New Shun 1730

August 14, the seventh year of Taixing.

The year is Bingwu, the month is Yiyou, the star is Kuimu, and the god is in the southwest.

A big thing happened in the capital city with gusts of golden wind.

Beside the bell and drum tower, the flowing crowd seemed to be turned into ice sculptures by the wind of winter.

The entire northwest corner of the capital city was stagnant at that moment, and countless people raised their heads and looked up at the strange object flying in the air.

The children stretched out their fingers, jumped, and shouted.

The adults blocked the glaring sunlight with their hands, feeling a little scared, but not wanting to hide.

The soldiers patrolling the streets stood there and asked their superiors.

The master of the Huguo Temple stopped the wooden fish in his hand, wondering what kind of monster it was.

The missionary in the Xuanwumen Church drew a cross on his chest, guessing what kind of revelation it was.

The Taoist priest in Caogonggong Temple held a wooden sword and asked the High God of Xuanqiong what it was.

The students in the Imperial College looked up, thinking about the strange gods who were silent and chaotic.

… All these scenes, from the balloon, were just small black dots.

Liu Yu raised his head and looked into the distance.

Beyond the city wall, beyond the mountains, beyond the desert, it was thousands of miles away.

In the seventh year of Taixing in the Dashun era, eighty-two years after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, in 1726 AD.

In Beijing, for the first time, humans flew into the sky with a magnified Kongming lantern.

This year, the eighty-four-year-old Newton knew that he would go to see God, and for the first time told his autobiographer the story of the apple that hit his head.

This year, the sixteen-year-old Louis XV had just come to power, and his wife from Poland was about to become pregnant with the father of the man who was pushed to the guillotine by the tricolor flag.

This year, the fourteen-year-old Frederick II, under the education of his father's stick and whip, fantasized all day long that one day he would escape to England and escape from the prince's life like a soldier.

This year, the Holy Roman Empire and the northern Tsarist Russia formally signed an anti-Ottoman Turkish treaty, and the fourth Russo-Turkish War was brewing.

This year, Maine in America began to recruit volunteer militia to hunt Indians, and the reward for a scalp could be as high as 100 pounds.

This year, speculators who had just experienced the two major stock market crashes of the South Sea Bubble and the Mississippi Company were ready to move again, ready to set off a new round of bubble traps, forgetting the despair of tulips and how cruel the stock market was that even Lord Bull couldn't understand.

This year, the Dane Bering ran in the vast Siberian wilderness, ready to find the strait that would be named after him and see Alaska in America.

This year, Euler went to St. Petersburg and raised the infant calculus to adulthood. He began to think about number theory and topology, which were headaches for countless college students in later generations, and began to standardize mathematical symbols such as independent variable functions, differences, and summations, and in the near future, semi-unified the symbol kingdom of mathematics textbooks. This monument for thousands of years cannot be obliterated by wind and sand.

This year, Montesquieu and Voltaire traveled to England and met by chance in a London coffee shop. The two discussed the newly published "Encyclopedia of Science and Technology", hoping that one day reason and machinery could defeat the ignorant gods.

Liu Yu did not try to turn around and look at the boring and profound Forbidden City, nor did he think about how those bigwigs would view today's sensation.

Such scenery, it is better to calm down and enjoy it carefully.

Is it life or death; is it blessing or disaster.

Go down, you should know.

…………

In the Qiguogong Mansion on the Crescent River, Qiguogong Tian Suo was flipping through books with a few guests.

"Report to the Duke, we have searched many documents of the former Ming Dynasty, and we have not found the 'Yongning Temple Inscription' that the Duke mentioned."

"In the ninth year of Yongle, Yishiha did serve as an imperial eunuch to inspect Nurgan Dusi and other places. In the seventh year of Xuande, Yishiha went to Nurgan Dusi again. But we did not find the Yongning Temple in the book."

"But I don't know where the Duke learned it from?"

These Qingke who make a living by picking out sentences are very puzzled. Why would the Duke pay attention to the distant bitter cold place? It is bitter cold and barren there, and no one in the court is willing to go there. How could anyone care whether the former Ming Dynasty established the country inscription there?

Tian Suo frowned and flipped through the "A Brief Study of Western Countries" dictated by Liu Yu and recorded by Tian Ping, and he had other thoughts in his mind.

This "A Brief Study of Western Countries" already has the emperor's annotations, a few simple words.

"Great. Write more and send them to the palace"

These simple words are not simple at all.

As a noble, Tian Suo knew the situation of the nobles of the Ming Dynasty after the Battle of Tumu, and knew that he had to raise a "person of his own" in the next generation who could protect the younger generation from wind and rain.

In his eyes, the people of his own were not the children of the third-rank officials, so he naturally had to find the children of the founding dukes.

Now it seems that the effect is good.

The only thing that made Tian Suo confused was the memorial submitted that day.

After explaining his and Luosha's delaying plan, he also added the matter about Yongning Temple during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty.

The emperor drew a circle on the words "Yongning Temple".

Below was a comment that Tian Suo needed to ponder.

"Is the duty of the noble to pick out sentences? In the white mountains and black waters, who can make meritorious deeds?"

This is the emperor's comment, the question is what does it mean?

Is it a compliment?

Is it dissatisfaction?

Or something else?

While he was thinking hard, the housekeeper came in from outside and said repeatedly, "Duke, go out and take a look. There is a monster flying in the sky!"

…………

Imperial City.

Coal Hill.

The old crooked tree is still there.

Behind a stone, in order to win the hearts of Ming officials, the Qing Dynasty locked the old crooked tree with iron chains, saying that they came to avenge Emperor Chongzhen.

This crooked tree that hanged Chongzhen is guilty!

This is a sin tree, and it should be chained for punishment, to show that the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains to avenge Emperor Chongzhen and deceive people's hearts.

Now the chains on it have long been smashed by Li Laiheng, the Little King of Rebellion, and there is an inscription next to it.

The content of the inscription is part of the enthronement edict of the Southern Ming "pseudo" Emperor Longwu.

Alas! The country has not seen a practical policy to care for the people for 30 years. New and old salaries have rotted the flesh and blood in Liaodong; the arrears and advance taxes have exhausted their brains in whipping. The raging only looks like an enemy, alas, who is the parent! As for my people, they are extremely miserable and have no one to turn to.

Although Dashun did not recognize the Southern Ming as orthodox, the content of the enthronement edict of Longwu, the only emperor of the entire Southern Ming who was considered to be brave and wise, undoubtedly provided Dashun with a lot of legitimacy.

The descendants of Longwu were the "two kings and three Ke" recognized by Dashun. After all, Longwu admitted his guilt and proposed a strategy of uniting with the invaders to resist the invaders.

The rest of those who united with the invaders to suppress the invaders naturally did not have a good reputation. Moreover, the line that finally turned to all means and the court believed in Catholicism and wrote to the Roman Catholic Church for help was even less likely to be recognized.

Since the enthronement edict of the pseudo-emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty was written like this, it means that the Zhu Ming royal family forced the world into chaos, and it was their own fault to be hanged here. How could this be a crime?

The descendants of the Zhu family all admitted it, so it was confirmed.

On the road not far from the foreigner's neck tree, Li Gan, the Taixing Emperor of Dashun, was staring at the crooked neck tree in a daze.

The eunuchs beside him did not dare to speak, but just stood carefully on both sides. The female officials of Taizong's legacy were also on both sides. After all, they were not as good as they had imagined at the beginning. These female officials were just decorations.

Due to taboos and other reasons, the royal children often used some strange names, so as not to avoid farting, so they used the uncommon name Gan.

Now Li Gan has been on the throne for seven years. He is in his prime, just over thirty, but not yet forty. In addition to the eunuchs and palace maids, there are also several missionaries around him.

The missionaries all had dark faces and lowered their heads.

Emperor Li Gan's face was not good either, and the eunuchs next to him did not dare to say anything.

Today, these missionaries were called here for nothing else, but still the dispute over Catholic rituals.

Li Gan was determined to resolve this matter as soon as possible. He knew that the Western Yi were strong at this time, and he knew that the Western Yi had a lot to learn, but he did not want the Jesuits to continue to develop.

Dai Jinxian's face was even darker. Today, Li Gan issued an imperial decree:

Send Dai Jinxian, the director of the Imperial Observatory and the Minister of the Government of Rites, to Rome soon.

Not as the vice president of the Chinese region of the Society of Jesus, but as an official of the Dashun Government of Rites, to meet the Pope in Rome and finalize the ritual dispute that has been entangled for decades and is still mixed with uninvited.

Dai Jinxian will soon go to Macau and take a ship back to Europe, bringing with him the ultimatum of Dashun.

If the Pope does not give in on the ritual issue, then Dashun will ban religion, and there will be no room for bargaining.

In order to express Dashun's determination, Li Gan did not use those missionaries who have always followed the will of the Holy See for the Luosha Kingdom's delegation to come this time.

Since the time of Matteo Ricci, missionaries in China have been divided into two factions. One faction believes that the Chinese Christians' set is heresy; the other faction believes that it should be adapted to local conditions, otherwise it will not be able to develop at all.

Li Gan was very clear that the gap between Dashun and the West was widening. If religion was banned, the gap would only get bigger.

He did not hear it from hearsay, but knew it many years ago when he was still the crown prince.

At that time, France sent a large number of missionaries to China, and Li Gan, as the crown prince, also received a gift.

A telescope with a simple distance-finding function and a binary hand-cranked mechanical calculator invented by Leibniz were both presented by the leader of the French missionaries, Bai Jin.

Bai Jin was given a Chinese name, Mingyuan, and Jiusuan Jushi, who was proficient in the Book of Changes. The telescope with a simple height-finding function was also of great origin.

It was given by Louis XIV to his illegitimate son, the Duke of Maine, who had polio. It may be because the Duke of Maine was less likely to usurp the throne because of polio, so he was designated as the guardian and educator of King Louis XV of France.

This telescope was a reward from Duke Maine's father after he made contributions in the Palatine War of Succession. Bai Mingyuan once returned to France to introduce China, and Duke Maine gave the telescope to Bai Mingyuan.

After Bai Mingyuan came back, he presented it to Li Gan as a gift.

Just with this telescope with a simple distance-finding function, Li Gan could guess what kind of country with superb skills was behind these missionaries. It is said that a glimpse of the whole leopard can be seen.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Westerners could travel thousands of miles to Fujian, while Fujian merchants could not go to the West. The gap between them was obvious at a glance and there was no need to hide it.

So this etiquette dispute that has been entangled for decades, even though the Holy See has sent a plenipotentiary envoy to China to denounce missionaries in China as heretics, Li Gan still hopes to make a final effort to make the Pope give up those doctrines that China cannot accept.

However, after today's conversation, nothing was argued out. The group of missionaries was as stubborn as the great scholars in the court and did not give in on some things.

Li Gan became more and more irritated, and suddenly remembered something he had read in the book "A Brief Study of Western Countries" a few days ago.

Suddenly he stopped and asked Dai Jinxian, Bai Jin and others: "In the past, Iskandar destroyed Persia and Sindhu and was called the King of Kings. Later, this title was passed on to Sassanid Persia. The last prince of Sassanid Persia, Peroz, fled to the Tang Dynasty and served as the governor of the Persian Governor's Office and the general of the Right Guard. He presented the title of King of Kings to Emperor Gaozong of Tang."

"Now that I am the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, can I call myself Basileus ton Basileon?"

As soon as these words came out, several missionaries exclaimed in unison: "No! Basileus ton Basileon is the holy name of our Lord..."

As soon as the words came out, Dai Jinxian knew that something was wrong and his face changed drastically.

Li Gan seemed to have guessed the reaction of the missionaries long ago, thinking that the third son of the Yiguo family was right.

He was not angry, but just snorted and laughed.

Iskandar is the Central Asian translation of Alexander. Long before the missionaries came to China, there were many legends about Iskandar's achievements on the grasslands. Li Gan knew this, but he didn't know that Emperor Gaozong of Tang had such an allusion.

Seeing that these missionaries seemed to have been stepped on, Li Gan said coldly: "You keep saying that you want to be tolerant, you want to be tolerant, but when have you ever been tolerant?"

"The former Ming Dynasty built a church for Matteo Ricci at Xuanwu Gate. After the establishment of the Dashun Dynasty, the church in front of Xuanwu Gate was not demolished, but you were allowed to expand it."

"But I wonder if you can build a Zhougong Temple, Taoist Temple, and Nunnery opposite St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican?"

"When the Ming Dynasty fell, you fought bloody battles for thirty years for who was a heretic, but now you only ask me to be tolerant. Then I send monks and Taoists to the Vatican to preach, and the Holy See may agree?"

"Only my Celestial Empire is tolerant of you, but you are unwilling to tolerate others, what kind of reason is this?"

When it came to the point of being angry, Dai Jinxian and others were silent.

They all thought that the Chinese emperor was talking nonsense. It was definitely not possible to build a nunnery and Zhougong Temple in Rome, not to mention building it opposite St. Paul's Cathedral.

The problem is that what the Emperor of Dashun said was not wrong. The Xuanwumen Church was just opposite the residence of the former Ming Yansheng Duke in Beijing, which was no less than building a Zhougong Temple opposite St. Paul's Cathedral.

Dai Jinxian and others knew the emperor's attitude very well, but they felt that you were all lost lambs. We can build a church here to lead you into heaven, and you go to Rome to build a temple, which would be a desecration of the holy land.

But they thought so in their hearts, but they couldn't say it out loud, so they could only bow their heads and keep silent. It was a great honor to be granted to go to Coal Hill and Taiye Lake to watch the scenery, but now it has become a fire on fire.

Li Gan was in a bad mood and was about to go down the mountain. He suddenly looked up and saw a black thing floating in the northwest corner, floating in the air.

It was just outside the Forbidden City, and it looked about three to five hundred steps away. It was extremely huge and floating in the air.

"What is this?"