New Shun 1730

When the fleet, which had been supplied, officially set sail and sailed into the Atlantic Ocean, the senior officers of the fleet naturally felt a sense of mission and infinite pride.

Under the tone of chasing Tang Muhan, an analogy system of changing times was generated, that is, the Western Regions in the past are no longer the Western Regions, and the current Nanyang is the Western Regions of the Han and Tang Dynasties.

Therefore, after using this analogy, the Western Regions that Sanbao Gong went to in the past, under the conditions of today's navigation, navigation, and mathematics, is the place west of Borneo still qualified to be called the Western Regions?

Of course it could be called that at that time, but it is definitely not possible now.

According to the ideological education received by these new schools of thought, the common consciousness they have been shaped by, the evaluation of Yongle's voyage to the West is actually like this: bad luck, if Nanyang did not produce spices, but India or the east coast of Africa produced spices and gold.

Because Nanyang produced spices, it was too close to form an effective administrative monopoly.

Spices were the only valuable imported goods at the time, so in the case of a serious shortage of precious metals, including copper, at the time, it was theoretically feasible to use spices as an anchor for paper money. It's just that they are too close, so smuggling cannot be eliminated. In addition, spices are definitely not as good as cotton, grain, and later oil and natural gas as currency anchors.

Of course, this cognition may not be comprehensive, or even correct, but it doesn't matter.

What's important is that Dashun has shaped a mainstream common consciousness of the new school class in the fields of foreign affairs, trade and economy.

Britain's mercantilism and free trade; France's Colbertism and physiocracy; Dashun's Confucianism rather than Confucian economic understanding, and the rough understanding of capitalism of the new school... Every group needs an ideology to support it.

It was originally religion, but the era of religion is over, and now it depends on economics.

In foreign trade, Dashun's new school and the emerging class all advocated the free trade theory of state personification.

And this free trade theory with the state as the main body was very popular among the emerging class of Dashun and became a prominent school.

Although it sounds like a bunch of franchised monopoly Oriental companies, Western trade companies, etc., support free trade, which seems to be nonsense.

But the characteristic free trade theory has become a prominent school in Dashun, which has its own particularity.

Because, if this system is deduced, we can get something called "New Celestial Empire System". That is, the economic division of labor among countries in the world, for example, Dashun is responsible for producing a full set of light and heavy industries such as cotton cloth, silk, porcelain, machinery, iron, coal, etc.

And Korea can produce rice, paper, and coal; Japan can produce paper, rice, silver, copper, and gold; India produces cotton and cotton yarn; Nanyang produces rice, indigo, spices, etc.

Because Dashun is first the Celestial Empire, or a leader of the international order, and then a country.

The theory that this group of people under the influence of the old era can only accept is a variant of the Celestial Empire system, and use this as their theoretical basis to fight against those conservatives.

Of course, they used the skin of the dispute between the kingly way and the hegemonic way, and they were very sure that what they were doing now was the sages of the Qin and Han Dynasties - even their Guan Zhong, Zhuge Liang after the Qin and Han Dynasties, was pulled in, and the example of Wu Hou binding Shu brocade and silk with the currency of Shu Kingdom to maintain the stability of Shu Kingdom's currency was used as an example - what the sages did naturally had two more legitimacy in Dashun.

Dashun was not the Qing Dynasty, which was a small tribe facing a big country, so in the reform of Dashun, the elite class would choose to prioritize the existence of the concept of "Heavenly Kingdom" rather than dismembering this concept.

The Celestial Kingdom, etiquette and law, are essentially a kind of international order.

Since it is an international order, it requires a theory that at least sounds universal in order to build this international order.

The key is that what is shouted is an "international order that everyone must accept", but inwardly it is for their own benefit.

The reason can only be: I abide by this national order, and because I abide by this international order, I benefit from this international order. You are bad because you do not abide by or violate this international order, or the etiquette and law in the economic sense of the new era.

Moreover, Dashun itself has such an economic foundation.

For example, Dashun and Europe can sign a bilateral, equal tariff agreement with a 5% tariff.

If your textiles cannot be sold in, and my textiles are sold to yours like crazy, it can only prove that you are not suitable for developing the textile industry. It is better to find out what your country is suitable for according to the theory of free trade, such as raising sheep?

For this reason alone, Dashun is the only country in the world that is qualified to raise the banner of free trade at this time.

In the history of the Opium War, the flag was raised so high that even its own people could not be deceived. Everyone knew that the cause was the trade deficit and the excess profits of contraband caused by the prohibition of opium.

Dashun is different.

At least, it can convince most European enlightenmentists like Voltaire: Dashun is really for the free trade and reasonable division of labor of all mankind. Because Dashun has no trade deficit and did not go to war to reverse the trade deficit.

As a flag-bearer of free trade, Dashun will certainly welcome British woolen cloth, French sugar, Russian wood, and Swedish iron blocks to be sold to Dashun.

The tariffs are there, fair and transparent, the same on both sides. If you can't sell it, then it has nothing to do with Dashun.

As a European country that did not reverse its trade deficit with colonized India until 1790, and a Chinese country that could fight back against machine-woven cloth in 1893, the policy makers of Dashun had absolute confidence in this. Once the control of ginseng cultivation in the Northeast was relaxed, even French ginseng could not be sold, let alone woolen cloth.

The significance of the new era scriptures, that is, economics, is to make oneself wear justice.

And this justice, in words and on the surface, must be something that seems to be fair and reasonable, universal and universal in the East and the West. At least on the surface, it cannot be because I am me and you are you, so I want to bully you; but on the surface, you, me, and he must abide by a "ritual law", ritual law is eternal justice, and I just happen to be at the level of beneficiaries of ritual law order.

Just like feudal ritual law, I am not for my own interests, I am for the supreme ritual law, rules, and order. I am maintaining order, international law, universal morality, and eternal justice. It's just that my father happens to be a nobleman, and your father happens to be a serf.

I am not defending my own interests, I am defending the order, but this order just happens to benefit me. Theoretically, if your father is a noble, you can also benefit from it. And I must tell you that if I were a serf, I would also desperately defend this etiquette and hierarchy, but I am not, my father did not give me the opportunity.

I suppress you not because you harm your personal interests, but because I am maintaining order, and you are not suppressed because you want to divide my land and burn my deeds, but because you destroy the order and violate eternal justice.

Only by doing this can we truly understand what "Heavenly Kingdom" is.

For example, Zhou attacked Chu, "definitely not" because Chu began to rise and might threaten the emperor, but because Chu did not pay tribute to the emperor.

Therefore, the new learning groups that have twisted into this common consciousness can naturally understand this war with righteousness.

The British East India Company harmed the interests of the British people. They used their monopoly, tea and silk to make high profits from the British people.

The British cotton cloth ban harmed the interests of the British people. Those woolen cloth producers used their power and voice in Parliament to make the British people pay a high price to wear cheap, comfortable, beautiful and breathable cotton clothes.

The cotton weavers in Lancashire and Manchester, England, are all useless people who hinder the development of the times and reinvent the wheel. They are the vested interests of the cotton ban. They use administrative tariff protection to hinder human progress and the rights of human beings to wear cheaper cotton clothes.

And so on and so forth.

There are too many reasons that can be deduced from this set of things.

The difference from the Opium War is that Dashun really did not sell opium to balance the trade deficit, because Dashun really had no deficit, and even the inflow of silver was so much that it completed the conversion from copper coin currency to silver currency, and had to invest a large amount of money in Guandong and Southeast Asia, otherwise the domestic money and silver exchange would explode.

At least it can make many Enlightenment thinkers believe that Dashun really built the "Tower of Babel" for the benefit of all mankind.

It is to make mankind realize that each country should find its own position in the new world order according to its own advantages.

Those who are suitable for raising sheep should not weave cloth; those who are suitable for being slaves and growing sugarcane should not be human beings; those who are suitable for selling wine should not raise silkworms and reel silk.

Because the temple has reached this point, the outcome of the war itself is no longer suspenseful. Unless there is a natural disaster like the Spanish kamikaze, otherwise the bottom line of the political purpose of this war can be achieved.

And how much can be gained beyond the bottom line of experience and benefits? This requires some soft knives.

However, although it can be so righteous, in fact... whether these officers of Dashun believe in this set of righteousness is a problem.

When they face the grandeur of the West, the first thing they think of is the three treasures sailing to the West three hundred years ago, not this set of righteousness.

However, the nearly one million students of Dashun are useless in chanting scriptures. Although they can count on the Enlightenment School to help Dashun chant and debate scriptures, these officers will inevitably have to undertake some chanting work.

Therefore, the Dashun ship also carried a large number of economics pamphlets this time.

Some things, when said by different people, have different meanings.

For example, if you have a trade deficit and smuggle opium, and say that you are for free trade, I am afraid that people in your own country may not believe it.

But Dashun itself has a huge trade surplus, and with the China fever, it has always been a country where "reason, law and morality dominate; the emperor will visit every household to let the people reflect their opinions; it has truly overthrown religious stupidity and no church interference in politics" - the ideal country created by many Enlightenment thinkers.

Although when creating it, it is all for the purpose of using the past to satirize the present, using the outside to satirize the inside, and pointing fingers at the mulberry tree and cursing the locust tree, but it can't stand saying it too much, and many people really believe it. Even if Voltaire himself knew that in Britain [there is no freedom at all, and powerful speculators and swindlers dominate], this did not prevent him from creating a desirable, free Britain without speculators and swindlers dominating.

Because as Rousseau criticized, many Enlightenment figures tried to shape the new mainstream consciousness they recognized through drama and lies.

They think that lies and illusions are not wrong in themselves, but a means to accelerate enlightenment, and are good in nature.

This is probably why Rousseau opposed Enlightenment drama.

Rousseau probably felt that Enlightenment drama only replaced the church. The church was shaping a group of good believers, while Enlightenment drama shaped a group of people they wanted to mold according to the consciousness of Enlightenment scholars. It was just a change of education, but it was still the same in essence as the church education. He was more keen on the idea that saints will not die and thieves will not stop, return to nature, and follow the laws of nature.

But Rousseau was non-mainstream during his lifetime. His ideas can only be canonized after his death, and it is definitely not possible when he is alive.

Therefore, from the perspective of the Enlightenment, this war of Dashun was also a strong medicine, and it was also the greatest achievement that Dashun could achieve beyond the bottom line interests.

This incident, in particular, happened before the Lisbon earthquake when Liu Yu blasted the church in front of the envoys of various countries; and after he engaged in espionage surveys and illegal mapping of colonies around the world in the name of science belonging to all mankind and letting mankind unite to know their position in the universe and how far they are from the sun.

Its significance is to let those who sit in the salon to discuss the world abandon those utopian fantasies such as "eternal justice" as soon as possible and come to the real cruel material world.

To understand why Defoe was so excited about the cotton ban and lamented that it saved the British textile industry.

Why Hume, who was considered to support free trade, was so worried that [If China was around us, such as Spain and France, then everything we used would be Chinese].

Why did Adam Smith in history not be able to justify himself when facing the Sino-British trade issue, and could only give [A country like China should invest all its money in industry and agriculture. And the shipping, banking, export and financial industries should be handed over to Britain. India has proved that even if most of its exports are controlled by foreigners, it can still be prosperous and thriving. This is an absolutely clumsy and self-contradictory theory - I have money to invest in infrastructure and industry and agriculture, why not invest in the financial industry, export industry, and shipping industry with higher profit margins? Does this conform to the capital flow of the invisible hand? And when this was said, there was a great famine in Bangladesh, so how could India be thriving?

The world is material, and people are emotional and short-lived most of the time, so if they need material reality to help them deepen their understanding.

Dashun itself does not need to worry that the so-called eternal justice will become the mainstream doctrine of Dashun. After all, the land annexation and peasant landlord problems during the transition period of Dashun will eventually deny the so-called inviolable justice of land deeds and loan contracts.

Europe has been living a good life in recent years by relying on colonial plunder, so much so that it has begun to sit in salons and fantasize about eternal justice and abstract human nature. It is time to pour some cold water on them to make them sober.

Therefore, the fleet, which was shouldering the national pride of sailing to the West again and the mission of awakening the people who were talking about eternal justice in the salon, quickly crossed the sea outside West Africa, replenished some bananas in Senegal, and then went north to meet the main fleet of Dashun.

After the reunion, the support fleet anchored in Mahon, Minorca Island, and the soldiers on the transport ship once again enjoyed a short vacation.

The supplies here are sufficient.

The silver brought by the Jews and Moors here quickly bought the supplies needed by the engineers for the sake of silver.

The joint headquarters of the Chinese and French armies was established in the St. Philip Fortress, the former British stronghold on the island. The French side held a relatively grand welcome ceremony, which actually acquiesced that the command of the Toulon Squadron was still mainly in the hands of Dashun.

Because both countries are traditional absolute monarchies, the acting commander of the Toulon Fleet of France is only a lieutenant general.

According to the original bureaucratic system of Dashun, the rank of lieutenant general is equivalent to that of a minister in the civil service.

Compared with the people in the real core circle, his rank is definitely not enough.

The one coming from Dashun is a prince, and he is a prince who has been conferred the title of prince.

What is the difference between a minister and a prince?

Although the official positions on both sides are not interchangeable, they are actually different. In addition, France did not intend to let Vice Admiral de la Crew be the commander of the Toulon Squadron at the beginning, but there was really no one on the navy side, so there was no way to force him to do it.

Gary Saulnier, who won a great victory in Menorca before, is the right person for France to cooperate with Dashun.

In terms of military exploits, the Battle of Menorca, which made Louis XV feel that it was a sure thing, directly led to the fall of the British Duke of Newcastle's cabinet, the execution of Admiral John Byng as a scapegoat, and the resignation of George Anson, the Minister of the Navy who had traveled to Guangzhou on the Centurion.

It greatly boosted France's passion for war, boosted the purchase of national debt, reduced the interest on national debt, and was also conferred the title of French Navy Marshal.

In terms of connections, Gary Saulnier is not a pure soldier. He has closer relations with Dashun because he has supported several scientific expeditions and cooperated with the surveying and mapping people on the Dashun side.

Among them, he organized people to draw detailed longitude and latitude maps of Newfoundland, Acadia, Portugal, Spain, and the West African coast, and shared some sea charts with Dashun. In addition, the southern hemisphere star table, which is crucial for navigation, was also drawn by the scientific group funded by him, which helped Dashun to finally adopt the lunar distance angle method for navigation. There was a regular correspondence between him and the people of the French Academy of Sciences and the Dashun Academy of Sciences.

In terms of ability, this man is a general, not a general.

Because he is good at administration, diplomacy, and trade, and he is from the North American colonies, and he is very effective in winning over the Indians in the North American colonies.

The most critical thing is the Battle of Menorca. He showed great political sense and compiled the war report as soon as possible. Instead of sending it to Paris immediately, he sent it to London first.

The opposition in London immediately launched a conspiracy against the Duke of Newcastle. As Garisauniel had expected, the Duke of Newcastle and George Anson, in order to calm down their anger and cover up their responsibilities, tampered with John Byng's battle report, deleted the part about the heroic battle, and incited public opinion that John Byng's flagship was intact, which showed that John Byng was cowardly and afraid of fighting...

In the end, John Byng was forced to death by the powerful public opinion and was sentenced to be shot on his own flagship.

And then it led to the struggle for power among the Little Patriots - this was something Garisauniel had not expected. After he brought down George Anson, who had colluded with others to deceive the Admiralty to purchase the "scurvy magic medicine" to make money, he replaced him with a group of real fighters.

Undoubtedly, in the eyes of the French, if Garisauniel took over the marshal's baton, he would undoubtedly be the best candidate to cooperate with Dashun.

But... Garisauniel died of illness before he took over the marshal's baton.

The navy was in a period of transition, and after searching for a long time, they could only find Lieutenant General de La Crew, the chief of staff during the Battle of Menorca, to serve as the acting commander of the Toulon Fleet in the future.

The reason why La Cruz was promoted so quickly was not because of his great ability.

But when he was a squire knight since he was a child, he was a squire to the Duke of Toulouse. The Duke of Toulouse was the illegitimate son of Louis XIV and a formal prince with confirmed bloodline.

The Duke of Toulouse was his godfather. In Dashun, the relationship was like that of godson and godfather.

And La Cruz's family was also a typical example of this era: a combination of new and old aristocrats, a combination of bourgeois money and old aristocratic bloodline.

His father was a big bourgeois in France, so of course he could step into the new aristocracy.

His mother's family had a long history, and two of his ancestors were recognized by the Holy See and had "saints" in front of them, but they were famous but not rich.

La Cruz's rapid rise in the navy was no secret, and everyone knew that he climbed up mainly through connections.

But France is like this now, and the navy is really in a period of transition. The few who can fight are either old or die of illness after a great victory.

Of the battleships that France has in Toulon, the ones that can really move, of course not counting the messy cruisers, frigates, transport ships, etc., can only be put together in total 8.

The flagship is a battleship with 80 guns. If the name is translated literally, it is probably Haomiao Botao, Dayang, or Haiyang, which is not much different.

The remaining 6 ships are standard 74-gun third-class battleships born from the same parents as the Dashun main battleship.

There is also 1 ship, which is an old-fashioned 64-gun battleship. The remaining 74-gun battleships, the younger ones were built during the War of the Austrian Succession in 1749.

France has no choice. 80% of the military expenditure has to be put on the army. The navy has the best ship designers in Europe, but it has no money to build.

This embarrassing situation, coupled with the fact that the commander of the Dashun side is too high in terms of feudal bloodline.

In addition, the dispute between Dashun and France, that is, Duke Choiseul, on strategic issues, Dashun's attitude, support, subsequent division of spoils, interests and other issues made France simply not look for anyone else.

Let the vice admiral of the Toulon fleet be the supreme commander of direct cooperation between France and Dashun, that is, the Dashun side, which came with dozens of ships and just repelled the British fleet and killed the British admiral, as the commander of the cooperation between the two sides.

Anyway... Dashun means that if you don't listen to me, you can do it yourself, anyway, I won't follow your steps.

Relying on 8 battleships, nothing can be done, so this is the only way.

This is also the helpless choice of Duke Choiseul, but this helpless choice of grasping at straws has eased the command right problem of joint combat command.

Dashun commanded the French fleet without any stagnation.

After all, the earliest batch of instructors in Weihai were all found from France, and even the battleship blueprints were French. The main battleships of both sides were born from the same mother, so there was naturally no problem.