Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 885 The Battle of Civilizations
A few days later, Yuan Xi took everyone by boat and set off north along the coast, planning to pass Langya first and then disembark at the harbor of Donglai County in Qingzhou.

This distance is hundreds of miles. At first, it took a lot of time because there were many reefs along the way. However, over the past few years, the fleet has become completely familiar with the route. In addition, Yuan Xi has captured Qingzhou, and all along the coast is his territory. The route It is completely unobstructed. There is an endless stream of ships coming from the south and the north, and the traffic speed is greatly accelerated.

Everyone was watching the ships passing by on the side of the ship. Lu Lingqi joked: "My husband married the two ladies Zhen Mi. I am afraid he has already made hundreds of merchant ships, right?"

"If we count, there are not many people in the world who are richer than my husband."

It was Mi Zhen's first time to go to sea by boat, and she was in a good mood. She said, "In total, all the routes in the Central Plains have been owned by my husband. The remaining half is Jiangdong."

"If one day in the future my husband can open up the route to the east of the Yangtze River, the entire outer sea of ​​the world will be in my hands."

"However, the Jiangdong nobles are quite stubborn, and the relationship between the Sun family and her husband who is now in charge is not good. I don't know when it happened."

Lu Lingqi wanted to say that there were actually people on Yuan Xi's side, but she immediately realized that it was inappropriate to say this, so she changed the subject and said: "The Jiangdong area is not interesting, and it is far less civilized than the Central Plains. All the counties in Jiangdong are mountainous people. Even if you are a businessman, you won’t make much money, right?”

Yuan Xi nodded and said: "This was indeed the case before. Jiangdong was its own system and there were far less exchanges than the Central Plains. However, with the war in the Central Plains, many people crossed the river to take refuge, which undoubtedly accelerated the flow of population, and many of these people were craftsmen. , which invisibly promotes technological exchange and progress."

"In terms of farming and other technologies, Jiangdong was indeed lagging behind the Central Plains. However, the situation has changed recently."

She suddenly realized that being a foster father was not a good thing, so she slapped herself on the face, took a sip, and said, "Look at my mouth, how unlucky it is!"

"Isn't this the existence that makes Jiangdong mobilize troops every year and slows down his pace?"

"He actually does this. Isn't he just a blind cat and a dead mouse?"

Lu Lingqi asked curiously: "That Sun Quan who just took charge of Jiangdong, dared to mess with his husband without having any eyesight, and was beaten into disgrace?"

"First, the geopolitical situation is relatively stable. As long as the Yangtze River is not broken, production can be guaranteed, which is particularly rare."

"This can be seen from the items traded between the Mi family caravan and Jiangdong. There has been a significant improvement in both the quality and quantity of the goods."

"If he always goes against me, I'm afraid I'll have a big headache too."

Lu Lingqi asked curiously: "That mountain cross countryman who keeps causing trouble in Jiangdong?"

Yuan Xi came back to his senses and said: "Although Jiangdong is regarded as a barbarian land by the Central Plains, it also has advantages that the Central Plains does not have."

Yuan Xi and Mi Zhen knew that Lu Lingqi was talking about Lu Bu. She did not shy away from the matter and looked even more charming and cute. They couldn't help but laugh.

Yuan Xi continued: "The second advantage that people from the Central Plains do not have is that people from Shanyue."

"I heard that Jiangdong is vigorously building sea-going ships and wants to open up the southward channel of the rising sea."

Yuan Xi said in a deep voice: "Don't underestimate him."

"There were several wars in Xuzhou, and many people fled to Jiangdong. I heard that the Sun family was vigorously recruiting craftsmen. Especially in the past few years, Jiangdong hired craftsmen from the Central Plains to improve their technology. From farming to shipbuilding, there have been great improvements."

"Except that he may not be good at fighting, other aspects of this person, including his vision and methods, are first-rate."

Mi Zhen said: "That's true."

Lu Lingqi said carelessly: "What are you afraid of? I won't be able to beat him and accept him as my adopted son in the future."

The two women nodded in unison. The war's damage to life and even production was really devastating. When war broke out, all food, land, and caravan goods would be reduced to nothing in the face of ruthless soldiers and bandits.

The Mi family caravan seems to be prosperous, but if it loses a few ships a year, it will be almost a waste of money. Therefore, during the previous war, if Yuan Xi was not in charge and focused his trade on Liaodong, the Mi family caravan might have completely turned around. Jiangdong, although the profits are thinner, are at least relatively safe.

Yuan Xi suddenly sighed and looked south. When Mi Zhen saw him, he thought that there might be some internal dispute. Otherwise, how could Mrs. Lu say such a word without thinking?

Yuan Xi shook his head and said: "No, in these troubled times, this may be the best and most convenient way to obtain labor."

In fact, more than half of Jiangdong's territory is controlled by various Baiyue tribes. Shanyue is the largest tribe, with influence spread across several counties.

In later history, Sun Quan has been waging war against Baiyue led by Shan Yue, often as often as a dozen times a year. The rewards are also huge. Although the Shanyue people are in the tribal system, they have a large population, millions of people, and they are the most useful labor force. This is what Sun Quan values.

After each battle, Sun Quan captured Shanyue laborers, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands. He said that these people were sold as slaves and were very popular among the Jiangdong nobles because they were the private armies of major families, slaves. The main source of maids.

Although this kind of behavior, which is essentially slave trading, seems quite cruel from the perspective of future generations, it also promoted the exchange and integration of Jiangdong ethnic groups in disguise.

Because unlike the extermination of slaves in Western countries based on theocracy, Chinese civilization did not completely cut off the slaves' upward path because there was a prerequisite for unification.

When the country was unified, the population was at a low point after the war. The founding monarchs of all dynasties would take this opportunity to liberate the labor force and weaken the power of the slave-owning families. As dynasties changed, the Shanyue people gradually integrated into the country during the Tang and Song Dynasties. Arrived in the Central Plains cultural circle.

In fact, it has been difficult for Yuan Xi to define the difference between overseas expansion and overseas colonization, because this has not been concluded in later academic circles, because the Western capitalist world cannot be cleansed in this process.

During the overseas expansion of capitalism, what it did, especially in terms of plundering the population, was much more brutal than the slave-holding countries of ancient times, and in the process of plundering colonial lands, it was more greedy than feudal landowners.

The question is, what capitalism does is the process of slavery and feudalism, so why is it called civilization?

The answer is that in this process, the concept of civilization has been secretly replaced. In fact, it is more accurate to say that it is superiority and plundering superiority.

Huntington said that the West won the world not through the superiority of its ideas, values ​​or religions. Almost no one in other civilizations would convert to them, but through its superiority in the use of organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact. Westerners have never forgotten it.

When Yuan Xi first read this passage, he suddenly became enlightened and solved the doubts that had troubled him for a long time.

That is, what is the difference between Western civilization and Chinese civilization?

The answer is that the expansion of the former is mainly based on organized violence, while the latter is based on civilized assimilation.

Chinese civilization is not without expansion, and its expansion will also be accompanied by violence. However, its goal is different from that of the West, which wants to permanently enslave other ethnic groups. Although Chinese civilization has long understood that people who are not our own people will have different minds, it has never given up using it. Attempts to culturally assimilate foreigners.

Since the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains regime's approach to foreign barbarians has been that I will not attack others unless they attack me, but if they attack me, they will be punished no matter how far away they are.

As for the Waihu who were willing to assimilate into the Chinese civilization, the Han Dynasty did not close the door, gave them land and residence, appointed their tribesmen as important ministers, and did not exclude Hu-Han intermarriage, as long as they accepted the Central Plains culture.

For the stubborn ones, the Han Dynasty's attitude was to stay away and don't let me see them, instead of killing them all like the West.

This is the essential difference between Eastern and Western civilizations. Eastern civilization has a self-contained philosophy of survival without expansion. It is completely different from the Western path where blood comes first and other lowly races are either forever enslaved or extinct.

When the West relied on organized violence and actually used methods more barbaric than slavery to plunder wealth and gain advantages, it could still whitewash itself as the progress of civilization. But when the Eastern civilization regained its strength and achieved similar achievements to theirs, the West Faced with the danger that this logical system will be unable to be self-consistent and collapse, they will do whatever it takes to eliminate Eastern civilization, because the survival logics of the two are completely mutually exclusive.

When Yuan Xi first planned the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Nu Kingdom, he was quite hesitant because at that time he had not yet figured out how far he could go.

But now he has figured it out, not only from the knowledge and experience of later generations, but also from the path traveled by the Chinese predecessors. Although the ancestors have passed away, they have always existed in their own blood. They moved forward with difficulty and named names for their descendants. The road never stops.

They also made Yuan Xi understand that China has its own path to civilization and enlightenment that is different from the West. What he has to do is to show the world the bright future of this path, so that future generations can follow it one after another. If you keep going, one day you will find a bright future!

Yuan Xi believes that the path Sun Quan is taking now is actually exactly the same as the behavior pattern in the early days of capitalist plunder. Sun Quan simply used Baiyue as labor force, and the labor force without land, isn't it capitalist workers?

If it weren't for the backward productivity and the lack of relevant science and technology, the sprouts of capitalists would have already appeared in Jiangdong. It was only because of various reasons that China cut off the important driving factor of science and technology, which resulted in a poor move.

To be fair, the sprout of capitalism is not a high-level thing. It is like a cancer that will be squeezed out sooner or later when the human body is sick. Compared with feudalism, its system is just a whitewash put on by bandits. The three mountains have never been It's just inseparable.

The path that Yuan Xi is looking for is suitable for Chinese civilization, which is to eliminate the true and leave behind the most useful things.

Technology.

He touched the silk in his arms and thought that in addition to discussing the Bingzhou strategy with Zhuge Liang, he also carefully selected technical ideas that he thought could meet the prerequisites and let Zhuge Liang take charge of the research.

These things may take Zhuge Liang many years, but once they are realized, other princes in the world, including Cao Cao, will no longer have anything to fear.

(End of this chapter)