readx; The Dongjiang Rice Lane, where the Foreign Affairs Institute is located, is not far from the Forbidden City, and it is not far to the south from the Chengtian Gate, the main gate of the Imperial City, and it is a turn to the east. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info Zhu Youzhen can't help but think of the time when the Chinese nation was in the most decline a few hundred years later, because of the gathering of foreign embassies, it was renamed "Dongjiaomin Lane". Due to the signing of the "Xinqiao Treaty", this street, which was only one kilometer away from the center of the empire, became a "country within a state", Chinese were not allowed to live, squadrons were not allowed to enter, and various countries sent troops to garrison them, and they were stationed for 50 years, until the establishment of the republic. What a humiliating history!

However, today's Dongjiang Rice Lane is still a peaceful and prosperous market atmosphere. Because the Ministry of Rites Yamen had been moved to the Forbidden City, a small part of it was set aside for the Foreign Affairs Academy, and the remaining premises were rented by the major merchants in Beijing, including the Wuzhou Trading Company, and many shops were opened, especially restaurants, antique shops, porcelain shops, etc., which soon became a famous high-end commercial street in Beijing. Only the Portuguese embassy in the shade of the quiet trees, which is adjacent to the Foreign Affairs Courtyard, and a Catholic church under construction presided over by John Tong and Maldini, make this street look a little different from the rest of the streets in Beijing.

When the Holy Driver entered the Foreign Affairs Academy, all the staff members knelt in line. Zhu Youzhen hurriedly asked everyone to be exempt, and when he looked carefully, he saw that most of them were very young, and some were even only twelve or thirteen years old. Xu Guangqi explained: "According to His Majesty's will, the most important task of the Foreign Affairs Academy in the near future is to train a group of talents who can understand foreign languages. However, the officials sent by the ministry were too few, and second, they were too old and unwilling to learn foreign languages, so the ministers had no choice but to recruit a group of them from the people. The vast majority of them have no fame, but they study very seriously. At present, he is studying Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, Russian, and Latin at the same time, and in addition to the minister and Miss Qiulina, Ambassador John Tong, Maldini and Anna also come to teach frequently. It's a pity that there are still too few teachers. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said, "Everything is difficult at the beginning. I went back to John Tong and told them that all missionaries had to find time to be teachers every day, and they were willing to do so. In addition, there are too few students, only a few dozen, and dozens of people in each language are about the same, although Lord Xu recruits more, funding is not a problem. However, learning here is still slow, and I plan to send a group of students to Europe as soon as possible, to study in that environment, and there will definitely be a plenary meeting in less than half a year. In addition, it is not only Western languages that you should learn, but also Mongolian, Tibetan, Arabic, Korean, and Japanese. ”

"Your Majesty, some of them are hostile to my Ming Dynasty!" Xu Guangqi said in surprise, "Regardless of this, these countries deeply admire our Chinese culture, and all those who come to China are proficient in Chinese, and learning their language does not seem to be a matter of urgency..."

"Not really." Zhu Youzhen shook his head and smiled, "Even the language of the enemy country must be learned, and the more enemy the country, the more you must study everything about it, so that you can better defeat it." In addition, we can't always wait for people to come to pay tribute, in the future, my Ming caravan will travel all over the world, and I don't know how to do it in the local language. ”

After a brief understanding of the students' learning, Xu Guangqi said: "In recent months, the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Modena, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Duchy of Bavaria have successively submitted letters through missionaries such as John Tong, hoping to establish diplomatic relations with our Ming Dynasty. However, the Papal States attached conditions that only His Majesty would be baptized and become a Catholic..."

Before Xu Guangqi could finish speaking, Zhu Youzhen waved his hand impatiently and said, "A mere pope dares to threaten me and let him go where he can cool down." I haven't heard of the other countries, are they all small countries? Didn't Britain, France, Russia and other countries contact us? And Spain and the Netherlands, they didn't move either? ”

If there are Chinese who know the most about European history in this era, it must be Xu Guangqi. Under his introduction, Zhu Youzhen learned that the above-mentioned countries were indeed small countries, and except for the Duchy of Bavaria, they were all concentrated in the Apennine Peninsula, which was later Italy.

It turns out that since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the European continent has entered a long "Middle Ages", and the typical characteristics of this period are feudal divisions, numerous princes, and frequent wars, somewhat similar to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China. Although there is a pope, but the feudal lords from their own interests, many times do not buy the pope's account, the strength is also much stronger than the pope, the pope can really actually rule the area of Rome in the middle of the Apennine Peninsula, that is, the Papal States.

After the Western Roman Empire, the Frankish kingdom was briefly powerful, but it was short-lived, and soon split into three, becoming the prototype of what would become France, Germany, and Italy. Germany was also strong and established the Holy Roman Empire in the 10th century, but it was never able to change the situation of the princes, and even later, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire could not be hereditary, but had to "elect" the "king of the Roman people" from the seven electors, and then be crowned by the pope before he could be called emperor. This arrangement, which was intended to weaken imperial power, became the source of centuries-old division and turmoil in Europe.

Take the small countries mentioned above, in fact, they are all city-states in the Italian region, and they all believe in Catholicism. Before the rise of several European powers, they enjoyed a brief period of prosperity through trade by virtue of their geographical location in the middle of the Mediterranean. However, since the rise of several great powers, especially Spain, these countries were conquered by Spain one after another and became vassals of the Habsburg royal family. The Habsburgs, on the other hand, were the staunchest Catholics, and were currently at war with the Protestant European countries for many years.

So it's not hard to understand why: missionaries in China are all sent by the Pope, so naturally they only help Catholic countries. Britain and the Netherlands believed in Protestantism, and although France believed in Catholicism, because of the struggle for hegemony with Spain, it also joined the anti-Habsburg alliance. Russia is Orthodox, not to mention.

Spain, on the other hand, was mired in war. In addition, its king Philip IV was extremely arrogant, proclaimed himself "King of the Earth", launched bloody rule in various colonies around the world, and tried in vain to use Luzon and Taiwan as a springboard to invade China, and did not bother to establish diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty at all.

Zhu You couldn't help but feel a little regretful when he heard this, because these small countries were too light in Europe. However, Xu Guangqi's next sentence reminded him again, that is, these small countries are willing to lend to the Ming Dynasty, but the various treatments and loan conditions given to them by the Ming Dynasty must be exactly the same as those of the Kingdom of Portugal.

"So, the establishment of diplomatic relations between our country and Portugal is now known in Europe?" Only then did Zhu Youzhen show a hint of a smile, "It seems that I still have to meet Princess Anna first..."