accurate timepieces, the digging of Canals, the construction of dams, the theory of elliptical planetary orbits, etc., all required many complex calculations. Elementary mathematics since Guxila had gradually become unable to meet the needs of the time.

Liu Zheng fell into his own deep thoughts once again.

He was pondering.

How he should walk the path ahead.

Suddenly.

At this moment, his eyes lit up.

Perhaps he should go to Wangbei Academy as soon as possible.

No sooner said than done.

The next day, Liu Zheng called Rhodes, who had rested for a day, into his room. To his surprise, Rhodes actually recognized the Poppy! This made things easier; Liu Zheng taught Rhodes the method of refining the Poppy hand-in-hand, and announced on the spot that from now on, Rhodes would be a General of the Liangshan Garrison!

The move of making a foreigner a General still shocked quite a few people.

Because Rhodes, whose faith had collapsed after sailing the Earth for more than a decade, was deeply grateful to Liu Zheng. As the saying goes, a Warrior dies for one who understands him; he had already sworn allegiance to Liu Zheng.

Liu Zheng instructed Rhodes that strict control and strict management of Poppy refining was the top priority.

The reconstruction of the farm, the management of the garrison, and the prototype of the research institution would also slowly unfold later.

Additionally.

Liu Zheng also allocated some separate funds to Rhodes, asking him to find ways to find some talent from Europe, in various fields—although he knew that given the current world situation, this was not easy to achieve, but what if he happened to find a treasure?

As for the rest...

He would talk about it after he returned from Wangbei Academy.

Before setting off, Liu Zheng wrote three letters.

One went to Liangzhou Prefecture, asking his father not only to recognize the legal status of the Trade Union, but also to provide them with support while maintaining control over Liangzhou Prefecture. In addition, regarding the Pension system, the People's Representative Congress could be raised to a position of mutual supervision with the Cabinet, complementing each other, or even being in opposition.

Another went to Yintan City. Liu Zheng informed Qingyang Shuo to have the Arab merchant Mire purchase another 100,000 slaves and send them to Liangshan—among this batch of slaves, preference should be given to Westerners and Priests who had lost their freedom at sea. In addition, he already had a solution for the ship-blocking matter and was in no rush to deal with it; he believed that once the gentleman saw this sentence, he would know what to do.

The last letter went to Xie Chan.

However.

He did not expect that this letter would almost cost Xie Chan her life.

Liangshan is divided into Daliang Mountain and Xiaoliang Mountain.

In later generations, the range of Xiaoliang Mountain already belongs to the territory of Yunnan.

This is also an area for the Yi people; in the fifteenth century, because of severe infighting among the Yi tribes in Daliang Mountain, one branch of the Yi moved to Xiaoliang Mountain and developed into the Yi tribe of this Xiaoliang Mountain.

And Wangbei Academy is located on this Xiaoliang Mountain.

"Look, look quickly, that is Yangping!"

Learning that Liu Zheng was finally going to the Academy, Jie Yu had been extremely happy these past few days. Along the way, she had been acting as a tour guide for Prefect Liu.

The customs of Xiaoliang Mountain indeed had much less strife and much more harmony than Daliang Mountain. There was less war and more elegance. The air here seemed fresher, and the sky bluer. The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Shangri-La of later generations were within the territory of Xiaoliang Mountain, so one could imagine how spectacular the natural scenery here was.

Liu Zheng rode his horse and laughed: "Your Academy certainly knows how to choose a location."

Jie Yu snorted: "That goes without saying, this is a true paradise away from the world!"

Liu Zheng sneered: "Away from the world? As far as I know, the location of Xiaoliang Mountain is only a few hundred miles from the Nanzhao Kingdom. Therefore, for the Academy to insist on me coming up the mountain this time, could it be that an Envoy from the Nanzhao Kingdom has arrived at the Academy, wanting to demand an explanation from me, Liu Zheng?"

"You..."

Jie Yu stammered, "Y-y-you, how did you know?"

"Yo, so it really exists?"

Liu Zheng laughed out loud.

Jie Yu had been guessed correctly on a sore spot, and she gently pursed her lips: "But rest assured, I, I, I, I won't let you suffer a loss..."

At this, Liu Zheng laughed even more heartily.