Chapter 456: Western Learning Spreads to the East, and Eastern Learning Spreads to the West
"Your Majesty, Poland's recent moves are a provocation to the Empire. We need to teach them a lesson."
The second vice chancellor and military minister Christian suggested to Peter that as Rome's biggest rivals, Poland and Lithuania need to be eliminated. They must not be allowed to hinder the Empire and other allies.
"Wait a little longer, it's not the right time yet."
At present, it is not the time for Rome and Poland to show their cards. The storm within the Holy Roman Empire is still going on. It depends on whether my brother can control it.
"Have you finished what I asked you to do?"
"Your Majesty, the address has been selected and it is expected to be completed within two years."
Christian really admires the new emperor. He said that he felt sorry for the soldiers who were disabled in the war, so he wanted to build a building to arrange their retirement.
What is this? This is the emperor's kindness to the soldiers. They have heard all the prayers they prayed to. This is the messenger sent by God.
It has spread in Constantinople that the emperor wants to build a residence for retired soldiers and disabled soldiers. Anyone who has made great contributions can enter here to enjoy their old age, and those who become generals can also be buried in a grand manner. Now the enthusiasm of young people to join the army is high, which has increased the military manpower reserve for the empire.
In addition to this, another thing has been discussed in the government recently. That is, the envoys to the East will return soon, and there will be envoys sent by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
With the help of the Roman Empire, Zhu Di's new policy can be implemented relatively smoothly. The sea ban that was opened under pressure before has now become the emperor's money bag, and the Ministry of Revenue also saw that it could get a share of it, so it didn't say anything. This time Zheng He went to the West again. In addition to the Roman envoys, Zhu Di also sent the Ming envoys headed by Chen Cheng, an official from the Ministry of Personnel, to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.
In fact, what Zheng He brought back from the Roman Empire last time gave Zhu Di a great shock. Especially the small artillery, which was more powerful than their bowl-mouthed guns and had a longer range. He ordered the Ministry of Works to imitate it, but failed.
The backwardness of artillery technology made Zhu Di see that there were also powerful countries in the West, so he decided to send envoys to interact with them. If he could learn the technology, he would make a profit.
In fact, Rome's influence on the Ming Dynasty was more than that. In Zhejiang and other places, local dignitaries all used Roman-made glass cups and gold bowls, and drank Moldovan-made wine. They were so happy. Roman missionaries followed the example of monks, built the first church in Ningbo, and tried to integrate into the local society. The knowledge they brought aroused the interest of many local literati, but those who regarded themselves as orthodox scholars looked down on these strange people and things.
The most famous one should be the debate at the White Deer Cave Academy in the seventh year of Yongle (1409), in which Roman missionaries and Jiangxi Confucian scholars debated around Confucian classics and Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.
The missionaries excerpted sentences from Zhou Song: "Zhi Jing Wu Wang, Wu Jing Wei Lie; Bu Xian Cheng Kang, God is Huang." To show that God had already existed in the Zhou Dynasty, and forcibly integrated the doctrine with the Confucian classics. And boldly said that the current Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was false, which was a forced distortion of Confucius' classics.
Because the other party's ideas were too advanced, these Confucian scholars collectively broke down. If all the things they have learned for so long are fake, then are all the emperors fake?
For this, the missionaries directly said that the emperor is good, but whether the people below are good or not is another matter.
Emperor Yongle was a very good monarch. He wanted to make the country stronger, but some officials and landlords below who were in office and doing nothing prevented him from reforming, because they would gain a lot of benefits if they did not reform. The emperor should be arbitrary and should not be oppressed by officials with ancestral teachings.
This confrontation at the White Deer Cave Academy caused an earthquake. Outsiders actually openly fired at Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. Is this a rebellion? It is intolerable that the country is the Celestial Empire, but it is repeatedly provoked by foreign small countries.
But Zhu Di was very happy. Although it was indeed provocative, it could teach those literati a lesson for him. It was annoying to say that the new policy was dismissed because of insufficient finances all day long.
At the bottom, the powerful secular forces made it difficult for missionaries to move forward. In Ningbo and Guangdong, missionaries built hospitals, charity halls and other institutions in the local area to help the people. This made them gradually accept themselves.
A village in Guangzhou was often harassed by bandits. The combat priests were divided into two teams. One team was ambushed on the road that the bandits had to pass, and the other team went to the village to help the villagers defend the village and prevent the bandits from reporting the news.
When the bandits were repelled by the combat priests guarding the village, another team of combat priests who had been ambushed rushed out and captured the bandits in one fell swoop.
The priests tied the bandits to the square in the village and asked everyone to tell the crimes of these bandits.
At this time, the villagers naturally had grievances and revenges. When the bandits were beaten to death by the villagers, the priests stopped the villagers' atrocities.
The priests asked the bandits to confess their sins. This scene was very familiar to Buddhists.
"It is likely that these monks want to release these damn bandits." The villagers thought to themselves.
The bandits also thought that they should be able to escape, and sooner or later they would kill all these damned unruly people. After all, these foreign monks could not guard these villagers every day.
However, what the villagers and bandits did not expect was that after the bandits confessed, the priests sent them to the cross and let them be baptized in the flames.
"May the Lord forgive your sins!"
After seeing the fighting power and methods of the priests, the villagers changed their beliefs one after another.
Sometimes Catholic things are quite useful.
The situation in Japan is much better. Andre's missionary work in Kagoshima went smoothly, more than 600 believers were baptized, and two churches were built.
The armed merchant ships from Rome also received the favor of the Shimazu family head, and even proposed to exchange a ship with a pile of silver like a small mountain, but this proposal was still too big, so it was sent back to Constantinople for instructions.
Kagoshima rose rapidly, and goods from Ming Dynasty, Korea, and Rome gathered here. The tax revenue generated greatly increased the strength of the Shimazu family, and then began to unify Kyushu.
Rome's foothold in East Asia not only brought huge profits, but also gained a group of compradors. Rome relied on them to seize local interests and maintain the situation for a long time by bribing local officials. However, the current situation is very fragile, and the routes of various trade points are not yet closely connected, and the shipbuilding industry needs to work hard.
————Dividing line————
The news from Aleppo made the emirs feel okay, after all, they did not dare to expect anything better. If they let the other party come in person, they might even have their heads taken away, which was really not worth the loss.
Besides, it was okay to convert themselves. In this way, the punishment from Mecca would have nothing to do with them. I am a Christian, what qualifications do you, a pagan, have to say about me. In this case, let's prepare to welcome the king's army.
The negotiations in Aleppo lasted 20 days, and Rome successfully used artillery to force the emirs to surrender. Expand their territory again.