readx(); Macartney had finally arrived at the destination of his trip, and in his eyes the city was in a state of contradictory contradiction. Towering Chinese-style city towers, quaint alleys, nodding Chinese and commanding officials, but there are also rows of street lamps and telephone poles, exquisite cars running on the streets, and roadside shops selling a variety of goods.

Barrow said with some admiration: "It really deserves to be the largest city in the East, full of its own cultural characteristics, and has the atmosphere of modern industrial civilization." ”

Macartney said: "Many years ago, the largest city in the Far East was already Shanghai instead of Beijing. It is true that the city seems to us to be prosperous, mysterious, and great, but it is full of disharmony. Like the ancient buildings and the people here, they are steeped in ignorance and time, backward and barbaric, but as we can see, there are a lot of things better here than in London. I thought about it for a long time, explored the reasons, and thought that the essence of this city or this country was that barbaric, conservative and backward, but the Tang people came and imposed the fruits of their civilization on this country, which is why this kind of blending of the old and the new. ”

Barrow pondered Macarney's words and felt that they made sense, and he asked: "Since the Tang people are also Chinese, why not eliminate the Qing Dynasty and rule this huge and ancient country yourself?"

Macartney nodded and said, "That's right, this is the most curious and difficult thing for many Orientalists in Europe. The Tatars conquered the Chinese. A dynasty was established, although they formed a compromise with the Han Chinese. Eventually, it was also sinicized, but for more than a hundred years, the Chinese never stopped resisting, and the Tatars also made the suppression of the Han uprising a priority. Presumably, the Tang Dynasty, which is dominated by Han people, is more acceptable to the people here. But, thirteen years ago. The Tang army broke through the ancient capital. They took their emperor and hundreds of thousands of Tatars, exiled them to an island in the Pacific, and even defeated most of the country's rebels, but instead of claiming the land, they installed a new emperor. ”

Barrow touched his head and sighed: "This is simply unheard of, they just asked the Qing State to cede three small pieces of land, and then trade or something." Could it be that the Tang people felt that they could not conquer the Tatar dynasty?"

Macartney shook his head. "It is not difficult to conquer the Tatars, the Tang people have basically done it, these guys who pride themselves on benevolence and etiquette. When raising the butcher's knife, it is more ferocious than anyone else, and we Europeans are afraid. But when it comes to conquering China, the Tang people may not have confidence themselves. ”

Barrow was surprised: "What kind of logic is this, you can conquer the Tatar dynasty, but you can't conquer China"

"I've been studying Chinese politics and the Tang people for almost a decade, when I was in Madras. I gathered all the information I could, and I finally came to this conclusion. The Tatar Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty are both China, but neither is China. The country's documented history dates back nearly 5,000 years, with strong historical traditions and rich civilizations, but it is also a burden that hinders their progress. Yet, perhaps it was God who favored these unbelieving Orientals too much, and a group of seemingly deviant people appeared, leaving their homeland and crossing the seas to create new nations in the colonies. Although they are few in number, it is much easier to build a new innocent nation from a new home in the ruins than it is to renovate a large, old-fashioned one. The Tang and Qing dynasties represented two completely different cultural spirits, and although they were originally one nation, they were about to split into two nations due to many factors. However, I think it is quite possible that this split will not occur. ”

Barrow was fascinated by Macartney's rhetoric and asked, "Why?"

Macartney said: "You can't understand just now, in the war thirteen years ago, why did the Tang people only seize a few small pieces of land, and they had to take a little bit of trade and other rights that don't seem to be much. If it were us British, it would seem easy to understand, that we in Britain had only a few million people, and that the island of Britain and Ireland were inferior to a province of the country, and that we could not rule and conquer the land. But the Tang people are Chinese, and it seems that there is a natural convenience. However, from a certain point of view, the Tang Dynasty is more like Britain than like the Qing Kingdom. The conquest of the Qing Kingdom, they could not achieve it either. However, there is a very important right that the Tang people have to go, and that is immigration. ”

Barrow amazed: "immigrants"

Macartney said: "Do you know how many people there are in Datang now?"

Barrow said: "How can I understand this kind of thing, speaking of which, Datang has so many overseas territories, and some large overseas territories have millions of people, almost as big as our Britain. ”

Macartney replied directly: "I have read the newspapers of the Tang Dynasty, and I will not talk about the non-Han population in overseas territories, but I will say that the exact number of Han population in the Tang Dynasty is not there, but it should be roughly 15 million, or even more." ”

Barrow surprised: "There are more people than the natives of Britain"

Macartney nodded solemnly, "What I want to say is that thirteen years ago, this country had a population of only a few hundred thousand, but in just thirteen years, it has a population of fifteen million people, and its national strength has grown explosively. The reason is not the war thirteen years ago, they had the opportunity to forcibly plunder the population from the Qing State. ”

Macartney continued: "I don't believe that the aggressive Tang people didn't want to rule China, but they couldn't because China is really too big, it's too populous, and more importantly, it's not the country they wanted." You might think it's a ridiculous reason, but the more I research, the more I think so. These days, you have also seen that the Tang people were very active in the Qing country, and they despised many of the actions of the Qing people, because the Tang people were civilized people. The president of the Tang Dynasty is said to be a very talented person, and the war thirteen years ago was planned by him. He is continuing the strength of the Tang Dynasty little by little, and eating away at the Qing Kingdom little by little. Maybe not now, but in the near future, this country, which looks like a broken house, will collapse if it is kicked in a single way. The Don people don't want this house to collapse, especially not for us Europeans to kick it down, they want to tear it down themselves, and then build a new big and good house. "To be continued.

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