At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 563: Confucian ethics and capital's desire for expansion

Xiongnu Kingdom, New Qufu.

Zhang Pijiang and his companions had just got off the train and had a night's rest. The next day, a Confucian scholar took them to a huge institution of learning.

The model of this academy is about 70% similar to the Confucian Academy of the Han Dynasty, but what surprised Zhang Pijiang and Zhou Yafu were the two or three points that were different.

This academy did not have the academic atmosphere of the Han Dynasty academy. Instead, they saw many people in Confucian clothes walking to a square, and then these people sat quietly on cushions. Among these people were Huns, Sai people, and some people they did not know.

The Confucian scholar in the lead held up a copy of The Analects and said: Confucius said: "A gentleman does not seek to be full when he eats, nor does he seek to be comfortable when he lives. He is quick to act and cautious in speech. He follows the Way and is upright in his conduct. He can be said to be studious."

Hundreds of people in the square also said in unison in the awkward Chinese language: Confucius said: "A gentleman does not seek to be full when he eats, nor does he seek to be comfortable when he lives. He is quick to act and cautious in speech. He follows the Way and corrects it. He can be said to be studious."

Confucius said: "If a man is not benevolent, what is the use of ritual? If a man is not benevolent, what is the use of music?"

Confucius said: "If I hear the truth in the morning, I can die in the evening."

If these hundreds of people were all students, Zhang Pijiang would admire the atmosphere of learning in the Xiongnu country, but he could see that these people should be ordinary people from all walks of life in the Xiongnu country. Moreover, these people did not seem to be studying when reading the Analects, but rather with a hint of fanaticism.

After reading the "Xue Er" chapter, these people dispersed.

Zhou Yafu asked: "What are you doing? Are these people also scholars from the Xiongnu country?"

No matter how you look at it, those people don't look like educated people, and these contents are only taught in elementary schools in the Han Dynasty.

The Confucian scholar who led the way said calmly, "This is my senior brother leading the people of Xiongnu to do morning lessons. The Confucian scholars of our Xiongnu are different from those lazy Confucian scholars of the Han Dynasty. The teachings of the Master must be kept in mind at all times, and the Analects of Confucius must be recited every day. In Xiongnu, everyone must have morning lessons, noon lessons, and evening lessons, and at least read one article of the Master. In our Xiongnu, children as young as 6 and elderly people in their 6s can all read the Analects of Confucius, and use the requirements of the Analects to regulate their own behavior."

Zhou Yafu screamed silently in his heart: "Don't you admit that you Confucians have gone astray? You are clearly practicing religion. If this happened in the Han Dynasty, you would all be thrown into prison, sentenced to exile thousands of miles away, and exiled to the New World."

Fortunately, Zhang Pijiang had reminded him not to question the changes in Confucianism in the Xiongnu Kingdom, so he did not say it out loud.

But this Confucian scholar could feel Zhou Yafu's inner thoughts. After all, Zhou Yafu, a super rich second-generation, did not need to accommodate others. He had never learned to hide his thoughts since he was a child, and his expression had already said everything he wanted to say.

The Confucian scholar said disdainfully: "You know nothing, yet you dare to despise my Confucianism. When my master was educating the people of the Xiongnu Kingdom, you were still a child with wet sleeves."

Zhou Yafu was furious, but was stopped by Zhang Pijiang.

The Confucian scholar continued, "When my master came to the Xiongnu country, sons married their mothers, fathers married their daughters, people killed people for their flesh, lords robbed their own people, and nobles killed their own kings to replace them. It was like the ancient barbaric era. There was no law and ethics. It was my Confucianism that established etiquette, law and ethics in this land and changed all this."

This Confucian scholar is not making this up. Compared with the Han civilization, the civilization established on this land is relatively inferior in terms of religious etiquette, and many systems have gone astray.

Let’s not talk about anything else, just take the Ptolemaic dynasty not far from them. They claimed to be the descendants of gods and the sun. Originally, this kind of thing was to deceive the lower-class people, to increase the majesty of their rule and to reduce the cost of governing the country, but they deceived so much that even they believed it.

This strange system flourished in the West in later generations, and they also relied on this system to formulate the country's inheritance laws, and each heir had a part of the inheritance rights. (I don't know much about this. Although the West says it is the primogeniture system, this system that appears in their game must have existed in their country.)
"After my master arrived in the Xiongnu Kingdom, he destroyed mountains and temples, eliminated all the lewd officials in this land, unified the local religions, and established ethical principles and national social systems in this land of Xiongnu, restraining the monarchs and nobles above and the common people below, and brought the people of Xiongnu from barbarism to civilization. This is how the Xiongnu Kingdom, which is now prosperous and well-preserved, came into being."

Zhou Yafu was speechless, he only saw the actions of Confucian charlatans, but if what he said was true, Confucianism really made great contributions to the Xiongnu Kingdom.

Zhang Pijiang nodded in approval and said, "Confucianism can be said to be one of the greatest contributors to Chinese civilization."

He had been to the Parthian Empire ten years ago, and had also learned about the surrounding countries like Rome, Carthage, the Ptolemaic Empire, and the Seleucid Empire, so he had a certain understanding of the situation in this land. The behavior and customs of these civilizations, from the nobles to the ordinary people, made him shake his head. Their various customs were far inferior to those of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, not to mention the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

Chinese civilization had experienced the rule of the Three Sovereigns and the establishment of ethics by the Five Emperors, but there was no such king in this land. Such a heinous thing as incest among nobles was actually a common occurrence in this land.

However, Confucianism effectively reduced such incidents in the Xiongnu Kingdom. It is no exaggeration to say that Confucianism formulated the ethical norms in this land.

In fact, Confucianism is the most suitable knowledge for this land, and the Analects of Confucius is the most suitable book for this land.

The books of other philosophers are all profound knowledge, and there is no easy to understand one. Even if there are, there are not many norms for people.

The Analects is different. The whole text is simple and easy to understand. It tells us some simple and practical daily truths in a chatty way. It tells us to be happy when friends come over and to review what we have learned frequently. Its content is to teach us to be a good person who abides by the rules. The Analects teaches us to establish a simple and easy-to-understand life order, which is the most scarce in this continent. In addition, with the strong military guarantee of the Huns, this order established by Confucianism quickly operated in the Huns, effectively reducing the internal friction of the Huns and increasing the cohesion and organization of the Huns.

Soon, led by this Confucian scholar, they came to a courtyard.

Then the scholar bowed to Ouyang Xun and said, "Master, the imperial envoy has arrived!"

"Please take a seat, envoy." Ouyang Xun knelt in the first seat, brewing green tea in his hands.

The Confucian scholar asked Zhang Pijiang and others to sit down. After Ouyang Xun made the green tea, he asked his disciples to bring it to Zhang Pijiang and others.

Ouyang Xun smiled and said, "I haven't brewed green tea for a long time. You guys should try it and see if it tastes like the big man's."

Zhang Pijiang took a sip of the tea and said, "It tastes fresh and elegant. It's top-quality tea."

Zhou Yafu was a rough man. He drank the full cup of green tea in one gulp and then began to eat the sand dates on the table.

"This is the top-quality green tea from Jiujiang County. It was given to me by the then governor Dian Qing." Ouyang Xun said with a smile.

The 1 billion dollar refinery contract was not won without the help of Ouyang Xun and his team. In order to repay Ouyang Xun and his team for helping him get the 1 billion dollar project, Dian Qing gave a lot of top-quality green tea to Ouyang Xun and other Xiongnu high-ranking officials. Of course, he also had the idea of opening up sales for his younger brother Jiujiang Green Tea. Now the Xiongnu Kingdom has to purchase tens of millions of dollars worth of green tea from Jiujiang County every year, which is also a considerable income.

Zhang Pijiang smiled and said, "The Xiongnu Kingdom's industry is also well developed. They can actually run a huge oil refinery. I took a look in Quanzhou. The Xiongnu Kingdom's oil refinery is first-class even in the Han Dynasty."

Zhang Pijiang was speaking from the heart. The Han Dynasty had limited oil fields and lacked the most important raw materials, so they naturally did not pay much attention to the development of the major containers for the refinery. In addition, they usually had to be transported to the Western Regions. The limitation of railway transportation meant that these containers could not be made too large. Relatively speaking, the development of the oil refining technology tree was not very fast.

Ouyang Xun said with a smile: "The Xiongnu Kingdom cannot compare with the Han Dynasty. Last year, the Xiongnu Kingdom's fiscal revenue was only 40 billion yuan, while the Han Dynasty has exceeded billion yuan. The annual expenditure on compulsory education alone is more than twice that of the Xiongnu's fiscal revenue. The Han Dynasty is like the sun in the sky, while our Xiongnu Kingdom is not even the moon. At most, it can only be regarded as a star that can shine only when hiding from the sun." Zhang Pijiang said calmly: "The Xiongnu Kingdom is already very powerful. It has railways, a huge textile industrial zone, an oil refinery that makes a fortune every day, and hundreds of thousands of troops. Among the princes of our Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu Kingdom is the most powerful existence. Looking around the powerful countries in the world, there are not many that can compare with the Xiongnu Kingdom."

Ouyang Xun said, "Before I came to the Xiongnu Kingdom, the emperor once told me that if I could educate the Xiongnu Kingdom to become Han Chinese, I would be remembered in history like Zhou Gongdan and Taigong Wang. In the past ten years, I think I have done a good job. The Xiongnu Kingdom has hundreds of thousands of Confucian scholars, and millions of Hu people now speak Chinese, write Chinese characters, and read the Analects. However, the actions of the court in recent years are different from what the emperor taught me. A large number of firearms and steel have flowed into Anxi and other foreign countries. This is completely different from the situation in previous years. Does the court not want the Xiongnu Kingdom to attack Parthia?"

Zhang Pijiang said: "The court did not stop the Xiongnu from launching a war. This time, the court sent an envoy group here just to learn about the experience of firearms warfare. After all, although the Han Dynasty has formed an army of hundreds of thousands of firearms, it does not have much actual combat experience. Even if it did, it would only wipe out a few hundred barbarian troops. The barbarians are weak in force, and there is not much difference between holding a knife and holding a musket."

Ouyang Xun was somewhat surprised and asked, "The court is only observing this war and not making any other plans?"

Zhang Pijiang said: "The Han Dynasty has not started a war for decades, which shows that our dynasty is a country that values peace. We don't want to see the war between Parthia and the Xiongnu, but we are in a neutral state."

Zhou Yafu curled his lips. The court was unwilling to start a war? It was just that there were no enemies. The power of the court was still expanding in the New World. These Han army officers wanted to prove themselves through war, but it was a pity that the enemies of the Han Dynasty were too far away.

Ouyang Xun shook his head and said, "Neutrality speaks volumes. Our Xiongnu Kingdom is one of the vassal states of the Han Dynasty, but the imperial court did not stand on the side of our Xiongnu Kingdom."

Then he couldn't help but smile bitterly and said, "It seems that in the eyes of the emperor, the threat of the Xiongnu has become greater than the expansion of Han civilization. Is the Manifest Destiny of the Han Dynasty going to end here?"

Ouyang Xun was a little disappointed. The emperor's ambition had weakened. Twenty years ago, the emperor would definitely not care about the power of the Huns. Knowing that they were attacking the Parthian Kingdom, he would actively support them. Back then, his Confucian expansion in the desert and in the Huns was supported by the emperor.

The emperor told him many times that the mission of the Han Dynasty was to spread Chinese civilization to all parts of the world. He also worked hard for this ideal goal for more than 30 years, from the desert to the Xiongnu Kingdom. Although he was getting farther and farther away from the Han Dynasty, it showed that their cause was becoming more and more successful, and Chinese civilization was expanding more and more. His heart was full of a sense of mission, but he felt that he was betrayed by the emperor, and his inner loss was imaginable.

Zhang Pijiang thought for a moment and said, "If the Xiongnu are too powerful, it will affect the feudal system of the Han Dynasty and will also affect the Han Dynasty's control over the world."

After hearing Zhang Pijiang's words, Ouyang Xun asked calmly: "If my Xiongnu country must be destroyed and Anxi must be destroyed,

At this time Zhou Yafu said: "Old sir, is it necessary for us to make our words so clear? The court can accept your Xiongnu defeating the Parthian Empire, but it cannot accept your annexation of the Parthian Empire. The existence of the Parthian Empire is the court's bottom line. If your Xiongnu crosses this bottom line, the court cannot accept it and will find a way to attack you. At that time, it will not send an envoy group, but a coalition of princes."

Zhou Yafu understood that it was time to make things clear in order to make the Huns fearful. The powerful Han could naturally teach the Huns a lesson, but the key was that the Han could not reach here yet. Even if they really wanted to form a coalition of princes to teach the Huns a lesson, they would have to wait until the Western Region Railway was opened, and this could not be done without 4-5 years. Although the Han fleet was huge, the Huns' artillery was not to be trifled with. History had also proved that the confrontation between naval guns and coastal defense guns was just asking for trouble.

The main reason was that the power that the Han Dynasty could project here was too limited, even inferior to the bald eagle of later generations. The only way to threaten the Xiongnu Kingdom was to use the Han Dynasty's huge body.

Of course, this embarrassment is also related to the fact that the court put most of its power in the New World. There are millions of people in the New World, but there are only a string of small colonies like pearls in this area, and the nearest one is actually the base of the Tianzhu fleet. If the Han Dynasty can deploy tens of thousands of soldiers here, Zhou Yafu is confident that he can teach the Huns a lesson.

Ouyang Xun nodded and said, "I understand!"

After leaving here, Zhang Pijiang said: "I still need to read more books on diplomacy. It is still difficult for me to speak in front of Grandmaster Ouyang."

Zhang Pijiang had great respect for Ouyang Xun. The old man spent his whole life educating foreigners and practicing his own ideas. Facing such a master who combined knowledge and action, it was difficult for him to say that the Xiongnu Kingdom had already touched upon the world order established by the Han Dynasty. Zhang Pijiang understood that his scholarly behavior was not suitable for being an envoy.

Zhou Yafu said: "You can let me be the villain. But on the battlefield, strength is the key. I don't know if what I said just now can intimidate the high-ranking officials of the Xiongnu Kingdom. I just hope that the Parthians can fight back."

Zhang Pijiang shook his head and said, "The strength of a country's military power is not only determined by its army, but also by its supporting national policies. As for the policies of the Parthian Empire, I don't see the possibility that they can resist the attack of the Huns."

On the other hand, after Ouyang Xun and Zhang Pijiang had a conversation, they immediately rushed to the palace of the Xiongnu Kingdom.

He met with Laoshang Chanyu and a number of high-ranking officials of the Xiongnu Kingdom, and then talked about the conversation between the two sides.

Finally, Ouyang Xun said: "The growth of the Xiongnu has already touched the bottom line of the imperial court. If our country annexed Parthia, we will have to prepare to face the suppression of the Han Dynasty in the future."

Junchen seized on the point and said, "That is to say, the Han Dynasty will not stop us from annexing the Parthian Empire!"

Then Junchen thought for a while and said, "Yes, the Han Dynasty is focused on developing the New World. There are not many troops in this land. The Han Dynasty has no power to stop us. Father, now is the best time for us to annex Parthia."

"Since the Han Dynasty is determined to defend the Parthians at the cost of its life, I, the Huns, will give the Han Dynasty a favor and only defeat the main force of the Parthians, but not destroy them." The old Chanyu said hesitantly.

Deep down, he didn't want to confront the Han Dynasty, even though he knew that the Han Dynasty could not project much military power in the center of the World Island.

But the Battle of Mobei that year had a huge impact on him. It was the first time that a military force was able to cross the 3000-mile desert and directly attack the Huns' ancestral land. The Huns were almost completely wiped out by the Han Dynasty's attack. Since then, Laoshang Chanyu has suffered from Han phobia. Although the Huns are now far away from the Han Dynasty, he is still worried about the Han Dynasty's attack on the Huns and that the Huns will be destroyed by the Han Dynasty.

"Father, the army is ready now, and we have enough food and supplies. The arrow is on the string and has to be fired. Now you say that we will not destroy the Parthian Empire. How can we explain to the Xiongnu soldiers? If we don't destroy the Parthian Empire, how can we integrate the Parthians in the country? If we don't integrate the Parthians, how can we become a first-class power in the world? Do you still want to endure the orders of the Han Dynasty? If the Han Dynasty says that we are not allowed to expand, we will just sit here and wait for death?"

Junchen understood that the Han Dynasty wanted to limit the growth of the Xiongnu. As long as the Xiongnu remained a country of a few million people, they would not pose a threat to the Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty would still regard them as its vassal states.

But the current development trend of the Xiongnu Kingdom does not allow them to slow down. In recent years, the Xiongnu Kingdom's industry has developed rapidly, and both light and heavy industries have developed well. There are more than a dozen blast furnaces in the Xiongnu Kingdom, and the largest one can produce up to 250 tons of iron.

The steel produced by these ironworks could meet the military needs of the Xiongnu Kingdom. The number of the Xiongnu's muskets, artillery, cold weapons, swords, spears, armor and vests was extremely large. In terms of weapons and equipment, the Xiongnu were the most powerful existence in the center of the world island.

While meeting the military needs, the steel produced by these steel mills can also meet the agricultural and industrial needs of the Xiongnu Kingdom. Ordinary farmers in the Xiongnu Kingdom have no shortage of hoes, shovels, and plows, and the average amount of steel per person exceeds 50 kilograms.

With these iron tools, the Xiongnu's agriculture developed extremely rapidly, adding millions of acres of land every year, and adding canals and karez to the height of thousands of miles every year.

After learning the farming techniques of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu's grain output and total production capacity increased rapidly, and it was the grain that fed the Xiongnu's rapidly growing population.

Moreover, the improvement of agriculture has also provided strong material support for the development of light industry in the Xiongnu Kingdom. In the past two years, most of the fields added by the Xiongnu Kingdom have been used to grow cash crops such as cotton. These cottons have provided the most important material basis for the Xiongnu Kingdom's textile industry and supported the growth of the Xiongnu Kingdom's textile industry. Now the Xiongnu Kingdom produces more than 15 million pieces of cloth each year, more than half of which are used for export to make money.

The Xiongnu Kingdom is now a thriving industrial country. Although compared with the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu Kingdom has a primitive industrial system, but compared with other civilizations and countries, the Xiongnu Kingdom is more powerful in dimensionality reduction strikes. For example, the Xiongnu Kingdom's steel output exceeds 10 tons, which is enough to defeat the combined output of Parthia, Seleucid, Rome, Carthage and other countries.

As long as industry is developed, commodity markets and raw material production areas are indispensable. The Han Dynasty has been expanding continuously in recent years. Its internal driving force is to find commodity markets and raw material production areas for its huge industrial system.

Xu Fan continued to increase the income of farmers and craftsmen in the Han Dynasty, and tried to circulate the wealth created by this system to the grassroots. He frantically established vassal states and let the vassals of the Han Dynasty continue to open up new territories. This is because he understood that it was impossible for the Han Dynasty to develop through foreign trade at that time, and it could only continue to expand this industrial system through domestic demand and redistribution. (Here I have to praise Niu Niu's expansion ability again. Since he started industrialization, he has expanded a colony the size of his native land almost every year. After hundreds of years of expansion, he has directly created an empire on which the sun never sets. Its colonial territories occupy a quarter of the land in the world. This is the largest empire in history. When there is profit, the expansion consciousness of capitalists is the most greedy group of people among all classes in the history of civilization.)
But the Xiongnu Kingdom was different. First of all, the Xiongnu Kingdom was a country formed by the convergence of interests. Therefore, the old top order had no way to force a secondary distribution and give the interests of the Xiongnu nobles to the lower-class people. He could only plunder abroad and rely on the wealth and population of other countries to satisfy everyone.

Although the Xiongnu's newly developed industrial system was small, it could not satisfy the needs of its several million people. The Xiongnu also urgently needed more wealth, more population, more commodity markets and raw material production areas. The combination of these two made the Xiongnu's greed for land and population increase exponentially, and their external aggressiveness became even stronger.

(End of this chapter)