After the banquet at the Temple of Peaceful Heart, the Izbran delegation did not rush to leave. It is not easy to come to the East now, and it is very difficult, especially when the grassland is in chaos, any accident may occur, and we must make full use of this rare opportunity.

Izbrant took his deputy Poretsky and financial officer Sumarotsky to visit the market in Beijing. According to the will of the Tsar, they went to the market in Beijing to see if there were any goods that could be traded. The Tsar allowed Chinese merchants to take away silver from Russia and was ready to enter a large amount of Chinese goods. According to the instructions, they focused on various gems, patterns and fabrics, tea, spices, porcelain, medicinal plant root blocks (this is for transplantation), and bargained with the merchants, used the two thousand rubles of reserves to buy some samples and took them back.

At the beginning, the Qing Dynasty Lifan Academy sent an official to accompany him throughout the journey, but after two days of follow-up, the official felt bored, so he went to watch the show himself, leaving Izbrant and his group to wander around the city of Beijing. The Russians were so happy that they visited most of the markets in Beijing in great detail, carefully understanding the buying and selling of goods and tax payments, as well as where these goods were shipped, and obviously doing their homework.

On February 28, officials from the Lifan Court came over again, and this time it was Kangxi summoned him. Izbrant quickly went back to the hotel to change his clothes, then hurried into the Forbidden City, and met Kangxi in the Qianqing Palace. This time, without human guidance, Izbrant skillfully completed the ceremony of three kneeling and nine kowtows, and was given a seat by Kangxi and sat about three o'clock away from him.

Kangxi personally gave a glass of strong wine, and then asked a Jesuit priest in the temple to ask Izbrant whether he knew German, Latin, Italian and Portuguese? How far was he going from Moscow to France, Italy, and Poland to go by water and land? Are Tsar Peter and the Turkish Sultan now living peacefully or are fighting? These questions show Kangxi's strong desire for knowledge.

Izbrant answered as much as he could. Kangxi was very satisfied and ordered the gifts to Izbrant, including: a horse with a full pair of saddles, a martened marble, a satin hat with red tassels, a silk robe, a silk ribbon belt with a sword, two silk scarves, a pair of boots and long silk satin socks, a brocade garment, and thirty refined cotton cloth. Other members of the delegation also received rewards, and the deputy and translator Xie Miao Poledsky received hats, robes, belts, swords, scarves and other items, but the quantity and quality were not as good as Izbrant.

On March 2, Izbrant went to the Lefan Court to receive the reward, which cost him a full hundred rubles. There, Soetu sent people to submit memorandums for writing in Latin and Russian, mainly to reply to some questions raised by Izbrant, such as foreigners building churches - the Qing court allowed foreigners to build churches for permanent settlement, but those who only stayed for a short time were not allowed - the two countries started trade, Soetu sent Russia to divide the borders in the future (the extermination of Galdan, and after the recovery of Outer Mongolia), etc., and the answers were very detailed.

Kangxi originally planned to recruit some Russian technicians, but Jesuit missionaries dissuaded this behavior. They pointed out that Russia was a backward country in the continental region, and its technology may be a little more advanced than the Qing Dynasty, but it was also limited in strength, so it was better to spend it on recruiting English and Dutch engineers. Kangxi agreed, so he did not mention this, but he did not believe the words of the foreign monks, and then instructed Soetu to go to Moscow to conduct a closer inspection.

After receiving the reward, the officials of the Lifanyuan pointed out a very serious issue to Izbrant and asked them not to make such mistakes again in the future: in the future, the title of Emperor Qing must be written first in the letter to Emperor Qing, and then the title of Emperor Tsar, otherwise it will not be accepted. Izbrant was confused about this, but under the eaves, he could only nod his head perfunctorily to agree - anyway, it is probably not his own next time he will go on a mission, so he will write the title as he wants. These Qing people are really in trouble!

Izbrant also asked whether Soetu, who was on a mission to Russia, was set off with them. After receiving a negative answer, he instructed his escorts to make final preparations, purchase supplies, pack their luggage, and plan to leave Beijing within ten days and return to Russia. As for him, he continued to wander around during the day and investigate, and returned to the Lifanyuan to write a report at night, intending to return to his country to present him to the Tsar in order to get a reward.

On March 6, a group of mysterious guests lived in the Rifan Courtyard, which seemed to be a foreign mission. Izbrant was a little curious. After entrusting money to the servants of the Rifan Courtyard, Izbrant was shocked. He was not an ignorant barbarian. In fact, before he went to the Qing Dynasty, he had made up for the basic situation of the Far East countries. At that time, he was told that the Kingdom of Korea was a vassal state on the east coast. But now there was obvious problems. These Korean envoys came to the Qing Dynasty in concealment, and it seemed that they were not particularly loyal to the East coast, which was very interesting.

However, Izbrant is not a particularly gossipy person, and is not very interested in the secrets of others who have nothing to do with Russia. He would only faithfully record his own records and then leave them to the tsar's downfall to judge. The Koreans next door seemed to have no desire to communicate with them. Everyone lived across the yard, and did not even nod when they met, as if they had not seen each other at all.

Of course, no wonder the Koreans do not pay attention to etiquette. This trip is really shameful and has to act cautiously. However, Hong Mingrong was very angry about the arrangements that the Qing people had to make, and they did not pay any attention to them at all. They did not arrange separate and secret residences for them, but threw them directly into the Lifan Courtyard, increasing the risk of leaks. How could this make people feel angry?

"I'm so arrogant. Do you think it's the Central Plains Empire that dominates us?" Hong Mingrong was a little dissatisfied, but he had no choice. The Qing Dynasty's attitude of claiming to be the eldest empire will be difficult to change for a while, especially in front of the former vassal servants, it is even more impossible for them to do something to self-destruct. This is particularly annoying.

"My North Korea has worked hard to govern for decades, the people are healthy, and the army is majestic. The Taurus court still ignores us so much and ignores the eight million people of the people. It's ridiculous that some old men in the court still have a good impression of the Qing Dynasty. It's really ridiculous. They can't see the huge changes in the world and live only in the articles of Confucius and Confucianism. What's the future? Now it seems that only by strengthening ties with the east coast of the motherland and sharing honor and disgrace can we go further." Hong Mingrong punched the table, staring at the officials of the Lifan Academy of the Qing Dynasty who had just left with the eyes, and said hatefully.

He is a member of the Reform Party who has risen in North Korea in the past twenty years and is a radical reformist. This time, the conservatives in the country were clamoring to go on a mission to the Qing Dynasty. The Reform Party could not stand it and seized the position of the missionary commander. He did not want to improve relations with the Qing people. Now that the Lifanyuan is so coldly treated them, he has further strengthened Hong Mingrong's determination to approach the east coast and wait for an opportunity to peek at the mainland.

Speaking of this peeping into the mainland, it is actually North Korea's consistent national policy. Since the rebellion of the late Ming Dynasty, the monarchs and ministers of the North have always had the idea of ​​expeditioning Manchuria to avenge their previous shame. After all, in their opinion, the Jurchens were all the people beaten by them back then. Unexpectedly, after being expelled to the Yalu River, they gradually rose up and eventually controlled most of China. Therefore, even though they were beaten a few times in the Later Jin Dynasty, the Koreans still did not have a memory and thought about how to fight back day and night to further expand their territory. What really prevented them from "working to death" were actually the East Coast people. They defeated North Korea like the Later Jin Dynasty and then signed a series of agreements with them. The North Koreans could not and were forced to turn their attention back to the country, and then develop the economy according to the baton of the East Coast people, which became an important part of the Far Eastern Economic Circle.

However, after developing the economy for a period of time and modernizing the army with the help of the East Coast people, the Koreans were ready to move again. They became interested in the Northern Expedition, especially after the Qing Dynasty and the Junggar Mongolia war, and were also bullied by the East Coast people in Manchuria, the Koreans began to become extremely active. Some of them began to fantasize that the Qing Dynasty collapsed quickly, and then the Koreans could take the opportunity to pick up the bargain and send troops deep into Manchuria to seize a large amount of territory.

The mission led by Hong Mingrong was not so much that the domestic conservatives had a good impression of the Qing Dynasty and wanted to exchange cultural exchanges with them, but rather that the King of Korea was taking advantage of the plan and sent Hong Mingrong, the representative of the reformist faction, to Beijing to take the opportunity to find out the current situation of the Qing Dynasty.

Their mission set out from the mountainous area of ​​Hamkyung Road, then detoured Jilin, and finally arrived at Beijing, the capital of the Qing Dynasty. The reason for the detour was very simple, because they were afraid that the people on the east coast of the "Tianmotherland" would know it, which would cause unnecessary trouble. They are still servants on the east coast, and the economy is closely tied to the east coast. There are also troops on the east coast in Busan. The Jeon-class separatist regime in the three counties of Kensong is also a loyal lackey of the people on the east coast. The Kingdom of Korea really has no capital to resist, so they can only make small moves privately.

After Hong Mingrong's delegation arrived in Beijing, it has not been received by Kangxi yet. The officials of the Lifanyuan were unable to see them, and their attitude was rather bad, which made the Koreans accumulate a lot of anger. Hong Mingrong had decided that if the Qing emperor did not meet them within a month, they would just go back home. As long as they establish a good relationship with the people of the East Coast and temper a military force that can conquer and fight, they may not have no chance if China changes in the future.
Chapter completed!