The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

After settling the baron's family, Min Xi continued to study his steam pump. To realize the function of pumping water on the existing steam engine, the first thing to solve was the problem of water pipes.

Thinking of water pipes, Min Xi couldn't help but think of rubber. Now that Captain Reiss has returned to Ming Dynasty and will never go to Europe again, it's time to prepare to head east. Perhaps we can reach South America via the Pacific Ocean and bring back rubber trees from there. In the future, whether it's making water pipes or tires, we will have the best materials.

The best time to go to the South Pacific is late spring and early summer, when the typhoons in the Northern Hemisphere have not yet started and the sea is calm. When you arrive in the South Pacific, it is winter there, which is also a calm season. Even if there is a delay, there are still few storms in the South Pacific in spring, so it is very safe for sailing.

However, Captain Reis is currently in Macau helping the Baron deal with sailor matters and has not yet returned to Beijing. This matter has not been discussed with him yet. We have to wait until he returns to discuss it together before deciding how to go. Old Hughes also left them a roll of Magellan's nautical chart. With Min Xi's own experience, they should be able to travel safely between Australia and South America.

On a holiday, Yunji and Yunlin were both on holiday at home. According to the Baron's request, they were going to go on an outing to the farm outside the city with the Baron's family.

The Baron had long wanted to visit their farm on the outskirts of the city. He was extremely curious about the window glass that Min Xi gave him. It was flatter, smoother, and larger than European glass, and its color was more transparent, with almost no impurities. When he learned that the glass was fired in Yun Ji's farm, he had to go and take a look.

Min Xi agreed to take him to visit Liulichang, but he did not plan to take him to visit the glass production line, just let him take a general look. After all, this is the exclusive technology they now have, and they cannot reveal the secret recipe to him without reservation just because they have a good relationship with the Baron. No matter how close their relationship with the Baron is, the Baron is still an outsider.

On the way there, Yunlin kept looking at the carriage behind him. Today, the men rode horses, while Alice and Bella followed in the carriage.

Min Xi noticed Yun Lin's movements, slowed down his horse and rode parallel to him, and asked in a low voice: "Yun Lin, what are you looking at?" Ever since he entered Wenchang Academy, Yun Lin felt that he had grown up, and he did not want his two brothers to call him by his nickname anymore, and asked to call him by his real name. Min Xi and Yun Ji had no choice but to cooperate.

Yun Lin smiled a little embarrassedly: "Just now, Sister Bella stuck her head out of the car and said something to me, but I didn't understand."

"I'll go ask for you?" Min Xi knew that Yun Lin was full of curiosity and kindness towards Bella.

“Will it be too offensive?” Yun Lin was very polite and well-mannered despite his young age.

Min Xi looked at him and said, "Although I am glad that you can be self-disciplined and polite, sometimes being too rigid can backfire. You are only in your teens, and Bella is only eight or nine years old. They are still children. There is no need to be so dogmatic and kill humanity."

Yun Lin was stunned when he heard this. He lowered his head and thought carefully for a long time, then nodded: "Second brother is right. Sometimes I also feel that those etiquettes are too rigid and inhumane."

Min Xi nodded: "That's right, what I hate most is the doctrine of 'eliminating human desires to preserve the laws of nature'. It completely denies even basic human nature. That's going to the extreme and it's bound to cause big problems."

Yunlin opened his mouth wide, listening to Min Xi's criticism of the most influential school of Neo-Confucianism. Many teachers in Wenchang Academy were supporters of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and he himself had heard a lot of it. Was Min Xi's view a bit shocking?

Yun Ji, who was walking in front, saw that they had not caught up, so he reined in his horse and waited for the two men until they arrived. Then he asked, "What are you talking about?"

Min Xi laughed and said, "I was discussing Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism with him. I said Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism is bullshit! It has gone astray and led Confucianism into a dead end. It is destroying the foundation of Confucian culture."

It was also the first time that Yun Ji heard Min Xi express his views on Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, so he joined in with great interest.

The three of them chatted with great interest based on their own viewpoints and understandings, and were all deeply inspired, until the Baron came over and tried to join in the conversation, but found that he had no words to say at all, so he took the initiative to change the subject.

Min Xi also remembered the original reason why they were discussing this issue, so he said, "Yunlin wants to go talk to Bella, is that okay?"

"Of course! You are our best friends, why can't you talk? Please feel free to do so!" The Baron raised his hand and motioned Yunlin to talk to Bella.

Although the status of women in Europe was not high at that time, the strict separation between men and women was not as exaggerated as in the Ming Dynasty.

Yunlin went outside the carriage and asked politely, "Sister Bella, what did you want to say just now?"

Bella opened the curtain and said in stiff Chinese: "I want to ride a horse, too."

Yun Lin was stunned, then scratched his head. He was about to say that women couldn't learn to ride horses, but then he thought of what Min Xi had just said and said, "You have to ask your father for permission."

Bella said, "Can you teach me?"

Yun Lin blushed and shook his head, wanting to say that men and women should not touch each other, but when the words came to his lips, he changed them to: "I don't know how to do it either, let Mr. Fernande teach you."