What made this happen?
On this night, when Frederick closed the manuscript of his friend's posthumous work, he fell into silence. As usual, he walked to the window and stared at the community outside.
Although he was rich, Frederick did not live in a single-family or townhouse villa area. He preferred residential areas to villas.
Living in the community are wealthy businessmen like him, corporate managers, middle-level employees, military officers, civil servants, doctors, teachers, and of course, ordinary clerks and ordinary workers. All of them have different identities, but in fact their identities are surprisingly consistent - citizens of the empire.
It is also because of this that they can live in similar houses. No matter what their status is in the empire, as long as they have a formal job and provident fund, they can participate in the "Imperial Public Housing Program" - as early as 1870, the empire promulgated the "National Housing Law" and proposed "providing each imperial family with generous housing with good living conditions."
According to this plan, every employee with a housing provident fund can apply for a house through the "Imperial Public Housing Plan" and pay a down payment ranging from 50 to 100 yuan, and then pay a rent ranging from 2 to 5 yuan depending on the size of the area. They can rent the house for a long period of ten years, and the property rights will belong to the individual after ten years.
It was with the help of the "Imperial Housing Program" that tens of millions of immigrants with no means of living were able to get good housing in this new continent. Although these four-story houses were not as good as single-family houses or townhouses, for ordinary people, they not only had living rooms and bedrooms, but also independent kitchens with piped gas, bathrooms with flush toilets and bathtubs, storage rooms, electric lights and solar hot water tanks.
Even many rich people in the UK may not be able to have such a living environment, but here it is a normal living environment for ordinary people.
"When people from Europe entered the Ming Empire, they found that the lifestyle and hobbies of the people were completely different from theirs. They regarded daily bathing, white toilet paper, flush toilets and electric lights as necessities of life, which people in Germany, France, and even Britain had never experienced."
Sitting by the window, Friedrich once again thought of the conversation he had with Karl in the living room last year during the "One-Day War".
"…British journalists complained in the newspapers that the Ming Empire's troops not only had hot tea on the front lines, but also had toilet paper in the trenches."
Carl, holding a coffee cup, had a kind smile in his tone as he spoke.
"Did the people in the newspaper interviews with the captured Peruvian soldiers say that?"
"I saw that when the captives were eating canned luncheon meat and bread, they were puzzled as to why the Ming Empire invaded."
Holding the pipe in his hand, Carl looked at his friend and asked back.
"Why did the Ming Empire invade? Was it to plunder? Just like the British in India."
"Haven't you seen it? Compared to before the invasion, the living standards of the Brazilian people have improved significantly, and their living environment has also improved to a great extent. Many Brazilians who have received long-term employment contracts have moved into such communities, just like the Chinese. This seems to be completely contrary to your previous discussion of "invasion."
Friedrich said with a smile.
“This place always seems to overturn some of your ideas.”
Shrugging his shoulders helplessly, Karl took a puff of cigarette, thought for a moment, and then spoke.
"The invasion of invaders is essentially predatory. Just like Britain's invasion of India, although it was constructive, it caused India to lose its civilization and economic lifestyle, and the people became extremely poor in material and spiritual terms. The conquering Britain plundered a large amount of wealth, which directly led to India's poverty and backwardness."
"And here?"
Pointing out the window with the hand holding the pipe, Friedrich asked back.
"What about their conquests here?"
"To be honest, I don't know..."
After saying this, Carl held his pipe in his mouth, took two puffs, and then spoke.
"What I saw was an invader who was completely different from any invader in history. In the past, all invaders, no matter what their intentions were, were for invasion, for plundering wealth, and for exploiting the people in the conquered areas, which directly led to the poverty and backwardness of the local people. But here..."
After a brief silence, Carl shook his head helplessly.
"Everything they did was completely beyond our imagination. We can see that they, like other invaders, suppressed the resistance. On the other hand, we can see that they generously granted freedom to more than three million black slaves and sent them back to Africa, to their ancestral land as free people. On the other hand, the lives of millions of ordinary Brazilians are improving day by day. Compared with the oppression of the occupied areas, everything they did here was constructive. They..."
After thinking about it, Carl said.
"They seem to be building a new world here!"
"Indeed!"
Friedrich nodded.
"Well, the British destroyed the traditional Indian old world in India, but they did not build a new world. At the same time, everything they built was for plunder. The Ming Empire destroyed the old slavery system in Brazil, and then tried its best to build a more equal country..."
When he mentioned the word "equality", Frederick emphasized his tone. Then he shook his head helplessly and sighed, as if he was sighing for what he said.
"This is perhaps the most incredible part. We once believed that every pore of imperialist war was filled with evil, but in the wars and expansion of the Ming Empire, I cannot make such an accurate judgment."
Yes!
Who can make an accurate judgment?
Whether other countries are colonizing or expanding overseas, we can clearly see how the invaders exploited the locals, such as Britain in India, and even the Ming Dynasty in Africa was not necessarily glorious.
But in Brazil, in Peru-Bolivia, everything becomes a little blurry, the old system of decay and backwardness was destroyed by the Empire, and the Empire built a new world there...
"Until now, we still haven't found the answer!"
Staring out the window, Frederick muttered to himself rather sadly.
Now, his friend has passed away, and there will never be anyone to discuss these topics with him again. The empire...until the end, the mystery of the empire was never solved.
Could it be that, as my friend said, the empire is building a new world!
At this moment, Frederick looked out the window at the neighborhood, listened to the joyful sounds of children playing and the voices of women in the neighborhood, and suddenly his heart was filled with a certain expectation.
What kind of expectations?
It was the expectation of a new world. He didn't know what the new world brought by the empire would look like. But at least it was a new world that people longed for...
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