Chapter 630 The battle for the imperial examination [Part 2]

[Terrible inertia...]

Renshou Palace.

"...The Emperor has just recovered from a serious illness. His body of ten thousand dollars still needs to be nourished, and it is not appropriate to repeatedly consume energy. Therefore, I am bold and would like to ask His Majesty to reset the palace examination rankings and leave it to His Majesty to make a decision."

After explaining his intention tactfully, Jiao Benn bowed and stood in the palace, waiting for the Emperor's reply.

However, what awaited was a long silence.

It was so long that if it weren't for the upturned feet of the Supreme Emperor swinging from time to time on the leisure chair opposite, Jiao Shun would have suspected that the blind old man had fallen asleep long ago and didn't hear what he said at all; it was so long that Jiao Shun started to mutter,

Could it be that he had guessed wrong? The Supreme Emperor, who had already rejected the list twice, had no intention of accepting it as soon as he could, but had made up his mind to fall out with his son?

This shouldn't be the case...

Even if the Supreme Emperor is greedy for imperial power, this is not how he plays the game.

At first, Jiao Shun was still thinking about the Emperor's thoughts, but later his thoughts started to spread out, kicking the sky and the ground, so that when he recalled it afterwards, he couldn't remember what thoughts he had at that time.

In short, time in Renshou Palace seems to have frozen.

After a long, long, long time, the Supreme Emperor exhaled like he was dreaming and said loudly: "The last time my father and son spoke face to face and heart to heart, it seems that it was at the end of winter in the second year of Longyuan."

After saying that, he changed his words with some uncertainty: "Maybe it was the early spring of the third year of Longyuan?"

Finally, he seemed to give up, shook his head and sighed: "I can't remember clearly, I can't remember clearly."

Listening to this, could it be that the Emperor sent back the list intact twice because he wanted to have a parent-child exchange?

Jiao Shun didn't dare to believe it all, but he also didn't dare not to believe it. Just when he was hesitating whether he should say something, he heard the Emperor from the opposite side say again: "I remember that time we had a big quarrel in Renshou Palace because of some industrial innovation.

Although the emperor took the initiative to plead guilty afterwards, from then on..."

Halfway through, he fell silent again.

And it was even more difficult for Jiao Shun to accept these words.

Fortunately, the Supreme Emperor did not remain silent for long this time. He pulled up the thin blanket covering his body and asked quietly: "Since you are his designated minister, come and tell me about the anger and resentment in the world today."

What are the benefits of the new policy?"

Jiao Shun was still hesitating just now, whether he had come in the wrong way this time, but when he heard these words, he immediately changed his mind - it was a good thing that he came, because he was afraid that the father and son would have to quarrel.

After all, one has become more obsessed with the New Deal after suffering a stroke, while the other has long had a grudge against the New Deal. How can we talk about the same thing?

At that moment, he cleared his throat briefly and said loudly: "Returning to the Supreme Emperor, I think that if we only consider the national conditions of our country, the new policy has both disadvantages and advantages. As for whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages or the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, it is because I lack intelligence.

I am short-sighted and it is difficult to distinguish for a while.”

"Um?"

For the first time since Jiao Shun entered the palace, the Supreme Emperor raised his head and looked at his direction. Apparently, he did not expect that Jiao Shun would say such a thing.

But soon, the Supreme Emperor lay back on his back again and snorted: "What a lucky minister!"

He obviously felt that Jiao Shun was timid, so he deliberately spoke according to his own wishes.

"My lord, I said the same thing in front of His Majesty."

Jiao Shun deliberately removed the word "wei", and his tone seemed neither humble nor overbearing.

"Um?"

The Supreme Emperor looked up for the second time. Although his eyes were cloudy, the confusion on his face was unmistakable.

Jiao Shun saw that he was just staring at him and did not say anything else, so he continued according to the established train of thought: "I have collected a lot of information about the Wuxi Kingdom in the past two years. The Wuxi Kingdom is indeed the most powerful in the world, but for the sake of

By following the path of industrial power, the sufferings suffered by the poor people in the country are also appalling."

"For example, in order to have more wool for spinning, factory owners used various means to seize the people's farmland and turned it into sheep pen pastures. As a result, food prices were so high that the people were displaced and unable to survive."

"Another example is that in order to reduce costs, they do their best to squeeze workers, so that countless workers will be exhausted in just a few years and unable to survive. At that time, the factory owners will mercilessly fire them, leaving them suffering from all kinds of diseases and no money.

Healed and died.”

"As far as I know, the vast majority of workers in Usi today do not live past the age of thirty, and nearly half do not even reach the age of twenty-five. Countless children have died of exploitation."

“There are countless misdeeds like this!”

After hearing Jiao Shun's eloquent words, the Supreme Emperor unconsciously sat up straight, with a look of astonishment on his face.

Among them, only three-thirds were shocked by the tragic situation of workers in Wuxi, but seven-cent were shocked that Jiao Shun did not hesitate to say such words that were not conducive to the New Deal!

So after Jiao Shun's words came to an end, the Supreme Emperor subconsciously blurted out: "Aren't you afraid that these words will spread?"

Jiao Shun replied calmly and calmly: "Everything I said is true, and there is nothing that cannot be said to others."

Hearing him so calm, the Emperor didn't know what to say for a moment. He had been holding back what he wanted to say and wanted to refute Jiao Shun, the standard-bearer of the New Deal, in person, but before he could even open his mouth, Mr. Jiao started talking.

White flag.

At this time, Jiao Shun continued: "It is true that the Wuxi Kingdom has accumulated a lot of wealth by exporting industrial products, but this may not be applicable to our country in Daxia - our country in Daxia only relies on silk, porcelain and other items, and when it comes to foreign trade,

A huge surplus has been achieved.

"Even the Wuxi Kingdom spends real money and silver to purchase things from our country every year, and even bears a considerable financial burden because of this. The reason why the Wuxi Kingdom invaded our coastal areas in the past few years was precisely to use force to reverse this unfavorable situation.

.”

"So for our DPRK, even if we can produce more industrial products for export, it is just the icing on the cake. We may even have to worry about producing too much and not being able to sell it. This is one of the reasons why the DPRK and Chinese ministers disapprove of the New Deal.

one."

"That's why I said that if we only look at our national conditions in Daxia, the pros and cons of the New Deal are difficult to measure."

The Emperor became more and more confused. In these two paragraphs, Jiao Shun almost dismissed the industrial revolution as useless. I am afraid that when most civil servants in the court criticized the New Deal, they were not as profound as what he said.

But he is also the core figure of the New Deal and the emperor's most trusted confidant...

The Supreme Emperor couldn't help but ask: "Although you know the shortcomings of the New Deal, why do you blindly cater to the holy will? Do you want to help Zhou..."

Halfway through the sentence, the Emperor felt that he should not describe his son in this way, so he stopped talking in time.

"I hope the Emperor will learn from it!"

But I heard Jiao Shun say with emotion: "I am not blindly catering to the Holy Will, but I sincerely admire His Majesty's foresight!"

"Then what you just said..."

"What I just said has a premise, that is, 'only based on the national conditions of our country, Daxia', but there are many countries in the world and I am not the only country of Daxia!"

Hearing Jiao Shun's reversal, the Supreme Emperor suddenly came back to his senses. After all, he had been upright for many years and had seen many things. At this time, he could vaguely see that Jiao Shun wanted to suppress his desires first.

However, he was also really curious about how Jiao Shun was going to fix the shortcomings of the New Deal when he suddenly revealed them.

Therefore, although he saw Jiao Shun's plan, he had no intention of trying to stop him for the moment. Instead, he raised his chin and signaled him to continue.

And this is precisely the purpose of Jiao Shun's aggressive disparagement of the New Deal as soon as he came up.

If he had chosen to support the New Deal from the beginning, the Emperor would not have listened so seriously, and he would have certainly rebutted it - this was not a fair debate. The Emperor was both the question maker and the referee.

What can you do to win against him in an argument?

Only by suppressing the desire to express it first and arousing the curiosity of the Supreme Emperor can he express what he really wants to say.

Seeing that he was about to achieve his goal, Jiao Shun naturally did not hesitate and immediately said: "Since the squid entered the Koujin Gate in the second year of Longyuan, our court has determined to use the whole country to imitate the iron-clad ship to compete with the Wuxi Kingdom for maritime supremacy -

—However, it has been more than three years and the armored ship has not yet been launched. Does the Supreme Emperor know the reason?"

Seeing his question, the Supreme Emperor sneered and said, "It's because the emperor has repeatedly requested that the armored ships built by our dynasty must be stronger than those of Wuxi. Naturally, it will not be easy."

"There is indeed a reason for this."

Jiao Shun didn't want to draw on this, so he skipped it casually and added: "But more is spent on supporting facilities, such as the steam turbine that drives the ironclad ship, which encounters the problem of insufficient power, so more airtight boilers are needed.

It is difficult to support, and increasing the thickness and toughness of the boiler will put too much burden on the ironclad ship."

"Other issues such as the load-bearing of the steel frame, the rudder drive issue, the coal supply measurement issue... and many other problems."

"So what?"

When the Supreme Emperor heard Jiao Shun suddenly talk about these details of shipbuilding, he became impatient and stopped him and said: "Aren't the armored ships about to be launched now? It's obvious that these problems have been overcome."

"Actually, not all of them have been overcome."

Jiao Shun corrected him without dwelling on these details, and then added: "And this was accomplished under the supervision of the emperor and with the efforts of the whole country for several years. During this period, I don't know how many people racked their brains for this."

,Just imagine..."

"What on earth do you want to say?!"

The Supreme Emperor interrupted Jiao Shun again, and the impatience on his face had increased by six points.

Tsk~

This blind old man seemed to be in peace just now, but he turned out to be a hot-tempered man!

Jiao Shun was even more glad that he came to deliver the message instead of the emperor in person. At the same time, he had to skip part of the background information and went straight to the topic: "What I mean is that the things created by the Wuxi Kingdom are now rapidly becoming complex and sophisticated."

direction of development, this armored ship is the leader among them."

"If Taizu hadn't attached great importance to industry during his time, our dynasty's smelting industry would have been much better than that of the previous Qing Dynasty. It would have been extremely difficult to imitate this armored ship in three to five years - and if we were satisfied with this, it would have taken decades or even ten years.

Later, the navy of Guangdong and Guangxi was easily wiped out, and the disaster of the squid driving straight into the Jinmen of Koulue will happen again!"

"Hmph, alarmist!"

The Supreme Emperor was not unfamiliar with this statement, so he immediately retorted: "How did you know that Daxia would just stand still? As long as the imperial court specially allocates funds to order the Ministry of Industry to develop stronger warships..."

“So how much money should be appropriated?”

Jiao Shun bravely interrupted the Emperor's words and asked: "I just said that Westerners' industry is developing towards complexity and sophistication. That is to say, the more new technologies, processes and materials are involved in the future, the more new technologies, processes and materials will be involved. If

If there is less funding, it will not help the problem, and there will not be so many talents who specialize in this field."

"If more funds are allocated to train talents who specialize in this field... wouldn't that be the New Deal advocated by His Majesty?!"

The Supreme Emperor was obviously hesitant after hearing this.

In fact, he wanted to say that if the emperor wants to implement the New Deal, it is okay, but there is no need to raise the craftsmen too high. If they are asked to be eight or nine-grade minor officials according to the old system, shouldn't they be able to develop new technologies?

But the Supreme Emperor didn't want to say such 'soft words' in front of mere ministers.

So after hesitating for a moment, he still snorted coldly: "What a clever word! In the past thousands of years, our empire has never respected craftsmen so much, but isn't it enough to convince all the nations of the world to come to the court?"

In fact, Jiao Shun may not really want to raise the workers too high, but now the workers group has become his base, and he usually regards himself as a worker representative. Even if he doesn't think so in his heart, he must say so in his mouth.

.

Therefore, even though he heard the hidden meaning in the words of the Supreme Emperor, he could only pretend not to understand, bowing and saying: "Your Majesty, how can there be a barbarian country in thousands of years that can overwhelm our heavenly kingdom with its well-equipped equipment?

"

In fact, there is, but the Supreme Emperor will definitely not admit it.

After a pause, Jiao Shun continued: "In the past thousands of years, have we ever seen a giant ship made of steel, running rampant on the sea? Let's not ignore the Western barbarians, but I will use the newly built continuous muskets once they are put into the army.

I'm afraid that the battle formation method that has been used for thousands of years will change from now on."

After all, Daxia was founded on firearms. As for the magazine musket, a powerful weapon of the country, the Supreme Emperor took the time to understand it, so he agreed with Jiao Shun's words - now that a musket that can shoot continuously and rapidly has been created, what was the three-stage shooting in the past?

Such a Phalanx is naturally unsustainable.

"And this is just the beginning. Now the Ministry of Industry is trying to continue to improve. If some difficulties can be overcome, it may be possible to increase the rate of fire ten times, or even a hundred times..."

"ha!"

The Supreme Emperor finally caught Jiao Shun's sick leg this time, and sneered: "Do you think I know nothing about this? Let me ask you, even if such a musket is made, where should the bullets be placed? Is there really such a gun?

I'm afraid it won't be enough to load dozens or even hundreds of rounds of ammunition!"

"Then thousands, tens of thousands!"

Jiao Shun said with enthusiasm: "I have seriously imagined that once the problems of airtightness and automatic ejection of bullet casings are solved, thousands of bullets can be strung together to make a bullet belt, which can be placed separately at ordinary times.

When used, they can be strung together to fire hundreds or thousands of bullets instantly."

"Furthermore, if the power of the steam engine continues to increase and the size continues to shrink, we can build an ironclad ship that can walk on land - it doesn't need to be that big, it just needs to be able to withstand attacks from ordinary weapons."

"At that time, as long as a small number of such giant beasts lead the charge, no matter how many people are on the opposite side, how can they withstand it without the equipment and weapons to compete with them?!"
Chapter completed!