Chapter 724
Brandon looked at the Qingzhou City wall.
This time, he came all the way from Holland and risked his life to reach Qingzhou. All these sufferings ended at this moment.
"Count Brandon, welcome to Qingzhou." At the gate of the city stood a young man dressed as a scholar, who said hello to Brandon in fluent Dutch.
Rod was a little surprised. He said with a wry smile, "it seems I can shut up this time."
The young man's name is Qiao Chuan. He used to be a student of Bowen college. He learned western languages and was also prepared by Xiao Ming to receive foreign missions.
"It's a pleasure." Brandon gave a smile. Then he looked at the concrete road at his feet and asked, "is this made of volcanic ash? "
when he went into Qingzhou, he was interested in this kind of smooth road, but it didn't look like the volcanic plaster being used in Europe to him.
Qiao Chuan was stunned for a moment. He said, "count, this thing is made of cement from Qingzhou. "
" cement? "Brandon kept it in his mind, and now he's starting to believe what Blake said.
Half a year ago, Blake's private contract with the state of Dayu was sent to the national parliament of the Netherlands, which made the parliament very angry.
When the Europeans set foot on the American continent for the first time and went to Asia to colonize, none of the aborigines could make the European countries give in. The members of Parliament called Blake a disgrace and asked him to return to the Netherlands for questioning.
At the same time, out of caution, the Dutch national assembly sent a delegation to Dayu to try to understand the truth.
After explaining, Qiao Chuan said with a smile, "the emperor is waiting for the messenger in the political hall. Please follow me. "
Brandon nodded. In fact, he wanted to know more about this strange country. Obviously, this was the first accident in European colonial history.
As far as he knows, Europe has never failed to deal with people of color for hundreds of years, which has also led to the rise of Eurocentrism, the doctrine of white supremacy.
There are even more radical opinions that the indigenous people outside Europe should be enslaved to Europe.
Before he came here, he had the same idea, but now he wavered, because he found a bit of technology here.
After all, the whole of Europe is now crazy about all kinds of new inventions, and people from the common people to the aristocracy attach great importance to scientific and technological inventions.
As Qiao Chuan walked towards the city, Brandon would not miss any chance to observe the city. When a group of soldiers passed by, his eyes were on the flint gun in the soldier's hand.
And when he saw a horse pulling a field gun past, he was even more shocked. Now he finally understood why black chose to compromise.
Along the way, Brandon quickly arrived at the hall of discussion. At this time, Brandon and four people came into the hall of discussion.
At this time, Xiao Ming and a group of ministers were waiting for Brandon in the political hall, which was a rule of the great Chongqing state to receive the mission.
The presence of Ministers is a respect for their mission.
Entering the hall, Brandon first looked at the young man sitting on the Dragon chair. He was a little surprised. As Blake said, the emperor of Chongqing was just a young man in his early twenties.
However, he also knew that these Eastern countries still had backward national systems, so he took off his hat with his right hand, bowed, put his hat on his chest, and made a noble ceremony to Xiao Ming.
He said, "Brandon, the Dutch mission, has met the emperor of Dayu."
Xiao Ming could understand Brandon's words, but the ministers didn't. Qiao Chuan then translated a sentence.
There is no kneeling etiquette in the state of Dayu, so no minister will ask why the mission does not kneel. At the same time, the custom of not kneeling makes the people and officials of Dayu have no serious servility.
Because of this, sometimes the people and officials are not very resistant to his ideas.
"Excuse me, the Dutch mission has come all the way. What's the matter?" After a simple greeting, Xiao Ming got to the point.
In fact, there is no need to be polite to meet the mission. After all, since we are here, we must have something to ask for.
Before Brandon set out, the parliament prepared two plans for him. One is to overturn all the contracts signed by Blake and ask the army of Chongqing to withdraw from the city of reranzhe.
Of course, this is based on the fact that the name of Dayu is not true. The second set is to strengthen the relationship with Dayu, to use Dayu's power to confront Britain at sea in Asia, to expand trade in Dayu, and to set up a permanent negotiation mission.
Now the tip of the iceberg in Qingzhou has made him nervous, so he did not dare to mention the first set. So he said: "Dear emperor of the state of Chongqing, the purpose of sending a mission to Qingzhou is to strengthen the commercial and trade exchanges between the two countries, and he hopes to set up a permanent negotiation mission in Qingzhou. "
" permanent negotiating mission? " Xiao Ming has an interesting look. This permanent negotiation mission is nothing but the predecessor of the embassy. The members of the negotiation mission are envoys.
"Yes, your majesty, the purpose of the permanent mission is to settle trade disputes. "Said Brandon.Xiao Ming nodded, because the Netherlands is too far away from Dayu. Sometimes trade matters are really troublesome. If there are Dutch envoys, they can save a lot of trouble.
So he said, "it's a good thing, so I'll allow it. "
Brandon was very happy, and then he said:" the mission also brought a lot of tribute to your majesty, please accept it. "
Xiao Ming looked interested and said," here you are. "
At this time, Qian Dafu went out and soon returned with the eunuch. A big box was carried up.
Brandon then opened the box, took out a round thing from it and said to Xiao Ming, "Dear emperor of the state of Chongqing, this thing is called pocket watch, which can record time. Please accept it. "
then Brandon took out a music box, turned the button, and the music box made sweet music. Brandon said," this is called a music box. "
after putting down the music box, Brandon took out the exquisite glass crafts and said," Your Majesty, this is the most expensive thing in this tribute because of its high price. "
With that, Brandon looks at Xiao Ming carefully, trying to find a different expression on Xiao Ming's face, only to let him down.
When the pocket watch and music box appeared, the emperor was still interested, but when it came to the glass, he looked indifferent.
Brandon thought that his expression was wrong and stressed: "it's a treasure. It's priceless. "
at this time, Xiao Ming finally laughed. Brandon cheated the wrong person this time.
www.novelhold.com , the fastest update of the webnovel!