The appearance of vermicelli in the Central Plains can be traced back at least to before the Jiajing era, as Li Shizhen recorded the production method of vermicelli in his Compendium of Materia Medica.
Therefore, it was a perfectly reasonable thing for Zhu Jinsong to have a bowl of old duck vermicelli soup in Jinling city.
The only unreasonable thing was the bad news brought by Ke Zhiming: "An experimental error at the Electrical Science Branch of the Royal Academy resulted in two deaths, over ten houses were burned down, and more than half of the entire Electrical Science Branch was destroyed. After the news spread, there was some unrest in the capital, with people believing that this was all caused by the Royal Academy's unauthorized harnessing of lightning."
Zhu Jinsong was shocked, then forced himself to calm down. He took the intelligence from Ke Zhiming and began to read it slowly.
The Great Ming Royal Academy did indeed have an Electrical Science Branch, with many talented individuals tinkering with things like batteries. However, Zhu Jinsong couldn't understand how an electrical experiment could have destroyed more than half of the Electrical Science Branch.
Had these madmen developed an electromagnetic cannon?
Don't be ridiculous. The current research on electricity in the Great Ming was limited to the simplest batteries; they hadn't even developed electric lights yet, let alone electromagnetic cannons.
However, after Zhu Jinsong read the intelligence, he couldn't help but feel a bit of a headache.
In November of the fourteenth year of Qianlong's reign, Benjamin Franklin observed many similarities between lightning and electrostatic discharge in Philadelphia, proposing that lightning was a natural discharge phenomenon.
In the fifteenth year of Qianlong's reign, Franklin wrote to Christopher Clitherow, a Fellow of the Royal Society in England, describing an experiment: he hoped to erect a long metal rod in a high place to await thunderstorms. The metal rod was to be divided into two cases: grounded and connected to electricity, and ungrounded and insulated. In the second, insulated case, there was hope of storing a certain amount of electrical power from lightning in the metal rod.
Originally, this was just a hypothesis by Franklin. However, Christopher Clitherow, a Fellow of the Royal Society, collected all of Franklin's letters and compiled them into a book titled "Experiments and Observations in Electricity" based on their content.
In the seventeenth year of Qianlong's reign, the Frenchman Dalibard successfully completed the experiment described by Franklin in the suburbs of Paris, proving that "celestial fire" was merely a discharge phenomenon of extremely high intensity.
In the same year, Franklin's "Pennsylvania Gazette" reported after hearing about the successful lightning experiments in Europe: Although the European lightning experiments were a great success, someone in Philadelphia had already invented a simpler experimental method—we used silk handkerchiefs to make kites, connected them with metal wires, and tied a dry silk ribbon to the end of the metal wire for insulation. When thunderclouds passed, the end of the metal wire would discharge towards human knuckles, verifying the discharge nature of "celestial fire."
And recently, the translation of the book "Experiments and Observations in Electricity" had finally been completed. After obtaining the translated version of "Experiments and Observations in Electricity," the scholars in the Electrical Science Branch treated it as a treasure and began to replicate the experiments.
However, after successfully replicating Dalibard's experiment, the scholars in the Electrical Science Branch were not satisfied. Instead, they followed the information mentioned in "Experiments and Observations in Electricity" and directly found Franklin's later published article in the "Pennsylvania Gazette," and then began to replicate this experiment.
"Using silk handkerchiefs to make kites, connecting them with metal wires, and tying a dry silk ribbon to the end of the metal wire for insulation"—these steps were all fine, as the Great Ming lacked neither silk nor kite-making craftsmen.
It was even easier to hang a key at the end of the kite string.
However, an embarrassing situation arose—the kite wouldn't fly!
Despite all the efforts of the talented individuals in the Electrical Science Branch, the kite simply wouldn't fly on stormy days. Even if it did fly, it would fall to the ground due to being wet from the rain, making it impossible to replicate Franklin's experiment.
At this point, it was basically proven that Franklin's alleged kite experiment was a complete scam.
However, the talented individuals at the Royal Academy were not content with merely falsifying it. Instead, they tried every means possible to combine Dalibard's and Franklin's experiments to harness lightning, ideally to achieve the storage of lightning.
And therein lay the problem.
To obtain more accurate conclusions, the determined individuals at the Electrical Science Branch of the Royal Academy did not just conduct one experiment. Before the rainy weather, they erected several metal poles. Some were connected in open spaces, some were placed on houses, and some were connected to kite strings with keys attached to the ends—these people were still not giving up!
As a result, because so many metal poles were erected high up, the Royal Academy was burned by lightning on a night with heavy thunder and lightning but little rain. Two scholars standing next to the metal poles, intending to study the keys, were directly struck by lightning.
Zhu Jinsong didn't know what to say.
After a long silence, Zhu Jinsong finally spoke: "Notify the Royal Academy to provide generous compensation to the deceased and injured scholars. In future experiments, safety preparations must be made in advance."
Ke Zhiming bowed in acknowledgment, then said with a pained expression: "A secret report from the Jinyiwei stationed in the Lanfang Political Division states that due to economic impact, the people in Manolobasi, ruled by the Dutch barbarians, seem to be very resistant to the Lanfang Political Division, and the possibility of conflict cannot be ruled out."
Zhu Jinsong, who had been in a bad mood, suddenly felt that this bowl of old duck vermicelli was quite delicious. Look at the crisp duck gizzards and duck intestines, the tender duck liver, the vermicelli that was not too soft and not too hard, chewy yet delicate, with a bit of sesame oil and aged vinegar, what a taste, tsk tsk.
He scooped the remaining duck gizzards, duck intestines, and duck liver with the vermicelli into his mouth along with the last bit of soup. After swallowing the soup, he slowly chewed on the duck offal and vermicelli, and Zhu Jinsong suddenly felt a sense of great satisfaction.
"Comfortable!"
Zhu Jinsong put down the bowl, wiped the corners of his mouth, and then smiled, saying: "Pass an order to the Lanfang Thousand Households to pay attention to the movements of those monkeys, and also send people to notify the Front Army Command, so that the South China Sea Fleet can be prepared for immediate deployment."
Zhu Jinsong felt this was the best news he had heard in recent times.
If you only mention the name Manolobasi, not many people might know it. If you change it to the Old Port Pacification Command, more people might know. But if you change it to Indonesian monkeys, probably very few people wouldn't know.
As Yehenara Yingdu sang, "Let's meet that year."
And besides that year, the Red Creek Massacre also occurred here in the fifth year of Qianlong's reign.
Celen, the acting Fuzhou General of the Great Qing, and Wang Shu, the acting Fuzhou Governor, jointly submitted a memorial stating: "Overseas criminals are worse than ants; suffering such great disaster is due to their own actions and has nothing to do with the court's concerns." Emperor Qianlong decisively ruled: "Abandoned by the Celestial Dynasty, not hesitating to betray the ancestral graves and go overseas for profit, the court will not inquire."
The "Veritable Records of Emperor Gaozong of Qing" also recorded such an event: Chen Yilao, a survivor of the Red Creek Massacre, returned to Fujian in May 1749 with his property and children to serve his mother. He was immediately arrested by local officials. Qianlong attached great importance to it and ordered the Ministry of Punishment to investigate. The crime and punishment were: "Shall be banished to the frontier for associating with foreigners, engaging in mutual trade and lending, and defrauding property, thereby provoking border incidents. His concubines and children shall be dispersed, and his silver and goods shall be confiscated," on the grounds that "such bandits, who privately go to foreign lands, have already violated the prohibitions. Moreover, they have been away for many years. It is possible they have extorted and intimidated foreigners, exaggerated their power, or leaked domestic situations, causing further incidents, all of which are unknown."
Of course, it was not surprising that such a situation occurred, as the operations of the Great Qing were always so magical that ordinary people's minds could not comprehend them.
However, while Emperor Qianlong was indifferent, Emperor Zhu Jinsong of the Great Ming cared greatly.
Furthermore, the land was occupied by the Dutch East India Company.
However, Zhu Jinsong's preparations were somewhat excessive—just as the Great Ming's Front Army Command's navy completed its mobilization in Qiongzhou, Manolobasi was already in chaos.
What was even more baffling was that the Indonesian monkeys in Manolobasi did not organize an attack on the Lanfang Political Division. Instead, they erupted into fierce conflict with the Dutch East India Company that ruled them.
Specifically, the Indonesian monkeys organized to storm the Dutch East India Company's trading posts and the Dutch army camps, initiating a瘋狂 zero-yuan carnival in the city and programs that could be enjoyed even without a partner.
The then Governor-General of the East India Company, Pieter Gerardus Overstraten, was almost going mad.
"Kill them all! They must all be killed!"
Overstraten was like a lion in a fit of rage, roaring to bite to death the stray dogs that dared to provoke it.
"These fools, if they want to die, let them die. The East India Company absolutely cannot be dragged down with them!"
"God, are these fools' brains filled with shit? How dare they provoke the Ming Dynasty?"
Johannes Silberberg, one of the Seventeen Gentlemen who rushed to Batavia due to the trouble caused by the Indonesian monkeys, also had a somber expression, his mustache twitching with his rapid speech: "We must deal with these monkeys as soon as possible!"
"The whole of Europe is in chaos. The Bourbon family has joined forces with the Stuart family to deal with the Habsburg family, and the Habsburg family is on the verge of collapse."
"This means that the entire European situation will undergo a major upheaval. The Stuart family may make a comeback, and the already powerful Bourbon family may become even more powerful."
"And the cause of all this is that small broken pot advocated by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty—fortunately, the Netherlands has already applied to join the small broken pot. Although it has not yet been approved, it is better than the Habsburg family, which has not even submitted an application."
"The Netherlands is now also on a road with many forks. If we are not careful, we may fall off a cliff, or even fare worse than Portugal."
Upon hearing the word "Portugal," Overstraten's mood immediately worsened: "Yes, I know, I know how miserable Portugal is, damn those damned monkeys!"
Johannes Silberberg nodded and said, "Peter, you are the Governor-General of the East India Company, and I believe you know the strength of the Ming Dynasty better than I do. Therefore, no matter what, you must get rid of those monkeys. You absolutely cannot provoke the powerful Ming Dynasty because of them."
Overstraten nodded, forced himself to calm down, and said, "Okay, I will resolve this trouble as soon as possible."
Overstraten did not want to end up like Valckenier—when Valckenier was the Governor-General of the East India Company, the notorious Red Creek Massacre occurred in Batavia. At that time, the Dutch authorities, fearing that the "world's number one powerful nation," the Great Qing, would retaliate militarily and cut off trade, had Valckenier arrested and imprisoned, where he eventually died in prison.
Although Valckenier was somewhat wronged, Overstraten knew very well that if similar events happened under his leadership, he might not even have the chance to die in prison.
This is because the Great Qing did not retaliate militarily or cut off trade at that time.
But who knew what the Great Ming would do?