Xinshun 1730

Chapter 118 Soft Power Intimidation

After this little episode, everything went back to normal.

The Boyer Army secretly arrested Chen Zhen, and the emperor also accepted Qi Guogong's suggestion: put a higher attitude, the Raksha people are determined to win the negotiation, and they can exert more pressure.

As an honorary guard, Liu Yu, whenever the emperor came forward, he must be watching while others were eating, and standing while others were sitting.

Although the emperor can also speak Latin, as the king of a country, he cannot speak foreign languages ​​in front of the mission on formal occasions.You can say a few words during the banquet.

In addition, although he knows a little bit, some proper nouns are difficult to understand, and some allusions also require Liu Yu to make analogies with examples from the first four histories.

The storytelling level of missionaries is far behind that of Liu Yu.

Although Liu Yu's cultural level is just that, but at least he has read the first four histories. Basically, he can find the corresponding allusions from the western court, and many of them don't even need to go beyond the scope of historical records. The emperor understood it very comfortably.

In just [-] days, Li Gan's satisfaction with Liu Yu, the honored guard, skyrocketed, to the point that "he must be present when receiving foreign missions in the future".

The existence of Liu Yu gave the emperor a lot of bargaining chips with those Catholic missionaries.

In the past, Catholic missionaries could use foreign negotiations, mathematics knowledge, etc. as temptations or threats, but now this situation does not exist at all.

Although the Catholic missionaries were worried, the Earl of Savoy of the Rakshasa Mission was also worried.

During the several interviews, the emperor asked very sharp questions. Obviously, he was very clear and understood the political situation in the West. He also knew a lot about the crisis in Luocha, and he was often able to talk about some key points.

The main issues in the negotiations between the two countries were still trade, the Ministry of Junggar, the Kalmyks of the Turghut Ministry, missions and consulates, and going to Moscow to participate in the enthronement ceremony of Peter II.

These issues need to be finalized one by one. Fortunately, Dashun's arrangements are reasonable and relaxed.

Every time a key issue is discussed, some banquets and programs will be arranged to relax.

At the beginning of May, an exchange was finally made between the Turghut Ministry and the Junggar Ministry, not interfering in the "internal affairs" of each other, allowing the Turghut Ministry to go to the snow-capped mountains but not agreeing in principle to the Turghut Ministry to go to the capital to directly send a mission, Rakshasa also made some concessions on the border issue of the Junggar Ministry.

If Dashun has the ability, he can drink the water of Balkhash Lake and Yibohai Lake.Russia promised not to move southward in the existing fortress area within 30 years, and the entire border was bounded by Russia's fortress area in the northwest [-] versts.It also provides a map of the fortress area built by Russia in the Northwest Territory to defend against Junggar.

However, if Dashun still fails to resolve the Junggar issue after 30 years, Russia will move south along the existing fortress area out of its own "defense needs".

This is a condition acceptable to both parties.

Thirty years is just a treaty. If Dashun has not been able to solve the northwest rebellion in 30 years, then it proves that Dashun’s ability to project troops in the northwest region is not worth mentioning. Russia can do whatever it wants; if it can be resolved, then Russia It can be judged that Dashun's projection ability in the northwest will not waste too many troops in the northwest to provoke a powerful enemy.

After the treaty was signed, the most important issue was finally resolved.Dashun held another banquet, counting it as an intermission for the negotiations.

During the banquet, the emperor made a very interesting proposal.

"I heard that there are many talented people in the embassy of your country. I also study mathematics and physics more. I have come up with a few questions to test and test you. How about it?"

After Liu Yu translated this sentence, Count Savoy was of course very happy. He thought it was just a small joke, so he readily agreed.

In this huge mission, there are many scholars, and there are also many students of the Academy of Sciences.

Some people are semi-professional "spies", such as surveying and mapping roads, mountains and rivers, determining the longitude and latitude of the capital, investigating the defensive capabilities of the capital's walls, military capabilities, and so on.

Sava didn't take it seriously and agreed.

This little "interlude-like test" was scheduled for the next day.The questions were written in Latin, and they prepared hard pens such as quills that they were used to, and chose an examination room in the Forbidden City.

More than 140 Raksha people participated in this exam, and they also wanted to take the opportunity to see the scientific level of Dashun.

However, when the topic was posted, most people were dumbfounded.

There are not many topics.

Head start.

Every even number not less than 6 can be expressed as the sum of two odd prime numbers, and every odd number not less than 9 can be expressed as the sum of three odd prime numbers. Prove.

This is the first question.

The original author of this question... These Rakshasa people are very familiar with it.

Goldbach is now in Moscow, as court teacher to Peter II and also professor of... er, physiology at the Academy of Sciences.

But Goldbach's conjecture has not yet been raised at this time.Of course, this is a problem that cannot be solved at this time.

Half of the Rakshasa people who took part in this test were deeply attracted by this question, and never looked at the following questions again.

Instead, they took out pen and paper, exhausted all their life's knowledge, and tried to solve this problem.

After reading the first question, half of the people found that they had no idea and chose the next question decisively.

The next few questions are "soft power display and technological intimidation" carefully prepared by Liu Yu.

The title of the second question is very long.

It is known that the length of the meridian meridian coil is taken as a unit of 4000/[-] million of the meridian meridian coil, and is named "meter".

It is known that the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 meters per second.

It is known that the velocity of a new type of cannon in Dashun is 800 meters per second.

Regardless of the air resistance, the artillery position of Dashun is XX meters away from the fort, and the observation platform of the fort is X meters high. Calculate the elevation angle of the cannon so that it can hit the observation platform.

This is a typical high school entrance examination question for later generations. After removing the air resistance factor, it is not difficult at all.

Liu Yu is sure that some of the Rakshasa people can solve the answer.

But the purpose of his asking this question is not to answer, but to tell the Raksha people a few things.

First, Dashun accurately measured the length of the meridian, and after converting the unit, it is almost the same as your measurement, which proves Dashun's level of surveying.

Second, Dashun has accurately measured the magnitude of the acceleration of gravity, so don't worry about how you measure it, it will be measured anyway.

Thirdly, Dashun's artillery level is very good, at least if this question is an examination question for Dashun artillery officers, it will tell the Raksha people from the side that Dashun's artillery level is second to none in the whole world.

Because, such a topic was one of the exercises for the French artillery lieutenants in the Nahuang era.At this time, the artillery levels of European countries are still far from the era of Nahuang.

The reason why Russia's artillery is still excellent, unique among a group of gray cattle, is because the leading mathematicians in the early 18th century were basically in Russia: Euler, Goldbach, Bernoulli...

Raksha people are naturally very sensitive to such topics.

The next few questions were more outrageous than the other.

The third problem is the conservation of momentum.

The fourth question is the fastest descent line.

The fifth question is latitude and longitude navigation.

The sixth question is the calculation of the force-bearing area of ​​the sail and the sailing angle against the wind.

The seventh question is elementary differential and integral to measure the volume of irregular wooden barrels.

The eighth question is the calculation of triangular trade profits.

The ninth question is to make a regular seventeen-sided shape with a ruler and compass.

The tenth question is the calculation limit value of ration consumption and transportation loss.

There are a total of ten questions, except that the first question has no solution, and the ninth question is the same as the first question, which is to lure Euler and others to come to the capital, and the rest are within the range that can be solved at this time.

But those who can completely solve these problems are not among the Rakshasa missions.

Maybe throw it to the Academy of Sciences in Petersburg, let Bernoulli, Euler, Goldbach and others solve it, and there will be two problems left.

But it is difficult for these people to solve it at this time.

Except for the first and ninth questions which have a special purpose, the other eight questions are all about demonstrating Dashun's soft power.

Artillery, navy, navigation, logistics, trade... and Dashun's understanding of triangular trade and the world environment.

Liu Yu knew very well that a large part of the people in the mission must be semi-public spies.

If not, he wouldn't ask such a question, it's meaningless.

It is precisely because the purpose of many people coming here is to spy on information, which also prevents him from asking these questions to wink at the blind.

The whole day of the exam was finally over. These Rakshasa people looked at each other in blank dismay, and many of them shook their heads constantly.

"How many questions did you solve?"

The person being questioned holds up two fingers.

"2 and 6, academician Bernoulli talked about the force on the sail. How about you?"

"2 and 5, my father was a naval officer and navigation problems I learned as a child."

"Do you have an idea for the first question?"

"Absolutely not."

"Do the Chinese people's exams only take such questions? They rely on the 'imperial examination' to select talents. Do their imperial examination questions all have such content?"

After expressing this doubt, everyone present felt an indescribable panic.

After a short one-month understanding, they learned that Dashun's civil servant selection method is to pass an examination called "imperial examination".

Except for titles such as Gonghou Bo, which are hereditary, civil servants are not hereditary.This is a terrible system that Russia and even the whole of Europe cannot match at this time.

They even knew about Dashun's "peaceful affairs" today, and in their view, among the chief ministers of the Privy Council, there were several civilian children, which was unimaginable.

The content of the test in church schools is the understanding of the scriptures.They didn't know that Dashun's imperial examination was also an understanding of scriptures, so they could only guess what was being tested in Dashun's imperial examination through this exam.

The ten questions showed Dashun's soft power in a special way. This kind of soft power coupled with the imperial examination system and non-hereditary bureaucratic system they had heard about before made them fear greatly .

At the end of the day's exams, several middle-aged people from the Academy of Sciences who led the team came to Earl Savoy's room and expressed their judgments worriedly.

"Count, I think we should be able to know what kind of neighboring country is to the east of us. These exam questions show us how powerful they are. Your judgment is right, their artillery is very powerful, and their navy is very powerful. Although not strong, but has begun to learn."

"Just like what Peter the Great did, when the shipyard started, future officers went to Europe to study. When the shipyard was completed, these officers could go directly to the ship. If Russia can build Do you think China, which is richer, will not be able to spend the money to build warships and build powerful artillery?"

(End of this chapter)