I was a god in the 18th century

Chapter 542: No Hope, Rebellion Restarts

Qianlong stared at Owen for a long while, but found nothing unusual. He thought he was dazzled, and laughed. He waved at Owen and said, "Are you Owen, the deputy envoy of England? Come forward and let me take a look."

Owen put down his chopsticks, stood up, climbed the stairs, walked to Qianlong's throne and bowed calmly.

Qianlong waved his hand, and a eunuch came forward and gave him a cup of warm imperial wine.

Owen drank it all in one gulp before the emperor.

Qianlong laughed twice and said, "Well, well, you are different from other red-haired people. You can use chopsticks and drink rice wine. Are you really born and raised in England?"

Owen replied: "It's genuine."

"Oh? You also understand the official language of the Qing Dynasty?" Qianlong smiled. This was the first time he heard Owen speak. When he presented gifts before, the interpreter explained it to him and he kept silent.

"Yes, I know a little bit." Owen replied, "I have an Oriental cousin at home, and I learned it from her."

"Oh, are they the people who left the Qing Dynasty?"

Owen replied: "No, it's Ming Dynasty."

When the people below heard Owen mention the Ming Dynasty so loudly, they couldn't help but break into a sweat.

How dare this red-haired guy say anything? Didn't he warn me before coming here not to talk nonsense with the Emperor? !

Qianlong didn't care, he still had some perspective. As an emperor who had firmly established his throne, would he care about a foreign country mentioning the previous dynasty?

Qianlong himself also overturned the verdicts of two famous Ming Dynasty ministers who fought against the Qing Dynasty. They were Xiong Tingbi, who had his head chopped off because the city god did not make it rain as agreed during a drought, and Yuan Chonghuan, who died tragically in a counter-espionage plot.

He reversed the verdict on Yuan Chonghuan as a victor, saying that he did not betray the Ming Dynasty, but that it was the foolish and incompetent last emperor of the Ming Dynasty who failed to distinguish between loyalty and treachery. He stood on a high moral ground to drag down Chongzhen and show his magnanimity.

At this moment, when Owen mentioned his cousin who fled overseas from the Ming Dynasty, he had the same idea. His words were all about criticizing the Ming Dynasty for being unjust and unpopular, so the good people could not bear the suffering and would rather cross the ocean and leave their homes to stay away from the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

Owen naturally would not deny Qianlong's statement on this issue. He just smiled faintly, looking like he was being taught.

Qianlong encouraged Owen a few words and gave him an extra plate of venison before letting him go back to his original position.

Owen speaks Chinese quite standardly. After all, he has been learning it for two or three years. He is smart, and with Xia Qingdai, a patient Chinese teacher, teaching him personally, it would be strange if he didn't do well.

Qianlong had heard Zhengrui's report before that there was a man among the English envoys who was quite proficient in the official language of the Qing Dynasty, but he was not sociable and usually listened in silence.

This audience was mainly with Macartney, the instigator, so he naturally didn't pay much attention to Owen. Qianlong was also face-blind to this group of red-haired people.

But now, after a few conversations with Owen, Qianlong finally remembered Owen, the only golden-haired guy among a group of red-haired guys.

This young Earl of England is quite interesting.

The imperial banquet lasted for nearly five hours. Apart from eating and drinking, everyone just watched the show.

Xia Qingdai ran out in the middle of the party and picked a perfect viewing spot to enjoy the performance up close.

She didn't like the drama performance very much, but she was still very interested in tightrope walking, somersaults, boxing, sword dancing, etc. After the performance, Macartney sighed to Owen and others, saying that this time he had seen the grace of Solomon the Great.

When he read the story of Solomon the Great in his childhood, he felt that it would be impossible for future kings to have such honor. But today, when he saw the pomp and ceremony of Emperor Qianlong, he realized that in terms of human honor, the other party was even more honorable than the legendary Solomon the Great.

After meeting with Emperor Qianlong that day, Macartney again requested to visit the garden, and Qianlong granted his permission.

Heshen was their tour guide again, and he was accompanied by the Prime Minister Fu Chang'an and his brother Fu Kang'an, the Governor of Sichuan.

After only a short period of time together, Xia Qingdai had already sensed Qianlong's favor towards Heshen and the Fucha brothers, and it turned out that there was not much difference from history.

Wanshu Garden was quite large, and Owen was afraid that Xia Qingdai would get tired, so he let her ride on his horse and walked on the side, leading the horse. Macartney and others asked him to ride on the horse several times, but he refused with excuses. Later, everyone just ignored him, because they were not the ones walking anyway.

Xia Qingdai couldn't bear it and didn't think too much about it, so she asked Owen to get on the horse and ride together, but Owen politely declined.

For Owen, riding with a goddess was a dream come true. But he was afraid that he would not be able to control himself at his age, which would be embarrassing, so he finally restrained his eager heart.

During the visit, Heshen mainly talked side by side with Macartney. Although his tone was kind, he was extremely careful about etiquette, and people of lower status had no chance to approach and talk to him.

Although Xia Qingdai didn't like corrupt officials, she had no intention of assassinating Heshen. Just looking at his current appearance, he was just a kind and handsome uncle, and it was difficult for people to have a bad impression of him.

Anyway, she knew that Heshen would not live for many more years, and Jiaqing would use him to enrich the national treasury when he came to power. Every penny he embezzled now would eventually be confiscated, so why bother to make trouble herself?

Among the accompanying officials, she was more interested in the two brothers of the Fucha family.

At Xia Qingdai's suggestion, Owen tried several times to talk to Fu Kang'an about the new firearms, but his cold attitude ended the topic every time.

Fu Kang'an was quite arrogant. Although he accompanied them on the garden tour, he seemed quite conceited and looked down on foreigners. This was occasionally revealed in his eyes, and his actions were quite conservative.

On the contrary, his younger brother, the second prime minister, Fu Chang'an, seemed to have more youthful and free-spirited spirit, was not bound by empty formalities, and had more personal charm.

But when it comes to firearms, he is just as uninterested as his brother.

This kind of self-contained and decadent thinking is really infuriating. Owen is as puzzled as Xia Qingdai.

Based on his observations of the Qing army in recent days, he could be sure that the Qing army's firearms equipment was seriously insufficient.

In order to show the power of the Qing Dynasty in front of the British delegation, military exercises were arranged among the welcoming officials. Unfortunately, the deterrent effect was not achieved, but many shortcomings were exposed.

After today's conversation, Xia Qingdai was completely disappointed with the Qing court!

It seems that they can no longer rely on them to protect the national treasure. Wen Renyi must succeed in his rebellion before the Opium War, and then New China will fight against the Eight-Nation Alliance.

She has secretly decided to give Wen Renyi a collection of great men's works, as well as three magical books on time travel, including "Barefoot Doctor's Manual", "Militia Military Training Manual", and "Friends of Military and Civilian Dual-Use Talents".

It would be too difficult to make a comic book directly. But it didn't matter, she just had to leave a smart phone for Wen Renyi. After downloading the books and learning videos, and giving him a solar charger, everything would be fine.

With Wen Renyi's intelligence and her support behind him, there is no need to worry about not accomplishing great things.