Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2094 Rectifying the Country (Wei Nine) and Using Foreign Things for China
Liu Xin didn't think about the two questions Gao Wushi raised before, but it didn't bother her. She thought about it a little and said, "As for the first question, even if it's possible, I don't need to worry about it."

She took a look at the map of the entire South Asian subcontinent and said, "Just now you said that in the face of the powerful Qin Mughal Empire, their Deccan kingdoms failed to implement any strategy of cooperation. Then I think, even if this Qiangqin was replaced by our Jinghua, but they still couldn't make any waves.

I even think that we should have a kind of institutional self-confidence. After all, the Mughals’ conquest of them was only a very primitive conquest, but the Mughal Empire’s own system has many regulations that are different because of religion and the relationship between itself belonging to a foreign ruling group. It is not in line with the development of social productive forces.

In other words, if it comes to the point of 'the lesser of two evils', the Deccan countries are unlikely to consider uniting with the Mughals, but more likely to consider obedience to us.

Although I don’t know much about the history of India or the colonial history of Western colonial empires such as Britain, France, Netherlands and Portugal in India, but judging from the results, the resistance they received does not seem to be particularly great.Aside from the advantages of weapons and equipment and military organizational form, one of the important reasons is that its ruling methods are more suitable for the local area. "

"Hahahaha!" Gao Wushi smiled inexplicably, shook his head and said, "The previous remark is fine, but the latter remark shows that you really don't understand the colonial history of Western colonists in India. thing."

Liu Xin wasn't angry this time, because she really didn't understand, so she said, "Isn't it a system problem?"

Gao Wushi took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, seemed to organize his words, and then said: "There is a premise that you always seem to ignore, that is, at least in Asia, the Western colonists never rushed They came from 'colonization', and their initial goal is very unified, which is to monopolize trade, in other words, to make money."

Liu Xin did not object to this, but was more curious: "Then why did they all end up under colonial rule?"

"It's a long story. If we want to start with the entry of the western pirates, it would be too late. I will introduce it to you later when I have time." Gao Wushi said: "Well, for the time being, I will How about introducing you to the rivalry between Britain and France over India?"

"As long as it can explain the problem, I don't want to study their colonial history carefully." Liu Xin shrugged.

"Okay, let's talk about Britain and France." Gao Yushi said: "Many people in later generations only know that 'India is the brightest jewel in the crown of the British Empire', but they don't know that Portugal was the first to enter India at the beginning. The European colonists of India, and later colonial empires such as the Netherlands and France all once competed with the British in India.

Especially France, for a short period of time, their power in India was actually stronger than that of the British, but in the end, due to some reasons, France lost the competition with the British in India, making the British almost monopolize South Asia subcontinent.But to be clear, when the British first came to India, they were almost blown away on the spot. "

Liu Xin asked: "It's so miserable, shouldn't it be the case? It should have been the early Qing Dynasty when the British went to India. With the level of firearms in Europe at that time, wouldn't it be like sweeping a thousand troops against the Indians?"

"Hmph, the British have European firearms, but the Mughal Empire also had them at that time." Gao Yushi waved his hand and said, "In 1685, the 24th year of Kangxi, the English East India Company, after three years of careful preparation, launched the War of aggression against the Mughal Empire.

They sent twelve warships to the Bay of Bengal, equipped with more than 200 cannons and more than a thousand soldiers, and the fleet was commanded by Sir Josiah Child, director of the company.In order to quickly establish economic order in the occupied areas, the English warships even carried a full set of coinage equipment.

An armed force of this size was already quite large compared to the scale of European overseas colonial aggression at that time, so Sir Childe had no doubts about his upcoming victory.But it was a little unfortunate that the Mughal Empire happened to be in its last glorious period at that time, and its emperor was Aurangzeb—oh, his grandfather was the Jahangir we just mentioned, and Akbar was exactly him Great-grandfather.

This Aurangzeb can be said to be the last afterglow of the Mughal Empire. He served as the deputy king of the Deccan in his early years. From 1657 to 1658, he defeated three brothers in the fierce war of succession to the throne and imprisoned his father. Crouching Emperor.

After this person ascended the throne, he conquered Bijapur and Gokanda kingdoms respectively by means of appeasement and supplemented by force, and expanded the territory of the Mughal Empire to almost the entire South Asian subcontinent except the southernmost tip. "

Liu Xin smiled and said, "The last ruthless man in the Mughal Empire?"

"Almost." Gao Wushi said: "So in 1685, Aurangzeb's rule was at its peak, how could it be possible for the English to tolerate the behavior of touching the tiger's butt? Children's war broke out.

At that time, the English relied on advanced artillery, but they did not understand the basic situation of the South Asian subcontinent at all. These soldiers from northwestern Europe could not stand the hot and humid climate in South Asia at all. attrition.

And what about the Mughal Empire?Their level of firearms is not low, because the French and the Portuguese are unwilling to see the British also come to India to make a mess, so they provided a lot of military assistance to the Mughal Empire-of course, this is for money , but Aurangzeb did not lack the money at the time, so the Mughal army was equipped with the same advanced European artillery. "

"Wait!" Liu Xin stopped suddenly and asked, "How did France come here, and how did it stand in the same trench as the Portuguese to support the Mughals?"

"French Cardinal Richelieu, you know? It was he who founded the French East India Company, and then sent people to explore. Finally, a colonial team arrived in Surat, Gujarat, India in 1668 and established the The first colonial outpost in India.

The French can't monopolize any trade at this time, so as long as they can make money, they will do any business, and arms sales are no exception-anyway, they don't have much colony in the local area, and they don't worry that the Indians will attack Europe instead, so The French are completely unscrupulous in selling arms.

What about the relationship between Britain and France?Hey, in short, when the French learned that Aurangzeb's opponent was the British, they became more active in selling arms.

As for standing with the Portuguese, this matter is more complicated.At that time, the relationship between England and Portugal was actually very good, but you also know that the Europeans are pissed... In India, it is related to interests. The Portuguese colonists in the local area will not give the English people face. Never relent when you grab it. "

Liu Xin nodded, expressing her understanding, and signaled Gao Yushi to continue.

So Gao Wushi continued: "Since the Mughal Empire is not far behind in terms of weapons and equipment, then their absolute advantages in terrain and military strength cannot be ignored, so Aurangzeb launched a war shortly after learning of the invasion. Fight back strongly.

Since the British base was on the west coast at this time, and the place they attacked was on the east coast, there were two battlefields in this battle, which also led to the prolongation of the war time.At the critical moment of the war between the two sides, major events occurred in England: the fall of King James II, the famous Glorious Revolution broke out in England, and the contradiction between Protestantism and Catholicism in the country was unprecedentedly fierce.

In order to deal with the Catholic forces in the country and attack Scotland and Ireland, the English had to withdraw their power to focus on the country and were forced to compromise with the Mughal Empire. In 1689, the two sides signed an armistice agreement, and the English East India Company fully surrendered, paid huge war reparations to Aurangzeb and asked Aurangzeb for forgiveness.

After the war, the English East India Company summed up the lessons and came to a conclusion, so Sir Childe criticized his subordinates and said: "The result is obvious. You have been told to stop the war. Why do you want to provoke such a reckless war?"Focus on trade! '"

Liu Xin burst out laughing, and said, "Isn't he the commander? I don't believe that he didn't agree to start the war at the beginning. This guy is really good at throwing blame, and he's thick-skinned."

Gao Yushi spread his hands: "In any case, these words at least show one thing: the purpose of these people coming to India is to make money in the final analysis, and they did not go to rule the local area from the beginning. For them, Don't say you couldn't beat the Indians at the time, even if you could beat them, so what if you beat the Indians all over the place, can you make money?
Because it is too far away from the mainland and India has a large population, if it is necessary to maintain a large army as the basis of rule and at the same time prevent this force from betraying the mother country, it may be a disadvantage for the English government and the emerging bourgeoisie behind it. Money—the bourgeoisie will never be willing to trade at a loss. "

Liu Xin then asked: "Then what made them change their purpose?"

"Of course it's for making money." Gao Wushi said: "Here I have to talk about the business model of the English East India Company in India in the early stage-do you know how they managed to make money in the first place without losing money? ?”

Liu Xin shook her head and said: "I don't understand the thinking of the colonists. According to our experience in southern Xinjiang, we invested huge sums of money in infrastructure construction at the beginning, and at the same time relied on the domestic market of Ming Dynasty to sell the main local output. Of course, there is also export to the Spanish Portuguese Empire.

Later, our basic investment gradually produced benefits. At the same time, because the agreement with the Spanish Portuguese Empire allowed us to trade in India, we gradually entered the Indian market.In this way, we become a transit station with its own output.

Our southern Xinjiang and Nanyang system itself has a lot of hard currency, such as spices, rice, tropical timber, etc., as well as industrial production such as coal, iron, shipbuilding, and military industry.

At the same time, we are also connected to Ming Dynasty and India, and can even accept the gold and silver brought by the Spaniards from America... In short, the trade in our southern Xinjiang system is extremely developed, and our own output is not weak, so we can form enough profit. "

Gao Wushi was very satisfied with her understanding of the economic system in southern Xinjiang, so she explained: "Then let's follow this line of thinking to see what the English can do in India."

Gao Wushi said: "In the original history, the Netherlands and England entered the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. Later, the Dutch mainly exerted their efforts in the South China Sea and gradually controlled the spice trade that Europeans valued most at that time.

At that time, the English knew that they could not compete with the Netherlands for Southeast Asia because of domestic troubles, so they had to turn their attention to India.Although India was rich, in the eyes of the British at that time, India lacked a competitive product like Nanyang spices.

At that time, India was a place where many forces competed, and it was difficult to form a monopoly trade without competitive products.Therefore, although the English East India Company has been working as a second-hand trafficker in the early days, undertaking the transportation of Chinese goods to Europe, but even though the profits seem to be huge, they immediately appear bleak after comparing the spice trade dominated by Portugal and the Netherlands. .

Needless to say, the British are so pissed, how can this situation satisfy them?In addition, they always feel that they unilaterally send money to China in trade with China, which arouses the dissatisfaction of the emerging bourgeoisie in England, and urgently needs to create a new monopoly trade to create more lucrative income for them. profit.

Later, they discovered that the Bengal region of India is extremely rich, not only because of its superior geographical location, it is located in the middle of the South Asian subcontinent and southern Xinjiang, with criss-cross waterways and sea routes, especially the local cotton textile industry is very prosperous.

Bangladesh's cotton textiles are more suitable for wearing than the linen and wool fabrics that are more commonly used by Europeans. The British thought that if they could monopolize the cotton textile trade, they would definitely cause panic in Europe, so they came up with the idea of ​​Bangladesh ——That is the fuse of the war I mentioned just now.

However, even though the Mughal Empire was almost torn apart after Aurangzeb's death, and the British took advantage of the fire to obtain the actual management rights of Bangladesh, they found that the East India Company's finances were still in jeopardy, and they often couldn't make ends meet.So they thought of another way to cut expenses and increase income. "

"Wait, didn't you say that the cotton textiles in Bangladesh should sell well? Why are you still in financial difficulties after taking over Bangladesh?" Liu Xin wondered.

"The market needs to be cultivated, especially for the market to accept a new product." Gao Pragmatically said: "Bangladesh cotton textiles were cultivating a market in Europe at that time, but as a primitive handicraft industry, although Bangladeshi cotton textiles are exquisite, they are completely dependent on The human output of local artisans.

The output under this productivity condition is naturally stretched, so the price of Indian cotton cloth in Europe is high, and it can only be sold to the upper class, so the market space is naturally very limited. "

Liu Xin suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and said in surprise: "The industrial revolution..."

"Smart!" Gao Wushi said: "Because of the opening of the market, Europeans began to accept cotton cloth as a high-end fabric, and the profit of cotton cloth has become the object of many people's covetousness, which has prompted the endogenous motivation in the UK to improve the production process of cotton textiles." It was huge, and the spinning jenny was born.

After that, Watt improved the steam engine and used it for spinning and weaving shortly thereafter.Mechanized large-scale production has greatly improved the efficiency of textiles, and the British brought cotton cloth to the trade field until they set the next new market as China.

At that time, China’s demand for industrially produced cotton cloth was very low, because China’s manpower was extremely abundant, and most ordinary people under the small-scale peasant economy either suppressed their own demand, or produced and wore it themselves, and the commercial mobility of cloth was limited.

Moreover, even though the production cost of British cotton cloth is relatively low, its cotton is produced in India, produced in England, and sold back to China... This cost will go up all at once, and there is no crushing effect on Chinese local handmade cotton cloth force.

At the same time, British cotton fabrics are not only inferior to local handmade cotton fabrics in the low-end market, but also completely inferior to Chinese handmade silk in the high-end market. Therefore, when the UK faces China, it still has a huge deficit and sends money to China every year... "

"Ah, I know what happened next." Liu Xin's complexion darkened, and she said bitterly, "The British started to set their sights on opium, and then... the Opium War will begin."

"That's right." Gao Wushi nodded, with an ugly expression on his face, but he continued: "In short, you have to know that the logical background of everything the British do in Asia is to make money, and nothing else can be compared with making money. conflict.

In other words, as long as a battlefield is fought and money is lost, both the East India Company and the British government will immediately change their original views and forcibly shift the focus back to making money. "

"I understand...Although you are using the British as an example, other European colonial empires have the same thoughts." Liu Xin nodded, but immediately had new doubts, and said, "You seem to have missed something. Didn't you just miss it?" It is said that the East India Company was still financially stressed for a period of time after taking Bengal, then how did they get through the financial crisis at that time?"

"Oh, I missed it." Gao pragmatically said: "Simply put, it is 'cost reduction and efficiency increase', but at that time, at least for Indians, it was not a good word."

"How to say?" Liu Xin asked.

Gao Yushi sighed: "The method adopted by the East India Company is to nominally submit to the Mughal Empire, obtain jurisdiction over some areas, and then start to collect taxes locally, but it does not bear any governance costs.

In other words, I want to take the money, but I don't do the work. What does the East India Company have to do with the local people starving to death and dying of poverty?I'm just working for the Mughal Empire and the emperor of your Indians. If you have anything to do, go to the emperor!The problem is that at this time, the Mughal Empire was full of civil strife, and the emperor's majesty was gone, so he couldn't control anything at all.

Under such an attitude of 'governance', the Bangladesh region has simply become a hell on earth.For example, in terms of economy, the local handmade cotton textile industry, which was extremely prosperous, was destroyed intentionally or unintentionally by the British.

Not long after, its practitioners were only one-seventh of the original number, and then continued to decrease until they were nearly wiped out by the British industrial cotton cloth... As for other related British people, there is a great lack of Dade Shina. There are too many books to write, and I will talk to you slowly when I have time. "

Gao Wushi shook his head and said: "There is still a problem that I haven't explained clearly before, that is why other colonial companies - such as the Dutch East India Company, the French East India Company and other colonial companies only exist as trade monopoly companies, why the British East India Company It turned out to be like a country in the end, didn't it?"

"Yeah, I've always been curious about that."

"Then let me give you an example first. The French gained a firm foothold in a place called 'Pondicherry' in southeastern India. The local princes chose to rely on the French in order to resist the threat of the Marathas.

They assigned two villages near Pondicherry to the French East India Company and urged the Mughal Emperor to issue a letter of appointment to the French.The Mughal emperor had long been unable to reach there, so he approved it easily.

Since then, the French East India Company has turned into the chief executive of a certain place in the Mughal Empire, and local taxes have become part of the French East India Company's income.This was the beginning and marked a new phase in the expansion of European colonists in India.

However, the incident did not affect the French colonists themselves as much as the British colonists, because in 1746, there was a war in Pondicherry.In that year, the French took Pondicherry as their base, advancing by land and sea, attacking the British East India Company from both sides.

This was a glorious victory for the French. At the cost of only six deaths, they occupied Madras, the main stronghold of the British in India at that time. It was known as the First Carnatic War in history.

The local princes and nobles in India were shocked after witnessing the well-trained French army. They sent a lot of rewards to the French, bought French weapons, and hired French military instructors.

This is the first time that a group of 'East India Companies' in Europe have gained a lot of financial revenue through military operations rather than colonial trade.If the situation continues in this way, the history of India must be very different.There is a high probability that the major European powers will become one pot of porridge in India, and there is a high probability that India, which is at least superficially unified, will not appear in later generations.

However, at this moment, an accident happened.Facing the huge military victory, the top executives of the French East India Company were nervous and anxious.They quickly issued a clear instruction to the governor of Pondicherry and the French commander Diplex, asking Diplex not to be too ambitious. The main work of the French in India is trade, not military!
They clearly stated in the letter: 'In general, here, peace is more to be admired than conquest.We don't need such brilliant results.We hope for a situation where we can conduct trade with more peace of mind.To protect and aid trade activities, a few strongholds are enough.We don't need to win or conquer.Companies should focus on how to get more goods and promote further salary increases. '"

Liu Xin was surprised: "This is a bit beyond my expectation, the French are so honest?"

"It's because they haven't tasted the bigger economic pie after the conquest, and at the same time, they are unwilling to invest too much in advance before getting huge benefits." Gao Yushi smiled contemptuously, and said: "By 1750, the French East India Company was in India. With three thousand soldiers, this is more than four times larger than ten years ago.

So Paris couldn't sit still, and quickly settled an account: how many weapons and equipment these [-] soldiers need, how much logistical supplies, how many command and management organizations need to be established in order to lead these troops...

In short, what a financial outlay it was!How many wools can your East India Company gather from India every year?If it goes on like this, it will soon not even be enough to pay the expenses!So, get rid of them quickly!For this reason, in 1754, Paris also removed Duplex from his position. "

Liu Xin shook her head and said, "The French are either short-sighted or worried that the colonial army is too strong. If they do this, they will be defeated by the British East India Company sooner or later."

"You guessed it right, the British East India Company quickly strengthened its armed forces in India after a severe beating, and a notorious rogue in British colonial history stepped onto the stage of history - Robert Clive .”

"It turned out to be him. I happened to know this person." Liu Xin said: "When I was studying the Ganges Delta area, there was a reference book that mentioned it, and also briefly introduced the 'great achievements' of this scumbag, especially the Pura. Battle of the West."

"Okay, then I won't introduce his war history." Gao Yushi skipped this section, and said: "Afterwards, he became the governor of Bangladesh, and he did countless bad things that should be cut to death. The East India Company can not only be a second-hand trafficker, but also directly collect taxes in many local places.

As I said, the Brits only have money in their eyes. Now that there is an extra source of income, how can they let it go?So there was the aforementioned "no-cost governance" of Bangladesh, and later the crop of cotton cloth trade was discovered during the rule of Bangladesh. "

"So that's how it works, so it's connected." Liu Xin sighed, "Although it seems to be a bit of a coincidence, I can only say that the British are indeed a group of bastards who dare to do anything for money."

Gao Wushi nodded, fully agreeing with Liu Xin's evaluation of the British guy, and then asked, "Have you gained any new insights now?"

Liu Xin pondered: "If the fundamental purpose of these colonists is only for money, then I think... I will have more starting points after I go south, at least the Portuguese will not be our plan this time." Resistance, and it is even possible to make them a help. Of course, there is a premise..."

"Promise to give them some economic benefits?" Gao Wushi smiled and said, "Despite the promise—but let me remind you: these benefits don't have to be too big, because it is not difficult to win over the Portuguese."

Liu Xin also laughed, and said: "I know this, because the Portuguese are limited in their own strength, and they have long been afraid of Jinghua. They are not worth our high price to win over, and they themselves know this."

Gao Wushi nodded in satisfaction, and said, "You can handle the specific situation yourself. If time is tight, you don't need to ask for instructions. I will give you the right to make decisions on the fly."

Liu Xin smiled, as if acquiescing, but she thought to herself: Huang Zhiting doesn't even dare to exceed her authority a little bit, let alone me?If I really make decisions on the fly, I'm afraid that a bad thing in the future will become the subject of being attacked.

Even if there are indeed a lot of things to do in this battle, I'm afraid I can't delay casually, then I can only bring more carrier pigeons, or even prepare a few carrier pigeon stations in advance, so that I won't waste too much time.

After talking about these things, Liu Xin finally asked about the goal of the war: "This time going south, I originally planned to take down the Kingdom of Arakan. The reason why I was planning to go to war with the Mughal Empire was essentially because I was worried about their active interference.

But now the situation is different. Assam and other places have taken refuge, and that prince Salim is also involved. I am a little worried that the situation will get out of control, which may lead to an early war.Do you have more specific instructions on our war goals?I mean, like where is the most calls? "

Gao Wushi stretched out his hand and drew a line on the west side of Assam and Bengal with his fingertips, saying, "Unless Salim raises troops against his father Akbar, our army will not be able to reach this line."

After a pause, he added: "However, you can actually control Assam and Bengal and other places east of this line. As long as the original local leaders do not oppose us, just win over what should be won. There is no need to promise other benefits. Just tell them that we support them against Akbar... Based on the experience of the Brits, I think they will give us money and rights in return."

"The secret method of stirring shit, weeding out the strong and supporting the weak." Liu Xin sighed, "I remember this is what you said before summarizing the colonial experience of the British. It seems that we have to use it now."

"Hey, you have to distinguish between the enemy and me! The British are called crap, but I am not."

Gao Wushi gave her a blank look and said, "I am here to prevent the Indian people from being brutally exploited and oppressed by the colonists, and to save the local people from suffering... You must know that whether it is the rule of the British or the rule of the Mughals, For the local people, the rule can be said to be sustainable and cruel. We, Jinghua, went to South Asia as liberators, and we must not mistake the nature of this.”

Liu Xin chuckled, then immediately suppressed her smile, and said very seriously: "Yes, yes, Lord Hou, the Wanjiasheng Buddha, has always been to save the people from the fire of water, otherwise how could it be the third descendant of the secret transmission?" King Ming's reincarnation is also an Arhat passed down from the South?"

Gao Wushi rolled his eyes greatly, and said helplessly: "I think if things go on like this, when India is settled in the future, I'm afraid I will become a Buddha directly, or else I will have to be some kind of Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu or something. It's gone."

Liu Xin laughed loudly, and said, "It's nothing more than becoming a Buddha. Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu are Hindu. How can they have anything to do with you?"

Gao Wushi waved his hand: "I'm just talking nonsense, I'm not interested in being a Hindu god."
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(End of this chapter)