Hidden Dragon in Qing Dynasty

Gladstone could already feel that victory was right in front of them. Politicians of their level knew very well that the outcome of a war was usually decided before the war began.

As long as you smooth out all the crucial points before the war, victory will be a matter of course.

In the end, England was still the next group of merchants. The pursuit of profit was their essence, and the merchants were greedy and calculating. They would tie everything under the sun to their interests, even war.

The First Opium War actually adopted the war resolution with a very weak advantage, and that small advantage was gained by the Queen using her strong influence.

To be frank, what they loved to do was to earn money, and the first thing they had to do in order to earn money was to avoid risk. However, war was always full of uncertainty, and other than arms merchants who had to rely on war to make money, merchants in other industries preferred to make money peacefully.

They liked the illusory sense of glory brought about by the victory of the war. At the same time, they also hated the fact that their children had lost their lives in a foreign country, so they were very clear that the real war had broken out, and the ones who died were the children of commoners.

This was an idea, and this idea was a kind of power. If Liberal Party could develop till now, it was precisely this kind of power that Gladstone borrowed.

Using moderate mercantilism as a substitute for radical colonialism had allowed the British state policy to be focused on internal affairs as much as possible. According to the Chinese, they would first practice their internal energy and only when their internal energy was stronger would they be able to colonize the country with greater glory.

Therefore, Gladstone's success was related to two things. He had to promise the people at the bottom level that he would build a large number of Infrastructure, make it universal and compulsory, and even give the colony more autonomy in exchange for a period of peace and stability. This was to develop internal affairs and cultivate internal energy.

The second point was a different story for the elites. Gladstone did not oppose colonialism, on the contrary, he was doing everything for the sake of a better colonial expansion.

In that eavesdropping hotel, Xiao Letian had already pointed out the crux of the problem, especially the close relationship between technology and compulsory education. He had even predicted that Britain would fall from the position as the strongest country in technology in the future.

Why? Since Prussia had now been undergoing compulsory education for decades, with an extremely large population, the total number of high-tech talents in Prussia in the next forty to fifty years would be no less than in the UK, or even higher, based on the same proportion of elite production.

Another special case was the America. Although there was no compulsory education for all in the America, it was about to begin.

Furthermore, the isolationism of the America had created a stable political situation in the country. Furthermore, it had become very inclusive towards immigrants and people, allowing the country to absorb many of Europe's excluded national elites.

In addition to the America's advantage of having a large population, the rise of technology in the future was definitely predictable like Prussia's.

On the contrary, if these top-level jobs continued for such a short period of time, the upgraded factories would not even be able to recruit qualified operators. Take a look at the development of mechanical processing equipment in the last few decades, the latest machines needed to be operated by highly educated workers.

There was a dilemma in Britain. Uneducated people were unemployed and had to work hard at the simplest and lowest possible jobs.

As for those high-paying jobs, they could not recruit anyone at all. The salaries of the senior blue-collar workers had continued to rise many times, but there was still a huge gap.

How can this social conflict be resolved? War? In the end, he still relied on Gladstone's method.

Under the support of many forces, especially with Xiao Letian's help, the self-confident Gladstone had successfully taken care of the top elites in British Empire.

Under the mediation of the royal family, the upper echelons of the empire's pyramid had already reached a secret agreement. At this moment, the ones who were stubbornly resisting were only the middle echelons of politicians.

Although Benjamin did not know what Gladstone had done, but the sense of smell of the political animals were extremely sharp. The fact that they could smell danger was the most important reason why he had to deal with them today.

An established politician like this had not been able to control his emotions well in the debate, and he was able to knock down a boat of people with a single strike? If this wasn't hysteria, then what was it?

From the beginning, Gladstone had always focused his firepower on Benjamin alone, but Benjamin had called all the politicians who supported Gladstone, including those who were wavering in their neutrality, idiots.

Countless people had strange expressions on their faces. Many of them were angry and indignant as they thought to themselves, "What is that thing?" "I have my own judgment. If I don't accept your judgment, it means that we are retarded."

No matter how ambitious Xiao Letian is, he has never come to the British Empire. My merchant ships can always get four or five ships worth of goods from the Chinese clan.

Some of the representatives looked at Duke of Newcastle and thought, "I've invested quite a bit of money into you, don't mess up the high-end Chinese restaurant business …" "Aiya, thinking of the Chinese cuisine I had that day, why can't I stop drooling!"

Too many people have their own thoughts. No matter how noble a businessman's appearance is, it is impossible to change what is in his bones!

Of course, some of the politicians who had abandoned their personal interests to consider the future of the empire, the political elites with their lofty morals, also had to admit that Gladstone's words made a lot of sense.

Furthermore, these elites were able to obtain some information that came down from the top through many channels, especially some rumors that were rumored to be related to Xiao Letian.

The deafening arguments kept them awake through the night, one cigar after another, but in the end they all came to the same conclusion.

This empire truly needed to adjust its national policy. Even if the general direction of colonialism never changed, it would have to return to the inner world and manage its internal affairs properly for the next decade or so.

To put it bluntly, he really did owe a lot of money for all these years for internal affairs. Since he was in debt, he had to pay it back no matter what!

Of course, these politicians don't want too much of an earthquake in the domestic political scene, and they don't even want to be seen as a joke by the Chinese.

Hence, they hoped to see Benjamin become aware of his own mistakes, and be able to independently adjust their national policy and work together with Gladstone to achieve mutual governance.

This debate was actually the last chance these people had given Benjamin, but it looked like Benjamin was a stubborn donkey that no one could stop.

He was already walking further and further down the road of failure!