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More than 170 years later, Zhu Jishi heard the story that when the British fleet broke through the fortress of Humen and headed north along the Pearl River during the Opium War in 1840, tens of thousands of local residents gathered on both sides of the river. They watched the battle between their court and the foreigners with a cold, very calm expression, as if they were watching a battle that had nothing to do with them. The British officers and men were very puzzled when they saw this scene. A British officer asked the traitor who led the way for the British army, and the reply was: The country does not know that there is a people, and the people do not know that there is a country.

Obviously, the Qing Dynasty in the 1840s was a country that did not know the people, but the British Empire in 1840 could really be regarded as a country that knew that there were people, and that the people knew that there was a country?

According to what Zhu Jishi learned during this period, the answer is obviously no!

On October 1, 1839, the British Cabinet decided to send a fleet to the China Sea, citing the obstruction of commerce and the threat to the lives of the people of the British Empire. What are the working British people who should know about the "country" doing?

Encouraged by Chartist trade union leaders and politicians with ulterior motives, they are busy marching and rallying for universal suffrage of one person, one vote!

In 1840, the British government could have sent millions of pounds to send troops thousands of miles away in order to threaten the lives of several British Empire subjects in China, but it was reluctant to provide relief to the British working people who were on the verge of starvation and cold - according to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the poor could only receive food relief after entering the "workhouse", which was actually a "labor house", where the work was heavy, the pay was low, the food was poor, and the accommodation was cramped. People live separately by age and sex, which leads to the separation of poor families and the separation of flesh and blood. Without the written approval of the supervisor, you are not allowed to go out or meet with visitors. In fact, it is no different from going to prison, but such a "workhouse" is also unable to accept too many poor people because of lack of funds. As a result, many British people are killed by hunger and cold every day.

Does such a nation seem to know what its people are like? If the fleet of the Qing Dynasty reached the mouth of the Thames now, those poor people in England who were not allowed to eat would fight to the death for the queen Bixia?

On the train to London, Zhu Jishi finally couldn't help but ask questions that had been haunting his mind for a long time. But Will. Hemming's answer surprised him, but it made sense when he thought about it.

"If the country does not know that there is a people, then the people do not know that there is a country? What does that mean...... I don't know you Russia (Will. Heming also thought that Zhu Jishi was a Tatar) The serfs there would not love the tsar and the country, but our poor people here must be unpatriotic, there is no doubt about it!

Besides, Britain has nothing to love, the government has an annual revenue of 90 million pounds, and it also has vast colonies in North America, Australia and India, but it is reluctant to spend a few small dollars to help the poor, knowing that it is used to fight wars, in fact, it really doesn't cost a lot to help the poor. There are just over 20 million people in the British Isles, with a 'superfluous' population of about 1.5 million to 2 million, while North America and Australia are empty. They can spend millions of pounds to fight a war with China, and Weishenme can't spend just as much money to send the surplus population to Canada to farm? ”

"But the British seem to be heroic on the battlefield?"

"Heroic? I don't think so. "Will. Heming sneered: "Jason, do you know that when the war with the French Emperor (Napoleon) was the biggest headache for the British government was that it couldn't recruit soldiers!" Hehe, during the American Revolution, the British Empire also couldn't recruit enough soldiers, so Zuihou could only spend money to go to Hesse and hire Germans to help fight the war. How patriotic do you think the people of this country are? ”

And what's going on? Zhu Jishi really suspects that he has crossed into a parallel shijie that looks very much like his original shijie, but is actually not the same thing.

"To make a more figurative analogy, our British Empire is actually a company."

Will. Hemming said solemnly: "Actually, it is no different from the East India Company...... The aristocracy and the big bourgeoisie were shareholders in this company, and there were probably thousands of such people, and they opened the company in the British Empire. The petty bourgeoisie, the middle class, and the intellectuals are the managers of this company, and there are hundreds of thousands of such people. Kospel and Jason are both part of the management, and I, the unlucky guy who was dismissed from the British Army, don't know how long I can last in the middle class? Perhaps soon he will be reduced to a member of the proletariat.

The other nearly 20 million working people are workers of this company in the British Empire, including jishu workers with higher incomes, ordinary workers with lower incomes, casual workers, child laborers, and of course the unemployed.

As for the soldiers in the British army, there are actually few who fight because they love the queen and the country. At least there are basically no ordinary privates, and the situation of the cavalry is a little better, because in England those who can ride horses are a bit of a asset, while the light infantry and artillery are more fond of the pound, and their salaries are relatively high, about the same as the cavalry, several times that of ordinary privates.

As for the privates, in the words of the Duke of Wellington, those people are the scum of society, some of them became soldiers because they had illegitimate children, but most of them were because they drank alcohol, and it is the responsibility of us officers to train these scum of society to be good soldiers!

Jason, you're a scientist, not a military man, so you won't understand what it's like to fight a war. ”

Listened to Will. Hemming's words, coupled with what Zhu Jishi had seen and heard in London and Manchester these days, had already had a chemical reaction in his mind at this time - the famous empire on which the sun never set turned out to be nothing more than that, and the glorious Victorian era seemed to be stronger than the Qing Dynasty. In this day and age, the gap between China and the West has not actually widened!

In other words, as long as the country can be opened in time, there is still a lot to be done......

……

London, Dover Street, 3rd Floor, Tulane Clothing Store.

"A piece of sulfur and a piece of rubber, heat them up and melt them together, and then it's this vulcanized rubber? Oh my God, this is a god! ”

After seeing the processing process of vulcanized rubber with his own eyes, and seeing the elasticity, heat resistance, tensile strength and insolubility in organic solvents of this thin rubber skin processed by vulcanization in front of him. Rao is Cospel. William, a bank manager with an old-fashioned appearance, couldn't help but shout.

"Is this vulcanized rubber patent really in your hands? Are you sure? Can you show me the patent certificate? ”

Zhu Jishi took out a stack of documents from the drawer of his desk -- all of them were patent certificates, took out the patent certificate of vulcanized rubber from it and handed it over.

"Really, 14 years patent...... Oh my God! It's a great invention, Jason, do you know what this vulcanized rubber can do? "Cospel. William's face was full of excitement that could not be concealed.

Zhu Jishi frowned slightly, shook his head and said, "Kospel, I think you should ask what this vulcanized rubber can't do?" ”

Natural rubber is one of the four major industrial raw materials of Shijie along with steel, coal, and oil! However, before vulcanized rubber was invented by the American Guebi, rubber was basically useless, and could only be used to wipe pencil writing or something.

"Cospel, how much can I bet on this patent? How much money can I get if I sell out? Zhu Jishi asked Kospel with a smile. William.

"Mortgage £2,000 and sell out £3,000!" Cospel. William pondered the bid.

Zhu Jishi smiled and shook his head. William said: "Kospel, do you know how the vulcanized rubber business is done? ”

Cospel. William was slightly stunned, looking at Zhu Jishi with some doubts. Zhu Jishi said with a smile: "The use of vulcanized rubber is extremely wide, it can be said that there is no place where it cannot be used, and now it is conceivable that it is used to make wheels, shoes, gloves, condoms...... It's something that is used to put on the roots of children and grandchildren to avoid getting a woman pregnant, and I think the sale of rubber condoms in Europe alone can make 3,000 pounds a year, right? ”