I

  Chapter 764 761 [Colonies do dowry? 】

   "Watch out for shit!"

  Although Pan Wei can't communicate in French, these two words have long been firmly memorized.

  In 1270 AD, the French government issued a decree: "No one is allowed to pour sewage and feces down from the windows of the building, otherwise a fine will be imposed."

  More than a hundred years later, the French government once again promulgated a decree: "If you shout 'watch out for shit' three times, you can dump urine and feces from the windows of the building."

  Hundreds of years have passed, this decree has become a habit and has been integrated into the lives of French urbanites.

  Pan Wei jumped up and down to distance himself, then looked up upstairs, and the woman upstairs also looked at him. The woman felt that the Chinese were rare, so she smiled and winked at Pan Wei, and then a bucket of excrement and urine poured down the window.

  Pan Wei hurriedly covered his nose and walked away, muttering: "Fanbang barbarians don't know a little bit of etiquette."

  Of course, there are excrement workers in Paris, but the number is seriously insufficient, and the priority is to dig out the excrement pits of nobles and rich merchants.

  The 17th century had progressed, and stone pipes would be built on the outer wall of the castle, which would be discharged directly into the large cesspit on the ground, and then the excrement workers would transport the excrement and urine outside the city.

  Like the Louvre where the king lives, it will be even more powerful, and an underground tunnel will be dug to lead to the Seine River. It's just that the underground passage is often blocked, and it may last for ten and a half months. During this period, it can be called the end of the disaster. Because there are too many people in the Louvre, they can pull several large carts in a day, and if they can't get out, they just dump them, and even pour their feces and urine in the Louvre.

In 1670 A.D., a scholar summoned by the king recorded: "Thousands of excrement can be seen near the Louvre, even inside and outside the palace, behind the four aisles and door openings, and almost everywhere. People smell the foul smell, which is caused by the natural needs of those who live in the Louvre, and the officials who come to work in the Louvre every day..."

  The entire Palace of Versailles has 29 toilets.

   It was definitely enough at the beginning, but it was not enough in the time of Louis XIV.

  The Sun King has completely centralized power, and a large number of officials enter the palace every day to handle affairs. He also liked extravagant enjoyment, and kept increasing the number of servants in the Louvre. At the peak, there were tens of thousands of people living in the palace.

   Tens of thousands of people use 29 toilets, and there are basically only one or two squatting seats, and some are even used by the king. How is this different from no toilets?

  If the officials are in a hurry, they will find a doorway in the palace, take off their pants and open them directly.

  In some places, the king is not allowed to defecate anywhere, so people will draw a sign of the cross, and whoever dares to defecate will be disrespectful to Jesus.

   But the Louvre was still too smelly, and Louis XIV couldn't stand it, so there was the Palace of Versailles in the suburbs.

  At this time, Louis XIV was not yet in power. Although the Queen Mother increased the number of servants, there were only a few thousand people in the palace. how to say? Although it is very common to urinate and defecate anywhere, at least it will not be a pile of **** in three steps. It is barely acceptable for Chinese envoys to live in it.

   But no one dares to wander around, especially in remote places, if you don't pay attention, you will step on "landmines".

  Pan Wei returned to the Louvre, wrote all the information he found into the work report, and shared the secrets of **** with his brothers by the way. For example, the youngest son of Marquis XX was the cub of a young servant.

  A young man from a minor noble family was sent to the family of a great nobleman when he was 14 or 15 years old.

  Their life enlightenment teacher is likely to be their mistress. It is normal for the mistress with a dissolute personality to live like this all her life and sleep with dozens or hundreds of young men.

   Cai Yuncheng listened to these stories, and at the same time felt hot all over, and at the same time despised the European nobles, he wrote:

"European countries don't know how to retting excrement, even in the palace, excrement and urine are also flowing. The excrement workers are scarce, and they are extremely low, and they are diligent in cleaning every day, but they still can't finish it. And the European ladies are all dissolute by nature, and the people who live in secret are not ordinary. A few. Maybe there are chaste and martyrs who are different and don’t fit in well...European countries are all barbarians. Civilization is undeveloped and uncivilized, so it’s not worth mentioning.”

"Today, it is heard that selling officials in France is the essence of the reform. The French system is like the Warring States Period. The princes entrusted various places and often refused to obey the king's orders. However, the king sells officials, just like the reforms of other countries. Officials, scholars, and merchants were appointed to Yin seized the power of the princes. This kind of behavior has never been seen in the history of the country, and it is difficult to predict the consequences..."

"There are also small countries in Europe, which were usurped by the merchants. Those as big as the Netherlands, the original duke was in power, but now he was deposed because he was young. There are seven provinces in the Netherlands, a total of 28 mayors, most of whom are shareholders of the East India Company. Shareholders control places , and then elect a parliament, and the parliament will govern the country through consultation.”

  "The Great War between England and the Netherlands ahead. The defeat of the Netherlands is due to the discord among the people. The merchants in the seven provinces have different interests and hinder each other. There are also the duke's cronies, who lead the army but do not listen to orders, and sit back and watch the navy commander be defeated and die..."

"I have found out the details. In the land of Italy, there were many kingdoms of merchants. It was originally a principality or a marquis. Merchants incited the people, expelled the princes and self-government. The system of parliamentary governance, I privately translate it as a 'republic' '. The land and the people can be sold, and merchants seek personal gain and abandon public interest."

"My Confucian sages often have the distinction between righteousness and benefit, and there are differences between big righteousness, small righteousness, big profit, and small profit. No big gain."

"The trend of merchants must not be let go. The European republics are a lesson from the past. Merchants pursue profits, and their desires are hard to fill. There is no end to it. Today they seek profits, tomorrow they seek the country, and they regard the country and the people as nothing. The French king Louis XIII, the old French Prime Minister Li Serliu, reformed and strived to become stronger, this country is already the hero of Europe. However, it is too late, merchants have flourished, and the power of the king is increasing. The king continues to take power, the government and business are self-contained, and the day of battle is not far away..."

  Although Cai Yuncheng came from a poor background, when he was a graduate student, he followed a tutor of the History Institute.

  In addition to helping the tutor every day, I concentrate on reading history books and comparing history books with reality. This guy is extremely sensitive to the social system, and now he has traveled to various countries and seen various systems. His vision and thinking have been completely opened, and he even vaguely expected the French bourgeois revolution.

  The rise of the bourgeoisie to power, from a macro point of view, does begin with historical progress.

   But for people living in capitalist countries, it is like hell. "Das Kapital" was born in Europe, and it didn't come out of thin air. The common people really couldn't live anymore. Just like the rise of Britain, primitive accumulation is not only external plunder, but also internal exploitation.

  During the Opium War, British child laborers lived an average of only two or three years after entering factories. Even if they can live for four or five years, people are basically useless.

  While a large number of child laborers are dying tragically, many young men and women are unemployed. Because the wages of adult male workers are several times that of female workers. Adult female workers are paid twice as much as child workers. Why use adult workers in jobs where child labor can be used?

  The people at the bottom work hard to have babies, and when they are seven or eight years old, they can be sent to work. I have to raise a few more children, because after a few years of working part-time, it will be scrapped.

  He didn’t work until he was seven or eight years old. His parents were already very kind. The youngest child laborer was only four years old—the child was young enough to clean the chimney of the factory, but the older children couldn’t get in.

  Cai Yuncheng is familiar with Confucian classics, combined with the real situation in Europe, he has already deeply understood what it means to be a "merchant for profit".

  However, Cai Yuncheng took it for granted, he forgot the difference between a big country and a small country.

  The republics in Europe at this time are all small countries. In a slightly larger country, such as the United Kingdom, the republic cannot be played, and one Cromwell can dissolve the parliament.

  If it weren't for the Industrial Revolution, which allowed the bourgeoisie to soar, the French Revolution would have been impossible to succeed. Because merchants are short-sighted and lack real leaders, it is almost impossible to hold together. In a small place, they may be able to usurp the throne, but messing around in a big country is purely an act of death! Even if the king was overthrown, the aristocratic warlords who took the opportunity to gain power could still kill these merchants until blood flowed into rivers.

   Cai Yuncheng's prediction of the French bourgeois revolution is purely wrong. He ignored the difference between big and small countries, and at the same time he didn't know about the Industrial Revolution. The two wrong conditions happened to lead to the correct conclusion.

  In the meeting room of the Louvre.

  Officials from China, France and Portugal sat together to discuss business.

  The Portuguese envoy has been here for almost a month, arriving in Paris earlier than the Chinese envoy. As for the purpose of the mission, of course it is to inform the treaty between China and Portugal. Since China recognizes Portugal's independence, should France also recognize it?

After many days of consultations, Prime Minister Mazarin said: "According to the will of the Queen Mother and Your Majesty, France can recognize the independence of Portugal and the legal system of Joao IV. However, Portugal's ports in Africa and India must report to French merchant ships. Fully open. In addition, the port of Nagapatam on the southeast coast of India, Portugal must exempt French merchant ships from entering the port."

   "Of course." The Portuguese envoy smiled.

   News has just been sent back from the east that the Dutch East India Company is attacking Nagapatam Port. The south and north of this port are all Dutch colonial ports, as long as they are here, they can be connected together.

  The Dutch army was already trash, and because of repeated battles, it surrounded the port for several months without being able to defeat it. The Portuguese defenders, less than a hundred men, successfully repelled the Dutch army. Now that France requires this port to be exempted from taxes, Portugal has agreed with it, and maybe it can get help from France.

  Similarly, France is also pushing the boat along.

  Because of Portugal’s North African colony, everything that can be lost has been lost, and France can no longer get involved, so there is no need to treat Portugal as an enemy country.

   In front of the Chinese envoy, France and Portugal are about to sign a treaty.

  The Portuguese envoy went ahead and said: "Your Majesty, there is no engagement yet. Our Majesty has two princesses, and they also have no engagement. How about..."

   "Don't talk about this again!" Mazarin interrupted immediately.

  French-Portuguese treaty was reached, and China and France signed it soon. Nothing special, the two countries just open their ports to each other.

  China's farthest port is in Malacca, and France's farthest ports are in West Africa and Canada. What's the point of opening ports to each other? Even if it is not signed, Malacca is still open to the outside world, as long as the Hong Kong tax is paid honestly.

   In addition, the French royal family was also generous. After the Chinese envoy proposed to buy the horse breed, it directly said that there was no need to pay.

  The Queen Mother has sent officials to carefully select twenty Persh horses. Ten males and ten females were all good horses, and they were presented to the Chinese emperor for free.

  This special war horse for heavy cavalry can still be used for transportation and agriculture even if heavy cavalry withdraws from the stage of history, because it is originally a heavy draft horse.

  After signing the contract with France, the Portuguese envoys quietly found Lu Tianxiang and Zhang Ruifeng.

"Honorable Chinese envoy, His Majesty has another proposal," said the Portuguese envoy, "as long as the two royal families marry, China can choose one of the Portuguese colonial ports in India except Nagapatam Port as a dowry. "

   Port for dowry?

   Neither Lu Tianxiang nor Zhang Ruifeng dared to refuse, and immediately said: "After we return to China, we will report to His Majesty."

  Mumbai, India, is the Portuguese princess, married to the British king's dowry!

  The Portuguese princess could not get married, and the restoration of the British king was also in an embarrassing situation. In addition, the British wanted to expand in India, and the two parties hit it off and married successfully. Mumbai, India, became a British colony in a daze.

  João IV is crazy about royal marriage, and he will give it to the colony.

   It is estimated that Zhao Han will agree, it's just a marriage, and he didn't say that he must be a queen, just marry a Portuguese princess as a concubine for the prince.

   As a show of sincerity, the Portuguese envoy also brought a list of colonies. China can choose any Indian port at will, except for the one closest to Malacca.

  (end of this chapter)