The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 298 Daqin's Request for Help

Luo Renjing, the special envoy of Daqin to visit Qi, the Grand Secretary of Wenhua Palace, the Second Assistant of the Cabinet and the Minister of Rites, was wearing a dark blue robe with a wide belt around his waist. He was sitting on a soft chair in the train compartment, holding a copy of "New Theory of Guan" in both hands with his brows furrowed, as if he was trying to understand the contents of the book. He was so engrossed in reading that he didn't notice that it was getting late, the light was getting dimmer, and his eyes were getting closer to the book.

Sometimes, he stopped, picked up a brush, and kept waving it on the paper to record his thoughts. He was immersed in this concentration, as if the whole world had become quiet. Sometimes, he looked up and looked out the window. The scenery outside the window and the books in the study together formed a beautiful picture.

"Lord, it's time for dinner." Sun Yanmin, a deputy director of the Ministry of Works, knocked on the door gently. After no one answered for a long time, he carefully pushed open the half-closed wooden door and looked inside. He saw Luo Renjing sitting in a chair, a book clasped against his chest, staring at the opposite wall, lost in thought.

"Oh..." Luo Renjing slowly came back to his senses after hearing the call. He picked up the book and placed it on the table. Then he stretched out his hand and rubbed his temple vigorously. "What time is it now?"

"My Lord, it is now approximately 15:15. ... Well, that is 7:20 in the evening Hanzhou time." Sun Yanmin took out a pocket watch from his arms, looked at it, and replied respectfully.

"Have you read this book 'New Management Theory'?" Luo Renjing asked.

"My Lord, I read it all in one go on the train a few days ago."

"Yes." Luo Renjing nodded, and then asked: "Now that you have read the whole book, do you have any feelings in your heart?"

"Mr. Ge..."

"Don't worry, but you can say it."

"Lord, enriching the country and benefiting the people is what every dynasty has been striving for, and they have all worked tirelessly and devoted everything to it. There were those who worked hard to govern the country at the beginning of its founding, those who wanted to reform and strengthen the country when the country was in trouble, and those who hoped to turn the tide at the end of the world. However, over the past thousand years, few have achieved their goals. Either they died halfway, or the government died, or it was difficult to reverse the decline with just a drop in the bucket. Why is this? Maybe... there is no way to follow!"

Sun Yanmin looked up at Luo Renjing with an excited look on his face, and continued in earnest words: "Since Emperor Taizu of the Qin Dynasty replaced the Ming Dynasty, we have driven out the Qing invaders, broken through the northern desert, and restored the unity of China. Afterwards, we prepared our troops and fought against the Junggar in the northwest, seized the Western Regions, and plowed the grasslands. We were invincible, and only then did we have today's brilliant national power. However, although our Qin Dynasty has been in existence for more than 50 years and has conquered the East and shocked the world, the domestic economy is still weak, the people's livelihood is difficult, and the court's treasury is not full. It cannot be said that the country is rich and the people are prosperous. The Qi State was based in Hanzhou and rose rapidly in just a few decades. It swallowed up the South Seas, invaded India, plotted against Persia, occupied Qianzhou, occupied Yinzhou, held thousands of miles of territory, had tens of millions of people, drove hundreds of millions of people to work, and dominated the ocean. Its national power is also thriving, the people are rich, and the national treasury is abundant, which is far better than our Qin Dynasty!"

"Looking at the book "New Guan Lun", it is just like the theoretical basis of Qi's development and the outline of its policy. It is a rare and precious book. Lord, if our Great Qin introduces this book and acts according to it, it will surely help our Great Qin achieve the goal of enriching the country and benefiting the people. In addition, this book will surely change the academic world of our Great Qin, and have a far-reaching impact on the communication of the people and the politics of the country. I think that once this book is published, it may influence the world and balance the world."

"Do you really think that my Great Qin can use this book as a basis to completely copy the path of Qi's rise?" Luo Renjing asked.

"Lord, why not?" Sun Yanmin looked at Luo Renjing in confusion. "Although Qin and Qi are located in the north and south, separated by oceans, they are both countries of the Miao and Han Chinese. If we follow the example of Qi and use it as a path, we can achieve twice the result with half the effort!"

"That's true. Qin and Qi share the same origin and are both descendants of the Chinese people. But have you ever thought that over the past few decades, Qi has become very different from our Shenzhou Continent and has moved to the other side of Chinese civilization. Its national conditions, culture, geography, and even thoughts and behaviors are very different from those of our Great Qin. Their good prescription may be my poison?"

"Lord..." Sun Yanmin's eyes widened upon hearing this. "To enrich the country and benefit the people is the ultimate goal of our generation of scholars, and it is also the wish of all people. Using the New Theory of Management as a path and the rise of Qi as a reference, this is the method. Even though there are huge differences between Qin and Qi, it does not prevent our Great Qin from following it as an example!"

"In many cases, the chaos of thoughts and the change of people's hearts often lead to the use of techniques to confuse the way and words to confuse the public." Luo Renjing sighed, patted the "New Guan Lun" on the table, and said softly: "If the entire book flows into the territory of our Great Qin, I don't know how much trouble and controversy it will cause."

"Your Excellency, do you mean that after this book is passed on to Daqin, it will cause huge controversy?" Sun Yanmin asked unwillingly after hearing this.

“This is inevitable.”

"But, Lord, this book is very good!" Sun Yanmin said anxiously, "The main road of economy and the development of people's livelihood can all be solved by this book. With this book as a path, we can enrich the country and the people without blindly seeking the way!"

"However, you have overlooked the actual situation of Qin and Qi." Luo Renjing shook his head and said, "As the book says, Qi has become a large-scale industrial country after its industrial revolution, while our Qin is still in an ignorant and primitive agricultural state. Even if we rely on this book and follow the map, can we easily achieve the goal of enriching the country and benefiting the people? We should think about this carefully and then work on it slowly."

"..." Sun Yanmin was speechless when he heard this.

For some things, you have to find a way to try and do them.

Do it, no matter what the result is, there is always a glimmer of hope.

But if you shy away from difficulties and refuse to take action, then there will be no hope at all!

Should the Great Qin be satisfied with the status quo?
The New Management Theory points out that no matter how rich a country is or how perfect its resources are, if it is in a state of stagnation for a long time, the people will not have higher wages, and the whole country will not have obvious development and progress.
Among them, the book specifically cites the Shenzhou continent to illustrate this point: "The Chinese continent has the most favorable natural environment and excellent farming conditions in the world, and also has the most hardworking people in the world. It has always been the richest place in the world. However, for a long time, it seems to have stagnated in a static state. The current situation of Qin State is almost the same as that of hundreds of years ago. Qin farmers work all day long, but the wages they get are only enough to buy a little rice, which is just enough to fill their stomachs. The situation of production technicians is even worse. Qi technicians can wait for customers leisurely in their factories, while Qin technicians carry tools and keep running around in the streets to beg for work. The poverty of the lower class people in Qin State is far greater than that of the poorest citizens in Qi State... Although Qin State has hundreds of modern factories, their inefficiency and chaotic management have not provided the entire country with the necessary progressive power, making the country still in a static state, like a stagnant pool of water."

It can be said that the Chinese mainland, with its vast land, convenient transportation and hardworking people, had long reached the prosperous stage of the feudal system. As early as the Han Dynasty, China had already become a powerful country, but the progress since then has been getting smaller and smaller. It is like a precocious child who develops too fast in the early stage and never grows up in the later stage.

After a long period of research, some Qi economists defined the mainland as a "super-stable static society" precisely because of this embarrassing economic stagnation. The reason may be the stubborn conservative consciousness formed over thousands of years and the attitude of complacency.
During this period, as the power gap between Qin and Qi continued to widen, everyone from Qin officials to ordinary people began to feel an inexplicable psychological weakness when facing Qi, and sometimes even looked up to Qi.

The wealth of Qi State is something people envy.

The strength of Qi made the people of Qin extremely wary.

Officials and merchants who visited Qi were all shocked and fascinated by its terrifying industrial productivity, powerful naval fleet, advanced production technology and prosperous commodity market. Qi had its own unique cultural heritage and values, which were deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Their tenacity and self-confidence made people dare not challenge it. The power of this country was everywhere, like a huge net covering the entire ocean, leaving no way for people to escape.

However, although Qin's officials and merchants were full of fear of this country, they still could not get rid of their envy and yearning for it.

Being in Qi State, looking at the people there, and imagining the aura of independence, tenacity, self-confidence and courage flowing through them, it seems that every outsider feels that his or her dream can be realized most perfectly in this country.

In Daqin, not to mention that countless people tried every means to smuggle to Qi every year - whether it was its native Hanzhou or overseas territories near Daqin, all were smuggling targets - in search of a better life, even many officials and gentry were eager to buy and imitate Qi's imported goods and their lifestyle.

This made some stubborn conservatives cry out that the morals of the world were deteriorating and people's hearts were no longer the same as before, and denounced them for abandoning Confucian traditions and following the customs of the "Southern Barbarians".

We should just seek advantage from the situation and not blame others. After all, Qi State is indeed stronger, richer, and more dynamic (free) than our Qin State.

For ordinary people in the Qin State, if they had relatives in the Qi State, no matter what their status or occupation, it would be a matter of great honor as long as they told their neighbors about it.

However, the wealthy merchants of Qin, while making a fortune with the help of Qi's foreign trade channels, ignored the court's decrees and secretly transferred the gold and silver they earned to Qi or surrounding overseas territories to buy houses and land and invest in industries, causing a hidden backflow of Qin's wealth.

As for the Qin court, over the past fifty years, it has borrowed more than 30 million taels of silver from Qi, almost half of its fiscal revenue, and the interest paid each year is as high as more than 1.6 million taels.

One of the main purposes of their special envoy delegation to Hanzhou was to negotiate with the Qi government on behalf of the Qin court and request permission to postpone the payment of the recent loans that were due.

By the way, Daqin's situation has been quite unfavorable recently, resulting in a huge domestic fiscal deficit, so that it is unable to repay the loans that are due one after another.

The severe drought in 1728 left the entire north barren and millions of disaster victims homeless. It not only greatly affected the ongoing Second Qin-Ming War, causing a serious shortage of military supplies at the front, but also forced the court to squeeze out more than two million taels of silver for disaster relief.

After a severe drought, there will be a locust plague.

In the 1730th year of Qianyuan (), Shandong, Hebei, and Henan were plagued by locusts. They sheltered from the wind and the sun. Endless locusts came from the horizon like a black tide. They swarmed and covered the entire northern land. Wherever the locusts passed, the green quickly retreated, and in a flash, only withered yellow remained, followed by pieces of charred black.

To this end, the imperial court not only exempted several northern provinces from taxes and grain, but also provided millions of taels of silver to the disaster-stricken areas and transported precious grain to the north by land and sea.

In August of the same year, Fujian and Zhejiang were hit by super typhoons, accompanied by floods. Dozens of prefectures and counties along the coast were severely damaged, more than 10,000 houses were destroyed, and more than 2,000 people were killed, injured or missing.

In order to avoid being laughed at or poached by other foreign powers, the imperial court also diverted a large amount of treasury funds to provide relief to disaster-stricken areas along the coast.

As if things didn't get worse, in June of the 1731th year of the Qianyuan reign (), in order to completely stabilize the situation in the northwest and destroy the Dzungar Khanate, the Beiting Military Governor's Office ventured into Lake Balkhash. However, it suffered a major defeat, losing more than soldiers and more than horses and camels, and had to retreat to Yili.

Turbulence arose again in U-Tsang. The great monk Xueshan was bewitched by the envoys of Dzungar and instigated his followers to launch a rebellion, expelling the officials and a small number of troops stationed in Tibet by the Qin Dynasty, and threatening Qinghai and western Sichuan.

When the war broke out, more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians were mobilized, and more than a million yuan in money and grain was consumed.

Under this circumstance, the Qin court thought for a while and decided to seek help from Qi, requesting the other party to allow the postponement of payment of several government loans that were about to expire.

In addition, Daqin also hopes to introduce Qi's telegraph technology to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of information transmission in border areas.

In fact, several years ago, the Qin Dynasty was preparing to introduce telegraph technology, but the Qi people had rather stringent requirements and required them to participate in the specific operations and management of the telegraph company.

However, this request was strongly opposed by Daqin, so the matter was temporarily shelved.

What a joke! If the telegraph company is handed over to you Qi people for operation and management, then the information and intelligence exchanged between our Great Qin court and various places will be visible to you Qi people!
Then what secrets does our Great Qin court have to keep?
So, now they turned to Qi to seek telegraph technology, and naturally the court had thought of a way to deal with it.

Telegraph information exchanges require specific codes and signals, so we at Daqin can completely add another set of codes, that is, a scheme for secretly changing numbers.

"The numbers are changed secretly at any time, like the method of sound echoing in a valley. Even the manager does not know which number corresponds to which character, let alone others?"
Postponing repayment, seeking telegraph technology, and obtaining necessary material assistance were naturally not something that Qi could agree to for nothing. It would require Qin to pay a certain price.

Therefore, the Qin delegation also obtained the necessary authorization and made certain concessions to Qi in terms of trade, trading ports, railway construction, tariff concessions, and Korean and Annan affairs.

I just don't know if the State of Qi will take advantage of the difficult times for my Great Qin and blackmail me and force me to make greater concessions.

(End of this chapter)