“Oh, my God!

It's simply amazing!

Just one day has passed, and the ground has become as hard as a stone, which is incredible!”

Van Luc, who was in his thirties, looked at the smooth cement road in front of him with incredible eyes, and kept screaming and admiring.

After arriving at Tianjin Wei Wharf with the merchant ship, Van Luc got off the shore and took a Han man hired from Manila to find Tianjin customs officials, saying that there was a major event to meet with a senior official of the Ming Dynasty.

The customs officials who received him did not dare to neglect him and quickly sent someone to the capital to report. The next day, a head of the Honglu Temple was ordered to feel that the Tianjin Wei Wharf brought the Van Lukehe news to the capital to resettle.

After handing over the map and intelligence to the officials of the Honglu Temple, Van Luc completed his mission. In the following days, accompanied by the officials of the Honglu Temple, Van Luc wandered around the huge city of Beijing, tasting the Ming Dynasty food while also switching to many markets. The prosperous scenery of the Ming Dynasty capital surprised Van Luc, who had set foot on the territory of the Ming Dynasty for the first time.

The Netherlands is now in a period of rising national strength. They rely on 20,000 merchant ships and powerful gunships to communicate with the East and West world, trafficking various commodities and raw materials back and forth, and obtaining huge profits from it.

Although I have heard of the prosperity and strength of the Ming Dynasty from many people, Van Luc always believed that the wealthy Netherlands was the most developed country on this planet, and no one can compare with the national strength or the living standards of the people.

Although the Ming Dynasty, located in the east, had abundant resources, it should be a place where most of its citizens were extremely ignorant. In addition to the abundant products such as silk and porcelain, it should still be far behind the Netherlands in other aspects.

But after coming to Beijing, the prosperity and civilization in front of him changed his deep-rooted view.

The neat and spacious streets, the bustling and bustling streets, the dazzling array of goods, the high-confident expressions of pedestrians on the street, the clean and beautiful clothes on their bodies, the orderly urban life, etc., all of this made Van Luke amazed.

It turns out that the legendary Ming Empire is extremely prosperous. The capital alone has a population of more than one million, which is already one-fifth of the total population of the Netherlands. If it can become an ally with such a prosperous and powerful empire, the Netherlands' appeal in Europe will be even stronger.

After van Luc inspected the market and thought about it, he decided to bring the exquisite porcelain and silk back to Europe.

This is the most popular Ming Dynasty commodity in Europe. As long as the merchant ship returns to the shore, within a month, these silks and porcelain will be sold out by merchants from various countries.

At this moment, the Honglu Temple officials who received the instructions of Zhu Youjian took Van Luc to the section of the Tongzhou Canal Wharf that had been basically expanded and renovated, and introduced the cement that was released two hundred years in advance to Van Luc. This magical new thing instantly conquered Van Luc.

Nowadays, the road hardening in European cities is made of stone as raw materials. Although the stone is strong and durable, it is too expensive and it is time-consuming and labor-intensive to pave. If the road is not hardened, the road will be muddy and difficult to travel during the rainy season, which will cause great inconvenience to people's daily travel and various commercial activities.

However, these seemingly gray and worthless things can easily solve the problem of road hardening. The cost is significantly reduced compared to stone, and it saves time and effort. It can indeed be called high-quality products with high quality and low price.

After asking the officials of Honglu Temple about the bush to find out the raw materials and processes required for cement without success, Van Luke, who saw huge business opportunities, immediately solemnly proposed that he hoped that the Ming government could hand over the exclusive distribution rights of cement in Europe to the Dutch East India Company.

After the Dutch merchant ship he was riding on this time, he would report the matter to the senior management of the East India Company after he returned to the Netherlands with cement. He believed that the company would send a large number of merchant ships to the Ming Dynasty and transport cement from the East back to Europe continuously.

Although the time is short, Van Luc has discovered the huge commercial and strategic value of cement.

After testing the hardness and strength of cement with a hammer on the road, Van Luc knew that this product that can solidify quickly would be the best raw material for building turrets and fortresses.

This material will become one of the best-selling products around the world in the future, with extremely broad market prospects. After trying it, countries will burst out with huge demand for cement. The excess profits contained in this will make the origin and agents make a fortune.

"The Ming Dynasty is really a magical country. It has invented such a highly profitable commodity. If we can find a way to get the production formula, then all the profits of this product will be from our East India Company. With huge wealth, we can build more and larger cannon ships, and the whole world will be under the control of our Netherlands!"

The officials of the Honglu Temple were able to make the decision about Van Luc's request to underwrite the cement. So after sending Van Luc back to the official post where he stayed, the head of the officials quickly reported the matter.

Zhu Youjian soon learned about the request made by Van Luc. After thinking for a long time, he planned to agree to the Dutch's request with conditions. As for the price to sell it to the Dutch, the Ministry of Revenue should negotiate with it.

As for whether the cement ingredients will be leaked, Zhu Youjian was not worried.

The current level of technology is not as good as that of later generations. No matter how Europeans lead the world in their original history, without many precision instruments, you would not know that cement is made by mixing several simple things together.

Zhu Youjian Association instructed the negotiators of the Ministry of Revenue to raise the price when signing cement underwriting conditions with the Netherlands, so that the Europeans should not be too cheap.

The cost of cement is not high, and now it has dropped a lot compared to the beginning.

Any industrial product will reduce costs as the scale and production capacity expands, and cement is not the case.

As for the transportation and packaging of cement, the method of wooden barrel packaging can only be used for the time being.

Before the kraft paper appears, it is all that can be done.

There is nothing to do if you promise the Dutch to underwrite it.

Judging from the fact that Fang Yizhi and his team led a delegation to visit for more than two years, with the current ocean transportation capacity of the Ming Dynasty, there is no way to dump cement on a large scale into Europe. Now only the sea coachman has this condition.

You have to let others taste the benefits so that more countries will be willing to cooperate with you.

The Dutch are good at being middlemen. As long as they taste the sweetness from it, they will help you when they need it in the future.

Mutual benefit is the best way to sustain development.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian ordered the Jinyiwei to provide close protection to the Dutch to prevent the cement production process from leaking out.

Now many places in the North have opened cement factories one after another, so there is no need to worry about production capacity.

The hardening of Daming Road is a lasting project, and there is no rush to be a moment.

After decades of reform and opening up in the later years, many roads in backward areas have not been hardened, not to mention the current Ming Dynasty.
Chapter completed!