Chapter 1299 The driving force of national progress (third update, please subscribe)

As Hegel said, “A nation must always have some people who look up at the stars in order to have hope.”

What kind of people are those who look up at the stars?

There are scientists, philosophers, and of course politicians. Perhaps the former determine the country's scientific development, but it is the latter that determines the country's destiny.

Scientists and philosophers look up and ponder. Politicians also ponder and look up.

Unlike the former, the latter is often driven by ambition.

Ambition!

Most of the time, what drives humans forward is always ambition.

In most cases, it is ambition that drives people forward. You can ridicule this ambition in all kinds of ways, but you can never deny that it is ambition that drives the progress of human society.

In the era of great contention, almost all countries, all looked up at the starry sky and imagined the earth under the starry sky. What did they imagine? How to expand the scope of their country's rule under this starry sky? Don't think that they are a group of ambitious people. In fact, the inaction of mediocre politicians is undoubtedly a crime for a nation.

Especially in this era of great contention, there are only two kinds of countries in the world: one is the country that uses iron and fire to open up living space for its own country, and the other is the country that does nothing and gains nothing in this era of great contention.

As for the others... they are just fish that can be exploited by anyone. In this environment, those fish are not countries, they will always be just fish.

Of course, few countries are willing to be exploited by others, and no country is willing to do nothing, so every country is working very hard to become stronger.

No matter how far they progress, one thing is certain: when any country's strength reaches a certain level, they will be full of desire for this little blue planet.

After all, this world is too small, and human...ambitions are endless.

"Human greed is like a snake swallowing an elephant!"

When he put down the intelligence in his hand, Emperor Zhu said in a sarcastic tone,

"As long as Russia exists, they will never give up conquest. Expansionism has long been engraved in their bones. In the world, there has never been a country like Russia that started from a small Moscow Principality and conquered such a vast land in such a short period of time..."

As soon as His Majesty finished speaking, Qian Degong spoke loudly.

"Your Majesty, why do you need to boost others' morale? Even if we count the time when Nanhua landed, the Ming Dynasty has only been established for 30 years. In the past 30 years, the territory of the Ming Dynasty is not inferior to that of Russia..."

This is not arrogance. Even elementary school students in the Ming Dynasty can recite a passage from the text to prove how vast the territory of the Ming Dynasty is.

"Our land stretches from the North Pole to the South Pole! Our ocean stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic..."

As for from the North Pole to the South Pole... this is not even an exaggeration. South China is the only country in the world that owns land from the Far North to the Far South... well, this does not include the South Pacific territories and African territories.

Well, Ming Dynasty is also the only country in the world whose territory spans three continents, Asia, North and South America. In terms of land area... Russia is just a little brother in front of Ming Dynasty.

"Well, that's the truth, but... just keep quiet and make a fortune!"

Emperor Zhu said directly.

"And we are different from the Russians. Our conquest is to benefit the local people. Are we conquering? No, we are liberating, right..."

Emperor Zhu once again brought out his "theory of benefit creation". It is definitely a blessing for the people of South American countries to be ruled by the Ming Dynasty. This blessing is definitely not "996" or "007", but a real blessing. They only need to work 10-12 hours a day. Why is there 12 hours of work? Because new areas like Peru and Bolivia need a period of transition.

"But Russia is different. As long as it exists, it will not give up its ambitions. Starting from the Principality of Moscow, expansion has been its instinct. Its instinct is to conquer and expand, whether in military, political, economic, or even trade. The desire for expansion has long been engraved in its bones. As long as there is an opportunity, they will expand, no matter who the opponent is..."

Expansion is the instinct of imperialists, and this is vividly demonstrated in Russia. In this regard, it can be said that no country can compare with Russia, at most only the Mongols can compare with it.

"Your Majesty, there is a proverb in Europe: 'Tear off the skin of a Russian and you will find a Tatar'."

Qian Degong's words made Emperor Zhu nod slightly, and then he spoke.

"So, all we need to do is create an opportunity for them, an opportunity to expand!"

With a smug smile, Emperor Zhu pointed to the information he had just obtained in front of him and said.

“In the past, we were worried that the Russians would get off the ship, now we don’t have to worry about them getting off.”

There is no need to worry about Russia anymore, because Russia has jumped on board on its own initiative. Their ambitions towards Persia and India have led them to a path of hostility towards Britain, and on this road, the Ming Dynasty is their indispensable helper.

"For Russia now, it's not a question of whether he gets off the ship or not, but they are more worried about Ming getting off the ship."

After thinking about it, Emperor Zhu said.

"Now, we can even consider how to use Russia's ambitions to serve our future plans."

What does unilateral transparency of intelligence mean?

This means that Russia didn't know that the Ming Empire was also very interested in "killing the British and eating their meat"! Not very interested, but deliberately!

This also means that the Ming Dynasty has the bargaining chips, and in this negotiation, Russia is destined to be the losing party, because the Ming Dynasty is very clear about its trump card, but they do not know the Ming Dynasty's trump card.

Over the past few years, the intelligence network established by the Investigation Department has enabled Ming to obtain many military and political secrets of various countries. Those secrets allow the empire to deal with various matters with ease. In this game, Ming... undoubtedly used a cheat.

"Who else can get away?"

Qian Degong asked back while frowning and said.

"Austria-Hungary, will they ever get out of this?"

"Austria-Hungary..."

Emperor Zhu thought about it, then shook his head and said.

"They probably won't get off the boat because they are also jealous."

Standing in front of the window for a while, Emperor Zhu hesitated: In the past decade or so, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has always been jealous of Russia and France, jealous of the former's expansion, the latter's oil, and of course, it was also extremely jealous of the empire.

"Mr. Qian, you know that the most important thing in this world is interest. What can the Austro-Hungarian Empire get if they get off the ship? If they are on the ship, at least they can get a generous reward in this "Eagle Killing" feast. What do we guarantee now? It is to let them know that the reward is generous. Of course, we have to let the Russians take the lead. After all-"

Emperor Zhu smiled and said.

"The Russians are very vain. They would definitely like to be the 'Eagle Killer'..."

(End of this chapter)