Qiao Zhongdeng shook his head and said, "Why should a person form a party because he shares the ideals of others, and then force those who disagree with him to agree with himself? Our sage said, "A gentleman is reserved but not fighting, and a group is not a party", which means that a moral person has a solemn self-esteem, does not compete with others to win, and a person with high morals can make peace with others (group), but will not unite with others to fight against the party (not party). ”

Bismarck was still confused.

He simply asked some direct questions: "Tell me about your citizens." What organization do they have? It can protect them from being infringed on by others. I think that in a country as big as yours, there should always be a phenomenon of interest infringement. There must be something wrong with the government that cannot be managed. ”

Qiao Zhongdeng was also puzzled: "Where there is reason, there is a court, and disputes should be resolved by the court." I understand what you said, there are many kinds of organizations, merchants' guilds, artisans' guilds, workers' gangs. There is also a clan called the Fellow Townsman Association, where people from other places form a guild hall and help each other, and if they are bullied by the locals, everyone can unite and reason. If you scrape together money to fight a lawsuit, or die in a different place and have no money to transport back to your hometown, the association will help you. ”

Bismarck said: "I understand that this is a kind of mutual aid organization, and we also have it, and workers help each other to build houses, see doctors, and so on. Don't you have an organization that's specifically designed to fight the government? ”

Bismarck was always concerned with that kind of revolutionary organization.

Qiao Zhongdeng thought about it carefully: "Gangs are sometimes like this. Guilds are sometimes like gangs. It is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between them. But it is not mainly to fight against the government, they fight more with each other, and the government is mainly to prevent these gangs from fighting. ”

Bismarck was confused, there was a civil war between revolutionary organizations, and the government was instead a neutral mediator?

"Won't they unite against the government? And why did they have a civil war? ”

Qiao Zhongden said: "Why should they unite against the government, they don't want to rebel. They fought with each other, of course, for profit. Different gangs of dockers rob business, some gangs rob with guilds, some rob between guilds, and some guilds hire gangs to help them rob. This is all a competition for profit in the market, and the government should not compete with the people for profit! ”

Bismarck wondered, "Isn't there a conflict between them and the government?" Like fighting for legal rights or something? ”

Qiao Zhongden said: "Why should they conflict with the government? Is it legal, it would have been illegal. But I can't help it, especially in the past few years, when there are more and more workers, and I am still afraid of being bullied, so I join fellow townsmen's associations, gangs, and so on. Fights are a common occurrence. If you start to fight and hurt someone, you will be exiled, especially the leader, who will definitely be exiled. In fact, they fight relatively rarely, they all put tea first, and only start fighting when they can't talk. Setting up tea, setting tea is to invite some leading figures to come forward, and everyone will negotiate first. Under normal circumstances, the elders say a few fair words, toast each other with tea, and it passes. No one wants to break the law unless they have to. ”

Bismarck said: "Doesn't the government ban tea?" ”

Qiao Zhongdeng shook his head: "The government encourages everyone to be harmonious, and many times retired officials will be invited to preside. Does the government want to persuade peace? ”

Bismarck was interested in China's stability, but not everyone wanted to explore it.

The Dutch consul was impatient: "All right, Bismarck. You should find a few books to read about China, but even if you read them all, you won't understand them. You'd better go to China and live for a few years, and then you will understand everything, and a few words will not be clear. Let's talk about the Tsar, shall we? What do you think of His Majesty Alexander? ”

Bismarck slyly threw this question to Qiao Zhongdeng: "From your Chinese point of view, how do you evaluate the young His Majesty Alexander?" He had just recently completed a bloodless coup d'état. ”

Qiao Zhongdeng shook his head with a smile: "It's not a gentleman's job to judge behind people's backs. ”

Bismarck thought this was a pretext, because as a diplomatic consul, the opinion of the monarch of another country often represents the opinion of the country towards the monarch of that country, because their country often refers to the opinion of the resident consul.

Bismarck was extremely cunning, he wanted to know the evaluation of China, Russia's neighbor, and to know that now that Prussia and Russia were destined for a war, China's attitude was crucial.

"You're so polite, it's just a private party, and you're only representing your own personal opinion."

Bismarck did not give up.

Qiao Zhongden shook his head: "If I have an opinion about the Tsar, I should point it out to my face, instead of talking about it behind his back, which is immoral." ”

The French suddenly became interested, in fact, everyone discussed the revolution, the French were very embarrassed, as almost the only republic today, the French consul also felt isolated, and they needed to be compared with the United States at every turn, and the United States in this era, is a hillbilly despised by Europe, the British say that the United States is an ungrateful country, other countries are influenced by the British, and they also feel that the United States is a country composed of a group of people without morality. France's comparison with the United States was indeed embarrassing to the aristocracy.

So the French consul asked: "Then what do you think of the monarchs of other countries?" Prussian, Austrian, and British. ”

There is no French, so the French are relieved to ask boldly.

Qiao Zhongdeng continued to shake his head: "I can't talk about the monarchs behind their backs. ”

Bismarck laughed: "You are too cautious. Well, there are indeed some inappropriate evaluations of the current monarchs, so let's evaluate some ancient kings. For example, you can comment on some of the great monarchs of our Europe. What do you think of Frederick the Great? I notice that you use three adjectives when describing the monarch, the brutal monarch, the dumb monarch and the wise monarch, does it seem to you that Frederick the Great can be worthy of a wise monarch? ”

The Prussians, of course, were the most revered by Frederick the Great.

Qiao Zhongdeng couldn't resist it, and he also drank some wine, so he was not too cautious, and his comments on the ancients did not violate any morality, and it was immoral to judge behind people's backs, but it was the preference of literati to comment on the past and the present.

"King Frederick, I personally don't judge. But his evaluation in our country is not good, he should be regarded as a cruel king! ”

In fact, if it were not for politeness, he did not want to call Frederick a king, because in Frederick's time, the ruling population was only 2.5 million, and he preferred to call him a prince.

Frederick the Great, who transformed Prussia from a small state into a European power, was judged to be a brutal king, much to Bismarck's surprise.

"What's the reason for that?"

Qiao Zhongden said: "In the time of Frederick, Prussia had only a population of more than 200,000, but it armed an army of more than 100,000, and more than eighty percent of the treasury revenue was used for the army. ”

Bismarck sighed: "But it is impossible to ignore the fact that Frederick the Great doubled the territory of Prussia, and increased its population from two and a half million to five million." ”

Qiao Zhongdeng sighed: "Gambling with the fortune of the country is not done by a wise man. ”

Bismarck would never accept this assessment, and he retorted: "In your opinion, then His Majesty Napoleon, or even Julius Caesar in ancient times, or any king of the West, can be regarded as brutal." You are prejudiced, so what do you think of the great emperor of your country? By the way, who knows what great empires China has? ”

After speaking, Bismarck went to the Dutch consul: "Haven't you read a lot of Chinese books, could you please tell me a few Chinese emperors?" ”

The Dutch consul teased: "How is Qin Shi Huang?" This was the first emperor to unify the whole of China. And Emperor Wu of Han, the great emperor of China who expelled the mighty Huns! ”

Bismarck nodded: "Very good." So what do you Chinese say about these two emperors? It can't be a cruel king, right? ”

Qiao Zhongdeng nodded: "That's right." Qin Shi Huang was very brutal, and the merit of unifying the world is meritorious. But he fought for many years, regardless of the people's strength. Wantonly requisitioned the people, built the Great Wall, mausoleums, palaces, canals and roads, so that the people of the world have suffered for a long time, so the first emperor died, and the world was in chaos! The people are cruel. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the history books have long been decided, and the loss of Qin was saved from the disaster of Qin! ”

Bismarck was amazed, and only after a while did he say to the others: "Can you understand the notion that the Chinese kings who united their countries and expelled the terrible Huns made such bad evaluations?" ”

Everyone is a little incredible, two different cultural concepts, which are vividly reflected in this cocktail party, and no one is convinced.

But Bismarck began to think deeply, and from the chaotic dialogue with the Chinese consul, he realized a spirit, that is, the spirit of the people, the evaluation system of the Chinese is based on the people at the most basic level, regardless of the king's ambitions, regardless of their historical contributions, as long as they make the people live hard, they are by no means good emperors.

However, Bismarck did not agree with this evaluation system, he believed that this era was an era of power, which had lasted for hundreds of years, and any country that was willing to give up force for the sake of its people would perish. As for the Chinese, perhaps their luck is that they have long passed this difficult era. Bismarck later studied China's Warring States period and was very touched by it, and evaluated the current situation in Europe as China's Warring States period.

After taking office, Bismarck did not indulge in social activities, but began to work carefully.

He did not stay in Moscow forever, but traveled around Russia whenever he could.

The Russian railways were built well, more than the whole of Prussia combined, because their territory was so vast, and the Chinese built two large trunk lines, from Petersburg to Tsaritsyn (Volgograd), from Samara to Kiev, just one vertical and one horizontal. But the Russians built more railways themselves, and it was in Moscow that they were the center, which may have been one of the intentions of the Tsar's relocation of the capital, not just for political reasons.

Moscow is located right in the middle of the Eastern European Plain, and it is a natural railway hub, and it has not abandoned the construction of railways here because Petersburg was the capital before. Of course, the railway in St. Petersburg is also relatively developed, connecting with the ports of Tallinn and Riga. But Moscow is connected to a large number of ancient cities and Ukraine, forming a railway network. In Bismarck's view, Speransky's greatest contribution was not the reform of serfdom, but the encouragement of railway construction. A large number of authorizations have been issued and a large number of railway companies have been established.

Bismarck traveled on these railways as a personal traveler to many parts of Russia, with a focus on the Russian border with China, visited several cities still controlled by the Chinese, and even crossed the border to the Chinese side as a businessman.

Bismarck came to an important conclusion that it was impossible to return the lost land, whether the Russians signed it or not.