Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 025: What Year Is Today in the Western World (Part 2)
"Your Highness, those so-called Protestants are actually a group of heretics who are extremely rebellious! They misinterpret the Lord's will for their own selfish interests. These people have been bewitched by the devil and will eventually be redeemed in the flames!"
Seeing the crazy Matteo Ricci across from him, Xu Guangqi could not accept it. In front of Zhu Youdong, he completely lost the basic etiquette between the monarch and his subjects, just staring with his mouth and eyes wide open, standing there stupidly without moving.
Looking at the dazed Xu Guangqi, Zhu Youdong twitched the corner of his mouth: You, the Ming Dynasty scholar who is fascinated by Western technology and ideas, take a good look at what is really going on behind the hypocritical faces of Western missionaries?
China is a country with a less religious atmosphere. Theocracy has influence on the government, but it cannot be said to control it. In Western countries where theocracy has a great influence, heretics and pagans are the common enemies of the church and the government. And they seem to be more ruthless towards heretics than pagans.
"Mr. Xu? Mr. Xu?"
"Ah? Oh! Please forgive me, my lord. I am being rude."
"Haha, no problem, no problem. Come, Mr. Xu, please sit over here."
"Oh, thank you, Grandson."
There is no need to say much about Xu Guangqi. Although he eventually became the second assistant of the cabinet of Chongzhen in the history, he was always defined as a scientist first and a politician second in the introduction of later generations. In fact, many historians believe that if Xu Guangqi's father had not died at an untimely time, causing him to mourn for three years, he might have achieved greater achievements in science and technology.
(When Xu Guangqi left Beijing for mourning, it was also the last moments of Matteo Ricci's life. At that time, their joint research was at its peak, but it was interrupted because of Xu Guangqi's departure. When Xu Guangqi returned, Matteo Ricci had passed away.)
In ancient China, there were not too many bureaucrats, but there were too few scientists. Based on this point alone, let alone Xu Guangqi's slight disrespect, even if he burned down Zhu Youdong's academy, Zhu Youdong would only applaud awkwardly but politely: Well done, well done.
Zhu Youdong was a doctor before he traveled through time, and his basic knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry was pretty good. But compared to engineering students, his hands-on ability other than surgery was sluggish. He had a lot of ideas, but he needed a scientist of this era to turn them into feasible plans, and finally turn them into reality through the skilled craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty. And Xu Guangqi was the most critical bridge.
So, just like when the Imperial Court was selecting people to serve him, he did not comment on most of them, and only mentioned Wei Zhongxian. When the outer court was selecting teachers for him, he did not say anything about other people, but Xu Guangqi, who had to be caught as soon as possible.
"Mr. Xu seems to be the Jinshi last year? How old is he this year?"
"I am ashamed. Because of my stupid nature, I wasted many years in the imperial examinations. So I didn't pass the imperial examination until I was 42 years old. I am already 43 years old this year. "
Haha, you are a genius in science, engineering, and agriculture, and you took an exam in purely liberal arts and passed it at the age of 42. It's already quite remarkable.
"Well, your father is very old this year? How is your health?"
"Thank you for your concern, Grandson. My father is sixty-eight this year. His health, uh, because my family was poor in my early years, so my father had to work too hard to support the family, so... he has many illnesses."
"Well, this is a big deal, Wang Chengen."
"The servant is here."
"Pass the word down. Go to the Imperial Hospital and invite two doctors to come to Mr. Xu's house tonight. Well, I will go with you then."
"I am so grateful!"
"Sir, you don't have to be so polite. You are my teacher, and your father is my great master. How can I care more about my great master?"
According to the Ming Dynasty officialdom, one must mourn for three years after the death of one's parents. If Zhu Youdong had not intervened, Xu Guangqi's father would have died soon. Zhu Youdong could not afford this loss.
After pacifying Xu Guangqi, Zhu Youdong turned around and said to Matteo Ricci, "Mr. Ricci, I am very interested in the fact that the Habsburg royal family, the solid fortress of Catholicism, now has two princes protected by holy angels. So, have the Protestants in Europe today become more restrained?"
Speaking of this, Matteo Ricci immediately became excited: "Your Highness is wisest! Yes, after Michael appeared, the so-called Protestant heretics that were occasionally spread in Spain have disappeared without a trace. Even in northern Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and other places, the glory of our Lord has once again been widely spread. However! There are still some unrepentant heretics who actually said that the holy light in Madrid that day was a scam! Oh! These damn heretics! According to the news sent by our Jesuit leaders, His Holiness the Pope has already taken this opportunity to launch a holy war against these heretics!"
Well, it seems that the Thirty Years' War in Europe may start earlier?
In the original plane of history, the Thirty Years' War was a huge and tragic war.
At the beginning, it was the Czech Republic (Bohemia) that wanted independence, and then the Habsburgs suppressed it.
Then Denmark was worried about having swallowed up Schleswig and Holstein of the Holy Roman Empire, so it declared war on the Holy Roman Emperor with the support of Britain, France and the Netherlands. It won victory after victory at the beginning, but after the Habsburg royal family invited Wallenstein to come out, it was quickly defeated.
Next, Gustav II of Sweden led Sweden to join the war, and this time both sides suffered losses. Gustav and Wallenstein, two great commanders, one died in battle, and the other was assassinated because of his achievements. In the end, although Sweden was forced to sign the terms of defeat, the Habsburg royal family was already out of breath.
In the above three stages, the Protestant-dominated countries or princes fought against the Habsburg royal family who adhered to the Catholic faith.
Finally, the French, who were also a Catholic country but had always been secretly coveting the Habsburgs' hegemony over Europe, finally met their end.
This is to say that the French leader at that time, Richelieu, was a politician. He was not like the Nordic barbarians such as Denmark and Sweden who used military means alone. He first instigated the Catalonia region of Spain and Portugal, which was then under Spanish rule, to seek independence. This caused chaos in Spain and it could no longer strongly support its Austrian brothers. Then he sent troops to declare war on the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire, which did not receive strong support from Spain, was soon surrounded and beaten by the whole of Europe and was eventually defeated. The Thirty Years' War ended here.
Because this war lasted too long, involved too many countries, and involved religious conflicts, after 30 years, the population of Germany, the main battlefield, decreased by 30%, and the number of males was halved. In some vassal states, more than 75% of the residents were killed.
Of course, these are all historical facts. And they are just historical facts.
Because the history of this plane has changed.
There is no doubt that the Habsburg royal family, with the help of the time travelers, especially the two time travelers, will win the Thirty Years' War in this dimension - perhaps it will not even take thirty years to win.
The Habsburgs of this period were strong enough to fight against the whole of Europe for decades (at the same time as the Thirty Years' War, Spain and the Netherlands also fought an Eighty Years' War and organized several expeditions to Britain by the Invincible Armada). Once they won this war, the whole of Europe, at least the whole of Europe except Russia, would be effectively integrated by the Habsburgs. At that time, the two spokesmen of Christ would turn their attention to the East - this process would probably take only 20 to 30 years in total, right?
When he thought of this, and then thought of the current broken Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youdong became furious.
"Mr. Li Qi, Mr. Xu, I invited you two to be my teachers because I want to discuss some scientific and technological matters with you two."
