New Shun 1730

However, the Dutch did not say anything else about this.

They did not shout that this was a stain on free trade, nor did they immediately express their anger that the Netherlands could not accept sending a fleet.

The Dutch were not stupid.

On the contrary, the Dutch were a little excited.

They believed that Dashun had compromised with the Netherlands, because the Celestial Empire border mentioned just now did not include Nanyang.

There was only Vietnam in the south at most.

Although they lost trade with Japan, for the Netherlands, trade with China and Southeast Asia were much more important than trade with Japan.

And the Netherlands now also needed Dashun, not only for trade, but also for the problem of Chinese in Nanyang.

In the war against Japan, although the Dutch still looked down on the Dashun Navy, the tonnage it dispatched had exceeded the number of warships that the Netherlands could mobilize in Southeast Asia.

The quality may be worse and the experience is far inferior, but what is more terrifying is the Dashun Army. The Dutch believed that they could not beat it, and they were far inferior.

The original plan was to cut the Gordian knot and directly slaughter the "redundant" Chinese slaves in Batavia due to problems in the sugar trade, but now they had to consider the attitude of Dashun.

The Dutch hoped to hold on to the issue of Japanese trade, so that the Dashun officials would come forward and send people to Nanyang to act as "guarantors" to convince the local Chinese that the Dutch were just migrating them, not throwing them into the sea halfway.

There are already many rumors. The sugar plantation economy, which was already worse, has been further aggravated by the collapse of Saphiboas and the war between Dashun and Japan, which cut off the Japanese-Dutch trade.

Originally, the Dutch wanted to exploit the Chinese and make every Chinese pay a head tax to increase income.

Later, they acquiesced to the high-level Chinese and used the Dutch to scare their compatriots. If they did not have a residence permit, they would be captured by the Dutch to do hard labor, thus forcing the slaves to accept extremely low returns for indentured servants and reduce the cost of sugar. Even if the Dutch forced the acquisition at a low price, the sugar plantations and sugar mills could still operate.

But this year, the shipment volume dropped sharply, and the sugarcane plantations could not hold on. Some sugarcane plantation owners did not want to support idlers, so they either threw their fellow slaves out to find a way to make a living, or took the initiative to report to the Dutch governor, hoping that the Dutch would arrest the slaves in the sugarcane plantations and send them to hard labor.

But the Dutch did not dare to do so now.

If they had to bear so many people at once, there would definitely be chaos.

It would be okay to arrest ten or eight people to do hard labor and kill chickens to scare monkeys. If they arrested seven or eight thousand, or ten or twenty thousand at once, the Dutch would know the number and there would be chaos.

In this case, it would be unwise to worry about the Japanese trade. You can find a way later, or you can secretly smuggle or contact Japan privately in the future, but the most urgent task is for Dashun to send people to be "guarantors".

Dashun did not want those people, and did not allow the Dutch to send them back to Fujian. The Dutch felt that they were sitting on a powder keg, and after the idiotic captain seized the Swedish ship for forced inspection, which caused the Chinese in Nanyang to see that Dashun also had long-distance ships, the powder keg was even more intense than before.

Now Dashun’s borders do not include Nanyang for the time being, and the Dutch think this is a good sign.

At least, the two sides still have a chance to negotiate.

So, after asking this question, the Dutch said: "The Dutch Parliament abides by all the laws and regulations of the Celestial Empire and respects the Celestial Empire’s border theory. And it will never preach. We recognize that China’s morality is the most suitable for the Celestial Empire."

The Dutch took the lead in expressing their views, and Liu Yu was not surprised. In order to trade with Japan, the Netherlands had fabricated the story of "We burned the statue of the Virgin Mary in Amsterdam". Trade is above all else.

The Netherlands nodded in agreement first, and the envoys of other countries had to agree, and they agreed in full.

Otherwise, it would be equivalent to giving up China voluntarily and letting the Dutch East India Company monopolize all trade with China.

Although France is a Catholic country, and although it fights heresy internally and even strictly prohibits Protestants from going to colonies, and also promotes the education of converting natives to commoners in colonies, France does not care at all since it has formed an alliance with China and is involved in Sweden's war against Russia.

Although Russia does not engage in maritime trade, a large part of its national income comes from fur and official speculation of rhubarb - the miraculous therapeutic effect of rhubarb in Europe was hyped up by the Russians in history.

Moreover, the boundary agreement between the two sides has not been determined, and Sweden is planning to attack again after the Russo-Turkish War, which has just damaged its vitality. The walrus skins from Kamchatka still need to be transported through the Heilongjiang River. Dashun has no need for Russia, but Russia does.

Although the British hope that the Netherlands and Dashun will fall out, it is obvious that the Dutch are not so stupid. On the contrary, the Netherlands, whose trade with Japan has been damaged, is the first to stand up and support it. The British regret that they did not take the lead, and of course they will not oppose it.

The timing was indeed very accurate. It would be easy to make them recognize China's sphere of influence in a different time period, but it would be very difficult to make them recognize that the Bible is not the only law between heaven and earth.

After the envoys of various countries agreed with Dashun's statement, officials soon brought several treaties.

The treaties with various countries were in duplicate, and it seemed that they had been drafted long ago.

Liu Yu glanced at the content of the treaty. It was nothing more than asking various countries to recognize the borders of the Celestial Empire, and at the same time recognize the "theory of the non-universal application of heaven's principles" of Duke Qi.

The former is easy to understand.

The latter is to find a theoretical basis for the ban on religion in Dashun. Internally, it is to prevent someone from deliberately confusing practical learning with religion by banning religion; externally, it is to reserve the future expansion of the Celestial Empire's borders and to create a written document to force Western countries to admit that the Bible is not universal.

Because... this treaty is to be printed with the emperor's jade seal.

Under the principle of diplomatic reciprocity, the seal on the other side must also be the king's seal, and it cannot be said that the diplomats privately printed it and let the diplomats take the blame in the future.

At this point, "God" can only stand aside at this moment.

Li Gan himself also glanced at the treaty, and then turned his eyes to the ministers. Seeing that many of the ministers were dissatisfied, many were difficult to understand, and even some felt that the Celestial Empire was doomed, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

I thought to myself, how can you understand my intentions? Do you think I am against the orthodox religion? In fact, my intention is to truly preserve the orthodox religion!

If the great righteousness system is the best in the world, it can only be achieved by leading the way. Once you don't lead, the backlash will be great.

The ancients said: Things will turn to the opposite extreme. How can you understand the truth?

I see that all Western countries are latecomers, but they are not inferior to the Celestial Empire in wealth and practical learning methods are also strong.

Today, we say that the morality of the orthodox teachings is universal and is the truth. If we are not as good as others tomorrow, then everyone will oppose the orthodox teachings and think that the orthodox teachings are all wrong.

And if we say that people and environments are different in different places, they are suitable for different morals, laws, and systems. In the future, even if the West is strong, it can be said that Dashun has its own national conditions. The strength of the West, if used in Shun, is like an orange grown in the south of the Huai River is an orange, and a orange grown in the north of the Huai River is a bitter orange, which may not be useful.

Or... Li Gan couldn't help but think of some Western classics translated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which there are many anti-imperialist and anti-ritual theories, and most of them can bewitch people's hearts.

These things are much more terrible and serious than the Catholic martyrs in Fujian and Guangdong.

Liu Yu didn't know that Li Gan's starting point was this.

It was after he really opened his eyes to the world that he saw some things in Western knowledge that were extremely threatening to the imperial power, and these things could not only justify themselves but also bewitch the people.

In addition, Li Gan also saw a special crisis of Dashun.

This crisis was caused by Dashun's abandonment of Zhu Xi's school and the support of the more radical and domineering Yongjia and Yongkang schools.

Zhu Xi's school is that I can be weak, but the law of nature has nothing to do with strength and weakness.

And as the great Confucian scholars of Dashun reflected in the chaos at the end of the Ming Dynasty, they evaluated the Yongjia and Yongkang schools: "Although the learning and conduct of Wen Yi are inevitably mixed with hegemony, the people of the three generations may be less fortunate. Unfortunately, Song and Lu coexisted, and the rise and fall of each other made academics like this and the world like this."

Chen Liang's posthumous title after his death was Wen Yi. One of the theories of the Yongjia and Yongkang schools is that "righteousness should be reflected through utilitarianism."

The original intention is not to say that whether your reason is right or not depends on whether you are strong or rich, otherwise it is just empty talk.

But once righteousness is not opposed to utilitarianism, it is easy to be distorted into the above statement.

It is this set of things that led Li Gan to see a unique crisis of Dashun.

If we abandon the empty talk of righteousness and empty talk of Zhu Xi's school and talk about actual results. Then, if you are not rich enough or strong enough, does it mean that righteousness itself is wrong?

Once righteousness and utilitarian results are tied together, righteousness itself is no longer an untouchable sacred empty talk.

Before, this theory itself was not a problem.

As long as China is unified, it is the Celestial Empire, so righteousness is sacred and will not be challenged in any way. I am the strongest in the world, so my reason is right. Why? Because I say that the reason why I am strong is because of my reason.

This is a dead cycle. As long as it is the strongest, this dead cycle can be infinite.

But now, the scope of the world has expanded, Westerners have come, and righteousness itself has been potentially threatened.

There are only two ways before Li Gan.

Either, restore Fengsihou as Yanshenggong, bring back Neo-Confucianism, abandon the utilitarian Yongjia and Yongkang schools, and transform Confucianism into Confucian harpies. Whoever reforms is a traitor and forgets his ancestors. Close the door and continue to maintain the concept of the Celestial Empire. All righteousness is empty talk and has nothing to do with utilitarianism. Even if you are beaten to shit, it is not a problem with righteousness. No matter how powerful the barbarians are, they are still barbarians.

Or, you can only think of another way.

After Liu Yu beat Japan violently and killed the chicken to scare the monkey, Li Gan weighed the pros and cons and finally did not choose to restore Fengsihou as Yanshenggong and bring back Neo-Confucianism.

Instead, he chose such a theory that allows tolerance.

Even if it lags behind temporarily in the future, it is not the problem of the saints' learning and the supporting ritual and legal system. Western institutional concepts are only applicable to the West. They will definitely not adapt to the local conditions here. My Dashun has its own national conditions here.

Just like in the Tang and Song dynasties, Confucianism, faced with the impact of Buddhism, had to come up with the cosmology of Neo-Confucianism, and finally gained a firm foothold and defeated Buddhism, and there was no longer the situation in the Tang Dynasty that forced Han Yu to write "Remonstration on Welcoming the Buddha's Bones".

Now, faced with new impacts, after giving up using Christianity to supplement Confucianism, the only way to continue to maintain it is to find other ways in the impact.

The whole set of culture, morality, system, and theory of the Celestial Empire, which is universally applicable and applicable to all places, cannot be defeated, can only win, and cannot even fall behind under the official ideology that righteousness and utilitarianism are not mutually exclusive. Once it falls behind, it will not only be the vassal states questioning the Celestial Empire, but also the system will collapse completely.

However, looking around, Li Gan felt helpless.

People like Liu Yu have no understanding of the orthodox teachings at all, and are purely overbearing and utilitarian.

People like loyal ministers only have a deep understanding of the orthodox teachings and do not care about anything outside.

As a result, he has come up with this set of things. It is obvious that he is trying to protect the orthodox teachings, but he is well aware of the opposition of the orthodox teachings. Instead, people think that he, as an emperor, is on the side of Liu Yu's faction.