The original version of the book "The King of Kings—The Biography of the Great Emperor of China" was written in French.
Like "Golden Plum", it was banned from publication by Louis XIV, so I had no choice but to take it out and read it myself. Because this book is so realistic, the contents of "The Collection of Datong" are analyzed and explained in detail.
However, scholars funded by the Medici family, like the Russian envoys, translated the book into Italian and brought it back.
It is now popular in Italy, but was soon banned by more than a dozen states. Only the Republic of Venice dares to continue printing and publishing, and even the Pope cannot stop this - Venice is resisting the Ottoman invasion and the Cretan War.
It has been going on for more than ten years, and every country is looking forward to Venice winning.
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 ordinary scholar families. The Ming Empire divided the people 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 officials to govern, 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's family, faced with tyranny and natural disasters, became homeless due to hunger. Yes, 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 needs 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 moral character.
Rather than family, title and official position..."
The author is obviously not good at writing popular books. He opens the chapter with a long paragraph describing the social situation in the late Ming Dynasty. He even gives various notes to explain what a Confucian household is. The explanation of personality theory lasts several pages.
It's 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.
Alexei I spent more than half a month reading this biography before he roughly finished it. Then he started reading again and combined the annotations for a 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. Your Majesty's story is far from over..."
"But we can already conclude that His Majesty, the great Emperor, is a unique existence that has never existed before. Putting aside his prominent identity, His Majesty is first and foremost a philosopher. He is like an omniscient and omnipotent man who 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.
After Nashokin read it carefully, he 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,
It may lead to serf rebellion and eventually 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. 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 this year’s taxes 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 service members (officials, soldiers, craftsmen, etc.). Through the meeting of the gentry, he united the service members, monks, and minor nobles.
, businessmen, confronting those big nobles.
Up to now, the Jin Gentry Conference has become more and more powerful, and has even become a national representative conference.
However, in addition to the meeting of the gentry, there is also a Duma meeting. The Duma meeting is the highest authority in Russia and a tool for the great nobles to oppose centralization of power. It is similar to the British House of Lords and the House of Commons. The Duma meeting is the upper house.
The House of Commons, the Council of Gentlemen is the lower house.
It is also different from the British in terms of their duties. The nobles of the Duma meeting can participate in the meeting of the gentry. This is equivalent to when the House of Commons is in session, and the first three rows are all 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 was that the tsar had no money, agricultural production decreased during the Little Ice Age, and the treasury was empty and he could only acquiesce to the counterattack of the big 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!
Alexei sighed with emotion: "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 most successful 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, but 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 property of the civilians. There are also a large number of serfs who originally escaped to reclaim wasteland, but were
The nobles caught him and took the 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 have bad consequences. Inflation has increased dozens of times. Not only citizens in Moscow are rioting, but other cities are also rioting. After the suppression, the issuance of copper coins has been canceled. There is no choice but to target the peasant class again and continue to raise taxes.
, eventually brewing the Racine peasant uprising that lasted for several years.
At night, Alexey fell asleep holding "The King of Kings—The Biography of the Great Khitan Emperor". He thought that the great Russian nobles would disappear, all the serfs would become peasants, every peasant would have land, and every peasant would be able to pay
taxes, and all power is concentrated in him.
The tsar asked craftsmen to build a beautiful box and keep the book in a safe place. Whenever something bothered him, he would take it out and read a few pages. It seemed that he could become a great Khitan emperor. His tragedy was that he worked hard to govern and just lay down, but he didn't have so many worries.
.
This man is a bit like Chongzhen. He has been raising taxes all his life and suppressing uprisings all his life. The more taxes are raised, the more frequent uprisings will be, and then he will continue to tax.
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 just like the Ming Dynasty!
This book has become Alexei’s exclusive reading.
As far away as Italy, this book has gone crazy. More than ten countries have joined forces to ban it, but it has become more and more famous. Even nobles have secretly read it, just wanting to know why this thing was banned.