18th century total war

Chapter 347
Office of the Prime Minister, Government of London.

"Everyone, although the war in the Far East had some twists and turns, those Qing people with pigtails hanging behind their heads were weaker than we expected.

The news that the Far Eastern Empire is willing to accept the terms of the peace talks has spread. This is a great victory, and it is everyone here who created all this.

I believe that the nobles and capitalists in the parliament should understand who can continue to lead Britain to glory. "

Thanks to the victory in the Far East War, Prime Minister Peter, who successfully got rid of his own political crisis and won re-election, said impassionedly.

For the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland, this is not a simple military victory, but the beginning of plundering huge amounts of wealth from the Far East in the next few decades!
Just look at the peace talks drafted by the London government.

The cedarization of Hong Kong Island and the right to garrison troops allowed the Far East Fleet of the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland to obtain a large and stable stronghold at the door of the Qing court, and to conduct military intervention against the Qing court's breach of contract anytime and anywhere, to protect Britain's interests in the Qing Dynasty !
This alone is enough to prove that this war is a great victory!

After all, this is not to occupy a point in the original native kingdom that is not shitting, but to occupy a stable stronghold on the mainland of the most powerful suzerain country thousands of miles away!
And this Far Eastern empire also possessed huge profiteering trade products such as porcelain, tea, and silk that the European continent could not refuse!

This is a rooster that lays golden eggs, and even a rooster with an embarrassing pigtail behind its head is enough to make the Britons celebrate.

Well, because Europeans at this time could not appreciate the aesthetics of pigtail braids on the back of Qing people's heads, they always thought that men in Qing Dynasty were very ugly (women don't need pigtail braids).

In this backward era, the concept of beauty and ugliness can easily affect public opinion.

Looking at the high-level governments of European countries, there are many mature and handsome men. As long as they rely on themselves to fight for the top, they must have a good-looking face.

The reason is simple. Those in positions of power are naturally resistant to people with ugly faces, which is commonly known as a bad first impression. Unless you have the ability to resist the sky, it is basically difficult to be promoted if you are not good-looking.

After all, there is no strict examination system in this era, and promotions are basically recommended by superiors. In this regard, the West and the East are alike.

In other words, the improvement of the examination system is actually to give ugly faces a chance to compete fairly!

Thanks for the exam!
Compared with the West, the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty in the same period had more perverted requirements for appearance, and it even reached the point where as long as you are not an idiot, you can be a good-looking official, and you will be able to prosper in official career!

Why did He Shen get Qianlong's favor?
Because the prototype of He Shen in history is a typical tall and mighty handsome guy!

Whether a man sees it or a woman encounters it, he will have a good impression on his first impression.

However, the nobles of the Eight Banners in the Manchu Empire may not be handsome men and beautiful women. The reason is very simple - intermarriage of close relatives.

Manchu-Han non-intermarriage was a red line in the Qing Dynasty, even if it was a Bannerman woman from the Han Banners, it would be very difficult to get on the thick legs of the Manchu Eight Banners dignitaries.

Each one qualifies as the best of the best.

This is actually a kind of discrimination against the Han people by the Eight Banners nobles at that time.

Han beauties can be treated as playthings, but it would be disrespectful to marry them home!
This has led to a serious phenomenon of intermarriage among the nobles of the Eight Banners. The ancestors of the Eight Banners are all savages who drilled out of the deep mountains and old forests. And know...

This is why many Eight Banners leaders and the appearance of the emperor are hard to describe...

Of course, for the same reason, the Manchu Eight Banners nobles who are officials in the court are also the product of internal intermarriage, so the average appearance level is relatively low. On the contrary, the Han officials who have been killed all the way from the imperial examination system have extremely high average appearance!
This is the official selection system of the Qing Dynasty.

The selection of officials among the banner people is based on noble blood, while the selection of officials among the Han people is based on both appearance and talent.

In the history of the Qing Dynasty in this world, there have been many examples of people with high talents but not good looks who were treated differently and sent to the Qingshui Yamen to sit on the bench, just because their superiors looked unhappy.

Compared with the degree of facial control of Eastern officials, the facial control of Western officials is nothing at all. At least in the West, if you can really become a scientist, you can get ahead even if you are ugly.

In the East, if you are ugly, you can only rely on blood...

Although there is no explicit regulation on appearance in various countries, even the law requires everyone to be equal, but in this backward era, this has become one of the unspoken rules.

It wasn't until a more enlightened system of examination and selection of officials became popular that the bad habit of checking appearance was curbed a bit.

But even in the 21st century of Li Wei's last life, people with the same talent, good looks or good looks will still get more social resources.

This phenomenon is especially serious in the entertainment industry. In a certain country, as long as you are handsome, beautiful and sweet enough, and acting skills, you only need to know how to shout one, two, three, four, five...

Anyway, there are some brain-dead fans who pay for a face!

The only technical requirement in the entertainment industry is to lower acting skills to this level, let alone other technical thresholds?
As a result, it became a face that ate all over the world.

Fortunately, Li Wei, who came from the 21st century, has no habit of judging the appointment of officials. He has also promulgated a strict civil servant examination system to select candidates based on their talents, which fundamentally prevents those bosses from using their powers to choose "good-looking" candidates. The problem of being an official.

After some celebrations, Prime Minister Pitt changed the topic and entered the focus of this cabinet meeting.

"The tyrant of France, Li Wei, once again started his expansion of ambitions, and used his newly expanded fleet in the war against the Ottoman Empire.

As it turned out, the new army of the Ottoman Empire was still vulnerable to the retinue of the tyrant Livi.

According to this trend, the fall of the Ottoman Empire will happen sooner or later. It is nothing more than the price of the lives of soldiers that the tyrant Li Wei has to pay.

What do you think about this? "

"Master Prime Minister, since we have obtained a large amount of stable financial resources from the Far East Empire, which is enough to expand more troops and support our allies, the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia to fight a longer war, naturally we cannot continue to sit back and watch the French tyrant Li Wei expansion.

If the tyrant Li Wei continues to expand, his next goal may not be to reproduce Rome, but to form the Europa Empire. "

The Minister of War was the first to speak.

For war on land, no one is more eager than him, because only war requires the expansion of the pocket army of the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland.

After so many years, the local army, which has been in a state of expansion, has not even reached 10 people!

To put it bluntly, there is not enough money!
If there is enough money, with the industrial capacity of the British Isles, it only takes one year to expand the army by hundreds of thousands!

Of course, the aristocratic capitalists in parliament would definitely not be happy.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers will inevitably draw away a large number of young and strong labor force, leading to an increase in the cost of recruiting workers for factories.

Although the British Isles now has more people and less land, the aristocratic capitalists in London are still keen on increasing the birth rate.

The greater the population density, the lower the labor cost of factory workers, and the more convenient it is to replenish!

This is actually the involution effect.

Today on the British Isles, almost all the land is monopolized by the noble landowners. If you want to farm land, you can only be a farmer for the noble feudal lords. It is better to work in a factory and earn more...

Naturally, every year, a large number of bankrupt farmers flood into the cities to work. With so many people working and eating, capitalists can of course keep their wages to the minimum, as long as they don't starve to death.

If there were not so many introverted workers, the capitalists would need to increase their salaries if they wanted to recruit people!

This is actually a demographic dividend!

However, it is the state and the wealthy capitalists who benefit.

The country's benefits are the increase in tax revenue and production capacity brought about by economic prosperity and industrial development, which is commonly known as the increase in national power.

The benefit that the capitalists get is that they can desperately squeeze the surplus value of the proletarians, and even use their lives as consumables!
This is the reason why the London government still spares no effort to encourage births, despite the fact that the contradictions between people and the earth have fully exploded.

Of course, the proletarians are not fools. When the population is so dense that there is no food to eat, revolution will follow.

But the problem of revolution is not serious on the British Isles, because the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland is a global colonial country with many overseas colonies that can be used for 'population flooding'.

When the number of poor people reaches a certain level and they can't even compete for the jobs of subsistence allowances, they don't have to wait to die, and then be drawn into the revolutionary forces as cannon fodder, they can choose to fight overseas.

Many overseas British colonial aristocrats are in urgent need of population, so they are even willing to pay for boat tickets in advance to recruit the local poor.

This ensures that the poor on the British Isles remain within the safety line and no violent revolutions break out.

This is why in the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland, except for the frequent rebellion of the oppressed and unworthy Irish, other areas are relatively stable.

It is not because of the glory of the empire on which the sun never sets, nor is it because the London government is sympathetic to the people, and is a democratic country as advertised in their newspapers, but because the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland has many overseas colonies that can divert the contradictions of population class antagonisms.

"Master Prime Minister, although the European continental war will have a great burden on the domestic economic development, we cannot just sit back and watch the tyrant Li Wei expand the territory.

We can unite the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and other sovereign countries in Europe to mediate the war between the tyrant Levi and the Ottoman Empire, and help the Ottoman Empire keep their Anatolian mainland (the Ottoman name for Asia Minor) .

In this way, if the tyrant Li Wei objects, he will openly stand against all sovereign countries in Europe, and it will be easier for us to form the fifth anti-French alliance.

Otherwise, the current European countries are more afraid of the tyrant Levi, and it will be quite difficult for them to declare war on the tyrant Levi for no reason. "

After hearing the reason of the Foreign Secretary, Prime Minister Pete nodded slightly and praised:

"Yes, in the name of peace, bring all sovereign countries to the same negotiating table. If the tyrant Li Wei insists on attacking the Ottoman Empire, needless to say, those countries also know what choice to make.

But, are we ready for the fifth anti-French war? "

"Master Prime Minister, we did not do well, but the tyrant Li Wei also did not do well, otherwise he would have accepted the Ottoman Empire's terms of peace talks and launched an attack on the Kingdom of Prussia or the Russian Empire.

The tyrant Li Wei is currently undergoing internal reforms. The revolutionary party forces we funded are very sad. Most of the territory occupied by the tyrant Li Wei has been destroyed by war. A large population solves the contradiction between man and land.

Without the conflict between people and land, there will be no famine in the area under the control of the tyrant Li Wei. It is difficult to win too many people to participate in the revolution by relying on revolutionary theory alone under the high-handed rule of the tyrant Li Wei.

Therefore, it is no longer advisable to overthrow the tyrant Li Wei from the inside. We must curb the expansion of the tyrant Li Wei from the outside. "

"Well, although the formal treaty in the Far East has not been signed, the situation is doomed, and the Qing court, which has no information, should not be able to know the news of the war in Europe. Forgive them for not daring to violate the signed treaty.

I think it's time to start the war. "

In the middle of 1808, when the Roman Guards were marching forward in Asia Minor, the London government agreed to the diplomatic request of the Ottoman Empire, attracted all the sovereign states that still existed in Europe, and jointly issued a mediation request to the Vienna government where Li Wei was located.

The conditions for mediation were simple. Li Wei's army withdrew from Asia Minor, where the Ottoman Empire had lived for generations, and lifted the state of war between the two sides.

The Ottoman Empire could pay for the military expenses of the Livi government during the war.

To put it bluntly, the Ottoman Empire spent money to buy peace, but it was absolutely impossible to cede territory.

The Li Wei government did not expect that the London government would gather all the sovereign states in Europe in such a short period of time. It was even heard that the London government even sent envoys to the Persian Empire in Central Asia, trying to drag this equally decayed ancient empire join the mediation.

It's just that the news did not come because of the long distance of the Persian Empire.

The Li Wei government can naturally see that this mediation is the London government's preparations for the next European war to win over allies.

After all, the Roman Empire is already strong enough to make European countries fearful. At this time, the Ottoman Empire is still expanding its territory. Can everyone not worry?
At this time, with the leadership of the London government, the trend of European countries uniting is already foreseeable.

(End of this chapter)