Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1635 Hegemony (Part [-])
According to the habit of Shangshu Gao's residence, the meal has already been prepared at this moment, and he just waited for Gao to eat pragmatically.When he walked into the small restaurant on the second floor of the Rixin Building, everything was ready in the restaurant and the food was served, but there was no maid present, only Liu Xin was sitting on the sandalwood bench beside her, holding a stack of reports in her hand look in.

Gao Wushi subconsciously turned his head and glanced at Gao Mo, who was half a step behind him, Gao Mo slightly lowered his head and said, "The secretary-general has something to discuss with the master."

Gao Wushi nodded, and while walking towards the dining table, he greeted Liu Xin and said, "Haven't you eaten yet, come together?"

Liu Xin got up, took the stack of reports, walked to the table and sat down, but said in her mouth: "I have eaten." Then she moved a plate of pomegranates that had been peeled by the table to her, and asked: "Do you mind?" ?”

"The vast majority of men have nothing to do with fruit." Gao Wushi replied indifferently, and then got down to business: "What's the trouble?"

"Troublesome things? No, no, no, I think you should be the one who has a lot of troubles today—I heard that Xiao Ruxun's battle was not going well?" Liu Xin raised her eyebrows and asked.

Gao Wushi ate a small mouthful of steamed sea bass, and replied: "Xiao Ruxun's battle... How should I put it, it did not meet my original expectations. But even so, it is not 'unsmooth', after all, from ordinary In terms of victory and defeat, in the end, Tumen was the first to withdraw from the battlefield, not him."

Liu Xin said: "What about the loss? Daming only recognizes heads. His so-called estimate that the Mongols have [-] serious injuries, I'm afraid this statement is not valid?"

"Well, from the court's point of view, this statement is indeed useless." Gao Wushi said indifferently: "But it doesn't matter. When the court compares the losses of the two sides, it will not compare the losses of Horqin and Manchuria. Counting it in, I probably wouldn't even take Jinghua's losses to heart—they are not an economically controlled army, and the imperial court doesn't need to care about their pensions.

"The imperial court belongs to the imperial court, and the emperor belongs to the emperor. These are two properties. You should not confuse them intentionally or unintentionally like some people." Gao Wushi smiled: "The imperial court may deliberately forget the loss of Jinghua, but that is normal. If I am not the owner of Jinghua, but a simple minister of the imperial court, and I will try not to mention this matter, because the object of my service is the imperial court, not Jinghua."

Liu Xin couldn't help teasing, "You've done a good job."

"Thanks to the praise, I will continue to work hard." Gao Wushi also smiled and said: "But having said that, I can afford the loss of Jinghua, but if the imperial court is really happy with the loss of Tumote, Horqin and Manchuria I don't agree with it, you can even say... I firmly oppose it."

"Oh? Why?" Liu Xin seemed a little surprised: "Wouldn't it be nice to take this opportunity to weaken them?"

"It's not impossible to take the opportunity to weaken, but it can't be this time, and it can't be under such circumstances." Gao Wushi shook his head and said: "Hegemony must have the appearance of hegemony."

"Hegemony?" Liu Xin looked surprised, tsk-tsk: "You are a champion of six poems, don't you pay attention to 'inner sage and outer king', but hegemony?"

Gao Wushi seemed to be interested, and asked after a pause, "What is hegemony?"

Liu Xin was stunned, and subconsciously replied: "Uh... I will do my own way, bully the weak, those who follow me prosper and those who oppose me perish."

"Hegemony is called hugemony in English. According to some famous works, it represents the relationship between the most powerful countries in the world after 1648 in our original history, and the rules of the game determined by them." Gao Pragmatic He smiled: "The three most important words are country, relationship, and rules, and the combination of these three words can be called a 'system'."

Liu Xin frowned and said, "I don't quite understand such an abstract statement."

"Okay, let me explain." Gao Wushi said, "Do you still remember the history of Europe that I told you before?"

"I roughly remember, why?"

Gao Yushi didn't answer, but just nodded and said: "The 1618-year religious war from 1648 to 30 represented the fall of the Pope's theocracy and the establishment of the 'international society'.

The subsequent Westphalia peace conference created a precedent for resolving regional disputes through conferences; formed a system in which contracting parties abide by the treaty and violators accept sanctions; countries began to set up permanent diplomatic representatives, etc...

In short, it means that after this, a system emerged in the international community in which the fate of a number of small countries was determined by several big countries. Then we can say that these few big countries were hegemony until the rise of Napoleon. "

"Oh... that's what it means." Liu Xin suddenly realized, and then asked: "What happened after the rise of Napoleon? Napoleon, oh no, France has become the new hegemony?"

"During the Napoleonic Wars, it can generally be considered that he had hegemony in continental Europe, but his hegemony was never stable. There were not only competitors, but also those who tirelessly tried to overthrow it. Therefore, whether his France should be counted as hegemony, I think It is debatable.

However, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Vienna Peace Conference was held and the Vienna system was established, so a new 'hegemony' came into being.The Vienna system is also known as the 'European five-power multi-polar military system', but the 'military' here actually means 'balance of power' in English.

Therefore, in fact, hegemony at this time does not simply refer to a certain country, but a group of powerful countries that is binding on other countries and is produced under a power balance system.

What about the next hegemony?After the rise of Prussia and the unification of Germany, World War I was caused by the breaking of the original balance of power. After the end of World War I, the victorious countries held the Paris Peace Conference, coupled with the subsequent Washington Naval Conference, thus establishing Versailles (Paris)- The Washington system, during this period, was still a "hegemony" formed by the joint efforts of several major powers until World War II.

Before and after the end of World War II, the Yalta Conference was held in Yalta and the Yalta system was established, and then the US-Soviet Cold War, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, etc.... Well, now I ask you, what do these systems have in common? "

Liu Xin didn't expect him to ask a question, so she had to think about it carefully before answering: "Let's fight a big battle first, and after the fight, the victor will have a meeting?"

Gao Yushi spread his left hand and said: "The meeting is a means, but what is their purpose? It is to form a treaty through the meeting. The treaty clearly stipulates the relationship and status of each country after the war, how the territory will be allocated, and the international How should the society be governed, what should be done when problems are encountered... etc. All in all, it is to determine who is the hegemony through a treaty and who will govern the 'international society'."

"What about after the Yalta system?" Liu Xin asked.

"It's gone after that, and it will end with the Yalta system." Gao Yushi smiled: "Not long after the establishment of the Yalta system, humans have mastered nuclear weapons, especially the emergence of two superpowers—note that this is no longer a balance of power, but It was the concept of a superpower that emerged.

However, neither of the two superpowers dared to really push the world into a nuclear war and press the reset button on the earth. Therefore, the Yalta system has continued for a long time. At least when we came to Ming Dynasty, this system still existed.

In fact, when a superpower emerges, "hegemony" in the true sense is truly produced, because it is impossible for other countries to achieve anti-killing at least militarily-you can at most put it in a country whose strength is not enough to radiate It is impossible to threaten or simply eliminate its homeland. "

Liu Xin thought for a while and said, "But the Soviet Union disintegrated later."

"That's right, so the world has become one superpower, and isn't this one superpower a hegemony? Although the entire Yalta system nominally defines the top five, but for reasons that don't need to be elaborated, in the 30s after the disintegration of the Soviet Union Years, isn’t there actually only one hegemony left?”

"But you have made such a big circle, isn't this 'hegemony' just like what I said, you can 'do your own way, bully the weak, and those who follow me prosper and those who oppose me perish'?"

Gao Wushi shook his head and said, "What you are talking about is 'Laozi's family conquers the world', but the hegemony I mentioned just now, although it may have such power for a certain period of time, in fact it does not do so, he needs to rely on The authority conferred by the Yalta system, combined with its own strength, brought all kinds of allies to fight the war it wanted—do you think so?"

"Oh, so you want to emphasize the role of allies?" Liu Xin hesitated: "But to tell you the truth, in the wars it launched, I doubt how much its allies really played."

Gao Yushi smiled: "Then I have to ask: Is this hegemony capable of conquering its allies together? Is it necessary to conquer these allies? If these allies are not its allies, but instead fight against it at all levels." On the other hand, can it cope with it, and is such a coping in its interest?"

Liu Xin thought for a while before thinking about it: "You mean, although it is very powerful, it is not enough to subdue the whole world by force alone, so it needs to unite its allies to form a system, and then rely on the whole system to Power to control the world?"

"This answer is pretty much the same." Gao Wushi smiled and said, "But now I'm going to ask a little deeper: what does hegemony need to do?" After a pause, he added: "Don't tell me After so much, he still answered me: Hegemony can do its own thing."

Liu Xin opened her mouth, then hesitated again.Gao Wushi didn't wait for her to answer, but continued to eat on his own. After a while, he heard Liu Xin tentatively say: "I think a hegemony, first of all, it must be able to gain something from it because it is a hegemony." profit."

Gao Wushi stopped, but did not raise his head. He just rolled his eyes upwards, looked at Liu Xin and asked, "And then?"

"Then... it probably has to ensure that the system is stable." Liu Xin said again.

Gao Wushi smiled, chewed and swallowed a piece of fish in his mouth, put down his chopsticks and said, "Hegemony is a country that provides public goods to an international system. Such public goods are both tangible and intangible. The tangible For example, it is easy to understand the provision of markets, funds, and even the technology that it deliberately transfers, etc. What about intangible public goods?"

"Wait a minute, let me take a look..." Liu Xin hurriedly yelled, "Does Hegemony provide markets, funds, or even deliberately transfer technology for the entire system?"

"Didn't you say it yourself just now? One of the most important tasks of hegemony is to maintain the stability of the system. So do you think that the only thing you need to stabilize this system is that you have enough force? Is the Soviet Union's force strong enough? , During the 'Western-81' military exercise, the whole of Western Europe was almost scared by it and peed its pants. Why did it disintegrate when it is so powerful?
The answer is simple. The root cause is that it is no longer able to provide enough public goods for the small system it is in. The market is rigid, the funds are poor, and the technology is biased.Under such circumstances, even though it has incomparably powerful force, it still can only die violently. "

Liu Xin suddenly said: "It turns out that this matter should be explained in this way... I thought the Soviet Union died of corruption at the top and too much light industry." But she paused, then wondered: "But is it worthwhile to provide these? You I was talking about 'public goods'."

"Yes, but there is still half of what I said just now, which is the part of intangible public goods." Gao Yushi raised his eyebrows: "What are intangible public goods? They are rules and systems. Let me use an analogy: the WTO Who sets the rules after all, right Midi? Then why does it decide, and why does it set those rules?"

This time Liu Xin reacted quickly and immediately replied: "Those rules are beneficial to it, and it needs those rules to ensure that it can gain benefits in the system!"

Gao Pragmatism snapped his fingers: "That's right, but you put it lightly, it should be 'because those rules can ensure that it can obtain far more benefits than other countries' - it pays tangible public goods and this intangible public goods. Items, in the final analysis, are to ensure this benefit."

Liu Xin suddenly felt enlightened, and thought for a while before saying: "I always feel that there seems to be something missing from the above?"

"Yes, there is another one missing: providing security protection." Gao Wushi smiled: "This point is easy to explain, you are the boss, if you don't even protect the younger brother or can't protect it, then who will mess with you?" Huh? So we have always had a premise that all superpowers have super strong military strength."

Liu Xin patted the table lightly: "Understood, this puzzle is complete... So you said just now that you disagreed with the Ming court's indifference to the losses of Tumed, Horqin and Manchuria. Daming is actually the hegemony in this 'system', so as a hegemony, in order to stabilize the system, the Ming court must provide certain public goods, right?"
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Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "Shi Jinglun" for their support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "pml5339", "Lu Senah", "snakedman", "Yintian Good Mood", "Cao Mianzi" for their monthly support, thank you!
(End of this chapter)