"Your Majesty, how should the affairs of the Korean Peninsula be handled?"

"It is not appropriate for the empire to meddle for the time being, and everything involving mainland affairs must be cautious, which is not the key area for the future development of the Tang Empire. The immediate priority is to thoroughly digest the Luzon colony, but what is the current situation? ”

"Back to Your Majesty's words;

It had been seven years since the Empire signed the Treaty of Berlin with the Kingdom of Spain on July 12, 1878, formally taking over Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Luzon Islands.

The Colonial Ministry has always adhered to its purpose, strictly enforced the eight prohibitions, and has always promoted the colonization work in a high-pressure manner, and has achieved remarkable results.

It's been more than 7 years

Thanks to the large investment of the Imperial Household Office, the empire has built a total of 27,000 kilometers of roads of various grades throughout Luzon, and has built 1,760 kilometers of railways, with about 5,500 kilometers of railways still planned.

Dozens of new towns and cities have been built and expanded, 724 bridges have been erected, 28 dams have been built, three thermal power plants have been built, and hundreds of new quarries and brick kilns have been built.

After vigorous construction, the original primitive appearance of the Luzon Islands has been renewed, and more new towns have sprung up, housing a large number of mainland immigrants, and the total number has reached 1.33 million in seven years.

These 1.33 million Chinese immigrants formed more than 1.3 million families, and the women were mainly forcibly recruited from the local indigenous people.

A total of 1.21 million laborers were employed in the forced labor camps, mainly local male aborigines, with a loss of about 700,000 yuan, mainly due to various tropical plagues and long-term heavy physical labor, and more than 500,000 people remained.

In order to replenish the labor force, the Governor's Office of Luzon has organized a contingent of militias of Chinese descent to search for the remnants of the indigenous people in the tropical jungles and remote islands, and has achieved a lot of results.

According to the latest data reported;

During the months-long operation, more than 370,000 local indigenous people were arrested and more than 30,000 rebels were killed, of which about 200,000 indigenous men could be used as laborers, and the rest of the women and children would flow into the population market.

The Governor's Office of Luzon plans to take advantage of the fact that the indigenous population is still sufficient to concentrate on the completion of the remaining 5,500 kilometers of railway lines, as well as some seaports, docks and beaches, mines and some large bridge projects, and build a relatively complete infrastructure.

In addition to self-financing, the construction plan submitted by the Governor's Palace of Luzon requires an additional allocation of 5.5 million Tang Yuan per year from the Royal Interior Office to maintain the current relatively large construction scale.

The annual grain and commercial taxes collected by the Governor's Office of Luzon were enough to support the daily food and labor expenses of the million-dollar forced labor camp, which could save a lot of construction costs.

The focus of development is mainly on the copper and nickel ore resources found on Mindanao, as well as the iron ore veins on a large scale.

The Governor's Office of the Luzon Islands plans to invest a lot of manpower in the development of mines, and also invest in the construction of ore processing and smelters, a steel plant with an annual output of 100,000 tons, a copper smelter with an annual output of 12,000 tons of copper concentrate and a processing plant with an annual output of 600 tons of nickel metal, as well as a number of agricultural processing plants and food factories, as well as no less than six cement plants.

The development of the rainforest also requires a number of construction machinery, including tractors and diesel engines, sawmills, etc., and the import of construction steel and other materials from Paradise Province is the main reason for the increase in expenditure.

The latest demographic data shows;

The predominantly Chinese-American society in Luzon was stable and prosperous, with a total population of more than 3.37 million at the end of 1884 (Note; The statistics do not include indigenous people), this is mainly because the Luzon Islands was originally a place with a large number of early Chinese immigrants, about 230,000 early immigrants, plus newborns born to Chinese families in recent years, the population has grown rapidly and strongly.

Due to the geographical proximity of the Luzon Islands to the mainland, which facilitates large-scale migration, the total population is expected to reach 10 million by the end of this century (Note; excluding the local indigenous people), entering a state of long-term stable development.

Looking ahead to the next decade......"

Yuan Guanglin, Minister of the Colonial Department, had a good understanding of the situation in the Luzon Islands, and the various data were reported casually, and the introduction was clear and organized.

Emperor Li Cha of the Tang Dynasty nodded frequently when he heard this, and his eyes flashed with appreciation from time to time, expressing his praise to this middle-aged capable official in the prime of life.

The Tang Empire's colonial policy was brutal and direct, but effective, and in 1878 the Luzon Islands was taken over by the "cage for birds" policy, which made great progress, and the local indigenous women were directly forcibly recruited into the population market, and then bought by the influx of Chinese immigrants to form new families.

The Governor's Office of Luzon was flexible in this process, allowing Chinese immigrants to pay a portion of their debts on credit, but with varying amounts of interest.

This quickly absorbed nearly half of the indigenous population, and the indigenous men were thrown into forced labor camps, where they toiled day after day to change the face of the island, building a large number of farmland and water conservancy facilities, roads, railways, docks and town buildings, and completely changing the original backward appearance.

As a new colonial power, the Tang Empire completely ignored the backward urban appearance and almost zero infrastructure left by the Spaniards, so it built a large number of buildings in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Luzon Islands, and this construction boom has lasted for seven years.

It is expected that it will take another 7~8 years for the construction boom involving infrastructure to come to an end, and the colonies will enter the ranks of the imperial overseas provinces with a new look, heralding the end of the "free cage for birds" policy.

For the sake of the long-term peace and stability of the new colonies, the Colonial Ministry promoted a policy of forced assimilation in accordance with the Holy Will, which did not require mass killings and appeared more merciful than the Portuguese, Spanish and Belgian colonists.

In the hard labor camps, it is not possible to say how well they eat, at least they can eat enough food, and there is less deliberate abuse and corporal punishment. However, due to the long period of heavy physical labor and physical exhaustion, prisoners in the camps rarely survive more than 10 years.

When one road is built, another, when the wharf is built, and when the mines are opened, there is always endless heavy physical labor waiting for the prisoners, day after day, year after year.

After Yuan Guanglin, the minister of the colonial empire, gave an endless introduction, it had been more than an hour.

Emperor Richard nodded kindly and said;

"Yuan Aiqing, the Colonial Department, and the many efforts of the Governor's Office of Luzon and Cuba, I am very pleased to see it.

It is precisely because of you, capable officials, who strictly implement the imperial policy and persevere in colonization and development, that the empire is thriving and prosperous today.

Zhong Aiqing must keep in mind;

What seems to be a slightly excessive policy today is for the sake of future generations to live and work in peace and contentment for a hundred years and thousands of years, and it must not be for the benefit of women.

I would rather face the infamy and purge the aliens in the colony, for the sake of the long term, and not to leave a legacy for future generations......"

When he said this, all the ministers couldn't sit still, and they got up one after another and shook it to the end, saying; "His Majesty the Holy Emperor has learned thousands of miles, for my Chinese nation for thousands of years, benevolence is enough to shine on the past and the present, and the ministers respectfully ask Your Majesty not to sin, that is a burden that the empire cannot bear, and we are all guilty of death."

"How can it be so exaggerated? Arise, all of you. Emperor Richard gave him a lift, and all the ministers stood up and retreated to both sides.

Only the Prime Minister Marquis Chen Cailiang was still standing at the foot of the steps, and after giving the salute again, he said; "Your Majesty;

After the Battle of Qingfa

The prestige of France plummeted, and the Qing Dynasty did not lose an inch of land or a tael of silver, winning the praise of the world powers, and its international prestige was greatly improved.

Recently, the President of France, His Excellency François Paul Jules Grevy, has written frequently to explain to the Reich its policy in East Asia, assuring that in the future it will be held south of Lang Son and that the French army will never take a single step north.

This is one of them.

On the other hand, the French side expressed concern about the large-scale reduction of troops in the Tang Empire, according to President François;

As the de facto hegemon of the Americas, Tang bears an unshirkable international responsibility for maintaining regional security and stability.

President François bluntly stated; "London jumped up and down in the United States, intending to achieve the sinister purpose of weakening France and Tang by splitting the United States, which can be described as a vicious ......."

"France and Tang should work together in American affairs, take a firm stand to preserve the traditional combat friendship that dates back to 1853 (note, the Crimean War), and repel the sinister attempts of foreign powers to intervene on the North American continent."

"The French side will look forward to the friendship of the Tang State with a sincere attitude of comprehensive cooperation......"

From the handwritten letter, it can be seen that President François was anxious.

We're stealing;

Cooperation on the U.S. issue is a good idea to strengthen our forces, both militarily and politically and economically.

In view of the importance of the matter, I would like to ask the Holy Judge! ”

"Chen Aiqing doesn't have to be polite, please get up." Emperor Richard raised his hand and helped him down, then leaned back and lay comfortably on the throne, and said in a deep voice;

"By looking at the essence through the phenomena, we can find out;

The reason why the British fanned the flames in the upper class of the United States, created discord everywhere, aroused fear of the empire and encouraged the separatist and independent forces, was to disrupt North America and compete for the right to speak in North America and even the whole of America.

I had dealt with the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir William Cecil, more than 20 years ago, and was a brilliant statesman with a sharp mind and an international perspective.

At first glance, it can be seen that he is shrewd and spicy, straight to the point, and is by no means an easy character to deal with.

All Aiqing knows;

The United States is heavily indebted, and for the past twenty years or so, and for the next two decades, and for the next two decades, and even longer, it has no right to dialogue with the empire on an equal footing.

This is like a person with a heavy grinding disc on his back, why should he challenge my Tang Empire?

The purpose of the British is to help the United States get rid of this heavy grinding plate, even if the United States is thus divided into two, three or four, but after removing the heavy burden, it is stronger and more flexible.

If it joins forces with Canada in the north and the Carolina Republic in the south, with the British standing behind it, it can indeed cause a lot of trouble to the empire.

While we are too busy dealing with the Americas to pay attention to the colonial expansion in other parts of the world, or to the changes taking place on the East Asian continent, we may lose out on many valuable opportunities.

Perhaps, this is what British Prime Minister William Cecil is aiming for.

If we know the intentions of our opponents, we can deal with them calmly, and over the years, we have increased our efforts to emigrate to the United States and drastically reduced the number of military personnel, which is one of the means to deal with it.

Now that the French have reached out, it can be used as an option to enrich our response, which will be beneficial and harmless in the case of the United States.

But remember, always keep your distance from the French, and it's better to let the French rush ahead of the thunder.

The British are like a jealous and cautious woman, although they find awkwardness everywhere, but maintaining this marriage is still very beneficial to the empire, and it is necessary to maintain a delicate balance of fighting but not breaking. ”

"Your Majesty, Weichen understands." Prime Minister Chen Cailiang replied respectfully.

His Majesty's analogy is very vivid, and the ministers will know how to deal with it as soon as they hear it.

The British can be said to be masters of strategy who have mastered the essence of Western strategy, but they still seem a little crude when it comes to inheriting the ancient wisdom of the East.

After all, he was born as a Viking in Northern Europe, and it was always a little bit of fun to play tricks.

Now the British are tantamount to churning around in the backyard of the Tang Empire, and whenever he asks, he always answers without blushing and out of breath; "Hey, man, I see you're messing up here, so I'll help clean it up."

is obviously doing bad things, but can be said to be righteous and awe-inspiring, this is the so-called bandit logic.

After a while, we got down to business

Emperor Richard returned to the current 12th Los Angeles World's Fair, and praised the many new technologies and inventions that had erupted in the economic and industrial fields, which made the faces of the ministers of industry and the ministers of education, health and sports in the present room shine with a special brilliance, and their bones were lightened.

His Majesty has always attached great importance to scientific and technological inventions, and specially named several important subject inventions, such as the world's first motorcycle, the world's first wireless transmitter, the world's single 5,000-horsepower marine steam turbine, etc., and asked for the gold medal of the exposition, and gave heavy awards to relevant scientific and technological personnel for encouragement.

These things can be handled by the following ministers, and it would be too grand for the royal family to come forward, and it would be too much.

Emperor Richard specially exhorted these advanced scientific and technological inventions to pay attention to practical application and popularization, put the achievements of scientific and technological inventions into production as soon as possible, continuously improve them in practical application, form new industries, and benefit more people in society.

With the attention of the Empire's supreme ruler, these new technological achievements will be quickly implemented.

Just like the bicycle in the past, it is now widely used in urban and rural areas, and has become a more convenient means of personal transportation after trams, trams, cars and horse-drawn carriages.

More than a dozen bicycle factories have emerged in the Tang Empire, with an annual output of more than 320,000 bicycles, and have formed a certain export capacity.

The widespread use of automobiles and bicycles has greatly increased the demand for natural rubber, which in turn has led to the expansion of natural rubber plantations, forming a beneficial virtuous circle.

(End of chapter)