I want to be emperor

Chapter 1205 Great Changes in Times

Looking at the development of the Great Chu Empire over the past fifty years, the changes it has brought to the Chinese people and even to the entire human race on the planet are enormous, even exceeding the changes in the past few thousand years.

Of course, this is not an exception. In fact, after humans entered modern industrialization in the original time and space, development was also so rapid.

At the beginning of the 19th century, during the Napoleonic Wars, people were still fighting with muskets, but a few decades later, humans had begun to build railways on a large scale, use telegraphs for communication, and build countless ships. The large-scale application of steam-powered mechanical equipment allowed humans to enter an industrial society.

In just a few decades after entering the industrial society, human society has developed to a considerable level.

By the end of the 19th century, cars had appeared and were in use, skyscrapers hundreds of meters high began to appear, all kinds of electrical appliances had appeared, and radio was widely used.

Since that time, mankind has entered the era of electrification.

After entering the era of electrification, changes are even faster... In just a few years, cars have matured and begun to enter thousands of households. After the introduction of the Ford Model T, the US automobile industry had millions of cars in just a few years.

Humanity's top war machines have also entered the dreadnought era.

Human life has undergone tremendous changes in just a few decades... Of course, some areas are still in the agricultural age or even primitive society.

This is actually also true in the contemporary Great Chu Empire... In fact, because of Luo Zhixue's promotion, its industrial progress is faster and the speed of social change is also faster.

More than fifty years ago, China was still an agricultural society, but after entering the 1920s it had entered an industrial society. By the 1940s, the Great Chu Empire could proudly declare that it had entered an electrified society.

By the 1950s, the science and technology of the Chu Empire and people's lives had undergone tremendous changes compared to 50 years ago.

No matter how rich the imagination of people fifty years ago was, they could not have imagined that fifty years later, the people of Chu would be able to travel by car.

You can also travel thousands or even tens of thousands of miles by train or ship.

  The footprints of the Chu people are all over every corner of the earth!

The empire's army controlled every continent, not only making all indigenous countries its colonies, but also turning Southeast Asia, Australia, America, Central Asia and Eastern Europe into permanent territories of the Chu people since ancient times!

There are only Chu people, no indigenous territory!

I never dared to think of such a thing before!

But now, the Chu people have done it, and contemporary Chu people have become accustomed to it!

Some elderly people who were born in the pre-Ming Dynasty and are still alive today recall the pre-Ming Dynasty when they were young, when their lives were like those of primitive people. Then, looking at the modern and prosperous life of today, their feelings are very complicated.

They witnessed the changes of an era and saw with their own eyes China's rapid development from a primitive agricultural society to a highly developed industrial society today.

This feeling is the same as that of some Chinese people in the original time and space who have come all the way from the 1940s and then entered the society of the 21st century... Looking at the modern society of the 21st century, and then looking back to imagine the miserable society decades ago, the feeling is extremely strong.

Who could have imagined that an ancient country that was still fighting against foreign invasion in the 1940s, was internally torn apart, and had almost zero industry, would be able to fight the European and American coalition forces head-on on the battlefield of the peninsula just a few years later? And it even pushed them all the way back from the Yalu River to the 38th parallel.

Who could have imagined that just over a decade later, this ancient and backward country would be able to detonate an atomic bomb and shock the world.

Who could have imagined that after another decade or two, the economy of this country, once considered closed and backward, would take off rapidly, surpassing many developed countries along the way, becoming the second largest in the world and one of the two important poles in the world pattern.

People in Europe and the United States even started shouting about a new Cold War... and engaging in various confrontations.

Looking back at the entire human society, even just thirty years ago, who could have imagined that human society would usher in the revolution of the mobile Internet era and completely change human life.

  The development of human technology and the speed of social changes are far beyond people's imagination!

The same is true in the Great Chu Empire.

  Not only in the Great Chu Empire, but even in the vassal states controlled by the Chu people, they have also experienced unprecedented social changes in the past decade!

The Kingdom of England on the British Isles was an ignorant and backward medieval aristocratic feudal state before the Chu people invaded Europe.

It was after the Chu people entered Europe and conquered the British Isles that a wave of reform and learning swept across the new Kingdom of England.

They followed the example of the Chu people and established the imperial examination system and a complete bureaucratic system. They also replaced the traditional aristocratic feudal system with the county system, and established a complete and efficient monarchical centralized bureaucratic state.

Chinese has replaced English and become the official language of the current Kingdom of England. It is used in schools, imperial examinations and even official documents, and is written only in Chinese.

People abandoned traditional clothing that represented ignorance and backwardness, and began to use Chu professional attire and even Hanfu that represented civilization and advancement.

Well, in contemporary English society, don’t be surprised when you see a group of upper-class people in England wearing Hanfu to attend a formal gathering... This is already the norm in contemporary English society.

The clothing of ordinary people, especially decent formal attire, also turned to the professional attire of the Chu State.

  Even in terms of architecture, they began to quote Chu architecture on a large scale!

The Kingdom of England, from top to bottom and inside to outside, almost comprehensively learned and imitated the Chu Empire.

Last year, the Kingdom of England began to shout out the empty slogan of leaving the EU and joining the Americas, believing that although the British Isles were on the edge of Europe, they still did not belong to Europe, but to America... and America was the direct territory of the Great Chu Empire and the empire's homeland.

In other words, the Kingdom of England felt that it should not continue playing house with a group of European indigenous barbarians, but should play with the civilized Great Chu Empire.

  The tremendous changes in the Kingdom of England, this comprehensive learning and imitation, and even its all-round approach to the empire, were a self-rescue promoted by its elite ruling class and the middle social class!

In contemporary Europe, India, West Asia and other places, some indigenous elites want to drive out the Chu people, overthrow the rule of the agents supported by the Chu people, achieve independence and save themselves... A typical example is Bosnia and Herzegovina, in addition to Sweden, the Kingdom of Prussia in Central Europe and so on.

However, some of the elites of the indigenous countries adopted a more open mindset to accept the arrival of the Chu people and everything else, with the ultimate goal of turning themselves into Chu people...

  If you can’t beat it, join!

The most typical example is the Kingdom of England. In addition, there are the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Greece, etc. They all adopted a comprehensive approach, from the inside out... and the Chu State also adopted certain preferential treatment for these indigenous countries that actively approached, mainly in terms of trade, finance, and education support.

A typical example is the Kingdom of England. After lengthy pleadings and negotiations, the Great Chu Empire finally agreed to allow the Kingdom of England to send a certain number of official students to study in several schools in its administrative territory.

These schools are not universities, let alone colleges, but secondary vocational and technical schools.

But this alone is a huge change... The Great Chu Empire had never approved any indigenous students to study abroad, even in secondary schools within the administrative territory.

Not to mention studying abroad in a very practical science and engineering school such as a secondary technical school.

This is an example of a first.

At the same time, the Empire also tacitly allowed the Kingdom of England to carry out certain industrialization in some specific industries, such as some light industries.

Although the Chu people still do not allow the export of various mechanical equipment to them... but if you natives try to make some primitive mechanical tools on your own, the Chu people will turn a blind eye and ignore you.

With this tacit approval, there were also some talented people in the Kingdom of England who directly developed some relatively primitive mechanical equipment, such as hydraulic machinery, for production.

And this was vital to the industrial development of the Kingdom of England itself.

The Kingdom of England's comprehensive rapprochement policy won it certain preferential treatment from the Chu State, and also greatly promoted their social and economic development. Over the past decade, the Kingdom of England has had the highest population growth rate in Europe and even in West Asia and India, and the growth rate of per capita income is also the highest.

The lives of ordinary people have changed greatly compared to more than ten years ago.

On the other hand, a region with a good economy and a dense population is also a very good economic colony for the Great Chu Empire.

These places have higher resource output efficiency and stronger consumption capacity... This means that they can provide the empire with more resources of various kinds, including agriculture and mining, and it can also allow the Great Chu Empire to sell more industrial goods and make more money.

Therefore, the Great Chu Empire is actually very happy to see these vassal states stop messing around, work hard to develop the economy, and stabilize the situation... This way, it will be good for both of us, and everyone will be fine.

What I hate most are those vassal states that always shout slogans such as expelling the State of Chu, regaining territorial sovereignty, withdrawing tariffs, and seeking independence.

The Chu people have always taken a very tough attitude towards these vassal states with extremely rebellious attributes. They directly stationed a large number of troops and carried out a sweep of the rebels every few days when there was nothing to do.

Even the most advanced tanks, armored vehicles and other weapons and equipment were directly pulled over for combat testing.

During the Bosnian rebellion war at the beginning of the year, the Chu army deployed more than ten tanks and dozens of armored vehicles to form an armored regiment that swept across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Relying on the strong defense capabilities and firepower of tanks and armored vehicles, they forced their way into one rebel-occupied city after another, annihilated the local rebels, and left behind a ruin.

After the regular army finished fighting in the front, the garrison troops of the foreign legion began a dragnet search... No matter who you are, they will just shoot you if they see you holding a gun.

In order to stabilize the situation in the vassal states and to avoid the large-scale and continuous emergence of potential rebels, the Great Chu Empire forcibly promoted the implementation of a comprehensive gun ban in all vassal states under its rule in the 53rd year of Chengshun.

Ordinary people in vassal states are prohibited from owning firearms, bows and arrows, armor and other weapons and equipment.

Of course, different countries implement the regulations strictly or leniently; some countries are able to enforce the regulations while others are unable to do so.

But no matter what, when the Chu army's foreign legions were carrying out suppression missions, except for the official indigenous military and police personnel, all others they encountered were regarded as rebels and fought directly.

I won't talk any reason to you at all.

Under such circumstances, the Chu Army's foreign troops have always been very efficient in carrying out suppression missions...

They would give benefits to the indigenous nations that came close to them and let them live a better life; they would forcefully suppress the indigenous nations that resisted and directly eliminate them.

This is also a relatively important change in the Empire's governance policy toward indigenous countries in recent years.

With the passage of time, changes in the times, economic needs and other factors, the empire's attitude towards indigenous countries has been constantly adjusting.

In the early years, people wanted land but not people...it was very tough.

Later, in the late 1930s, they felt that there was no point in simply having so much land, and it would be better to leave some indigenous people to produce and create labor value.

This is how the proxy vassal state model came into being.

Now, in order to create greater economic benefits and reduce the cost of maintaining colonial rule, the empire has abandoned its early one-size-fits-all approach and treats all indigenous vassal states equally, treating all of them, regardless of their origin, as labor slaves.

Instead, adopt a policy of differentiated governance.

As for the indigenous countries, those that are close to them will be given some preferential treatment, those that are not close to them will be suppressed, and those that resist will be wiped out.

As for the indigenous individuals, permanent residency and temporary settlement rights in overseas territories were gradually opened up, and wealthy and talented indigenous people were allowed to immigrate to these overseas territories to serve the Chu State.

After implementing many differentiation policies, they were generally successful. Today, many indigenous countries have emerged in Europe, West Asia, India and other places that have fully aligned themselves with the Chu State. The Kingdom of England is the most typical example.

The Chu people obtained huge economic benefits in the local area with extremely low ruling costs and a small number of garrisons, with an extremely high output ratio.

It is precisely because of the successful example of the Kingdom of England that the Chu people continued to promote differentiated governance policies and increase cultural output.

In the past, the Chu people didn’t pay much attention to these indigenous cultures and the like. If you natives want to learn, then you can learn. If you don’t want to, then forget it.

But now, the Chu people are providing educational funding to some indigenous countries and helping them promote Chinese language education.

They will even selectively accept some international students to study in overseas territories, allowing them not only to study liberal arts, but also to study science to a certain extent.

  This is a very important transformation!

This means that the Great Chu Empire believes that it has established an absolute technological barrier that these indigenous countries cannot surpass no matter how hard they try, so it selectively tries to relax some industrial controls.

Otherwise, according to the thinking of the Chu people in previous years, if these natives dared to engage in industry, even if it was just the most primitive water power equipment industry, they would directly send troops to destroy it.

The Chu people were also constantly keeping up with the times in their rule over their overseas vassal states, taking new measures to adapt to the times.

After all, overseas governance, in the final analysis, is just to exploit the surplus value of the indigenous people... How to harvest the surplus value of the indigenous people better, more efficiently and at a lower cost is the main issue that the senior bureaucrats and business groups of the Great Chu Empire are considering.

As for the others, they are actually additional and not very important.

Against the backdrop of this era, Elizabeth, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the King of England, who had been beautiful since childhood and received Chinese education, also successfully passed the selection last year and became one of the beauties entering the Eastern Palace. After entering the Eastern Palace, she was canonized as a Liangyuan.

This year, she successfully gave birth to a son, and was awarded the title of Liangdi... This was the title of a concubine in the Eastern Palace second only to the Crown Princess.

  Elizabeth participated in the selection and entered the East Palace. This was not a tribute from the Kingdom of England to its suzerain country, but a reward from the Great Chu Empire for the Kingdom of England's loyalty!

Otherwise, it would be impossible for her to be granted the title of Liangyuan, which is second only to the Crown Princess and Liangdi, as soon as she entered the Eastern Palace... At least there was no precedent for women from other ethnic groups to enter the palace.

And Elizabeth set the precedent!

  When the news that Elizabeth had successfully given birth to a son reached the Kingdom of England, the whole country rejoiced, and the Kingdom of England even announced directly:

Because the king's only son, the current crown prince, has been childless for a long time, the son of the eldest daughter Elizabeth will have the first right of succession to the throne of England according to English tradition and the current inheritance law of the Kingdom of England!

If nothing unexpected happens, the Kingdom of England will welcome a king with the royal blood of the Luo family of the Great Chu Empire in the future!

  This is why the whole of England is rejoicing!

This means that in the future, the Kingdom of England will also belong to the territory of the Rothschild royal family...

This is very important for England right now!