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Text Chapter 51 Defense (Part 2)

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    The Zhejiang scholars knew that the Jiangnan scholars they met had fled to Sichuan, but they did not show any contempt for this.  First of all, it is not easy to change people's ideas completely at once. Although the gentry class in Huzhou and Jiaxing have now revised the definition of promising from being good at reading to having the courage to take up arms to protect the clan, and these scholars from northern Zhejiang who came to Sichuan  They are all young people whose world outlook and outlook on life have not yet been finalized, but it is impossible for them to look down on young scholars who continue to study in such a short period of time; secondly, in the pamphlets promoting imperialism distributed in Sichuan, they also  There is no intention to belittle scholars at all, and this difference is characterized as a different division of labor.

    "Our Han civilization needs both defenders and things that need to be defended." A grandson of Zhuang Yuncheng said to Jin Shengtan's son. Imperialist theory is the most inflammatory to such young people: "We are defenders.  Our writing, clothing, and food and customs need to be defended. Without these things, if every scholar abandons his pen and joins the army, no longer writes articles or spreads articles and poems, then what is the difference between us and the Tartar barbarians?  "

    After a few days of contact with these people from northern Zhejiang, many young people from Wu County also went to complain to their parents. For example, Jin Shengtan's son suddenly changed his ambition and no longer planned to go to Xuzhou with his father to teach his children. Instead, he shouted  I want to go to the military academy in Chengdu with people from northern Zhejiang: "My child is also a seven-foot man. He should be a protector, not someone who needs to be protected. Anyway, with my brothers here, my father and mother don't have to worry about having no one to look after."

    ¡­¡­

    Deng Ming also returned to Chengdu. Today he rushed to meet Chen Zuocai of the academy to offer wine, hoping that the latter could cooperate with him in conducting more extensive imperialist education in the academy.

    Chen Zuocai is now in his forties and under fifty, but because he has become an old master in Sichuan, or at least in Chengdu, Mr. Chen, who was wearing short clothes in Yunnan a few years ago and could fly on a horse, has also changed a lot.  Now Chen Zuocai is dressed in Confucian robes and a scarf. He always has a dragon-headed walking stick in his hand when he walks, and he is still working hard to grow his beard.

    "Is Chen Jijiu okay?" Deng Ming looked at Chen Zuocai's increasingly long beard under his chin and felt that maybe in two years old Grandmaster Chen would have the idea of ??dyeing his beard gray or even snow-white.

    "Why did the Duke return to the capital so late?" Chen Zuocai knew that Deng Ming had been back to Sichuan for at least two months, but he had been staying in Xuzhou. He had just returned to Chengdu two days ago - and held a grand triumphal ceremony.  .  Now the academy has opened a physical education department. The head of the department is of course Imperial Councilor Professor Gereltu. Half of the teachers in the department are Mongolian hometown fellows of Director Gereltu and former members of the Imperial Guard. The others are basically the same.  Is a veteran.  On the day of the triumphal ceremony, Gereltu, as a member of parliament, was too embarrassed to join in the fun, but all the teachers in the department followed him to grab the money; these physical education teachers had a pretty good harvest, and they were laughing and shouting in the department yesterday, bragging to each other.  Looking at his gains, Chen Jijiu's office could hear clearly even though he was far away.

    "Isn't it because the fellow scholars want to see evidence of our army's victory?" Deng Ming said helplessly. Ever since he set a bad example when he came back from Burma, fellow Sichuan scholars thought that they must eat for free after Baoguo Gong came back victorious.  pause.  When Deng Ming was in Xuzhou, he was stopped by the welcoming imperial citizens and had to distribute the money to everyone. He also invited everyone present to drink with the scholars. After hearing the news, the Chengdu people waited for Deng Ming's return with dismay: "This  Those people who came from outside the city for the first time! I sold jade and ivory for several months and saved a lot of money before I came back. I thought it would be more than enough, but it turned out that it was almost not enough."

    After the greetings, Deng Ming started to talk. Although Chen Zuocai never openly agreed with Deng Ming¡¯s imperial theory, the academy was quite cooperative in assisting the government in publicity.  Several years ago, not long after Xiong Lan came up with the theory that Sichuan's rapid economic development could be maintained by constantly grabbing people, Chen Zuocai made it one of the courses that students should learn and think about in the academy.

    However, when Chen Zuocai heard that Deng Ming planned to advocate armed immigration to Nanyang and occupy overseas territories that were unknown how far away from Chengdu, Chen Zuocai still found it a little difficult to understand.

    "It's a pity that Mr. Guo Xing passed away, otherwise I wouldn't have to do this kind of thing." Deng Ming sighed. After losing Kinmen and Xiamen, Zheng Jing's attitude softened a lot and he agreed to share trade with Japan with Deng Ming.  Through the exchange of envoys, Deng Ming also knew that Zheng Jing was imposing heavy taxes in Taiwan to support Yanping Fan's huge army.

    "Does Chen Jijiu know why Prince Yanping raised taxes in Taiwan?"

    "What's so strange about this?" Chen Zuocai felt that Deng Ming's question simply looked down upon him. In order to maintain the hundreds of thousands of troops in Xiying, Sun Kewang scraped together the money and food to enable Xiying to launch offensives on Baoning, Xiangyang and Guangdong and Guangxi at the same time.  Driving a large number of people under his rule into military camps to serve as auxiliary soldiers is comparable to Zheng Jing allowing the existence of self-cultivating farmers., just raising the tax rate is much more expensive.  Before the civil strife among the three kings, the Western Army was able to launch a full-line attack, and it was able to make a comeback soon after defeat. It was indeed exciting, but Chen Zuocai also witnessed the suffering in the military camp: "What is the population of Taiwan? Five hundred thousand?"  Six hundred thousand? The land is not already cultivated like Jinxia, ??right? Prince Yanping has to maintain 30,000 soldiers and thousands of warships, reclaim wasteland, and build water conservancy projects. How can it be possible without heavy taxes? Prince Yanping  It would be considered benevolent not to turn the common people into auxiliary soldiers in the army."

    "Because Prince Yanping lost control of the Taiwan Strait," Deng Ming's answer was completely different from what Chen Zuocai thought: "Now not only us, but also the Dutch have reappeared in Japan in large numbers, and many of them have not asked Yanping Commandery.  The king has paid taxes, so he can still compete with our businessmen, which has led to a decline in our profits. This situation has disappeared after Guo Xingye sent troops to Taiwan. If the Dutch do not want to bear heavy taxes, they must withdraw from and  Japan¡¯s direct trade. Therefore, Prince Yanping could not afford to support the army, so he had to impose heavy taxes to ensure military supplies.¡±

    Chen Zuocai felt that there was something in Deng Ming's words, so he shut his mouth and waited for Deng Ming's next words. He held his dragon-head crutch in his hand and looked old-fashioned and unchanging.

    "Chen Jijiu knows that the agricultural taxes I collected in Sichuan have never been high. At the beginning, I relied on issuing IOUs to get through, then selling salt and collecting city redemption fees, then Caoyin and bonds, and now I am in Wuchang again  I went to Nanjing and opened a stock exchange. I have always relied on the financial resources of tens of millions of people along the Yangtze River, and even in Shandong, Zhejiang, and Myanmar to support millions of fellow scholars in Sichuan. So now Sichuan has a strong army and a huge  fleet, but the burden on the people is not heavy. The hardest-working farmers can own almost all their output, and because the industry and commerce are protected by the army, they can sell anything. If they encounter competitors, the imperial army will help  They ruined the situation. Even with my allies in Kuidong and the King of Jin in Yunnan, I was able to constantly give in and compromise and work hard to eliminate their dissatisfaction. It was also because my family was rich and I didn't have to risk conflict with them to argue with them. If  If I don¡¯t want to suffer big losses again and again, although I don¡¯t want to provoke internal strife, there may be people who will be jealous of my territory and look for trouble to provoke internal strife against me.¡±

    Deng Ming¡¯s meaning is very clear, that is, Sichuan¡¯s vigorous development and good relations with the alliance all benefited from external plunder.

    "Now speaking behind closed doors, I admit that I am plundering the people of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Although I have a bottom line, I know that they are my compatriots, and I treat them much better than the Qing court and Sun Kewang and others. But  This is still plundering. And I can't continue to plunder like this forever. Sooner or later, we will fight out of Sichuan, and our army will regain more land from the hands of the Qing court. How should we treat the recovered areas at that time?  Where are the people?" Deng Ming felt that he could definitely do better than the Qing government. The Qing government monopolized the trade of various daily necessities, and also tried every means to fool the people, ban the sea and enclose the land, which Deng Ming would definitely not do.  ; But if the people in the newly liberated areas want to immediately match the living standards of Sichuan, it is impossible. Personal power will still be tied to the clan and the gentry, because Deng Ming has no money to redeem these political rights: "But if there are overseas gains,  , these things will be much easier to handle. Not only will we not have to impose heavy taxes for war, but we will also be able to provide widespread tax exemptions to feed the poor, and provide subsidies to landlords in exchange for them reducing tenant rent taxes. Of course we must drive away the Tartars, but  If it can save a few Han people from dying, and it can be done without having to bear heavy taxes, then why not do it?"

    Therefore, Deng Ming needed to expand overseas, and he also believed that this opportunity might arise at any time, because the British gentlemen said that their motherland had reached the point of intolerance for the Dutch's monopoly on maritime trade and the Spanish's monopoly on South American gold and silver.  In Deng Ming's view, the British view of the Dutch and Spanish now is similar to the German view of the United Kingdom during World War I and World War II.  Moreover, Deng Ming still remembered that in his previous life, when Germany jumped out to challenge the United Kingdom, what Japan did was to push across Asia: first it pretended to be a friend of the United Kingdom and made a fortune, and then it broke up and started to grab it directly.  If Japan were not too weak and Germany failed in its two challenges, coupled with the giant United States, Japan might have been able to gain more benefits than Germany, the challenger.

    However, there is no United States now, and China is much stronger than the Dutch and Spanish in Batavia and the Philippines, but it is limited by its navigation capabilities. More importantly, according to Deng Ming¡¯s experience, the British challenger is still  It worked.

    "I have written to the King of England, saying that I think the profitable ivory, gold, and silk trade should be completely in the hands of his great kingdom; this great king has just regained the usurped throne, and he definitely wants to launch a war to establish it.  Authoritative, and can also make a fortune to win over people's hearts." Deng Ming has been committed to bringing benefits to Britain and the Netherlands.The relationship between the two countries has only added fuel to the fire, and now there is no Zheng Chenggong, so Deng Ming plans to imitate the Japanese strategy in his previous life, first pretend to be a friend of the Netherlands, engage in arms trading, and participate more extensively in the Dutch trade network, and then buy more.  Some Dutch ships and some shipbuilding engineers were hired to help the Netherlands solve its military expenditure problem. After the British continued to challenge and Deng Ming's ships were almost ready, he could learn Japan's next strategy.

    Deng Ming explained to Chen Zuocai for a long time, making him realize that Nanyang has huge potential. It can provide China with huge amounts of food, and it can also obtain gold and silver income that exceeds agricultural taxes through trade. It can also use these income to bribe Siam,  Japanese mercenaries went to help the Chinese fight the war.  However, if you want to seize large tracts of land and good harbors from the Western colonists, you need to prepare in advance, you need to carry out armed immigration, and you need Han people who dare to venture out to sea. When the time is right, these Han strongholds and weapons scattered in Southeast Asia will be reclaimed.  The regiment is the base, guide and troop complement of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.

    Deng Ming has compiled these things into a pamphlet, intending to encourage Sichuan people to organize something similar to the East India Company, and recruit poor people from the coastal areas of Fujian, Guangdong, and Shandong to form a colonization group to go to sea. Sichuan will provide rifles and military training, and  The Fujian army in Zhoushan will help them reach their destination - both Batavia and the Philippines now control only some good ports and strongholds. As long as the colonization regiment avoids direct conflicts with the Dutch and Spanish, plus some diplomacy  , the enemy they have to face is the scattered Nanyang natives.

    The key is to dare to defend one's own interests, not to submit but to shoot at the indigenous people who try to rob. Deng Ming hopes to use the geographical and demographic advantages to allow a large number of Han armed farmers to appear in Nanyang as soon as possible.  This requires propaganda through the Chengdu Academy, which first trains the leaders of the reclamation regiments, and then lets them recruit armed peasants.

    "Huaxia, barbarians, beasts." Chen Zuocai turned over the teaching materials prepared by Deng Ming and whispered, but then he changed back to his old-fashioned look: "I cannot agree with what the Duke said. I, the great Chinese, have always  I don¡¯t agree with the emphasis on persuading people with virtue, which goes against the principles of benevolence and forgiveness.¡±

    "But the sage also said that it is beneficial to open the book." Chen Zuocai put the pamphlet Deng Ming gave him into his sleeve: "Since the Duke has written it, let's show it to the students. There is always no harm in reading two more books.  Well."
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