Great time travel

Chapter 195, Report of the Admiral of the Netherlands

"... Next, I am going to describe the current political system of the Australians. As I said earlier, the history of the Australian Song Empire has ended, and the current Australians practice a republic, and it is an unusually loose one, similar to the Italian city-state alliance Confederate republic system—in fact, for a giant country whose frontier provinces are half a world away from the capital, its political system can’t be loose. Those poor local officials can’t do everything in their own hands, and are forced to Forced to send messengers to repeat Mr. Magellan’s voyage around the world, and bring documents to the capital half a world away to ask for permission? In that case, everything will be delayed after they get a reply from the capital.

Under this extremely loose confederation system, the republics of the Australians retain almost complete autonomy, and can even launch foreign wars on their own!There are also great differences in the political systems within the various Australian republics. Except that they are all republics rather than monarchies, there is almost no identical place.This is quite similar to the Seven Provinces Alliance in our motherland.

In short, in addition to the capital, Australians have five major union republics and a number of sporadic small self-governing territories.And within each republic, there are various autonomous cities and vassal tribes, including republics, feudal monarchs and aristocratic territories, and even a few said to be very strange theocratic states. This makes this political system extremely complicated, and it is almost impossible to explain it clearly in a letter-in fact, I myself have not fully understood what the local government system of the Australians is all about!

So, here I focus on describing the central government of Australians.Like my country, England, and the Venetian Republic, the Australians have a parliamentary system of representatives of the gentlemen of the country, who serve as the link between the various parts of the land.But unlike our country, which only has one national parliament in The Hague, Australians have two houses, the upper house is the Senate, and the lower house is the House of Representatives. The two houses are collectively called the Parliament.The supreme leader of the Republic, the President of the country, is recommended by the Senate and appointed and removed by the House of Representatives.The entire republican government of the Australians is also, in theory, an employee of the Australian Parliament.

Regarding how members of the Australian Senate and House of Representatives should be formed, there is also a set of intricate procedures and systems, including elections and appointments. It is easy for laymen to be confused, so it is difficult to give an accurate description here. Because I haven't figured it out yet.

Roughly speaking, the number of members of the Australian Senate is small and their terms of office are relatively long. Some members are even tenured for life, but they are not hereditary. To a greater extent, they symbolize the authority of the central government rather than local governments. Benefit.However, the Australian House of Representatives has a large number of members and a short term of office, which reflects their respective local interests.The number of seats in the House of Representatives held by each union republic is directly linked to the overall strength of the republic to which they belong. There is a set of extremely complicated calculation formulas for this, which are roughly based on the population and the amount of taxes paid.

However, just like Frederick in our country.Commander-in-Chief Henry (the actual ruler of the Dutch Republic at this time, the younger brother of the "Dutch God of War" Maurice, took over in 1625 and took control of six of the seven provinces of the Netherlands. He was only one step away from being crowned king. It's a pity that he died before he could complete this step), with his elite army and the lofty prestige of the Orange family, he could to a considerable extent override the provincial councils.If the supreme leader of the Australian republic can have the support of the army and outstanding achievements, he can completely suppress the wrangling and inefficient Congress and become the uncrowned king of this country. crown.

But unfortunately, at present, the supreme leader just elected by this new republic, and the first president who is about to take office, is not a soldier, but the governor of the colony of Hainan Island, an Australian who has dealt with us before ( Dutch understanding), Mr. Wendez.

Mr. Wen Desi is a seasoned politician who is very good at coordinating various relationships, but he is not a brave general who has no outstanding military exploits to stand by.On the contrary, his political competitor, General Huangshi who presided over the battle to conquer the Ming Empire, has the title of "Invincible God of War" in the East, and he can be regarded as a world-class first-class general... It is conceivable that in the In the days to come, many conflicts and embarrassments are likely to erupt between the Australian military and the government.But for us foreigners, it is good news that is reassuring..."

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After writing this paragraph, Admiral Anthony Van Diemen felt a little tired, so he picked up the handset of the telephone and shook the crank a few times.After a while, a sweet voice rang out from the microphone: "Hello, the waiter No. [-] at the front desk is at your service. May I ask what you need?"

Even a few days ago, the admiral was surprised when he first touched the phone, but now he heard the voice from the opposite side, which still made him want to marvel - the Australians can actually pass through the thin wire To pass the voice, is this the wisdom of the devil?

However, in the past few days, he has seen so many incredible things in this Australian capital that it somewhat numbs his nerves.So the admiral just said calmly into the microphone: "...Please bring a pot of hot tea, the kind with sugar."

Not long after, the oak door of the luxury suite was gently pushed open, and a waitress in black and white maid uniform came in, and gently placed a large tray containing exquisite white porcelain tea sets on the navy On the desk in front of the admiral, then bent down and bowed, then turned and left.

The admiral, on the other hand, lifted a white porcelain teapot with golden flowers and plants from the center of the tray very familiarly, poured himself a cup of fragrant black tea, and then took out two pure sugar cubes from the white porcelain jar with tongs. Throwing it into the teacup, while admiring the clusters of bubbles emerging from the dark red tea soup, the cube sugar melted quickly, while sorting out the thoughts in my mind... Finally, I drank the cold black tea in the cup, and raised the pen again :
"...Next, Mr. Governor, I would like to talk about some light topics. In this beautiful castle where we are staying, which is the Australian State Guesthouse, there are also envoys from other countries. According to my relationship with them Their attitude towards Australians seems to be very different.

The first is the mother country of the Australians, the envoy of the Ming emperor in the east.As I said before, the founders of the Australian nation were the predecessor of the Ming Empire in Asia and the descendants of the Song Empire 350 years ago.They fled from the barbaric Mongolian cavalry all the way to remote Australia, re-established their own country, and very stubbornly believed that they still had the natural inheritance right to rule China.

Although the Australians and the Ming Empire should be regarded as cousins ​​in terms of blood and legal principles, the emperor and ministers of the Ming Empire obviously would not agree with the Australians.In fact, the court of the Ming Empire not only scorned the Australians as barbarians in total disregard of the facts, but also took the initiative to provoke a war with the Australians, and even after the complete defeat, the rulers of the Ming Empire still seemed to refuse to admit defeat.

For example, the envoys of the Ming Empire who are currently living in the room downstairs are obviously full of hostility and anger towards Australians in their words and deeds.The Australians also treated them very coldly, and so far have not sent a high-ranking official to meet them.At the beginning, I still felt very strange: Australians are also a group of polite and civilized gentlemen, why do they treat a diplomatic envoy of a big empire so coldly?
Later, through chatting with an Australian diplomat, I was surprised to learn that the current Ming Empire has been torn apart and completely collapsed under the joint blows of the Tatar invasion to the south, peasant riots, military aristocratic rebellion, and Australian attacks. .Even the Ming emperor who represented orthodoxy was defeated and killed in a war to suppress the rebellion of the royal family this spring. Who would succeed him as the emperor of China immediately became a big problem.

Today, only within the orthodox royal family of the Ming Empire, there are six emperors supporting themselves at the same time.As for all kinds of usurpers and false emperors who look like clowns, there are countless more.The chaos of its political situation is simply like the situation when the ancient Roman Empire fell!Regarding this situation, the Australian diplomat seemed to be jokingly claiming that this year is the "year of three thousand tyrants" unprecedented in Chinese history... In short, if there are really so many people in China this year saying God's words, I simply can't imagine what absurd scene that would be!

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty envoy who lives downstairs actually only represents the member of the royal family who ranks fourth in strength.Although the self-reliant emperor of the Ming Dynasty had noble blood, he had just been defeated by the Tatars on the battlefield, and another Ming emperor and a usurper took the opportunity to seize a large area of ​​territory. In distress, there were only two cities and one island left, and most of the army was lost, just like the late Byzantine Empire surrounded by the Turks 200 years ago, it was barely supported by sporadic assistance from the Australians.

In order to repel the next Tatar invasion, the Ming emperor sent a mission to the Australian capital, trying to beg for more arms, money and material assistance, and even hoped that the Australians would send troops to help him fight.However, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty obviously did not find the right candidate for the envoy.For example, the Zhengshi surnamed 'Fang', although he tried his best to cover it up, I can still feel that he has an unbelievable disdain and contempt for everything about Australians, such as those magnificent buildings , for the assistance that the Australians provided them before, they also feel at ease. They never thought of paying any price for it, and they were even picky in every possible way, as if they regarded the Australians as their own serfs.

It should be noted that his performance is not a special case, but a general sentiment that widely exists among the diplomatic missions of the Ming Empire.While diplomacy is synonymous with meanness, I can't help admiring the thickness of these guys' skins and their astonishing stupidity.

If the envoy surnamed 'Fang' had a problematic attitude, he was still somewhat reluctantly performing his duties, trying to get some assistance for the monarch he served.Then the other deputy envoy surnamed 'Xia' simply wanted to mess up their rescue mission.

The deputy envoy seems to have a deep hatred for the Australians, and he is not aware of the diplomatic status between the two parties.Actually, when I went to visit their residence, I enumerated a bunch of crimes committed by the Australians, and finally thought that the Australians should plead guilty and surrender to their emperor!It seemed that instead of him coming all the way to ask the Australians for help, the Australians knelt at his feet and begged for forgiveness.

And the personal servant of Mr. Deputy Envoy has an astonishingly crazy performance. Not long after arriving in this city, he arrogantly extorted bribes from the Australians at the State Guesthouse, and naturally only got a bunch of blank stares.Next, when the maid came to clean the room, this guy deliberately blocked the door to make things difficult and molested.After being sternly reprimanded, the servant who became angry from embarrassment simply resorted to violence, trying to molest the rather pretty Australian maid.As a result, the Australian guards who heard the news gave him a severe lesson with a stick, and then locked him in the basement.The Australian officials who managed the state guest house also ordered the cancellation of the room service of the Ming Empire mission, allowing them to do their own laundry and clean the room.

In this regard, the deputy Xia did not realize any mistakes at all, but felt that he had been greatly offended, and ran out to make a scene, smashing many things in the lobby, and was finally dismissed by the impatient State Guesthouse. The guards were thrown back into the room.The Australians also ordered the envoy surnamed 'Fang' to guarantee that similar vicious incidents would never happen again.Otherwise, expel the entire embassy and leave them on the streets.

In the next few days, I never saw the deputy envoy again. It is said that he was locked in the room by his companions and not allowed to come out, in case he caused any more trouble.But he still talked to himself in the room all day long, cursing the Australians to perish as soon as possible, as if he thought that only in this way could he show his loyalty to the Ming emperor, but he never thought that he was ordered to ask the Australians for help .

Anyway, if I had such a 'loyal' employee under my command, I would definitely tie him up with a rock and kick him into the sea to feed the sharks..."