I want to be emperor

Chapter 1179 Soft Culture Promotion

The documentary shot by the Ministry of Rites does not focus on storytelling, and some scenery is just embellishment. It focuses more on filming the local topography, urban architecture, and people's living conditions.

So that these high-ranking officials of the empire can have a certain intuitive understanding of this indigenous country after seeing it.

For example, the documents say that the Kingdom of Greece is small in size, with many islands in addition to a small peninsula, and was ruled by the Ottomans for more than two hundred years. However, Greece is one of the birthplaces of European civilization, and the influence of ancient Greek civilization on Europe is very important, and it gave birth to the Macedonian Kingdom.

It is difficult to have an intuitive understanding of such a Greek kingdom based on documentary materials alone... After all, these indigenous vassal states in contemporary Europe are too unfamiliar to the Chu people.

Even though the Chu people had entered Europe for more than a decade and had strong control over the entire Europe, all the existing European countries were vassal states of the Chu Empire, that is, economic colonies.

However, the Chu people's understanding of Europe, especially European civilization, was still very limited.

After all, the Chu people came here to engage in economic colonization. They let the natives mine and farm and then shipped the raw materials back to their country, and then dumped them with industrial consumer products... Ordinary Chu people would not even bother to understand the history of European civilization.

However, ordinary Chu people may not know this, but as the top rulers of the empire, they need to have a general understanding of European civilization, as well as understand the local climate, topography, etc. This can effectively help the top leaders of the empire understand a certain indigenous vassal state, and then determine a better way of colonial rule.

This is also the core purpose of the Ministry of Rites in filming these documentaries.

Therefore, the documentary covers a wide range of content, and some of the ancient buildings are not intended to show how good these ancient buildings of indigenous Europeans are, but purely to allow the imperial high-ranking officials to better understand their simple historical background.

After understanding these things, the imperial high-ranking officials could more easily understand why the Greeks had always been resisting Ottoman colonial rule.

Because the Greeks were second-class citizens in the Ottoman Empire and were subject to blood tax, etc.

The more you know about this, the more you can implement targeted strategies.

For example, the Greeks have a strong spirit of resistance, a long history, and ancient civilization, and their civilization has a great influence on the surrounding indigenous countries.

These bigwigs of the Chu State were all ruthless politicians. After watching the documentary about the Kingdom of Greece, they had a brief discussion and decided to provide certain educational funding to the Kingdom of Greece. At the same time, they decided to support the promotion of Taoism and Buddhism in the local area.

In addition, the top leaders of the empire decided to give a certain amount of educational funding to the Kingdom of Greece to help them promote Chinese language education. You natives should not play with things like Greek and ancient Greek civilization because you cannot grasp them.

Of course, the means seem mild, but in fact they are intended to eliminate the cohesion and influence brought about by the unique ancient civilization of the Greek Kingdom.

To put it simply and bluntly: your ancient Greek civilization is quite impressive, and it has a great influence in Europe. Well, I will dig up the roots for you...

Do you think it’s easy to get educational funding from the Great Chu Empire?

This part of the funds came from the overseas education funds of the Ministry of Rites and Education...and the education policy of the Great Chu Empire was so great that 19th century Americans would have to give a thumbs up and say: I admire you!

Of course, the education policy of the Great Chu Empire has become more compassionate now. If it had been twenty years ago, the Chu army would have sent troops to attack the ancient Greek civilization after seeing how powerful it was. After the Chu army attacked the Greek kingdom, the Ottomans would have seen that they were the good guys!

Such a powerful and influential civilization system is not allowed to exist on Earth!

Of course, that was in the past, things are different now.

  Nowadays, the Chu people don’t like fighting and killing, but prefer to use some soft tactics to make money, which is not shameful!

Besides, it’s the same old saying, if all the natives are killed, who will farm and mine for the Chu people?

Since you want them to work like slaves, you can't just kill them all. You have to use other methods.

Economic control, military control, proxy regimes, these are all old tricks, and every vassal state is bound to be subjected to the same tactics by the Chu people.

In recent years, the Chu people like to do some cultural things... Generally, there is no potential threat. For example, the locals are relatively docile and have not resisted long-term colonial rule. There are no ancient civilizations with a long history and great influence. The Chu people generally ignore them. Such indigenous countries cannot get educational funding assistance from the Chu people...

As for some places with a history of rebellion, a rebellious spirit in their cultural system, or other bad influences, the Chu people would go and provide them with educational funding assistance.

By vigorously developing Chinese language education and Confucian education, we can change their thinking... and by the way, throw their language and writing into the garbage dump of history.

Then, in the process of Chinese language education, they will inevitably be full of yearning for the Great Chu Empire... This will also cultivate a large number of indigenous Chu factions.

They are not just agents of the Chu people for the sake of profit, but they are the natives who ideologically yearn for and identify with the Great Chu Empire.

Ultimately, a group of spiritual Chu people will be cultivated, and then they will be allowed to take power and become agents. This is the best model for maintaining economic colonial rule.

Although they are not Chu people, they consider themselves Chu people spiritually!

And with appropriate cooperation, they will be given a permanent residence permit for the administrative territory. Well, in the legal sense of the administrative territory, they are already considered Chu citizens.

Ordinary interest representatives are not as useful as the spiritual Chu people!

This is why in recent years, the Chu people have been carrying out a series of soft cultural promotions in Europe, West Asia, India and other regions, and have even come up with a special education funding assistance program for this purpose.

Look, I have paid for you natives to open schools, so shouldn't you thank me?

Of course, the schools that were opened could only teach liberal arts, especially the Confucian kind. Don't expect to learn science and engineering.

However, this set of soft cultural promotion policies has been implemented for a relatively short period of time. In this world where cultural colonization is a very long-term plan, it is normal not to see any obvious results after ten or eight years.

  But what about twenty years from now? Thirty years from now?

Even if the effect is not good, a group of spiritual Chu people can be cultivated, and most of these spiritual Chu people have received Chinese education provided by the Chu people. They are considered high-quality talents in the indigenous country. It is normal for them to become leaders in the cultural field and leaders in military and political aspects.

Just imagine that the top leaders in the cultural, economic, political, and military fields of an indigenous vassal state are all spiritual Chu people, and they hold permanent residence permits for the administrative territory given by the Chu people, and their families also live in the Chu concession or administrative territory.

  The Chu leaders all thought that scene was beautiful!

By then, there won’t be so many troubles as now!

Nowadays, there are endless rebel forces in Europe, West Asia, India and other regions. This has made many high-ranking officials of the Chu State realize that relying solely on military deterrence is not enough.

  Economic control and kidnapping may seem good at first glance, but for some ambitious people, it is not an obstacle at all. They have already risen up to resist the colonial rule of your Chu State. Do you still expect them to worry about the economic collapse?

The deterrent power of this thing is actually aimed at the vested interest groups in the indigenous countries, that is, those agents and comprador classes, who are afraid of the economic blockade of Chu. As for those at the bottom and the ambitious, they don't care at all.

The economy is of no use, and military deterrence can only maintain the overall situation, but it is difficult to solve the problem completely, so the top leaders of the Chu State came up with the idea of ​​using soft culture promotion.

If the hard way doesn’t work, I’ll try the soft way... but you still don’t believe it.

In short, the Chu people tried every means to maintain economic colonization, making these indigenous vassal states mine and farm honestly, and then use the money earned from hard work in mining and farming to buy industrial consumer goods produced cheaply but bought at high prices by the Chu people, thereby obtaining the profit difference and taking the labor value of the indigenous people in a relatively gentle way.

The Chu people actually think they are very civilized. I could have just robbed you, but at least I gave you some industrial products...

Those natives should be thankful!

It’s a pity that the natives are not grateful!

This is the fundamental contradiction between the Great Chu Empire and those indigenous vassal states, and it cannot be resolved.

Because it is impossible for the Chu people to give up economic colonization...at most they can just change the way they do it.

Even if we take a step back, even if the Chu people gave up direct colonization one day due to colonization costs or other factors, economic control and market dumping would still be inevitable.

The methods of economic plunder may have changed, but the core goals remain the same.

If the other party does not agree, the Chu people will not hesitate to start a war... and at that stage, it will probably be the stage of emphasizing free trade.

In the original time and space, many modern industrial countries in the 19th century liked to do this. First it was Britain and France, then the United States. When Germany rose, they looked around and saw that all the territories in the world had been taken away, leaving only a single hair for themselves.

Well, world war has begun.

Ultimately, this is still an economic issue, with resources and markets at the core.

What the Chu people are doing now is actually similar, except that the patterns are slightly different.

The main reason is that they have no competitors and their own strength is too strong, so they can do whatever they want without worrying about resistance from the indigenous people.

After all, it was not so easy for those modern countries in the original time and space to pry open the door of backward countries, and it became more and more difficult as time went by. In the end, they had to give up direct colonization and start the so-called global trade. The means were more gentle, but the essence did not change.

When it comes to the Great Chu Empire, it won't be so troublesome. There is no need to worry about any competitors. At the same time, with its own strong strength, it is confident that it can suppress them militarily.

Therefore, it is still possible to maintain direct colonial rule and exercise complete control in terms of economy, politics and military.

But this situation has gradually changed after more than ten years. Most areas are still okay, for example, India is doing quite well, and most areas in West Asia are also okay. In other words, when the Chu people first entered a few years ago, there were some relatively large-scale resistance forces, but after they were suppressed, the situation gradually subsided.

However, there are some areas in Europe where resistance has always been fierce.

For example, the people in Scotland and Ireland have a long tradition of resisting England, and when the Chu people came, they once thought that the situation would improve.

But they didn't expect that the Chu people were as bad as the English before. They robbed their resources, monopolized some industries, and restricted them with grain trade.

Although the overall living standards of the people in these areas have actually improved after the arrival of the Chu people... After all, the Chu people came to make money, and while making money they actually left a portion of social wealth in the local area, improving the living standards of the local indigenous people.

  But people are never satisfied!

Coupled with the rebellious spirit formed over a long period of history, the indigenous people of these two regions are not very fond of the Chu people... In addition, the local agents are not very capable, the exploitation is quite harsh, and the upward channels are also blocked quite strictly, so violent resistance is endless.

England and central Wales were doing okay, especially the Kingdom of England. The agents of this kingdom were smart and embraced the Chu people early on. They also learned from them to carry out Chinese language education and imperial examinations. With the support of the Chu people, they managed to complete the reforms within the Kingdom of England.

Under such circumstances, the political situation was relatively stable, there were no major wars, and the exploitation was not too severe. There were also abundant coal resources and the agricultural level was also good. In addition, the Chu people also had a Dover Territory and a London Concession in the local area.

Although there are not many Chu people in these places, when combined with the permanent residents and laborers of the administrative territory, their demand for agricultural products is also very large.

The English also relied on this to vigorously supply agricultural and livestock products, make some handmade local specialties for export to the State of Chu, and provide some service industries, etc. Then they developed a prosperous city like East London.

In addition, there is a lot of coal in England. Although these coal resources have basically been occupied and developed by the Chu people, the Kingdom of England can still make some profits. In addition, some coal mines that have not been occupied by the Chu people can be developed manually by themselves, so some money can also be earned.

After all these multi-faceted integration, the Kingdom of England is actually living a pretty good life now.

The upper class makes huge profits, the middle class has some prospects, and the lower class can also survive. When the overall economic conditions are relatively good and the situation is stable, there will naturally be no chaotic resistance.

The large-scale rebellions that had occurred before were also due to conflicts in their internal division of interests. After the Chu people took action and launched a thundering attack, there were no large-scale rebels in England, and it entered a more stable and peaceful period of development.

However, there are actually very few indigenous countries that can do as well as the Kingdom of England. Most of them are not very good, especially the ruling class, who are more oppressive than each other.

  This left all the Chu people speechless... We, the Chu people, came here to exploit, but you locals are exploiting us so harshly!

In fact, the Chu people do not like these interest representatives who are too harsh in their exploitation. Instead, they prefer interest representatives who have gentler means of ruling and pay more attention to people's livelihood.

What’s a pity is that every time you replace one person, he is a ruthless person, and then the next one is also a ruthless person...there are few normal people left, and they are all obsessed with money.

This is also one of the reasons why the Chu people were determined to promote soft culture and plan to cultivate a group of interest representatives.

Those so-called nobles left over from the Middle Ages were not very reliable, which led to turbulence and increased the cost of Chu's colonization.

Therefore, the Chu people still planned to train a group of indigenous Confucian bureaucrats to carry out a more moderate colonial rule, so as to avoid large-scale turmoil that would not only affect output, but also increase the military cost of maintaining colonial rule.