Valley Emperor

Xu Zhenchuan's mission to Europe, if placed in a world with developed communications in later generations, would certainly be a major event that could cause a global sensation, and countless reporters and the public would pay close attention to it.

But now in the 27th year of Xuanping, not many people know about Xu Zhenchuan's mission to Europe.

However, not many people know, it does not mean that it is not important.

In order to show that their country is a civilized country, rather than the countless indigenous countries that were destroyed by the Tang Empire or regarded as colonies, although the Spanish and Portuguese were still somewhat hostile to themselves, they were incomparable when it came to Xu Zhenchuan's mission to Europe. of attention.

This has been since Xu Zhenchuan stayed in South Africa for several months, just to confirm many agreements, including very important etiquette issues.

For example, after Xu Zhenchuan arrived in Spain, what etiquette did the locals use to welcome him.

At first, the Spaniards were prepared to meet the etiquette of the nobles, but they were directly rejected by the Tang Dynasty, because in addition to being a diplomat, Xu Zhenchuan also held an imperial decree. Son of Heaven.

Therefore, the etiquette of the reception must be high-end. Datang requested the Spanish side to organize the ceremony of receiving imperial envoys in Datang.

However, the Spanish side naturally refused.

In the end, the two sides discussed and discussed, and the two sides determined a series of etiquette. The most important point is that Xu Zhenchuan will go to Madrid to submit his credentials.

When submitting the credentials, it is not a ceremony such as directly presenting the credentials, but in the form of reading the imperial decree.

Of course, the king of Spain would never kneel down to receive the decree, but he couldn't sit down either. After the two sides negotiated, they would stand to receive the decree, but they had to raise their hands above their heads to receive the decree.

In terms of appellation, the king of Spain called himself the "king" and called Li Xuan the emperor, while Spanish officials called themselves foreign ministers and Xu Zhenchuan as Shangguan.

In terms of appellation, the Datang Empire has always attached great importance to it.

And this time it's more important.

Since there are no words in Spanish or Latin that can accurately translate the Great Emperor and the Son of Heaven, the officials of the Tang Dynasty required the Spanish to use the title of the Son of Heaven in the official documents of the exchanges between the two parties. The original text in Chinese, without any translation.

In the past, many Europeans used eperador for the translation of Li Xuan's title. In the early years, the officials of the Tang Dynasty felt that it did not matter. After all, this word in the European Latin family also has the meaning of the emperor in Chinese.

But now, officials of the Tang Dynasty think that the word eperador can no longer accurately reflect the dignity of the Tang Emperor, the Son of Heaven, and the Emperor of God.

On the one hand, it is thought that this term is limited and refers to the supreme ruler of a certain group or a certain region.

Similar is the Latin iperator, which roughly means ruler of the Romans.

But in the Tang Dynasty, Li Xuan's title is the Great Emperor, in addition, the Son of Heaven and the Emperor of God are also his honorary titles. Li Xuan, the Great Emperor, Son of Heaven, and Emperor of God, is not only the supreme ruler of the traditional Chinese region, but also He is the supreme ruler of all known and unknown spaces, the Son of Heaven.

This title has been separated from the title of ruler in the traditional sense, but has been deified.

Therefore, a single eperador or similar words is not enough to reflect Li Xuan's dignity.

In addition, it would be disrespectful to call the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty in the language of the barbarian Fanbang!

The incomparably distinguished Great Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, how could you barbarians in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin be able to describe and call him.

In the past, the Tang Dynasty was too lazy to pay attention to these barbarians, but now that they have sent imperial officials, they must pay attention.

How to pay attention?

The Tang Dynasty made it very clear that they refused to call the Son of Heaven in their own language or Latin or any other barbarian language.

They are required to write the title of the Son of Heaven in their official documents as "Great Emperor" in Chinese.

As for not being able to write, go learn!

The fact that the people of the Tang Dynasty attached so much importance to the so-called etiquette issue also left the Spanish and Portuguese speechless.

But writing the emperor directly in Chinese is actually not a big problem, it is just a written symbol.

Furthermore, the Portuguese or Spaniards in the era of great voyages were very pragmatic, and they sometimes cared about the so-called etiquette, but in the face of real interests, the etiquette was not worth mentioning.

So, in fact, they don't understand why the Tang Dynasty cares so much about these etiquette issues, and they even give up some practical benefits in exchange for the Spanish and Portuguese's regression in etiquette.

In any case, the three parties finally succeeded in the negotiation, and then Xu Zhenchuan's fleet officially entered the Atlantic Ocean.

His scale is huge. There are a total of thirteen ships. In addition to dozens of official diplomats, there are also more than 800 marines who served as the first batch of embassy guards in the early stage.

If it was just for transporting so many people, naturally there would be no need for so many ships. In fact, most of the ships are ships that transport all kinds of materials. For example, one of the ships is carrying a lot of cement. This is ready to go to Spain. After the port of Tis, it was used for the establishment of the consulate.

As for why cement is used to build the consulate!

That's because a consulate has never been a simple consulate. When necessary, a consulate can be transformed into a fortress.

Therefore, all the consulates of the Tang Empire outside the country are all bastion structures, and many consulate bastions are made of cement.

In addition to construction materials, there is also a large number of ordnance. On the one hand, it is the equipment and supplies of the embassy guards themselves, but the larger quantity is still ready to be transported to Europe for sale.

Arquebuses, spears, plate armor, cavalry, five- and nine-jin field guns, two-jin shotguns, swords, daggers, and many other armaments.

In addition to ordnance, there are also a large number of ammunition and various military supplies such as canned food, military tents, and quilts.

When Datang prepared these military trade aid materials, they were arranged directly according to the standards of the early infantry divisions during the Unification War. Infantry Division.

And these ordnance materials are only the first batch of materials provided by Datang to the European military. If it goes well, more weapons and weapons will be shipped to Europe in succession to help the barbarians in Taixi resist the Tatars.

And there is no need to worry about the ability to pay in Europe. Although Datang's ordnance weapons are not cheap to buy, Spain and Portugal are both rich countries, and they are also global colonial powers.

As for other countries, although there are no colonial blood transfusions, they can buy a batch of weapons by squeezing one or two.

According to the judgment of the domestic business community of Datang, the potential of arms trade in Europe is relatively large. If the market can be opened up, it will not be much worse than India and West Asia.

At present, there are only indigenous states in the Indian region, especially the Mughal dynasty, which has become an important dumping ground for Tang's armaments.

The Safi Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire in West Asia were also important customers of the Tang Dynasty's equipment trade.

Today, the European market is about to become an important arms trade area for the Tang Empire.

The mission fleet led by Xu Zhenchuan was not small. For safety, the Spanish and Portuguese would send warships to **** them. In addition, the Datang Navy itself also sent four warships to escort.

These four battleships are a combination of old and new. Among them is the cutting-edge steel steam battleship Wanbei of the Tang Empire Navy. This ship is the fourth ship of the Jiangnan-class battleship. Although it is the earliest batch of steam and steel battleships, it is still placed in the Atlantic Ocean. It belongs to the top combat power, and its displacement of more than 1,500 tons is enough to disdain the heroes.

There is also a cutting-edge thousand-ton frigate Tongzhou. Tongzhou is said to be a cutting-edge warship. However, these new thousand-ton frigates are positioned as cheap warships in the Datang Navy. They are dispatched to overseas service in large numbers. There are as many as five ships, and they have become the absolute main force of the African squadron.

As for the other two, one was an early wooden battleship with sails, and of course, it was also modified with a steam engine.

There is also an early cruiser of only 800 tons, also modified with a steam engine.

The **** fleet composed of these four warships is powerful enough!

Letting the Spanish or Portuguese warships, who are escorting and also shouldering the task of surveillance and defense, put a lot of pressure on them.

If this fleet of Datang, including warships and more than a dozen armed merchant ships burst into trouble, it would be able to set off a huge disaster in the Atlantic Ocean.

It's just that this time it was a diplomatic mission, so whether it was a naval battleship or an ordinary armed merchant ship~www.wuxiaspot.com~ did not do anything out of the ordinary, and they followed the fleet honestly along the way.

Because of the lack of coal supply along the way, and also to take care of the Spanish or Portuguese sailboats that are not fast, the speed of the fleet heading north to Europe is quite slow.

But even if it is slow, it is slowly reaching Europe.

In December, when the snow began to blow heavily in northern Europe, the fleet led by Xu Zhenchuan finally arrived at Cadiz, a port in southwestern Spain.

Although it is already December, Cadiz is on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. The local climate is a typical Mediterranean climate, even in the deep winter, so the local temperature is still relatively comfortable.

Standing on the bow of the boat, Xu Zhenchuan watched the fleet gradually enter the port, but he only had a relatively light woolen coat approved on his body.

At this time, the Spanish envoy beside him said in a proud tone, "Cádiz is one of the oldest cities of our Spaniards. It has a developed shipbuilding industry and commerce, and it is also the home port of our treasure fleet!"

"In the past few years, countless North African pirates have tried to conquer this place, but they have all been repelled by us!"

Xu Zhenchuan looked at the dilapidated city ahead, so small that it could not even accommodate the port where his fleet was docked for loading and unloading at the same time.

As a high-ranking official of the empire, there is no need for him to deliberately attack these poor and pathetic barbarians!

Such a port city, placed in the mainland of the empire, is at most the size of an ordinary third-rate coastal port city.

This is just the scale. If you talk about other aspects, let alone, there is no comparison!

As for those pirates who couldn't conquer this Cadiz, it didn't mean that the empire couldn't conquer it either.

Please remember the first domain name of this book: Fengyun Novel Reading Network Mobile Version Reading URL: