A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 335 Absurd Argument

"Beautiful Mrs. Connor, it is a pleasure to meet you."

This time it was the Russian ambassador Resal.

Mrs. Connor replied politely: "Mr. Ambassador Resal, nice to meet you too."

Resal shook hands with Li Yu again: "Mr. Emperor, your wireless device is really easy to use."

Li Yu asked, "Is it transported back to St. Petersburg?"

Resal said: "One was shipped back to St. Petersburg, and the other was placed in Yekaterinaburg. In addition to the two purchased before, I think we can already achieve timely contact during the campaign."

Well, although the Russians did not engage in the construction of radio base stations, they actually constructed a relay transmission link with a few radio devices in a strange way.

The distance from Beijing to Moscow is about 6000 kilometers, and with one or two transit stations in between, the connection can indeed be realized.If you really want to calculate it, it will not only save trouble, but also cost a lot less.The key is that the front line has already been fought, so we can only choose a shortcut in compromise.

With the arrival of the Russian ambassador, envoys from various countries also arrived one after another.

It is definitely extremely difficult for future generations to organize so many embassy leaders together, but it was different in the late Qing Dynasty. These diplomats usually had a very small area of ​​activity, and they were cramped in the small Dongjiaomin Lane. Everyone looked up and looked down. In a sense Say, it's like a...neighbor.

But now the neighbors are not very harmonious.

When Japanese Minister Yasuya Uchida and Russian Ambassador Resal made eye contact, it felt like killing each other.

American Minister Connor said with a smile: "War is like a common meal for us. There is no need to hurt our friendship for a little gain or loss on the battlefield."

He also assumed that the war would not be fought on a large scale.

French ambassador Luban also came to smooth things over: "Today we are more interested in such elegant things as culture."

At present, war between Japan and Russia has been declared, but no major losses have been caused. Diplomats from many European countries do not think that it will turn into a super decisive battle.

The Russian ambassador Resal had to say: "Yes, culture, what we want to talk about is culture."

Japanese Minister Yasuya Uchida continued: "If we really want to compare culture, then we have something to say. Even the culture of the Qing Dynasty is many times stronger than that of the countries present here."

To be honest, although we were very weak in national strength in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, Europeans have always been very fascinated by Chinese culture.

The continuous cultural reproduction for thousands of years is no joke, the accumulation is too thick.

But Uchida Yasuya said this, in fact, he wanted to draw the Qing Dynasty to his side as much as possible, and he still had a large number of spies operating in the Qing Dynasty to spy on Russian intelligence.

Zai Zhen was also present. His English level was still very weak, and he couldn't understand the communication of the crowd, so he asked Li Yu to act as his interpreter.

Knowing Uchida Yasuya's thoughts, Zai Zhen was a little happy.

The Russian ambassador, Resal, took advantage of Uchida Yasuya's words: "All the countries here? Huh, the tone is not small. Are you Japan trying to engage in cultural confrontation?"

Uchida Yasuya seemed to have guessed that what he would say was a deliberate leak, so he said: "Ambassador Resal, please pay attention to what I said, it is the 'Qing Kingdom', not the Great Japan."

Resal and others looked at Zai Zhen together.

Zai Zhen was at a loss for a moment, and cursed in his heart: Ma De, you guys are fighting, it's none of my business, why push me out?
Zai Zhen is still very young, and this group of ministers stationed abroad is already a veteran in the diplomatic arena. Zai Zhen can't deal with it.

Zai Zhen said indiscriminately: "Neutral, we remain neutral! As for culture and so on, let's talk about it, wenwu is the first, wenwu is the first! Haha, haha..."

Uchida Yasuya took up the conversation: "It's a good sentence 'Wen Wu No. [-]', beautiful, beautiful! Ambassador Resal, do you know what the next sentence is?"

Resal really didn't know, so he kept silent.

Uchida Yasuya continued on his own: "The next sentence is 'Wu no second', of course there is no second on the battlefield, just like Crimea many years ago."

The Crimean War was an extremely important one in the history of modern warfare. It should be said that it was the first modern war. Numerous new theories, strategies and tactics emerged.

Moreover, the Crimean War was a major defeat for Tsarist Russia. Since then, it has lost the possibility of going west and turned its spearhead to the East.

Uchida Yasuya is really a diplomat, and there is something in his words, obviously expressing his dissatisfaction with Russia's eastward advance; at the same time, he mocked a wave of Russia's defeat in the European battlefield, and pointed out Russia's true intentions.

Ambassador Resal was really a little annoyed: "Minister Uchida, don't provoke me anymore! Most of the countries present here are from Europe. The eastward advance of our Tsarist Russia is to curb your terrible yellow peril!"

The "yellow peril theory" was really first put forward by politicians in Tsarist Russia 30 years ago.

In 1873, Tsarist Russian politician Bakunin mentioned the "Yellow Peril Theory" for the first time. He believed that anti-Christ forces would emerge from Asia, especially East Asia; because the Huns and Mongolia had conquered Europe in history, Bakunin declared that China was " Great danger from the east".

The "yellow peril theory" first appeared in Tsarist Russia, which is not surprising at all, because in Tsarist Russia's view, "a powerful neighbor must not be a good neighbor."

In the next few decades, China was impoverished and weak and allowed to be bullied by the West; on the other hand, Europe preached the "Yellow Peril Theory" and called on white people to unite against yellow people.

But a discerning person can easily know that the traditional Chinese nation has never threatened Europe; and in modern times, the Qing Dynasty was poor and weak, and China's national power fell to the lowest point never seen before or since, and there is no threat to Europe.

Therefore, the argument of the yellow peril theory is extremely absurd.

Even so, Tsarist Russia is still promoting the so-called "yellow peril theory".

The reason? Political considerations at the time!Through such arguments, they can obtain "reasonable reasons" for occupying the territory of the Qing Dynasty, and by the way, they can obtain the support of European public opinion.

The mind is very bad!
But in fact, since the emergence of the "Yellow Peril Theory" promoted by Tsarist Russia, it had little influence in Europe at first.

In the "Yellow Peril", the most active ones are immigrant countries, such as the United States, Canada, Australia and other places. They set off waves of anti-Chinese.Moreover, as the "yellow peril theory" has become more and more hyped, the status of the Chinese has become lower and lower.

Immediately afterwards, Japan defeated the Qing Dynasty in the First Sino-Japanese War, which affected the interests of Tsarist Russia and completely exposed the fact that the Qing Dynasty was weak, so the protagonists of the "Yellow Peril Theory" became the Japanese.

These diplomats have countless words hidden in one sentence, and they are tit for tat.

Russian Minister Resal proposed the "yellow peril" at this time, obviously seeking the support of European countries to fight against Japan together.

The French ambassador, Lupin, also served as an ambassador to Japan before, quickly said: "Why are you talking about this direction again?"

U.S. Minister Connor also said: "It's a cultural salon, that's right." He saw the portrait of Li Yu and Lu Bicheng in his wife's hand, and then said, "Look at this painting, it is a rare fusion. Excellent Chinese and Western works. The theme of today should be to show the beauty of the East with Western oil painting techniques!"

Connor walked over, picked up the oil painting, and asked Lu Bicheng next to him, "Beautiful Mrs. Dongfang, who painted this painting? The level of art is so high!"

Lu Bicheng replied: "Mr. Repin from St. Petersburg."

"So it's Repin, and he's from Russia, that's great!" Connor said immediately, "This is the fusion of cultures."

Repin was already well-known in Europe at this time, and he was a first-class painter. Everyone saw Li Yu, a rising star in the scientific world, who was from the Qing Dynasty, and felt quite novel.

Several ministers' wives circulated praises one after another.

The wife of the British ambassador, Takeda, is also Japanese. After seeing the painting, she said: "I admire Mr. Repin very much. I remember that I went to St. Petersburg to pay special respects to the "Tracker on the Volga"."

"Trailers on the Volga" is undoubtedly Repin's masterpiece, but it is really inappropriate to say it on the diplomatic field at this time.

Because the content shows the miserable life of Russian trackers.

The French ambassador Luban hummed again when he heard Mrs. Takeda's words.

As expected, the Russian Minister Resal said: "Speaking of oil paintings, I also have an oil painting here ordered by the respected German Emperor Wilhelm II, and presented as a state gift to our noble Tsar Nicholas II. "

Resal clapped his hands, and the assistant quickly took out this oil painting called "Yellow Peril".

Well, that's right, that's the name.The content does not need to be introduced to know what it is promoting.

At this time, this painting was really a well-known "art propaganda material" in Europe.

The time of painting was roughly during the period of the Three Kingdoms Intervention and Return to Liao Dynasty after the Sino-Japanese War.

The incident of the Three Kingdoms Interfering in the Liao Dynasty was regarded as a shame in Japan. Uchida Yasuya naturally knew about this painting. He said: "If this can also be counted as cultural art, it is really a shameful artistic taste."

Japan has long been worried that Russia will use the "yellow peril" view to promote it in Europe, because it is not good for itself.

In fact, Russia really wanted to do this. They also drew a lot of cartoons, hoping to package the Russo-Japanese War as a "racial war between whites and yellows" in order to gain European support and prevent Britain from supporting Japan.

Therefore, Japan spent a lot of money to buy the front pages of many newspapers in Europe and wrote a large number of press releases to defend itself: the war was only to curb the expansion of Tsarist Russia to the south and to maintain peace and development in the Far East.

This kind of talk will sound like fart to later generations, and it is as stinking as the Russian point of view.

In addition, it just so happened that the Qing Dynasty chose to be absolutely neutral from the outside world. The act of two people smashing their own teeth together and swallowing it desperately made no country think of it.

However, the weakness of the Qing Dynasty reaped a lot of unexpected benefits in the Russo-Japanese War.

Although the Qing Dynasty had a tendency to ally with Japan, it did not choose to really form an alliance with Japan, which made Tsarist Russia's so-called "yellow and white race war" theory untenable.

(End of this chapter)