Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

After saying this, Jiaqing had another standard imperial lecture, which was also a daily task for the two Hanlin scholars. The rank and level of the Hanlin scholars who performed this task could be high or low.

Of course, they probably didn't realize at that time what harm some things would cause in the future, but Lin Zexu mentioned his past experience of cracking down on smuggling and trafficking of opium when he was the Tongzhi in Xiamen.

Afterwards, Jiaqing continued to talk about firearms and mentioned another thing.

For Xu Naiji and Lin Zexu, when these things happened, Xu Naiji was still studying in his hometown and Lin Zexu was still a child.

What Jiaqing mentioned was the visit of the Macartney Mission to China in the 58th year of Qianlong's reign.

Moreover, today's Jiaqing was obviously beyond the syllabus, and it seemed that he wanted to further test the two's knowledge and adaptability.

Although he is a conservative and rigid in his work, it does not prevent him from giving questions to young people at this time.

"In the 58th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign, the King of England sent Macartney to pay tribute. His attitude was not respectful. He did not bow to the king, but wanted to talk about trade and implement six articles of regulations. I was accompanying the King at that time, and I also saw that the British were disrespectful."

Of course, Jiaqing did not mention the part about arguing with the adults and the British, nor did he mention the full exchange of views between the other ministers and the British on etiquette issues.

But after seeing these articles, even Qing Dynasty officials like Xu Naizhi, who were relatively relaxed in the later period, were filled with resentment.

"How dare the British do such an arrogant and outrageous act!"

Not to mention that Li Gang, a famous Song Dynasty official who fought against the Jin Dynasty, is buried near Lin Zexu's home. He himself highly respected Yu Qian, a famous Ming Dynasty official who fought against the Oirat Mongols.

But he always manages to remain restrained. After all, vigilance against potential enemies cannot be expressed through facial expression management or showing anger.

He even started thinking that this question might be an easy one for him.

Afterwards, Jiaqing mentioned the visit of the Russian delegation after he came to power.

Although they returned after reaching Kulun, and even a fleet came to Guangzhou, they were finally escorted out of the country with courtesy.

Obviously, Jiaqing didn't know what was going on this time, and on a whim he set a trap for the two young Hanlin scholars and asked them to answer a series of questions.

Speaking of this, the language advantage can be reflected.

Although Lin Zexu arrived late, he made rapid progress in learning Manchu.

Moreover, the Han officials in the Hanlin Academy are required to be more or less familiar with Manchu, because they will be appointed to official posts in the future, and will also be required to examine and proofread the "Great Qing Unified Geography" and compile national history. There are still many places where it can be used. Who knows what can be found from the old Manchu archives in the future?

Xu Naiji arrived earlier, but it seemed that there was still some difference between the two in terms of language talent, and the same was true in their attitude towards foreigners.

As for their responses, the difference can indeed be seen.

Compared with a lot of empty words of "appeasement" and "promotion", Jiaqing wanted to hear more about Lin Zexu's subsequent response.

He even had the illusion that Guiqing had a bad temper and Lin Zexu's teacher Cao Zhenyong was always kowtowing.

The disciples of these two people, however, are completely the opposite.

However, Cao Zhenyong, the current Minister of Personnel and Associate Grand Secretary, is very supportive of juniors with bad tempers. Just because a teacher is a smooth-talker doesn't mean the students are the same.

As for Guiqing's disciple Xu Naizhi, he has probably always been like this.

Although Emperors Jiaqing and Daoguang did not like to cause trouble on weekdays, they would probably use useful ministers to serve as firefighters for them.

The only thing now is that they have no money. If anyone dares to cause trouble when Dai Qing is rich and well prepared, he will probably be beaten up and have a giant arrow, a specialty of Jianzhou, stuck in the head.

However, the response that Lin Zexu proposed was indeed based on his experience in coastal defense.

"If what you said is true, then my Great Qing Dynasty seems to have nothing to worry about."

After all, although it is certain that Lin Zexu has not been officially in office in the Hanlin Academy for a long time, judging from his participation in the plan to eliminate the pirate Lin Qian while serving as the Fujian Governor, although he is not yet thirty years old, his level is already sufficient.

"Your Majesty, there are dozens of Western countries and vassal states. From Guangzhou alone, officials and merchants from various foreign countries have come to pay tribute and envoys from foreign countries. The British are not the only ones. The British seem to have rebellious intentions, so we must be careful to guard against them. But what will happen after a year? Ten years later, if the British come again, how will we respond?"

In fact, the subtext is that we need to set rules for them.

Jiaqing put his "precious gun" on the head of the kang at this moment, and he was indeed thinking about this issue.

However, in terms of political wisdom, he is far behind Qianlong.

Lin Zexu had just entered the officialdom and had relied entirely on his ability to rise up. In addition, his teacher in the capital had supported him from behind, and the emperor also knew that he was capable, so his career was going very smoothly.

Now he has achieved a curve overtaking, surpassing Xu Naizhi who passed the imperial examination before him. When the discussion of banning opium comes, he will have to use the memorial to the emperor to give him a big challenge.

However, this sometimes offended some people. In the 25th year of Jiaqing, when he was serving as an inspector in Henan, he analyzed clearly the reasons why Qishan was not successful in river management when he was the governor of Henan. It was not just a dispute between Manchu and Han officials.

But now his rhetorical question made Jiaqing realize some problems.

However, he had no way to answer this question.

After all, problems arose during the previous negotiations with the Rakshasa Kingdom, which claimed to be an envoy from Russia.

Although Jiaqing was not a reliable and wise ruler, he was not a foolish one either, and was even very hardworking.

But the way this is done is indeed far from enough.

He also read the report submitted by General Uliyasutai at that time and gave instructions to deal with the situation appropriately.

However, when the matter was mentioned again today, the two young Hanlin scholars were very unambiguous.

Although Xu Naiji's abilities were somewhat inferior, he looked like a human archive. He mentioned that during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, when the Lifanyuan also received tribute envoys from the Rakshasa Kingdom, it seemed that they received even more people.

He did not use any confirmed statement, which was a more cautious way to remind the emperor.

However, considering that he will serve as an inspecting censor in Shandong in the future, it seems that there is nothing wrong with doing this.

Moreover, the internal accounts were reconciled, and Jiaqing remained silent about General Uliyasutai's performance.

As an emperor of the Qing Dynasty, he was still too lenient.

Of course, compared with the emperors of the Ming Dynasty who treated their ministers as consumables at every turn, they may be considered saints.

He did not even intend to punish the person involved. After all, the crime of deceiving the emperor could be either serious or minor. Moreover, although Luosha was a "big country", it had always been submissive. It even sent a group of merchants to Beijing to explain and stayed in Beijing. The ships in Guangzhou also obeyed the arrangements of the Guangdong Governor's Office and left Guangzhou after being filled with supplies. This matter was over.

But at this moment, there was actually a globe next to the emperor. By comparison, the one that Daiying had given back then was not as good as the one made in the palace.

But who knows what strange things happened during the reign of Emperor Daoguang?

Logically speaking, Daoguang had met Qianlong when he was a child, and he had never missed the trip to Mulan Paddock since he was able to ride a horse and shoot arrows. However, the update of this intelligence system was somewhat lagging behind.

Jiaqing was still impressed at this time. At least he saw such a big Russian country there. The missionaries also marked the cities of the country as being very far away, indicating that Siberia (Xianbeilia) was a very cold place, and to the north one could reach the mountain where the sun never sets.

If you read the History of Yuan Dynasty a few more times, you will probably know the answer.

Why is a country like this so interested in wasteland?

He didn't know yet that another British delegation would arrive in the future.

But having two Hanlin scholars giving lectures here, which eventually turned into a duet, and bringing in a globe, is always eye-opening.

Although Jiaqing had many rules, he was not as petty as Qianlong. He started to be on guard as soon as the British left, and even important coastal areas were on alert.

At that time, Qianlong had no idea that Dai Ying was shocked when the Gurkhas were quickly passed through the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau by Fu Kang'an.

Regardless of their combat effectiveness, the Qing army actually crossed so many mountains along the way, which the British army did not have.

Didn’t you see that the Jacobites of Scotland almost killed all the lobster soldiers of England through marching and maneuvering on the ground of England, but in the end it was due to problems of strength and strategic choices that they failed.

The British army was not under the command of a few specific individuals, so its movement was ridiculously slow.

Of course, Dai Qing didn't know about this either. What they were more worried about now was the British coming from the sea. How would they act and how many people would come?
In fact, the Qing government was not that incompetent. They were able to judge the approximate size of the British military force and the purpose of their actions through the intelligence collected by their staff.

But he is just a complete noob and cannot win.

Now that the two Hanlin scholars had reconciled their accounts with him, Jiaqing felt uncomfortable, but he still gave each of them some rewards.

The reward given to Xu Naiji was a snuff bottle, which was not uncommon for such things to be given to close ministers.

Although his performance was just above passing, he always made the emperor satisfied with his familiarity with the archives.

But the reward given to Lin Zexu was quite special.

Even when Jiaqing addressed him, the way he addressed him changed.

"Shao Mu, this is a pocket watch presented by the Rakshasa Kingdom. I love its exquisiteness and beauty, and I always carry it with me." The emperor addressed Lin Zexu by his courtesy name, which was a great honor for a Hanlin scholar who was not yet thirty years old.

Those made in Russia are extremely exquisite. They may not be comparable to those made by the Qing Dynasty's Imperial Household Department in terms of large items, but they can still be compared in terms of small items.

This was a "tribute" and was enameled and inlaid with crystals, small pieces of emeralds and a ruby.

If we were to estimate the price of this tribute, it would have been worth silver at the time.

"Your Majesty, we are merely responding to your request. We have not made any contributions to the court. How dare we accept rewards without any merit?"

After the two of them knelt down, their words were simply copy and paste, except for some differences in their accents, they were almost synchronized.

After seeing this, Jiaqing knew that the reward was too high, but he was the emperor and he had never seen anyone take back what the emperor had said.

"You two have done a great job in responding, and what you just said has opened my eyes. How can you say that you are receiving rewards without any merit?"

Only after this was said did Xu Naiji and Lin Zexu each accept the rewards with an extremely respectful attitude.

As they were two junior members of the Hanlin Academy, they naturally could not show off this kind of favor.

Fortunately, the snuff bottle and pocket watch are kept in my arms and I don’t usually take them out to look at them.

But the paths of their careers were very different.

After that, Xu Naizhi served as the Censor in Shandong and was transferred to serve as the Prefect of many places. Later, he served as the Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple. Finally, while serving as the Shaoqing of Taichang Temple, he was demoted by Emperor Daoguang because of his opinions on smoking cessation and was forced to retire as a sixth-rank official as a punishment.

As for Lin Zexu's historical deeds, there is no need to elaborate on them.

But it was still thirty years before he wrote the poem that is often recited.

After serving as a poor Hanlin for several years during the Jiaqing period, he would have had a great future.

Now that he had accepted the reward, he first placed the pocket watch in his own hall, and then put it away carefully.

One must always be respectful to the emperor.

In fact, when Jiaqing summoned them to the palace, he also asked about people from their hometown.

The emperors of the Qing Dynasty were indeed interesting. Their attitude was a bit like that of Jin Wushu in The Biography of Yue Fei. As for the famous ministers who fought against the Jin Dynasty in the Southern Song Dynasty, Jiaqing did not react at all even when Lin Zexu mentioned Li Gang.

Even if you call those more petty-minded ones, there will probably be no problem. They even hope that Han officials and scholars all over the world will be loyal to "our Great Qing Dynasty", just like the loyalty of famous officials in all dynasties to their own courts.

As for the series of changes that were eventually triggered by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's invasion of the Forbidden City, there was always a butterfly effect under the domino effect.

In the next few years, there will also be delegations from several European countries visiting.

The British would certainly come, and after the war in Europe was over, they would always have to consider Asian issues, especially trade with China.

However, at that time, because of the arrogance of the British envoy, he would not listen to the advice of Deputy Envoy Sir John Staunton and violated the instructions of the cabinet. In the end, not only would he gain nothing, but the relationship between Dai Qing and Dai Britain would also deteriorate.

As for the other person who was preparing to go on a diplomatic mission, he was now leading his small army and advancing rapidly towards the main battlefield where the decisive battle was scheduled to take place.

A major battle that will determine the fate of Europe in the next thirty years is about to begin in Leipzig, Saxony.

In Leipzig, what was to be decided was the fate of the European nations, the fate of France, the fate of Russia, the fate of the leaders involved in the war and the fate of the soldiers under their command.

Even the situation thirty years later, and an early stable diplomatic system in the modern world, are closely related to this battlefield and the subsequent battles. (End of this chapter)