New Shun 1730

The thought that "the Yellow River bursting will promote the sea transportation of grain" flashed through his mind, but this terrible and dark thought could not be shaken off.

People always have some thoughts that will feel terrible, embarrassing or even shameless afterwards, and most of the time, just don't do it.

But at this time, Liu Yu was a little panicked, feeling that he was really a little sick and twisted.

People's hearts are separated from their stomachs. The emperor saw that Liu Yu's face was a little strange, but he didn't know what Liu Yu was thinking.

He thought that Liu Yu was loyal to the country and was considering completely abandoning the grain transport and reforming the sea transport. He also praised this loyal minister in his heart.

"My dear minister, please stop thinking about the sea transport. This is not a one-time achievement. If you rush, you will be like Emperor Wu of Han at best, and Emperor Yang of Sui at worst. I know I am impatient, but I always remind myself not to rush this matter."

"Let's not talk about this. There is one more thing. Regarding the visit of the French delegation, I decided that the Duke of England will be the chief envoy and you will be the deputy envoy to receive the delegation and be responsible for the negotiations. The monsoon is about to start. According to the report from Guangdong, it is about June or July every year, when Western ships will come together, right?"

Speaking of the French delegation, Liu Yu couldn't help laughing.

Letting the Duke of England be the chief envoy and himself, who was almost named Krupp, as the deputy envoy, is this a tripartite meeting between Britain, France and Germany?

The emperor's words also revealed a very important detail.

The emperor said "visit" instead of "tribute", which is equivalent to defining the matter.

After the emperor defined it, he dared to use the word "visit" boldly.

"Your Majesty, I have no problem being the deputy envoy for the visit of France. But there are two things that I need to know your Majesty's bottom line."

"First, the difference between tribute and diplomacy, can the court set rules?"

"Second, what does our court want in the negotiation with France?"

This time is different from the negotiation with Russia. The issue with Russia is border and trade.

There is no border issue with France, and the trade issue is useless.

The Fontainebleau Amnesty and the Standardization Act that are too advanced by the times made French handicrafts look like dregs, which is even more difficult in Dashun, where Western goods are already difficult to sell.

Liu Yu wants to know, what to talk about?

Although he was the leader of this matter, he also knew what direction to talk about, but Dashun was not his after all, and he could not make his own decisions. He had to listen to the emperor's bottom line.

The Duke of England was high enough. As a member of the Tianyou Palace, he was on the same level as Count Morpa to some extent.

But the Duke of England's health was getting worse day by day, and it was impossible for him to be responsible for everything. He, the deputy envoy, was the real envoy.

Li Gan was relieved to see that these two questions were asked cleverly, and that Liu Yu had no intention of making his own decisions.

"This tribute is still a matter of diplomacy. If it is tribute, it is the responsibility of the Li Government. I have thought that tribute and diplomacy will run in parallel in the future."

"The Li Government and others will still be in charge of tribute matters. And I will set up an extraordinary Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will be directly managed by me and Tianyou Palace."

"The emperor has his own government, and the emperor has his own government."

"The emperor has the Li Government to manage tribute. The emperor has the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to manage diplomacy. They run in parallel and do not interfere with each other."

"The expenses and rewards of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are all from the internal treasury, not the government."

This compromise surprised Liu Yu a little. He thought that there were indeed many capable people in the court, and such loopholes could be found. They were talented people.

Thinking about it, it seems to make sense. At least now, the sovereignty of the emperor, the king and the country has not been clearly divided.

The responsibility of the emperor is China's internal affairs and the tribute vassal system, and to maintain the existence and legitimacy of the Celestial Empire within a certain range.

The responsibility of the emperor is the foreign policy of Dashun, using the emperor as a symbol of sovereignty. Otherwise, it does not make sense. The whole world belongs to the king, and the emperor is the highest level, so there is no possibility of any diplomacy.

The emperor is the Confucian emperor, and his every move should theoretically conform to Confucian moral norms.

The emperor is not necessarily a Confucian emperor, and he does not have to conform to Confucian moral norms in some matters.

It looks like taking off pants to fart, but the pants are taken off meaningfully.

Then, the following words made Liu Yu feel that the emperor might not only care about this meaning.

"If the General Staff, Privy Council, Liangjiazi, and possibly the Navy Department, the tariffs on goods from foreign countries in the future should also be returned to the treasury. The emperor does not rule the four barbarians, but the emperor has to communicate with them."

"The emperor's responsibility is not to be arbitrary. The emperor's duty is to follow the first emperor and make arbitrary orders."

Li Gan thought to himself that I was really fed up with the nonsense of the court and the remonstrances, but if I don't set up these positions for the sake of opposition, if I don't get scolded, I will definitely leave a bad reputation in the future.

"Doesn't the Western missionary's "Matthew" say that what belongs to God belongs to God and what belongs to Caesar belongs to Caesar? In the future, it's better for the emperor's affairs to belong to the emperor and the emperor's affairs to belong to the emperor."

Liu Yu thought to himself that you are tough, but in fact, the money for the navy is not paid by the household government?

This is not much different from Zheng He's voyage to the West, where he spent the silver of the household department and the profits belonged to the treasury.

Isn't this a preparation for the future reparations after the war with Japan to be funded by the internal treasury, the monopoly trade tax to be funded by the internal treasury, and even the spice trade after the war with the Netherlands to be funded by the internal treasury?

Is this to treat the people in the General Staff, the Navy Department, and even the Customs Department as eunuchs with penises?

He felt a little awkward, but the emperor was happy to hear it, and said: "According to what you said, the diplomatic envoys of the Western countries have to pay for their own food, clothing, housing and transportation. Since my Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not under the jurisdiction of the emperor, but the emperor, and these people are not here to pay tribute but to make diplomacy, then they should pay for their own food and clothing."

"The Celestial Empire is vast and rich in resources. As long as you have silver, you can buy everything. I think the Celestial Empire is rich, and France often trades in Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Fujian. They also know that when France comes to visit, they must show us the warships and soldiers after the military reform."

"As for what to talk about with France... Since you started this matter, you want the blueprints of the French warships, as well as to deter the Russians and intimidate Britain to be neutral. , these naturally need to be discussed. "

"But this is just a sign, not the essence."

"Since you said that now is a time of great contention, I thought of the Jiantu Alliance and Kuiqiu Alliance in the Spring and Autumn Period. In addition to the small nine states, there are also the big nine states. If there is no China, how can the princes of the big nine states form an alliance?"

"Therefore, in addition to the ships, diplomacy, trade and other matters you want to discuss, we must also formulate alliance regulations with France. If all countries can participate in it in the future, it will be great. "

"Europe is far away, and I can't control it at this time, so it's useless to say anything. But the alliances such as merchant ships anchoring and rescue in other countries when encountering wind and waves can be regulated. Since China and France have joined this alliance, other countries will also join in the future, which is also the prestige of the country. "

Liu Yu reacted for a long time and understood what the emperor meant. Is this to formulate international law and become the initiator of international law?

Now formulate some seemingly useless international laws, first use the concept of participating in international affairs, and then slowly expand it in the future?

It seems that the emperor or the ministers who are interested in reform also have brains. After reading his booklet about Western countries and seeing Britain's annual income and naval tonnage, he realized that it was impossible to make people pay tribute. The reason why countries like the Netherlands came to pay tribute before was not because of their national strength, but because the East India Company wanted to make money... The East India Company is just a company, how can it be qualified to pay tribute? Just laugh, if you believe it, it would be really covering your ears and stealing the bell.

I roughly know the national strength of Western countries, and I also know that with Dashun's current military capabilities, let alone Europe tens of thousands of miles away, even in Southeast Asia, in terms of influence, it may not be as good as the Netherlands, and even in Siam and other places, it may not be as good as France.

After facing myself and understanding what level I am at, I came up with this kind of trick: I want to be decent and make this decent acceptable to others, so I can only do such a small thing as a merchant ship rescue treaty.

This is good.

…………

On June 8, 1736, two French ships entered Songjiang Port in a very dignified manner.

The Chinese on the dock did not even take a second look. There was a customs office here, and they had seen many such Western ships. They even knew that it was a French ship after just one look at the flag.

The French ship did not have any good goods, and basically they could only bring silver to buy goods. The workers who loaded and unloaded the goods had already known it.

On the shore, Tian Ping and others were already getting a little impatient waiting.

This year's Chinese New Year is relatively late, in mid-February of the Western calendar. Now it is not even the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Emperor's birthday has just passed. Songjiang has received two big news.

The French envoys will stop in Songjiang. The Jiangsu Jiedushi asked the Songjiang prefect and the emperor asked the customs officers to receive them properly. Send someone to arrange a pilot as soon as possible to go to Weihai.

Another major event is that the grain from Songjiang and Suzhou will be transported by sea. In order to facilitate management and compensation and share costs, a joint-stock company will be established.

No one took the first piece of news seriously, as the French didn't have much goods and didn't buy much.

The second piece of news immediately set off a sensation around Songjiang, just like a tsunami, raging along the coastline. From Jiangsu to Guangdong, many people scrambled to come to Songjiang to participate in the stock market.

The 10% duty-free quota for bringing goods is simply giving money away. Who wouldn't want to participate in such a good thing?

If it weren't for the requirement not to invest too much, and if some joint-stock workshops had just been established a while ago, and if it weren't for the fact that they were going to establish an insurance company and absorb a lot of funds, I'm afraid that even without the news reaching Guangdong, the local big businessmen would have taken all the shares.

Tian Ping was busy with these matters of participating in the stock market and preparing for the insurance company. Who would have thought that when the French came, he would have to be responsible for the reception together with the prefect of Songjiang.

If it was just a reception, it would be fine. There was an order from above: Reception is reception, and it should be enthusiastic, but some unreasonable requests must be eliminated.

If you visit workshops such as porcelain firing, silk reeling, silk weaving, and jacquard along the way, you must refuse.

If they disobey the order, they will be severely punished.

This kind of work, which not only requires them to take responsibility but also invite them to dinner during the replenishment period, made the officials present who knew this order very annoyed.

Watching the French ship dock, Tian Ping and the customs chief tax inspector muttered: "Hurry up and arrange a few people who have been to Weihai, invite them to dinner, and send them away tomorrow."

The chief tax inspector had the same idea.

"That's right, there are many people who have been to Weihai. Ying Suo Bo didn't say to send someone to pick them up, so we can only receive them first. Just do as you said, have a meal, and send them away tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. In my opinion, we should send a ship to welcome them directly, and don't stop in Songjiang, just go straight."