Chapter 133 Purpose
On June 21, Prince Mu, who had returned to the capital from the Guangdong Special Zone, received a report from Hai Gangfeng on a fast horse, and learned about the little "goodwill" that the Dutch merchants had asked someone to convey to him. Of course, fence-sitters are easily influenced by the wind, so this little bit of goodwill is insignificant and can only be fulfilled when the outcome is revealed. But in any case, the willingness of the top leaders of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce to maintain a benevolent neutrality between Da'an and Spain already demonstrates a certain confidence.
Mu Qi read the letter carefully and handed it to Ru Wang who was sitting next to him without saying a word. Ru Wang also looked at it for a moment, then he let out a long sigh:
"Congratulations, Prince, and congratulations to your country's great emperor."
"It's just some verbal support, and it's not really a surprise." The prince said, "Of course, any kindness is precious, and Daan will never forget his friends who have supported him. But no matter what, you have to place your bets early. If you miss that time, I'm afraid the price of the chips will change... What do you think, Mr. Ruwang?"
The prince looked straight at him, and his intention was clear. After the establishment of the Foreign Affairs Office, its primary task was to plan for a war against Spain. Seven or eight months later, supplies and personnel were ready. Of course, the cunning British banks had to express their stance quickly to eliminate all the consequences of the war. From the time he went north from Guangdong until now, Prince Mu has given Ruwang ample time to consider, and now is the time for a showdown.
If you are not an ally, you are an enemy; in the jungle age of great navigation, there is no third way to choose.
In theory, this choice is actually quite simple. There was already a lot of rift between Spain and England, and the bank had personally witnessed Da'an's military power; in any case, the British would never abandon the customers they had cultivated with great difficulty and turn to support their sworn enemy. But despite this, Ruwang still hesitated for a moment and couldn't reply immediately.
"...Excuse me for being so nosy." He was silent for a long time, then whispered, "Your court's goal of fighting Spain...hasn't changed?"
"Of course there is no change." The prince said calmly: "The military strategy has been reviewed and approved by the emperor. How can a minister change it without authorization?"
It’s the same sentence as expected!
Although he had already expected this, Ru Wang's expression still changed slightly. To be honest, when he learned that China and the West were about to go to war, besides being shocked and astonished, he felt more of a secret ecstasy - war is the most profitable business and the market with the most opportunities. It is a natural cesspool that makes Sheng Ti Daiying, a born shit-stirring person, unable to stop. Stirring it up well is worth ten years of struggle. As a qualified capitalist, when hearing about war, one should be ecstatic and strive for discovery, just like a hyena smelling blood.
Such joy lingered in his heart until he heard the prince explain the battle objectives to him:
"It is really unbecoming for Luzon and other places to be controlled by the Western barbarians. Even for the long-term plan, we must at least take over several large islands in the South Sea."
...Oh my god, this is such a big joke!
The Spaniards traveled across the world and were invincible; but such a huge colonial empire was not pie in the sky after all, but was conquered by themselves, piece by piece. Not to mention anything else, just the management of the South Seas, the occupation of Luzon and the development of the tropical islands cost several decades and five or six million taels of silver. How could such a huge sunk cost, such a precious and rare golden rice bowl, and such a critical strategic position be given up for nothing?
During the Age of Exploration, ethics were completely destroyed and the law of the jungle was common among nations. As long as China's firepower is strong enough, it will not be difficult to force Spain to pay money, make concessions or even sell its privileges. After all, there is the Portuguese as a precedent. But ceding Luzon, ceding the islands, and ceding all the achievements of decades of development... this is too touching the bottom line!
You must never give in easily to things that touch your bottom line, otherwise you will inevitably fail miserably and collapse beyond repair. Apart from anything else, even for the sunk costs of the past few decades, Spain must have struggled desperately and done its best to turn the world upside down - in terms of the strength of both sides, it would be a battle between the old colonial powers and the top local powers, a duel between masters, and the fight would last until the world was in turmoil and the great road was wiped out.
In general, in small wars and conflicts, capitalists can resell resources and information and make excess profits happily. However, once the war expands to an uncontrollable level, even the trade routes themselves will be greatly disrupted, and the capitalists will no longer be able to be happy.
When the eldest and the second are fighting, it is hard to say who will win or lose, but the bystanders will definitely suffer.
In view of this, Ruwang had to be somewhat cautious about this strategic goal, always feeling that he might lose his gold coins halfway through the battle. Even though he knew that the test was meaningless, he only asked one more question:
"I may have spoken out of turn. But must your country expand the war to such an extent?"
"What does sir mean?"
"I think if we adjust our goals a little, victory will be much easier." Ju Wang said quickly: "If we just want compensation, apology, or the right to free trade, then as long as we win a naval battle, the Spaniards will most likely agree..."
"I don't doubt your judgment, sir." The prince said, "But if this happens, the threat to our southern coast will never be eliminated, which is a big deal after all."
"With enough 'rocket', what threat can there be along the coast? Your country is worrying too much..."
"First, the advantage of artifacts cannot be maintained forever, otherwise the Egyptians who mastered bronze artifacts would still be the world's hegemons. Second, my concerns about the Spanish are not just about the military."
Ru Wang was stunned: "What do you mean, Prince?"
The prince obviously hesitated for a moment, looked up at the dirt road passing quickly outside the carriage, and finally spoke:
"Mr. Ruwang, have you ever visited Manila, the big city on Luzon Island?"
As the hub of Southeast Asian trade, Ruwang was of course very familiar with this:
"A few times."
"Sir, you are really well-informed. I don't have such experience." The prince smiled and said, "Then please be fair, can Foshan in Guangdong, Shangyu in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, etc. in China be compared with Manila?"
Having come to this point, Ru Wang did not try to hide anything and told the truth:
"In terms of prosperity and wealth, your country cannot compare with it; but in terms of neatness and cleanliness, Manila is far inferior."
"Manila is, after all, the core of trade, a place where all kinds of things converge. Its prosperity is rare in the world. I know that. But how is Manila inferior to it in terms of neatness and cleanliness?"
This seemed to be just the prince's pure curiosity. But Ruwang obviously hesitated for a moment, as if he was struggling to think of the right words; but after trying for a while, he found no results and could only give a rough example:
"My Lord, do you remember the 'Fengang' in Shangyu, Jiangsu and Zhejiang?"
The prince was silent for a few seconds: "...I still remember it almost."
In fact, it is not "almost remember" at all, but it is still fresh in my memory. That cesspool was one of the ironclad proofs of the breakdown of governance in Shangyu City. Because of the disorder inside and outside the city, people were in panic. A large number of refugees gathered outside Shangyu City, defecating and urinating everywhere at will, and the bodies of the dead accumulated layer by layer. Countless garbage piled up like a mountain of dung, so the people called it the "dung hill". This long-standing problem had been delayed for a long time, and everyone was covering their noses when they heard about it. It was only after Hai Gangfeng took office that he made great efforts to rectify and clean it up, digging pits, burying them, burning ashes to absorb the odor, and using lime for disinfection. It took a lot of effort to barely clean up the situation, which can be regarded as a huge political achievement.
It just so happened that when Mu Qi went south to fight against Portugal, he was visiting the finishing touches of the manure dump cleaning project. The strong shock he felt was still unforgettable and his face turned pale.
"Then you can imagine it, Your Highness." Ru Wang hesitated and could only sigh: "The living environment of the poor in Manila is basically the same as a 'dunghill'. As for the residences of the nobles, they may look a little better from the outside; but in reality, they are almost the same..."
The so-called "almost" is probably Ruwang's best effort to save the situation out of Western self-esteem. In fact, the reason why Shangyu had a "feces dump" was because of the collapse of order caused by the government, as well as the surge in refugees after the Japanese pirates' attacks. In normal times, the cleanliness of the city would not be excellent, but at least it would be acceptable. But speaking of Europeans’ hygiene habits today… well, even in the French and British courts, nobles still urinate and defecate anywhere!
What's worse is that France and Britain are at much higher latitudes, the weather is cold and the air is relatively dry; the excrement thrown everywhere by the nobles may not pose any risk. But Manila is a hot, humid, and windy tropical city after all. Once the feces and urine on the ground ferment, the smell...
How should I put it? Judging from the way Prince Mu was acting when facing the dung hill, he definitely couldn't stand the flavor of Manila, so there was no need for Ruwang to explain further.
Of course, even this fragmentary description was enough to shock the prince who had never seen the world. He was stunned for half a cup of tea before he reluctantly spoke:
"... In this case, you should understand our helplessness. I have told you before that dirt and filth will breed plague; this law has been proven time and again throughout history..."
"--Even so, why should your country worry about it?" Ru Wang couldn't help but interrupt him: "Are you going to tell me, Prince, that your country is opening the door of mercy because you sympathize with the suffering of the people of Luzon who are suffering from the plague and have to start a war? Excuse me, this explanation is probably hard to convince people!"
It is true that Manila is poorly managed and resembles a garbage dump; it is also true that it is so dirty and filthy that it suffers periodic plagues. But even if both are true, what does it have to do with the Da'an court? Is there any other gentleman on the sea who can speak out for justice like this?
You might as well say that the current Fei Xuan Zhenjun is actually a peace-loving, gentle, compassionate saint who only knows how to practice Taoism and doesn't care about worldly affairs. At least this doesn't go against the logic of Confucianism.
"Of course I sympathize with the people of Luzon, and even all those who died of the plague. But this has nothing to do with my decision." The prince replied calmly: "I am a noble of the Da'an court, and I receive a salary from China. The court gave me a salary and awarded me a title so that I can consider the Central Plains and the country, not the people of Manila. I can express my personal sympathy, but it is only personal sympathy."
"In that case, it would be best for the prince to just stand aside and not get involved in irrelevant matters."
"Unrelated matters?" The prince said softly, "Then this is where I differ from you... Of course, I understand what you mean. Merchants and pirates have no fixed place to stay, and the world is their home. After making a fortune, they can just run away without having to consider the consequences. But we are locals after all, and our ancestral home is where we were born and raised, and we cannot move it for thousands of years; so we have to consider the long-term, and we have to leave a way out."
This is a bit too much. What "pirate" and "run away" made Ru Wang's veins jump so much that he wanted to bulge his eyes and refute them. But before he could organize his words, Mu Qi interrupted him directly:
"In fact, I also understand the European style very well, and even privately I have some unspeakable envy - abandoning ethics, abandoning morality, abandoning all bottom lines to pursue profits, squeezing the colonies into an orange that can no longer squeeze out juice, what a refreshing and lucrative business! In fact, every time I think about the final plan to deal with the Japanese pirates, this evil desire will arise from the bottom of my heart involuntarily... But there is no way, some things cannot be done, this is one of the experiences of thousands of years, and it cannot be influenced by personal likes and dislikes."
"-Oh, of course. It's not because it can't be done. In fact, since Emperor Wu conquered the northern desert 1,700 years ago, the Central Plains has basically established an absolute military advantage over the barbarians. If you want to drain the pond and completely destroy all the order around you, it's actually a very simple thing. But the powerful Han court soon discovered a simple truth: the neighboring countries on land can't be moved away after all; wantonly destroying the order of the barbarians to extract profits will only create a huge cesspool that stinks three feet in the wind. The neighboring countries on land can never be moved away, and every piece of feces overflowing from this cesspool will be accurately poured back into the mouth of the court."
This is really disgusting and harsh, but it is really hard to refute. If we look at the "Records of the Grand Historian" and "Book of Han" and combine them with the results of later archaeology, the Yan and Han dynasties were invincible for 400 years. The Han envoys who expanded the borders in successive dynasties were either shrewd, violent, or barbaric, and there were even some who had an affair with the queen mother. However, no matter how rough and cruel the methods they used to treat the upper class of the barbarians, after truly controlling the small vassal states, they still had to do their best to appease the civilians and maintain order, and even organize garrisons to carry out operations such as building water conservancy projects and introducing grain to develop productivity. They would never dare to imitate the Westerners and plunder the land to the point of really cutting off the road.
This caution is certainly not out of morality (if you talk about morality to the Han envoys who are launching palace coups everywhere, the bad boys in Chang'an will want to laugh), but mostly out of helplessness: the Han army can certainly grind the barbarians into a puddle of mud, destroy civilization, order, and everything local business does, and squeeze the benefits out of their bones; but after the collapse of order, if robbers who rob caravans, refugees who harass everywhere like locusts emerge from the mud, and there are endless vicious crimes or even riots, then the Han court far away in the sky cannot control it - if you blow up the doorstep of your home into a cesspool, don't blame the flies in the cesspool for crawling into your rice bowl.
One of the most important ways for a small country to resist a powerful country is to lie down and die in front of you. It took the Han Dynasty hundreds of years to understand this lesson, and they never dared to forget it from then on.
So, this is one of the reasons why the vassal-tributary system was able to survive for a long time. As a top superpower, Middle-earth can act as the big daddy of small vassal states, demand tributes and respect, and establish an international system that it is satisfied with. But no matter how great the disparity in national strength is, Middle-earth must leave a way out for the barbarians, respect the order and stability of foreign vassal states, and even export advanced technology to help its poor neighbors. This kind of restraint is not so much out of Confucian benevolence as it is out of the interest of out of sight, out of mind - Your Majesty the Emperors of the Central Plains of every dynasty, you don't want to see barbarian refugees like locusts within your borders, do you?
The corner of Ru Wang's mouth twitched:
"…I don't understand, what does this have to do with Luzon and the Spanish?"
"Is there no connection?" The prince asked him back, "I checked the records of ports such as Foshan and found that there were two outbreaks of plague in Guangdong five years ago and nine years ago. Both times, the outbreaks occurred in ports open to foreign trade. Fortunately, the scale was small and could still be controlled. I then asked the merchants who came and went and found that two months before the outbreak of plague in Guangdong, there happened to be a large-scale plague outbreak in Luzon Island under Spanish control. Luzon is Guangdong's most important foreign trade point. Are the two really unrelated?"
"The plague that the prince is talking about is——"
"I asked the locals. If you use your words, it should be called the Black Death."
As expected, the purpose of a debate is to seize the opponent's weakness. When Ruwang only heard the three words "Black Death", his face turned as pale as a piece of paper in an instant. As the number one plague that swept across the entire Eurasian continent for more than a hundred years and claimed 200 million lives, even though time has passed, the little terror that remains in history is still chilling. As a European who has experienced great trauma and pain, and who grew up reading The Decameron, Ruwang even subconsciously opened his mouth to refute. Even if it was impolite, he had to reject this terrible shadow:
"How did you know it was the Black Death? Even now, medical experts are still unable to determine the spread of the Black Death..."
"Because our country has detailed records." The prince said calmly: "The coroners in Foshan have dissected the bodies of the dead and left a lot of files. 'Swelling of nodules', 'bleeding and blackening of the skin', what other diseases do you think these could be?"
The last glimmer of hope was also eliminated. Ru Wang sat still, feeling a bone-chilling chill pouring into his head, almost freezing his blood into ice. After the great plagues of the 13th and 14th centuries, the Black Death had been extinct in Europe for one or two hundred years, and most of the horrors had become legends. But when the shadow of the legend shone into reality, it was a torture more unbearable than hell!
"...But." Ru Wang struggled hard, his voice stiff: "The black plague in Luzon did not cause a large-scale spread. This, this is different from history..."
If we consider the Black Death's terrible reputation in history, his reputation as a scholar would have been reduced to ashes in a grave long ago!
"Because the plague also needs to evolve." The prince said, "I don't understand European history, but the outbreak of the Black Death is also cyclical, right? The reason why the two outbreaks discovered in Foshan were able to be quickly eradicated was because the Black Death broke out too quickly, too violently, and the mortality rate was too high. Merchants infected with the disease died completely within five or six days, and the goods they carried with them were burned. There was no time to spread the plague. But if the outbreak lasted a little longer, it could be delayed until the patients abandoned the ship and went ashore, and the goods were sold..."
Ru Wang was stunned and couldn't help shivering. If it were just a "hypothesis", it would not be a big deal; but the most subtle and terrifying thing is the vague correspondence between the hypothesis and the reality. Although Prince Mu did not understand European history, he knew a thing or two: in the "great plague" era from the 13th to the 14th century, the Black Death did not persist day and night for nearly a hundred years, but showed a considerable periodicity. Generally speaking, after each major outbreak, the Black Death would always die down and pause for about twenty years before the next major outbreak would continue the massacre. This nature puzzled medical scientists, who even believed that the plague was "accumulating strength" in preparation for even larger-scale killings.
If we look at the epidemic on Luzon Island from this perspective, then what kind of big guy will be released from the island after repeatedly accumulating strength?
Ru Wang took a breath of cold air.
Fear always makes the brain extra clear. After hesitating for a moment, Ru Wang whispered:
"...I've heard people say that there have been signs of the Black Death in Spain in recent years."
Of course, the credibility of such hearsay is generally very low, but now...
"That's not surprising, is it?" The prince sighed, "So, with all due respect, the way the Spanish ruled Luzon, Southeast Asia, and even their colonies can be considered a crime against the whole world."
The tropics are places where plagues occur frequently and pathogens are innumerable. A large number of pathogens hybridize with each other, and then rapidly multiply and evolve repeatedly in petri dishes like Luzon and Manila, which are similar to garbage dumps. They are almost impossible to eliminate forever... With such a set of operations, it is certain that some kind of Gu King that will sweep the world will be bred.
Of course, it is not only the Spaniards who are raising poisonous insects now. Thai and Western merchants who do business with China are basically large virus culture dishes, and the transmission effect is quite amazing. If we talk about historical facts, after experiencing a series of imperialist tricks of draining the pond to catch fish, the European powers really cultivated a big poison king in the garbage dump of the colonies. The newly upgraded Black Death was brought to the battlefield, ravaging Europe and Asia once again, causing incalculable damage; and making everyone in the world, whether related or not, realize the great kindness of imperialism...
Well, ruling the world requires experience. The feudal empire may not be that good, but it had ruled for thousands of years and caused great pain. At least they knew not to pile shit on their doorsteps, and that one should not go too far and should always leave a way out in everything. But it is different for emerging upstarts like Spain. A monkey with a crown is still a monkey. After getting power, it will only do whatever it wants and drag itself, outsiders, and all of humanity into the water.
Mu Qi didn't care about Spain's stupidity and old-fashionedness, but Luzon Island was right at his doorstep after all. If the foreigners really turn this place into a drug den, our future life will be very difficult. So he sighed:
"Mr. Ruwang, we are actually unwilling to occupy Luzon. But if we let the Spaniards continue to mess around like this, it will be disastrous if things get out of hand! Our country is adjacent to Southeast Asia, and we cannot ignore such things."
The so-called "unwilling to occupy Luzon" and so on are probably just lies. Even Ru Wang couldn't deny the last sentence, so after a moment of silence, he could only ask in a low voice:
"So your country will definitely be able to take care of Luzon Island?"
"So we conducted a pilot project in Shangyu to verify the cleanup of the urban environment after acceptance." Mu Qi said: "Also, let me remind you that the Central Plains has been a superior country for more than a dozen centuries, but there has never been a thing like the Spanish."
"Mr. Ruwang, the people who built the Great Wall have always believed that building stones is far better than throwing stones, and supporting people, building provinces and establishing countries is far better than depriving, enslaving and destroying them."
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