Wang Shizhen was 165 centimeters tall. Even if he wore boots, he was only 168 centimeters tall. With this height, he often had to look up at people. In order to maintain his image in front of the Japanese army, he adopted a posture of only looking down and level. Holding a glass of wine, Wang Shizhen stood by the window and looked outside.
It snowed not long ago. Looking down from the window of the Buda Castle, the palace on the mountain of Budapest, the city was covered in snow and looked very beautiful. After watching for a while, Wang Shizhen turned around. In the hall of Buda Castle, a group of Hungarian nobles gathered around King Sissi of Hungary. Around the nobles was another group of people who wanted to approach the queen but couldn't. Raising her glass, Wang Shizhen pointed and asked the China embassy staff next to her, "Is that the leader of the Hungarian Marx Party?"
"Yes," the embassy staff replied. The intelligence collection of the Min dynasty didn't deliberately carry out any big operations, but rather put effort into the accumulation of very basic intelligence.
In Wang Shizhen's mind, even if the Marx Party didn't fall into a life-and-death battle with the bourgeoisie, it would at least fight fiercely with the feudalism system. Looking at the eager appearance of the party leader trying to approach the dignified and beautiful Hungarian queen, Wang Shizhen felt uncomfortable. The Chairman of the Restoration Party, Vézé, approached the Manchu Qing Emperor with only one purpose, and that was to cut off the head of the Manchu Qing Emperor.
Looking at the performance of this so-called revolutionary party, Wang Mingshan completely lost confidence in the future of the Hungarian revolution. The revolution of the Restoration Party was intense, cruel, and violently purged. The food supply of these Europeans was better than that of the Manchu Qing era, but the supply of industrial products was even worse than that of the Manchu Qing era. Wang Shizhen didn't think it was likely to have a mass base to carry out a revolution in a country that could still survive and had some room for development.
"Those charcoal burners didn't have the opportunity to participate in such a palace event, right?" Wang Shizhen continued to ask.
"The charcoal burners … they have their own hobbies." The voice of the embassy staff had an indescribable sense of helplessness. This voice made Wang Shizhen even more disillusioned with the more grassroots revolutionary forces. The charcoal burners was an Italian term that referred to the group of revolutionaries before the Italian Unification War. They hid in the charcoal mountains and carried out activities under the name of charcoal burners. Actually, in terms of background, most of these people were loyal to the class of people who bought high-quality charcoal.
"I know some of the Robin Hood Party. They call themselves the Peasants' Party," the embassy staff continued without confidence.
"The mountain bandits want to declare that they are enforcing justice on behalf of Heaven?" Although Wang Shizhen never showed off, he had indeed read the Four Great Classical Novels. Apart from the Four Great Classical Novels, Wang Shizhen also liked reading and learning foreign languages. The short, thin man had mastered Japanese, Korean, English, French, and to a certain extent German through self-study and work. Wang Shizhen, who had been married for more than a year, could speak some Italian because she met an Italian wife she liked in the United States. Wang Shizhen was not only clear about the meaning and story behind the European term Robin Hood, but she could also relate it to the words in Chinese literature.
"It's just like the legends. We have no way of contacting such a person. In fact, the embassy also suspects that the so-called Robin Hood gang is actually a group of robbers. "The embassy staff answered smoothly.
Wang Shizhen took a sip of wine, and said with a smile, "I read the Count of Monte Cristo before I came here, and his description of the robbers was very detailed. Decent robbers should be active near the big cities. The bandits who still abide by the old rules and loot places must burn, kill, and plunder. If there really are robbers who block the road at this stage, they probably won't be glorified as the Robin Hood Party. "
"Oh?" The embassy staff had not read the Count of Monte Cristo, so he didn't understand Wang Shizhen's reference.
So Wang Shizhen briefly introduced the popular novel. The two talked here in a relaxed manner, and Wang Shizhen had been observing the changes in the surroundings. The audience surrounding the Hungarian Queen continued, which was confirmed by the fact that Queen Sissi was liked by the Austrian nobles, the urban class, and the rural class.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs worked very hard this time, and the information was very complete. The status of the Austrian Emperor and the Austrian Queen was similar. The Austrian Queen Sissi became the Queen of Hungary, which greatly satisfied the Hungarian upper class who felt that they were inferior to the Hapsburg Empire. As for the Hungarian urban class, they were very appreciative of the Queen's literary style. And the Austrian peasants felt that having a big man as the king was in line with the traditional propaganda.
From any point of view, Hungary had a very deep 'tradition.' This tradition was classified as a wrong category in the political classification of the Min dynasty. Wang Shizhen had never been an opponent of the monarchy, but it was even more impossible for him to oppose the decision of Emperor Vézé.
Just as the two were talking, the Hungarian Marxist party leader finally got the opportunity to see Queen Sissi. It could be seen that the party leader wanted to get major results in a very short period of time. His expression was nervous, and he spoke very eagerly. Queen Sissi's attitude was gentle and free, but the people around her were not interested in the party leader. When the party leader closed his mouth to listen to Queen Sissi, these people let the people behind him come forward and squeeze the party leader to the back.
The China embassy staff could not bear to read the party leader's performance. After a sigh, he turned his face away. Wang Shizhen had seen too many unreadable scenes, and the party leader's matters were not even a drizzle to him. He glanced at the party leader and tried to talk to Queen Sissi again. After discovering that he had no chance, the man left the circle dejectedly.
Wang Shizhen nudged the embassy staff with his elbow, and the two walked up with wine glasses. The party leader was dejected when he suddenly saw the two people appear in front of him, and he was shocked. When he saw that the two people were China, the party leader was stunned.
"Hello." Wang Shizhen first spoke in fluent French. In European society, French had always been the lingua franca. Looking at the party leader's dumbfounded expression, Wang Shizhen was sure that this should not be a member of the traditional upper class.
Seeing that the party leader did not understand French, the embassy staff said in fluent Hungarian, "Sir. We heard that you are a party leader who is inclined to communism. Although we are not familiar with each other, we should have some consensus on believing in Marxism. "
To Wang Shizhen's disappointment, when the party leader heard the two terms communism and Marxism, his whole person became alert. This kind of expression showed no sign of real belief, not even a sign of real recognition. Wang Shizhen thought to herself, 'Could it be that this person is playing around?'
Life in this era was very difficult, and it was very common to follow the trend of successful people. Japan was better, at least the Edo government really carried out land reform. But in Korea, Siam, and Vietnam, there was no lack of a group of 'Marxists' who only talked about fighting the powerful and dividing the wealth. The reason why they raised this flag was probably because the emperor of China, His Majesty Vézé, agreed with Marxism. As for what Marxism was really about, these people did not care at all, and had no desire to do basic research. As a member of the Restoration Party, Wang Shizhen remembered very clearly that these bad examples were specifically used to tell everyone, asking the members of the Restoration Party to at least make time to study and figure out the core political ideas of the Restoration Party.
Having seen mountains of corpses and seas of blood, Wang Shizhen did not jump to conclusions. Since the other party did not want to be so close to the Min dynasty at this time, Wang Shizhen asked the embassy staff to give the guy a business card and ask for the guy's contact address.
February was a very cold season, and the temperature in Europe was much colder than in Asia during the Min dynasty. On such a day, having a banquet in the warm palace was the best way to kill time. With the return of the Queen, the banquet was scheduled to last from ten in the morning to twelve midnight. And for the next three days, the banquet would not stop.
Wang Mingshan saw the real-life version of the "big banquet," and was very impressed. The banquet went on, and guests came and went. Some rested in the palace lounge after eating and drinking, and then rested for the next big wave. Some simply went from eating and drinking to debating, then dancing, then eating, drinking, debating, and repeating the cycle.
By four o 'clock in the afternoon, Wang Shizhen was almost full, and he left the castle with the embassy staff, who were also full. According to the previous plan, they were going to meet the Charcoal Burners in the city of Budapest.
The cars of the Min dynasty drove very steadily in the snow, and the winter tires had deep tread and were very slippery. In addition, they had accumulated a lot of experience with vehicles in the North American war, and there were many technical breakthroughs. These experiences and breakthroughs were used in civilian cars, greatly improving the handling and comfort of the car.
The car stopped in front of a bohemian-style tavern, and the embassy staff pushed the door open with Wang Shizhen. It was also hot inside, but the heat was mixed with the strong smell of tobacco and alcohol. The smell of many people staying in a place with no windows open in winter was also mixed in.
Wang Shizhen saw a group of people sitting behind a table, surrounded by a very beautiful Gypsy girl. The girl held a zither in her arms, playing and singing at the same time. Wang Shizhen couldn't understand the language she was singing in. Wang Shizhen also didn't know what the group of people around him were shouting from time to time. But such an environment reminded Wang Shizhen of when he was in school, when a group of male students came out for a meal on holidays.
A group of guys who actually had a relatively clear and reliable future gathered together to eat and drink, talking about their imaginations of the future and their dissatisfaction with the present while they were drunk. Then they would go home after eating and drinking. It had to be said that this really had some of the characteristics of the Italian Charcoal Burners.
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