Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 725 The Chaotic World

It has been more than 20 years since Tang Ruo saw Daming, and he actually didn't know much about the situation in Europe, but he still knew something from the envoy of the Holy See, and told Song Qingshu everything without hesitation.

No way, in Europe, the godfather of the king or emperor is almost the most powerful person in the country. Take the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand as an example, he obeyed his godfather even more than the nobles under his command, which led to several conflicts with the new There is a great conflict among believers, but Ming Dynasty is not a Catholic country. Tang Ruowang has little influence on Song Qingshu. If he opens his mouth to fool around, it will easily arouse Song Qingshu's wariness and have a counterproductive effect. It is better to tell the truth and let Song Qingshu decide the pros and cons. Maybe there is still a chance .

Listening to Tang Ruowang's news, coupled with some of his own memories of later generations, Song Qingshu finally figured out what era he was facing.

God is fair. When the Central Plains faced the invasion of slaves, peasant uprisings, and chaos in the world, Europe also experienced an extremely cruel war.

30 Years War!
This war wiped out 60.00% of the population of Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria in later generations, and completely tore apart the Holy Roman Empire, which was barely a big empire, and formed a series of countries in later generations of Europe. This war can be regarded as the first all-European war In the Great War, England, France, Holland, Spain and Portugal, as well as King Gustav of Sweden with famous military reforms, Denmark, Tsarist Russia, almost all influential European powers were involved in this war for their own interests.

The impact of this war was also great. A large number of religious properties were seized, the old dominance of Catholicism was almost destroyed, and the traditional feudal system in Europe was also hit hard. The bourgeoisie began to prosper in Europe, and the Netherlands became independent and dominated. After living in the sea for half a century, the old colonial empire Spain weakened, the sea position was gradually taken away by Britain and the Netherlands, and the title of Europe's first army was also given to France. This is really a crossroads. After such a cruel war, the West has moved towards assets. The road of class imperialism expansion, while in the East, the feudal autocracy and ideological control of the Qing Empire reached the extreme, and the two civilizations opened up the distance.

But in this time and space, there is Song Qingshu, and the Ming Dynasty did not perish. On the contrary, it survived, and with Song Qingshu's series of wars, Southeast Asia, known as the crossroads, was once again in the hands of Daming. Western influence began to increase aggressively.

Moreover, as Da Ming teamed up with Spain to break through the Batavia Asian headquarters in the Netherlands a few years ago, the potential of Da Ming came into the eyes of these Catholic countries.

This time, rather than the mission of the Pope, it is better to say that it was sent by the Spanish Empire. After suffering a disastrous attack on France, Spain, which had already been unable to hold on, probably wanted to unite with Ming Dynasty and seek support.

In the New World, in Southeast Asia, we encountered undeclared wars by the navies of France, the Netherlands, Portugal, and even Denmark and Sweden. Small-scale pirate wars were also due to this, and there was also the Mughal Empire. India was a British colony in later generations, but the British Empire is still there. In its infancy, India had equal opportunities, and Western countries such as France, Portugal, and the Netherlands also had huge influence here.

Even the United Kingdom, Ming's ally in the West, at this time Song Qingshu suddenly felt a little unreliable, because at this time, Britain itself was not resting, and the English Civil War was in full swing. Little William was a member of the Royalist Party, and now the Royalist Party The situation is not optimistic. The later famous British dictator Cromwell is beating King Charles I crying.

Moreover, the name Little William suddenly reminded Song Qingshu of William III, who ascended the British throne after the Glorious Revolution. Although they were definitely not alone in grades, these Westerners had the habit of inheriting the names of their ancestors and elders. Does the third have anything to do with it.

William III is not only the title of King of England later, he is also the Prince of Orange, and the position brought by this honorary title is also called the ruling of the Netherlands!

If it really had something to do with the Prince of Orange's branch, Little William would be at least half Dutch!
Then he is unwilling to reveal the news to Daming, and he doesn't want Daming to be involved in the competition in the West, then it is reasonable!
A lot of things were messed up in his mind. Under Tang Ruowang's nervous gaze, Song Qingshu picked up the brush and hurriedly wrote down a series of clues that came to his mind on the paper like a dragon swimming around. It took a long while , he just turned his head and let out a foul breath.

"Little treasure!"

"The mark is here!"

The head of the guard who was on standby 25 hours a day immediately opened the door and walked in, looking at what he had recorded, Song Qingshu waved his hand: "Go, Mr. Li, Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and Mr. Wang, Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, come to see me immediately, and prepare for state guest etiquette! "

"You are wise!"

At any rate, Tang Ruowang heaved a sigh of relief as he saved face with the Cardinal in Rome.

…………

Three days later, Songjiang.

Almost the entire port was occupied by noisy welcoming crowds, and gorgeous Catholic crosses were held high everywhere. Regardless of whether they believed in religion or not, the number of people who came to welcome them reached more than [-] people. The Spanish ship that docked was immediately surrounded by a welcoming procession.

It’s not that Tang Ruowang has a lot of face, it’s just that the headlines in the newspapers these two days have stated that those enemies who harassed the colonial countries in Southeast Asia will visit Daming. In particular, many old landowners who owned manors in Batavia welcomed them with incomparable enthusiasm.

"Praise God!"

This scene caused the Red Clothes Archbishop Andre, who was sent by the Holy See, to have an illusion. Kneeling on the deck, he praised God's merits loudly. Tang Ruowang, who was on the boat to welcome him, wiped his forehead with guilt. on the sweat.

In the choir class composed of cute children, more than 200 people from the mission jointly formed by the Holy See and the Spanish Empire were welcomed into Songjiang City in a warm welcome.

Now Ming and Spain do share common interests. Among other things, the Protestant countries have begun to harass Ming’s colonies and shipping routes. The forces of Daming who settled down in Tianzhu were kicked out, and they all declared war, how could Daming have no expression?
However, Song Qingshu found to his dismay that his warm welcome seemed to make the other party feel too good about himself.

The reception is also of the highest standard. The Songjiang Building is the tallest building Song Qingshu built in the past two years. Although it has only nine floors, it is already the tallest residential building in this era. There was the key flag of the Holy See, most of the cabinet members were present, and there were even Jingdezhen imperial kiln porcelain and the top-quality West Lake Longjing on the table. However, the atmosphere of this negotiation was obviously not good.

"Your Excellency, did I hear correctly? You guys want to collect taxes in Daming?"

Hubu Shangshu, the treacherous minister Ruan Dacheng's round face was full of disbelief, he pressed his hands on the table in astonishment and stood up, his eyes were round, as if seeing a Jurassic dinosaur popping out in front of his eyes.

Archbishop Andrea in red was very proud of himself and spoke Italian for a while. Looking at his expression, it seemed as if the other party had taken advantage of it. Archbishop Tang Ruowang, who was the interpreter of the mission, was dripping with sweat on his forehead. After coming down, he has been in Daming for more than 20 years, and it is the first time that he stutters the official words so much.

"Archbishop Andre said that it is the duty of God's believers to collect tithes in God's territory, and now the Holy See has too little church property in Daming, gentlemen should collect another [-] mu of land to provide to the church, The Holy See will send a group of bishops to manage it!"

"Well, the Pope is willing to canonize Song Geshou as Prince Yingtian, and you can also canonize as dukes, so that everyone can better lead Daming in the name of God!"

This has nothing to do with what a large group of Ming cabinets want to talk about. The era where Song Qingshu lived had a bad relationship with the Holy See, because the Catholic Church in China was not under the management of the Holy See. At that time, it was impossible to let these foreigners He succeeded, not to mention now, Song Qingshu also rubbed his nose in depression when he saw Ruan Dacheng, Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou, Fu Shan and a large group of cabinet members stunned.

Fortunately, Liu Zongmin, a reckless man, was not brought in, otherwise he would have turned the table directly, but even so, the faces of more than [-] Ming cabinet gentlemen at the table were not very good-looking. Seeing this situation, Song Qingshu glared rather annoyed Guilty Tang Ruo glanced at it, and immediately stood up maintaining his demeanor.

"This matter is a big deal for Daming. The cabinet still needs to study it. Mr. Tang, I will take the mission to the Songjiang Cathedral for a stroll. There are still some things that need to be dealt with in the cabinet. Let's stop today's meeting. Break up the meeting!"

It seems that he hasn't seen what's going on yet, the chubby cardinal still speaks his beautiful Latin with a condescending appearance.

"The Pope knows Mr. Song's piety, so this bishop is waiting for the good news!"

This time can be regarded as an unprecedented oolong in the diplomatic history of the Ming Empire. Song Qingshu did not regard Ming Dynasty as the previous celestial kingdoms, learning from Qianlong, and actually wanted to issue an imperial edict to the British king, but he was not so low as to be at the mercy of the Holy See. At this point, in the next few days, Songjiang began to deal coldly with this group of Roman visitors. The major newspapers stopped reporting news about the mission, and instead focused on the front line again. The Ming Expeditionary Army that had almost arrived in Calcutta Archbishop Andre and the others simply asked Tang Ruowang to lead them around the churches for six or seven days, and then sent them wherever they came from, so that they could get out early.

At the beginning, these guys were really full of superiority, but as the reception standards became lower and lower, the real missions from Spain finally couldn't sit still. Followed the foolish archbishop until the 22th day of February [-] in Chongzhen, the eighth day after the arrival of the mission, the lowest ninth-rank clerk in the Ministry of Rites politely asked them when they would leave the country so that they could arrange a farewell. Finally, this The Western mission that came the next time panicked.

The second meeting also kicked off.

(End of this chapter)