I want to be emperor

Chapter 602 Pain and happiness
The establishment of the Nanyang governor's office marked that the expansion of the Great Chu Empire in Southeast Asia had entered a new stage.

And the direct expansion of the Great Chu Empire in the Nanyang region also brought benefits visible to the naked eye!
Relying on several overseas colonies of the Great Chu Empire, and more importantly, after opening the markets of the north and south of the Annan Kingdom, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Kingdom of Siam, and the Kingdom of Burma, various products of the Great Chu Empire flooded into almost The entire Southeast Asian peninsula.

In this process, even the loose alliance kingdom, that is, the Nanzhang Kingdom is no exception. The Great Chu Empire took advantage of the fact that the Nanzhang Kingdom was loose and the three internal forces competed for power and profit, and used the provision of armaments and financial support as an excuse. Gradually infiltrated the power into the Nanzhang Kingdom, and signed a friendly trade cooperation agreement.

On the surface, this trade agreement is very fair, that is, both parties will open up the market, lower tax rates, and everyone will do business together to make money.

But what products can the Nanzhang Kingdom import to the Great Chu Empire?It is nothing more than some local specialties and industrial raw materials, and the total amount is still small.

But what did the Great Chu Empire import to the Nanzhang Kingdom?
It mainly focuses on various industrial products, especially weapons and equipment, civil iron products, and cloth, which are highly competitive industrial products. In addition, traditional silk and porcelain are also traditional imported products.

This kind of trade model is the most desired trade model for the Great Chu Empire.

In fact, the trade agreements signed by the Great Chu Empire, the Kingdom of Annan, and the Kingdom of Burma are similar. At least on the surface, they are very fair, following the mutual liberalization of the market between the two sides.

But the problem is... the Great Chu Empire is the exporter of goods, and it is also the exporter of industrial products.

And these indigenous countries can not provide many products to the Great Chu Empire, and some of them are very cheap.

The Great Chu Empire imported industrial raw materials and even cheap bulk goods such as grain and timber from them, and then sold them high value-added industrial products and even luxury goods.

During this process, a large amount of wealth flowed into the Great Chu Empire, providing sufficient fuel for the industrial development of the Great Chu Empire.

This is the international trade model that Luo Zhixue wants.

As for the control of shipping routes to pursue the profits of trade itself like the Western colonists, to be honest, Luo Zhixue doesn't even think much of it...

This can be seen from the fact that several overseas colonies controlled by the Great Chu Empire and even several trading ports such as Guangzhou are open to welcome merchant ships from all over the world to trade.

As long as a large amount of industrial products can be exported and sold to the natives, the empire doesn't care who transports these goods.

At this point, the Dutch feel quite deeply!

In recent years, especially in the past two years, the Great Chu Empire has expanded aggressively in Southeast Asia, and has hardly concealed its ambition to control the Strait of Malacca.

According to this, the Dutch actually suffered a loss of interest.

But this is not the case in reality... The Great Chu Empire has expanded overseas, and has forcefully opened up the markets in most parts of Southeast Asia, forcing local forces to not boycott the goods of the Great Chu Empire.

Under such circumstances, the Dutch found that they could earn more...

They purchased all kinds of goods of the Great Chu Empire from Guangzhou, Songjiang, Quanzhou, Ningbo and other trading ports of the Great Chu Empire, and then transported them to various parts of Southeast Asia for sale. Without the obstruction of the local indigenous official forces, the goods were almost used. Worry about sales.

After all, except for all kinds of luxury goods represented by silk, the goods of the Great Chu Empire have always been known for their cheapness and beauty.

Taking the most popular and most popular cloth as an example, the price of the cloth of the Great Chu Empire in Southeast Asia is at least 30.00% lower than that of Indian cloth, and the quality is even higher.

It is also of better quality than local homespun cloth in Southeast Asia, and the price is more competitive.

Relying on the high quality and low price, the cotton cloth exported by the Great Chu Empire has almost no competitors in the national trade, even if the freight is added.

And the price of cotton cloth in the Great Chu Empire in Southeast Asia is actually the reason why the price has been raised... Although the cost of cotton cloth in the Great Chu Empire is very low, there is still a huge room for price reduction, but in the absence of competitors in Southeast Asia, It would be nonsense to lower the price stupidly.

If you really want to continue to reduce the price, the cotton cloth of the Great Chu Empire can still reduce the price by at least half more on this basis... But there is no need for that.

And the trading companies that sell all kinds of goods produced by the Great Chu Empire are not only the various trading companies of the Great Chu Empire, but also the merchant ships of the Dutch, Portuguese, Spaniards, and even the natives of Southeast Asian countries.

Although there are more people involved, the profits on various routes are no longer huge profits, but the profits can still be guaranteed to a certain extent, and after the amount increases, the Dutch East India Company finally found that it was earning even more.

Even if the Southeast Asian market is more competitive, there is still a huge Indian peninsula market and a more distant West Asian market.

In these places, the goods of the Great Chu Empire are still extremely competitive.

It's a pity that some local dignitaries have shown resistance to the goods of the Great Chu Empire...

After a large number of cheap industrial products from the Great Chu Empire poured into the local market, the participating businessmen certainly made money, but they also brought a fatal blow to their local counterparts.

Still take cotton cloth as an example... The Indian peninsula was originally a major producer of cotton cloth, and many local kingdoms made money by selling cotton cloth to the Dutch or other colonists.

Then the merchant ships of the Dutch and other Western colonists will transport these cotton cloths to Southeast Asia for sale.

But now, not only is the export market in Southeast Asia gone, but even their home market is almost lost...

The price is really unbeatable, and the quality can't be beat... In addition to waiting for death, then the only way to resist the cotton cloth of the Great Chu Empire from entering the local market is to use administrative methods.

This made the Dutch and other Western colonists very dissatisfied. Although the cloth was produced by the Great Chu Empire, it was not only the merchants of the Great Chu Empire who transported the cloth to buy it. Although the Nanyang Trading Company had tried to run away Several Indian routes.

However, the import of goods from the Great Chu Empire to the Indian peninsula market was mainly from several East India companies in Western countries, of which the Dutch East India Company was the main force, as well as the Portuguese East India Company, the English East India Company, and the Danish East India Company.

Now the Indian Peninsula and West Asia continue to boycott the goods of the Great Chu Empire, which is tantamount to boycotting them... This makes them very uncomfortable.

Today, these colonial countries in the West, facing the external expansion of the Great Chu Empire, can be said to be happy while suffering.

If you want to say that you suffer a loss, you will earn more money.

If you want to say that you have gained benefits, your own influence and sphere of influence in Southeast Asia have been greatly reduced.

This is very contradictory!
On the contrary, the Spaniards are not very involved in trade in Southeast Asia and even India. The main reason is that the Spaniards have no colonies in the Indian Peninsula. The Spanish colonies are mainly concentrated in the Americas. The place is blank.

The Spaniards established a colony in Luzon, not for Southeast Asia or anything else, but purely for trade with the Chinese Empire.

The trade with the Huaxia region is part of the Spanish global treasure ship fleet. Without the participation of the Huaxia region, the Spanish global treasure ship is a joke...

The trade of the Spaniards was to transport all kinds of precious metals or other materials from the Americas to Luzon, trade with the Great Chu Empire, purchase valuable goods such as silk and porcelain from the Great Chu Empire, and purchase some spices. Not enough spices were controlled by the Dutch However, it is more difficult for the Spaniards to get involved, so the purchase volume is relatively small, and the main trade is with the Great Chu Empire.

After completing the trade with the Great Chu Empire, the huge Spanish fleet will sail directly into the Indian Ocean and return to Europe around the Cape of Good Hope.

This kind of large-scale global trade has basically had to go back and forth with the Great Chu Empire every year in the past ten years. Those are all large Galen ships of one or two thousand tons, and they will also be escorted by battleship-level warships.

He has no strength, and has long been robbed by various countries...

You know, just because of their annual trade with the Great Chu Empire, the value of the goods purchased from the Great Chu Empire alone is as high as millions of Chu Yuan. This does not have strong strength to escort, let alone pirates. Can't help but grab it directly.

The gold and silver that the Great Chu Empire obtained from them was also very large. In addition, it also obtained a large number of crop seeds from the Americas from the Spaniards, such as corn, sweet potatoes, rubber trees, and more important cinchona trees.

Not to mention other things, the cinchona tree alone is worth the peaceful trade between the Great Chu Empire and the Spaniards, and it will not cause trouble for Luzon controlled by them.

The cinchona tree is a small tree from South America. What is the use of this thing?The magic medicine to treat malaria... After being discovered by Western colonists that this thing can treat malaria, this thing has been the only available medicine for human beings to treat malaria for a long time.

Not to mention the quinine extracted from the cinchona tree, even in the twentieth century, this thing is the most effective anti-malarial drug, and there are countless living people.

During World War II, quinine, together with aspirin and later penicillin, became one of the most valuable strategic materials.

At the beginning, this thing was only used by some indigenous people in South America. It was not until a Spanish nobleman discovered the effect of this thing on treating malaria that the Spaniards began to pay attention to this thing, and once wanted to engage in monopoly trade.

However, due to the lack of time, there is only a few years before and after, so there is no ban yet, and the Great Chu Empire directly opens the way with money... The official channel cannot be opened, but there will always be captains and sailors who want money and do not want to die. The seeds were brought out and sold to the people of Dachu.

Today, the Great Chu Empire has widely cultivated and planted cinchona trees in places suitable for the growth of cinchona trees in various parts of the south.

This thing is very useful for overseas colonization, especially for the expansion of the Great Chu Empire in Southeast Asia.

Expansion in Southeast Asia, overseas expansion, whether it is colonization or business, the biggest danger is not the natives, but the ubiquitous disease.

Among these diseases, malaria is the number one killer!
The cinchona tree is the best medicine for malaria, at least at this stage.

Therefore, it is common sense for the Great Chu Empire to attach great importance to cinchona trees. Luo Zhixue didn't even need to order this thing. After the officials below heard that there was such a good thing in America, they directly brought the seeds over.

In fact, Luo Zhixue only found out about it when the officials below got the seeds and planned to plant them on a large scale...

It's not that he doesn't know about this thing... It's just that he didn't put his mind on it before. He is so busy with things every day that he only visited the country's most important steam engine project once.

Other small things, if others don't mention them, he really can't remember them for a while.

There are many similar situations.

But this has little impact. What Luo Zhixue brought to the Great Chu Empire was not a little knowledge from later generations... In fact, I know a lot of things. If there are not a large number of technical personnel to continue to specialize in research, it is nothing to know some messy theoretical knowledge use.

What Luo Zhixue brought to the Great Chu Empire was more of a change in atmosphere.

Especially for the powerful class, and even the entire class of scholars, a new cognition, that is, they want to be officials and want to make a fortune in business.

Stereotyped essays alone are not enough, you have to learn mathematics, physics and chemistry!
These conceptual changes are far more important than Luo Zhixue personally teaching a bunch of so-called students.

Humans are all like this. They only study and specialize when they think it is profitable.

And when there are more people who study mathematics, physics and chemistry, then scientific researchers can be produced. With more scientific researchers, the progress of various technologies, especially basic science and technology, can be put on the agenda.

The advancement of science and technology cannot be achieved by Luo Zhixue alone, and requires the joint efforts of a large number of researchers.

Just like the steam engine project... relying on Luo Zhixue alone, after thinking for a long time, relying on Luo Zhixue's 'common sense' level of design ability, he can also draw the design blueprint for you.

But if he wants to create it, he can't do anything...

If you want to make it, you need qualified materials and processing technology.

Materials are difficult to deal with. If someone who is not a professional has memorized the formula clearly, then he can only conduct experiments over and over again to find materials with qualified performance.

Experiments require money and personnel.

Money can solve the problem, but the large number of basic researchers is not easy.

At least it wasn't something Luo Zhixue could do with just a few students.

So from the very beginning, Luo Zhixue had no intention of becoming a scientist to invent and create... What he wanted to do was to establish a good social atmosphere for modern scientific learning, research and application.

The rest can be handed over to the more than 1 million citizens of the Great Chu Empire.

With so many people and the large-scale promotion of basic education, there will always be a bunch of geniuses engaged in scientific research. Among the group of ordinary geniuses, there will always be a few top geniuses, which will directly drive the development and progress of basic science in the Great Chu Empire. of.

For this reason, Luo Zhixue did not hesitate to reform education and imperial examinations, directly changed the subject content of people's learning from the source, and forced the promotion of mathematics, physics and chemistry in a completely unreasonable and even barbaric way.

What's more interesting is... the effect is also very good!

And it has not been opposed by too many people. Even if some old stubborn people reject mathematics, physics and chemistry and clamor to only read sage books, these old stubborns will still send their children to new schools to study mathematics, physics and chemistry...

For nothing else, you can take the imperial examination only after you have studied mathematics, physics and chemistry, and you can become an official only after taking the imperial examination.

Not to mention being an official, even if you are not an official, if you want to do well outside, you must have a decent degree. If you don’t study mathematics, physics and chemistry, you are illiterate, let alone get a degree.

Luo Zhixue was very skeptical. If one day he said that only eunuchs can become officials, millions of eunuchs would be born in this world overnight...

This fully proves that it is not important what to learn, but what is important to learn to make life better.

In the past, I only learned eight-legged essays.

Now, stereotyped essay still has to be learned—well, Shiwen is still the highlight of the imperial examination, just like Chinese in the college entrance examination in later generations, it is still an Oita item.

How should I put it, reading, writing, and writing are basic exercises... You can't even read and write official documents, and you're still an official!

But mathematics, physics and chemistry can't be left behind. If you don't even understand some basic scientific knowledge, you are a big fool who can only write articles. Being an official means harming others and yourself.

In other words, the Great Chu Empire's selection criteria for officials is: they must be able to write good articles, and at the same time, they must be able to understand mathematics, physics and chemistry!

This also caused the students of the Great Chu Empire to study harder and harder.

Young students in many schools basically memorize the Four Books and Five Classics in the morning, learn mathematics in the morning, study physics and chemistry in the afternoon, and do various questions in the evening...

And one by one, you burn the lamp to read at night, and I will come to study the questions all night... You walk to read, and I will shit and memorize math formulas.

Huaxia's students have always been curly!
With all this going on, a group of talents proficient in mathematics, physics and chemistry naturally appeared in the society of the Great Chu Empire. With these talents, the research and development of scientific foundations naturally came up.

This is also the reason why the Great Chu Empire has continuously achieved relatively large breakthroughs in scientific research in the past two years, as well as continuous breakthroughs in industrial development, and the emergence of various new industrial products.

In the early years, the new education of the Great Chu Empire was at the foundation stage, and the so-called industries were only limited to the defense industry and the cotton spinning industry.

Moreover, the industrial development at that time was mainly based on artisans trained by traditional methods and a few talents who had been exposed to Western-style disciplines.

However, the large number of talents cultivated by the Great Chu Empire itself gradually appeared in large numbers after the unification of the country.

After all, learning requires a process, and the fission of talents also requires a process.

Luo Zhixue was very pleased to be able to produce so many scientific research talents in more than ten years.

It was not in vain that he shouted that if he wanted to get ahead, he had to learn mathematics, physics and chemistry for so many years.

(End of this chapter)