This Central African Kingdom was actually the former Annan Kingdom.
However, since the Tang Empire established new Annan Province, Siam Province and other local provinces in various parts of the Nanyang region, in order to avoid conflicts in terms of names, and to avoid suspicion, the people of the Annan Kingdom were the first to react, and then took the initiative to bring them
The name of the country was changed to the Kingdom of Central Africa.
The other countries of the Twelve Southeast Asian Countries also followed the same example and directly changed their names. They never even mentioned that they were all Nanyang people before, and they all said that they were Africans...
This was obviously because they were afraid of offending the Tang Empire!
However, the Tang Empire was not such an unreasonable country, so why would they care about these things?
However, Datang didn't bother to care about people changing their names.
Therefore, the twelve Southeast Asian countries in the central region of the east coast of Africa have become the twelve Central African countries!
Among the twelve countries in Central Africa, the Kingdom of Central Africa is relatively strong, mainly because the territory allocated to them was not bad at the beginning, and the combat effectiveness of the Kingdom of Central Africa's past Guards was quite good, and they defeated the local indigenous people in the early years.
Not only was he unable to take care of himself, he later served as a mercenary for foreign businessmen from Spain and other places, helping them hire African natives for free, and made a lot of money from it.
At the same time, their land is relatively fertile. After it was developed, in addition to growing food, they also widely planted various economic crops. They also found a copper mine themselves and carried out primitive mining.
So even though they only have a population of a million, their lives are actually quite good.
Although their King's Guards are small in number, they are well-known even in Europe, let alone Africa. When people talk about mercenaries in Africa, they will talk about the Guards of the Kingdom of Central Africa.
This Central African kingdom is living a good life, and its economic model, in addition to relying on mercenaries to make money, most of its economic income still relies on the export of copper mines and cash crops, and this export target is only the people of the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, they also attach great importance to diplomatic relations with Datang.
Otherwise, we would not have spent a huge amount of diplomatic funds to rent a high-quality diplomatic area in the diplomatic area, and the number of people in the diplomatic area was all fifty people.
Well, the Tang Dynasty has a quota for the number of diplomats sent to the Tang Dynasty by each indigenous kingdom. The relationship with the Tang Dynasty is relatively good. Those who sincerely support the Tang Dynasty are called dad every day. Generally, they are given a quota of fifty people in the first class.
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For other countries, the number ranges from forty, thirty, or twenty people.
If there is no quota, each of these indigenous countries can send a large number of diplomats over...
As for Datang, who doesn’t want to come?
Even though the cost of living in Datang is high, except for a few countries, the diplomatic funds of many countries are generally only used for renting houses and a small amount of living expenses. Most of the people who come to Datang to be diplomats have to pay for their own maintenance.
Life in the Tang Dynasty.
However, even so, there are still countless people trying to run over with their heads broken.
Viscount Norris, his salary is actually very low. In Tang Yuan terms, it is only four Tang Yuan per month. Well, this is paid according to the latest salary standards of Songjiang Mansion of the Tang Dynasty.
But as a diplomat, if he wants to live a dignified life in Songjiang Prefecture, this amount of money is far from enough. The extra living costs are actually borne by him.
Of course, as a senior diplomat and English Viscount who has been stationed in the Tang Dynasty for many years, he has a lot of other additional income in addition to the fixed income from domestic fiefdoms.
For example, when he returned to China this time, he gave speeches in many places, telling the powerful and wealthy businessmen in England about many things about the Tang Dynasty. At the same time, he also wrote several books through his own dictation, and asked ghostwriters to write them, some of which were basically based on the Tang Dynasty.
It is widely distributed throughout the European continent. Although there is no copyright awareness in those poor places in Europe, they can still make some money.
More importantly, he published a book in the Tang Dynasty called "Tears of England". The main body of the story is the love story between an aristocratic woman and a poor man. At first glance, this is a love story.
But in fact it only shows the unique social outlook of contemporary England through the perspectives of the male and female protagonists.
In particular, it focuses on depicting the cruelty of the nobles, the misery of the serfs, and the helplessness of the free people in rural areas of England.
To magnify it, this is actually a novel depicting contemporary medieval European society. If hundreds of years pass, it is estimated that this book can be used to restore many details of European society in this world, which has great reference value.
But now, this book is regarded as a curiosity book in the Tang Dynasty, and its sales volume is very average. Occasionally, people from the Tang Dynasty will buy it because of curiosity. After reading it, most of them will sigh: Wow, it turns out that the world is still so backward.
What a barbaric place!
Relying on this not-so-good book, Viscount Norris actually lived a pretty good life.
In the Tang Dynasty, there is no such thing as copyright protection. The sales volume of the book written by Norris is average, but without piracy, it can still earn a lot of income. Relying on copyright income plus other income,
It would also allow him to live a more decent life in Songjiang Prefecture.
But that was in the Tang Dynasty. If it were in China in later generations, even if his book was ten times more popular, he would still be starved to death because not many people would buy his genuine book.
Perhaps Norris will starve to death on the streets that day, and when he is dying, he will let out a low cry: For those of you who watch pirated copies, won’t your consciences hurt?
As for other diplomats, they are basically not ordinary people, because ordinary people have no way to become diplomats and come to Datang. Therefore, they have their own personal connections, and they can generally maintain a living in Songjiang Prefecture.
Living in the Tang Dynasty, some places are actually quite cheap, and some places are very expensive. Songjiang Prefecture is undoubtedly the place with the highest cost of living in the Tang Empire.
Just for the embassy area and the accommodation building for diplomats, the rent is not cheap, and you have to add meals and other living expenses.
The Kingdom of Central Africa spends thousands of Tang Yuan on diplomatic funds every year. These are public funds and do not include the beginning of maintaining a decent life for diplomats. They only pay the minimum salary to ensure that the diplomats do not starve to death.
Diplomats want to live a decent life and find their own way...
Well, even for diplomats in the Tang Dynasty, their salary levels must be in accordance with the labor laws of the Tang Empire to ensure minimum wage income.
The Kingdom of Central Africa spends thousands of yuan on diplomatic offices every year. If this figure were placed in the Tang Dynasty, it would be nothing at all. For a country like the Kingdom of Central Africa, it can also be spent.
But some indigenous countries cannot take it out.
After all, the indigenous countries are generally quite poor, and if they have some money, they will use it to buy weapons and equipment from the Tang Dynasty.
Of course, there are also big and wealthy countries!