"Your Majesty, the Great Emperor, have you ever heard of this Chinese proverb - The Zhu family is rich in the world and the Kong family is rich?"
Longcotto did not answer Louis XIV's question directly, but said a proverb that no one had ever heard. Since no one has heard of this proverb, Louis XIV certainly doesn’t know it either.
"The Kong family in the Zhu family world? Is this Kong family the Queen Mother Kong's family?" Of course Louis XIV didn't expect Longcordo to talk such nonsense, so he kept asking!
"It is the family of Kong Shenggong after the most holy teacher Confucius!" Longkoduo said seriously, "Confucius is a saint in China, equivalent to the status of Jesus in Europe, so since the Han Dynasty, the Confucius family in Qufu has been influenced by the Chinese We have received preferential treatment from emperors throughout the ages and have been a wealthy and distinguished family for generations. Of course, we also have the convenience of making money and the privilege of doing business.”
"Oh..." Louis XIV nodded repeatedly, "I see...the Kong family is equivalent to the Jesus family!"
That’s pretty cool!
If there is a Jesus family in Europe, they must be doing whatever they want... As long as their family doesn't want to be kings, the emperors, kings, and grand dukes of various countries will definitely support their family.
Longkodo continued to make nonsense: "The Kong family has been rich for a thousand and hundreds of years, and the wealth accumulated from generation to generation has long been countless. And starting from the Song Dynasty, the Kong family began to use the credit of their thousand-year-old family to engage in banking. In the beginning They just sucked up savings from landlords, helped merchants remit money, and issued usury loans. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Kong family, which had already become the richest in the world, began to use the huge wealth accumulated in their hands to invest in the various heroes who rose up at that time... The founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang once received funding from the Confucian family! Otherwise, how could he, a poor man born as a beggar monk, conquer the world with his bare hands? After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu reciprocated the favor and gave the Confucian family in Qufu many political and economic privileges. , and also made the Qufu Kong family the lords of Qufu area."
Emperor Louis nodded repeatedly. He had long known that Zhu Yuanzhang was a beggar, so he had never figured out how he founded the Ming Empire. Now the truth is finally revealed!
Longkodo added: "During the decades of tug-of-war between the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Confucian family in Qufu adopted a strategy of betting on both ends. On the one hand, through Kong Youde, it established contact with the Qing Dynasty, which was still called Hou Jin at that time, and on the other hand, it also used Kong Youde to establish contact with the Qing Dynasty, which was still called Hou Jin at that time. Huge loans were issued; on the one hand, the Faces organized a militia in Qufu to help Emperor Chongzhen suppress the rogue bandits."
Louis XIV interrupted at this time and asked: "Then the rise of Zhu Heji was also due to the funding of the Confucius family?"
Longkodo shook his head and said: "It is a pity that the Kong family missed the opportunity to invest in Zhu Heji. This was a major mistake, but there is nothing that can be done about it. Because although Zhu Heji is a direct descendant of Huang Ming, he and his father, King Zhu They all started in Cao Mang, and they all started in Chaozhou, and they had nothing to do with the Kong family in the early years."
Louis XIV became interested and asked: "Who supported his success?"
Longkodo is a good fabricator, he just opens his mouth and says, "As far as I know, he was supported by Chaozhou merchants and pirates and the Zheng family of Yanping. These merchants and pirates all made their fortunes after the Age of Discovery." , the richest among them was the Zheng family of Yanping King in the former Ming Dynasty. Zhu Heji used their money to recruit troops and horses, and then he became strong.
And these emerging plutocrats, of course, do not want the Kong family to share profits with them. Therefore, after Zhu Heji came to power, he spared no effort to attack the Confucius family in Qufu, forcing the Kong family sage to lead the clan to follow Kangxi Khan and move westward. However, after all, the Kong family was a saint and still had huge influence in China. Zhu Heji did not dare to destroy the Kong family, and the Kong family still had a lot of wealth hidden under the table that was not confiscated by Emperor Zhu... Therefore, Emperor Zhu was not willing to be enemies of the Kong family forever, and Zhu Heji did not want the maritime merchants of Chaozhou and southern Fujian to dominate.
So last year, when Queen Mother Kong went to the Ming Dynasty to meet Emperor Zhu, she received the most solemn reception! "
It is indeed the most solemn! Even if Louis XIV visited the Ming Dynasty in person, it would be impossible for him to receive such treatment...
Of course, Longkodo would not elaborate on how to be "ceremonious"... This is a formal diplomatic event, and no dirty jokes can be made. But he knew it even without telling Louis, because Mary Anne had already written to tell her about it.
Louis was still wondering, how good-looking is this Queen Mother Kong? How come you are treated like this? Now I finally understand that this is not a question of appearance, but a question of family background.
Although Zhu Heji ruled an extremely powerful super empire, there was no need to make too many enemies...especially against a millennium-old family that was powerful and difficult to destroy.
Perhaps this family cannot be an enemy of a hero like Zhu Heji, but Zhu Heji cannot live forever. The Ming Empire will inevitably be controlled by mediocre or even stupid kings in the future.
Therefore, it is understandable that Zhu Heji solemnly received the head of the Kong family who came from afar to seek reconciliation. If it were Louis XIV himself, he would not always be enemies with the people of the "Jesus family".
Seeing that Louis XIV seemed to believe his lies, Longcotto continued to work as a lobbyist for the Queen Mother Kong. He said to Louis XIV: "Great Emperor, the Kong family did not go to Central Asia empty-handed. The previous generation Kong Shenggong fled to Central Asia with the huge wealth accumulated by the Confucius family for thousands of years... The reason why Kangxi Khan was able to regroup so quickly was because he received funding from the Confucius family. And the investment from the Confucius family Now that they have received generous rewards, Queen Mother Kong, after getting the understanding of the Ming Emperor, can freely mobilize the funds secretly stored in the Ming Dynasty. Now the Kong family needs to find a way out for the huge funds they control! This is a huge sum of money. The wealth is astronomical, maybe as high as one billion silver rupees!”
"One billion silver rupees? That's a lot of money!"
"It is indeed a thousand-year-old family!"
"Not even the Medici family can compare..."
"So rich!"
When Louis XIV and his ministers heard that the Kong family was so rich, they all couldn't help but exclaimed.
Hearing everyone's admiration, Longkodo knew that the errand assigned by Queen Mother Kong seemed to be successful, so he struck while the iron was hot: "Emperor, I don't think you will refuse the Kong family's investment in Frank?"
"Of course not!" Emperor Louis the Great was overjoyed. He was a big financier with one billion silver rupees!
Under the leadership of Louis the Great, the Frankish Empire was very strong militarily, but this strength did not come without a price... Being strong cost money, and it was very expensive!
In order to support an army of four and a half million people, Louis had to raise taxes and borrow money... But the Frankish Empire had neither gold-rich colonies nor developed capitalist industry and commerce like the Netherlands and England. Although he has a powerful army, the territories he has acquired over the years have not been very profitable - a bunch of thorny nobles in Poland and Lithuania are not willing to pay taxes properly, and a bunch of vassal states in Germany are also various. They refused to pay taxes, and most of the German lands under Louis' direct jurisdiction had been looted by the Ottoman Empire, and they would not be able to recover in less than thirty to fifty years. So the pressure to raise taxes falls on the French.
The high taxes in France have led to a large outflow of capital, making the French economy even more depressed and causing market interest rates to rise. This made Louis XIV, who wanted to live a life full of money, feel very painful - the interest rate was too high, and he couldn't afford to pay it back!
Now I heard that a big financier worth billions came to invest in the Frank Empire. Can he be unhappy?
Regardless of whether you open a bank or buy land, it will be beneficial to Louis.
If you set up a bank, Louis will have more ways to borrow money. If you buy land, you will leave a large amount of silver rupees in the Franks, and it is impossible to take the land away... Louis XIV can still collect taxes!
Thinking of this, Emperor Louis the Great smiled and said to Longkodo: "Mr. Ambassador, please tell Queen Mother Kong that our Frank Empire will definitely ensure the safety of her investments in the empire."
Emperor Louis the Great thought for a while and added another preferential condition. He said: "Moreover, I will also approve the Confucianism of the Confucian family to open schools in the Frankish Empire!"
The issue of Confucianism running schools in Europe had already been proposed as early as the time of Kong Yuqi, the previous generation - Christianity should not be banned in India and Central Asia, and Europe should also be open to reciprocity.
However, the Holy See did not want others to compete with them for business, so it used the excuse that the Confucian sect of the Ming Dynasty had a monopoly and did not allow Confucianism to set up schools in Europe.
Now, in order to please Confucius, Louis XIV regarded the interests of the Holy See as a favor without consulting the Pope.
Longkodo smiled and said: "That's great. The late Shenggong always wanted to open Confucian schools in Europe, and now he finally fulfilled his last wish!"
...
Black Petersburg on the northern shore of the Black Sea.
When Peter I's dearest sister Sofia and her grandson Honghao arrived in the southern capital of Rakshasa via the Mongolian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Ottoman Empire, the place was in full swing.
Unlike the historically arduous construction project of Petersburg, the project of building Black Petersburg went much more smoothly. This is because the environment in Petersburg leading to the Baltic Sea is much harsher than that in Black Petersburg on the north bank of the Black River. There are ice periods for up to five or six months a year, and the area on both sides of the Neva River used to build Petersburg is a swamp. There are few trees in the surrounding area, and it is either puddles or rocks. It's really difficult to build a city and port in a place like this! That is to say, Peter the Great, a ruthless man who could care less about the life and death of the people in order to achieve his goals, could complete this impossible task.
According to later statistics, during the years when Petersburg was being built, as many as 200,000 Rakshasa serfs died of illness and exhaustion on the construction site... The death of so many people was enough for Peter the Great to fight a war .
However, Petersburg, which was built at such a huge cost, was not even among the top three in the Soviet Union in terms of throughput during the Soviet period. Odessa (at the same location as Black Petersburg) is absolutely number one, which shows the superior location of Black Petersburg!
With such a superior location, development has naturally begun long ago. Different from the desolation on the Neva River, a port has appeared here in Black Petersburg as early as the ancient Greek era. Before Peter I occupied this place, the Tatars and Turks had already established port cities here.
Because there are ready-made ports and cities that can be used, and the surrounding fertile and relatively warm black earth belt can provide sufficient food, and the Dnieper River, the fourth largest river in Europe, can be used to transport labor and materials. Therefore, the construction cost of Black Petersburg is much lower than that of historical Petersburg, and the business prospects are better. Naturally, it is easier to attract investors... Before the construction of Black Petersburg started, it had already attracted The Freemasons and Kangxi Khan were the two big benefactors. With such good conditions, the blessing of the sponsor, and Peter I, the impatient Tsar who was eager to change the poor and backward appearance of Rakshasa, plus there was no need to stop work here in the winter, the construction speed of Black Petersburg was of course as fast as flying. Quickly.
Riding in a luxuriously decorated four-wheel carriage, traveling on a newly built wide road, looking through the French glass windows at the tall Western European-style buildings rising on both sides of the road, and then turning to look I looked at Peter I who was completely Westernized in his dress. He frowned slightly: "Peter, you look very much like a Frenchman!"
"Sister, I have decided that Rakshasa should take Frank as his teacher," Peter replied, "and I will definitely become Rakshasa's Louis the Great!"
It turned out that the objects of Peter I's worship were actually his brother-in-law Kangxi Khan and Zhu Heji, who defeated Kangxi Khan. However, the drastic changes that occurred in Mongolia after the death of Kangxi Khan made Peter I realize that the system of Mongolia was completely unsuitable for Rakshasa... and the national conditions of Ming Dynasty were too different from Rakshasa, and they had no reference value.
Peter explained: "Great Mongolia consists of three million Mongols and the Turkic race oppressing 780 million Indians... I don't have that many Indians to exploit. As for the Ming Dynasty, it is on the top of the mountain. Compared with the country, Rakshasa is too poor. Moreover, Rakshasa is too big, too chaotic, and too complicated. Therefore, only an emperor with absolute power like Louis can effectively rule Rakshasa and lead Rakshasa Become a powerful country that can keep pace with the Franks, Ming Dynasty, and Mongolia.
This great emperor is me... I will march westward after the first phase of the Black Petersburg project and the Suez Canal project are completed! "
Peter is Peter after all!
Neither Kangxi Khan nor St. Philip of Freemasonry could ultimately transform him into an enlightened Eastern monarch... Of course, this was also because Peter was too far away from the East and Rakshasa could not learn from it. The Ming Dynasty became a "lighthouse of civilization" and a "country on the top of a mountain". After the death of Kangxi Khan, the state system of the Great Mongolia has changed to co-governance by all banners and aristocratic democracy. This is a political form that all people who want to be emperor hate, and Peter is certainly no exception.
So after going around in circles, Peter still led his Rakshasa "all the way west", but the westward route was different from the historical one. He couldn't go through the Baltic Sea, but had to go through the Black Sea and the Danube River!
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