18th century total war

Chapter 413 Prelude to Total War
"Haven't I heard that an honorary duke has been auctioned for a sky-high price of [-] million yuan. Now in the auction house, honorary titles are the most popular. I really don't know where so many rich people come out."

"Where else could it be?

They are all local tyrants who escaped from the Far East and North America.

They have nothing but money!

Our empire has very strict requirements on foreign merchants. Those rich people don't want to be slaughtered by the Wallace business alliance as fat sheep, so they can only bid for the honorary title of the empire.

This is not for the so-called honor at all, this is to buy a talisman, can they not go bankrupt and spend money? "

"You said, those rich people lived well in the Far East and North America, why did they come all the way to Europa to be slaughtered?
Because of the influx of these people, the transaction prices of precious metals such as gold and silver have dropped repeatedly in recent times. Even a poor man like me wants to buy two pieces of silver jewelry for my mother-in-law. "

"Buying silver jewelry is useless, the empire has long since refused to recognize silver as a currency standard, and the strongest thing is gold.

It's a pity that the empire's legal regulations on private ownership of gold are too strict, and the transaction tax is horribly high. Even if the price of gold drops again and again, it is not within the reach of ordinary civilians like us. "

"You drunkards know money, money, money.

Didn't you realize that the empire is about to go to war?
The United States and Canada in North America have been destroyed, and the pigtail country in the Far East has become a vassal of a group of alien dwarves. It is said that more than half of the land in the Far East has been occupied by dead people!

Now that the whole world has not surrendered to the empire, and there are no major powers that may pose a threat to the empire, Emperor Li Wei will sooner or later attack the Far East and North America.

Especially North America, which is connected to the South American and Central American colonies of the Europa Empire. When the orcs and humans from other worlds settle down, sooner or later they will take the initiative to attack the Mexican colonial areas in Central America. "

"If you fight a war, fight it. What does the empire's war have to do with us civilians?"

"It's a big deal!
With the war, those reserve militiamen will definitely go to the front line, and fighting a war is not just about being a soldier.

Those soldiers and officers have to eat and drink, let's go and apply for a civilian husband, and we will definitely earn a lot of money!
Moreover, the empire attaches great importance to military merit. If we can join the imperial army, even if it is just to join the garrison, make some achievements on the battlefield, and come back to change a manor, we can also become landlords, right?

When the time comes to recruit a few more maids, what will it feel like...

Tsk tsk~”

"Pull it down, can your wife agree?"

"Humph!

If I really became the landlord of the manor, would she still have a role to speak?

If I don't divorce her, I will have a conscience! "

As soon as these remarks came out, the big drunks in the tavern were all moved, and all of them were immersed in the bright future.

It seems that joining the army is a shortcut for them to transcend social classes!

Don't look at the Europa Empire's propaganda that everyone is equal under Emperor Li Wei every day, but those who have been in society, who doesn't know the so-called equality of everyone, has long been classified into different classes by unspoken rules.

Even an ordinary government official with a little power in his hand can put his nose to his forehead to judge people!
Because of the strictness of the Imperial Anti-Corruption Bureau's investigations, the officials even developed new methods of corruption.

Didn't the Imperial Anti-Corruption Bureau start to investigate corruption funds from cash flow?
This is simple, wouldn’t it be enough if the official doesn’t charge money?

what?
You said that receiving expensive gifts is also easy to be investigated?
Too pediatric!
What is human relationship?
What is a network society?

Officials don't just jump out of rocks. They always have relatives and friends, and those with families have children and wives.

It is not popular in the Europa Empire for women to take care of their children at home. As long as women are willing, they can come out to work anytime, anywhere!

Those business executives want to please the officials, but they can't give money, how can they bribe them?

It's very simple, don't we just legalize bribery?
The relatives of the official's family, say hello, will all be arranged to work in the company with the best benefits and the most money for the boss, and then work in positions that don't have to work and can get high salaries.

Even the bosses don't care whether you clock in at work, as long as your name is on the company's list and they give you a generous, legal salary every month, can the officials refuse to accept this information?
Occasionally pay more company benefits, year-end bonuses or something.

Isn't it all money?
Still legitimate income!

Look, such a safe little operation, isn't it just a relationship with those officials?
Moreover, it can also allow relatives who are officials, but they are still in high positions in the company, to boss around the employees who really work for the company. This self-esteem and spiritual happiness will soon soar?

These relatives who receive high salaries and can still be masters at work, go home and say a few words to the officials. When the company boss wants to ask for something, do they still need to stuff money?
If you don't stuff money, the Anti-Corruption Bureau will check it out!

In this way, the officials get benefits, the boss of the company expands his contacts, and everyone's contacts are very legal. Isn't this a win-win situation?

As for the company's executives suddenly having a bunch of people who only receive money and don't work, which leads to the deterioration of the company's financial situation, it is the management problem of the boss of the private company.

It's not illegal for people to lose money willingly and give money to those executives who don't do anything!

There is no reason for you to investigate the internal problems of other companies!
As for these executives being relatives of officials, this cannot be prohibited.

how?

The family members of the officials can't show up and go to work outside?

This is against the idea of ​​human rights!

Thus, a complete chain of legal bribery of officials was born. Even if the anti-corruption bureau knew the internal truth, they could not investigate it.

This is not in compliance with laws and regulations.

Even if the company boss wants to do something important, he can suddenly give a bonus to an official's family member or employee.

The boss gives bonuses to employees at every turn, is it hard to find an excuse?
This is also the legal income of employees!
If the employee ends up giving the bonus to the official, it is an exchange of funds within the family, and it is not illegal!
Therefore, the officialdom of the Europa Empire looks clean and tidy on the surface, but in fact it is just an upgrade in corruption methods.

As long as those officials don't just be greedy and do nothing, and lose the country's wealth to death, the people above are not willing to get to the bottom of it.

After all, this kind of thing is really difficult to investigate.

Officials themselves are not subject to bribes, and their family members go to work normally. Unless Emperor Li Wei orders, there is nothing to do.

It’s easy to offend people!

Of course, Emperor Li Wei would not pay attention to such trivial matters.

He is focused on the overall strategic situation of the country. The Europa Empire is vast and has hundreds of thousands of government employees. If Li Wei had really done it himself, he would have been exhausted!
After all, the Europa Empire has completely destroyed the original feudal aristocratic system, and government agencies can even be decentralized to the village level. In the original feudal society, villages were managed by elders and the like. Even knights and nobles often He will not manage the village, but will be responsible for collecting taxes at most.

But the current Europa Empire has directly placed three major law enforcement departments in the administrative units at the village level.

Taxation, security, administration!
Those who can be managed and those who cannot be managed will be covered for you.

Li Wei directly copied the management system of the grassroots from later generations.

As a matter of course, the seemingly incorruptible officialdom has already completed the upgrade operation of the collusion between government and businessmen. If the people below want to climb up, they should first ask the capitalists and the officials who help the capitalists to cover up whether they agree.

Even the capitalists don’t need to take the initiative to encircle and suppress. Once a small business takes the lead, it’s enough to kill your small business by using your personal connections and letting relevant local government officials get stuck on your project. in place.

You don't even have a chance to show off!

In the Europa Empire, the open and transparent way to achieve leapfrogging of social classes is to join the army and fight, climb up step by step through military exploits, climb to a certain position, and get the quota of administrative enlightenment from Emperor Li Wei, basically the glory and wealth of this life It's stable.

Other than that, you can only rely on nepotism to climb up...

Or give your daughter to a big boss above to play with. If you are awesome, marry into a wealthy family and you will be able to reach the sky in one step!
Or simply grow a love mouth, make the boss's daughter happy, and marry into a rich family, whether in business or politics, your career will be smooth.

Don't think it's unfair. Human society has always been a model in which relationship background is greater than ability.

Unless you really have the ability to rebel against yourself and become the emperor, you have to abide by this established network of favors and climb up step by step.

This is fully reflected in the social system of the Europa Empire.

Whether you are a high-achieving student who graduated from a famous university, or make huge profits for the company in a certain field, no matter how good you are, you are at most a senior worker.

If you want to quit your job and start your own business, first check to see if you have good connections and whether there are big bosses behind you. Otherwise, no matter how good your product is, it will be suppressed by officialdom, favors and capital.

In the end, it was either annexed or disappeared from the world...

The power of capital has never been separated from the power of the government. Under the capital, many bones are buried.

People say that the hearts of politicians are black, but the hearts of capitalists and politicians are actually the same.

Emperor Li Wei, who was born at the bottom, hated official corruption very much, so he specially established an anti-corruption bureau with great power. .

As a result, there are policies and countermeasures at the top, and Li Wei's energy alone is limited after all, after all, the greedy people below have found a new way to deal with it.

Of course, Li Wei, who is old, has held a high position for a long time, and his hatred of corrupt officials when he was young has also faded with the passage of time, and he no longer pays attention to those small issues of corruption.

Capital from North America and the Far East generally bought a limited number of imperial honorary titles like crazy, and while accumulating war wealth for Levi's Europa Empire, the Europa Empire has quietly launched a full-scale war mobilization.

Batches of new weapons entered the coastline of Western Europe under the Europa Main Line, which was built less than a year ago, and began to pack and ship, thinking about the island bases in the Atlantic Ocean for transportation.

That's right, with the truce between the Orcs and the Aligado Empire, Emperor Levi decided to target the Arigado Empire in North America as the first target.

The change of strategic goals is also thanks to the information provided by the local tyrants from North America.

The Arigado Empire has almost completely inherited the industrial capabilities of the United States of America!
The alliance of orc tribes that ceded the states on the east coast of the United States of America had no idea how valuable the industrial plants he ceded were.

The first industrial revolution in the United States of America was all concentrated in the east coast states. All of a sudden, the Arigado Empire was advantaged!
Before the alien invasion, this parallel world, excluding the cheated Europa Empire, ranked first in the United States of America and second in Canada in terms of industrial capabilities.

Other countries have almost no industrial capacity at all, and the industrial capacity of the Far East is still at the stage of collective handicraft workshops, which is on the same level as the Russian Kingdom and the Ottoman Kingdom.

Although the Qing government later lost half of its country and struggled to catch up, the Industrial Revolution could not catch up in just a few years. Not to mention compared with the European Empire, even compared with Canada, there was still a big gap.

Today, the Arigado Empire not only inherited the industrial foundation of the United States of America, but also purchased all industrial facilities in Canada from the elves.

With the help of American engineers, the Arigado Empire imitated and even mass-produced hand-cranked Gatling machine guns and breech-loading guns, without technical barriers at all!
In contrast, in the Far East, no matter how strong the manipulative ability of the dwarves is, the industrial foundation left by the Qing government is too weak. The dwarves rely on handcrafting. Even if they successfully imitate new weapons, they cannot achieve mass production. The threat level is far lower than The Arigado Empire in North America.

This is why Emperor Li Wei wanted to change his strategic goals.

Of course, the Far East is too far away from the Europa Empire. The Europa Empire has not directly waged war on the Far East. However, the Europa Empire's top vassal state, the Kingdom of Tsarist Russia, has made a full-scale march into the Indian subcontinent, grabbing territory and recruiting strong men to expand. The size of the expeditionary force.

The Indian subcontinent is in a state of semi-surrender, and there is not much resistance to the army of the Tsarist Russian Kingdom, and the Tsarist Russian Kingdom is not for the purpose of expanding its territory. They just let those Indian states submit to themselves, and then send them population and various strategic materials.

Similar to a vassal under a vassal state...

In addition, the Europa Empire, together with Central Asia and South Asia's main railway lines, are being completed at an accelerated pace regardless of cost, thanks to the blood and sweat of a large number of Indian laborers and the slaves of various nationalities captured by the Tsarist Russian Kingdom.

When this main railway line is completed, the cost of the Europa Empire's expedition to the Far East can be greatly reduced.

Therefore, Li Wei's forces can be said to be at war with North America and the Far East at the same time!
(End of this chapter)