While Song Xiance was thinking about what Kurtang was doing in England, Kurtang was writing his diary in his residence in the western suburbs of London. It was a pretty nice English country house, and from the window of his study, he could see the sword-high towers of Westminster Castle in the distance.

If the old friend in Shenyang sees Kurtang again at this time, I am afraid it will be difficult to recognize this rare talent among the Manchus. Not only did he cut off his money rat-tail hairstyle, but he also did not have long Han hair, but kept a short hair like Chongzhen, and wore a Guard-style shirt and trousers.

In his early 50s, he still maintained an extremely healthy body because of his long-term horseback riding exercises, and his close-fitting Guard-style clothing also added a bit of spirit to him, making him look very heroic.

January is the coldest time of the year in London, and the British-style stone buildings look gorgeous but not comfortable to live in. However, with the fireplace heating, the upper class of Britain did not feel the cold at all.

When he's not working, he likes to sit in front of the fireplace reading a book, or stand in front of the window with a cup of hot tea or coffee and watch the people on the street. Of course, at this time of year, there is only a continuous freezing rain and the occasional hurried carriage passing by.

Unlike China, and even the countries of continental Europe, the British kings and nobles did not like to live in the city of London, but chose to build a castle on the Thames River to the west of the city to defend the court. In this castle, there are not only the king's court, but also the church and the parliament, and the mind of the whole of England is located in it.

After spending so much time in London, Kurtan soon understood why the royal family and nobles did not want to see the city. The city is an open-air garbage dump, and Londoners throw more than just a little kitchen waste on the streets. Walking around London, you never know if you're stepping on poop or mud.

Therefore, when the upper class of London goes out, they always wear a pair of galoshes over their shoes. That's why Daming's rubber raincoats and rubber boots are so popular in London, as they can withstand sudden attacks overhead, while boots keep out the filth and are easy to clean.

But what is even more frightening than these sordid lives is the constant outbreak of plague in the city due to sanitation problems, which occurs on average once every three years.

Living away from the city and in the countryside surrounded by forests and clear rivers became a good way for the royal family and aristocracy to improve their quality of life.

But as London's population continued to expand, it took only 40 years for London's population to double and now exceed 400,000. As a result, the western suburbs of the city, which was once a hideaway for the royal family and aristocracy, have finally become the fifth largest city in London, Farringdon.

Of course, the people who can live here are either rich or expensive, or at least they are excellent professionals. As a result, unlike the crowded streets of the city, most of the buildings here are self-contained garden buildings with their own wells.

However, for Kurtan, the living habits of the British are still too bad, even compared to those living in the deep mountains and forests. At least those raw female reals are in a hurry to urinate, and they won't think about solving it in the fireplace, and it is difficult to compare with his life in Beijing.

The reason why he wanted to cut off the whip and change into his current costume was also forced by the British public health environment. He can't wear the clothes of the Manchurians, the clothes of the Han people can't be worn here at all, and he can't learn to wear them like those British nobles, so he can only wear the military uniform designed by Chongzhen.

To be honest, Kurtan wanted to return to China almost as soon as he arrived in London, but he also knew that it was a luxury. With his temperament, I am afraid that it will be even more torturous in Beijing, not in life but psychologically.

Although he liked the culture of the Han people, he did not want to help the Han emperor deal with his own people. However, Chongzhen treated him with considerable courtesy, and did not treat him as a prisoner, and often summoned him in the name of harmony between Han and Manchu. Although Kurthu was loyal to Aixinjue Luo, he did not think in his heart that Nurhachi's policy of exterminating the Han people was right, otherwise he would not have persuaded Huang Taiji to wear Hanfu in order to eliminate the hatred between the Manchus and Hans.

Therefore, the emperor sent him to Europe, which was indeed a kind of liberation for him. But the problem was that he did not understand what he was doing in this place at all, and the task assigned to him by the emperor was too broad, to maintain the friendship between China and Britain, but to observe as much as possible and not interfere in the internal affairs of Britain.

Song Xiance and Zhang Guoji, who were originally his deputies, almost never came to the UK, one in the Netherlands and the other in Paris, each busy with their own affairs, which made him want to find no one to discuss.

As for the English side, King Charles I of England rarely summoned him. After the Scots revolted, the English king was even more reluctant to meet with him, except for sending someone to inform him every time that he would increase taxes on the goods of the Ming Dynasty.

Among his influences, His Majesty Charles I was small in stature, reluctant to speak much because of his stuttering, and indecisive and capricious in his struggles with Parliament and his Scottish subjects.

Of course, after spending so much time in London, Kurthorn also got to know many nobles and merchants, and in his conversations with them, he also learned a little about the English king's past.

In fact, if it weren't for the death of Charles I's brother from smallpox, the crown of England would not have fallen on his head. And before Charles I was 12 years old, because of his brother, no one paid attention to the taciturn second son of the king.

But it wasn't until Charles I ascended the throne that the British discovered that the seemingly taciturn new king had a stubborn heart in his heart. Although he reorganized the court after his accession to the throne, curbing his father's corruption and embezzlement, and gradually balanced the royal budget, his arbitrary approach to governance caused dissatisfaction in the parliament.

Because the political tradition in England is that the king's decree should be communicated to Parliament, and the consent of Parliament should be sought before he can rule. Instead of the palace issuing orders without authorization, the counties were directly notified to implement them.

This political tradition is due to the lack of a coercive force at home in England, where there is neither a standing army nor an organized police force, and the king has less than 100 armed men called for in a state of emergency.

Although there were 2,000 court personnel around the king, most of them were cooks and servants, and the rest were less than 1,000 civilian officials. The court and the privy council, the most important bureaucratic organs of the court, had very few clerks, and the king often could not find anyone to find information for him when he wanted to find some information for his decision.

In Kurtang's view, the only people around the king who can really be regarded as the manager of the yamen are the navy management yamen and the financial yamen, at least these two departments can still find people to do things.

As for local affairs, the gentry were in charge of it, and the county government was in charge. However, the county government in England was in the hands of nearly 3,000 gentry. Although these gentry were selected by the royal family, the royal family could only select about 50 of the 80 richest and most prestigious families in the counties. As for the remaining 200 or so autonomous cities, power is held by 12 to 100 merchant and artisan groups that have monopolized the rule of these cities for generations.

In the villages, however, the magistrates in charge of the law and order had to be the gentry, and the militia and the temporary police were mostly held by the peasants on the land of the gentry. That is, without the support of the gentry class, Charles I could do almost nothing except the navy and the tax department.

Therefore, when Charles I forcibly dissolved Parliament and announced the indefinite suspension of Parliament, it aroused the great dissatisfaction of the majority of the squires, who privately called him a tyrant.

However, in Kurtan's view, this is entirely the fault of the parliamentarians. He did not come to the conclusion from the point of view of loyalty and patriotism, but from the perspective of an outsider looking at the root of the conflict between the British crown and Parliament.

When Charles I first ascended the throne, he was still planning to negotiate with Parliament in accordance with tradition, but Parliament soon gave him a blow in the face.

Soon after he ascended the throne, the parliamentarians advocated war against Spain, which was in line with the war waged by the Kingdom of Denmark against the Habsburgs, and Charles I chose to obey the decision of the Parliament.

But the young king underestimated the shamelessness of these squires, and just after he declared war on the Spaniards, the parliament rejected the request for an increase in taxes to pay for the war costs.

Unable to obtain permission from Parliament to raise taxes, Charles I had to pawn his wife's dowry; forcibly borrowing money from wealthy subjects and imprisoning five knights who refused to borrow; Let the soldiers live in civilian houses and eat and drink for nothing; Tariffs and other measures are imposed without the approval of Parliament.

However, due to the lack of military spending, Britain had nothing to gain in the war against Spain. As a result, the English people were disappointed with Charles I, believing that the king was not only rash but also too arrogant.

Charles I had to change his attitude and express his desire to make peace with the Spaniards in order to end the war, which was unpopular with the whole country.

However, at this time the parliament came to the fore again, and they strongly criticized Charles I for his weakness and betrayal of the state church. He even incited the public to attack the Duke of Buckingham, who represented the British king, and even sent someone to assassinate him.

Parliament's repeated actions to put a black cauldron on his head finally angered Charles I, who forcibly dissolved Parliament, thus creating a parliamentary period of government.

In Kurt's view, these members of the British Parliament are really no different from the Donglin Party of the Ming Dynasty. As long as they can be famous all over the world, they don't care what the country will become.

PS: Sweeping the grave today, one more.

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