Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2441: Records of the Western Expedition (VIII) Bonding of Interests (Part )
When the first commercial vehicle with the charter flag drove out of Moscow, Alexei received a secret letter from Erdemutu: "Well done, Your Excellency. In order to reward you for your contribution, I have proposed a reward to the Prime Minister. If nothing unexpected happens, the Prime Minister will definitely reward you - the honeycomb briquettes you saw in my tent, the production machines will be specially supplied to the Stroganov family. I hope that from now on, the coal fires in Russia will be brighter than the candlelight in the Kremlin."

Alexey Stroganov took a deep breath and looked eastward. He seemed to see the Ming army garrison west of the Ural Mountains lighting flickering bonfires in Kazan, like a handful of gold foil scattered on the land of eastern Russia - that was a more tangible proof of power than any title. As for the east of the Ural Mountains, the "Ming territory" was becoming a restricted area that the boyars dared not touch as the boundary markers were erected.

Time flies. When the first snow in Moscow fell on the spire of the Kremlin, frost had formed on the bronze door knocker of the Boyar Academy in the east of the city. Grand Duke Alexei's carriage rolled across the square paved with Ming-style blue bricks. Next to the double-headed eagle emblem on the shaft, the newly painted Ming-style cloud pattern was clearly visible, glowing with warm vermilion in the sun.

"Your Excellency," said Boris, the head instructor of the academy. The patches on his sleeves were embroidered with lions, which corresponded to the princely rank of the Russian Empire. "The plaques of the Novgorod and Kazan branches have been inscribed by the Tsar himself. Today, the first batch of students are having their first ceremony."

In the meeting room, fifty boyars knelt on mats, with rice paper, wolf-hair brushes and Duan inkstones placed in front of them. Alexei watched Boris demonstrate how to write the word "Tsar", the ink spreading on the rice paper, and suddenly said: "In addition to priority promotion, qualified people can also obtain the 'Ming Dynasty Trade Permit' - with this, they can enjoy a 30% reduction in tariffs when purchasing goods in Ming Dynasty."

The young nobles' pens all paused unconsciously, with a gleam in their eyes - they knew that this meant that the family caravan could exchange more silk, porcelain, tea, cotton cloth and even various new iron tools at the Daming Trading Company, all of which were very profitable goods.

As the young nobles' minds raced, they secretly glanced at the Qilin patch on Grand Duke Alexei's chest.

The imperial edict for the reform of the official title system of the Russian Tsarist Empire had been issued long ago. The rank table on the outer wall of the main teaching building in the college integrated the Tsarist Russian nobility with the Ming-style official ranks: below the Tsar, the highest rank was the Grand Duke, who was a super-rank and embroidered with unicorn patterns; the highest non-royal rank was the Prince, who was the first rank and embroidered with lion patterns; the following was the Duke, who was the first rank and embroidered with tiger patterns; the Marquis, who was the second rank and embroidered with leopard patterns...all the way up to the ninth rank, with quail embroidered on his patch.

Alexei Stroganov was not from the royal family, but beneath his Suzdal Grand Duke's gold badge was a Ming-style Qilin patch - a symbol of the royal family's first rank, which matched his special military commander's waist badge. As for the origin, it was due to some accidental mistakes, but outsiders were not aware of it.

Before the reform of the Russian nobility, Erdemutu, an outsider, was not clear about the Russian Tsarist title system. He only knew that the highest title below the Tsar was "Grand Duke", but he knew nothing about the titles below the Grand Duke and thought they were the same as those in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, a promise was made at that time to give him the title of "Grand Duke of Suzdal" in advance.

Due to the decisive victory on the banks of the Oka River, no one in Russia dared to express doubts about it for a while. However, when the aristocratic ranks were reformed, Erdemutu read the report and realized that this was a misunderstanding - the Russian system was different from that of the Ming Dynasty, and their aristocratic system was essentially learned from the European one.

The "Grand Duke" in Europe is actually a collection of three different concepts, the difference between which is comparable to the Volga River and the Danube River. The first is Archduke (Erzherzog), represented by the Austrian Habsburg family. This title originated from the Holy Roman Empire and was exclusively for direct members of the royal family. Just as the Russian princes were bound to receive the title of "Grand Duke" later, it was a pure blood mark rather than a symbol of territory. Just as Frederick III legalized the title of Archduke of Austria, it became the gold thread on the Habsburg crown, only entwined between direct bloodlines.

The second is the Grand Duke (Groherzog) that emerged during the Napoleonic era. This type of Grand Duke is often the ruler of an independent principality, and its status is between that of a king and an ordinary duke. Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, once used this to command the Apennine Peninsula, and today, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, is still continuing this tradition - the crown on their heads needs the territory as the base.

Of course, what puzzled Erdemutu was the Grand Prince (Великийкнязь) in the Slavic world. This title originated from the Kievan Rus era and originally belonged to the monarch who ruled a certain area, but after Ivan the Terrible's reform, it became a decoration for the royal descendants.

Just as the scepter of the Grand Duke of Moscow eventually became the carving on the scepter of the Tsar, the title of Grand Duke had nothing to do with the fiefdom, but was more like a ruby ​​inlaid in the emblem of the Rurik or later Romanov family.

If the Grand Duke is the solidified amber of power, then the "Prince" is the flowing mercury. In the German system, the distinction between Fürst (lord prince) and Prinz (blood prince) is as clear as the two sides of the Elbe River - the former is a feudal lord with real estate (such as the Prince of Liechtenstein), and the latter is only a proof of royal blood (such as the Prince of Prussia). This difference is often smoothed out in Chinese translation, just like calling "Wan Hu Hou" and "Crown Prince" "Your Highness", which is actually problematic.

As for the British royal family's "Prince of Wales", it shows another dimension: it is both a ladder of advancement exclusively for the crown prince and a symbolic rule of the conqueror over the annexed land. Similar to this is the title of "Prince of Asturias" for the Spanish crown prince, which I will not analyze one by one here.

However, this kind of title actually reached its peak in Tsarist Russia only after the reforms of Peter the Great - when the Tsar bestowed the title of "Grand Duke" on every royal heir, he actually created a royal aura that was more prevalent than that in Central and Western Europe.

But no matter what, when the Ming army's iron hooves rolled westward along the Oka River and into Moscow with the flags of the Polish White Eagle and the Russian Double-headed Eagle, any existing rules were like shattered glass in the face of unparalleled violence.

When Erdemutu was unwilling to revoke his order, the Tsar had no choice but to issue an edict of "special permission", announcing that Alexei Stroganov would become the only "Grand Duke" who was not a member of the royal family in the Russian Tsardom because of his "great contribution" of "smashing the Polish shackles".

Of course, in contrast, this Grand Duke not only had a status "like that of a royal family", but also retained his fiefdom, the Grand Duchy of Suzdal.

"The Stroganov family can apply for Ming Dynasty goods first," Alexei pulled out a special charter with two seals, "but they are not allowed to monopolize it. They must give at least half to other families."

He glanced at the handsome and extraordinary young man from the Shuisky family whose face changed slightly, and said calmly, "Count Gorokhovets, if you can learn to taste Wuyi rock tea elegantly with a Yu porcelain teacup, I will personally present you with the trade license next month."

The young man called "Count Gorokhovets" clenched his fist under the table, but his face was calm and he nodded: "Thank you, Grand Duke of Suzdal, I will learn it soon." Alexi smiled gently and said no more. What he didn't know was that this young man named Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin Shuisky was not a simple person. In the original history, it was he who led the army to conquer a large area controlled by False Dmitry I and finally entered Moscow, allowing his uncle to secure his position.

However, precisely because of his great military achievements and the increasing number of troops following him, his uncle became worried that he would pose a threat to himself, and secretly plotted to have him killed.

What's funny is that due to the death of Mikhail Skopin Shuisky, the strongest general of the Shuisky faction, Shuisky, who later became Vasily IV, temporarily secured the throne of Tsar, but was no longer able to resist the invasion. He was eventually defeated by the army of Polish King Sigismund III a few years later and was annihilated by the Polish army in the Battle of Klushino.

Then the Polish army arrived at Moscow, and Shuisky announced his abdication. Moscow opened the city and surrendered. After entering the city, the Polish army imprisoned Shuisky and then escorted him to Poland. In 1612, Shuisky was killed in Gostenin Castle, 130 miles away from Warsaw.

By the way, the Shuisky family is actually a branch of the Rurik family. To some extent, they can be considered royal aristocrats, but their blood relationship is a bit distant. Of course, they are still much better than Liu Bei, the "descendant of King Jing of Zhongshan". At least his family is still a noble family with fiefdoms, and they entered the "Boyar Duma Council" during the reign of Tsar Godunov.

At the palace banquet at noon, the fake…er, the fake word was removed, and Dmitri I’s golden crown was paired with a Ming-style ochre-yellow ribbon for the first time, and the Jingdezhen blue-and-white lotus-patterned tableware in front of him reflected the candlelight. When the cream-braised venison was replaced with a Ming-style porcelain plate, and when the copper spoon for borscht (red vegetable soup) was replaced with a celadon spoon, the chief eunuch sang: “Welcome to the Holy Statue of the Great Ming Emperor!”

The Tsar stood up and led all the nobles to bow to the portrait of Zhu Yijun hanging on the main seat - this was a newly added etiquette part. Zhu Yijun in the portrait was wearing a royal robe, with his hands behind his back and looking far ahead, looking extremely majestic and sacred.

As for why it is the portrait of Zhu Yijun instead of the new emperor Taichang, young Emperor Zhu Changhao... Well, because Erdemutu had not yet met the new emperor, he did not know what the current emperor looked like and could not give any instructions to the painter. He had to make do with a portrait of the previous emperor.

"This is to express my gratitude to my benefactor," the Tsar's voice echoed in the dome, "If the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty had not sent heavenly soldiers to rescue us, we would have become Polish serfs by now."

The nobles copied the bowing etiquette of the Ming Dynasty exactly, but their bowing angles were different. Only the children of the Stroganov family bent the deepest - they knew that a large number of purchase orders for the family caravan were in the sleeves of the head of the family, Alexi, and the family's current status relied on the deterrence and support of the Ming Dynasty's soldiers.

During the banquet, Alexei showed off the newly arrived Yu porcelain tea set, the rose purple glaze flowing under the light: "This is a tribute from Yuzhou in the Ming Dynasty. There are only five sets in Russia. His Majesty the Tsar has given three sets to the three adults who bowed most standardly today."

Soon, the news spread outside the Kremlin, and wealthy merchants in Moscow began to snap up Ming-style goods. Fur traders in Novgorod sewed sable fur into Ming-style Taoist robes, Tatar craftsmen in Kazan imitated the patterns of Jingdezhen porcelain painting to make Easter eggs, and even the signs of street taverns began to use Chinese characters to write the word "wine".

The guys from the Stroganov Trading Company went from street to street, selling the "three-piece set for advancement" to the small and medium-sized nobles: Hanfu, Yu porcelain, and Wuyi tea - "The assessment of the Boyar Academy depends on these details," they said.

Late at night in the academy's teaching room, Prince Boris was revising the textbook. This former nobleman, who had been fascinated by Eastern culture since childhood and thus received the title of "Prince", was combining the etiquette clauses in the Ming Dynasty Code written by Gao Youshi with the rituals of the Orthodox Church, trying to come up with a "Han ritual system with Russian characteristics".

He suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves coming from outside the window. It was the arrival of the Ming army caravan. The silk boxes on the carriage were printed with the famous "Book and Sword" emblem of Beijing. These goods will be distributed to the nobles who pass the assessment tomorrow. Whether they pass the assessment or not, he, the newly-minted Prince Boris, has a lot of say...

Alexei stood on the top floor of the academy, looking at the Ming-style lanterns gradually lighting up all over the city. The recitations of the boyars mixed with the Orthodox evening prayers came from different directions. He touched the Qilin patch on his chest and was suddenly speechless - when the nobles studied Han etiquette for the grade of the patch, when the merchants were proud of owning Ming porcelain, when the tsar bowed in front of the portrait of the Ming emperor as a routine, the conquest of the Ming Dynasty may have been replaced by pens, ink and tea cups instead of swords and guns.

And those three boyar academies, like three seeds, grew hybrid flowers of power on Russian soil: on the surface they had branches and leaves of Orthodoxy, but their roots were entangled with Ming-style veins.

Alexei knew that when these noble sons set out on the trade route with the "Ming Dynasty Trade License" and when the animal patterns on the patches became the key to promotion, the so-called Russian tradition had already quietly tilted towards the East in the fragrance of tea and the rhyme of ink.

Is this a good or bad thing for Russia? Alexei didn't know, he just felt a little emotional. However, he quickly recovered his spirits - whether it is good or bad for Russia is none of my business, as long as it is good for the Stroganov family, that's all.

He couldn't help but think that there were always rumors among the people that the Stroganov family had Tatar blood, which was considered a shame by the family in the past, but now... should I consider changing my surname to a Chinese one? Forget it, let's not rush it and wait until we are sure that the Ming army can help Russia resist the Polish retaliation.

The snow was getting heavier and heavier. On the bronze door knocker in front of the academy, the ice flowers melted and condensed, gradually forming a pattern similar to the Taotie pattern. Alexei turned and walked into the warm room. On the desk was a newly arrived Ming-style Datong calendar. Next to the words "Taichang Year 2", it was marked in Russian as "Kaihua Year 1" - it was said that this was the reign title personally determined by Prime Minister Gao Youshi for His Majesty Tsar Dmitry I, which made the Russian nobles mistakenly believe that they were a civilization on par with the Ming Dynasty, but they did not know that they had already walked into the cultural web woven by the East.
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