Established a millennium family since King Wu defeated Zhou

Chapter 999 Long River
Ji Zhao went upstream along the long river of history.

He witnessed many famous historical events, and the closer to ancient times he got, the more prosperous the myths and legends became.

Many of these myths are recorded in Luo's books, and many were even written down by Ji Zhao himself.

It’s still the same principle. The record of history cannot be changed. He cannot erase the memories of countless people, whether dead or alive.

Those memories and emotions poured into it constitute an individual's independent personality. Any modification of history, especially any changes in the upstream of history, will have an enormous impact on the downstream.

Ji Zhao is in the long river of history. As he moves forward step by step, the illusory history becomes reality.

The river was neither transparent nor white, nor did it have any golden glow.

It has a light pink color.

Do not!
It was not pink, but a very light red. He took a step forward, and the river turned a little bit towards red. However, the change was too small. Even two or three thousand years was just a drop in the ocean for the birth of this world.

Human history is the most difficult to weave. Ji Zhao walked through fantasy and turned it into reality. Then he had to take away the extraordinary power from that reality to stabilize this world and at the same time gain him even more powerful power.

For future generations, perhaps this will always be a myth. They have seen in ancient books that in ancient times, there was a group of people who possessed extraordinary powers and used these powers to create earth-shaking achievements.

It’s a pity that this cannot be done in reality, so they may use science to explain the phenomena in classics and history books and believe in themselves.

What they said is both right and wrong.

When the extraordinary power is taken away from every time node in the long river of history, the world will completely enter a world without magic.

At that time, only Ji Zhao possessed extraordinary powers. What kind of existence was he?

in fact.

People in ancient times might also envy people in later generations, because people in later generations have the power of technology and can also do things that those extraordinary people in the past could not do.

These things are no longer important to Ji Zhao. What he has to do is very simple, which is to go to the source of the world. Only then will he know more.

Like who is he?

Three philosophical questions: who are you, where do you come from, and where are you going.

This is what Ji Zhao was thinking about.

These answers may lie at the origin of the world. He may have to go back billions of years to reach the origin of the earth, or even longer, to the origin of the universe to see if the origin of this world is the Big Bang.

For every step he takes forward, the space of this world expands, the upper limit of human beings in this world rises, and he gets one step closer to the truth.

Even the Luo family could not help him with what he was doing now. When he woke up from the Heavenly Pillar, he never heard the sound of the system again. The system turned into a jade disc-shaped object, waiting for him to study.

……

Thousands of years in heaven, and suffering in the water and fire on earth.

"While the Tang Dynasty was undergoing a painful and hearty transformation, Europe, far away from the Tang Dynasty, was also launching a transformation against the monarchy. The flames of this movement were burning so fiercely that the New School Party members knew of the hostile gaze from the Tang Dynasty's King Luo, and they dared not wait even a moment."

Let’s change!
Just at this time!
In the Roman Senate, new school members with different faces and from various countries gathered here.

The Roman Senate is somewhat similar to the Senates of other countries.

The magnificent marble columns, the sunlight shining from the top, the countless portraits hanging around the hall, the saints and venerables seemed to be looking at them all.

The most beautiful silk clothes.

The most intricate and detailed carving.

"Push the king to the guillotine and let the king and all the nobles of the old world pay the price for all the exploitation and oppression in the past, unless he is willing to become an ordinary citizen, take the initiative to stop the bloody struggle, and give up the power that once belonged to him."

Hundreds of people in the audience applauded enthusiastically. They threw down their white, gold and blue silk scarves, which scattered all over the venue like snow ribbons falling everywhere.

The reason why these people gathered here again was because the New School members from the Tang Dynasty who had gone to persuade Luo Changqing had already brought Luo Changqing's words to the far west.

Separatism in the Far West is not as serious as imagined. After hundreds of years of cultural exchanges and infiltration, and more than a hundred years of rule, most people do not want to become independent directly, especially for the traditional countries in the Far West.

They actually don't care about having an emperor far away in Luoyang above them, but the prerequisite is that the emperor lets them govern the affairs and does not interfere in the operation of their country. If this is really possible, then having an emperor is not a bad idea.

The weakness of the new learning has already begun to show. When Rome was just established and it was still quite dangerous, they were still able to persist in fighting. Now that Rome is relatively stable, the big businessmen and politicians in the country no longer want to fight with the Tang Dynasty. They even want to continue trading with the Tang Dynasty to make money.

As for the emotions that had gradually been stirred up within Rome, they did not take them seriously.

For most businessmen, who are the Romans? They are our own people. You are just a peasant, and the money you earn in a year is not as much as a piece of clothing I have. If you were not needed to fight in the war, how could a peasant like you have the honor to be listed in the same ethnic group as me.

Some words are indeed chilling when spoken out loud, but not saying them does not mean they do not exist. Luo Changqing keenly saw through the hypocrisy of these businessmen, so he harbored great malice towards new learning.

As he said, he doesn’t know what the future will be like, but it will definitely not be a world dominated by business and commercial interests.

A businessman may abandon everything in the world for the sake of profit, but if he does not pursue profit he will go bankrupt. Luo once encountered such a crisis.

The wages offered by other merchants and factories were too low, and the production costs were too low, so Luo's business could hardly continue. In the end, he had to use his political power to force others to increase their costs in order to maintain Luo's business empire.

Now Luo Changqing's words have completely shattered their fantasy. The Tang Dynasty wants to kill them all. If that's the case, they can only fight to the death.

In the vast European land, all the monarchies would be overthrown, a republic would be established, and then the Tang Dynasty would be competed for supremacy. This is how the envoys of various countries came to Constantinople.

Luo Changqing can be said to have pushed everyone to the opposite side of the Tang Dynasty.

It was a bad move politically.

Does Luo Changqing know about this?
Of course he knew. As the prime minister who had been in charge of the government for decades, how could he not know these simple principles of struggle?

But he did this intentionally or unintentionally, and he naturally had his own purpose.

First of all, he believed that after more republics were established in Europe, most of these countries would not obey the orders of the Tang Dynasty. Then a situation would arise in Europe where no country could act as an arbitrator.

In the early days, Rome might have some say, but soon other countries would force Rome to leave, and Rome had to leave because Rome was not that powerful in essence. This was completely different from the Tang Dynasty, which had the power to destroy any country.

In this case, the division is inevitable. Rome was founded by the Neo-Scholars with the funding of merchants, but if all other countries were founded with the funding of merchants, things would naturally happen, and they would fight against each other, and this kind of struggle would undoubtedly expose the cruelty of their society.

A new social theory is always born from summarizing and reflecting on the past.

The chaos of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period gave rise to the Hundred Schools of Thought, which eventually led to the establishment of the Han system. The chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty gave rise to the Tang system.

After seeing the cruelty and shortcomings of the imperial system, the New School Party reflected on it again, and thus the New School emerged. So, after the problems of the New School emerged, what new knowledge would emerge?

Luo Changqing is using his own way to make the new school mature quickly, and then expose the cancer within it. He may not see the end of the new school, but the end of the new school will definitely come, he firmly believes this.

In Luo Changqing's view, the republic established by the new learning is not the only option for the future of the empire, but can only be said to be one of the options. Enlightened monarchy is another solution to the empire. It has no causal relationship with the emerging countries of the new learning, but is two forks in the road.

In terms of the speed of commercial circulation, commercial output, and vitality of private trade, Rome might be a little better, but that was built on extremely poor factory conditions and great physical wear and tear on the workers. To put it bluntly, it was built on the blood and tears of the workers.

Although the Tang Dynasty was somewhat inferior to the Romans in this regard, the living conditions of its employees were at least better than those in Rome. At least most of the work was not life-threatening, and the commissions received were enough to barely maintain a normal life.

The hired workers in the Tang Dynasty were still normal people, while those in Rome were real cattle and horses.

This is why Luo Changqing said that the New School Party said all the good things but did all the bad things. They said that everyone is equal, but that is not the case when they act.

and.

This is not even caused by so-called personal morality, but is destined by the political and economic model. In order to defeat others, one can only engage in unscrupulous competition.

In Luo Changqing's opinion, the only way to solve this problem is to unify the world and place all merchants under a strong central government. Then, just like what Luo did before, laws should be enacted to protect employment and restrict the various behaviors of merchants.

It is precisely because of seeing these that Luo Changqing is so obsessed with the unification of the Tang Dynasty. No matter what, the future world will always be a unified world, regardless of whether the Tang Dynasty he fought for still exists or not.

……

“New school system reforms always start from the weakest corners of the imperial system and explode where the contradictions are deepest.”

The theory of New Learning emerged within the Tang Dynasty, but first blossomed in Rome. The reason was quite simple: the imperial system of the Tang Dynasty was too stable and the contradictions were not intense enough to overthrow the system.

Compared with the monarchs and nobles of the vassal states who were extravagant, debauched, and cruel, the royal family of the Tang Dynasty had a touch of humanity. The idea of ​​benevolence ran through the blood of the people. Becoming a benevolent monarch was what most ministers expected of the monarch, and it was also the monarch's own goal.

Coupled with the substantial increase in productivity, the people of the Tang Dynasty were not forced to rebel due to their inability to survive. Once such a huge empire lacked internal motivation, there would naturally be no change of dynasty, nor would such a widespread national uprising break out, which would destroy the existence of the monarchy.

If you rise by this, you will surely fall by this.

This eternal prophecy is still in effect.

Sometimes in the early stages, when you are too invincible and have no rivals, you tend to become arrogant.

It is easy to say that we should be prepared for danger in times of peace.

But. I am better than you, why should I change? Shouldn't you change?
This is the right choice for people.

Sometimes it is not simply a bad thing when intense conflicts quickly reach the limit of what a society can bear.

Many monarchs of the vassal states were very bad, so they chose to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic.

The Tang Dynasty did not have such deep contradictions, so the imperial system was relatively stable. However, when the republican system began to surge, it fell behind. If it had not been for Luo Changqing's enlightened monarchical reforms, the Tang Dynasty might have lagged behind for a while.

Luo Changqing carried out internal reforms in the Tang Dynasty and began to expand the military at the same time. He was not just talking casually in the palace at that time, he was really preparing to teach Rome and other countries a lesson.

If it can be directly transformed into a province, that would of course be the last resort. Even if it cannot be transformed into a province, if the power of those countries can be weakened, if new forces emerge in the future, the old system can be overthrown more quickly.

What Luo Changqing was thinking about was, first, the future of the Tang Dynasty, and second, the future of the entire world.

A vigorous new academic reform was launched in Europe. In fact, many countries did not have such internal conditions, and the internal conflicts in the countries had not yet reached the point where a reform would break out.

But this is the difference between a small country and a big country.

Sometimes a country does not have the power to decide its own path. Internal conflicts may not be enough, but external conflicts are enough.

The first countries affected by Rome were those around it, and it even sent troops to overthrow the rule of other kingdoms. The huge external pressure, coupled with the internal pressure, made it impossible for most countries to withstand the combined internal and external pressure.

It's like a domino effect, the speed is as fast as fission, the change in the general trend is as fast as the climate, from Rome to other countries following, the speed is unimaginable.

Only Persia and Qin could temporarily resist this trend, but anyone with a discerning eye could see that when the new learning reform movement was in full swing, the royal family would soon face tremendous internal pressure.

After all, it is not only the emerging classes that support the new learning reforms, but also many nobles. Not all nobles want to maintain the existence of the royal power. After all, there are different factions in the forces and theories of the new learning reforms.

Logically speaking, reform is a relatively long process, usually requiring repeated tug-of-war, with both sides constantly testing the bottom line until one of the parties, usually the New School party, completely sees through the reactionary face of the old aristocracy, and then finally resorts to force. Usually, the use of force will also involve several wars, coupled with restoration, and repeated torture back and forth.

But the situation is a little different now. This mode of resistance usually arises due to internal reasons and is a change within a country.

But the situation is different now. Because of the existence of the Tang Dynasty, the world has been connected as a whole more than a hundred years ago. Merchant ships from various countries sail on the four oceans, sailing in Europe and Asia, and also doing some trade with the indigenous people of Atlantis and Oceania, as well as criminals, immigrants, and pioneers.

Of course, Atlantis and Oceania were too backward and the market demand was not large. The Tang Empire set up governors and established the Atlantis Province and Oceania Province respectively, but basically did not care about the affairs there.

As for Yanzhou, there is no need to say more. There are rainforests and grasslands everywhere. In the vast jungle, there are only wild beasts, and even natives cannot be seen. If you want to gain profits from Yanzhou, the investment capital is unknown, and a large number of immigrants are needed. The amount of resources required for these large numbers of immigrants is countless.

Now that Asia and Europe have not been fully utilized, who has the energy to develop there?

This is the current situation of the world's five continents. Asia has the largest population and the largest area.

Europe is smaller in area but has a larger population.

Then there is Atlantis, which is second only to Asia in area, only slightly smaller than Asia, and has a small population.

Then there is Yanzhou, which is smaller than Asia and Atlantis. Most of the population is in the northern part of the Yanzhou desert, and there are almost no people living in the southern part of the desert.

Of course, because Atlantis is rather special, some people believe that it should be divided into North Atlantis and South Atlantis, but we will not discuss this here.

The last is Oceania, which is relatively small in area and not as big as Europe, which was separated from the Eurasian continent.

Luo Changqing believed that the borders of the world had now been explored, and as long as all the land in the world was unified, there would be no more wars in the world.

When the world's communication reaches this level, everything has to take external factors into consideration.

This is the case with the current European reform and the Tang Dynasty reform. Under the huge military pressure of the Tang Dynasty, many people gave up the idea of ​​slowly seizing power and directly embarked on the path of armed seizure of power.

Military is the continuation of politics, which is vividly demonstrated in this aspect. Under the military pressure of the Tang Dynasty and with the military assistance of Rome, it directly skipped those tedious political struggles and took the final step.

This is the impact of world politics on the internal politics of these countries, and the aftermath of this impact is far from stopping.

Productivity and production relations complement each other. The improvement of productivity will change the mode of production, and the mode of production will in turn affect the improvement of productivity. Productivity will again affect the mode of production. This is how the two will eventually be adapted to each other. If they cannot be adapted, they will continue to roll forward.

Now, due to the huge external pressure, the internal political structure has exploded instantly. After the explosion, a new political structure quickly formed in the cities and then spread from the cities to the countryside. In this process, the emerging class must also seize resources from the feudal nobles who occupy the countryside.

To put it nicely, it was to seize resources; to put it bluntly, it was to completely break the power of the old aristocracy, to use the army and the goods produced in the factories to completely destroy the old aristocracy's manor economy from a financial perspective, and even to use strong government means to force the peasants to either actively or passively leave the land and become completely asset-less urban freemen.

Of course, the reality is not as warm and sentimental as these descriptions describe. Farmers are driven out of the land on which they depend for survival, and the land originally used to grow food is used to grow cash crops and raw materials needed by factories. They have no land to cultivate and can only rely on factory wages.

In this way, the New School members controlled more population, and then more means of production, and then the power of the entire country.

This is the reason why the regime exists.

Why were Roman merchants so powerful? Because they controlled the most resources.

And why in the Tang Dynasty, merchants were like pigs and sheep waiting to be slaughtered and could never come to the stage? It was not because of some other empty things, but because from the beginning to the end, the court controlled the most resources. These resources were not simply money, which could be printed at will in Luo's Bank.

The imperial court controls land, population, grain, cloth, and steel, which can be converted into immediate combat power. With these things in hand, all the wealth of the merchants is like duckweed in the water, without any roots, and can be banned at any time.

Such violent reforms are taking place in almost every country, some have succeeded and some have failed.

Compared with these European kingdoms, the new learning is certainly advanced, but advancement does not necessarily defeat backwardness. This is precisely materialistic and in line with reality.

From a relatively short-term perspective, there is no reason why any country is bound to rise, and there is no reason why any country is bound to fail.

Heroes play a huge role in this. A strong man falling from the sky can really change the fate of a country.

This is not a heroic view of history, but because——

The fate of a country, in the long river of history, is just an insignificant wave. Its prosperity or decline has no impact on the fate of the entire history.

Changing the fate of a country now and allowing it to survive for a few more decades or centuries will not change the fact that it will eventually perish.

And what are a few hundred years compared to the billions of years of Earth’s history?

Just like in the dinosaur era, what impact would changing the survival or destruction of a dinosaur population have on the eventual extinction of the entire dinosaur population?

This is the same reason.

When the dust of history falls on an individual, it becomes the unbearable pain of the times.

A wave in the long river of history is the life of one person or even countless people.

For every person living in this world, those short few decades of life are all they have.

So for them, the changes in a country, whether for better or worse, is everything.

In various countries, some succeeded because the New School members were better, while others failed because the conservatives were better, but wars were happening in every corner.

At first, only the Roman intervention army appeared, but soon a joint intervention army of various countries appeared. The Neo-School Party formed a military alliance, and the conservatives also began to unite. The Persian Kingdom and the Qin Kingdom united with the remaining kingdoms on the Eurasian continent and threatened to fight a war with the Neo-School countries.

Even Luo Changqing did not expect such a plot development, but he was happy to see it happen. The more Europe's strength was depleted now, the easier it would be for him to deal with those European countries later.

However, Luo Changqing did not think that the Kingdom's United Army could defeat the joint intervention forces of various countries, so he ordered the Tang army on the front line to act according to circumstances and to help the Kingdom's United Army when necessary.

Reform is a very time-consuming thing. For at least five years, the Tang Dynasty will not have much energy to pay attention to wars in distant countries.

Knowing that the Tang Dynasty was undergoing reforms, the European countries seized the opportunity to carry out their own reforms. However, they did not expect that they would be plunged into war halfway through the reform process, just after completing the political reform and before carrying out complete economic and ideological reforms.

The war in Europe did not surprise Luo Changqing. After all, even the Tang Dynasty had suffered some minor losses at the hands of Rome. How could those kingdom armies now be the opponents of the coalition forces? After several years, Rome had completed a full set of reforms. Although its size was similar to that of Persia and Qin, its mobilization capabilities far surpassed those two countries.

The terror of industrial nation-states is not just that. The more they fight, the stronger their mobilization capabilities become, and they can relax conscription.

The feudal monarchy is just the opposite. It must ensure the existence of its own regular troops, let those miscellaneous troops go up and consume them first, and also clearly distinguish whose soldiers they are.

If the army that maintains the royal power disappears, then the royal power is basically gone.

In history, there is a saying that goes "A person with greater merits than the king"; that is, a country is not allowed to have anyone with greater merits than the king, and even if he is smarter than the king, he must be tolerated.

Another common occurrence was that the previous king would "eliminate threats" for the next king and eliminate those ministers who were talented in military affairs and had political prestige so as to prevent them from threatening the rule of the royal family.

This shortcoming can only be compensated by the Tang Dynasty with the Luo family, so the Tang Dynasty can become the strongest empire.

However, in the country established by the New School Party, there was no such concern. This was another situation of complete crushing. In this situation, the Kingdom Army would of course be defeated step by step, which was quite normal.

Even if the Tang Dynasty army joined in, they could not withstand the leadership of such stupid teammates, and many kingdom armies could be said to have no desire to fight.

The weapon of propaganda is simply too powerful.

Those remarks were so inflammatory that they seemed to artificially open a door to a bright future.

There was even a king who, when betrayed by his guards and imprisoned, lamented, "It was those books that destroyed the kingdom."

(End of this chapter)