Chapter 1392: What We Want to Buy Is Not Slaves, but High Officials!

Huang Zhisheng was of course stringing Song Xiance and Wu Ru'en along. He was a loyal merchant of the Great Ming, and an evil big capitalist at that, so he was naturally unwilling to see the Shun learn the foreigners' skills from France and then go back to Burma to grow bigger and stronger.

So he half-truthfully, half-falsely made up a "building is not as good as buying, buying is not as good as robbing" line of foreign-affairs strategy and passed it on to Song Xiance and Wu Ru'en.

Wu Ru'en was easy to fool, but Song Xiance was not so easily taken in. He was not going to believe Huang Zhisheng's one-sided story. And the "building is not as good as buying, buying is not as good as robbing" approach sounded wrong the moment you heard it! Shouldn't you first make the guns and cannons, and then recruit and drill troops and go out to rob? If you can't even make guns and cannons, you're at the mercy of others, so how are you going to rob? If someone cuts off your supply of guns and cannons, can you still rob anything good?

So after they were settled in the Huang family garden, Song Xiance had Huang Zhisheng take his card and go invite the French special envoy to the Shun, Nicolas Fouquet, and the Dutch envoy to the Shun, Bruys van Diemen, to dinner at the Huang family garden.

The dinner was held in a Chinese-style octagonal pavilion, where one had only to look up to see the finest scenic view in Paris — the Bastille!

After three rounds of wine and five courses of dishes, and after both sides had exchanged their polite, roundabout pleasantries, Song Xiance finally turned the conversation and brought up the "true essence of foreign affairs" that Huang Zhisheng had taught him.

"Ambassador Fouquet, Ambassador Van Diemen," Song Xiance said, gently turning his wine cup, "this marquis has heard that here in Europe there is a saying about enriching the state and strengthening the army, called building is not as good as buying, buying is not as good as robbing... that is to say, toiling bitterly to make guns, cannons, and ships is not as good as spending money to buy ready-made ones, and then using what you bought to go rob. Is this saying actually correct?"

Hearing this, Huang Zhisheng, who was present as a companion, shuddered in fright. But he did not dare mistranslate, because Bruys understood Chinese! And Fouquet had also brought a translator from the French foreign ministry, so there was no room for him to make things up.

After haltingly translating Song Xiance's words into French, he suddenly noticed that both Fouquet and Bruys had fallen into deep thought.

Because both of them felt that this "building is not as good as buying, buying is not as good as robbing" seemed to be the truth itself!

In Europe right now, when it came to making things, Holland was certainly first, England second, the Rhineland of the Holy Roman Empire third, the states of northern Italy fourth, and Sweden fifth.

And the hegemonic France, Spain, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire — not one of them was a manufacturing power.

Among them, France's manufacturing was somewhat stronger, especially after seizing the Spanish Netherlands and Lorraine, it could already compete with the Rhineland and the states of northern Italy. But compared with Holland and England, there was still no comparison... If one considered that Sweden's metallurgical industry was actually propped up by Dutch and English capital, then the gap between France and England-Holland was even greater.

But France was still the hegemon of Europe, and Louis XIV was still the Sun King!

Spain, the hegemon that had just faded, was even more a country that could do nothing well except rob. The Columbus who discovered the New World back then was even an Italian; Columbus's ships were bought with money, and the sailors were all hired... By comparison, Portugal had some real ability, but in the end it was robbed clean by Spain.

Austria, on the other hand, did not rely on robbing; his Habsburg family was a European hegemon built by marriage... so Austria's hegemonic credentials were always lacking, and it always got bullied.

As for that Ottoman Empire that made the Christian nations of Europe tremble... it was a nation of bandits!

What could the Ottomans make? Even their own guns and cannons were forged with the help of Greeks! The great Urban bombard that historically destroyed the walls of Constantinople was also built with the help of a bribed Hungarian engineer.

If the Ottomans had not casually bought some weapons and then gone robbing, but had honestly developed manufacturing, they would probably still be in the mountain valleys of Asia Minor studying blacksmithing!

Of course, Bruys and Fouquet could not possibly know that historically England had relied on its own solid manufacturing to develop step by step, and finally brought about the Industrial Revolution, and then relied on the material foundation provided by the Industrial Revolution to wear down to death the most formidable Emperor Napoleon on the European continent... But not all who could make things could develop to that point — hadn't Holland failed to develop?

Moreover, the English were not only good at making things; their skill at robbing was also first-rate. Before they had developed into a manufacturing power, they had already begun robbing Spanish treasure ships, and later they robbed the wealth of India!

Without those two successful great robberies, relying only on honestly developing manufacturing, it is hard to say whether the English could have held on until the Industrial Revolution.

Song Xiance watched the two foreign devil ambassadors' expressions shifting uncertainly, and he already had some idea in his mind.

"Building is not as good as buying, buying is not as good as robbing" must be true doctrine... The Grand Military Advisor's original profession was physiognomy, and he was most skilled at reading faces and expressions — how could he fail to see through the thoughts of two foreign devils?

At this moment Nicolas Fouquet had already nodded. "Grand Master, building is not as good as buying, buying is not as good as robbing is correct! Of course, there is more than one path of development, but the one most suited to your Shun is probably building is not as good as buying, buying is not as good as robbing."

Bruys van Diemen also agreed with Fouquet's view. He said: "If Sichuan were still there, perhaps you could make some good things. But now... there is no need to compare with the Great Ming; even India's handicraft foundation is far stronger than the Upper and Lower Burma you control."

If the Shun lost Yunnan in the future and retreated to Burma, then at most they would have three million Han people left, plus at most an equal number of various natives. If this population were placed in Western Europe, perhaps it could still develop manufacturing — although Western Europe is full of small states, its total area is not large, and the economic ties among the many small states are close, with dense trade, so to a certain extent they can divide labor and cooperate, and it is possible to regard this pile of small states as one economy.

But the area controlled by the Shun — Burma, Arakan, Chittagong — was actually not small, and six hundred thousand people placed there were sparse. Moreover, on both sides of Burma were two world-class manufacturing centers — the Great Ming and India!

No matter how Burma's manufacturing developed, it could not be a match for the Great Ming and India. Not being a match, of course it would lose money...

Bruys van Diemen continued: "It seems His Majesty the Shun Emperor is truly wise! Robbery is the development path most suited to the Shun!

Grand Master, I think you could purchase guns, cannons, and ships from Holland on credit, and also hire French officers to help train your army, and then invade the wealthy Bengal region of India... If you could take advantage of your military power still being at its peak to conquer all or part of Bengal, you would have no worries afterward."

Song Xiance laughed: "Good! That is what we shall do! When I later meet the French Sun King and the Grand Pensionary of Holland, I will raise the request to borrow generals and weapons... Our three families will join together to rob, and whatever we rob, the three families will divide equally!"

While Song Xiance was finding the true essence of foreign affairs on French soil, the envoy sent by Zhu Cilang, Luo Zhichen, bearing the title of Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, had just arrived at the port of Surat in western India aboard an East India Company merchant ship — this was also the largest port under the rule of the Timurid Empire of India.

He had come to deliver gifts to Aurangzeb, the emperor of the Timurid Empire of India, and at the same time he brought this Indian emperor a treaty of equality — the Timurid Empire of India had Islam as its state religion, so of course it could not become a vassal of the Great Ming, and therefore could only conclude a treaty with the Great Ming on equal terms.

And what Luo Zhichen brought for Aurangzeb was an alliance pact. While Louis XIV was searching the world over for friends to deal with the Great Ming Empire, Zhu Cilang naturally also had to find a way to find a few allies, so that everyone could form an alliance to deal with France.

And India under the rule of the Timurid dynasty was the friend Zhu Cilang most hoped to obtain!

Aurangzeb, in Delhi, upon receiving his subordinates' report, immediately dispatched his son **** to Surat to welcome the special envoy of the Great Ming Emperor.

At the same time, the Timurid Empire's Governor-General of Bengal, Shaista Khan, was also on his way to Delhi, bringing Aurangzeb the Shun Empire's envoy and a letter of extortion!