Chapter 1634: I, Zhu Youjian, Have Returned!

The Crisis Must Be Shifted! "This is the Guards succession law! These traitors who have brought calamity to the nation and its people..."

Zhu Yaofei could not help cursing aloud!

He had known two hundred years earlier that these boy-scout Guards were no good... it was only because an army raised from childhood offered such guaranteed combat effectiveness that he had made the decision to build it on a grand scale.

Back when Zhu Cilang was building the boy-scout Guards on a grand scale, he had no means to institute compulsory education, so of course there was no possibility of conscription — without compulsory education and without equal land distribution, a "conscription system" would at best mean tying men up with ropes; what sort of combat effectiveness could that possibly have?

Moreover, the world empire Zhu Cilang established was extremely vast and required troops to be dispatched all over the world, much like the British Empire of old. At the same time, the Ming homeland itself was relatively secure and did not need large numbers of conscripts who could be rapidly mobilized; a few hundred thousand professional soldiers were enough to overawe all quarters.

Therefore, maintaining a small number of especially elite Guards who could be rapidly deployed and could be stationed overseas for long periods to carry out combat missions was necessary — indeed, it was the only choice.

And when he built the boy-scout Guards on a grand scale, Zhu Cilang had left himself a fallback. At the same time, he had worked hard to cultivate an aristocratic officer corps. He had also forbidden officers of boy-scout Guards origin from returning to command the Guards, so as to prevent officers and men from becoming one body and forming a faction...

Unfortunately, the arrangements Zhu Cilang had made back then were wrecked by his unworthy descendant Zhu Bolian!

Once he broke the iron rule that those of boy-scout origin could not serve as Guards officers, a Guards faction began to form.

At the same time, as generation after generation of retired Guards officers and men either settled as civilians in Yingtian Prefecture or went to various places to sit examinations and seek office, a peripheral group around the Guards gradually took shape. Most members of this Guards peripheral group had received a good education, possessed a fairly strong "citizen consciousness," and were keen on politics and holding office. Over time, they too formed a middle stratum that was neither high nor low.

A little later, something that infuriated Zhu Yaofei even more appeared in the Comprehensive History of the Great Ming.

The Martial Might Emperor Zhu Xianba, whom the Guards had pushed onto the throne, had no idea how to control these frenzied Guards, and he could do nothing about the "Guards students" in Yingtian Prefecture either. He had no choice but to bring out the old ancestral method — marriage alliance and winning them over in bed. He selected an Empress from a Guards family, and also selected an Imperial Noble Consort likewise from a Guards family, hoping to rely on them to placate the Guards and the Guards' peripheral group.

And this Empress and Consort did serve with all their hearts, and could be counted as worthy consorts. But the two of them gradually seized control of the court and sidelined the Emperor Zhu Jinglei, and the Ming Empire thereupon entered a decades-long era of female rule.

Yet female rule was not a problem in Zhu Yaofei's eyes — an emperor is born into the position by reincarnation, and if his abilities are lacking there is nothing to be done; is he not even allowed to find a more capable Empress to assist him?

What truly infuriated Zhu Yaofei was that Zhu Xianba's Empress and Consort held quite a few progressive ideas! This was actually a mine Zhu Cilang had laid himself: he had established for later Zhu emperors the ancestral institutions of "selecting consorts by examination" and "education for women." So the consorts selected were all female intellectuals! Of course their thinking was rather progressive...

In the eyes of Zhu Xianba's two consorts, the boy-scout Guards system was both backward and dangerous — although they came from the Guards' peripheral cluster, that did not mean they identified with the Guards system. In their view, officers trained at military academies plus conscripts were the guarantee of national security.

So after the two of them took up the reins of government, they began to wind down the boy-scout Guards system. Of course, because the state they governed still possessed relatively strong financial resources, this reform could be carried out fairly smoothly.

First, the Ming court stopped recruiting boy scouts, and instead recruited an equal number of "publicly funded students" from the frontier military garrisons to attend secondary school in Yingtian Prefecture... If their grades were excellent, the state would fund them all the way up until they graduated from university.

Second, the Ming court began selecting professional soldiers from the Guards and the ordinary New Army — that is, the backbone of the army under the conscription system, including officers and non-commissioned officers. Because the quality of the Guards was far higher than that of the ordinary New Army, the proportion selected was extremely high. For Guards officers and men, this was absolutely an opportunity for promotion.

Third, Guards and New Army officers and men who were not selected all received generous severance pay and opportunities for vocational training, or the state paid to send their families to settle in the New Continent or the Southern Continent. In short, there were still paths forward.

"But no matter what, the Guards are still the imperial family's private soldiers!" Zhu Yaofei was nearly in tears as he read, and could only lament, "Conscripts come from the common people... they are far more likely to make revolution! And large numbers of Guards officers and men became the backbone of the continental army — once these men changed offices, did they stop being radical and warlike?"

Now it was a disaster: the more warlike and more radical Guards officers were combined with conscripts who were more prone to revolution. Add to that the intensifying social contradictions of early-stage capitalism... Zhu Yaofei did not dare read on!

But not daring to read on could not change anything. In the end, Zhu Yaofei sighed once and continued browsing.

After reading a few more pages, he discovered that the Ming dynasty had indeed begun expanding its army and preparing for a new world war.

The purpose of the new world war was, of course, to defend the unity of the world!

What a fine pretext!

Because of the European revolution and the confrontation between the two great military blocs in the Americas, the originally "unified world" had now split once more — the revived Napoleonic Empire had not submitted to the Ming Empire, and the independent Republic of Mexico had not submitted to the Ming either.

And the American Federation, the United Kingdom of New England, and the Great Soviet Khanate all refused to accept the Ming dynasty's edict prohibiting alliances. In practice, they too had become independent!

In addition, after the First World Unification War, the neighboring Li dynasty of India had carried out a series of reforms, developed industry and commerce, established a new-model army and navy composed mainly of Han-Burmese people, greatly increased its strength, and begun seeking the unification of India.

With Napoleonic Rome, the American Federation, the United Kingdom of New England, the Republic of Mexico, the Great Soviet Khanate, and Li-dynasty India as these "rebellious states," the Ming Empire had no shortage of enemies!

And the arrival of the Second Industrial Revolution gave the Ming Empire the confidence to launch a new world war.

Compared with the previous wave of industrial revolution, the Second Industrial Revolution that occurred after the First World Unification War was nothing less than an explosion of productive forces!

The Ming's steel production capacity jumped from the original several hundred thousand to a million tons all at once to around twenty million tons!

Coal production capacity also grew from the original several million tons to over two hundred million tons.

And the invention and application of electricity pushed the Second Industrial Revolution to its highest climax!

At the same time, the invention and spread of the telegraph and telephone further strengthened the Ming Empire's central and local

At the same time that the new wave of industrial revolution erupted, the Ming Empire, now possessed of greater financial and material resources, also began a new round of infrastructure construction.

Including the vassal-state railways planned, built, and contracted out by the Ming Ministry of Railways in Western Chu, Dzungar, Khoshut, Chahar, Tumed, Joseon, Annam, Siam, Laos, Chenla, Siberia, and elsewhere, the total operating railway mileage had reached an astonishing 400,000 li by the end of 1900!

Firmly occupying first place in the world!

And occupying second place in the world was the United States of the New Continent, which bestrode the New Continent and by the end of 1900 possessed 150,000 li of railways — although the United States did not possess the Great Lakes region, relying on the iron mines of the Gulf of the Americas region, the coal mines north of the Great Stone Mountains, the coal mines of the Qing state, and the rich oil of California and Texas, the United States had also developed into one of the world's top-ranked industrial nations.

By around 1900, the Second Industrial Revolution in the Ming and the United States of the New Continent was basically complete, and industrial production capacity had reached a staggering level.

But where was the market for so many industrial products?

Moreover, the working people of the Ming homeland were never very prosperous, and their discontent with the court grew day by day. A way had to be found to divert their attention!

A new war for world unification seemed to be the only choice!