I want to be emperor

As part of his overseas inspection, Luo Zhixue would meet with the kings or queens of some vassal countries along the way.

This is also a way to reflect the master-slave relationship between the suzerain state of the Great Chu Empire and many vassal states.

The Great Chu Empire had previously held a great court gathering for all nations to come to court, and received more than a hundred envoys from various vassal states.

However, the monarchs of the vassal states have not yet met the emperor Luo Zhixue.

The Domain Affairs Department of the Ministry of Rites and Education is also pushing for the monarchs of the vassal states to pay tribute to Beijing regularly, but it is not easy to implement... This is not to say that those vassal states are unwilling. In fact, many monarchs of the vassal states are reluctant to go to Dachu. The capital in the hinterland of the empire is still looking forward to it, even eager for it.

Whether it is to see the advanced development and prosperity of the Chu Empire, open your eyes to the world, understand the gap between your country and the Chu Empire, and then clarify the direction of catching up.

Or should we simply hold on to the Chu Empire in order to obtain more trade benefits and diplomatic support.

These are very necessary.

But...the Da Chu Empire is not willing!

In fact, it cannot be said that it is unwillingness. It is simply that the people of Chu do not care much about the thoughts of the monarchs of these vassal states, nor do they care much about the attitudes of the monarchs of these vassal states!

Regardless of whether you come or not, as a vassal state, you still have to obey the empire's orders. You must farm when the empire asks you to farm, and you must mine when the empire asks you to mine. You must obey the strategic plan of the global economic integration of the Great Chu Empire.

There are, and always have been, kings of vassal states who do not obey the empire's orders... After all, the Great Chu Empire has too many vassal states, and there are dozens of vassal states that canonically be canonized as kings, and then there are India and Europe. There are also a large number of vassal states that have not been officially canonized by the empire, but exist in the name of protectorates.

In addition, there are a bunch of so-called duchies, marquises and other aristocratic territories with European characteristics in Europe... Although these places do not have the name of a king, their ruling areas are generally called duchies or princes, which can be regarded as a de facto country.

There are actually quite a lot of vassal states with different names. If you add them all up, there should be more than two hundred.

And these vassal states, no matter which one they are, even the relatively powerful Ottoman Kingdom, Persian Kingdom, Mughal Kingdom, European Kingdom of Sweden, Austria and other countries, must obey the orders of the empire.

If you really want to offend the Chu Empire, you don't even need to send troops to attack. You only need to provoke the surrounding indigenous countries in diplomacy and military trade, and you can immediately encourage the surrounding indigenous countries to attack.

The Chu Empire, which possesses absolute power to suppress, does not really care what the monarchs of these messy vassal states think...

As for coming to Jinling City for an audience... the empire found it troublesome, so it has been too lazy to bother with it.

So although this matter was promoted by the vassal affairs department... but the vassal affairs department was a stepmother in the Great Chu Empire, and what it said had little weight. Previously, it even promoted a vassal country to send envoys to the capital for the convenience of the vassal. It took more than ten years to deal with the affairs, and finally it was done reluctantly with Luo Zhixue's approval with the help of a man from all over the world.

As for the monarchs of the vassal states coming to the capital for an audience... Luo Zhixue didn't care about this. Anyway, it was the same whether he saw him or not. And a lot of people in the empire's senior management didn't care. They even thought that the people in the vassal affairs department were looking for trouble.

So it just kept dragging on.

As for this overseas inspection, the vassal affairs department started to make trouble again, saying that it was a bit troublesome to organize a large number of monarchs from the vassal states to come to the capital for an audience. However, since this time it was an overseas inspection, when passing through various regions , by the way, whether it is feasible to meet the monarchs of those vassal countries.

Luo Zhixue had no objection to this. Anyway, it was just a meeting on the way. He had to meet with civil and military officials from various places, so it was not a big problem to meet the monarchs of these vassal countries.

Therefore, when he was in India's southern province, Luo Zhixue had already met with nearly a hundred indigenous rulers from the Indian peninsula... Without much effort, he spared half an hour to meet with these people... Because he wanted to ensure safety, these No one even came within 50 meters of Luo Zhixue... He knelt down to give an audience fifty meters away, and he had to undergo a comprehensive body search before the meeting... the kind where all the clothes were stripped off for a detailed search.

Prevent these people from approaching Luo Zhixue with sharp weapons.

Luo Zhixue estimated that except for a few indigenous kings such as the Mughal Kingdom in the front row, no one else could see what he looked like...

But that's not important... This kind of thing is not a real meeting and chat, it is purely a political ceremony to reflect the master-slave relationship between the Chu Empire and these vassal states.

In Cadiz, Luo Zhixue also met with monarchs from various European countries on the third day after arriving in Cadiz.

There are hundreds of European monarchs, large and small, including various canonized monarchs of various kingdoms. In addition, there are many grand dukes, marquises, counts and other indigenous monarchs of the protectorate.

It also includes a dozen queens, grand duchess, marquises and other female monarchs... Due to historical and traditional factors, there are female rulers in Europe.

Although the Chu people found it strange, they generally didn't care... Except for its own interests, the Chu Empire hardly interfered with the internal issues of its vassal states and protectorates.

As long as you don't interfere with my making money or harm the interests of Chu State, you can do whatever you like!

Well, it's not enough to secretly develop industry and try to build a steam engine... This will seriously endanger the interests of the Chu Empire and will be directly attacked by the Chu Empire.

As for the Chu Empire, some indigenous countries were disobedient, made some small moves on trade or other issues, or even openly dissatisfied with the empire. The empire usually solved problems through military trade and diplomatic means, unless there was a large-scale local rebellion against the Chu Empire. Military turmoil, otherwise the Chu army would generally not move!

There is plenty of money anyway, so why bother with it... Just let the surrounding indigenous countries fight it.

But...as long as you dare to build a steam engine, develop industry, or try to automate the defense industry, the Chu Empire will treat it with extreme caution, quickly send troops to suppress it, and then use force to dismantle the factory and destroy all equipment and materials. If we change another ruler, we might even dismember this indigenous country.

Over the years, at least a dozen indigenous countries have been destroyed because of this...

The technological blockade of the Great Chu Empire is very tough and overbearing, and the standards are also very strict... The Chu people not only won't sell you various advanced equipment, materials, or transfer related technologies... they won't even let you do your own research. develop.

Today, in the late seventeenth century, steam engines are just like nuclear bombs in the original time and space... If some small countries with no background and weak strength dare to touch it, they will immediately attract large-scale international sanctions.

Those vassal states clearly know that steam engines are a good thing, and industrialization is a useful measure that can make their countries strong... but most of them don't have the guts to do it!

Even if he had the guts to do it, he would do it secretly in deep mountains and old forests and other places where Chu people could not reach.

If this thing is discovered by the Chu people, the consequences will be too serious.

Otherwise... you think people from these indigenous countries are stupid. The Chu people have been engaged in industrialization for more than 40 years and steam engines for more than 30 years. People from other indigenous countries, especially those in Europe, are Are you stupid? You don’t know the importance of steam engines?

Even if they don't know the importance of steam engines, they also know the importance of rifled guns.

Some ambitious or ambitious monarchs or powerful ruling classes of indigenous countries... they also know the importance of these, and they also want to develop industry, develop steam engines and many mechanical equipment, and finally build their own guns and cannons, no longer subject to The people of Chu have all-round control.

But... as long as you dare to do it and are discovered by the Chu people, you will be exterminated in minutes... Replacing the king and the ruling class is a basic operation. If the Chu people feel that the middle and high-level elites of this indigenous country are obsessed with stubbornness and independence, and it will be difficult for them to farm and mine peacefully in the future, they will often launch large-scale purges, and finally treat the land and ordinary people as cakes. Distribute it directly to surrounding indigenous countries!

And as a comparison... Even the dignitaries in some indigenous countries were dissatisfied with the Chu people, and then raised troops to resist the Chu people... Although the Chu people would also send troops to suppress them, as long as the king and other powerful people stood with the Chu people, If the rebellion is suppressed, the Chu people will not implicate other people.

From these comparisons, we can know that in the eyes of the Chu people, the harm of indigenous countries trying to industrialize far exceeds their direct rebellion!

How should I put it? I’m not afraid of your apparent dissatisfaction, but I’m afraid you’ll secretly hold back a big move...

At the same time, the middle and high-level leaders of the Chu Empire were also worried that the independent development of industry by indigenous countries would further aggravate the spread of technology... Then one day these indigenous countries would be able to directly build steam engines and other mechanical equipment, and then build arsenals for manufacturing rifled guns. .

Rifled guns are a huge threat. Even single-shot rifled weapons can pose a sufficient threat to the Chu army in actual combat... After all, the Chu people's large foreign legion is still equipped with single-shot rifled rifles.

Therefore, the Chu people are very vigilant about this!

Although the diffusion of technology is inevitable...sooner or later, these indigenous countries may master the technical ability to manufacture breech-loading rifled guns for various reasons, but what the middle and high-level leaders of the Dachu Empire hope is...sooner or later this will happen It is fifty or even a hundred years later to extend the absolute industrial and national defense advantages of the Chu Empire as much as possible!

In order to achieve this goal, the Chu Empire did everything possible to block various technologies and suppress the development of industry in various countries!

But... apart from this, the Chu people are quite open-minded in other aspects. They don't care about the internal situation of the indigenous countries at all, and rarely care about the conflicts or even wars between the indigenous countries.

The war between the Kingdom of Wales and the Kingdom of England has been going on for several years in the British region, but the empire has never expressed its position on this. Even in order to demonstrate the empire's neutrality towards the vassal states, there is no military trade between the two countries. It's half share per person.

Basically, if one party purchases weapons and equipment from the Chu people, the other party can also purchase the same type and number of weapons and equipment and other military supplies. What matters is impartiality!

Therefore, this also resulted in the weapons used by the armies of the two kingdoms in the Anglo-Welfare War to be highly consistent... They all used percussion guns and bronze smoothbore cannons provided by the Chu people.

They eat potatoes and other cheap food provided by the Chu people, and they are meat in name, but in fact there is not much meat at all. They are made with a lot of dead pork, rotten meat, starch and various chemical additives. Low-quality canned luncheon meat banned from sale in the Chu Empire.

Speaking of canned luncheon meat... This can be regarded as a major innovation in the food industry of the Dachu Empire.

Large domestic canning companies and high-end food companies feel that meat is too expensive and the canned food is too expensive...and their canned meat is not very competitive in the market.

Under such circumstances, they want to create a cheaper canned meat to compete in the market... Of course, they are not trying to make inferior canned meat, but just use ordinary meat, and then perform various processing and add Starch, etc. are used to reduce costs... After all, there is a food safety management agency in the Dachu Empire. As a formal enterprise, they cannot mess around.

However, even if it is a canned luncheon meat made from ordinary meat, because a large amount of starch is added, the meat content is relatively small, and the overall cost is very low... Therefore, this thing has gained a lot of sales after being introduced to the market.

Although this thing doesn't have much meat, it does have some, and the starch can actually supplement nutrition... There is no need to worry about safety. Hegao Food Company is also a product developed and produced by a regular listed company.

But... After this kind of canned luncheon meat was developed, it quickly became favored by some illegal elements... because they found that as long as enough additives were added, even smelly meat plus starch could be They produce luncheon meat that looks similar in appearance... As for whether eating all kinds of messy additives will kill people... at least they won't die on the spot. As for whether they will die in the future, they don't know and don't care!

As a result, for a period of time, a lot of low-quality lunch meat appeared on the mainland market of the empire, seriously endangering the health of the people.

In the end, the food safety management agency and local police patrols cooperated with each other, launched multiple special crackdowns, and arrested and shot a large number of lawbreakers. This situation was finally brought under control.

However... although many lawbreakers have died, there are still some who have escaped arrest... And there are also smart people among them. One of them is very smart. After hiring a professional legal person to carefully study many legal provisions... I discovered an interesting loophole in the current legal provisions: that is, the Empire's laws do not actually prohibit the production of these low-quality luncheon meats... What the Empire prohibits is that you produce these things as 'food' and sell them in the territories directly under the Empire's jurisdiction.

However, you can completely produce it according to the commodity category of feed...and then export it to indigenous countries!

The Dachu Empire still does not have any relevant laws and regulations regarding the safety of exported feeds... After all, the social development of the Dachu Empire has not yet reached the point of considering feed safety or even pet food safety!

In addition, many companies in the Dachu Empire produced many products that seemed to be harmful, but the empire did not prohibit them... As for the feed produced, it was exported to indigenous countries and then sold as food... The empire didn't even care. The higher-ups in the empire don’t care about the food safety of the indigenous people!

As long as you have the ability, you can sell poison to the natives for food, that's up to you!

This suddenly opened the door to many scumbags engaged in the inferior food industry... They found that what they were doing was illegal in the empire, but as long as they changed their methods, they could rebrand their products and sell them to indigenous countries. , it’s not illegal, and he can transform into a decent businessman who earns foreign exchange and pays taxes...

Then, some unscrupulous businessmen who used to secretly produce inferior lunch meat actually registered companies openly and opened various feed factories, and then produced various kinds of cat food, dog food, cattle, horses, sheep, pigs and other kinds of lunch meat as feed. and various other shoddy canned, or other types of shoddy processed foods...that are then exported overseas to indigenous nations to make money.

To put it simply, it is first produced, transported and exported in the name of feed in the local area. When the packaging is changed in the indigenous countries, the feed product name is replaced by the name of canned luncheon meat and other food... it is directly regarded as ordinary luncheon meat or other processed foods. sell.

Even...according to this legal loophole, you can actually sell it directly in the country in the name of feed...As for customers who buy these feeds and insist on eating them themselves, as a manufacturer, you have nothing to do with it...

However, although it is not illegal unless it is prohibited by law, the empire is not a purely legal country... the law is only a supporting role!

If you really want to do this, there is no need for the law to take action. I will just arrange a few inspections for you and kill you. Then I will check your taxes and you will be sent to jail in minutes!

So...it's okay if you do bad things secretly, but don't do them openly and claim that I'm not guilty...

If you offend the local officials of Chu State, they will confiscate your home and exterminate your clan!

Not to mention, these low-quality luncheon meats sell very well in indigenous countries, even better than genuine luncheon meats!

Although the genuine lunch meat produced and sold by Hegao Food Company does not have much meat, it still uses regular and safe meat, and the additives used are also legal and compliant food additives under current laws. At the same time, the production process and The process also needs to strictly comply with food safety regulations... As a result, the cost is not cheap. The price is very cheap compared to pure canned meat, but compared with inferior lunch meat, it is completely incomparable.

But those scumbag businessmen produce low-quality lunch meat, um, or feed. If you slander that what they produce is food, they will sue you... What they produce is feed, and it is feed specifically for export. The cost Very low...

They use rotten meat, smelly meat and dead meat, and the starch and other materials used are also the lowest quality starch raw materials, and the production line has no safety and hygiene at all...

As for additives...not to mention, in order to cover up the odor and various pungent smells and obtain better taste and appearance, various additives are used all at once, regardless of whether they are safe or not. , the emphasis is on a large amount and enough control!

Then after this thing was developed, in terms of taste and texture, even the regular lunch meat of Hegao Food Company was even better.

Cheaper prices, better taste and texture make these inferior lunch meats popular in overseas markets.

As for whether the indigenous people will die if they eat it... The Chu people themselves don't care, and the powerful dignitaries in the indigenous countries don't care either. Even if they want to care, they can't understand...

After all, even if you give them the list of additives, they don’t know what these additives are... Under such circumstances, you can hardly expect them to clearly understand the dangers of these additives...

In other words, in fact, the main local consumer groups of luncheon meat in indigenous countries, that is, the middle and lower-class indigenous people, actually don't care much about the safety of these low-quality luncheon meats... As long as they can't eat it on the spot, they think it's not a big problem.

As for your Chu people’s expert saying that if you eat this food, you will get cancer and you will not even live to be forty years old... People can say that you are overthinking... It seems that they can live for four years without eating these inferior foods. Like ten years old!

Even after eating this stuff and improving his nutrition, he can even live longer... Don't mistake inferior starch for starch!