Great Qing Dynasty talker

Chapter 616: 33 Fleets of Cultural Export

Champs Elysees.

Jiangnan Teahouse.

This is a new social place favored by middle-class gentlemen in Paris, with an elegant environment and expensive consumption.
The tea menu is printed in both Chinese and French.

The waiter only speaks Chinese.

The slogan for Jiangnan Teahouse in the newspaper is: "A gentleman's day starts with drinking tea."

……

Veteran lawyer Harun is a frequent visitor here.

On the tea table, water was boiling over a low fire.

Pour away the tea brewed the first time.

The tea pet changes color slightly.

The second time, pour the tea into the small tea cups in front of you. Don't fill them too full, which is in line with Eastern wisdom.

Add a little sugar and life will be sweeter.

Brown sugar is hot and spicy, while white sugar is subtle. Choose according to your mood.

After completing the self-service tea-making process, Harun stretched out two fingers to gently pick up the teacup, brought it to his mouth, closed his eyes slightly, and felt the taste of the tea going down his throat.

He even blurted out a sentence in unstandard Chinese that he had learned from the newspaper:

"Underground!"

The woman playing the piano paused for a moment, nodded in approval. After all, a customer who didn't spend several hundred francs couldn't call it "authentic".

……

An unknown writer said:
Excellent culture is like the Black Death, highly contagious and can spread from Paris to Vienna in just one month.

A classic passed down from person to person.

I drank half a pot of tea~
Harlan leaned back in his chair and looked up to admire the brush calligraphy on the walls and a few Chinese paintings that hovered between art and obscenity.

He liked the tea set in the store, which was different from the one he had at home.

Then he shouted in a strange tone:
"Waiter."

The waiter came over and bowed slightly:

"Sir, what do you need?"

"I want this." Harun gestured.

The waiter understood.

From the glass display case in the store, he took out a set of Yang Corporation's "Jasmine" brand tea sets, exactly the same as the ones Harlan used.

"Sir, Sheng Hui, I'll give you 50 francs."

……

Seriously, this is expensive.

Even the middle class can hardly afford it.

But Harun still insisted on taking his "favorite thing" home, which is called "a good horse deserves a good saddle" or "original soup turns into original food."

Obviously, these two concepts have been deliberately generalized and gradually moved towards consumerism.

Earl Jia’s slogan is to let every gentleman in Europe live a decent new life in the East.

The main battlefields are London and Paris.

Forget about Berlin. The rigid Junker military aristocrats used any money they had to save up for arms. They were keen on brewing their own wine and had little consumption potential.

Can't be fooled.

A bunch of poor bastards.

……

Amsterdam is nice and has strong spending power.

The most unexpected one is St. Petersburg. Although it is a marginal city in Europe, the consumption willingness is very strong. And they are not picky. They can sell any goods shipped there.

The rich people in St. Petersburg may be a little inferior and vain, so they like to earn face by spending money.

In the heart of Earl Jia,

Primary market: London, Paris, Amsterdam
Secondary markets: Vienna, Lisbon, Madrid
Third-tier markets: Warsaw, Berlin, St. Petersburg

Although St. Petersburg’s purchasing power is not bad, it is still classified as a tertiary market and new products are definitely not available there.

……

In recent years, Wu's foreign trade goods have flowed into Europe in large quantities, first to the nobility, then to the middle class, and now have begun to enter the homes of ordinary citizens.

Parisians joked:

At the beginning~
I just have an extra jar of tea at home.

Gradually, my home added ceramic tea sets, a small huanghuali tea table, tea pets, a small brass tea stove, crab silver charcoal, incense, and a Suzhou embroidery carpet.

At first, I just wanted to take a couple of sips of tea.

Later, a Grand View Garden was added to the house.

Last year I was still a Parisian, this year I have become half Jiangnan.

There are more and more things in my house, and my wallet is getting thinner and thinner.

But even though they complain, it doesn't affect their speed of spending money. There's nothing you can do about it, Parisians just love to eat fine food.

……

Arrived at home.

Harun changed into an embroidered dressing gown and sat in the study reading the latest issue of the Eiffel newspaper.

Nickname of the Eiffel Newspaper: "Oriental Cargo Newspaper".

Every page is filled with the lifestyle of the Eastern middle class.

From gardens to architecture, from clothing to incense, from furniture to the four treasures of the study, from health culture to brothel culture.

Today is particularly outrageous, as I actually went to great lengths to introduce the Feng Shui and divination of the "Book of Changes".

Harun looked at it very carefully.

Because his career has been stagnant for a long time.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

"Oh, my beautiful lady, I suspect there is something wrong with the feng shui of my house."

“What is Feng Shui?”

"You can understand it as the core culture of Eastern architecture, 7% is science and 3% is metaphysics."

……

His wife, who was wearing the same embroidered nightgown as him, was stunned and nodded:

"Sounds reasonable."

"That's right. Get some paper and pen ready. I'm going to write a letter to the newspaper, asking where I can find a Feng Shui master. Damn it, Feng Shui is hindering my career advancement."

Harun drank the remaining tea in one gulp and began to write a letter.

His wife took out previous issues of the Eiffel Newspaper and continued to read about health culture.

The author kept emphasizing:

Men need to maintain their health, and women need to maintain their health even more. In the East, there is even a special health science that was born as a supplement to medicine.

Finally, various cutting-edge health products are introduced.

Dear readers, I recommend you to buy jade ruyi, donkey-hide gelatin, and ginseng.

For middle-class readers, it is recommended to buy deer antlers and bellybands~
For ordinary readers, it is recommended to drink more hot water.

……

The Eiffel newspaper, in which Earl Jia has a stake, devotes at least 7% of its daily pages to introducing "Soviet civilization". Its sales are rising steadily, and it has become a must-have for the middle class.

The quality of newspaper paper has been upgraded.

Printing technology upgrade.

The layout is rich in content.

The selling price has not changed.

Lord Jia, the pirated bookseller, finally returned to his original business.

The effect was significant, and even the upper class began to pay attention to the Eiffel News.

A certain earl complained in his small circle:
“Although these poor (middle class) people don’t have much money in their pockets, they know a lot.”

……

Tea, silk, porcelain.

Health preservation, Feng Shui (divination), and brothels.

Together they form the invisible "33 Fleet".

Chasici is a fast frigate and serves as a vanguard.

Yang Fengqing is a battleship, and entering the battlefield means victory.

Tea, Silk and Porcelain promote material culture, while Yangfengqing promotes intangible culture. The former makes money, while the latter wins hearts.

……

if,

You are a small citizen with some assets, and you want to show your status and distinguish yourself from the poor. What should you do? A set of imported porcelain, and make some tea at the door every now and then.

if,

You are an elderly nobleman. What do you desire most? The answer is to prolong your life. This is in line with health preservation.

if,

You became famous at a young age and your career is going well. What do you like most? Of course, sensual pleasures. And the brothel.

if,

You are a mediocre person who has reached a bottleneck in your career. Do you think the reason for your career stagnation is that you are not working hard enough or that you are just unlucky?
The answer is obvious. I am talented, but the goddess of fate has not favored me. It is against Feng Shui.

if,

You are a textile worker in a difficult situation, and you don't see any hope in life. Fortune telling will bring you a ray of hope.

Excellent culture must be targeted at human nature.

Unknowingly, Wu Ting exported a lot of material and intangible culture to Europe.

……

Marilyn, the daughter of a shoemaker living in a slum in Paris, accidentally picked up an outdated copy of the Eiffel newspaper discarded by a customer.

She was so moved by the "freedom" advocated above that she began to have some fantasies.

So she borrowed some money from the little gardener next door who admired her, bought a stamp and wrote a reader's letter.

In the letter:

She wrote at length about the sadness of being born into a poor shoemaker's family despite her natural beauty, and her yearning for freedom.

Half a month later, she had completely forgotten about it. Parisian women are like this, their feelings come and go quickly.

Seasons change, hobbies change.

Of course, this includes partners.

……

did not expect,
Instead, the postman delivered a reply from the embassy forwarded by the newspaper.

"~Dear Ms. Marilyn, I have read your letter and feel the same way. Enclosed is 20 francs as a token of my appreciation. As the ancient philosopher said, do not do evil even if it is small, and do not refrain from doing good even if it is small. I hope you will bravely move forward on the road of freedom~"

The signature is: Embassy of Wu State in Paris.

Sixteen-year-old Marilyn read it over and over again, she burst into tears.

I used the money to perm my hair and buy a new dress.

When the brand new girl returned to the dilapidated street, her shoemaker father cursed angrily:

"20 francs!!"

"Do you have to spend it all?"

"Do you know that the price of bread in Paris has been rising? Do you know how many pairs of shoes I have to repair to earn 20 francs?"

……

Marilyn shook her head:
"Father, you don't understand. This is freedom."

The shoemaker yelled angrily:

"Freedom? Are you going to be that kind of woman too?"

"That's enough. Father, you are just a shoemaker. You don't know anything except the soles of shoes."

The quarrel between father and daughter resounded through the sky.

Neighbors opened their windows to watch, and after hearing what was said, many families started quarreling. The conflict between the liberals and conservatives was irreconcilable.

No way~
When a Parisian hears the word freedom, his eyes well up, just like when a Londoner sees a toilet, his eyes light up. It's all the throbbing of the genetic code.

……

This matter reached the ears of Earl Jia.

He made a decisive decision to seize this opportunity to carry out a good publicity.

The next day,

Miss Bovary, the new socialite in Paris, arrived at Marilyn's door in a beautiful carriage.

The two girls met for the first time.

Marilyn continued to wear the same dress for 10 days.

Shabby~
Stubborn
Full of yearning for freedom.

Mademoiselle Bovary bowed gracefully and said to the shoemaker:

"The Wu Embassy in Paris is willing to provide your daughter with a clerical job with a monthly salary of 30 francs. Are you and your daughter willing?"

Marilyn rushed to answer:

"I am willing."

The shoemaker sighed and nodded silently.

He had already guessed the ending.

Marilyn went to work for the embassy and then became a foreigner's mistress, but it was still a hundred times better than being a free woman.

……

After entering the embassy, Marilyn quickly mastered spoken Chinese and chatted happily with the men in the embassy. Parisian women are always very talented in languages.

Life at home has improved.

Her family moved out of the slums and into a medium-sized apartment in Paris, renting for 45 francs a month.

Marilyn's story is talked about by Parisians with great relish.

Countless poor girls spend the whole day strolling around the "Mulang Mall", hoping to turn from a poor girl into a phoenix.

Unfortunately,
There is no second case.

After all, Lord Jia is well aware of one thing - rare examples are used to inspire and promote, not to popularize.

There will never be another Marilyn in Paris.

The current focus is on distributing "charity food".

……

The lords and ladies of Paris cannot bear to see the poor.

Even Lord Jia couldn't stand it.

Every evening, a horse-drawn carriage would leave the embassy and randomly stop at a shabby street in Paris. The carriage would be opened and "charity food" would be distributed for free on the spot.

A double-sweetened baguette with a pinch of tea stems.

But Parisians stubbornly called it "foreign stick" or "Eastern stick" because it was a stick issued by the Orientals.

Once the carriage stopped, a "good" banner was raised.

In an instant, he was surrounded by the crowd.

The food was distributed so quickly that the carriage was empty before I could finish a cup of tea.

Countless Parisians who were a little slow on their feet looked at the Chinese character "善" in frustration, staring at it intently, trying to engrave this Chinese character in their minds and form a conditioned reflex.

Feedback
The shrewd Earl Jia immediately realized that the rebellion of the European people that His Majesty mentioned might very well happen first in Paris.

And his confidante, Countess Sophie, the palace housekeeper, also implicitly acknowledged this fact - public security is deteriorating and speeches are increasing.

Therefore, the kind-hearted Earl Jia gradually increased the daily supply from 200 to 300, 400, and 500.

……

In the winter of that year, the first team of experts sent by Wu Tinggong arrived, including a feng shui master, a fortune teller, a health expert, and a consumer expert.

They are all genuine.

It is a labor service abroad, divided into 30% and 70%. 30% belongs to the individual, and 70% is handed over to the empire~
The first stop is Paris.

When disembarking, the experts were warmly welcomed by tens of thousands of citizens.

A large number of reporters, socialites, and middle-class citizens gathered at the dock.

The next day,

Official "Paris Daily", front page, bold headline: Paris, long awaited civilization.

Eight words, one word for one gold bar.

Sub-edition.

Normal font: Peace in North America is imminent, and Downing Street is undergoing feng shui changes.

The first 8 words are news facts, and the last 8 words are private goods, equivalent to 200 pounds.

Earl Jia single-handedly distorted the European newspaper industry.

……

Although "Paris Daily" represents the official position.

But newspaper editors and reporters also want to have a lavish Christmas.

They discussed it intensely among themselves for a long time and decided to earn the fee from Earl Jia.

Reporting on Eastern civilization does not constitute a loss of professional ethics.

First of all, there is historical basis. The Eastern Empire is old money and the Frank is new money.

Secondly, it has the endorsement of cultural celebrities, such as Mr. Voltaire.

Finally, report based on facts.

The Prime Minister's residence on Downing Street did remove two windows that were damaged by rats and replaced them with new ones. This can be completely classified as a renovation.

In addition, the nobles had close contacts with Earl Jia. This represented the official attitude.
In summary,

Newspapers can praise Eastern civilization.

……

At the call of Count Jia, the embassy and Parisian nobles joined forces to organize a Christmas charity event.

10000 baguettes were distributed for free on site.

A large number of Frankish gendarmes entered the scene to maintain order.

Earl Jia, Queen Mary and dozens of nobles transformed themselves into calligraphers on the spot, holding brushes dipped in gold powder, and writing the word "善" that they had practiced for a long time.

Snowflakes, gold powder~
Cold wind, baguette~
The nobles gained spiritual satisfaction.

Citizens were rewarded with free food.

This is the best time and the worst time.

……

In winter,
Jia Xiaozhen and his entourage strolled around Paris in disguise.

A carriage passed by on the road and the elegant gentleman took off his expensive beaver hat.

Salute from a distance.

A group of exhausted workers who were leaving get off work took off their worn felt hats across the street and shouted:

"Bonjour."

Jia Xiaozhen nodded slightly.

In the distance, a small vendor with a disabled arm gave me a sincere smile.

Jia Xiaozhen walked over, bent down to pick up a crude painting, indicating that he wanted it, and then put down 5 francs.