I want to be emperor

Chapter 1126 Aboriginal Arms Race

The empire's demand for industrial raw materials was endless, and its demand for cheap indigenous labor was also huge. This was an important reason why the Chu Empire launched a large-scale agent colonial model in India, West Asia, and Europe.

However, if you want to effectively maintain this agent colonial model for a long time, the requirements for the empire's economic and military strength are also extremely high.

After all, this is about maintaining global colonial rule, not just maintaining colonial rule in a specific region.

In terms of economy, the empire is required to implement a global economic system, establish a regional single economic system, use various investments to deeply bind, control the economies of various indigenous countries, and control the production and supply of core basic materials of indigenous countries, such as food and cotton.

In addition to economic factors, military superiority must also be maintained...and it cannot be a small lead, it must be a substantial lead that makes the indigenous countries desperate.

This aspect of the navy is relatively simple. After all, the navy is a very special service... The tactical and strategic advantages brought about by the technical advantages of equipment are comprehensive and cannot be easily changed by relying on tactical strategies!

How should I put it? The Chu people placed an offshore combat ship outside the indigenous port... and raised the muzzle to bombard your port city. What can you do?

Apart from evacuating coastal areas and retreating to inland areas away from the coastline, you have no other option...

Fight back?

That's impossible... The smoothbore cannons in the hands of the natives, even the advanced large-caliber smoothbore cannons imported from the Chu people, have far less range and power to threaten offshore combat ships like the Chu army.

To put it bluntly, the Chu army kept the offshore combat ship stationary and allowed the indigenous smoothbore cannons to bombard it within a few hundred meters. The indigenous smoothbore cannons were unable to cause any actual damage to the Chu army's offshore combat ships.

Not to mention regular sea battles.

The huge technical performance advantages in equipment have made the navy a service that the indigenous people cannot surpass or even threaten.

However, in ground combat, the performance advantage of equipment is not that great... Although in large-scale or regular combat, the Chu army can use the range, power and other advantages of advanced equipment such as artillery to carry out long-distance unilateral killings!

But... the natives are not stupid, so why would they want to fight you head-on?

They can hide in the city and use city buildings and even ruins to attack you... They can sneak in in small groups and ambush the Chu army's patrols.

Kill one today, two tomorrow... If this continues, the Chu army will feel very uncomfortable.

At the same time, even if these resistance forces cannot attack the Chu army, they can also attack the agents, indigenous officials and troops supported by the Chu State... Without agents, it is possible that the Chu people can only carry out colonial rule themselves, but Not only is the cost of governance higher, but it also exposes oneself directly to the sight of the resistance forces, making them more vulnerable to attacks by the resistance forces.

How can I put it, as long as the Chu Empire does not engage in such extreme policies as denying important land and people, then this situation cannot be avoided.

When the weak face powerful foreign invaders, although they cannot defeat the invaders head-on, it does not mean that the indigenous people will completely lose the power to resist. They can still find many ways and means to resist and make the invaders uncomfortable.

Therefore, it is easier to destroy a country than to conquer it...

When the Chu people marched into Europe, it was easy to destroy the country, but if they wanted to establish effective colonial rule locally... the point is, it was difficult to get these indigenous people to work honestly!

Of course, you can also implement a free labor model... But after long-term experiments by the Chu people in Africa, it has been confirmed that the production efficiency of this model is extremely low, and it can only perform some of the most basic physical labor, and the resulting labor results Not great.

The labor value generated by the free labor model is a drop in the bucket for a huge empire launching the second industrial revolution... What the empire needs is a large number of indigenous people with basic labor qualities who can spontaneously and autonomously perform high-intensity labor... Rather than a group of free laborers who are shackled and need to be guarded by overseers.

The Da Chu Empire needs cheap workers, not free labor... There is a huge difference here.

The reason why the Chu people did not give up the free labor model in India, West Asia and Europe... is because they feel that the benefits of this model are too low and it is better to engage in the agency model, not because the Chu people suddenly discovered their conscience and feel that the free labor model is inhumane... You know, even now the Chu people in Africa are still widely practicing the free labor model... A bunch of various agricultural development companies and mining development companies use the labor dispatch model... This labor dispatch model The workers are basically free labor sent by the tribes in Africa, well, at least in name.

After all, slavery is illegal in the Chu Empire!

But...labor dispatch is legal...and through labor dispatch, cooperation with indigenous enterprises or indigenous governments, obtaining labor dispatch workers through cooperation between enterprises, or outsourcing labor orders...these are all legal.

As for how indigenous enterprises or governments hire workers, how much they pay, and how they manage them, those are indigenous internal affairs and Chu people do not interfere.

Therefore, in many contexts of the contemporary Chu Empire, indigenous labor dispatch workers and slaves are synonymous... Because labor dispatch workers have become a derogatory term, they are now specifically used when similar labor dispatch models are implemented in Chu State. The new term is called 'outsourcing employees', which means outsourcing part of the work to other companies... Other companies send their own employees to work in outsourcing companies.

The mode is actually still the same mode, but the name is different.

Of course, in order to protect the interests of ordinary workers, Chu State strictly stipulates that the number of labor dispatch employees must not exceed a certain proportion of the total number of employees of the company, otherwise severe fines will be imposed... Even if Chu State companies now replace labor dispatch workers with outsourced employees, but the title has changed, but the law has not changed... After all, the law does not depend on what you call them, but on how you do it.

Let’s not talk about the internal affairs of the Chu State, let’s talk about the situation in the administrative territories and the territories of the vassal states... The labor dispatch model is widespread, and in the territories of the vassal states... well, it is mainly used in Africa. It's still free labor.

Therefore, don’t think that Chu people don’t engage in free labor models in Europe and other regions because Chu entrepreneurs have a conscience... They are so cruel to their own people, let alone the indigenous people.

If you talk to Chu entrepreneurs about your conscience, they will laugh at you for being naive.

There is only one reason why the Chu people do not engage in a free labor model in Europe, but a hired labor model: higher profits.

But there is also an unavoidable problem in this employment model, that is, there is resistance... And it is difficult for the Chu people to solve this resistance in the traditional way... What is the traditional solution? You want the land but not the people.

If there are no people left, there will naturally be no resistance.

But you can't do this in places like Europe, India, and West Asia. If you kill all the people, who will work for the Chu people?

The economy cannot be done like this.

After the traditional solutions became unavailable, the Chu people couldn't adapt... This was also the early stage of landing in Europe, and the Chu people had a headache. It didn't matter whether they killed or not...

The Chu army realized the seriousness of this problem when they first landed in Europe... So the Chu people at that time chose to support local aristocratic agents on a large scale. Instead of stepping forward, he asked the local aristocratic agents to come forward to maintain colonial rule... This is also equivalent to transforming the contradiction between the indigenous workers and the Chu people into a conflict between the indigenous workers and the agents of the indigenous aristocrats!

After the conflict was transferred, things became easier to deal with... Those resistance forces immediately aimed their spearheads at the agents of the indigenous nobles, not the Chu people themselves.

As for the Chu people themselves, I am here to start a business, provide local fiscal revenue, provide employment opportunities for the local people, and also bring advanced and cheap daily necessities from the civilized world... In the words of the Chu people themselves, : We Chu people are all doing charity, what reason do you natives have to resist me?

Of course, many indigenous people still think that the Chu people are evil and have come all the way to oppress them and plunder the resources of their homeland, so they will resist if they should...

Under such circumstances, how did the Chu people respond?

On the one hand, it is to strengthen the military power of indigenous agents... This is also one of the reasons why the export authority of percussion guns and advanced smoothbore guns was opened in the early days of landing in Europe. The export of weapons is certainly to make money, but it is also to support agents and let them Agents have stronger armies to maintain their rule.

Another aspect is the large-scale expansion of the foreign legion. In the past ten years or so, the size of the Chu foreign legion has rapidly expanded from more than 100,000 people in the early days to more than 1.5 million people.

Mainly recruiting indigenous soldiers from India, West Asia, and Europe...and often recruiting soldiers from oppressed groups, such as untouchables in India, mountain people in northern India, some minorities in West Asia, and Europeans of small countries, etc.

In short, indigenous soldiers were mainly recruited from oppressed groups...

Once these indigenous soldiers from the oppressed groups joined the Foreign Legion, they were not very loyal to the Chu State, but they were extremely cruel to their former compatriots or some middle- and upper-class social groups in other countries.

In addition, these foreign legion soldiers can only rely on the Chu people... Apart from serving their lives for the Chu people, they have almost no second alternative in life.

Today, these more than 1.5 million foreign legionnaires are an important military force used by the Chu Empire to maintain India, West Asia, Europe, and the overall stability of the African region.

In order to enhance the suppressive capabilities of the foreign legion, the Chu people also gradually increased the equipment level of the foreign legion, from the flash cap percussion gun at the beginning, to the single-shot rifled rifle, and now to the 11mm caliber repeating rifle. It is also equipped with a small amount of artillery and even machine guns.

Supporting the military power of agents and expanding and strengthening the foreign legions are the changes made by the Chu people after facing the widespread implementation of the employment model in Europe, West Asia and India, and facing endless resistance forces.

In traditional terms, this would probably be called using barbarians to control barbarians...

Because the regular army of Chu State often does not participate in these things...

The regular army of the Great Chu Empire also tried to directly participate in these security operations at first, but found that the fighting was too frustrating, sporadic casualties continued, and there was no place to use powerful firepower... So now, Chu State is in Europe, India , regular troops deployed in Africa, West Asia and other regions mainly serve as strategic deterrents.

There are not many regular troops in the above-mentioned areas. For example, in Europe, there are only about 40,000 army troops in total. The main forces are composed of an A-class division, a B-class division, and an independent cavalry regiment and artillery regiment. These are deployed centrally with the infantry regiment as the core, acting as a strategic deterrent force in a certain area.

In addition, there are about ten thousand people who are stationed in C-level garrison units in various municipalities, administrative territories, cities, and strategic locations.

These more than 40,000 regular army troops are used to control the entire European region (excluding Eastern Europe under direct jurisdiction), which is actually not many people when divided equally.

What the Army actually uses to perform daily patrols, combat readiness, and suppression tasks is the Foreign Legion in Europe... This Foreign Legion has a larger number, about 400,000 people.

But...the military expenditures of the 500,000-strong Foreign Legion are actually not as much as those of the more than 40,000-strong regular army!

The Chu army's regular military expenditures are quite expensive, including equipment, personnel salaries, mules and horses, etc. Once any combat casualties are encountered, pensions and treatment costs are also very high.

However, the Foreign Legion has very little salary for its personnel, and its equipment is all second-hand equipment retired from the regular army, and there is not much heavy firepower. As for the standing mules and horses, there are also quite few, because there is no heavy firepower, and they often directly requisition local people for any operations. The mules and horses of the vassal country... And the casualty pension, treatment costs, etc. are also very low.

Otherwise, the Chu people would not have so many foreign legions, just because they are cheap and can withstand casualties.

Support agents and strengthen the foreign legion... This is why the Chu Empire relaxed its export restrictions on single-shot rifles last year and equipped the foreign legion with Type 25 and even Type 24 rifles on a large scale.

These equipment upgrades have also further strengthened the agent's military power, and the sales volume of suppressing internal rebellions has increased... but it also has other effects.

That is, the level of war between vassal states has become higher...

Although these vassal states in Europe, West Asia, and India are all vassal states affiliated with the Chu Empire, they will also have conflicts of interest and various contradictions among them. As for the conflicts between these indigenous countries, the Chu people Generally don't care much.

Therefore, wars will also break out between these vassal states, and the scale of the wars may even be quite large.

In the autumn and August of the 52nd year of Chengshun, after about a year of preparation, due to a new round of conflicts of interests that broke out in the coal mining areas, war broke out again between the Kingdom of Wales and the Kingdom of England in the British region... The two countries broke out. After the war, soon the neighboring Kingdom of York also formed an alliance with the Kingdom of Wales and joined the war. Soon the Kingdom of Scotland in the north also joined it, joining the Kingdom of England against the Kingdom of Wales and the Kingdom of York.

A war broke out once again in the British region, and the scale of the war was not small... And because of the use of more advanced single-shot rifled rifles, this war was more tragic than the last war in the British region.

And the huge combat effectiveness of the few elites who adopted single-shot rifled rifles also made the vassal states in Europe truly realize the power of rifled rifles...

In the face of rifled rifles, flash cap percussion guns have become garbage and have no value at all on the battlefield... Many countries that purchased and equipped rifled rifles in advance decisively took advantage of this period of advantage to attack hostile countries. The forces launched a war and used the performance advantages of rifled rifles to achieve great results.

And this further stimulated the enthusiasm of vassal states in Europe, West Asia and other regions to replace single-shot rifled rifles.

Because of these wars, the arms race in Europe, West Asia and other regions completely broke out, and brought huge orders worth tens of millions to the defense industry of the Chu Empire!