Chapter 173: Driving fish into the abyss (Part 2)
"...Cultural heritage? You mean the Four Books and Five Classics, eight-legged essays, poems and songs? Those elegant things that scholars pretend to be?"
The civil servant from the East Bank Republic sneered at this, "...If it is material cultural heritage such as books and antiques, we would not mind building a museum to collect them. If it is intangible cultural heritage such as singing and dancing, then Can be taken into video or recorded into text Save. But who of these living rotten literati would be willing to serve them as masters? They are all extremely arrogant, even if they are given generous treatment, they will only take it for granted. There is no sense of gratitude at all.
For a modern regime, these traditional Confucian scholars who can only memorize a few books and have eyes on their heads only represent trouble and burden. What is the use of such things as Zhizheye and Zhou Lishangshu in the New World where the jungle is strong and nations compete for hegemony?
Of course, if they are like modern writers and are just satisfied with writing something to earn royalties, that's fine. But the problem is that these literati from the feudal dynasty actually regarded themselves as politicians. They really thought that they should hold great power and govern the people based on a few nonsense articles! But what will happen if we really want them to become officials? Hum hum, everyone just takes care of official duties, and then concentrates on corruption and sabotage! The year before last, our East Coast Republic had too many immigrants suddenly introduced in a short period of time and not enough educated township officials, so we tried to let a few people from the Ming Dynasty become mayors of newly established colonial towns on the border. The result was this Not only did the gang refuse to do their job properly, but they despised the law and the military. Not only did they engage in corruption, but they also led people to make trouble every day, opposed the country's "military-first politics", and demanded the opening of imperial examinations and so on. On the contrary, he was tolerant of those Indian barbarians and treated them more dearly than his own grandson! Later, they were all beheaded for corruption or colluding with foreign enemies...
In short, if everything goes according to their wishes, I am afraid that our country will be exterminated in less than half a year. But if you don't follow their thoughts, they will always think about how to rebel, and even if they fail to rebel, they will still make you feel disgusted - what use do they have for such bad people? ”
After hearing these words, Wang Qiu and several other civil servants in charge of immigration couldn't help but feel the same way. Indeed, in the Suzhou and Hangzhou areas of the Ming Dynasty, except for some Suzhou embroidery masters and porcelain craftsmen, there were no professional talents that could not be obtained elsewhere, and the remaining population could only serve as the basic labor force. But those traditional literati who are arrogant and arrogant are obviously unwilling to serve as the basic labor force - they are a bunch of useless guys, but they firmly believe that they are inherently nobler than anyone else, and others should do their job for them. When you are a horse, the best way to deal with it is to abandon it.
"...Those bad-tempered poor people are really difficult to serve. They drag each and every one of them as if we owe them millions."
Another civil servant who had just traveled through time and worked at the headquarters of the Australian Chinese League also sighed in agreement, "...Before, we selected immigrants to Australia and planned to build a village there as a pilot. Originally, we found a very good one. The famous Hangzhou Juren served as village chief
Unexpectedly, after that guy heard that there was an official position, he actually put on an indifferent air. When he learned that he was only allowed to be a village chief, he even dared to blow his beard and stare at us, saying nothing. 'How can we, who have lived in poverty for ten years and read the books of saints and sages, become mere subordinates? ’
As a result, when we were reviewing immigration, we would rather look for illiterate people. Even if we need a few literate people, we only dare to use small traders or old boys, and we definitely don’t dare to use scholars who have a good reputation. Even if they are failed scholars, they will be dragged to death... Not to mention being absent from work all day long, they still feel good about themselves. It’s so bad that I always feel that the world will stop without them, and I even want to cause trouble from time to time..."
"...So, as long as the direction is wrong, the more knowledge you have, the more reactionary you will be. We have a deep understanding of this issue."
A member of the Lingao Crossing Group, the owner of Phoenix Villa Zhao Yingong also came over to join the discussion, "...it is really difficult to reform those old scholars with stubborn ideas. On the one hand, these people demand treatment at the level of a national scholar. , on the other hand, they can only come up with some unreliable ideas at most, and most of them are bad ideas that want to do bad things. If you want them to do something practical, it is really more uncomfortable than killing them.
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In order to recruit local intellectuals, we once held a civil service examination in Hainan Island, but no old literati were willing to take the examination because they believed that even if they passed the examination, they could only start from grassroots civil servants. The starting point was too low for them. Said it was too cheap. The vast majority of scholars dream of becoming a high official in one step, and they must be the kind of "honest officials" who only need to talk and don't do practical things - how can they agree to such a request? ”
"...So, let's just sit back and watch Jiangnan being beaten to pieces by the Qing army. How can we build a new world without destroying the old world?"
The civil servant of the East Coast Republic said, "...from a humanitarian perspective, this is indeed a disaster. But for those of us who traveled through time, a disintegrated, chaotic and separatist Chinese Empire is more suitable for us. We can cultivate our own sphere of influence in the coastal areas and obtain trade benefits from the inland areas, and the refugees caused by the war provide us with a steady stream of immigrants.
The reason why those early Europeans were willing to take the huge risk of more than half of the mortality rate and cross the sea with their families to colonize the Americas and East Asia was not because of the long and cruel Thirty Years' War, the melee in the Italian city-states, and the civil wars between Britain and France. Let the people at the bottom be forced to survive and have no choice but to flee to overseas colonies to find an opportunity to live a comfortable life?
Even for China itself in this time and space, a period of brutal war is necessary. Based on historical experience, a country will never be able to abandon those outdated things and move towards a new social form without experiencing the pain of blood and fire.
Therefore, the outbreak of a full-scale civil war and the disintegration and collapse of the old imperial order will give us a greater chance to slowly penetrate this ancient and rigid country, and then use our own methods to change her. An ancient country cannot successfully transform without going through a huge and painful change! ”
"...Then why can't we work together and first rely on our military power that transcends the times to occupy the entire China, and then carry out reforms step by step? Instead, we have to sit aside and watch them fight each other and kill each other. Where are the rivers of blood flowing across the fields?" someone asked.
"...First of all, this war to conquer the Ming Empire will bring us a very huge number of casualties. And you also understand that we can't afford too many people to die. Even now, the modern people in this world The number of Chinese travelers is also very limited
Secondly, we simply did not have time to train enough cadres to carry out land reform and modernization throughout China. In fact, the current purges of the two occupied areas of Guangdong and Liaodong have already stretched our ruling and administrative power. As for Zhejiang, except for a few towns and villages that resisted fiercely and needed to be severely punished, we did not even carry out land reform in the countryside. We only gave some temporary official titles to some local gentry who were aware of current affairs, allowing them to continue to maintain their autonomy. , but the security problem in northern Zhejiang is still very serious.
At high-level meetings of the Chinese League, there have been proposals to abandon Hangzhou and withdraw to the south of the Qiantang River, or even abandon the entire Zhejiang province and only retain Zhoushan Island as an offshore stronghold. It was only because of the need to recruit immigrants that it was not approved. After all, Jiangnan has the largest population in China.
If we ignore our actual strength and launch a war of unification now, then at most we can only superficially unify the country, but change the local situation without changing the medicine. And a dynastic war that changes dynasties is meaningless to the progress of society. Instead of achieving unification on the map and then allowing these class enemies of the old society to transform into speculators and enter the system, get into our stomachs and make trouble, leaving us in a dilemma and throwing in the towel, it is better to occupy a few important places and then stand aside and watch them. Kill each other to their heart's content, and then wait until the time is right to wipe them all out. ”
The owner of the village, Zhao Yingong, commented, "...Finally, we need to look further and not just focus on the one-third of an acre of land in China. If we are always limited to this piece of land, any changes will be impossible." The meaning is limited. Only by driving millions or even tens of millions of Chinese people overseas through endless wars and famines to a broader world can the true take-off of the Chinese nation be achieved!
As for the situation in China, you can rest assured that everything is under control. From ancient times to the present, no matter how many times it is ravaged by natural disasters and wars, this land has always belonged to the Chinese. At least under our supervision, no foreign race can take this land away! ”
Everyone is convinced of this. Although these travelers and the Han people of the Ming Dynasty were theoretically flesh and blood compatriots, after all, there was a huge gap of four hundred years. They watched the Eight Banners braided soldiers slaughtering people and massacring cities from satellite cameras. It was basically the same as how modern Chinese people view the messy wars in the Middle East. They mostly gloated about the misfortune and had no empathy at all, let alone indignation.
However, schadenfreude is a schadenfreude. Although everyone has a bad impression of the Ming Dynasty gentry who inherited the characteristics of traditional Chinese culture, basically did not pay taxes, did not do serious work, and were only responsible for having fun, they do not want to see the Eight Banners of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties actually being implemented. Having established a stable position in the south of the Yangtze River - therefore, when talking about how to deal with the Ming Dynasty envoys from Songjiang, everyone believed that they should be given a small amount of assistance appropriately, and the superiors also gave instructions in this way.
"...Mr. Lu Xun once said that there are only two eras in the history of the Chinese people, the era when you want to be a slave but cannot get it, and the era when you are a temporarily stable slave, and the latter is what we don't want to see, because it will reduce our Source of immigrants. So it is necessary to keep Jiangnan in chaos.”
Wang Qiu held the tablet computer and announced to everyone some internal reference information that only he and Zhao Yiggong were qualified to read in real time, "...for this reason, the Chinese Alliance Headquarters has just agreed that we will sell food and ordnance to the remaining Ming Dynasty forces in Jiangnan. Also, what you may not know is that the most The Ming Dynasty envoys who came to Hangzhou recently were not one group, but two groups - in addition to the Yonghe Emperor in Shanghai who sounded like he was a soy milk seller, the orphans and widows of Emperor Chongzhen also sent envoys to us, and this The envoy is actually one of our own..."
Having said this, Wang Qiu couldn't help but sigh, "...No wonder the Emperor Chongzhen in this time and space behaved completely differently from the Emperor Chongzhen in our history. When the crisis came, he actually made the decision to flee Beijing. ! It turns out there are time travelers under his command..."
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In the deserted streets of Hangzhou, Zhang Pu, the Minister of Rites of the Yonghe Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, had just finished preliminary negotiations with the owner of Zhao Yingong Village and presented a gift. At this time, he was sitting in a swaying "Australian Rickshaw". Go up and prepare to return to your residence in the city to rest.
Originally, as the landlord, Zhao Yingong arranged a courtyard for them in Fenghuang Villa. However, although Zhang Pu and the "Yonghe Court" behind him were in a state of decline, they still tried their best to show the dignity of the "Celestial Kingdom". Therefore, this mission was not a simple one, but brought Fang Yizhi, Zhang Dai, and Xu Fuyuan with them. and many other celebrities from the south of the Yangtze River. Every celebrity accompanying him also brought with him a number of servants, totaling more than 200 people. So the small courtyard arranged for them in Phoenix Villa seemed too cramped, and the food provided to them was poor (it just didn't have fine clothes and fine food, so they had to eat the same big pot rice as the soldiers), so they finally suffered. One night, Zhang Pu asked to live in a spacious place.
However, there are currently a large number of troops and civil and military officials stationed in Phoenix Villa, and it is impossible to free up too many buildings at once.
Fortunately, the city of Hangzhou is nearby, and there are many idle wealthy mansions at the moment, so Zhao Yingong randomly selected a few relatively good houses for them to choose, and then sent someone to clean the large house they selected. A few soldiers stood guard and delivered some rice, noodles, vegetables and meat every day, and it became a temporary post for entertaining envoys. As for the inside of the mansion, the guests need to be served by their own servants. Arriving at the door of the mansion where he was staying, Zhang Pu got out of the car. As soon as he walked through the corridor and walked into the flower hall, he saw Fang Yizhi who had gone to the street to find out the news. He ran over excitedly, "...Brother Tianru , Brother Tianru! There is indeed a lot of food here in Kunthi! I just went to the food store on the street in Hangzhou, and there was only white rice and The price of fine flour is very high, and the price of coarse wheat is only one tael per stone, which is only 30% of the price of Songjiang wheat! And the price of barley (corn) and sweet potatoes is even cheaper! And these grains are all open for sale! , not unlimited! It might be a little troublesome if you just want to ship it out..."