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

Chapter 596: The Third Punic War and Resolving Conflicts

All the high-ranking Roman officials had deep-seated fear and hatred of Carthage. When they discovered that there was a possibility that the Carthaginians might make a comeback, everyone believed that Carthage must be completely destroyed to eliminate Rome's biggest hidden danger.

Senator Maxius was furious: "Only dead Carthaginians are good Carthaginians. We in Rome should go to war and destroy them completely."

Roman military consul Laenas frowned and said, "It is not too difficult for us to defeat the Carthaginians with our Roman strength, but the difficulty now is that the Carthaginians have found the Han people as their allies. If the Han people help the Carthaginians, it will be almost impossible for us Romans to defeat them."

Ligus, the Roman consul of the interior, asked: "Can we use diplomatic means to make the Han people neutral?"

This year, Rome elected two civilian consuls, which was rare in history. Although this politically catered to the spiritual needs of Roman citizens, the corresponding result was that these two consuls had very few resources and could obtain very little information from the outside, which was not as good as the consuls who were born as senators.

Apatius thought for a moment and shook his head, saying, "It's impossible. All the Carthaginian merchant ships are now serving the Han people. All the food in the Mediterranean is transported to Alexandria by Carthage. Even for the sake of their logistics, the Han people will never abandon the Carthaginians."

"At the same time, the Han people want to dominate the Mediterranean. From the information obtained from the Great Han Weekly, the Han people only want to see a fragmented Mediterranean region. We, Rome, are on the list of the Han people's priority targets."

The Han Dynasty already had some characteristics of a modern country. The most obvious one was the openness of its strategic intentions. There were too many spiritual monarchs within the Han Dynasty, and looking at the map of the country to expand territory was their favorite thing to do.

The Han Dynasty's strategy for global hegemony could not be hidden from the kings who had expanded their territory by tens of millions of maps. Various strategies for global hegemony were discussed in the weekly newspapers of the Han Dynasty.

But there is an old saying that goes, truth becomes clearer and clearer. After several years of debate, the strategy of digesting the New World, splitting the Qinzhou, and suppressing the Huns became the most recognized global strategy of the mainstream society of the Han Dynasty.

The advantage of this method is that it can unify the entire nation's understanding and unite the people of the country. The disadvantage is that as long as the Romans collect information from the Han Weekly, they can know the Han Dynasty's strategic attitude towards them.

In recent years, the Huns have become estranged from the Han Dynasty and have even begun to restrict the entry of Han maritime merchants into the country.

The small countries in Daqinzhou strengthened their relations with the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty's strategy of splitting Daqinzhou was exactly what they wanted. If Daqinzhou were to be unified like the Han Dynasty, would their countries still be able to exist?

Although they admired the Han people for spending more than 800 years to integrate hundreds of countries in their area into one country, many monarchs of small countries fantasized that they could become the first emperor of the Qinzhou. But when they woke up and saw the reality, they had to rely on the Han Dynasty to save their own countries.

Senator Maxius said: "These few years are our Rome's last chance to destroy Carthage. The Han people recruited 10 slaves and free people from Ptolemy to dig the Suez Canal. The cost of this canal is said to be as high as 1 talents of gold.

Why did they spend so much money to dig this canal? The Han people wanted their warships to enter the Mediterranean through the Red Sea. When this canal was dug, the Han people's strength in the Mediterranean would increase greatly, and no country would be able to resist the Han warships. "

"But now the Han warships cannot enter the Mediterranean. If Rome can win a quick victory and destroy Carthage before the Han people can react, the Han people will have no choice but to accept this reality. But if the Han Overlord-class battleships enter the Mediterranean after the Suez Canal is dug, they will be the new overlord of the Mediterranean."

Hearing the name of the Overlord-class battleship, the Roman elders were a little frightened. With a volume of 5000 tons, one battleship was equal to their entire fleet, and with 180 steel cannons, its firepower exceeded the artillery of all Roman legions. For the Romans, this was a devastating existence.

For them, the excavation of the Suez Canal was the worst news, which seriously damaged Rome's hegemony in the Mediterranean. You must know that for this hegemony, the Romans first fought with the Carthaginians, then with the Greek city-states, and then with the Seleucid Empire. As a result, the most powerful enemy was lurking outside the Mediterranean.

Although the Romans were also building new battleships in recent years, the sailing battleships of this era took a longer manufacturing cycle than steel battleships. The period for felling and drying the wood alone was 3 to 5 years. The 500-ton battleships built by the Romans had only just laid a few decks.

"Let's go to war with Carthage!" All the senators said this firmly.

The opinion of going to war had been unanimously agreed by all the elders. The Roman military consul Laenas asked: "What excuse should we use to go to war with the Carthaginians?"

"Just say that the Carthaginians attacked two of our Roman merchant ships." said a senator.

Apatius frowned and said, "I'm afraid even the citizens of Rome won't believe this excuse."

Rome at this time was still mainly composed of citizen armies, and to go to war it obviously needed a reason and excuse that convinced the citizens, such as freedom, democracy and the like. However, the citizens of Rome themselves did not believe in the reasons just mentioned. The Carthaginians had been crippled in the Second Punic War, and no one believed that they dared to attack Roman merchant ships.

Apatius thought for a moment and said, "We can let Numidia attack Carthage. As long as Carthage resists, we can declare war on the Carthaginians under the pretext of protecting our allies.

Numidia was a country that the Romans split from the Carthaginian territory during the Second Punic War. This country was basically a puppet and lackey of the Romans, and its main function was to monitor Carthage. Now is the time for them to play their role.

The Roman high-level officials agreed with this excuse for declaring war. On the one hand, the Romans requisitioned warships and citizens at home, formed legions and prepared for war. On the other hand, they commanded the Numidians to instigate a conflict between them and the Carthaginians.

February 39, the 2th year of the Han Dynasty, Chang'an City, telegraph room.

That day, Xu Fan ordered his men, Xu Aimin and Jia Yi, to come here.

When the three of them arrived here, they saw a strange machine that was ticking. The sound had a certain frequency, but it made people frown.

Xu Aimin saw Xu Fan walk over and bowed, "Father."

Jia Yi, Liu Chang also bowed and said, "The Supreme Emperor."

Xu Fan stopped the three people and asked them to wait before talking.

Xu Fan said to the radio operator: "The message says, Luoyang, Luoyang, this is Chang'an, please reply if you receive it."

The telegraph operator nodded and continued tapping the transmitter with his fingers.

“Ding, ding, ding!”

Not long after, the receiver next to the telegraph machine began to beep, and soon marks appeared on the paper.

Xu Aimin and Jia Yi looked at these dots and dashes and didn't know what they were for.

But after the operator saw the telegram, he took out a code book for deciphering telegrams and said word by word: "Chang An, Chang An, this is Luo Yang, received."

"Wired telegraph can really receive information from thousands of miles away. Your Majesty, our experiment is successful." All the experimenters cheered and the laboratory was filled with a happy atmosphere.

Xu Fan smiled and said, "You need to improve your skills as a telegraph operator. You need to carry a code book to read telegraph information. How can you teach your apprentices in the future? The wired telegraph will be spread to 60 counties and thousands of counties in our Han Dynasty. In the future, all the telegraph operators of our Han Dynasty will be taught by you. If you don't find a way to improve your level, it won't be long before you are surpassed by your apprentice."

The telegraph operator smiled awkwardly and said, "I will definitely memorize this code book by heart and will not let the emperor down."

Xu Aimin was surprised and said, "Luoyang can receive the message in such a short time and reply immediately?" He also knew about the telegraph. Two years ago, the Han Dynasty built a telegraph line from Chang'an to Lantian County, which caused a sensation in the Han Dynasty at that time. However, there were still many technical difficulties in sending information over long distances at that time. He did not expect that in just two or three years, even Luoyang could receive news from Chang'an.

Such rapid message transmission efficiency is hundreds of times faster than the optical telegraph of the Han Dynasty. If telegraph rooms were set up in all counties and prefectures of the Han Dynasty, Chang'an would be able to receive news from all counties and prefectures of the Han Dynasty within one day. If this could really be achieved, the telegraph would be no less important to the Han Dynasty court than the railway.

Xu Fan said: "In the past two years, the telegraph has solved the problems of signal amplification, signal decoding, leakage of telegraph lines, and power supply of telegraph machines. Only then did we have practical telegraph machines that can be laid all over the country. In the future, wherever the telegraph lines are laid, the voice of the big man can be transmitted there."

Xu Aimin was pleasantly surprised and said, "That means my orders can be sent directly to the counties."

Jia Yi said excitedly: "The voice of the court can reach the local areas, and the court's command over the local areas can truly be as strong as an arm."

Liu Chang smacked his lips and said, "This telegram should be used in the army. 1 troops can at least exert the combat effectiveness of 5 troops."

Xu Fan smiled and said, "To be used in the military, wired telegraph still has some defects. Only wireless telegraph can be truly used in actual combat. However, with the current research progress of the Han Dynasty, it is only a matter of time before a wireless telegraph is developed."

The researcher continued to experiment with the transmitter, and Xu Fan brought the three to a pavilion in the laboratory. Although it was a warm period, it was still a bit cold in February.

Xu Aimin put his cloak on Xu Fan and said, "Father, be careful not to catch a cold."

Xu Fan asked: "Do you know why I came to you this time?"

Xu Aimin said awkwardly: "It was my fault that I made such a fuss."

The conflict between the emperor and the prime minister surfaced, causing the entire Han court to become restless.

It has been nearly 40 years since the founding of the Han Dynasty, and more than 30 years since the division of vassal states. The Han Dynasty has gone from a shortage of talent at the time of its founding to a serious surplus of talent. Even in recent years, the talent pool of the vassal states in the Western Regions, Liaodong, Jiangnan, and Shuzhong has been saturated, and they have instead sent these talents to the Han Dynasty, which has further intensified the pressure of talent competition within the Han Dynasty.

Every student who graduated from the Han Academy more than a decade ago was a child of destiny. They were either sought after by the three dukes and nine ministers of the Han Dynasty or by the major vassal states of the Han Dynasty.

But now, if you want to enter the department of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, you must not only undergo rigorous examinations, but it is also almost impossible to get promoted quickly. If you can be promoted to a county magistrate in the Han Dynasty at the age of 40, you are already considered a very outstanding talent.

As for the higher-ranking county magistrates with an official salary of two thousand stones and the heads of the three dukes and nine ministers in the imperial court, they were all veteran ministers. The standards for veterans of the Han Dynasty were constantly changing. Before the founding of the Han Dynasty, only those with an official salary of two thousand stones and the title of earl could be considered veterans.

Later, middle-level military officers and nobles with titles could be considered veterans of the Han Dynasty. And now, as long as one joined the Han army during the founding period and achieved a good promotion in the officialdom, he could be considered a veteran.

As the saying goes, there is only one position for each person, and the higher you go, the fewer positions there are. The elders have taken up all the positions, and even if the Han officials below are talented, it is difficult for them to stand out, and they can only wait for an elder to retire. Then the middle-level Han officials fought their way out from the thousands of troops.

But it was not completely hopeless. The emperor's servants were promoted just like in the founding period of the Han Dynasty. Chen Mai became one of the Nine Ministers of the Han Dynasty when he was only in his 30s. This almost became a new hope for the younger generation of the Han Dynasty.

The Han high-ranking officials wanted to limit the power of the emperor, but the middle-aged and young Han officials in the lower and middle levels wanted to rely on the emperor to kick out all the diehards in the high-ranking officials and let the young people rule the world. This situation caused the division of the Han Dynasty and even began to affect the stability of the Han Dynasty. Xu Fan had to come forward to bridge the contradictions.

Xu Fan said, "You have been dissatisfied with Li Shang for a long time, but you have been suppressing this anger. It reached a critical point last year and then it exploded."

Xu Aimin said a little aggrievedly, "The Prime Minister of our Han Dynasty has too much power. I want to govern but these old officials hinder me and I have no way to start. I want to make a difference, but these old officials always use your words to stop me from governing. The elders still look down on me, but I am thirty-six years old this year, my eldest son is engaged, and I have been involved in government affairs for more than ten years, but these elders treat me as a political novice. Among the monarchs of the past three generations, except for those puppet monarchs, few have less power than me."

Xu Fan smiled and said, "Everyone has different views on their own rights. You think the power in your hands is too small, but my father thinks that the power of the Han emperor is too great."

"In my father's imagination, the emperor of the Han Dynasty is like a statue of a god, made of clay and wood, and placed in the temple for the people to watch during the sacrifice."

In Xu Fan's imagination, the best political system for the Han Dynasty is of course a republic, because he is under this system.

But this was simply unrealistic in this era, and Xu Fan could only settle for the second best and establish a constitutional monarchy. Although all the systems of the Han Dynasty were formulated based on the constitutional monarchy, Xu Fan himself also minimized his interference in the Han court.

It’s a pity that all this is a false illusion. Any rights are gained through fighting for them, and it is impossible for Xu Fan to give them up.

On the contrary, because the prosperity of the Han Dynasty brought Xu Fan supreme prestige, his power was the highest among all monarchs in thousands of years. Even the First Emperor's power was not as great as Xu Fan's.

In this situation, it would be a joke to talk about constitutional monarchy. Xu Aimin has been watching his father since he was a child, and Xu Fan is his role model. The reason he feels aggrieved is that his rights are not even one-tenth of his father's, so he feels that these elders of the Han Dynasty are bullying him.

Xu Aimin was surprised to hear that his father wanted to give up the power of the emperor and said, "If our royal family gives up the power, the whole world will be in turmoil. I don't know how many ambitious people will emerge at that time. Moreover, if the emperor has no power, how can he control his ministers? At that time, the court will be dominated by wolves and tigers, and the people of the world will wail and become food for these wolves and tigers."

Xu Fan had seen this kind of scene before, without Xu Aimin telling him. He could only sigh, "Yes, even if the emperor gave up the right, ordinary people would not be able to obtain it. It would only be jackals, tigers and leopards in power, and everyone would be like a dragon. How difficult it is."

When Jia Yi and Liu Chang heard the conversation between the retired emperor and the emperor, they broke out in cold sweats even in the middle of winter. They looked at each other in horror. How could they listen to such words?
Xu Fan looked at Xu Aimin and said, "The essence of power lies in recognition. It is not that you are the emperor and the ministers will obey your orders. Your orders must be in the interests of the majority and recognized by the majority before they can be implemented. Everyone has their own thoughts, not to mention those who have fought their way up from the bottom to become ministers. It is not an exaggeration to say that each of these people is a great man. They will only submit to those who are more capable. To some extent, your prestige as the emperor is inherited from your father, but this prestige is not enough to make them submit."

Xu Aimin said: "If I can't even issue orders, how can I build up my prestige?"

Xu Fan said: "You should not reject these old elders, but listen to their opinions more. You can use their prestige to suppress the three dukes and nine ministers of the court. At the same time, you must understand your own advantages. Age is your biggest advantage. You are only 36 years old this year. Why are you so anxious? Li Shang will retire in two years at most. By then, you can arrange the prime minister you like. In this way, you can accumulate your own prestige little by little. As long as you govern the Han Dynasty more and more powerful, your prestige will naturally become higher and higher. When your opinions are always correct, the three dukes and nine ministers of the Han Dynasty will naturally submit to you."

Xu Aimin said, "I understand, kid."

Xu Fan looked at Jia Yi and smiled, "I have also read your On the Qin Dynasty. It is magnificent and grand, and is truly a rare masterpiece in the past 10 years."

Jia Yi bowed and said, "It is an honor for me to be praised by the Supreme Emperor."

Xu Fan said: "I have also heard about what you have done for the Han officials in the past few years. You have done a very good job. It's a pity that you have no experience in governing a local government, so you were rejected by the ministers in the court and even belittled as a treacherous villain."

When Jia Yi heard this, his eyes turned red. He was a scholar who valued reputation the most. He also wanted to be recorded in history as a famous official, not a treacherous villain. It can be said that the Han high-level officials' description of him as a treacherous villain was the biggest blow to him.

Xu Fan said: "Warriors come from the army, and prime ministers come from counties. This is the right way for officials in our Han Dynasty. You go to Changsha County to serve as the governor, which can make up for the gaps in your resume. At the same time, you can see more of the local people's customs and habits, so that you can make fewer mistakes in the future."

Jia Yi said: "I obey your command!"

(End of this chapter)