Chapter 222 Dealing with the Comprador Class
As a private enterprise, doing this for the country is too shameless. The United States is a capitalist country, and these military forces are just hired to protect the company. Now they want to turn it upside down. It is really unreasonable. Sheffield will never agree to it.
In this era, how could a military general have such an idea? In his opinion, this is a very serious problem. Do you regard yourself as the military-industrial complex in a few decades? Even if it is a military-industrial complex, it is mainly military-industrial enterprises. The navy and the army are still cannon fodder. What qualifications do you have to bargain with yourself? Once the situation in the Philippines stabilizes, won’t you still return to your country to farm?
"Do you really want to turn the United Company into the East India Company?" Sheffield asked bluntly. He was just making a suggestion. The military should do it if they can, but they won't do it if they can't. "Also, there are protests against the war in the country. The issue of the Philippines needs to be resolved as soon as possible."
Regardless of the nature of the United States, as an immigrant country, the federal government has packaged its own country in a glamorous way, and the pressure of life is indeed much lower than in many European countries. Therefore, there are indeed a group of people in the United States who think that the country is perfect under this kind of propaganda.
In every war the United States has fought, there have been protests against the war, and the current Philippine War is no exception. Protests against the federal government and the war in the Philippines have already occurred.
Before the expeditionary force attacked, there was already an anti-war organization in the country, called the Anti-Imperialist League. The condition for becoming a member was to oppose the United States of America having any overseas territories in the form of colonies. The Filipinos resisted Spanish colonization and fought, which was the same as the United States' armed efforts to drive out the British. If the resistance of the Filipino people was suppressed, the founding ideals of the United States would be shaken.
To be honest, in Sheffield's eyes, this is similar to the idea of a group of civil servants in the Central Plains dynasties after the Tang Dynasty who guarded the Great Wall and were prepared to have no contact with people outside the Great Wall until they died.
As for another group of members of the Anti-Imperialist League, their statement does make some sense. As a representative of the workers, Salbos opposed the annexation of the Philippines on the grounds that it would allow another non-white group to flood into the United States on a large scale and take away white people's jobs. This reason was similar to the background of the Chinese Exclusion Act and won the support of many people.
At the same time, there are also some people who are worried that the war will last too long and the military's power may increase, which may make soldiers a threat to the current republican system. This idea is to worry about the emergence of a military-industrial complex.
Because Sheffield was involved in the newspaper and media industry, he understood this trend earlier than the generals. He waved his hands helplessly and said, "Some people are worried that the war will last too long and the military will become more powerful. Generals, your enemies are not only the Filipinos, but also the domestic newspapers. I believe you should know something about the night soil collectors. Once the war continues, the next step for those night soil collectors is to fabricate rumors and guide public opinion to withdraw the troops."
The media industry in the United States during this era has not yet been thoroughly overhauled. In fact, anti-war protests are much stronger than they were a hundred years ago. If the problem is not resolved quickly, it will only get bigger.
"There are always some people who are very ignorant. It was the Filipinos who attacked our soldiers first, so our soldiers fought back. The Filipinos asked for it themselves." MacArthur spoke angrily, accusing the unscrupulous domestic media of causing the soldiers defending their country to sacrifice in vain.
"So the recent anti-war wave has calmed down a bit, but citizens are forgetful. Once time passes and citizens forget about this matter, the anti-war wave will rise again." Sheffield reminded indirectly that a decision must be made as soon as possible.
"I hope this facility won't work in the end." General Merritt also knew that Sheffield didn't dare to risk the company's reputation by doing this, so the military had to be responsible for this matter.
Even if the United Company was the contractor for this war, it could not be expected to do more. After all, it was a private enterprise and could not do everything. Now was the time to take responsibility. In the end, the navy and army generals in the headquarters approved Sheffield's suggestion to build an open-air camp and have it managed by the military and directly supervised by the Philippine puppet army. All management plans were implemented in accordance with Sheffield's proposal and construction began immediately.
Originally, Sheffield was about to leave after achieving his goal, but at this time, an officer came to the headquarters and brought a very unexpected news. The interim President of the Philippines, Aguinaldo, sent someone to ask for peace in the form of a letter, hoping to find a feasible way to exchange for peace.
This surprised not only Sheffield, but also generals including George Dewey. Even at this point, were they still prepared to find a feasible way to exchange for peace?
"What a joke! Is peace now decided by the Filipinos?" MacArthur said with disdain, "With the strength of our expeditionary force, we can solve all problems."
"No, if we can destroy part of the enemy, it will also be beneficial to the expeditionary force. Arthur!" As the highest commander of the expeditionary army, General Merritt had a different opinion and said, "Let's listen to what he says first."
George Dewey also nodded, because Aguinaldo was escorted back by the US Navy to cause trouble for the Spanish, but no one expected that things would turn out like this so quickly. The two sides who had fought together at the beginning had become enemies so quickly.
However, George Dewey knew something about Aguinaldo. He knew that Aguinaldo was not a man with a strong will, so such an enemy was a relatively good choice among the enemies.
"Do you have any information about this person? I want to see it, preferably with a photo!" Sheffield was also full of curiosity. Soon a naval officer brought Aguinaldo's information and photos. Aguinaldo himself was escorted back by the naval fleet. They had communicated on the warship and left photos.
Emilio Aguinaldo was born in the family of a wealthy farmer and mayor of Cavite-Elbe town in Cavite Province, Luzon. He lost his father at a young age and dropped out of junior high school to help his widowed mother manage the farm. He later graduated from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
He was elected mayor of Cavite El Be after his father, and became the first mayor of the city after it gained autonomy. The following year, he joined forces with Ilaria de Rosario. Aguinaldo refused to obey his leadership, which led to the confrontation between the two resistance organizations in Cavite. Because Aguinaldo was afraid of the further development of the revolution, especially the peasant land revolution that would harm the interests of the landlord bourgeoisie, he gathered local forces in Cavite and usurped the leadership of the revolution on the pretext that Bonifacio did not have the education level to be a leader. Later, he injured and captured Bonifacio in the attack and killed him on the fabricated charge of "treason".
How come this person looks like a Chinese? When he saw Aguinaldo's photo, Sheffield grinned secretly. He was not a white man who was blind to Asian faces. He could see that Aguinaldo looked different from ordinary Filipino natives. He looked obviously Chinese. But since he changed his name, he should no longer be considered Chinese.
Sheffield extracted several interesting points from Aguinaldo's data. He was born into a group of vested interests under the Spanish colonial government. At the same time, he was more afraid of the loss of his private property than the so-called Philippine independence. Between the two choices of national position and class position, this person obviously focused on the class position.
Not to mention that Aguinaldo himself had compromised with the Spanish colonial government once, had gone into exile, left the Philippines and lived a carefree life overseas with the severance pay given by Spain.
Isn't this just a Philippine version of Chang Gong? Sheffield put down Aguinaldo's information and said confidently, "This person can be won over. Since he surrendered to the Spaniards once, he can surrender to us once. This so-called local national capitalist is the easiest person to deal with. Just give him a little insignificant benefit, and he will sell everything."
Sheffield is not boasting about capitalism. He is not that great, but he is definitely more professional than these military generals. Moreover, he can use the theory summarized by the opposite of capitalism to look at problems. These petty bourgeoisie are not really enemies in front of him, a true monopoly imperialist.
An analysis of Aguinaldo from the perspective of capital allowed the navy and army generals to experience a class in which capital tycoons analyzed the comprador bourgeoisie. George Dewey and General Mallett both deeply agreed with the lesson. They said, "Look, the big companies in the United States are different. This is called professionalism." They saw through the weaknesses of the interim president.
"It seems that we still have to adopt an attitude of winning over Aguinaldo's faction, and we have to pursue the resistance faction relentlessly." Several generals quickly formulated a policy of fighting and negotiating at the same time.
"Then we should send representatives to negotiate and have a good talk with the Provisional Government of the Philippines. During this period of time, we should also have a deeper understanding of who are the enemies of the United States and who can be won over like Aguinaldo. As for Aguinaldo himself, we don't mind giving him some benefits. As long as we can occupy the entire Philippines, this is not a problem." General Merritt made a summary speech.
"Why can't we let William come forward and send someone to contact Aguinaldo?" MacArthur blurted out, "William is a businessman. He knows Aguinaldo better than any of us."
As soon as MacArthur spoke, he immediately aroused the generals' agreement, which seemed to make sense! MacArthur then nodded to Sheffield, indicating that you are welcome!
"Thank you so much!" Sheffield had a smile on his face, and he wanted to strangle MacArthur to death.
(End of this chapter)
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