Buried alive in the Qing Dynasty

Page 361

Although Kangxi himself does not believe in religion, and does not allow his other children to believe in religion, he is very much in favor of Yinjini's conversion to the Christian Orthodox Church... Well, Emperor Kang Mazi is usually very much in favor of anything that Sophia advocates of.Of course, this is by no means afraid of his wife. It is impossible for Kangxi to be afraid of his wife.

Also under Sofia's suggestion, the concubines of Emperor Kangxi are now all called royal mistresses... Look, what a class!In addition, the children of Emperor Kangxi who were born after Yinjini were not bastards anymore, they were all illegitimate children.So it will be difficult for the eighth elder brother and the fourteenth elder brother to seize the heir in the future.

But the elder brother Yinti, the third elder brother Yinzhu, the fourth elder brother Yinzhen, and the fifth elder brother Yinqi are still the princes.But the four of them were very scared when they saw "Sophia's mother". As long as Yin Jinni was still there, none of them would dare to think about the position of the Indian prince, at most the throne of Xiqing Khan...

When Kangxi Khan was silently recalling the happy time between himself and baby Yinreng in his heart, he saw Queen Sofia coming back from the chapel holding Yinjinni's hand.Sofia is still so fat, her face is smeared with palace powder, and she was still talking about her homework with Yin Jinni along the way: "Nicolas, your Latin is a bit behind, you have to work hard after the new year." Make up. I have already graded your math paper, but this time I got three questions wrong..."

After giving birth to Yin Jinni, Sofia suffered from "infertility" for some reason. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't conceive a second child, so she could only put all her expectations on Yin Jinni. My homework is very tight.At a young age, you have to learn five languages ​​including Chinese, Mongolian, Urdu, and Latin, as well as courses such as mathematics, natural magic, equestrianism, fencing, shooting, music, and court dance. educate!

And although Yin Jinni is studying very hard, she still can't meet Sofia's requirements... Today, she was scolded again, and she was still a little bit dissatisfied, muttering: "There are only three questions wrong in a total of one hundred questions. And Fourth Brother, Fifth Brother, Seventh Brother, and Eighth Brother must not do as well as me in the exam!"

Sophia snorted and said, "How can they compare with you? You are the future emperor of India, and you may inherit your second brother's Mongolian Khan throne. If you don't study hard now, what will you do if you become a foolish king in the future?"

Yin Jinni was still a little unconvinced: "Then, is the second brother studying well? Will he not be a fool?"

Sofia snorted: "How is your second brother's studies? Is he a fool? I have to ask you, Ama!"

Sofia and Yinjinni were talking in Chinese, and they didn't lower their voices, so everyone in the courtyard could hear them. Emperor Kangxi frowned, and soon showed a doting smile on Yinjinni.

Although he dislikes Sofia's looks a little, he still appreciates this woman's intelligence and talent, and he likes Yin Jinni, a natural baby, even more!

From Kangxi's point of view, it is impossible for him to successfully fight against the Ming Dynasty and restore the Qing Dynasty in his life, because his talents are far inferior to those of Zhu Heqi, and it is impossible to defeat him.But Yin Jinni might defeat Zhu Heyi's heir... because this child is so smart that even Kangxi, who was a cow baby since he was a child, admires his son's brain from the bottom of his heart.

Compared with Yin Jinni, Yin Ti, Yin Lin, Yin Zhen, and Yin Qi are all idiots!So as long as Yinjini is still there, it is impossible for them to get their hands on the Indian throne... As for Yinfeng, he doesn't seem to be a smart kid either. I haven't heard how good he is at reading?And in the past two years, he has been slamming the king of Yili County of the Ming Dynasty, Cewang Allah Butan, which is a bit awkward!

Can this great Mongolian country be handed over to him?

At this moment, Kangxi suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly lowered his voice, and said to his son Yinti in a Manchu language that Sofia couldn't understand: "Boss, don't let your Suo'eniang know that you went to Suiye to ask the second child to come to Amu Heweichang... After the Chinese New Year, I will send you a mission to inspect Kaitian Mansion in Beijing, and you will stop by Suiye Mansion."

Of course, Kangxi is not afraid of his wife. He and Sofia have always respected each other as guests, and women sing along with husbands... He just respects Sofia and doesn't want to make Sofia angry.

Yinti naturally knew what his father was thinking, so he quickly replied: "I know, I know, Ama don't worry."

At this moment, Sofia had brought Yinjinni over, and Kangxi rushed to greet him. Yinjini first bowed to Kangxi respectfully, while Sophia picked up her western-style court dress and squatted down a little. He squatted, which was a curtsey.

After Sofia saluted, the concubine and illegitimate children of Kangxi Khan saluted Sofia together. Among them, several little dolls could not speak, so they were hugged and saluted by their Indian nannies—Kangxi’s "royal mistresses" "They dare not appear in front of Sofia, and they can't live in the imperial city, they can only find another residence outside the imperial city.

Sofia waved her hand to make these people fall flat, then looked at Yinti who was whispering with Kangxi just now, and said in a deep voice, "Big brother!"

"My son is here!" Yinti hurriedly saluted to his stepmother.

Sofia suddenly showed a ferocious smile: "Brother, let's light the firecrackers... Yin Jinni is still waiting to see!"

Yinti heaved a sigh of relief: "Hey!"

……

When Kangxi Khan took his family to celebrate the Chinese New Year in India.In Xi'an, it's also the time of the New Year's Eve.Zhu Heqi's palace is also full of lively family members.His eldest wife, Qiu Shuzhen, brought a large family to Xi'an to celebrate the New Year together.

Qiu Shuzhen originally stayed in Nanjing City with the Crown Prince Zhu Yixin——Zhu Yixin is now a good boy of eighteen or nineteen years old, studying at university in Nanjing, and learning to be a state supervisor in his spare time under the guidance of his mother, Queen Qiu.

Of course, the supervisors of Qiu Shuzhen and Zhu Yixin did not have much power, they just supervised the administration of the courtiers headed by the left prime minister Yang Qilong and the right prime minister Zhuge Zhengyang.

After being imprisoned for several months, Empress Qiu felt that Zhu Yixin's prison prince was a good one... and he didn't have any outstanding performance.So she followed Zhu Heqi's instructions and handed over the heavy responsibility of supervising the country to her son. She took Zhu Heyi's other young children and concubines who stayed in Nanjing and set foot on the westward journey together.

In fact, this is also to practice Zhu Yixin, the Left and Right Prime Minister's Office, the Left and Right Military Advisor's Office, the Confucian Academy, and the Advisory Council will send six hundred miles every day to expedite and send a large number of memorials to Xi'an Imperial Palace.Zhu Yixin's performance at school and in the Prince's East Palace will also be sent small reports to Zhu Heqi every day.

And all of this is just part of the training plan of Zhu Yixin, the "Master of the Mean".

Although Emperor Zhu did not have too high requirements for his successor, as long as he was moderate.But this "middle way" is easy to say, but it is quite difficult to do it.Therefore, Emperor Zhu formulated a complete training plan for Zhu Yixin.

First of all, of course, formal aristocratic school education.Zhu Hechi did not advocate that his princes and princesses should only receive family education.In his opinion, even the best family education can hardly provide what princes and princesses need most - a circle.

In the process of advancing from Mongolian school to university (military school), Zhu Yixin, Zhu Yitong, Zhu Yimei (formerly known as Yibo), Zhu Yigang, Zhu Yitie and other princes who will control the destiny of a country and a feudal clan in the future will build up their own core. circles.They will make friends, gain younger brothers, and know who is very smart and who is simple in the people around them.

And there are all kinds of people who will appear around them, especially when they enter universities and military studies—although it is relatively easy for the noble children of Ming Dynasty to enter universities and military studies, the phenomenon of opening the back door can be found everywhere Well!However, common people's children can still pass round after round of exams to obtain two-thirds of the school status, and those who can enter it are of course very smart and hard-working students.

Zhu Yixin, Zhu Yitong, and Zhu Yimei may be mediocre themselves, but as long as they are assisted by a few extremely smart people, they may gradually form their own circle.

However, Zhu Heqi would not allow those young people to take power too early. Now Zhu Yixin can try to supervise the country, just to let him familiarize himself with the operation of the court so that he can take over in an emergency.After he is familiar with the operation of the imperial court, Zhu Heqi will still send him to the grassroots level to practice... He has to climb up level by level, and he has to do a lot of practice in the army and in the local area before he can really understand how lead the country in the future.

And those of his brothers who are about to be released to the country will also conduct long-term or short-term internships according to their respective situations before they can go to "jobs."

Now the older princes are either studying or practicing, but they haven't come to Xi'an.But those young princes and princesses all followed the queen empress Qiu Shuzhen to a long-distance trip, and they all arrived in Xi'an Mansion. While opening their eyes, they spent the new year with Emperor Zhu.

Of course, the emperor's house has a lot of New Year's rules. They worship the ancestors and worship the gods. After working until evening, they set up more than a dozen tables of banquets in the Cunxin Hall in the imperial city, waiting to have a New Year's Eve dinner together—— In addition to Zhu Heqi's family, as well as the courtiers and generals who accompanied them to Xi'an, they were all invited to have a New Year's Eve dinner tonight.

By the way, along with Qiu Shuzhen and his group came to Xi'an also Deyun Hou Guo Youde and a Spanish Marquis Mendoza who can tell "ghost stories" and propose all kinds of possibilities.

As an entertainment program before the start of the New Year's Eve dinner, Zhu Heqi formally summoned Mendoza for the first time in the Chengyun Hall on the evening of the New Year's Eve.Accompanying Zhu and Qi to "listen to the story" were military adviser Zhuge, minister of the Xi'an palace Yan Yuan, governor of Shaanxi Bai Siwen, governor of Shaanxi Yu Xiaowen, and governor of Xining Wang Fuchen.

"Master Guo!" In the main hall, just after listening to the "ghost story", before Mendoza made a protest or condition, Zhu Heqi asked Guo Youde's "nickname" with a suppressed smile.

"The minister is here!" Guo Youde, who came with Mendoza, immediately stood up, "My lord, do you have any orders?"

Zhu Heqi said: "Have you found out the identity of the Marquis of Mendoza? He is really not a storyteller? How come he is a devil and God at the same time... This sounds wrong! This is about the world Is it about things? We don’t care about things about heaven and hell.”

"Your Majesty, you are so wise," Guo Youde said, "At that time, I also felt that he was wrong, so I specifically asked people from the Dutch, English, French, and Portuguese embassies, as well as people who knew Mendoza well. The people of the Marquis came to identify him, and finally confirmed that this person was the Marquis of Spain, the former governor of New Spain, Mendoza. As for God, the devil... They all came to the mortal world somehow? But according to the Marquis of Mendoza, God I have agreed to make peace with the devil under the mediation of my Ming Dynasty."

Chapter 842 Big brother, Suo'eniang, there is no limit to cooperation

The Marquis of Mendoza brought an interpreter to see Emperor Zhu, and the interpreter he brought had been with Guo Youde for several days, and he could already understand the standard Tianjin Mandarin.So Mendoza immediately learned from his translator that Lord Guo Hou was talking nonsense again!

What does it mean that God and the devil agreed to make peace under the mediation of the Ming Empire?

When did God and the devil agree?

"Your Majesty!" The Marquis of Mendoza also disregarded diplomatic etiquette, and directly stood up from his chair to raise an objection in Latin, "Marquis De Yun is talking nonsense. I never said that God and the devil will make peace. I just Said that the Spanish Empire can make peace with the Merchant... as long as they are willing to stop undermining the territorial integrity of New Spain by supporting the Aztecs and Incas!"

His words were quickly translated into Chinese by the translator in the hall. In fact, Emperor Zhu could understand what he was saying without translation?

But he still waited for the translator to finish speaking before turning his attention to Guo Youde, who is very good at diplomacy.

"What are you talking about?" Guo Youde immediately became angry, "Why am I talking nonsense? You are talking about it, who said that Shang Fangguo and the devil are together? Did you say that?"

The words quickly became Spanish again.

"Shang Fangguo is indeed suspected of turning to the devil!" Marquis Mendoza said in Latin, "There is a lot of evidence to prove it!"

"Yeah!" Zhu Heqi tried his best to suppress a smile... He is the emperor, so he must have the majesty of the emperor, "If there is a devil on one side, then there must be God on the other side, otherwise it would be over."

And the Zhuge military adviser next to him couldn't bear it any longer, he waved his goose-feather fan and asked, "Your Majesty, I ask you, what is the relationship between your country of Spain and that God? Is it an ally? Is it a suzerain? Is it a benefactor and a monk?" A person? Or a state of father, son, and brother?"

This military strategist Zhuge is also capable of nonsense!If he hadn't met Zhu Heqi, the wise master, he would have been a fortune teller who relied on bragging for a living all his life.

His words were translated into Spanish again.

The Marquis of Mendoza said solemnly: "Our Spain is a country of the gods, that is, a country under the protection of God!"

God?Zhu Hexi said inwardly, "Are you nervous?"

Military Master Zhuge pinched his fingers and calculated, "That means God is the sect and Spain is the vassal."

Guo Youde said: "What the military adviser said is very true...that is to say, God and you Spain are on the same side, and the devil and Shang Fang are on the same side. Menhou, are you right?"

"right……"

Although he said so, the Marquis of Mendoza thought in his heart: "This is definitely not right! But how can I say this? I have worked in diplomacy for many years, how can I not fix it this time?" ?”

Guo Youde spoke again: "If God and the devil don't make peace, the peace talks between Spain and the merchants will be regarded as a separate peace... This is a betrayal of God and the devil. Menhou, do you dare to betray God?"

After his words were translated into Spanish, the Marquis of Mendoza felt cold.

It is too difficult to deal with these Chinese people, each of them is full of fallacies, and they are especially able to get around.If you keep going around like this, you will be burned at the stake sooner or later!

When the Marquis of Mendoza was feeling desperate.Seeing that Zhu Heqi was quite reasonable, he finally spoke: "Men Hou, I heard people say that you Westerners pay attention to God's return to God, and Caesar's to Caesar. You are an envoy of the Spanish Emperor, and you belong to Caesar's line. Right? It’s not your business to ask about God and the devil, but the negotiation between you and the merchant involved God and the devil.

How about this, you find another envoy who can represent God to come to Daming... I also sent envoys to Shang Fang, and invited them and the envoys of the devil to come to Daming as well.Then the two sides sit down and have a good talk, and maybe a package peace agreement can be reached. "

God's envoys and devil's envoys are negotiating in China... and a peace package is to be reached!

While talking nonsense, Zhu Heqi pondered in his heart: "Why is this so mysterious? If it goes on, there will be a sequel to the list of gods."

"Okay!" The Marquis of Mendoza agreed immediately.

What Zhu Hechi thinks is fantasy, he thinks it's good... He doesn't have to bear the responsibility of being burned at the stake and going to hell.

"However, the envoy who can represent God has to be sent from Rome, where the universal church is located, and I am afraid it will take a long time to reach China." The Marquis of Mendoza put forward another condition this time, "Before the envoy of the Roman Church arrives, I hope that your country can strictly abide by its neutrality and not provide any military aid to the Shangfang country. Because that will destroy your Ming’s neutral status and put Ming on the opposite side of the entire Christian civilization!”

In fact, this is the main purpose of the Marquis of Mendoza coming to Ming Dynasty!

Leopold I didn't want to negotiate a peace with the merchants in the current battlefield situation that was very unfavorable to the Spanish Empire. He just wanted to use the guise of inviting Ming to mediate, and then use the abandonment of claiming the Philippine colony and paying a sum of compensation as a bait , in exchange for Daming's outsider neutrality.

But before the interpreter present could speak, Zhu Heqi rushed to speak in extremely gloomy tone: "Mendoza, are you threatening Daming? Do you know what the consequences of offending Daming are?

Let me tell you, Daming and Shangfang are brother countries for hundreds of years.Not an ally, but an ally.There is no limit to the cooperation between Daming and Shangfang, and no country can interfere.Otherwise, the consequences will be at your own risk... Don't be unpredictable! "

This was quickly translated into Spanish.

The Marquis of Mendoza immediately realized the seriousness of the problem, but he still pretended to be calm and asked in Latin: "Your Majesty the Emperor, are you going to give up your Ming Empire's neutrality?"

"No!" Zhu Hechi said, "Da Ming will not directly participate in the war in the New World... Da Ming will remain neutral. But Da Ming will continue to cooperate with Shang Fangguo without limit! Perhaps such cooperation violates the so-called international common law, but you must be clear about the fact that in today's world, Ming Dynasty is an exception!"

Although what Zhu Heqi said was very arrogant and unreasonable.

But it is a fact!

Da Ming Chao is now an exception that no one can do anything about.

Now, the Frankish Holy Roman Empire is engaged in a fierce and bloody war with the Ottoman Empire. How long will it take?And the power of the Spanish Empire and the Kingdom of England was restrained by the Shang Fang Kingdom in North America, and they didn't dare to provoke Ming Dynasty again.

As for the Netherlands and Portugal, in order to continue the Nanyang spice business and various other big deals, they cooperated with Daming.

Looking around the world, perhaps only the Great Mongolian Kingdom can wrestle with Daming... But after that Kangxi Khan arrived in India, he seemed to have lost his former ambitions and began to build his own comfort zone in Northwest India.

Seeing that the threat failed, the Marquis of Mendoza had no choice but to change his strategy. He said to Zhu Hechi: "His Majesty, calm down, our Spanish Empire has no intention of being an enemy of the Ming Empire. And we are still willing to abandon the Philippine colony and massacre Luzon Island." Start negotiations with Ming Dynasty on the issue of compensation...Spain is willing to pay a lot of silver and gold!"

Zhu Heqi's tone also softened, but he did not nod, but shook his head and said: "There is no need to negotiate on the ownership of Luzon Island, it has been owned by the Chinese Empire since ancient times! As for the compensation... there is no rush, Let’s solve the problem of God and the devil making peace first!”

Zhu Hechi actually didn't want the Spanish Empire's indemnity. The Chinese Empire had been supplying the world with goods for hundreds of years, and the precious metals kept coming in a steady stream.After the establishment of the new Ming Dynasty, this trend not only did not slow down, but also accelerated due to the arrival of the era of "sweet gunpowder"!

In addition, because the financial industry of the new Ming Dynasty is far more developed than that of the previous Qing Dynasty and the old Ming Dynasty, the domestic currency of the New Ming Dynasty is not tight at all, but has been inflated year after year.

At the same time, after the end of the Anti-Qing and Fuming War, the finances of the Ming Dynasty improved greatly, especially after the land equalization system was widely implemented, the Ming Dynasty had a very wide tax base.More than [-]% of the cultivated land in the country has been distributed. Although they are all under the name of clans or villages, because those clans and villages are not large in scale, a situation of small clans and small villages facing the big government has been formed. Impossible.Moreover, the imperial court still has two big pieces of fat that can be distributed, namely, education promotion and a large amount of reclaimable land... so few clans and villages will go against the imperial court for a small amount of land tax.

And the commercial circulation tax similar to value-added tax has become more and more perfect after years of continuous improvement, and it is more and more like value-added tax.Therefore, the Ming court could also extract high taxes from the increasingly prosperous industrial and commercial activities.

With land tax, circulation tax, salt tax, customs duty, mining tax and other taxes increasing year after year, the Ming Dynasty's finances were of course very ample.Therefore, the Ming court did not need Spanish indemnities to enrich the treasury.

Of course, Zhu Heqi just didn't want compensation, it wasn't that he didn't want compensation.

The current Spanish Empire has three treasures that Emperor Ming really wants to get!

One is the cinchona tree. The cinchona cream used to treat malaria is extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree.

The second is the cochineal insect, which is the source of carmine, and carmine is a highly valuable red dye, which is very important for the textile industry of Ming Dynasty.

The third is the seeds of the rubber tree. Zhu Hexi has the formula for vulcanized rubber, and there is also land suitable for planting rubber trees... the only thing missing is the seeds of the rubber tree.This is a big business!

And to get these three treasures, Shang Fangguo can't do without hurting the Spaniards, so now Emperor Zhu will not discuss compensation with the Spaniards at all, he has to beat them first, and then make conditions.

"Your Majesty," the Marquis of Mendoza thought for a while, "I understand what you mean...I will convey your meaning to the European side and invite the envoys of the Catholic Church to China. Is this okay?"

"Okay! That's it." Zhu Heqi nodded with a smile, "You go to Haijing Guangzhou Mansion to talk slowly... Anyway, you and Shang Fangguo can't eat each other. Fight to the end on the battlefield. You have to go back to the negotiating table and sign the agreement.

In addition, I, the middleman, will arrange for the crown prince and the US king Zhu Yimei to go to Guangzhou to host the talks. "

……

"Crackling, crackling, crackling..."

The sound of firecrackers rang throughout the night in the flag city of Nanjing Pingtianfu in the Great Mongolia, and did not stop completely until the early morning of the first day of the new year.

This is really a great New Year's Eve!

However, after the turmoil that night, in the imperial city of Pingtian Prefecture, most people including Kangxi had already fallen asleep, and only a small number of people were still awake.Among them are Sophia Suo'eniang and eldest elder brother Zhijun Wang Yinti.

At this moment, the eldest son of Kangxi Khan was in the palace hall of the imperial city, paying his respects to Suo'eniang, and whispering something by the way.

And it's still speaking in Rakshasa language!

This Yinti is not really stupid, but he is not as good as his younger brother Yinjinni.He spent two years with little Peter in the early years, and he actually learned Raksha language by the way.Not very good, but enough to talk to stepmother Sofia.

"Emiang, Huang Ama just misses my second brother a little bit. They haven't seen each other for many years... Don't get me wrong! Huang Ama likes the sixth brother the most. We, as brothers, can only help the sixth brother well. As long as the sixth brother can restore the Qing Dynasty, we brothers can also be honored."

Yinti understood Kangxi's mind quite well, and seemed to know that he could not compete with Yin Jinni at all, but he still didn't know much about Suo'eniang's mind.

"Big brother," Sophia Suo'eniang said as she sat on a large throne, looking at the filial Yinti, "you don't really think that Nicholas (Yinjini) has the ability to restore the Qing Dynasty, do you?" ?And is it really necessary for us to restore the Qing Dynasty? Do you think India is not good enough and rich enough? We only occupy about a quarter of India now... Even if Nicholas fights for it all his life, it will be difficult for India Can this rich but divided country be united? So I think it is very good for Nicholas to be an Indian emperor. As for the area north of Kabul, let his brothers rule it! Yinti, are you Nicholas' eldest brother, you should share more!"

"Er Niang..." Yinti raised his head and looked at his sturdy stepmother with grateful eyes, "This son is born of Huang Ama's concubine."

Sofia laughed: "Yinti, I know that you are not qualified to be the heir of the Great Emperor, that's why Nicholas and I can trust you. Both Nicholas and I hope that you can become the supreme ruler of the Northern Empire, Become a sweat!"

Yinti trembled when he heard the words, and hurriedly bowed down and said, "I dare not."

"No! How dare you!" Sofia looked at Yinti, "And with the support of me and Nicholas, you can definitely become the Great Khan of the Northern Empire!"