A shrill whistle broke the silence of the prairie.

When the whistle sounded, the farmer on horseback glanced at the end of the long tracks, and when he saw the huge cloud of smoke in the distance, he immediately whistled, and several sheepdogs not far away immediately barked and drove the sheep away from the tracks, but the farmer did not move, and he rode on horseback with a big felt hat and watched the train pass by his pasture.

When the train was moving on the railroad with the "clanging" sound, the farmer looked into the carriage, and the speed of the train was not fast, that is, forty or fifty miles, which allowed the farmer to see the people sitting in the carriage clearly, but when he saw the passengers in the carriage, his expression was a little surprised.

"Is it a Semu Man?"

"I guess he must think we're lustful."

Lefort, who was in the carriage, said to Golovin when he saw the surprise in the eyes of passers-by outside the carriage.

As ambassador of the mission, he led the largest mission in the history of Russia, with 125 official members and about 250 attendants. A few days ago, after a long wait, they finally crossed the Yayik River (Ural River) and entered the territory of the Ming Dynasty, after which they boarded the famous train to the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

Although they were no strangers to trains, and even many years ago they had received them from the Manchus, but now that train had long been given to the British, and Russia still did not have a single inch of railroad. And now, after two days and two nights on the railway, the people in the carriage are only shocked.

"In the Celestial Empire, all Europeans were Semu, and so were the Turks."

Golovin said helplessly.

"They are always on top, and even in their eyes, we are simply a bunch of savages."

This is perhaps the most frustrating place for Europeans, when they explored new routes to open the Age of Discovery, they continued to use civilization and barbarism to define other civilizations, they claimed to be civilized people, and everyone else was barbaric and uncivilized, it seemed that they felt that all this was reasonable, but now, all this has changed, civilization has long ceased to belong to Europeans, but unique to the Celestial Empire, compared to the Celestial Empire, Europe is more like a barbaric land, where people still stay in the barbaric era. This may be the reason why the Celestial Empire will despise them.

Of course, this contempt makes the Europeans very uncomfortable, as for the Russians...... It's more helpless, after all, compared to Europe, they are more backward and barbaric, but the only thing that makes people happy is that they are close enough to the Celestial Empire, and it is because of this that they will send this huge mission.

"That's pretty much it!"

Lefort looked at the luxuriously decorated carriage and looked at the guards standing beside him.

"What do you think? Corporal Peter? ”

"Your Excellency, I think that compared to the Celestial Empire, Russia and all the countries of Europe only lived a few decades ago, or even hundreds of years ago, after all, there were horse-drawn carriages hundreds of years ago, and trains have only appeared for a few decades."

Corporal Pyotr Mikhailov, who was asked, replied truthfully. His answer made Lefort nod and then said.

"Gee, isn't that it? Maybe we're still stuck a few hundred years ago! ”

It was here that the carriages seemed to be tilted a little, and even though they had been on the train for two days, they still looked a little nervous when the train went around a curved section, and they couldn't help but cheer up, more fear, fear of the unfamiliar.

Compared to the nervousness of most people, Corporal Pyotr Mikhailov, who was standing there, felt the tilt of the carriage with great interest. At this moment, the shaking body of the train regained its balance again, and then began to increase its speed, and the iron wheels on the tracks rattled regularly, until this time, the people on the train relaxed again.

When everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Corporal Pyotr Mikhailov said seemingly casually.

"One day, Russia will also build its own railway, a real railway."

"Maybe, who knows?"

There was no one to disagree with this opinion of Corporal Pyotrmikhailov, it seemed that everyone was busy with their own business, and the translators in the entourage, who had been proofreading the credentials that needed to be handed over to the Ming after arriving in the capital, hoped to be able to form an anti-Turkish alliance with the Ming, which was the purpose of their trip, not to learn anything, but to oppose the common enemy, Turkey.

At the moment, in this carriage, these men in Eastern Roman robes, some of them silently smoking cigarettes, some of them writing, and from time to time they are changing the contents of the documents, and they want to change the most appropriate language, which is indeed extremely difficult for these Russians. After all, they have only been exposed to Chinese for a few decades, and there are not many people who know Chinese, and even only a few hundred people in the whole country, but this time dozens of people came.

Lefort squeaked his pipe, and when he realized that the tobacco had burned out, he poured the white ash into the ash box on the coffee table.

"Do you really think that's a very good name?"

His question made Alexander look up from the page of papers in his hand across the aisle. "I really don't know, maybe. From our understanding of the past, we feel that it is more appropriate to use "His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty" than "His Majesty the Great Emperor", perhaps this is more respectful of them. ”

As a Chinese teacher hired fifteen years ago, Alexander's Chinese language skills may not be able to take the Ming internal exams, but he can cope with the needs of most occasions, just like now, he is the chief interpreter on this trip.

"We also need to tell them directly how many troops we can send to cooperate with them, and if we join, then the recovery of the Roman Empire is undoubtedly more promising."

Lefort nodded, and he certainly would not object to such a suggestion.

"Yes, if we want to be valued by others, we have to show our strength. This is a prerequisite for earning respect. ”

"However, the war that is happening in Turkey now shows that Turkey is weakening, and it is under the attack of the Roman Empire, and we are now going over and seeking an alliance with the Celestial Empire, will it lead to their disgust?"

Miller reminded him that although he was a member of the Mission, he did not believe that any agreement could be reached.

Lefort frowned, and he glanced at Corporal Peter before continuing to the sixth.

"Maybe it will be. But maybe there is a possibility that an agreement will be reached, who knows? If we don't try, we'll never know the answer! ”

Lefort forced a smile.

"I think that now that we are here, we must always try, and this will not hurt the Roman Empire, after all, we can contain some of the Turks' power."

No one answered what the future holds.

Lefort slowly gripped his hot pot.

As for the others, most of them sat there quietly, no one knew if they could reach an agreement, and even for this visit to the Celestial Empire, they also had different ideas, no one would believe that at this time the Celestial Empire would be "generous" willing to share Turkey with them, after all, now Turkey's defeat is inevitable, but even so, they still came.

Corporal Peter, standing there, stood there very calmly, occasionally staring down at the carpet beneath his feet.

This is a first-class car, so the car is covered with blankets, and if it is a regular car, it is just covered with a layer of wooden planks.

Now, he has an idea, that is, to go to the ordinary carriage to have a look, he hopes to be able to contact those people of the Celestial Empire, and to be able to truly appreciate the difference between the Celestial Empire and other places.

But in these carriages, he definitely couldn't touch it, and even on this train, he didn't have the opportunity to contact those Celestial Empire people, because this train was a train chartered by the mission.

At this time, he heard Lefort sigh.

"At least everything is going well, we have entered the Celestial Empire!"

As he spoke, he brushed his hand over his beard.

"You know, a lot of people can't even get in, but at least we're here."

Indeed, to a certain extent, for the Russian mission, they do have something to be proud of, they are the first large mission to enter the Ming Dynasty, although in the past many years, there are envoys from various countries into the Ming Dynasty, but such a large mission, this is the first, and even in this mission, there are not only ordinary envoys, but also dozens of young noble children, most of them are stiff Chinese, they came here to study in the Ming school.

Although Daming welcomes European scholars to come to the university to engage in research and teaching, it does not have much interest in attracting international students, coupled with the ban on the export of machinery and other prohibitions, so that each school is extremely cautious in its attitude towards international students, and often only when a professor or doctor guarantees it, will agree to accept international students. Although most of the international students eventually stayed in Daming, there were still restrictions on international students.

However, all this changed until last year, after many fierce debates, the Ming Dynasty agreed to partially relax the restrictions on international students outside of Zhuxia, although it was still limited to a few local academies, but even so, it still caused a sensation in Europe, almost immediately, whether it was the divided Britain or France, the Netherlands, have sent their own noble children to study in the Ming Dynasty.

They tried to learn the knowledge of science and technology, medicine, and even military and system of the Ming Dynasty by sending foreign students, so as to shorten the distance between them and the Ming Dynasty. Of course, in the future, they will also seek to import machines from Daming.

Of course, all this will take time, after all, many bans have not been abolished. But at least now Daming's move has given them a glimmer of hope. Also after Russia learned of the news, they reacted, and even sent a fifteen students as early as last year.

"Once we came here, we could see for ourselves how different it was from Russia......"

Lefort's words made Peter nod his head thoughtfully, this is the reason why he came here, and even, deep in his heart, there are many desires, he longs to be able to meet with the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, even if he can't meet, he hopes to be able to enter the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty and watch how the cabinet handles government affairs, of course, all this, there is almost no possibility.

However, in addition to this, Peter hopes to be able to enter the factory, into the modern factories where the steam engine roars, to witness the magic of the steam engine, to witness how the steam engine changed the Celestial Empire, and even changed the world.

Just like this railway.

"If Russia is not able to catch up, there will come a time when the railway will stretch all the way to Moscow, where the emperor of the Celestial Empire will one day accept the allegiance of the Russian nobility."

As the thought came to his mind, Peter believed that that day was very likely. There is only one option to stop this from happening. It's about catching up with them.

How do you catch up with them?

The best option is to be their student and learn from them.

This was the only way to catch up with them, and now there are many countries in Europe that are sending their students to the Celestial Empire. Almost all countries know that if they don't come to the Celestial Empire to study, their country may soon be eliminated.

In today's Europe, the most popular language is Chinese, and many aristocrats are learning Chinese. There are even many people who claim that Chinese is the most beautiful and elegant language in the world. Of course, Chinese characters are also the most beautiful characters.

But all this does not exist in Russia. The nobility of Russia is still immersed in the barbarism of the old days. They simply don't see that the world has changed.

"The aristocrats have to learn Chinese. Even if they whip them with a leather whip, they will let them learn. ”

Peter's heart was a little anxious. After all, after coming here, the gap between Russia and the Celestial Empire was bigger than he imagined, and the metaphor of the Celestial Empire Russia was like a wild land at all.

In that wild land, there were no railways, no trains, and no ships. There is no education, no science, nothing that the Celestial Empire has. There is only a group of people living in obscurantism.

As the tsar of Russia, it was his duty to whip them with his own whip. Let those who are ignorant see the changes in the world. Let them take the initiative to learn from the Celestial Empire.