I'm really not doing business

Chapter 1044 The Martyrdom of Marion, Grand Patriarch of the Great Light Church
"What good thoughts are you having? You want to go to Fengyang to farm?" Zhu Yijun smiled. Feng Bao could take turns serving the emperor with Li Yougong, or he could be an old matriarch in the palace, but he couldn't go to Fengyang. Otherwise, he would become a weakness of His Majesty the Emperor.

Having served the emperor for twenty-one years, he had acquired far too many secrets, which meant he could never leave the palace.

Farming in Fengyang was the final destination for most Ming Dynasty eunuchs in their old age, but it was by no means the final destination for these ancestors; they could only grow old and die in the palace.

"Then I'll leave it all to Your Majesty's arrangements." Feng Bao smiled upon hearing this. He was actually acting, after all, he was a veteran actor who had spent his whole life in the industry. However, this kind of act could be seen through at a glance. In fact, he was testing His Majesty to see if His Majesty would protect him.

“You are a meritorious official of the Reform Movement. If you go to Fengyang, how will you be buried in Jinshan Cemetery? Then temporarily take turns with Li Yougong. You can also mentor him. He is a bit too young and impetuous.” Zhu Yijun made the arrangement, which was both an arrangement and a promise.

Feng Bao was a meritorious official of the Wanli Reforms, and Zhu Yijun never intended to make things difficult for Feng Bao because of his youthful past.

Once or twice is not enough. Feng Bao did not relapse and made things difficult for the meritorious officials, which would only make his friends feel sad and his enemies happy.

"Your Majesty, I obey your decree and thank you for your great favor." Upon receiving the Emperor's promise, Feng Bao immediately beamed with joy, and even the eunuch's lingering gloom dissipated somewhat.

Eunuchs were the emperor's servants. If they wanted to be remembered in history and become virtuous eunuchs, they had to share in the emperor's merits. The emperor obviously didn't care about these merits, or rather, the emperor never cared much about his posthumous reputation.

Feng Baozhen really wanted to be a virtuous official, just as he himself said, "There are only so many things in life: fame and fortune."

As for Li, having controlled the imperial estate, he was never short of money. Moreover, the people of the Ming Dynasty all pursued lasting fame, and as long as the world did not forget him, he would live on in their hearts.

“Li Yashi has written an article.” Feng Bao presented a miscellaneous newspaper to the emperor and said with a complicated expression, “Dr. Lin Fucheng said: Li Yashi is extremely obsequious.”

"Oh?" Zhu Yijun picked up the newspaper and looked at it for a long time. The newspaper was bilingual in Latin and Chinese, and the title was: "The darkness before dawn is so long that it makes people despair."

After reading the miscellaneous report, Zhu Yijun found that it was indeed as Lin Fucheng had described, filled with sycophancy.

Taixi technology stagnated for a long time. From 2,400 years ago, when there were legendary stories, until 1,200 years ago, the entire Taixi region could not even produce pig iron, nor could it manufacture long swords longer than two feet.

After the division and fall of Rome, from 1100 to 100 years ago, there were no advanced technologies, techniques, or theories until the Renaissance began a hundred years ago, when mathematics began to be valued.

At the same time, achievements in metal forging and smelting, such as pig iron, cast iron, malleable cast iron, ductile cast iron, sandwich steel method, frying steel method, blast furnace, and blower, have emerged on this land in China.

Excellent and convenient textile machinery such as slant looms, jacquard looms, hand-cranked spinning wheels, foot-operated spinning wheels, vertical looms, and double-spindle spinning wheels emerged. These machines were ingenious and complex, and even the most skilled Western craftsmen today cannot replicate them. The lowest efficiency of these tools is 60 times that of hand weaving.

Multi-tube seeders, watermills, curved plows, and other agricultural machinery appeared. The agricultural machinery described in agricultural books is as vast as an ocean. They had even popularized animal-powered farming more than 3,000 years ago.

The latest oracle bone inscriptions show that as early as the Shang Dynasty, livestock were already domesticated, and these domesticated animals were wealthy enough to be used for sacrificial purposes.

Even today, the entire western region still relies on labor-intensive hand-weaving and manual sowing, and most ordinary people still live in darkness.

Throughout history, from legend to the present day, the ruling class in the West has remained the aristocracy, who have the power of life and death over commoners.

These nobles passed on their power through bloodlines and marriage alliances. The ugly custom of consanguineous marriage among royalty and nobility caused the curse of hemophilia to linger over the West.

From legend to the present day, the West has not evolved a system for selecting officials through examinations. Any commoner who wants to achieve a breakthrough in social class can only engage in religious industries or fight continuously on the battlefield to gain a chance to survive.

Meanwhile, China began establishing a public health system a very long time ago, and at some unknown time, it had a collective experience of prohibiting marriage between people with the same surname, preventing the proliferation of evil, and ensuring that men and women with the same surname would not have offspring. Moreover, it gradually established a complete system for selecting officials and talents through examinations amidst swords, blood, and fire.

These experiences have been passed down from generation to generation without interruption to this day.

Serfdom existed for a long time, and people living in the Ming Dynasty found it difficult to understand how terrible it was.

Serfs were required to cultivate land for landlords without pay and to perform labor services. Commoners had almost no chance of receiving an education. Only nobles, clergy, and their apprentices were able to receive literacy education. It can be said that the entire Western world was almost entirely illiterate.

Production resources such as mills and ovens were once monopolized by landlords, who also possessed independent judicial power and could disregard all laws and punish serfs at will.

Even the landlords, local gentry, and other powerful figures in the Ming Dynasty had to take advantage of natural disasters to create man-made calamities in order to annex land. This process of annexation was extremely lengthy, taking the Ming Dynasty two hundred years to complete. Even after the annexation was completed, the landlords, local gentry, and other powerful figures still could not control the life and death of their tenants. Even demanding annual gifts could trigger riots that led to the breaching of city walls.

The rebellion of the Tianbing in Ninghua, Ruijin, and Ningdu counties still shocked me to the point of almost being speechless. It was on that day that I finally realized the complete difference between the Ming Dynasty and the West, and understood what the Mughal envoy Shah Maimaiti said: the Ming Dynasty had no nobles.

The people of the Ming Dynasty seemed to have an innate belief that murderers should pay with their lives, and that this was the natural order of things. Even the nobles of the Ming Dynasty could not kill civilians at will, and even His Majesty the Emperor needed a warrant to legally and legitimately carry out a killing.

Agricultural production in the West was extremely backward. It wasn't until four hundred years ago that a tenancy system appeared in a very small number of places in the West, where farmers were paid a meager, negligible amount of labor compensation.

Due to the lack of iron, agricultural tools were extremely scarce, resulting in very low agricultural output. Farmers had no planting experience, and each planting attempt involved clearing land, creating an endless cycle between clearing and abandoning the land.

In the West, the sale of official positions was so prevalent that no one considered this practice wrong or something that needed to be corrected.

For a small reward, one can obtain a permanent official position; for a small amount of tax, one can abuse one's power without restraint to seek personal gain. And everyone considers this perfectly legitimate and reasonable, and silently endures these hardships.

The Dutch East India Company has recently come into the view of the Ming Dynasty. Officials of the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty were quite surprised that it could exist beyond the established order by paying only a small amount of tax.

Western laws are extremely chaotic. I communicated with officials from the Ministry of Rites about the various Western legal codes. The contents of these codes left the Ming Dynasty officials speechless and completely unable to understand how absurd divine judgments and the practice of whipping vagrants could not provoke resistance.

I tried my best to explain to my colleagues that we Westerners were rebelling, and the Dutch were rebelling against this ignorance and this brutal and bloody rule.

However, this kind of resistance is not widespread.

In the West, the law was a tool to thoroughly and completely uphold feudal privileges, church authority, and oppress the common people. But this was not the case in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty used the law to shape a collective consensus in society, which they called public order and good customs.

In the Ming Dynasty, the adjudication of major criminal cases required seven types of evidence, including confessions, witness testimonies, documentary evidence, and physical evidence. The trial also required on-site inspections, examination of corpses and injuries, and examination of murder weapons. What was most surprising was that if one was dissatisfied with the verdict, one could actually appeal to a higher level.

Difficult cases even required a procedure involving joint adjudication by the senators of the Senate, which the Ming Dynasty called the "Nine Ministers' Round Discussion."

What's even more surprising is that all the senators in the Senate were of commoner origin! This is because nobles were not allowed to participate in the imperial examinations.

Even though the laws were not universally obeyed, and even though some local officials relied on their own judgment rather than the law to adjudicate cases, the laws of the Ming Dynasty still allowed people to live like human beings.

Today, the morning star has risen at dawn, and Patriarch Marion, with her own life, has brought the wisdom of the Ming Dynasty from the East to the West.

Once the existence of light is known, darkness can no longer be tolerated.

...]

This article is very long, discussing the differences between the West and the Ming Dynasty from multiple aspects, including technology, labor relations, talent selection, industrial and agricultural production, law, and political system.

The darkness before dawn may seem like the light is just around the corner, but it is also the darkest time.

The morning star has risen, and Li Yashi believes that the widespread dissemination of the Great Light Church will bring tremendous changes to Taixi.

Li Yashi had completely taken on the appearance of a scholar-official. Of course, he noticed the possibility of being unaccustomed to the local environment, but he thought that such a problem was insignificant compared to the harm caused by the darkness.

"Isn't he, Li Yashi, a devout Catholic? He vowed never to marry for his faith, and now he's converted to the Church of the Great Light? He sounds just like those priests of the Church of the Great Light." Zhu Yijun finished reading the article.

Knowing the light means being unable to tolerate darkness; this is entirely a doctrine of the Great Light Cult.

Feng Bao said with a smile, "He's a follower of the Great Light Cult now. Didn't King Henry of France just demonstrate what faith is all about?"

“Indeed.” Zhu Yijun chuckled. Henry IV’s conversion to Christianity had garnered widespread support; this faith was like a prostitute’s belt—a bit too loose.

Léaš's article can be used as a manifesto of ideological colonization. He wrote it in Latin in the hope that it would be sent back to the West and bring about enough change. He also wrote it as a tribute to Marion, who may have already died.

Marion was more courageous than Ricardo; Marion chose to die, becoming a torch to illuminate the path for those who followed.

Li Yashi hid in the Ming Dynasty, living a life of ignominy and enjoying peace.

The Ming Dynasty is busy dealing with the celestial changes. The Ming Dynasty has its own underlying logic: if the court cannot lead the people to safely overcome the celestial changes, it will lose the Mandate of Heaven.

This was incomprehensible to the people of Lijiashi in the past. Wasn't disaster a punishment from God? Those who suffered from disasters were all sinful people. Why should people go to rescue them? Why should the court bear the responsibility?

Now Li Yashi fully understands that the Ming emperor is alive and can be judged, but God cannot be judged.

Ricardo believed Marion was dead, but at that moment, Marion, imprisoned in the Bastille, was still alive.

Her condition was extremely poor. During the defense of Great Bright City, she fought bravely and suffered multiple fractures throughout her body. Her left hand had completely lost its mobility, and her right leg had a half-foot-long wound that was so deep that the bone was visible. Her chief physician stitched up the wound and applied wood ash to it.

Her lips had completely lost their color, and her hair was disheveled, losing its former luster, making her look more like a demon. However, her expression was unusually peaceful as she leaned against the cold stone wall, looking at the light shining through the small skylight.

She loves light, and she loves the feeling of light shining on her body.

The Bastille, built a hundred years ago to defend against the English invasion of France during the Hundred Years' War, is located in front of the city gates of Paris and originally existed as a military fortress.

As the city of Paris expanded, the Bastille gradually became the king's prison, specifically for detaining criminals of all kinds. It was also the highest point in all of Paris.

After Henry IV captured the seriously wounded Marion, he had Marion's chief physician treat her. This physician had studied at the Imperial University of Peking in the Ming Dynasty for four years and was trained by Marion herself at a cost of ten thousand taels of silver for her studies.

Marion's fate was a very difficult question for Henry IV, who was even unwilling to send his own court apothecary to treat her.

If Henry's apothecary had killed Marion, the followers of the Great Light Church would surely have believed that Henry had secretly executed Marion.

Fanatics of any religion are not to be trifled with, let alone the even more fanatical Great Light Cult.

Henry IV witnessed firsthand the fanaticism of the Cult of the Great Light. Marion had already sent almost all the missionaries out of the Great Light, leaving only the Knights of Freedom, honorable for their faith, to face the destruction of the Great Light.

However, all the priests who received the news unanimously chose to return to the City of Light and perish with it.

Martyrdom is the most fervent and sincere expression of faith.

Henry IV defeated the Knights Free, but after the battle, he felt he had lost completely.

If Marie Antoinette were to die, Henry IV would become a target of fanatical assassinations, and with the French court riddled with flaws, he would never have a moment of peace. Therefore, Henry IV preferred to have Marie Antoinette's chief physician and several saints present to treat her rather than send his own court apothecary.

"Open the door! This is the Patriarch. I want to see how she differs from other women." A voice broke the silence of the Bastille.

Argumentation erupted outside the cell, and soon after, a clattering sound rang out as the cell door slowly opened.

Rob Spear walked into the cell, his neck held high, revealing the ruched collar around his neck, like a proud swan.

"What a pitiful woman, she doesn't even have clothes." Spear looked at Marion's figure. To make it easier to treat her injuries, Marion was only covered with a linen cloth, which was simple but very clean.

The wise prophet told Marion that cleanliness is the key to avoiding disease, and that the more one is injured or ill, the more one should keep clean.

"Who are you?" Marion asked calmly.

"Robb Spiel, you must have heard of me. I am a member of the Committee of Sixteen in Paris. Without the support of our Committee of Sixteen, Henry IV could not have become the new King of France, nor could he have entered Paris," Spiel said proudly, puffing out his chest.

Marion thought carefully, but the blood loss made her mind less sharp, and it took her a while to remember who the person was.

"Is this the Spearman who contracted syphilis from soliciting prostitutes, causing his neck and calves to ulcerate, forcing him to wear ruffled collars and high boots to cover the ulcers, and to use perfume to mask the putrid stench, earning him the nickname 'Ugly Spear'?"

“Oh, right, you’re still a lackey of Felipe II, and you’re supposed to be working with the Duke of Mayen to bring France back to the Lord’s embrace.” Marion’s tone was very calm as she stated what she remembered.

This man was very famous in Paris. He contracted a disease from prostitution, and syphilis caused his neck and calves to rot.

In 1582, Philip II attacked France in an attempt to interfere in the succession to the French throne, but was defeated by Henry IV.

The Duke of Mayen was a traitor to France, and Robespierre was extremely close to the Duke of Mayen. Parisians said that once the Spanish magnum arrived in Paris, Spear would open the city gates and surrender.

"You!" Spear was furious. He took a step forward and said angrily, "You're finished! I'm telling you, whoever comes today, I'm going to see how you, the Patriarch, are any different from those Parisian prostitutes!"

Marion lost interest in talking and looked towards the skylight. Spear had kept her from sunbathing, which was the only half hour of sunshine she had each day.

"Why aren't you afraid?" Spear was even more furious.

Marion completely ignored him; he could do whatever he wanted. She was already seriously injured and couldn't resist. She didn't even have the strength to commit suicide.

As for why she wasn't afraid? She wasn't even afraid of death.

Just as Spear was about to approach, he heard hurried footsteps.

“Rob Spear, by the King’s decree, I order you to leave immediately!” A man as majestic as a lion walked into the cell, drew his sword, and pointed it at the other man.

The warlike King Henry IV of France arrived at the Bastille.

For various reasons, he always had his sword with him. At a critical moment, he saved Marion and protected her from harassment.

"Hmph!" Spear's eyes flickered repeatedly before he finally left the cell.

Once Spear was gone, only Henry and Marion remained in the cell.

"A boring trick." Marion was somewhat disappointed. The sunlight had already left, and her expression became even more unpleasant.

Marion wasn't stupid; she clearly knew that Henry IV had arrived long ago and was waiting outside, ready to win people's hearts.

“What a troublesome fellow!” Henry, seeing his plan fail, was not annoyed. He sat down in a chair and looked at Marion, saying, “I’ve brought you here to seek your cooperation. I will create a disturbance after you recover.”

"After you are released from prison during the riots, you can continue to lead the Great Light priests in missionary work. I will issue a decree of light, allowing the Great Light Church to spread in France. You can continue to kill those nobles."

"As you can see, these nobles don't seem to respect me, the king. I ordered that no one should disturb your rest, but Spear still came."

Marion then said with some surprise, "You are really bold. You want a very expensive fur coat, which means you want to sit on the throne and have everyone obey your orders. No one will dare to disobey your orders. But you are talking to the devil. In the Ming Dynasty, this is called asking a tiger for its skin."

Human beings have an insatiable desire for power. When they are not kings, they want to be kings. When they become kings, they feel that their subjects are not obedient enough and that the power of the nobles is too great.

Henry IV smiled, a wry smile, for he saw disgust in Marion's eyes.

Henry shook his head and said, "Perhaps. Although I am a nobleman, my mother's ambition has caused me endless suffering."

“I grew up in a mountain village in Béarn, which you may not know, a very remote village where there was only hard, inedible black bread, murky, cold water, and linen clothes that couldn’t cover our stomachs.”

“Back then, I swore that one day, when I became king, I would make sure that every farmer in France had a chicken in his pot, because that was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted as a child.”

"I hope we can cooperate. As for the throne, if you are truly powerful enough to defeat me, I can give it to you."

“I don’t think you can do it. I defeated ten large phalanx legions of Felipe with only three thousand men, a total of thirty thousand men.”

“I am strong, and I am not afraid of your threat to the throne. If the Church of the Great Light can truly bring light to France, I do not mind if the Church of the Great Light becomes the state religion.”

“You know, I was a Protestant, but I’ve converted to Catholicism now. I can talk about it; I can also believe in the Church of the Great Light.”

Marion understood Henry IV's meaning: Henry IV needed a knife to deal with those disobedient nobles, so that he could go further and become the true King of France.

Having witnessed the supreme power of the Ming emperor, Henry IV naturally could not tolerate being hampered by the nobility, who even plotted to betray France and side with Spain, thus bringing France back into the Lord's embrace.

“You might succeed, but that person will definitely not be me,” Marion said, shaking her head. “I’m going to die.”

"Even the medical students trained by the Ming Dynasty can't save you?" Henry IV asked in astonishment.

Marion said with a mix of amusement and exasperation, "They're medical students, not omnipotent divine messengers."

What the two of them said was completely irrelevant.

Henry IV clearly had a deep misunderstanding of the Church of the Great Light, a misunderstanding stemming from believing rumors that the Great Light was omnipotent and could even heal such a serious injury.

"But I've heard that Neapolitan disease can be cured in the Ming Dynasty, as well as smallpox." Henry IV unconsciously spread his hands and asked, "Isn't the emperor of the Ming Dynasty an omniscient and omnipotent god walking among men?"

“Uh…” Marion was taken aback, but quickly understood.

This is what makes the Great Light Cult different; it relies on human wisdom rather than divine power.

Neapolitan disease, or syphilis, is a disease that no one knows how this incurable scourge came about. Italians and Germans called it the French disease, the French called it the Neapolitan disease, the Rus' called it the Polish disease, and the Poles called it the German disease.

This virus spreads widely in the West through filthy environments and prostitution.

"Is there no way to cure the Neapolitan disease in the Ming Dynasty?" Henry IV asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Yes, it can be cured." Marion answered the question with great certainty. Her chief physician had studied medicine in the Ming Dynasty for four years and had personally witnessed the use of brine to treat tuberculosis. He had also read the medical books written by the chief physicians and knew that it could indeed be cured.

This virus spread throughout the world along the Grand Exploration Route. In the fourteenth year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty, the Songjiang Prefecture Medical School first discovered this disease that terrified Westerners.

The Songjiang Prefectural Government, which had been hesitant, decisively closed all brothels, completely banned the legal existence of prostitution, and cracked down on clandestine prostitution.

Soon, coastal towns of the Ming Dynasty followed Songjiang Prefecture's lead, banning brothels and requiring all Ming Yi people entering the country to undergo repeated checks to prevent the spread of the disease at its source.

In those days, those who could afford to frequent brothels were all powerful and wealthy people, local gentry and elites. Poor people and laborers could only afford a quick meal. The terrible nature of this imported disease made the powerful and wealthy people immediately agree with the government's ban and implement it swiftly.

People cherish their lives, especially those suffering from such a shameful disease.

The Ming Dynasty has a medicine that can cure mild syphilis. Old brine can suppress symptoms before the syphilis buds have grown too large, and long-term use can cure it.

However, the old brine is extremely precious. There are only three official factories for microbial engineering, which are too small in scale. Even the public pharmacies in various prefectures of the Ming Dynasty do not have many bottles of old brine.

“Isn’t that God?” Henry IV immediately said matter-of-factly, “I understand correctly.”

“This is human wisdom, not a miracle!” Marion weakly retorted, correcting Henry IV’s statement once again.

"You can't die. If you die, those fanatics will definitely try every means to assassinate me." Henry IV looked at Marion's extremely weak appearance and asked with slight urgency, "Is there anything I can do?"

Even if Marion wrote a will saying she died in battle, it was useless. Marion also ordered the priests to leave the Great City of Light and not to come back, but those priests still came back to their deaths.

“His Majesty bestowed upon me twelve bottles of old brine, which I was given to save my life, but I have already used them all up. I can’t be saved, so don’t bother trying to find a solution.” Marion said calmly, “I can only wish you good luck.”

"Then could this holy water be found in the Portuguese royal palace?" Henry IV thought of a possibility; he had never suffered such a great loss in his life.

The battle at Great Bright City was more painful to win than to lose. I wish I hadn't fought it!

“Time is running out.” Marion gave a bleak smile. Even if Antonio were to give it to her and bring it back to Paris, there wouldn’t be enough time.

Three days later, Marion died in the Bastille.

Seven days later, the remaining clergy of the Great Light Church, enraged to the extreme, launched a riot and stormed the Bastille.

The priests retrieved the Patriarch's body and, following his last instructions, threw it into the fire, burned it to ashes, placed it in a box, wrapped it in the last linen cloth to cover the body, and sent it to Lisbon.

His Highness Antonio had promised that if Marion sacrificed herself for the light, her belongings would be returned to the Ming Dynasty to rest in peace.

(End of this chapter)