Chapter 410: Zeng Dezhao's Conversion

As a materialist with chauvinistic tendencies in his thinking, Wang Shuhui was able to have a relatively sober understanding of nationalist thought because he had mastered the tools of scientific sociological theory. [Full text reading]

For him, nationalism is undoubtedly an inevitable misthinking in modern China, which is fully industrialized. It is true that nationalism is an inevitable by-product of social industrialization, but from the perspective of scientific sociological theory, to talk about nationalism in the context of socialized large-scale production and in the context of capitalist globalization is actually to embark on an unscientific wrong road.

The capitalist system has reduced human society into two parts: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Under these historical conditions, class theory is a sober understanding of society. Analyzing bourgeois society from a class point of view is a scientific method of thinking.

But then again, the ideology of nationalism is certainly wrong and unscientific in modern society. But in the feudal agrarian society, in this social stage of the development of Chinese society into capitalist society, the idea of nationalism is not only not wrong, but also a progressive ideology.

Capitalism promoted the emergence of nationalism, and nationalism promoted the development of capitalist countries, so nationalism in the historical environment of the last years of the Ming Dynasty still had the significance of promoting social progress.

However, at the ideological level, Wang Shuhui is not prepared to excessively promote nationalist ideas.

As far as he is concerned, although he knows that he has a tendency towards national chauvinism, he should pay attention to the fact that he wants to transform all ethnic groups into Chinese civilization, accept Chinese culture, and live in China, which is a country that is constantly expanding, Chinese and that there is no fundamental contradiction between the Chinese nation and the Chinese nation, which is participating in the large-scale production of China's industrialized society, and the industrialization construction carried out by the Chinese people under the leadership of the Baath Party, and the general direction of China's future development and progress in leading the world.

Wang Shuhui believes that there is no need to specifically emphasize the idea of nationalism, as long as the Baath Party continues on the road of industrialization, as long as China is completely industrialized, then in the process of China's industrialization, all nation-state organizations and individuals will inevitably be dissolved by the process of industrialization, and eventually become a representative of the Chinese nation of industrial civilization.

In the Manifesto, Mr. Ma pointed out that "the bourgeoisie, because of the rapid improvement of all means of production, because of the extreme convenience of transportation, has drawn all nations, even the most barbarous ones, into civilization." The low price of its commodities is the heavy artillery it uses to destroy all the Great Wall and conquer the most tenacious xenophobia of the barbarians. It compels all nations to adopt the bourgeois mode of production if they do not wish to perish; It forces them to promote so-called civilization in themselves, that is, to become bourgeoisie. In a word, it creates a world for itself in its own image. ”

For Wang Shuhui, what the backward bourgeoisie can do, then in terms of social organization, it has been proven by history to be a more advanced and mature Chinese experience, and the new China established by the Chinese people using this experience under the leadership of the advanced organization of the Baath Party will be more effective in completely transforming all backward nation-state organizations and individuals into new China and a part of the new Chinese nation through the means of industrialization.

Of course, this process of transforming and absorbing the Chinese nation, which is the representative of advanced civilization, is certainly not a process of gentle wind and rain. All nation-state organizations and individuals that refuse to make progress and resist the integration of the Chinese nation will be ruthlessly crushed by the new China led by the Baath Party.

Using all means to promote social progress and the development of civilization, and using all means to remove the obstacles to the Chinese nation's leading the world to progress, this means that those nation-state organizations and individuals that hold backward ideas such as feudalism, national separatism, etc., will be completely destroyed by the Baath Party.

This is why the Ba'ath Party led by Wang Shuhui is aimed at the stubborn feudal landlord class that rejects progress and industrialization; the post-Jin Jurchen, who adheres to the position of national separatism because of the common interests of the nation; The peasant rebel army, which adheres to the ideology of an agrarian society and uses the means of rebellion to wage a struggle for feudal power, is the reason for mercilessly striking at and exterminating.

Old man Mao said, "The people rely on us to organize." The reactionaries in China rely on us to organize the people to defeat them. If you don't fight anything reactionary, it won't fall. This is also the same as sweeping the floor, the broom is not reached, and the dust does not run away on its own as usual. ”

Although the policies and programs of the Baath Party are somewhat inhumane in the eyes of later generations, social progress and human development are an objective process. Countless human peoples, tribes, states, and regimes have disappeared in the course of historical development. If it is inhumane, it is also because social progress and historical development itself is an immoral process. All attempts to use morality as a measure of the process of social development and human progress are non-scientific.

Objectively speaking, however, the world of the 17th century was not a hypocritical world of universal values. Unlike the law of the jungle in the future world, which is concealed under glossy universal values, the current world pursues the most straightforward and simple law of the jungle.

To give a simple example, the Portuguese missionary Zeng Dezhao, who was captured by the Baath Party eleven years ago, is now a hired "temporary worker" in the Baath Party's Bureau of Commerce.

As far as he was concerned, although Zeng Dezhao, a former religious figure who was a Portuguese, did not feel that there was anything wrong with him accepting the leadership of the Kingdom of Spain, which had annexed Portugal. Such a thing as nationalism does not exist in the mind of Zeng Dezhao, who is considered an intellectual in the Western world.

For him, there was no ideological awkwardness or conflict in serving the Spanish government, playing the role of vanguard and spy in the expansion of the Spanish Empire's territory and sphere of influence, while remaining loyal to the pope.

Of course, after ten years of labor reform and ideological education under the Ba'ath Party, the former missionary Zeng Dezhao has been transformed into a Baath government employee who identifies with the Baath Party's ideological ideas and accepts the basic ideas of materialism.

Commodity dumping in non-base areas is the main source of economic income for the Baath Party.

At this stage, the dumping of textiles throughout the country is still one of the main sources of Baath revenue, but in addition to light industrial products such as cloth, silk, cigarettes, canned paper, books, machinery, and munitions are also becoming one of the main elements of Baath's foreign trade.

The steam engine is gaining popularity throughout the Gangnam region at a very rapid rate.

Now there are more and more steam water lifters working in the cotton fields in the Jiangnan area. In many textile workshops in Jiangnan, steam-powered looms produced by the Baath Party are being produced. On the current channel of the Yangtze River, a large number of non-Baath Party-owned steam paddle steamers are sailing around. It has become more and more common for maritime pirates in the southeast to use steam paddle steamers for transportation and warfare.

In addition to the fact that steam engines and various machines powered by steam engines were sold in large quantities by the Baath Party, the arms trade also became a source of economic growth for the Baath Party. Flintlock muskets and various models of smoothbore guns produced in mass production were sold in large quantities by the Baath Party.

Zeng Dezhao, a "temporary worker" of the Baath Party's Commerce Bureau, was tasked with selling Baath Party arms to the Ming Dynasty