Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1636 Hegemony (Part [-])
Gao Wushi laughed, nodded and said: "No matter what we say or think, there must be a leader in a system. This leader must have the strongest strength, and then determine the rules for the entire system, and provide maintenance Essential elements for the smooth operation of the system.

There used to be some systems—such as the European Union, which determined a system at a certain level, that is, some major events required the consent of all member states to form resolutions and implement them. What did the result lead to?As a result, most of the countries clearly know that this is a good thing, but one or two small countries disagree. As a result, the resolution can only be shelved, and the best opportunity is missed.

In fact, Europeans did such stupid things not only in the era we traveled through, but now—I mean, in the 20th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, there is a big country in Europe called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In terms of territory and population, It is now the largest country in Europe.

In our history, this federal kingdom was once very powerful, known as the Spear of God.However, for some reason, it later adopted a very weird system called elective monarchy.The Commonwealth had a parliament, called the Sejm, which was equivalent to a combination of the Senate and an elected king.

In fact, the electoral monarchy can be regarded as an extreme aristocratic democracy. I will only mention a few of the most bizarre regulations under this system: the Sejm Parliament is held every two years, and nobles have the right to vote freely. Sejm Parliament; nobles in the country can legally launch a rebellion against the king who violated their freedom, or it can be said that this is a legal uprising; nobles can freely form alliances, including military alliances, which of course means that they legally support troops... …

Don't stare so wide, it's not the worst.The most powerful thing is called the free veto, which stipulates that all the bills of the parliament must be approved by all members of the parliament. If the nobles objected, the motion would be invalidated.

In other words, any decision in this country requires the support of every noble in the country, or at least no opposition, before it can be approved and implemented.As a result, there is no doubt that the free veto became a policy implemented by the great aristocrats who manipulated the government in order to seek self-interest regardless of national interests, and eventually paralyzed the state institutions.At the same time, it also facilitated the interference of foreign aggressive forces in Polish affairs and accelerated the decline of this aristocratic republic.

There was Polly before, and then there was the European Union. Europeans always fantasize about a system that does not need a leader, but will it really exist?Perhaps human beings will eventually have such a selfless day, that is, the world will be unified, but at least I don't think that day will come in your lifetime.

In fact, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was free to veto, was eventually divided up by Tsarist Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and the will of Germany and France still prevailed within the European Union.Because if you don't do that, the EU will turn into a vegetable market, full of noise and energy, but nothing can be done.

So without further ado, in East Asia at this moment, who is the leader who can establish a system and serve as the cornerstone of stability for this system?Only Daming.Therefore, if expressed in the most popular terms, then Ming is the only reasonable overlord in the East Asian system. "

Liu Xin nodded knowingly: "So, what specific 'public goods' does it provide to stabilize the system?"

"No, no, you are too anxious. I just said that Ming is the only reasonable overlord in East Asia, but I didn't say that it is already the overlord in East Asia."

Gao Wushi waved his hands again and again: "Obviously, although it has the largest size and strongest strength, at least at this moment, East Asian countries have not fully joined this system, so it is only a quasi-hegemon at the moment. Quasi-hegemony There is still a difference in behavior from the overlord. The biggest difference is that the quasi-hegemon must first find a way to make himself a veritable overlord, because only in this way will the system be a stable system that will not encounter challenges at the geopolitical level. Encountering an internal crisis."

"So what's the key now?" Liu Xin asked.

"Stabilize other members who have joined the system, use the power of the system to suffocate the 'others' in the region who have not yet joined the system, and eventually force them to join in. In fact, in essence, this 'force' does not necessarily require the use of force. However, the current actual situation is here, Da Ming must destroy the 'Great Yuan' to declare a complete victory, so the use of force is inevitable."

Liu Xin thought about it seriously, and then said: "Your theory sounds very reasonable, but I'm a bit puzzled about one thing: if Daming can subdue other forces in your so-called 'geopolitical' Middle East Asia by relying on its own strength, how can it be Why bother to bring in allies? Wouldn’t it be better to show the strength of this hegemony if Da Ming conquered it by himself than if he conquered it with his allies?”

Gao Wushi smiled, and then asked seriously: "When the two of us crossed over, do you think the signs of me surpassing Midi have become more and more clear?"

"Of course, without a doubt." Liu Xin nodded.

"But do you know? When I was in the early 21st century, mainstream scholars only dared to predict that Japan would surpass Japan around 2050. As for Midi, almost no one dared to think about it—at least no one dared to say it. So, what is it? What caused this dramatic acceleration in catch-up?"

"Uh..." Liu Xin was stunned for a moment, thinking: "On the one hand, our development is unexpectedly fast, and on the other hand, Midi himself... has declined?"

"That's right. We don't need to say much about our development, but have you ever thought about what caused the relative decline of Midi?" Gao Pragmatically asked earnestly and temptingly.

"I didn't have time to think about these big things back then, why don't you talk about it?"

Gao Wushi said: "There have been several 'coincidences' that have diverted Midi's vigilance towards us, but that is not the most fundamental thing. The most fundamental thing is that after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Midi was invincible in the world. It made the same big mistake in strategic thinking, that is, it mistakenly thought that it had unlimited disposable resources, so that it used the resources it actually had without restraint, and finally squandered its strategic advantages bit by bit like quicksand in its hands. Lost.

When it looked back and looked at me, it suddenly discovered that this heretical civilization that was big but not strong, strong but not rich, could no longer be contained.Because of this, it will have strategic anxiety, and it will fight indiscriminately, regardless of how far-fetched the reasons it finds.

It even did not hesitate to let go of the real responsibility of a hegemony, and hacked wildly in the system it established, and turned from a defender of the system into a destroyer—why?Because it found that even according to the rules it had set in the past, it could not continue to obtain the maximum benefits in this system.

Why did some scholars emphasize that China was not the Soviet Union?Of course not, because I joined its system early on, and the Soviet Union was the leader of another parallel system outside its system.

In other words, its hegemony has been strongly challenged from within the system, but it finds that it cannot use the power of the entire system to counter it this time—just as your brain cannot order your heart to explode by itself.

Even... It's like if the other parts of your body have a mind, they can't agree to the explosion of the heart, because the brain is important, but if the heart explodes, everyone will be finished!Therefore, for other 'organs', they can only wait for the two most critical organs in this system to decide who will dominate in the future..."

"Oh, it's no wonder that the concept of G2 was very popular before. It turns out that it was because some scholars and think tanks discovered that if either of these two organs is missing, they will die, so there is such an appeal?"

"Maybe, that's why we proposed a new type of major-country relationship at the time. Unfortunately, our brains were too conceited to agree, and it turned out...that's it." Gao Wushi waved his hand: "That's far away, let's talk about the 'infinite resources' issue. I What I want to say is that no matter how powerful any hegemony is, the resources it can really control are definitely not unlimited, so the ruler must have a special ability, that is, the restraint of using one's own resources prudently."

"Ah, although your reasoning has been turned around a lot, I found that this sentence is actually very easy to understand. It is nothing more than 'a country is big, but it will die if it is warlike'!"

"Hahahaha, that's right, it's 'a country is big, but warlikeness must perish'. But don't you think that after I explain it like this, your understanding of the word warlikeness will be perishable will be greatly deepened?"

"That's true, I admit it." Liu Xin also laughed, and said: "But if you say that, it seems that it is not unreasonable for Zhu Yuanzhang to set up those countries that will not be conquered?"

"The truth is correct, or Zhu Yuanzhang's starting point in this matter is correct. It's just that like many other things he did, he directly restricted things to death, which is very bad. It's like statutes that always need to be based on The development of the times is constantly revised, Zhu Yuanzhang created a statutory law that cannot be revised, and as a result, the times have developed and the situation has changed. Can his original statutory law still adapt? If it does not adapt, it will be a bad thing.”

"Okay, let's get back to business. Do you think the most basic issue now is to stabilize the current East Asian system of Ming Dynasty, and at the same time not to squander power excessively, so it is necessary to...compensate the allies who have suffered losses?" Liu Xin slightly tilted his head. The beginning: "But aren't these compensations still a waste of power?"

Gao Yushi laughed: "Maybe it seems to you to be extravagant, but it actually involves a cost accounting issue. I will express it in the simplest way: Daming's compensation for Tumed, Horqin, and Manchuria is impossible. Equivalent to their true losses."

"Oh?" Liu Xin rolled her eyes, as if she was still thinking about what he said.

But this time, Gao Yushi didn't intend to wait for her to figure it out, but continued on her own: "First of all, let me ask you, after the soldiers of Ming Dynasty died in battle, the cost of pensions was equivalent to that of Tumote, Horqin and Manchuria. Is it the same standard?"

"Isn't this a sub-question? It must be different. Daming is richer than them, and the pension for sergeants is much more expensive than them... Oh, you mean the cost?" Liu Xin suddenly understood as she spoke.

Gao Wushi didn't finish his sentence, he chuckled, and said, "If I told you that the compensation for an ordinary Mongolian soldier after death in battle is equivalent to less than three sheep, what would you think?"

Liu Xin was stunned, and said doubtfully, "It's so miserable?"

Gao Yushi rolled his eyes: "It's good to have pensions. Most of the Mongolian soldiers were originally herdsmen, but this kind of herdsmen are not free people. In fact, they are not much different from serfs. It is great that the lords can give some pensions." favor."

Liu Xin was speechless for a while, then sighed: "Sometimes thinking about it, social development is really not an easy task."

Gao Wushi ignored her emotion, but continued: "In this case, what do you think will happen if Daming converts the price of three sheep per person into silver gifts?"

"They will be grateful to Dade, so what else?" Liu Xin replied in a low mood.

"Who are they?" Gao Wushi asked seriously.

"Ah?" Liu Xin was stunned for a moment, and found that Gao Yushi's expression was very serious. Then she thought about it seriously, and opened her eyes wide: "Noble...general?"

"Well, they will not agree with Da Ming to directly distribute pensions to the families of those who died in battle, and it is impossible for Da Ming to do it so obviously, so it must be Da Ming who directly gives the money to their leaders. However, the leaders will definitely not just grow old like this To be honest, send them all out, there is no doubt that the geese have plucked their hair..."

"So you actually want to control their upper class through this method?" Liu Xin asked suspiciously.

But Gao Wushi did not answer directly. Instead, he said: "Tumed, Horqin, and Manchuria are the leaders who control everything. Once they are satisfied, they are naturally willing to continue to follow Daming. However, the longer they follow in the future, the lower the loss. The bigger it is, it actually creates a kind of continuous blood loss.

At the same time, Chahar or other opponents who are their enemies will continue to lose blood due to the war, and they will all lose serious blood loss in the future. Doesn't this mean that Ming's strength is relatively stronger? "

"But Daming spent money!" Liu Xin opened her eyes wide: "Is money not strength?"

"Money is of course strength, but as I said just now, from the perspective of cost accounting, spending money is more cost-effective than Da Ming's own soldiers who died in battle; second, what is it that Da Ming spends money on them? The party in the dominant position! This is like I spent ten taels of silver to go out, but I can earn seven taels or eight taels back through various methods. Wouldn’t it be very cost-effective to spend the remaining two or three taels of silver? What is hegemony? This is hegemony ! The so-called win-win of Hegemony means that I win twice! Once in the open, and again in secret!"
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PS: I like this chapter very much myself.

(End of this chapter)