New Shun 1730

After the Russian delegation crossed Zhangjiakou, before entering Beijing, the envoy Count Savoy was already full of admiration for this ancient empire.

At this time, Europe was at the beginning of the Enlightenment. Count Savoy had been to Western Europe and had exchanges with those early Enlightenment scholars.

The purpose of praising foreign countries is often to criticize one's own country. This was vividly demonstrated at the beginning of the Enlightenment.

As Voltaire said: When the Chaldeans were only carving words on rough bricks, the Chinese were already carving words on light bamboo slips...

Voltaire also wrote a poem for Confucius:

Only reason can improve intelligence, but only sincerity can illuminate people's hearts.

The words of the saints are not pre-enlightened, and the land of the past has served the great success.

Whenever people hope for change, they always describe an ideal country first. China's ideal country is the rule of the Three Dynasties, and Europe's ideal country at this time is Confucian China.

As for whether the facts are like that, it is not important. In the advocacy for a certain purpose, the truth is never important.

What is important is to make people believe that there is a better choice. And right now, at this moment, right here, it's rotten.

Russians have an indescribable awkwardness towards this legendary ideal country, compared to the more distant France.

Russia is the most foreign-worshiping. No one else.

This awkward mentality is very strange, and it is easy to understand:

On the one hand, like Jingchu, I am a barbarian, what can you do to me?

On the other hand, they want to get the recognition of the West and get rid of the identity of barbarians, from France to the Netherlands and from the Netherlands to Lithuania, as long as it is Western, it is worth licking, and they have never changed their heart to integrate into the West.

They are ashamed of the Russian language and proud of Latin and French, but the purest Russian language supports half of the realistic literature; they are ashamed of traditional Russian costumes and proud of Western clothes, but they are full of praise and appreciation for girls who can dance the most authentic Russian dance in bragi; they are ashamed of Russia's barbaric despotism and proud of Western enlightenment thought, but they wish every monarch was Peter and Ye Er; they are ashamed of Russia's serf villages and proud of Western capital development, but one after another Russian conscience sings the elegy of the village community and fears the pain brought by industrialization...

This kind of awkwardness and weirdness, at this time, is that when Western enlightenment scholars lick the East, they think that the further east you go, the more barbaric you are, and they are proud of themselves for not being so "barbaric".

"Semi-barbarians" always try to find confidence in the real "barbarians".

With this awkward and weird prejudice, when Count Savoy arrived in Zhangjiakou, he thought that Zhangjiakou must be one of the best cities in China.

The towering Dajing Gate is still there. The Great Wall, which fell into disrepair due to the decline of Mongolia and the northward movement of the garrison, is now crowded with people in the trade city developed from the tribute market and the tea-horse trade.

Porcelain, tea, brown sugar, medicinal materials, cattle and horses, furs, woolen fabrics, etc. meet here. The pungent smell of coal smoke, which is hard to smell in Russia at this time, occasionally wafts out at lunch.

Crowded people stood on both sides of the road to watch the excitement. Probably because of the Catholic missionaries, people here are not the first time to see people like Rakshasa, so they are not too surprised.

Monks, Taoists, Lamas, Confucian scholars, and occasional Catholics, people of different religions live in harmony here.

Such a prosperous scene, in the whole of Russia, may only be St. Petersburg and Moscow at this time. Count Savoy naturally thought that this was one of the best cities in China.

The Duke of Qi, who was traveling with him, couldn't help laughing when he heard this, thinking that this might be the day with the highest historical evaluation in Zhangjiakou, and it should be recorded in the history of Zhangjiakou. These Rakshasa people are really ignorant.

"If you have a chance, you should go to Suzhou, Jinling, Guangdong, and Zhangzhou. Zhangjiakou is to the Celestial Empire, or like Astrakhan in your country, it is not even Kiev."

This answer made Count Savoy dumbfounded, and he asked Duke Qi some other things.

The translator was very obedient and said, "Court, where is the Duke's fiefdom? How big is Qi's fiefdom?"

"Uh... All under heaven belongs to the king. I have no fiefdom, nor do I have fiefdom. Qi is very big, with a population of tens of millions, but that is not my fiefdom, it is the land of the Son of Heaven and the people of the Son of Heaven." Duke Qi thought to himself, what era is this, and he still asked me about my fiefdom and fiefdom. In the world today, apart from the lineage of Emperor Shizong, where else can there be a real prince who can govern a place?

After getting the explanation from the translator, Count Savoy recalled what he had seen along the way through Zhangjiakou, and thought that China's bureaucratic system might be the best system. At least, neither France nor Britain has such an efficient and unified system.

At least from now on, bureaucrats everywhere are implementing the will of the superiors. The Duke of Qi did not need to discuss with any locals, but only needed to give orders, even if the Duke of Qi's fiefdom was not here, or there was no fiefdom at all.

This was the dream that Peter had always wanted to achieve in his reforms, but he still did not achieve it before his death.

When he rested at night, Count Savoy recorded everything he saw in his diary.

"The Chinese have no true faith, they are polytheistic idolaters..."

"The town near the capital is very prosperous, and there is a strange kind of carp in the pond. Golden, red, white, and even green, they do not eat these strange carp, but use them for viewing. In any case, these strange carp are very beautiful. I asked the local officials, and they said that this kind of fish is easy to raise and may be taken back to Moscow..."

"The terrible Chinese eat everything without any taboos. Frogs, turtles, dogs... But the dishes at the banquet are very good, and their wine is very mellow, perhaps only the wine from Romagna can be compared..."

"Chinese people's clothes are very beautiful, and the rich people wear silk. The sleeves are wide, much like the sleeves of women's blouses with fat sleeves. Many women have very small feet, as small as children. It is said that the biggest shame for women is to be raped. They saw their feet, so they hid them with cloth..."

"In some towns, there will be some horses or donkeys at the street entrance. If you are willing, you can pay some copper coins and you can ride. If it is a donkey, there will be someone holding it in front..."

"After asking, you can learn that onions, garlic, radishes, turnips, etc. ripen around Lent; cherries and cucumbers ripen around George Day; grapes and pears around Semyon. The Chinese are good gardeners, The yield of their vegetables is very high, and the yield of their farmland is also very high, even beyond my imagination..."

"Meat here is very expensive, much more expensive than in Russia. A hen costs about two taels of silver, a duck costs twice as much as a hen, and a bull costs about 10 taels of silver. Only here did I learn a shocking fact According to the news, tea grows on trees, and those tea balls that are made into balls and are popular in Petersburg’s upper class are not even top-notch. At least the officials here would never take out tea balls when entertaining us, thinking that That’s what Tatars drink, and what he said made me ashamed…”

"It's not that gems are everywhere here. On the contrary, the same pearls are three times more expensive here than in Russia. In places like Zhangjiakou, you can easily buy pepper and other spices, silk, cotton, tea, medicinal materials and even gunpowder in the market , are much cheaper than in Petersburg. I don’t know what goods can be sold here in Russia, maybe gems and pearls?”

"The ordnance of the 'citizen shooting corps' everywhere is not good. It is obviously the style of the Thirty Years War. You can see bows and arrows, armor, matchlocks... At least here, I did not see flintlocks. Their There are many cannons of various calibers. Perhaps they used the number of cannons to make up for the lack of firepower of the mixed matchlocks..."

"We are about to arrive in Beijing. The weather is very good at night. After measurement, we can know that the latitude of Beijing is about 40 degrees north latitude. It is hard to imagine that the latitude here is similar to Rome. It is further south than Paris and London, but the weather But it's much colder than there. The boys from the Academy of Sciences think that there may be a cold ocean current in the east sea. The wind here is very strong, there is a lot of sand, and it is not close to the sea. It is difficult to understand why the Chinese would choose their capital here. Planting place…”

"Of course, no matter how frequent the sandstorms are here, they are not as frequent as the fires in Moscow..."

"Different officials' clothes are embroidered with different animals. Cranes, quails, lions, and a strange black and white bear. It is said that snakes are sacred animals here, and they are painted everywhere on the emperor's clothes and in the forbidden city. A snake with legs, and this kind of snake is like the crown of the tsar, which cannot be owned by the subjects..."

"Jesuit Catholics told me that the emperor of China was actually a good Christian deep down, even though he had dozens of concubines, even though he worshiped idols, even though he didn't read the Bible. Perhaps, if they were allowed If they continue to open churches, even if the emperor beats up the Pope, they will think that the emperor is a kind believer at heart... However, the Catholic priests are full of worries about the future, and their beliefs have caused fierce resistance from the locals. I don't think missionary work can be used as such. A request for negotiation, after all, among their officials there is a young man who is very clear about religion and the situation in Europe..."

"After asking the local judicial authorities, they thought their trials were fair, but in fact they were uncivilized and barbaric. Of course, compared to the Russian serfs, this kind of trial was progressive, but the serfs were not Counting people, but they think there are no slaves in their country..."

Before reaching the capital, the Count of Savoy made a judgment on Dashun with a sly attitude: this ancient Eastern Empire was temporarily invincible. Wealth, large population, no religious conflicts, bureaucrats carrying out the will of the superiors, any bureaucrat can accomplish what they want to do anywhere in the vast land.

At least that's what it seems. If the tax laws enacted by Peter are followed and fully implemented, including taxes on wearing long robes, taxes on beards, etc., I am afraid that such a huge empire can receive at least 80 million or even 10 million in annual income. This is It was an amount that Russia at that time could not even imagine.

Of course, the Count of Savoy also saw some things that were not so glamorous.

For example, for unpaid corvee, if the mission needs manpower to help feed horses, transport fodder, etc., local officials will recruit some poor farmers on the spot and let them perform unpaid labor.

Of course there are many poor people, but this time Dashun did not follow Emperor Yang's example of "winding silk around trees", and beggars would often appear in sight. It's just that these beggars are also very honest. They will avoid the envoys and officials when they see them, at least they will not rush into the envoys to ask for alms... maybe they are afraid of being beaten by the officials and soldiers.

Poor children carried wicker baskets on their backs and followed the delegation, fighting for the horse dung dropped by the mission's horses, and then sent the horse dung to their own vegetable gardens. Some children even fought over the horse dung.

Nobles of different cultures have different "elegance", but the sufferings of the lower class are always similar.

In another time and space, when Macartney, a true nobleman who was born in the source of the Industrial Revolution but had never seen coal and had never touched a household hut, visited China, he naturally would not compare those beggars with the poor people in the London factory area who fed their noisy babies with wine and opium in order to do more work and earn more money to keep quiet.

The British around the time of the crow would record the beer belly of the London farmers and the Crystal Palace that dominated the world in their notes to show the "wealth of the upper country" and "civilization and decency", but would not mention the workers in the London textile district who could only live for three years. The people who really cared were digging pits with their feet in the London library.

It was just that at that time, you could still play Tian Ji horse racing, but at this time, Savoy was not even qualified for Tian Ji horse racing.

It's not that he didn't know what the Russian serfs were like, and he had no sympathy for these poor people. He only cared about the strength of Dashun, in order to make a bottom line judgment for future negotiations.

After leaving Mongolia, his bottom line in his heart became higher and higher. Just as Liu Yu said during the negotiation that day, Dashun was trying to reform, and if there was no shortage of money, there would be no shortage of guns, artillery and instructors.

In the battle of Northern Xinjiang, the flying hot air balloons, French-style siege techniques, strong logistics capabilities and not bad artillery all convinced the Russians that Dashun's military backwardness was only temporary and that they had begun to catch up.

This time the delegation went south, which made Count Savoy more convinced that Liu Yu's words were not intimidation. Whether it was the population or the wealth of the town, Russia should not provoke such a big country, especially after this big country had opened its eyes to the world and knew to threaten them with the Polish throne, Crimea and the Torghut tribe.

After Zhangjiakou, it was a formal farming area. This year's rain was very good, and the north had done a good job in suppressing annexation since the war. This was a year of not starving to death, which was a prosperous time for this time.

When they arrived in Changping, the accompanying escort guards were disarmed, and the guns and cannons as "gifts" were temporarily sealed in the military camp in Changping.

This was a rule that had been set during the border negotiations. Liu Yu modified the words of the emperor as a rule for equal diplomacy between Dashun and foreign countries before the "world etiquette" was formed.

"If a diplomat refuses to bow five times and kowtow three times, it is disrespectful to the emperor. A Chinese envoy who comes to St. Petersburg should pay the same courtesy to the tsar as a Russian noble or senior civil servant. No monarch will ever treat an envoy as a person of equal status. Can an envoy sent to Turkey not wear the required fur-lined robe when summoned by the Sultan? It is unreasonable to follow Russian customs when meeting the Chinese emperor. If the Russian custom is to kiss the tsar's ass, does the emperor have to take off his pants and wait to be licked?"

There is no "Son of Heaven" in the world yet, so naturally there is no "Zhou Li" in the world, so you should abide by the rules wherever you go.

In comparison of strength, the Russians accepted this condition very obediently.

Count Savoy originally wanted to demonstrate his military power, saying that the battle in Heilongjiang was not the power of the Russian regular army, and hoped that Dashun would know that Russia was still very powerful and would not ask for too much in the subsequent negotiations.

But the emperor also gave an order: refuse to perform martial arts, and don't even watch it.

All the accompanying soldiers handed over their weapons in Changping, and were not allowed to bring weapons into the capital.

The soldiers of Dashun's Beijing camp also selected the most elite batch to escort along the way.

Outside the capital, they were greeted by Li Jiusi, the Duke of E, who was in charge of the training of the Beijing camp, as well as the assistant minister of the Li government and the Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple. This standard was neither high nor low, just right.

Of course, the emperor would not show up, but sat in the forbidden city waiting for the delegation to come to the audience.

When approaching the towering gate of the capital, the children who followed the delegation and picked up horse manure along the way with baskets on their backs dispersed.

Several cannons were fired from the towering city wall. The delegation went through Anding Gate. The Zhenwu Great Emperor Temple in the city wall was also filled with incense to suppress the priests of the Luosha delegation.

When passing through the city wall, Count Savoy felt a little depressed.

After the war and reconstruction eighty years ago, the city wall of the capital has added a lot of horse faces. Although it has not formed a multi-layer structure of bastions, the thick wall foundation still gives people a sense of despair that is difficult to destroy.

Savoy is sure that this is not something that can be blasted open by artillery. For a moment, he felt a sense of grief.

It is hard to imagine that eighty years ago, the ancestors of today's emperor captured such a city without cannons, and it is even harder to imagine that this city fell into the hands of the Tatars eighty years ago. Being under the city, he couldn't help but think of Constantinople three hundred years ago.

How could such a city fall?