Chapter 195: The Dutch Admiral's Report (Part II)

“…… Next, I am going to describe the current political system of Australians. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 As mentioned earlier, the history of the Song Empire has ended, and the current Australians have a republican system, and it is an unusually loose confederation of republics, similar to the Italian city-state alliance - in fact, for a giant country with frontier provinces and its capital half a world away, its political system cannot but be loose. Can't we let those poor local officials be forced to send messengers twice in three days to repeat that Monsieur Magellan's voyage around the world, and to ask for permission from the capital half a world away with papers? In that case, when they get a reply from the capital, I'm afraid everything will be delayed.

Under this extremely loose confederation system, the various union republics of the Australians retained almost complete autonomy, and could even start foreign wars on their own! The political systems within the various Australian republics are also very different, and apart from the fact that they are all republics rather than monarchies, there is hardly a place where they are exactly the same. This has many similarities with the seven-province alliance of our motherland.

In summary, Australians have five major union republics and a few small self-governing territories in addition to their capitals. Within the republics, however, there were all sorts of autonomous cities and vassal tribes, including republics, feudal monarchs and aristocratic domains, and even a few theocratic states, which were said to be very strange, making it so intricate that it was almost impossible to explain in a single letter - in fact, I myself have not yet fully understood what the local government of the Australians was all about!

So, I'm going to focus here on the central government of Australians. Like our country, England and the Republic of Venice, Australians have a parliamentary system of representatives of the gentry of the whole country, which serves as a link between the various parts of the country. However, unlike China, which has only one national parliament in The Hague, Australians have two houses, the upper house is the Senate and the lower house is the House of Representatives, and the two houses together are collectively called Parliament. The supreme leader of the republic, the president of the country, is recommended by the Senate and appointed and dismissed by the Chamber of Deputies. And the entire government of the republic of Australians is, in theory, also an employee of the Australian Parliament.

There is also an intricate system of procedures and systems for how members of the Australian Senate and House of Representatives should be elected, both elected and appointed, and it is easy for the layman to be confused, so it is difficult to describe it accurately here, because I have not yet inquired about it.

Roughly speaking, the Australian Senate has a smaller number of members, longer terms, and some members are even for life, but they are not hereditary, and they symbolize the authority of the central government more than the interests of the local government. The Australian House of Representatives, on the other hand, has a larger number of members and shorter terms, which is more reflective of the local interests of their respective origins. The number of seats in the House of Representatives held by each union republic is directly related to the overall strength of the republic to which it belongs, and there is an extremely complex formula for calculating this, which is roughly based on the size of the population and the number of taxes paid.

However, as with Frederick in our country. Lord Henry (the de facto ruler of the Dutch Republic at this time, the younger brother of Maurice the "Dutch God of War", who took office in 1625 and took control of six of the seven provinces of the Netherlands, was only one step away from being crowned king, but unfortunately he died before he could complete this step), with his elite army and the high prestige of the House of Orange, he could surpass the provincial councils to a considerable extent. The supreme leader of the Australian Republic, with the support of the army and outstanding achievements, can also suppress the unwitting and inefficient Parliament, become the uncrowned king of the country, and perhaps even go further, that is, take that seductive crown.

But it is a pity that at present, the new supreme leader of this new republic, the first president of the country who will be formally inaugurated, is not from a military background, but the Australian Governor of Hainan Island (as the Dutch understands), Mr. Wen Desi, who has dealt with us before.

Mr. Moon-hee was a seasoned politician who was good at coordinating all aspects of relations, but he was not a brave and warlike general, and he had no outstanding military exploits to be able to do so. On the contrary, his strong political competitor, General Huangshi, who presided over the battle to conquer the Ming Empire, has the name of 'invincible god of war' in the East, and can be called a world-class first-class general...... It is conceivable that in the coming days, many contradictions and disputes are likely to erupt between the military and the government of Australians. But for us foreigners, it's reassuring good news......"

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After writing this paragraph, Anthony? Fan? Admiral Dimmen felt a little tired, so he picked up the telephone microphone and shook the crank a few times. After a while, a sweet voice sounded in the microphone: "Hello, the waiter at the front desk No. 007 is serving you, what do you need?" ”

Even when he first came into contact with the phone a few days ago, the admiral was shocked, but now when he heard the voice from the other side, he still wanted to marvel - is it the wisdom of the devil that Australians can transmit sound through thin wires?

However, in the last few days, he has seen so many incredible things in this Australian capital that he has been somewhat numb to his nerves. So the admiral just calmly said to the microphone: "...... Please bring a pot of hot tea, the kind with sugar. ”

It wasn't long before the oak door of the luxurious suite was gently pushed open, and a waitress dressed in a black and white maid's outfit walked in, gently placed a large tray of delicate white porcelain tea sets, gently placed it on the desk in front of the admiral, and then bent down and bowed, and turned to leave.

The admiral picked up a white porcelain teapot depicting golden flowers and plants from the center of the tray, poured himself a cup of mellow black tea, and then took out two pure sugar cubes from the white porcelain jar with a tong, threw them into the teacup, and watched the sugar cubes quickly dissolve in a bunch of bubbles in the dark red tea soup, while sorting out the thoughts in his mind...... Finally, he drank the cold black tea in the cup and lifted the pen again:

“…… Next, Mr. Governor, I would like to talk about some light topics. In the beautiful castle where we are staying today, the state guesthouse of Australians, there are also envoys from other countries. From what I've been talking to, they seem to have very different attitudes towards Australians.

The first is the home country of the Australians, the envoy of the Ming Emperor in the East. As mentioned earlier, the founders of the Australians are the predecessors of the current Asian Ming Empire, the descendants of the Song Empire 350 years ago. They fled from the brutal Mongol cavalry to distant Australia, where they re-established their kingdom and stubbornly believed that they still had a natural inheritance over China.

Although the Australians and the Ming Empire should indeed be regarded as cousins in terms of blood and legal theory, the emperors and ministers of the Ming Empire obviously would not agree with the Australians. In fact, the Ming Empire's court not only disregarded the facts as barbarians, but also took the initiative to provoke a war with the Australians, and even after complete defeat, the rulers of the Ming Empire still seem to refuse to admit defeat.

For example, the envoys of the Ming Empire, who are currently living in my downstairs room, are obviously hostile and angry towards the Australians in their words and deeds. The Australians have treated them very coldly, and have so far not sent a high-ranking official to meet them. At first, I wondered why Australians, who were also a group of polite and civilized gentlemen, treated the diplomatic envoys of a great empire so coldly.

Later, through a casual conversation with an Australian diplomat, I was surprised to learn that under the combined blows of the Tatar invasion of the south, the peasant rebellion, the rebellion of the military aristocracy, and the attack of the Australians, the current Ming Empire had been torn apart and completely collapsed. Even the Ming emperor, who represented orthodoxy, was defeated and killed in a war to suppress the imperial rebellion this spring, and the question of who would succeed him as emperor of China suddenly became a big question.

Today, just within the orthodox imperial family of the Ming Empire, there are six emperors who support their own armies at the same time. As for all kinds of usurpers and clown-like puppet emperors, there are countless of them. The political chaos is as great as it was when the ancient Roman Empire fell! In response to this situation, the Australian diplomat claimed as if jokingly that this year was the unprecedented "year of the 3,000 tyrants" in China's history...... In short, if there were so many people in China this year who were emperors at the same time, I can't imagine what an absurd scene it would be!

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty envoys who lived downstairs actually only represented the royal family member who ranked fourth in strength. The self-reliant Ming emperor, despite his noble bloodline, had just been defeated by the Tatars on the battlefield, and had been taken advantage of by another Ming emperor and a usurper to take advantage of a large territory, leaving only two cities and an island at its worst, and losing most of his army, just like the late Byzantine Empire, which had been besieged by the Turks two hundred years earlier, and barely survived by sporadic assistance from Australians.

In order to repel the next Tatar invasion, the Ming emperor sent an envoy to the Australian capital, trying to beg for more ordnance, money, and material aid, and even hoping that the Australians would send troops to help him in the war. However, the emperor of the Ming Kingdom obviously did not find the right person to send an envoy. For example, the envoy surnamed 'Fang', although he tried hard to cover it up, I could still feel that he had a strange disdain and contempt for everything about the Australians, such as those magnificent buildings, and he was also at ease with the assistance provided to them by the Australians before, and he did not think of paying any price for it at all, and even found fault with it in every way, as if he regarded the Australians as his own serfs.

It should be noted that his performance was not a special case, but a general sentiment that was widespread among the diplomatic corps of the Ming Empire. Although diplomacy is synonymous with meanness and shamelessness, I can't help but admire the thickness of these guys' skins and their astonishing stupidity.

If the envoy surnamed 'Fang', although his attitude is very problematic, he is still reluctantly performing his duties, trying to get some assistance for the monarch he serves. Then the other deputy envoy surnamed 'Xia' was simply trying to mess up their rescue mission.

The deputy envoy seemed to have a deep enmity with the Australians, and was unaware of the diplomatic status between the two sides. When I visited them at their lodgings, I went on and on about the accusations of the Australians, and at last I was mad enough to think that the Australians should ask his emperor for their guilt and submission! It was as if it was not him who had come all the way to ask the Australians for help, but the Australians who knelt at his feet and begged for forgiveness.

And Mr. Deputy Envoy's personal servant, who had an astonishing crazy performance, had just arrived in the city, and arrogantly extorted bribes from the Australians in the State Guesthouse, and naturally only gained a bunch of white eyes. Next, when the maid came to clean the room, this guy deliberately blocked the door to make things difficult and flirtatious. After being scolded harshly, the embarrassed servant simply took action and wanted to insult the rather beautiful Australian maid. As a result, the Australian guards who rushed to hear the news gave him a hard lesson with a stick and then locked him in the basement. And the Australian officials who managed the state guesthouse also ordered the cancellation of room service for the Ming Empire mission, allowing them to wash their own clothes and clean their rooms.

In this regard, the deputy envoy Xia did not realize any mistake at all, but felt that he was greatly offended, and actually ran out to make a big noise, and smashed a lot of things in the hall, and was finally thrown back into the room by the impatient state guest house guards. The Australians also ordered the envoy surnamed 'Fang' to guarantee that there would never be another similar vicious incident. Otherwise, the entire legation would be expelled and left to live on the streets.

For the next few days I did not see the deputy again, supposedly by his companions in a room and not allowed to come out, lest he cause any more trouble. But he still talked to himself in the room all day long, chattering and cursing the Australians to perish as soon as possible, as if he thought that this was the only way to show his loyalty to the Ming Emperor, but he did not think at all that he was ordered to ask the Australians for help.

Anyway, if I had such a 'loyal' employee under my command, then I would definitely stone him and kick him into the sea to feed the sharks......"