I

The original version of the book "The King of Kings - The Biography of the Great Emperor of China" was written in French.

Just like "Golden X Plum", it was banned from publication by Louis XIV, so I just took it out and read it myself. Because this book is written so realistically, the contents of "Datong Collection" are analyzed and explained in detail.

However, scholars funded by the Medici family, like the Russian envoys, translated the book into Italian and took it back.

It is now popular in Italy, but was soon banned by more than a dozen states. Only the Republic of Venice dared to continue printing and publishing, and even the Pope could not stop this. Venice was resisting the Ottoman invasion. The Cretan War had been going on for more than ten years, and every country was hoping that Venice would win.

Alexei I, sitting alone in his study, opened the Latin version of "The King of Kings—The Biography of the Khitan Emperor."

"There are many rumors about this great emperor in Europe, and the story of the prince's restoration of the country is widely circulated. Even in Khitan, many people believe that their emperor is a royal descendant of the Song Empire. But His Majesty, the great emperor, He publicly refuted this statement and claimed that he was just an ordinary civilian..."

"However, His Majesty the Emperor is obviously humble. In Khitan, there are some very ancient surnames with family inheritance history that lasts for thousands of years. His Majesty the Emperor and the royal family of the Song Empire had the same ancestors more than a thousand years ago. By the time of the Ming Empire , His Majesty the Emperor’s ancestors were reduced to families of ordinary scholars. In the Ming Empire, the people were divided into many occupations, including military households, civilian households, kitchen households, craftsmen households, astrologers (yin and yang households), etc. His Majesty the Emperor belonged to Confucian households, and also It’s an officially certified scholar family…”

"This may be the reason why His Majesty the Emperor has profound knowledge and wise thinking, because his ancestors have been scholars for generations, and the family has inherited excellent secrets of Eastern culture..."

"The Ming Empire was once powerful, but a few decades ago, there was an emperor (Wanli) who ignored government affairs. Officials of the empire retired and died of illness, and he did not allow new officials to take office. The huge country lacked official governance, and the country gentry They began to steal the power of the Empire."

"When our great emperor was born, the Ming Empire was already in decline. Barbarians from the north continued to invade the borders of the empire. Heavy taxes caused mobs to rise within the empire, and people resisted the rule of the Ming Empire. The last emperor of the Ming Empire Chongzhen is recognized as a hard-working monarch, but his talents obviously cannot save the huge empire..."

"Even the scholar family, faced with tyranny and natural disasters, became homeless due to hunger. Yes, His Majesty, the great emperor, once worked as a wandering beggar. And he was just a child at that time, and his father and mother died of hunger , his sister was sold as a maid, and he had to take his sister to beg and wander..."

"Such a person cannot become a monarch in Europe, and he will eventually die of various reasons. After experiencing a long and painful ordeal, His Majesty the Emperor was taken in by a kind scholar and allowed him to become a retinue as an adopted son. The scholar’s ​​daughter later became the Queen of Khitan.”

"Understanding this, you can understand why His Majesty the Emperor treats the common people favorably. No, it is not kindness to the common people, but kindness to everyone, including prostitutes and slaves. The great Emperor, His Majesty, believes that all people are born equal, and the only thing that is truly noble is character. Rather than family, title and official position..."

The author obviously doesn't know how to write popular books. He begins with a long paragraph describing the social situation in the late Ming Dynasty. It even gives various annotations to explain what a Confucian household is. The explanation of lattice theory is several pages long and written like a thesis.

After Zhao Han ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, he spent a lot of time explaining the content of political reforms and analyzing the differences between these systems and those in Europe.

Alexey I spent more than half a month reading this biography before I finally finished it. Then, start reading again and combine those notes for detailed understanding.

The author writes at the end of the book:

"His Majesty, the great Emperor, is still in the prime of life and in good health. Under his rule, the empire will become even more vast and the people will become richer. His Majesty's story is far from over..."

"But we can already conclude that His Majesty, the great Emperor, is an unprecedented and unique existence. Regardless of his prominent identity, His Majesty is first and foremost a philosopher. He is like omniscient and omnipotent, and knows all the knowledge in the world. . He has made groundbreaking achievements in the fields of mathematics, geometry, physics and other fields. He is a poet and a litterateur, and his poems are praised by all people..."

"He is kind. His kindness is true kindness, not false kindness. He allows everyone to live equally, even the lowest common people. He allows all children, regardless of gender, to have the opportunity to receive free education. .”

"Just like his title, he is called the First Emperor of the People's Republic of China. To elaborate on this title, everyone is equal from him. He is not an aristocratic emperor, he is a people's emperor. Is there such a monarch in Europe?"

"He is the Philosopher King, the King of Kings. His dignity lies not in ruling the most powerful empire in the world, but in his noble soul that surpasses all others."

"Praise the great Emperor, may God grant him all blessings, and may his body be always healthy. The wealthy Khitan has the most wealth in the world. And His Majesty the Emperor himself is the greatest wealth of the empire!"

Alexey I read it twice and gave the book to Prime Minister Nashokin.

Nashokin read it carefully and said to Alexei: "Your Majesty, this book cannot be circulated outside. No one except the royal family is allowed to read it, otherwise it will become a plague-like existence. If a down-and-out noble reads it, May lead serf rebellions and ultimately disintegrate the rule of the Russian Empire.”

"I know," Alexey sighed, "but I sincerely admire this Khitan emperor. He is the benchmark for all monarchs, and no monarch can surpass him. He can make the people happy, but ours can only continue to We must tax the people. I know that the citizens of Moscow are complaining because the taxes this year are even heavier. But what can be done?"

Nashokin said: "The greatness of the Khitan emperor is that he got rid of the shackles of the aristocratic lords, and the emperor can directly rule the people. What we should do most is to weaken the power of the aristocracy and centralize taxation."

Alexey shook his head: "It's too difficult."

"But we have to do it, don't we?" Nashokin said.

At this time, the Tsar had not yet completely centralized power.

During the period of Ivan IV, the great nobles were powerful. Ivan IV continued to weaken the influence of the great nobles by reusing those who served (officials, soldiers, craftsmen, etc.). Through the meeting of the gentry, the ministers, monks, small nobles, and businessmen were united to fight against the big nobles.

By now, the Jin Gentry Conference has become more powerful and has even become a national representative conference.

However, in addition to the meeting of the gentry, there was also a meeting of the Duma. The Duma is the highest authority in Russia and a tool for the great nobles to oppose centralization of power. This is similar to the House of Lords and the House of Commons in the UK. The Duma is the upper house and the Gentry is the lower house.

It is also different from the British in terms of their duties. The great nobles of the Duma meeting can participate in the meeting of the gentry. This is equivalent to the House of Commons being in session, and the first three rows are occupied by the nobles of the House of Lords.

Throughout his life, Alexey was unable to change the current situation, and even went back to the situation more than a hundred years ago. The key is that the tsar had no money, agricultural production was reduced during the Little Ice Age, and the treasury was too empty to speak out, so he could only acquiesce in the counterattack of the great nobles.

It wasn't until Peter the Great took over the throne, canceled the Duma meeting, and concentrated the highest power in the Privy Council, that the Tsar really began to speak his mind!

Alexey lamented: "Khitan is so rich, but the land in Russia is too barren. As long as there are not so many natural disasters and the treasury is a little richer, I don't have to look at the faces of the Duma nobles."

Alexei's proud work was the promulgation of the "Conference Code".

But this "Code" was also the product of a compromise. It successfully abolished the tax-free privileges of nobles and monks, at the cost of changing the time limit for hunting down escaped slaves to... no time limit!

Local aristocrats can, in accordance with the Code, arrest civilians indiscriminately, as long as they identify the person as a runaway slave, and then legally seize the civilians' property. There are also a large number of serfs who originally escaped and reclaimed wasteland, but were caught by the nobles and took their land as their own. Even the grandfather escaped, captured his grandson as a serf, and occupied all his land.

"Let's cast copper coins," Nashokin said. "Khitan can use copper coins, and we can also give it a try. Perhaps this can solve the financial crisis."

Alexei said: "This is the only way."

This was simply fantastic for the monarch and his ministers, because copper coins had never been issued in Russian history.

Two years later, they will face the consequences. Inflation increased dozens of times, and citizens not only rioted in Moscow, but also in other cities. After the suppression, the issuance of copper coins was quickly canceled. With no choice, they once again targeted the peasant class and continued to raise taxes, which eventually brewed the Racine Peasant Revolt that lasted for several years.

At night, Alexey fell asleep holding "The King of Kings - The Biography of the Khitan Emperor". He wished that the great nobles in Russia would disappear, all serfs would become peasants, every peasant would have land, every peasant could pay taxes, and all the power would be concentrated in him.

The tsar asked craftsmen to build a beautiful box, keep the book in a safe place, and take it out to read a few pages when he encountered troubles. It seemed that he could become a great Khitan emperor. His tragedy is that he works hard to cure his illness, and he doesn't have so many worries if he just wants to be peaceful.

This man is a bit like Chongzhen. He has been raising taxes and suppressing uprisings his whole life. The more taxes were imposed, the more frequent the uprisings were, and then the taxes continued.

Thanks to the excellent regional matching mechanism and the backward national political system, some great nobles worked hard to suppress the rebellion. Otherwise, Tsarist Russia would have been completely destroyed during the terrible Little Ice Age like the Ming Dynasty!

This book has become Alexei’s exclusive reading.

And as far away as Italy, the book has gone viral. More than a dozen countries joined forces to ban it, but as it became more and more famous, even the nobles secretly read it, just wanting to know why it was banned.