Chapter 67 South China Sea Railway Chronicle (7)

As a traverser of the "three haves" with discipline, ambition and ideals, Yu Guozhen has been full of ambition to save the country and the people and save China's fortune since he came to this time and space. Although he was choked enough by the dark and cruel social reality and the bad relatives who killed each other in the early stage, before he came into contact with the real Donglin Party, the Jiangnan Shidafu political group that had long controlled the public opinion of the world and dominated the court in the late Ming Dynasty, he still had a trace of illusion about these "righteous men and gentlemen" - although these guys fought fiercely within the party and their bones were a little soft, but in the dark world of a pool of stagnant water, this Donglin Party should at least be as progressive as the revolutionary party in the late Qing Dynasty.

Then, after thoroughly seeing the true face of the Donglin Party, Yu Guozhen finally despaired of the prospects of the Ming Empire.

He originally thought that his road to starting a family was bloody and dirty enough, but who knew that this group of Donglin gentlemen, who were full of benevolence and morality on weekdays, actually did a lot more - what used natural disasters to open the river embankment, flood other people's fertile fields, and then use the excuse of relief to collect money and grain from the small people, and by the way, privately buy the land of these disaster-stricken people, and even turn other people's wives and daughters into their own crotch playthings. Under the banner of building bridges and paving roads, renovating temples, and establishing righteous schools, etc., they expropriated and extorted money, feasted their own pockets, and won a good name by themselves. What is the long-term black-box operation of the imperial examination, as a "folk person" to pre-determine the list of jinshi, buy and sell the quota of talents and lifters, non-Donglin bigwigs nod and are not allowed to be promoted, treat the emperor and the court as monkeys, and block the road to the promotion of scholars from poor families! boasting all day long, saying that doctors and gentlemen are the cornerstone of the society and the model of moral sentiments, in fact, every family's ass is full of feces, urine and blood and tears.

Of course, these hypocritical words and deeds of the Donglin Party are nothing, after all, the politicians all over the world are so inconsistent.

On the other hand, the corruption of the Donglin Party officials is also not the most disgusting problem, although the politics of the backward feudal countries are rotten, and the politics of the early capitalist countries are also so stinky - the army of the British Empire was still selling officials and lords until the nineteenth century, and the lieutenants and school officers were all "donors" bought by rich people out of their pockets, and they all relied on reselling materials on the battlefield, looting and extorting to return to their capital and make a fortune, but they still fought invincible opponents all over the world, and only a few thousand people were mobilized in the Opium War. ran to the other side of the world and beat the Qing Dynasty to the point that he couldn't take care of himself. In modern times, the Japanese imperial government has been extremely * since the Meiji Restoration, and it is not uncommon for high-ranking officials and dignitaries to directly collude with chaebols to divide up state-owned assets, but it still has successively defeated China and Russia on the battlefield, and for a time dominated the East, almost completing the miracle of swallowing an elephant with a snake.

And the cruel exploitation of the common people by these gentlemen and gentry is not a cause of despair - in the Victorian era, the height of the British Empire, the life of British workers was still unimaginably miserable, textile workers were usually exhausted to death within three years of entering the factory, and the whole territory of Britain was a huge slum except for the estates of tens of thousands of gentlemen and ladies and the apartments of hundreds of thousands of decent people; The average life expectancy of the working class is only fifteen years...... "...... The power of British industry was maintained only by the brutal treatment of the workers, by the destruction of ......their health, by the neglect of the social, physical and mental development of entire generations" (Engels) Then, in the years when the old Japanese empire was at its sharpest, the standard of living of the common people was equally miserable, even worse than the Chinese of the troubled times of the Republic of China, and the girls of the whole village were sold overseas as prostitutes...... However, this cruel exploitation and miserable conditions did not prevent them from becoming a great power and achieving a great and glorious imperial hegemony.

From the point of view of history and social development, the real problem of the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty was extreme selfishness and arrogance to the point of stubbornness—only one of them was not a problem, but when the two were superimposed, the Donglin Party became an extremist organization similar to the Arab fundamentalist terrorists in the Middle East in later generations, or the extremist organizations like the Jazkata experts and neo-Nazi violent groups in Ukraine, which destroyed the entire civilization far more than it advanced, and did not see any possibility of improvement and evolution. If you add to this the unrepentant habit of emphasizing literature over military force...... That's complete death.

First of all, as a political group composed of Jiangnan scholars, the Donglin Party represented the interests of merchants and landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang at that time, and took advantage of the opportunity of Emperor Chongzhen to clear Wei Zhongxian's forces, and greatly canceled or reduced the tax burden of overseas trade tax, mining tax, salt tax, tea tax and other taxes in the Jiangnan region, which made the imperial court finance at the end of the Ming Dynasty on the verge of collapse, and the financial expenditure was almost completely apportioned to the peasants who had long been overwhelmed. It directly led to the peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty that swept the Central Plains.

To put it simply, it is a group of rich people who refuse to pay taxes and put all taxes on the heads of the poor, directly forcing the poor to rebel and leading to the end of the country.

No way, no matter how good the slogan is, how to flaunt its "integrity, honesty and integrity, and iron bones", but in terms of class composition, the behind-the-scenes financiers of the Donglin Party are a large group of bigwigs who refuse to pay taxes, and their main political goal is to make the rich not pay taxes and let the poor ghosts die. After taking office, it is difficult to disobey the wishes of the big conglomerates behind it.

Secondly, under such severe class oppression, the entire Chinese society at the end of the Ming Dynasty has long become a sizzling powder keg, and the correct countermeasure is either to reduce the burden on the people and give the people a way to live; Either it adopts the strategy of military rule and iron-blooded suppression, while bloodily suppressing the people's resistance at home, and at the same time waging foreign wars to divert social contradictions: no matter how much a country tries to redeem its troops, as long as it continues to win victories in foreign wars, the cohesion of the people will still be somewhat there, and the support rate of the regime will barely be maintained within an acceptable range.

As a matter of fact, the Japanese chaebols in modern times are also extremely poor and extravagant, but they put harsh taxes on the heads of the poor people, forcing the Japanese people to live in poverty, but they still know that they must advocate force, rely on militarism to suppress internal expansion and external expansion, and transfer contradictions overseas. However, the Donglin Party at the end of the Ming Dynasty was really a famous professional household in history, and it actually expropriated and forced the people to have no way to live. On the one hand, they also tried their best to suppress the status of the warriors, desperately weakened the combat effectiveness of the army, ruined the reputation of the soldiers, and maintained the pattern of being noble and lowly -- any mention of improving the treatment of soldiers and increasing the combat effectiveness of the army would be frantically suppressed by the Donglin Party and the entire landlord and gentry class, not to mention any war of aggression launched against the outside world to transfer social contradictions.

Even the slave owners of ancient Rome knew that they had to raise a group of fierce thugs and overseers in order to drive their slaves to work, but the Donglin Party refused to admit this truth. Imagine if the Japanese army during World War II was the same as the imperial court officers and soldiers in the late Ming Dynasty, the ordnance and ammunition were all resold, the soldiers starved to death in the camps in batches, the rifles and artillery were all garbage that exploded as soon as they were fired, the naval fleet sank into tatters as soon as they went to sea, and the soldiers needed to rob their homes all the way to collect military rations, and they had to "enjoy" untouchable treatment and all kinds of discrimination when they returned to China...... Then it is estimated that Zhang Xueliang will be able to parade in Tokyo.

Third, Yu Guozhen, a traveler, once had high expectations for the "upsurge of Western learning" among scholars and doctors in the late Ming Dynasty, thinking that it was a form of progress of "opening his eyes to see the world". As a result, when he really talked to a few "Christians in the late Ming Dynasty" and "lovers of Western studies", he was immediately disappointed - if the Westernists in the late Qing Dynasty had many problems, they still had the progressive significance of "mastering the skills of the master to control the country" and the simple enthusiasm of saving the country and strengthening the country, then the so-called "Western learning to the East" that appeared in China at the end of the Ming Dynasty was really just a pastime for scholars to eat and have nothing to do.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, faced with the rapidly changing world after the Industrial Revolution and the reality of being opened by cannonballs, some scholars had to reluctantly admit the strength of Westerners and began to learn from them. In China at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Westerners did not have such a strong force in the far east, and the technical level of the East and the West did not open up too much

The reason why at the end of the Ming Dynasty there was a popular trend of Western learning was because the wealth and power of the entire society had been carved up at that time, and the social class had been solidified. A considerable number of them are naturally keen on fame and career, but there are also many people who are not official materials, so they focus on all kinds of pastimes - those who are more traditional are naturally intoxicated with poetry and want to achieve fame in the literary world; Those who are more debauched wander around the flower streets and willow alleys all day long, indulging in gentle townships; Those who love fantasy go to cultivate alchemy, chant scriptures and participate in Zen, and by the way, buy Lori to play double cultivation; Finally, some scholars who like to be trendy will delve into all kinds of Western studies and miscellaneous studies. Just as the modern rich compete with each other in luxury homes, luxury cars, yachts, private jets and horse racing; and the British Empire, which was at the height of the Victorian era, had a number of unwanted alternative British aristocrats who made overseas adventures their main business – there was a time when it was fashionable for the British aristocracy to be an adventurer, and it was easy to become the darling of London's high society.

However, it is precisely because these Western studies are only regarded as personal interests and pastimes, rather than any really useful techniques for seeking official wealth and enriching the country and strengthening the army, that those scholars and doctors who can accept Western studies in the late Ming Dynasty are generally "three-minute heat" and lack the enthusiasm and plan to apply what they have learned. Although there are also things such as Xu Guangqi promoting overseas crops and Sun Yuanhua experimenting with Western methods to cast cannons, they still stay at the level of personal behavior and have little impact on society.

Finally, and most desperately, these gentlemen are mostly stubborn in their thinking, refusing to make any changes unless they are stuck to their necks. Otherwise, no matter whether these scholars are stupid or not, but at least in terms of asking others, they will only cling to the words of Cheng Zhu Lixue Sage (of course, they basically do not abide by it). In short, anything that does not conform to the maximization of the interests of the landlord and gentry class and the traditional concept will be regarded as a "great rebellion", and they are not even willing to look at it, let alone study and think about these crooked ways.

At several gatherings of Donglin scholars, Yu Guozhen once tentatively proposed some construction, such as capitalist farm management of farms, in order to increase production, and not to rent out the fields to tenants for the sake of peace of mind, and ignore water conservancy and breeding...... There is also the development of a variety of characteristic operations, etc., which are already trying to use the method of inducement to make them interested in new knowledge. Who knows, but he was extremely despised by the officials of the Donglin Party, thinking that he was vulgar and uninformed, and actually told them such "cheap and dirty things" to these noble scholars. Even Yu Guozhen's personal handling of freshwater pearl farming was actually ridiculed, saying that he was willing to be cheap and rob his subordinates......

In this regard, Yu Guozhen spent a lot of energy to finally understand the extremely distorted mentality of these guys: on the one hand, they are insatiable for wealth, and on the other hand, they don't bother to run any industry at all, and only think about how to use power to grab money. There is a contempt for all kinds of production activities, from agriculture to handicrafts, as the work of inferior people, and that they, the noble scholars, are only responsible for enjoyment and profligacy. The only "progressive" righteous path that these "proud sons of heaven" admit is that "you can become an official by studying, and you can gain fame and fame if you don't become an official, so as to gain privileges and wealth." All other thoughts and remarks were ignored and despised by them. You talk to him about things, and he talks to you; You talk to him about the avenue, you talk to you about philosophy; You talk to him about philosophy, and he talks to you...... In short, talking to people with crooked butts is destined to be useless, and psycho-terrorists must be uncompromising as well. Bullets and butcher knives are the only means of communication they can understand.

In fact, the Donglin Party, to be precise, the Jiangnan feudal landlords and gentry group represented by the Donglin Party, except for the fateful juncture at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which pushed the national fortune into the abyss, even in the Qing Dynasty, it was still unremittingly disgusting. For example, although many of the reforms of the Yongzheng Emperor were aimed at maintaining the dominance of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they also benefited the small people in a certain way, such as requiring the gentry and moths to bear some taxes and apportion a part of the errand labor, so as to reduce the burden on the low-level people. As a result, this industrious emperor, who was not brutal enough, became an unprecedentedly vicious tyrant in the mouths of this group of misers who controlled public opinion...... If it was in the Ming Dynasty, I am afraid that they would have to plan how to kill the emperor and abolish the emperor!

Therefore, Yu Guozhen soon decided in despair that the ruling class at the end of the Ming Dynasty had completely lost the possibility of reform and progress. On the surface, the Donglin Party, which was well-known, was actually the most corrupt and conservative group of people, and even one of the direct driving forces behind the collapse of the Ming Dynasty. Those so-called gentlemen of the clear stream are basically scum among the scum, their bottom line is lower than that of livestock, but before there is no new ideas with more combat effectiveness into China, their position is unshakable, only by relying on external forces to completely smash this desperate old world, and take out the courage and strength to create a sea of blood, can we destroy those things that are inferior to animals, so that this country and nation have the possibility of rebirth again - fortunately, in this overly lively time and space, the forces of the old world can be smashed, In addition to the barbaric Manchu Tatars, there were also travelers from all walks of life......

So, when Qian Qianyi put forward the "theory of the threat of thieves" and the "theory of the rebellion of the Funing army" at the Donglin party in Hangzhou's West Lake, Yu Guozhen, who was already completely desperate for the Donglin Party and the Ming Dynasty, took advantage of the situation to join the "investigation team" that went to Lingnan to observe the "situation" - although in his opinion, this was completely a group of young people who wanted to find an excuse to spend their parents' money to go far away, eat, drink, and have fun everywhere to see the scenery and gain knowledge.

Then, while everyone else is drunk and dreaming in the Ziming Mansion in Guangzhou, enjoying the exotic atmosphere of the bunny girl and the cat-eared girl, Yu Guozhen is collecting all kinds of information about the Hainan Island Crossing Group, and soon feels the vitality of the group, which is out of step with the current era—it is clear that the ruling base of this group is the emancipated tenant farmers, soldiers, artisans, slaves, and persecuted low-class landlords. At the same time, they did their best to expand the area of education and train a new cadre of their own to replace the unreliable and stubborn ignorant traditional gentry......

Thus, when the "Donglin Party Tour" and his entourage finally set foot on Hainan Island, they saw a brand-new society that they could not understand, and found that the "Avenue of the Sages" and "Heaven and Earth Principles" they had learned were completely meaningless to this strange organization on Hainan Island, and that this regime did not recognize the privileges enjoyed by them, the "proud sons of heaven" and the landlord class they represented, and did not recognize that the core ruling basis was the inferior people they had looked down on...... Even the gentlemen, who were not too hostile to the "Australians", became hysterical.

As for the local Ming scholars on the island who originally lived under the rule of the thieves, they had been hysterical for several years.

Hysteria, of course, is hysteria, but at best it's just a few curses behind your back. After all, they are all traditional literati, and they are only responsible for spitting spitting saliva, as for the death of the thief, there will naturally be ignorant cannon fodder, no, it is the loyal and brave who do it......

In addition, if the price offered by the Australian thief is right, most scholars actually don't mind selling themselves to take refuge, since the thief sailor swept across the Pearl River and shelled Guangzhou, making a name for himself on the ground in Lingnan, all kinds of unambitious poor boys who came to join the thief are really like mushrooms after the rain to emerge wave after wave. The problem is that there are too few of these people who sincerely come to ask for a job to do, and too many of them are daydreaming of reaching the sky in one step...... As a result, after touching the ashes, I could only go home and nibble on the old rice and continue to sulk hysterically by the way.

However, no matter what kind of thoughts are turning in the granite heads of these great scholars, Yu Guozhen has no intention of continuing to be with them anyway - when Yu Guozhen has been in close contact with a large amount of information about the Hainan Island Crossing Group in Guangzhou, and has initially judged their nature, goals and styles, he has the intention of contacting and cooperating with them.

After he followed the team to Lingao and saw the modern landing ships with the five-star red flag hanging on the sea, the giant airships flying by with the "August 1st" badge in the sky, and the military cars and camouflage military uniforms scattered on the streets, Yu Guozhen was even more determined to hug his thighs - there is likely to be a space-time gate connecting the modern world in the 21st century!

So, Yu Guozhen found an opportunity, quietly slipped out of the team, found a PLA soldier who was chewing gum and playing with his mobile phone, managed to reveal the identity of the traverser, and then was searched by the suspicious PLA soldiers and sent to Bairen City to be interrogated by the Lingao Traverser Senate...... However, although his identity was quickly recognized, he didn't seem to be taken very seriously, and actually asked Yu Guozhen to report in Sanya by himself, and assigned him a task to bring the "Donglin Tour Group" over, and someone near Sanya Station was responsible for connecting with him......

Fortunately, just when Yu Guozhen was worried about how to fool everyone into going to Sanya, Fang Yizhi, the leader, had already offered to find out the true face of Sanya's "Australian Emperor...... Yu Guozhen was overjoyed, hurriedly tongued lotus flowers, and tried his best to approve of Fang Yizhi's feat of "going deep into the tiger's den", so there was a trip to Sanya that was equivalent to throwing himself into the net......

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“…… Woo - clang, clang, clang......"

With a sharp whistle and gushing white steam, the bus finally stopped slowly at the terminal Sanya New Town. Looking up, the dusk sun was almost below the ground, and half of the western sky was full of fiery clouds.

Then, as soon as the steam train stopped, the passengers carrying all kinds of large bags and baskets poured out of the carriage one after another, moving their legs and feet. Fang Yizhi and a few Donglin scholars covered their heads and faces with their sleeves, and finally squeezed out of the sweaty crowd. Then he met the servants in the second- and third-class carriages on the platform, counted the heads and luggage, and then walked out of the station.

Then, as soon as they walked out of the station gate, in the twilight of dusk, they saw something vague in the distant sky, spitting out a glowing orange-red flame that roared into the sky, and after a long time it disappeared into the clouds and the sunset......

“…… Tsk, it's not dark yet, why have Australians started to set off fireworks? It's a tyrannical thing......"

A Donglin scholar was slightly stunned at first, then smacked his lips with disdain, shook his head and said disdainfully, and others also said yes. Only Yu Guozhen vaguely felt that something seemed to be wrong, but he only had a hazy intuition, and he couldn't think of anything wrong.

- What they don't know is that the "firework" just now is actually a launch vehicle that went straight to the orbit of the satellite......

Since the establishment of a base in Sanya, Hainan Island, in this time and space, the "relevant departments" have begun to use the newly arrived Doraemon magic prop [Mini Communication Satellite] to set up a global satellite communication system for this world, so as to facilitate the connection of the traverser forces scattered on various continents. At the same time, there were also two [space lifeboats] carrying the traversers from the Far East Fleet of the Chinese American Republic and the East Coast Republic, each carrying a set of satellite communication equipment and a central red-headed text, landing on the coast of New York and Uruguay in this time and space, bringing a great shock to the crossing forces of the New World.

At the same time, accompanied by the four members of the Ming family and the little Lori Jin Lingxue, Liu Dalin, the first jinshi of Lingao County on Hainan Island in the Ming Dynasty, Liu Dalin, the head of Jasmine Xuan Academy, also walked out of the station with a cane and a little trembling.

Then, in the midst of the bustling crowd, he began to squint at Sanya in the twilight: the strange high-rise buildings that stood like a jungle around the station square, the bustling shops with colorful lights, the vendors wafting the smell of food, the tall cranes on the wharf not far away, and the piles of various goods, and the ships gathered in the port, only felt familiar and strange - I remember that when he was young, he also traveled the whole territory of Qiongzhou with a sword, and came here by chance, I clearly remember that there were only barren grass and sandy beaches, as well as clumps of mangrove forests, and there were no people in a radius of more than ten miles, and there was not even a single small fishing boat in the harbor. I don't want to, but now it's become this prosperous appearance!

These "Australians" who refused to submit to the Tartars after the fall of the Great Song Dynasty and drifted out to sea by boat are really capable of magic!

Well, perhaps, it would be much better for the people of Li to rule the world instead of the old Zhu family?

Just as Liu Dalin was frowning and thinking about it, an open-top electric sightseeing car had already driven to his side. Before the old jinshi came back to his senses, little Lori Jin Lingxue was already carrying a heavy duffel bag, and quickly jumped up to occupy a seat, and then turned back to beckon to him, "...... Grandpa Liu, come up! If you don't hurry up, it's going to be dark! ”

So, Liu Dalin, a Daming jinshi, smiled with relief, didn't think about anything more, just walked into the car with a cane.

On the other side, Yu Guozhen watched with envy as the group of people got into the open-top electric sightseeing car in turn, and then walked away...... Didn't you say it a long time ago in Lingao, and someone was responsible for answering at the gate of the station? Where is the guy who came to pick him up right now?