The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 823 Poor Imperialism

In Tehran, Lin Zexu, who was ostensibly a Hanlin Academician but also concurrently served as the Chief of Staff of the Anxi Thousand-Household Office of the Southern Garrison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, frowned slightly upon receiving the report from Enzeli Port.

When Li Zai went there, Lin Zexu told him that he could start by offering 10,000 silver dollars to bribe these Rus' people, and estimated that at most 30,000 silver dollars would be enough to get the job done.

But now Li Zai has directly set a price of 50,000 silver dollars, which means he has other considerations. Lin Zexu thought about it for a moment and guessed what Li Zai was thinking.

In Li Zai's view, the Tsarist Russian Empire had more than twenty warships and nearly two thousand naval soldiers in the port of Enzeli.

They offered a total of 30,000 silver dollars, which averaged out to just a dozen dollars per person. These Rus' weren't fools; how could they possibly agree to that?

Even 50,000 silver dollars might seem a bit too little to Li Zai. At least if he were in the position of a senior colonel in Vladimir, he would absolutely not agree to it, and would even feel insulted.

Lin Zexu sighed slightly. This was a typical case of judging others by one's own standards, taking the situation in China as a universal phenomenon.

According to a relatively accurate statistic recently compiled by the Da Yu Ministry of Finance and Taxation, Da Yu alone accounts for more than 50% of the wealth produced worldwide at this time.

Of the remaining 50%, England accounts for at least 20%, meaning that the rest of the world's countries combined account for less than 30%.

This terrifying disparity meant that things that were commonplace in the Great Yu Kingdom appeared extremely exaggerated outside.

For example, in terms of fiscal revenue, the annual fiscal revenue of the Great Yu Dynasty is about 210 million silver dollars, while that of England is about 90 million silver dollars.

The Tsarist Rus' Empire, with its land and population entirely controlled by nobles, only had a paltry two to three million silver dollars in land tax revenue.

The largest source of revenue for Tsarist Russia was actually the vodka tax, which was a tax on the monopoly of alcohol.

These Russians are extremely fond of alcohol. In Salo, alcoholic beverages are not considered a pastime, but rather a kind of supplement.

Therefore, the Tsar enacted a law specifically for the monopoly of alcohol. All nobles who wanted to sell alcohol to farmers or even serfs on their land had to pay tribute to the Tsar in exchange for permission.

The total alcohol consumption market in Shaluo is about 40 million silver dollars, which is an extremely alarming figure. It basically accounts for 40% of the alcohol market of the more than 600 million people in the Great Yu Dynasty.

Moreover, much of the vodka produced by the Tsarist Rus' Empire was of the lowest quality, some even being made from wild fruits and soon-to-be-spoiled grains, resulting in a near-poisonous spirit.

The cost of this wine was extremely low, and since it was sold under a monopoly, the profits were very considerable. Therefore, the Tsar could collect about eight to ten million silver dollars in monopoly tax from the wine monopoly every year.

In addition to the approximately three million taels of silver earned annually from grain exports, the total monetary income of the Tsarist Rus' Empire, or rather, the total monetary income available to the Tsar and the central government of the Empire, was approximately seventeen million silver dollars.

Lin Zexu took out his notebook from his pocket and read it again.

These records are the general estimates made by His Majesty the Emperor, who summoned the most outstanding scholars of the Great Yu, regarding the administrative system, aristocratic relations, finance and taxation, and the lives of ordinary people in the Tsarist Rus' Empire.

In this forecast report, many leading scholars believe that the Tsarist Rus' Empire is on the verge of collapse because the Tsar and nobles' exploitation of those below them is simply too cruel.

The total economic output of the Salar Empire was likely less than one-tenth the size of England, yet its fiscal revenue was almost one-fifth that of the Kingdom of England.

Moreover, the Kingdom of England had a large number of industrial products that could be exported to generate profits, but the Salar Empire could only export grain.

The Kingdom of England had vast overseas colonies, especially India, which was a fertile ground for exploitation, while the Salar Empire had no colonies at all.

One can imagine where this obviously disproportionate fiscal revenue came from. Lin Zexu still remembers the chilling expressions on the faces of the scholars and ministers in the room after he calculated the result.

This money was obtained by exporting grain on a large scale while the Salar serfs were forced to eat only wild vegetable soup and black bread with sawdust added, and were even starving to death in large numbers.

For Chinese officials at that time, anyone who had been to London would return saying that London's industrial areas were hell on earth, and that the Salo Empire was even more cruel than hell on earth!
"No wonder Tao Zilin said that if His Majesty continues to spoil the people like this, our industrial products, even silk, tea, and porcelain, will fall behind those Westerners. So this is how they compete with us," Lin Zexu muttered, then stopped worrying about Li Zai's affairs.

It's just an extra 20,000 or 30,000 silver dollars. As long as the matter is resolved, that's fine.

Although this amount of money was astronomical in the Sharo Empire, in the Great Yu, 20,000 to 30,000 silver dollars was only the annual income of a small to medium-sized factory owner, which was not considered a lot.

Thinking of this, Lin Zexu got up and walked out of Tianfang Temple. Outside the temple was a Persian merchant who was very powerful in Tehran. In fact, he was an outer guard of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Lin Zexu was going there to send back the news that the fleet of the port of Salon Zeli had agreed to surrender so that His Highness the Crown Prince could make a decision.

The reason for sending the message back first is that this defection will not happen immediately.

The fleet commanded by Colonel Vladimir was only a part of the Rus' army on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea.

The Rus' army in the southern Caspian plain numbered around 5,000, along with several thousand Persian vassal troops. To ensure the port fleet surrendered without psychological pressure, the Anxi army would need to send troops to annihilate the Rus' forces there.

Meanwhile, the Dayu sailors, who are skilled in operating steam-powered sailing warships, have probably only just set off. We must wait for them to arrive, because the Saluo fleet has never seen a steam engine before and is unable to complete the modification and operation.

Moreover, the final timing of the surrender would depend on when the great war between the Seres Empire and the Tsarist Rus Empire began.

If it's too early, the Tsarist Rus' fleet in Astrakhan will be on guard; if it's too late, there might not be enough time for refitting.

"Rest assured, sir, I will deliver the secret letter as quickly and safely as possible." The bearded Persian merchant spoke in fairly fluent Chinese, his eyes full of flattery.

Without the Embroidered Uniform Guard, this wealthy merchant wouldn't have been able to acquire so many sought-after goods, including flintlock muskets and bombs.

More importantly, the Embroidered Uniform Guard gave him hope: when the last king, Li Li and Li Zai, descendants of the Sasanian Persians, returned, they would promote him to Minister of Finance and confer upon him a noble title.

. . . .

As Li Zai wrote in his report to Lin Xuzhe, in Enzeli Port, Colonel Vladimir originally said he would discuss it before replying, but soon they almost came to blows, and the so-called discussion turned into a spoils-sharing meeting.

There was no way around it; they gave us too much.

The final result was that Colonel Vladimir kept 20,000 silver dollars for himself, while the officers shared the remaining 25,000 silver dollars.

They gave each soldier one silver dollar out of the remaining five thousand silver dollars, then increased the food rations for a month, provided unlimited black bread, and allowed them to drink vodka every day.

Colonel Vladimir and his officers certainly wouldn't tell the soldiers about the entire fleet's defection to Dayu; in fact, the soldiers weren't even entitled to know.

So what we need to do now is to provide extra food, show kindness, and win over everyone's hearts so that the soldiers will be forced to take desperate measures at the last moment.

Just as the Seres Empire and the Tsarist Rus' Empire were preparing for a decisive battle between the Volga and Ural rivers on the northern shore of the Caspian Sea to determine who would be the central leader of the Asian continent, the situation in Europe began to stabilize.

Well, the word "stability" doesn't seem quite right.

Because this looks more like they're building up strength for the next big battle.

1802 October.

Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte's brother, and the Marquess of Cornwallis, the English representative, signed a peace treaty in Amiens, France.

England took the initiative to seek peace, mainly because George III was losing control of the situation.

After George III and Prime Minister William Pitt Jr. had a falling out due to ideological differences, William Pitt Jr. suffered heavy losses, but George III also fared poorly.

Because William the Younger was someone George III had spent twenty years cultivating, a tool to control the government and Parliament.

Now that George III has had to tearfully break his own sword, his influence over the government and parliament has plummeted to rock bottom.

Henry Addington, who succeeded George III, was also put on the throne by George III, but he was not someone George III had groomed.

He was put on the throne simply because his religious beliefs and his approach to Ireland were similar to those of George III.

With Henry Addington's ascension to the throne and the weakening of George III's control, English capitalists quickly revealed their vulnerability.

They were terrified by the French blockade of the European continent, especially under Napoleon's threat to attack anyone who bought English goods.

English capitalists hoped to reach a peace treaty with France as soon as possible in order to persuade First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte to lift the blockade on English goods.

At the same time, sending Moggonze to Gibraltar was also a misstep by George III.

Although Moggallana secured Gibraltar, giving England a decisive advantage in the Mediterranean and also tying down the Spanish kingdom on land.

But his departure left George III without his best henchman.

Even though the Belgian army (the Lu Fan Army) still had 11,000 men around London, George III could not command them without Moggenberg.

George III had a contingency plan in place: as long as he could still control the government and parliament, he could easily recall Moggallje.

However, George III did not anticipate that he would lose absolute control of the government and Parliament so quickly, nor did he expect Henry Addington's change of heart to be so swift. As a result, the transfer order for Moggallzer was immediately blocked. In addition to the problems on the English mainland, the disastrous defeats of the Tsarist Rus' Empire and the Holy Roman Empire on the European continent were also important reasons that prompted England to take the initiative to seek peace.

The Kingdom of England doesn't have much of an army. Despite their claim of having armed 600,000 militiamen, it's really just a matter of using England's industrial capacity to equip the common people with guns.

These people would have a hard time even hunting wild ducks, let alone the French.

Therefore, after losing the Salar and Holy Roman Empires, two countries that could rival France in land warfare, England could only temporarily sue for peace.

"I hope this is the beginning of lasting peace on the continent of Europe. We all look forward to this day." Marquis Cornwallis said to Joseph Bonaparte with a hint of anticipation, spouting nonsense that even he himself didn't believe.

England lost one of the main responsibilities for the loss of the thirteen North American colonies, and the former commander of the British forces in North America had completely fallen from grace.

Even though he knew he might be pushed to take the blame for signing the Amiens Peace Treaty, he still decided to go.

The purpose was to step forward when no one else was willing to come to Amiens to sign the treaty, thereby leaving his descendants a sufficient political legacy, or what we would call political connections.

After all, England made too many concessions in the Treaty of Amiens. If upholding the treaty still couldn't maintain lasting peace, or if France couldn't even lift its blockade on English industrial goods, then whoever signed the treaty would be the culprit and would have to take the blame.

On March 25, the Treaty of Amiens was signed between Britain and France.

England agreed to withdraw its troops from Malta, Cape Town colonies, and Egypt.

France agreed to withdraw its troops from the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States.

Of these, the Cape Town colony originally belonged to the Netherlands, but was taken over by England after the defeat at the Battle of Masonburg in 1795.

The French expeditionary force in Egypt met its final fate last September when the English First Lord of the Navy, Governor of Gibraltar, and Duke of Cambridge, Maurice Moggonze, led 3,000 British troops and 15,000 Ottoman troops to land in Egypt and defeated the French expeditionary force in the subsequent Second Battle of Aboukir Bay.

In this battle, Mo Gongze once again demonstrated his exceptional command ability. Although the French Expeditionary Force was in a state of panic, it still numbered around 20,000 men.

Meanwhile, the French army had already engaged in large-scale intermarriages with Egyptians. For example, Lieutenant General Jacques Menou, the commander of the French army, married Zubayda Mohammed, the daughter of a wealthy Egyptian merchant, and converted to Islam, changing his name to Abdullah.

At least 40% of the French army had married Egyptian women. These women’s families, fearing retribution from the Ottoman Empire, were willing to support the French, thus providing them with a more secure rear.

Mo Gongze's only decent fighting force consisted of two thousand Lu soldiers and one thousand British soldiers. Among the remaining Ottoman troops, only the two thousand Mamluk cavalry were of relatively good fighting ability.

Therefore, the Battle of Egypt should have involved at least 15,000 highly capable French troops against Maurice's 5,000 soldiers, a difference of three times in troop strength.

However, under the command of Mogúnze, the French army amassed more than 10,000 men and waited in full battle at Aboukir Bay, but was defeated in less than five days of fighting.

The Lu army suffered over 100 casualties, while the French army suffered over 1,300 casualties, resulting in a 10:1 casualty ratio.

After this battle, the French Expeditionary Force in Egypt was demoralized, and Maurice Lacquer seized the opportunity to lead his troops to besiege Alexandria. General Jacques Menou, the commander of the French army, had no will to fight and surrendered with his troops.

Half of the French expeditionary force refused to return to France because they resented Napoleon for abandoning them and because they had married and had children in Egypt. Only a few thousand, including General Jacques Menou, were willing to go back.

This is also why the Treaty of Amiens stipulated that England should withdraw its troops from Egypt, because the Ottoman Empire was no longer in power in Egypt; the current ruler of Egypt was Mogonze.

. . . .

In Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, who had been listless for a year, finally showed some signs of revival.

Because he made a very profitable deal with his daughter: a marriage alliance with the Seris Great Yu Empire.

This not only provided Franz II with two million silver dollars to stabilize the treasury during his most difficult time, but also signified that the Holy Roman Empire had its most powerful external support.

"Marie, my daughter, you have such a talent for languages!" Franz II exclaimed, watching his daughter converse fluently in Chinese with a court lady sent by Seres.

This second wife of Napoleon in history was indeed very gifted in languages. Before she had fully mastered Chinese, the twelve-year-old girl had already learned French, English, Spanish and Latin.

However, while Franz II was praising his daughter and recovering somewhat from the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Hornlinden, the problems within the Holy Roman Empire were becoming even more serious.

The Battle of Hornlinden was such a crushing defeat that it was impossible not to look for reasons. Therefore, after the armistice was signed, voices advocating for reform within the Holy Roman Empire immediately gained the upper hand.

They put forward Archduke Charles, demanding that the Holy Roman Empire implement reforms in both the political and military spheres.

However, such top-down reforms at the end of a dynasty are destined to fail, with Zhang Juzheng being the only exception.

But figures like Zhang Juzheng are extremely rare in China's thousands of years of history. The Holy Roman Empire shouldn't even dream of producing one like him; they might not be able to produce another one in two hundred years.

Thus, a group of nobles clamored for reform, yet were reluctant to overthrow themselves, but were forced to make changes.

So what should we do? We should take the lives of those who have a certain amount of wealth and power, but whose wealth and power are not enough to protect themselves.

This way, funds can be raised in a short period of time to alleviate financial pressure, and it can also make the poorest people who are suffering greatly see that the country seems to be changing, and allow those who advocate reform within the country to vent their energy.

Just as the United States in later generations would first eliminate its petty bourgeoisie, middle-income class, and small and medium-sized farmers in the countryside in order to save itself, the Holy Roman Empire is in a similar situation now.

The chaos brought about by this revolution even made Franz II, who was surrounded by a group of sycophants and had never paid much attention to the situation below, feel uneasy.

"Karl, my brother, what should I do? I have a feeling that this empire is going to fall apart." Franz II sought out his brother, Archduke Karl. Even when the empire was on the verge of collapse, Franz II still knew who he could rely on.

"The army, as long as the army is fine, the empire will be fine." Although Grand Duke Karl was very capable in military affairs, he was still too inexperienced in politics.

He still believed that the Holy Roman Empire's current precarious state was entirely due to its crushing defeats on the battlefield. Well, that was certainly an important reason, but by no means the fundamental one.

"So, Karl, will your military reforms restore the army's fighting capacity and make them loyal to the Habsburg family?"

Franz II looked at Archduke Karl with hope, but he did not know that Archduke Karl's military reforms were only aimed at the Holy Roman Empire, especially the Austrian army, in terms of tactics, organization, training, and conscription.

This might make the Austrian army stronger, but Archduke Karl had no ability to improve the army's loyalty.

So the Grand Duke, who also felt that he might not be suitable for this task, hesitated for a moment and then said, "Your Majesty, I can't do this well by myself. Please call Ferdinand back. If we work with Ferdinand, we might be able to stabilize the situation."

Upon hearing this, Franz II was stunned for a moment. He asked hesitantly, "Will Ferdinand be willing to come back? I feel like I have completely broken his heart?"

It wasn't that Franz II didn't know what he was doing; it's just that Mo Gongze wasn't originally that useful, and it wasn't worth considering whether it would harm Mo Gongze before acting.

But now, things are completely different.

“He will come back,” Archduke Karl sighed. Ferdinand had been heartbroken by the Emperor, and he too had lost faith in him.

But by this time, as long as they remained members of the Habsburg family, they had no choice but to return and serve the emperor.

"Because his beloved grandmother and mother's graves are still here, and more importantly, because Ferdinand has no future in England, he will eventually have to return here if he wants to achieve something."

Archduke Karl looked at his elder brother, the Emperor, and said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, we will return the Duchess of Parma, which Ferdinand's mother possessed, to Ferdinand, and at the same time appoint him as Governor-General of Hungary. This will be sufficient to show your sincerity."

Archduke Karl's voice trembled slightly, clearly indicating that he understood what the position of Governor-General of Hungary represented.

Franz II's chest heaved, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just nodded silently.

Hungary is on the verge of exploding. Bringing Ferdinand back would be better than the empire turning from the Roman Empire into a dualistic empire.

In May, a personal letter from Franz II was delivered to Alexandria, and Mogongze's face lit up with joy.

He had finally waited for this moment. Franz II no longer tried to fool him with the title of King of the Rhineland, but instead offered him real benefits.

“Let’s go back, let’s go back to Hungary and start our business!” Mo Gongze said with a smile to his trusted generals.

“But King George III’s order hasn’t come yet, and you’re still the Governor of Gibraltar. Is it alright for us to leave like this?” Liu Guoqing said worriedly.

Although the Treaty of Amiens required them to withdraw their troops from Egypt, the English government did not allow them to return directly to their homeland, but instead sent them to Gibraltar to await orders.

"Hmph, I'm only obeying the orders because of King George III and Princess Mary. Henry Addington and his ilk aren't qualified to command me."

Moreover, I suspect those people in the English Parliament are more than happy for me to leave; I'll have to ask them for hundreds of thousands more pounds in military funding when I get back.”

(End of this chapter)