Chu Bai has been in Europe for many years, during which he has only returned to China once to report on his work, and he has been quite accustomed to living in Europe. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 Although Datang has established formal diplomatic relations with many European countries, established consulates and stationed diplomats there, most of these diplomats are at the chargé d'affaires level. Datang is very strict about its diplomatic relations certification, unless the two countries have a lot of exchanges and friendly relations, they will upgrade diplomatic relations to the ambassadorial level, while ordinary countries basically start at the charge d'affaires level.

Among European countries, Datang has diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom, Spain and other countries at the ministerial level, and only France has diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level. This is due to the fact that France is the most open to Datang capital and commerce among European countries. In recent years, France has not only allowed Datang's products to be sold to France, but even allowed retail giants such as Lianhua Supermarket to invest and set up stores in France. In particular, many Chinese-funded enterprises have occupied shares in many factories and mines in France in the form of investment, and the economic and trade ties between the two countries have become increasingly close. Relying on such a relationship, France's industrialization can be said to be catching up head-on, which makes the British feel tricky.

As for the Netherlands, although it also has a certain degree of economic and trade exchanges with Datang, there are differences and suspicions between the Netherlands and the Tang Republic on the issue of colonies in Southeast Asia, so the relationship is average, and it is only chargé d'affaires-level diplomacy.

When Datang really wants to deal with its own affairs with European countries, it is often Chu Bai who makes the mistake. He not only has the status of ambassador to France, but also is Datang's ambassador plenipotentiary for European affairs, and can handle some high-level affairs directly on behalf of Datang. This time in Europe. made Chu Bai the only Asian face in Europe. He represents the voice of Datang. It has gradually become more important on the European political scene. Because of the Datang. Britain's dismal withdrawal from the Thirteen Colonies in North America was also due to the support of the Tang Dynasty, which allowed France and Spain to gain some face in the war with Britain. The tide of industrialization brought about by Datang has swept the whole of Europe, and even European capitalists and politicians who are not far-sighted and purely pursue profits are eager for advanced technology and machines from Datang.

The Tang Republic has become a country whose main interests are not in Europe, but which have a significant impact on the decision-making of European countries. And because of that. Europeans did not dare to underestimate Chu Bai. When Chu Bai proposed to go to the Netherlands, Van der Spiegel, the grand counselor of the Netherlands, went to meet him personally. The official name of the Netherlands at this time was the United Republic of the Netherlands, which was a rather bizarre representative republic. The head of state of the Netherlands is the ruling one, which some also translate as provincial governors, a position that is actually a monarch because it is hereditary and is held by the Orange-Nassau family. In addition, the head of government is held by the Grand Adviser, with a strange name, and his powers are similar to those of other prime ministers, but due to the strange nature of the Dutch political system. It's not quite like a serious prime minister.

During the period of the Dutch Republic, the representative system in the Netherlands was in fact a highly independent and empowered system. Let's take an example. Suppose there is an important national policy to be adopted in the Netherlands, unlike a monarchy, or a parliamentary state that is proposed by the government and then passed by the parliament, while in the Netherlands, this policy is brought to the provincial council of the province by the commissioners of the seven provinces (actually eight provinces), and then to the municipal councils below, as long as one unit expresses a different opinion, the policy is difficult to formally implement. It is also worth mentioning that although the United Provincial Republic is called the first bourgeois republic, it is still an aristocratic politics in practice, the common people do not have the right to vote and participate in political power, and the local political families control the place, and these nobles have actually completed a high degree of capitalism, so the United Provincial Republic is actually a capitalist country ruled by the aristocracy, which is very different from the capitalist countries of later generations.

The country has also suffered from political struggles for a long time, due to the irrationality of vertical and horizontal separation of powers and checks and balances, the republic is completed, but the administrative efficiency of this country has been low for a long time, and at the same time, affected by various interest groups, many nobles pay more attention to their own interests than the interests of the country, and there is no long-term planning. So this is why after the eighteenth century, the Netherlands, which gave up the global hegemony, did not continue to develop because of its own kindness, but continued to decline.

As the plenipotentiary ambassador for European affairs of the Tang Dynasty, Chu Bai was well aware of the situation in the Netherlands, and he shook hands with Van der Spiegel with a smile and expressed his greetings.

Van der Spiegel was also full of enthusiasm: "I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Ambassador Chu for coming to the Netherlands, which makes every one of us feel honored to be hospitable. ”

Chu Bai continued to be polite: "The honor also belongs to me. ”

Entering the reception room, the two sides simply exchanged pleasantries and entered the real talks. Chu Bai was even more straightforward and said: "Your Excellency Van der Spiegel, we understand that the war between the Netherlands and the British is very fierce, and the British have seized your country's colony in Ceylon not long ago, and at the same time, their raiding behavior at sea has also caused great troubles and losses to your country. ”

Van der Spigel immediately became indignant, and he couldn't help but raise his voice and say, "Damn the Englishman, please forgive my faux pas." We originally signed an alliance with the British, and although there have been voices in the country to help American independence, our government has done nothing. For a hundred years, we have supported Britain in all kinds of ways, and the British war was financed by our Amsterdam bank, but now the British are actually taking revenge and stabbing us in the back, and even God will want to spit on them when he sees it! ”

Chu Bai nodded and said, "We Tang people have always had no trust in the integrity and moral level of the British. We are also very sympathetic to the plight of the Dutch and are willing to lend a helping hand to the Netherlands. ”

Van der Spigel was very surprised, after all, Datang had just signed a peace agreement with Britain for less than a year, and even helped the British transform their ships and sell them machines and some technology. So he asked with suspicion: "Is your country planning to form an alliance with our Netherlands against Britain?" ”

Chu Bai shook his head with a smile and said, "Datang's current attention is not on European affairs, and we have no intention of easily getting involved in a war with European countries. Datang has other ways to solve the Dutch dilemma. (To be continued.) )