The earliest record of "Zouyu" is "Shan Hai Jing", which says that there is a rare beast in Lin's country, as big as a tiger, with white hair and black stripes, and a long tail. Its name is Zouyu [zōu yú], which symbolizes peace.
It is said that Zuoyu is gentle in nature, agile in movement, and can travel thousands of miles in a day. However, it cannot even bear to trample on grass and only eats animals that have died naturally. From this, the ancients believed that Zuo Yu was a kind of benevolent beast, so it gradually became an auspicious beast as it was continuously passed down.
Like Qilin, if it appears in the human world, it represents a peaceful and prosperous age, and is God's recognition of the current emperor.
In the second year of Yongle, a Zou Yu appeared in Junzhou, Henan and was captured by people. People were overjoyed. Zhou Wang Zhu Ju and local officials organized a team to send Zou Yu to Beijing in a mighty manner; Zhu Di, who had just failed to achieve peace, was naturally very happy. attention, so the matter was publicized with great fanfare.
However, according to current research by historians and stylistics, the Lin Kingdom is located in northwest China, so the so-called Zoyu should have lived in the northwest region. Then, based on comparison and analysis of appearance characteristics, it was finally concluded that Zoyu was actually a snow leopard— -The fur is white with black spots and rings, and the tail is thick and long.
As for the legend that it cannot bear to trample on the grass, the reason is very simple. The snow leopard's fur is so obvious that it cannot camouflage itself in the grass and forests, so it does not often forage in the grass and forests.
By casting a bronze statue of this mythical beast that symbolizes peace and presenting it to the League of Nations, it can be said that the Ming court's superficial skills were very good.
Regarding this League of Nations conference, unlike the disdain of some people in the DPRK, Wei Jingyun personally attached great importance to it.
This conference was mainly about three things, one was Italy's invasion of Ethiopia; the other was the Ming-British border war; and the third was the Spanish Civil War.
As early as 7895 AD, Italy launched two wars of aggression against Ethiopia, but both times were defeated. Italy was even forced to sign a peace treaty with Ethiopia, recognizing its independence and sovereignty.
Italy, which is resentful of this, has been thinking about revenge. After Andrea came to power, he also preached that he must avenge his shame, and that after taking Ethiopia, he could build a powerful empire including the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; Andrea planned to develop it on a large scale. local natural resources, and successively immigrated eight million people to ease Italy's domestic conflicts.
Therefore, last year, the Italian army, which had been fully prepared, invaded brazenly, deploying heavy troops on the northern and southern fronts - 162,000 people, 132 aircraft, 112 tanks, and 580 artillery pieces on the northern front; 55,000 people and 44 aircraft on the southern front. , 48 tanks and 140 artillery pieces.
Their opponents, the Ethiopian army, although numbering 300,000, are backward and lacking in weapons and equipment, and many troops are not even equipped with rifles.
The reason why Italy dared to invade was because of the acquiescence and connivance of Britain and France. Britain and France hoped that Italy would become a vanguard in the fight against the German society, so they adopted a policy of appeasement. Italy also promised not to harm the existing interests of Britain and France in Ethiopia.
In this regard, the Ming Dynasty was somewhat dissatisfied, because Ethiopia was a part of the Ming Dynasty's ocean strategic branch.
However, at last year's League of Nations conference, Britain and France turned a deaf ear to the requests and protests of Ethiopian representatives. Not to mention sanctions, there is not even a single condemnation of Italy.
On the contrary, although there were many differences between the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, they finally agreed to provide paid military assistance.
Ethiopia, a country with a weak country and a poor people, has little foreign exchange reserves and very few precious metals, so they paid in kind with copper ore and chromium ore. The Ming Dynasty provided it with more than 40,000 Lebel rifles and 2,200 Lebel rifles at a very low price. One hundred Chauchat light machine guns, three hundred and fifty Hotchkiss heavy machine guns, and one hundred and twenty Schneider field guns.
These obsolete and imitated old French weapons were originally used as strategic reserves, but now they have been sent to Africa and handed over to Ethiopian soldiers and civilians to fight the invaders.
Although they fought tenaciously and repeatedly defeated the Italian offensive, the Italian army blatantly violated the Geneva Treaty and released CHClS gas on the battlefield, causing the Egyptian army to suffer heavy losses and be defeated.
In mid-June this year, after more than eight months of hard fighting, the capital of Ethiopia fell, the king was forced into exile, and Italy announced it would annex it.
"The sorrow and helplessness of a weak country." Wei Jingyun sighed.
But it was limited to his personal lament, because the court did not intend to continue to entangle in this aspect. In this regard, Wei Jinyun's task was only to reiterate the Ming official position.
As for the border war between the Ming and the British in the Western Frontier, the instructions he received were to repeatedly negotiate, negotiate, and argue to find out the attitudes of the Thai and Western countries as much as possible.
Although Wei Jingyun did not want to get involved in political struggles, interest disputes, and confrontations between various factions, how could he avoid it when he was involved?
In terms of political opinions, he personally agreed with the reconstruction of the tribute circle and supported the Ming Dynasty in exercising its rights in the Nanyang region.
But as a diplomat, he also had a deeper understanding of Britain and the United States than many people in the Ming Dynasty, so he was somewhat apprehensive about having a head-on conflict with them.
Due to the jet lag, the Ming delegation was quite tired, so after checking into the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, everyone fell asleep quickly.
In the next few days, delegations from various countries are preparing for the conference on September 1st.
The leopard-shaped bronze statue of "Zou Yu" presented by the Ming Dynasty arrived at the Geneva train station. The Secretariat of the League of Nations expressed its sincere welcome and thanks, and then organized people to install it in an already built area of Ariana Park. Marble abutment.
"It's puzzling that the Chinese actually regard snow leopards as a symbol of peace. What do you think, Mr. Lane?"
Also at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Brecht from the Dutch delegation came to the room where the British delegation was staying and had private negotiations with Ryan, the British delegation commissioner.
"This is a magical nation. They invented gunpowder but turned it into fireworks, so their ideas cannot be viewed with normal thinking." Ryan looked aloof and omniscient.
Brecht, who felt extremely contemptuous, wanted to tell him that the Chinese had already widely used black powder weapons in the Song Dynasty, and the Shenji Battalion, the world's first thermal weapon corps, was also born in China.
However, since he was here to discuss matters with him, Brecht did not spoil his interest and just followed his words, "I think so too. Well... Mr. Lane, your country is going to travel this time." Is it a substantive means of protest?”
The so-called substantive means are self-evident, including economic sanctions, military actions, etc.
Ryan glanced at him sideways and said, "As a diplomat, it is impossible to express the attitude of the British Empire in an informal setting."
"But, sir," Brecht took a step forward and said very sincerely: "The British Empire and our country have the same interests and threats in the Far East, and I think we should have no secrets in this regard."
(End of chapter)
