1723 is the year of Guimao, the nineteenth year of Taiping of the Great Qi, and the forty-first year of the Qianyuan of the Great Qin.

As early as ten years ago, Qi could be deservedly called a world-class power, whether in terms of gross industrial and agricultural production, or in terms of its huge territory and numerous overseas territories.

In the 35 years from 1685 to 1720, Qi's annual coal production increased from 16.4 million tons to 115 million tons, an increase of more than seven times; The annual output of pig iron increased from 1.35 million tons to 8.2 million tons, and the output of steel increased from 1.8 million tons to 10.6 million tons; Cotton consumption has increased from 280 million kilograms to 1.26 billion kilograms, the number of cotton yarn factories has also increased from 1,600 to 4,500, and the mechanical spindle has about 50 million spindles, accounting for nearly half of the world's total cotton textile products produced in a year.

According to preliminary estimates, in 1720, Qi accounted for more than 40% of the world's industrial production, and in the entire world trade, Qi also occupied nearly half of the share with the strength of one country, which was consistent with the status of Qi in world trade at that time.

As early as 1685, the tonnage of merchant ships owned by Qi surpassed that of the Netherlands, and by 1720, the total tonnage of merchant ships of Qi exceeded the total tonnage of merchant ships of Britain, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, Venice, Genoa and other European countries.

Daxing (now Brisbane, Australia) was one of the world's three major international financial centers alongside Amsterdam and London during this period, and various securities traded and financed in Daxing averaged 80 million to 100 million yuan per year. Qi also exported a large amount of capital to the Nanyang Domain, the Malay Peninsula, the Qin State, the Northern Ming Dynasty, Korea, India, and other European countries and vast colonies, and by 1720, it had accumulated a huge amount of 600 million yuan.

At the same time as the economy of Qi is booming, the agriculture of Qi has also developed rapidly. By 1720, the area of cultivated land developed in Hanzhou of Qi had expanded to more than 7,000 mu (in the same period of history, the cultivated land area of the mainland reached 130 million mu in the Yongzheng period).

In the more fertile Viceroyalty of Kaihua (present-day Java Island), Xuanhua Viceroyalty (present-day Timor Island and the Lesser Sunda Islands), Jingping Viceroyalty (present-day Sulawesi), and the huge Weiyuan Island (present-day New Guinea Island), there were also large and small plantations, driving countless natives to work all day long, not only providing a large amount of grain and various agricultural raw materials for the mainland, but also exporting to overseas markets on a large scale to earn huge "foreign exchange income".

In the mainland and surrounding overseas territories, a large number of native coolies were used to build countless large-scale drainage and water harvesting projects through various machinery and labor; The vast pastures of Hanzhou and Dongzhou (now New Zealand) raised tens of millions of cattle and sheep, which not only provided sufficient wool for the booming woolen industry, but also provided a steady stream of cheap and high-quality meat and dairy products for more than 20 million people. The extensive use of fertilizer applicators in the field, the adoption of new methods of treating clay soils, and the increased use of mineral fertilizers (potassium phosphate ore on many guano islands, etc.) have effectively improved the fertility of cultivated land; In the process of agricultural production, the large-scale use of steam engines and other new working machines has improved the efficiency of agricultural production and created the most favorable conditions for the development of agricultural production and the increase of agricultural output.

The plantation economy in overseas territories and the extensive agricultural production cooperatives established in the territory have also made agricultural farming more intensive and large-scale, and have also laid a solid foundation for the industrialization of agriculture.

More than 30 years ago, the state of Qi still imposed certain tariffs on imported grains, and imposed high tariffs of 10%-40% on imported wool, timber, raw silk, veil, cane sugar, tea, high-grade porcelain, copper, tin and other more than 50 kinds of goods, and strictly prohibited the export of any machinery and patterns.

However, with the initial completion of the "industrial revolution" more than 20 years ago, Qi has established the status of "the world's factory", and the protective tariff policy has not only not played a positive role in the country's economic development and foreign expansion, but has become an obstacle to further economic development, which has hindered the country from entering the markets of all countries in the world with cheap industrial products and playing the role of "the world's factory".

Immediately, Qi began to fully promote the global free trade policy, not only abolishing import tariffs on most domestic goods, but also forcing a large number of countries and regions that trade with it to implement trade policies without any restrictions. The First Qi-India War, the Bengal War, the Qi-Japan War, and the Burma War, as well as the Qi-Qin-Yizhou (present-day Taiwan Island) crisis that broke out decades ago, are all manifestations of Qi's forced free trade policy in order to break local trade protectionism.

From 1675 to 1700, Qi abolished import taxes on more than 520 commodities and reduced import taxes on more than 1,100 commodities; From 1700 to 1720, Qi reduced and abolished the consumption tax on many consumer goods, as well as the duty-free import of various raw materials, etc., eliminating the remnants of tariff protection, thereby reducing the cost of Qi products, and promoting the prosperity of industry and commerce and the development of import and export business, which is in line with the interests of domestic industrial and commercial capital, and also "promote" other countries to improve their tariff policies, thereby expanding world trade and promoting the growth of the world economy.

Qi established zero-tariff free trade zones with vassal states such as Weiguo, Luzon, Ryukyu, Sulu, Shunguo, Hexian, Champong, Dongdan (the territory includes the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River and the vast area of Jiangbei), and Bohai.

Qin, Brunei, Cambodia, Siam, Burma, Quang Nam (Annam Nguyen), Annam (Truong), Northern Ming, Japan, Korea, as well as Mughal, Persia and other countries and regions, in response to the "strong request" of Qi, have successively maintained the import and export tariffs on Qi goods at a very low level.

Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Ottomans and other European countries have also successively reduced tariffs on goods from their alignment countries.

Along with industrialization, the Qi country had an early process of urbanization. By 1720, there were 19 native cities with a population of 100,000 or more. The population of Jianye (present-day Darwin, Australia) and Daxing exceeded 600,000, and the population of Chang'an (present-day Toowoomba), Weihai (present-day Cairns), Guangling (present-day Townsville), Yongchang (present-day Gold Coast, Australia), Linzi (present-day Sydney), Nandu (present-day Melbourne), and Guizhou (present-day Perth) all exceeded 300,000. According to rough estimates, the urbanization rate of the entire country has exceeded 40%, the highest in the world (during this period, the urbanization rate in the United Kingdom was about 17%, and in France it was 12%).

Before 1660, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery accounted for more than 70% of the total labor force (excluding natives), but by 1720 this proportion had dropped significantly to 40% and continued to decline.

In terms of industrial structure, Qi's manufacturing, mining, and construction industries rose from 25% in 1660 to 47% in 1720. This means that a large number of rural laborers have become workers in industrial and mining areas, industrial towns and emerging cities, changing the way they once lived and worked.

The economic prosperity and rapid industrial development of Qi are inseparable from its policy of colonial expansion that has spared no effort for more than 80 years. Consciously or unconsciously, domestic industrial and commercial capital are trying to turn all other countries into suppliers of raw materials and dumping markets for industrial products, so as to consolidate Qi's position as the world's largest industrial center. Throughout the Nanyang region, the Malay Peninsula, the Indochina Peninsula, Japan, Korea, India, Persia, Arabia and other countries and regions, Qi has carried out political and military expansion and economic infiltration, trying to integrate them into the market trade system dominated by Qi as the "world factory".

Qi was the first country in the world to use steam power for railway transportation. In 1710, the Qi State had built more than 32,000 kilometers of railways, accounting for 98% of the world's total railway mileage (during this period, only the two wealthy vassal states of Wei and Luzon, as well as the Northern Ming and Great Qin, each owned hundreds of kilometers of railways). By 1720, Qi had basically built a modern railway network in its own territory, connecting major industrial cities and ports, which further promoted the development of domestic industry and commerce.

During this period, Qi was already an industrial country with many factories, huge industrial cities rising one after another, and more than half of the country's population engaged in industry and commerce. New ironworks and new textile mills appeared, countless mines were being developed on a large scale, and ocean-going merchant ships with the flag of Qi fluttering on their masts appeared in seas and ports around the world.

Undoubtedly, the past 80 years or so have been an era of prosperity and hope for every Qi person.

"But in contrast to the accumulation of wealth of the upper classes, capital is also growing, and the entire domestic economy is in extreme prosperity, while countless workers are in relative poverty." Zhuo Shiping, a professor at the Imperial University of Science and Technology, looked at the bustling passengers outside Daxing Station, carrying large and small luggage, slowly moving towards the station, and said softly: "The most worrying thing about the current social situation in our country is that the consumption power of ordinary people is declining, and the hardship and poverty of the working class are increasing, which makes the number of immigrants to overseas territories increase every year. In the long run, an unpredictable crisis will inevitably erupt in the country. ”

"Brother Zhuo's words are a bit alarmist." Fang Lijie, secretary of the Daxing Department of Education, sneered and retorted: "Looking at the economic growth and industrial expansion of China over the past few decades, on the whole, it has greatly promoted the overall progress and development of society. Not to mention that the income level of the working class in China far exceeds that of ordinary people in other countries in the world, even their living conditions have improved significantly compared with thirty or forty years ago. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, from the 10th year of Hanxing (1680) to the 16th year of Taiping (1720), the average wage of workers increased by 40%. During the same period, taxes on the propertied class accounted for 16 per cent of wages, while currently they account for only 9 per cent of wages. After a few years of hard work, most workers would gradually rise to the rank of skilled workers, and then they would be able to enjoy wages commensurate with their proficiency, and their standard of living would be comparable to that of a middle-class landlord in the Qin state. Let me ask, in which country in the world can ordinary people be like my Qi people? ”

"Yes, the standard of living of the ordinary people of my Qi country is far beyond that of the Qin country, and perhaps it will also surpass the ordinary people of all countries in the world. However, do you dare to say that they are willing to endure all kinds of oppression and bullying by the factory owners? Zhuo Shiping said bitterly: "I work uninterrupted for more than ten hours a day, like a cow or a horse, without a moment of rest." There is also an extremely harsh production environment in the factory, exposed to various toxic and harmful substances, which has damaged their bodies to the greatest extent. Six years ago, someone made a statistical statistic on the living conditions of workers, and one of the data was extremely shocking: when the average life expectancy of workers in China reached 48 years, the average life expectancy of workers was only 37 years. ”

"You literati just like to play word games and number games, and then take them out to be alarmist, even grandstanding." Fang Lijie looked at Zhuo Shiping mockingly, "We all know that when calculating the average life expectancy, it includes the data of newborn infants and young children who die young, as well as the death of various sudden diseases. If you go to the factories and see the field, there are not a few workers over the age of 40. Although, it is undeniable that workers have a poor production environment, high labor intensity, long hours, and are prone to various occupational diseases. However, no matter in terms of income, or in terms of daily diet and various protein intake, the workers of our country are happier than the people of other countries in the world at the same time. ”

"Happiness?" Zhuo Shiping sneered and said: "Their happiness is probably due to sacrificing personal freedom and health, as well as enduring unattainable oppression, in exchange for this pitiful happiness from the hands of capital." ”

"......" Fang Lijie

"Every time they meet, they always have to fight for each other." Zhuo Shiping's wife, He Bingjie, shook her head with a smile, and said to Song Wenru, a neighbor and friend next to her: "If there is such an argument, I'm afraid I won't be able to enter the station or get on the train!" ”

Song Wenru also smiled bitterly, then took a step forward and said, "Okay, don't argue, the surrounding travelers are watching you." The purpose of our trip was to send Brother Zhuo to Weiyuan (now Port Moresby) for research, and we made a special appointment to see him off. ”

"That's what Wen Ru said." Fang Lijie glanced at Zhuo Shiping and said: "Arguing with a literati like him who doesn't understand current affairs is plain and makes people short of breath and depressed. ”

"Arguing with people like you who are in the public house of the corpse is a futile tongue and makes people feel uneasy!" Zhuo Shiping replied unceremoniously.

"You guys......" Song Wenru shook her head and said softly: "Let's go into the waiting room, don't miss the train." ”

Several people nodded, protecting He Bingjie and Song Wenru, and walked towards the station with the bustling crowd.

"In recent issues, we have seen that there is chaos in Persia and that the Afghans have been besieging Isfahanda for months." Zhuo Shiping said with concern: "I heard that this child in Yanliang is serving on the sandbank, I don't know if it has been affected and affected. ”

"In May last year, Yanliang wrote to inform them that their forces were carrying out military operations in the Gulf of Persia." Song Wenru showed a worried look on her face, "As for whether it will enter the territory of Persia and encounter Afghan rebel forces, it is not yet known." …… I haven't heard from him for more than eight months. ”

"Wenru, relax and relax." Fang Lijie comforted softly: "Our Qi army generally does not go deep into the hinterland of other countries to carry out military tasks, and naturally it will not fall into Persian civil strife. Even if they did want to intervene in Persian affairs, they would most likely be deployed in coastal areas and ports. With the strength of our Qi country's navy, it is absolutely impossible to let the army units fall into a predicament. ”

“…… But why didn't he write back for so long? Song Wenru frowned slightly, and there was a panic in her heart for no reason, "Back then, I shouldn't have agreed to him to apply for the army school." ”