Chapter 348: Imperialism
Julio is 10 years older than John Tong, one of them came to China in the 38th year of Wanli, and the other came to China during the Apocalypse, the former is now the bishop of the Catholic diocese of Macao, and has always maintained close ties with John Tong.
In the past, Julio's letters were mostly to ask John Tang about the attitude of the Manchu royal family towards Catholicism, as well as what John Tang did to the development of Catholicism in Beijing, and at the same time, he would also tell John Tang some interesting things about the Holy See from the West, so every time he received a letter from Julius, John Tang would be very happy, but today's letter made him unhappy and very embarrassed.
In this letter, Julius changed his previous ambiguous attitude towards the current situation in China, and explicitly asked John Tong whether it was possible for the Ming government's regime in the southwest to drive the Tatars out of China, and if not, Julius must immediately send back to the Holy See the information that China had been officially ruled by the Manchus, which meant that the Eastern Catholic Church headed by Julius would no longer support the Ming regime in southwest China, and at the same time showed that they had abandoned the efforts they had been making with the Ming imperial family, together with the so-called " Constantine".
Emotionally, Tang Ruowang is still very close to the Ming Dynasty, when the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Rites Shangshu Xu Guangqi and his student Sun Yuanhua had a good personal relationship with him, he also spread Catholicism in the palace of the Ming Dynasty, and was baptized into the later Southern Ming Yongli regime of the eunuch Pang Tianshou and others. At that time, he also supervised the manufacture of artillery for the Ming Dynasty, and dictated the principles and technologies related to cannon smelting, manufacturing, storage, transportation, performance, gunpowder preparation, and shell manufacturing, and compiled them into two volumes of "The Essentials of Fire Attack" and one volume of "The Secret of Fire Attack" for the reference of the Ming Dynasty government.
Therefore. Although the Ming Dynasty still only has a small piece of territory in the southwest, even if the emperor of the Qing Dynasty respects him like a grandfather, John Tang still can't bear to abandon the Ming Dynasty. He even fantasized that the Ming Dynasty army would be able to kill Beijing again, but unfortunately this fantasy never came true.
God, what should I do?
John Tong was distressed, and Julius not only asked him to give a clear answer in his letter, but if the answer was not favorable to the Ming Dynasty, then Julius hoped that John Tong would use his status to persuade the Qing Emperor to immediately send an army to destroy the Ming army that was causing suffering and suffering to the Westerners in Macao. They are also called the Taiping Army.
"Their leader is a young scholar, oh, yes. The Chinese call him Xiucai. However, it is clear that this Xiucai does not like Westerners, and even dislikes scholars, and he always likes to scold people and receive the Portuguese envoys with a rude attitude. And repeatedly threatened to send troops to attack Macao. Let the Westerners of Macau drain their last drop of blood. In fact, this young talent is exactly doing this, they have been blockading the walls of Guanao for more than two months, and during this time, there is no food to bring into Macau, which has left many people, including many children, suffering from hunger
The monks of St. Paul's Church were also hungry and begging for God's blessings, and the seminary students were running out of food. I sent to see the chief, who did not like Westerners, and my man told him very clearly. We are the emissaries of the Holy See to the East, we are on the mission of the Pope, we are here for peace and the Gospel of God, and we are respected and recognized by your court, so we are friends, and you should not treat friends like this. However, our friendliness was exchanged for abuse and rough treatment from the other party. God knows what he thought, he went so far as to call us thugs and accomplices of imperialism!
Oh my God, what kind of word is imperialism and what does it represent? I don't understand, if imperialism is a very bad term, then I think that this young talent is the thug and accomplice of imperialism, he hates the West so much, he hates Catholicism so much, he is a very unfriendly young man, he is the imperialist! If you have already chosen, then please help me and help these people of God in Macau. ”
Tang Ruowang took the letter into his arms, and went to the void room of the West Garden under the guidance of the eunuch. When he arrived, he found that the young emperor was fiddling with something, and the long table in the room was full of bottles, jars, jade bowls, beakers, and balance utensils, and the square table was full of books, especially the thread-bound "Compendium of Materia Medica" and several hardcover parchment-faced German books.
"Marfa, I'm making a medicine."
Seeing Tang Ruowang coming, Shunzhi was very happy, and smiled and beckoned him to come and see.
Tang Ruowang looked over with a smile, the young Son of Heaven was trying to melt amber into a strange liquid, but he didn't seem to have found the right way, and he didn't make amber oil after working for so long.
Under the guidance of John Tang, Shunzhi finally made amber oil, and he turned to making pearl powder. He didn't ask John Tang to help, but checked the book and studied it himself, made it by himself, and made it after a while, after carefully wrapping it, Shunzhi laughed, pointed to these packets of pearl powder and said: "Marfa, I estimate that each bag of pearl powder is worth ten taels of silver!" ”
"If you add the value of the emperor's own hand, I'm afraid it's more than one hundred taels!" John Tang stroked his curly long beard and smiled lovingly.
"Really?" Shunzhi was obviously very happy, "I want to take half of the filial piety to the queen mother, ten bags to the imperial concubine, and the rest to Marfa." ”
"Thank you, Your Majesty, God will reward you for your kindness." Tang Ruowang shook his head at this time, and sighed: "Since the fourth prince was summoned by God, the emperor has lost a lot of weight. ”
"yes!"
Shunzhi also sighed, the early death of the prince born to Concubine Dong E made him very distressed, when the fourth elder brother was born, he even decided to make this son the crown prince, who would have thought that the blessing of the fourth elder brother would be so thin.
Thinking of his son who died young, and then thinking of the pain of Concubine Dong E's loss of her son, Shunzhi had a headache, he snorted, tried his best not to think about this sad thing, he asked Tang Ruowang: "Marfa, you say, why can't a person push a mountain?" “
The young Tianzi's question was obviously very strange and sudden, and Tang Ruowang was stunned and said, "Of course a person can't push a mountain, because his strength is too small. ”
"No, I thought it was because the mountain was too big and too heavy!" Shunzhi shook his head, was silent for a moment, and said softly: "Marfa, I dreamed last night that I was pushing a stone up the mountain, the pines and cypresses on the top of the mountain are verdant, the sea of clouds is spectacular, and the rising sun can be seen in the east. But the more I pushed, the harder it became, the bigger and bigger the stone grew, and the heavier it became, and after a short time I couldn't move an inch, but the stone grew into a mountain, not only did I push it still, but once I let go, it would press down on my head, and I would shatter my bones! Speaking of this, Shunzhi stopped and looked at Tang Ruowang with a hint of expectation: "Marfa, will you realize your dream?" “
"I beg your pardon, I never believed that. There is an old Chinese saying that you think during the day and dream at night, and your Majesty, you think too much during the day. "John Tang didn't want to let himself have the impression of being a multi-godly stick in the emperor's heart.
Shunzhi stared at Tang Ruowang for a long, long time before he whispered: "Marfa, you must understand, but you don't want to tell me." You know, I've been doing something these days, but I can't do anything, which makes me angry and powerless, as if I'm a failure as an emperor. ”
Shunzhi told John Tang that he wanted to dismiss the government, and the king council set up a cabinet, but was opposed by all the princes Baylor.
After hearing this, John Tang drew a cross on his chest, folded his palms and sighed, "Lord, forgive these poor sinners!" He admonished the young Son of Heaven as if he were a fascinated elder: "Emperor, decent Chinese are particularly concerned about face, and many people never admit that they are afraid of death, and always come up with high-sounding reasons: the old mother is in the hall, the children and grandchildren are young, etc. as an excuse for fear of death, so in my opinion, the princes of the council are clearly greedy for power, but they use the veneer of respecting the ancestors of heaven as a cover to resist the emperor's change... They are really pathetic! ”
"Yes, they are such people, pathetic people!"
Shunzhi became excited again, Tang Ruowang's words really went to his heart, the reason why Jidu and they refused to support him was not because they were greedy for power, and they were afraid that their emperor would take their power!
"Your Majesty, there can be other ways to solve things, as long as you use your brains, there will always be a way."
"I've already thought of a way to deal with them, aren't they going to demote all the scholars to the sixth grade? I'll come to it as usual, a bachelor and a teacher, and I'm still in the second grade, see what else they say! ”
"The emperor thought of it, so he should do it, so that the emperor's heart can be truly stable."
"Well, I will definitely do it, I will tell them that what I decide will be done, and it is not something they can obstruct, and I will not roll this stone to the point where I can't push it!"
Shunzhi, who was excited, patronized himself and was happy, but he didn't notice his Marfa Tang Ruowang sighed, and his head wrinkled badly, as if there was something unspeakable about his old man.
Finally, Shunzhi noticed that something was wrong with John Tang, and he hurriedly asked with concern, "Marfa, what's wrong with you?" ”
Tang Ruowang looked at the young Son of Heaven, but he was thinking about it repeatedly in his heart, and in the end, he still spoke: "Your Majesty, my friend in Macau is in a little trouble. ”
"Oh, Marfa's friend? Marfa tell me what trouble they have? ”
"The emperor really wants to know?"
"Marfa's friends are my friends, their troubles are my troubles, how can I not want to know!"
"Okay, then I'll tell the emperor."
John Tang decided to abandon the Ming Dynasty completely, and he told Shunzhi what Julius had said in his letter.
Shunzhi snorted angrily after hearing this: "It's Taiping Kou again!" ”
"The emperor knows about them?" Tang Ruowang looked at Shunzhi in surprise.
"I know it's a tributary. But don't worry, Mafa, I will order Guangdong to send troops to exterminate them immediately, and I will never let Marfa's friends be bullied by these gangsters! ”
In front of Marfa, whom he respects the most, Shunzhi will never tell a lie, he is really angry, he must not tolerate Marfa's friends being bullied by thieves Xiucai! (To be continued.) )