Chapter 1635: The First Master Carpenter of Great Ming

Who loves war?

This was a question raised by the great historian Zhu Zhongshu in his work.

The question was also the title of a major chapter. In that chapter, he cited a vast array of historical sources and the recollections of those who lived through it, explaining the inevitability and the driving forces behind the "Second World Unification War," which inflicted enormous trauma upon all mankind.

And the first question that had to be answered was "Who loves war?"

In another time and space, this question had long had a standard answer. Those who loved war were, of course, the monarchs of ** dynasties, dictators, big capitalists, warlords, bureaucrats, and so on — the list of those guilty of starting wars certainly did not include the broad masses of the people. Workers, peasants, students, and the like, for example, were all victims of war, endowed with an inherent aura of righteousness.

Moreover, even if these lower- and middle-class masses did love war, they had no power to start a world war!

They held no power, nor did they have much money to push for the buying off of those in authority, and in 1900, before the outbreak of the Second World Unification War, the common people of most belligerent nations did not even have the right to vote.

But Zhu Zhongshu, a great historian who had personally witnessed two world unification wars, gave a very "incorrect" answer.

He believed that the First World Unification War had indeed been started by a group of high-and-mighty predators. Although there had also been considerations of diverting internal contradictions and consuming some surplus products, they could have chosen peace. But by the eve of the Second World Unification War, these predators no longer had any room for choice, because at that time revolutionary sentiment and nationalist sentiment in every country were running extremely high.

Although most countries had no democratic system, that did not mean their rulers could do whatever they pleased. Because unlike the situation before the First World Unification War decades earlier, the great powers had all swept away feudal institutions during those decades, abolished the lord system and serfdom, implemented compulsory education, and more or less practiced freedom of the press — even where there was no freedom of the press, given the enforcement capacity of the governments of the time, they were utterly powerless against privately printed and distributed tabloids. Thus the censorship systems of every country existed in name only, and those in power had no idea how to control public opinion — they had never governed so many literate commoners before!

And it was also the first time they had encountered an era of "explosion" in cheap books and newspapers!

Decades earlier, except in a few small-population, well-developed countries, only a minority of people in most great powers could finish reading an entire novel. Moreover, books and newspapers at the time were relatively expensive and had small print runs, so only a minority of intellectuals could possess them in large quantities.

But around 1900, most great powers had already implemented compulsory education for decades, and the length of compulsory education had gradually increased from the initial four years to six to nine years.

At the same time, the frenzy of the Second Industrial Revolution had made paper, ink, and printing presses extremely cheap, easily affordable to everyone.

So when the Second Industrial Revolution reached **, what exploded was not only productive forces, but also people's minds!

And when all kinds of ideas churned together, influencing one another, merging with one another, and then each taking sides, a polarization into left and right emerged. The left wanted revolution, the right wanted conquest, while those standing in the middle, inclined to maintain the status quo, were the monarchs, bureaucrats, and magnates.

If there had been no economic crisis, the left and right poles would have moved toward the center, forming center-left and center-right, and the situation would have been relatively easy to control. After all, monarchs, bureaucrats, and magnates held vast social wealth, and when necessary they could sprinkle a little of it out to buy people's hearts.

The problem was that when the Second Industrial Revolution reached its end, every country had accumulated a great deal of surplus production capacity and the loans supporting these non-performing assets — and the leaders of each country who held great power did not know how to absorb this surplus capacity and these bad loans.

Because they were not yet accustomed to using the printing press to solve problems, and they could not print anyway — at the time every country was on a gold-silver bimetallic standard, with currency anchored to precious metals, so there was simply no way to print at will.

With no way to print money to solve short-term pain, no way to control the surging public opinion, and even less way to rein in the hundreds of millions of minds that wanted to reverse their own fates through a violent upheaval — then the only choice was to turn right, because turning left was impossible. And turning left would mean war all the same!

The only difference was whether it was a foreign war or a civil war!

"Utter nonsense! And they call him a great historian — he doesn't know a damn thing!"

Zhu Yaofei was so angry he slammed the table.

How was this a choice between left and right?

What about the printing press?

What about the Ming Federal Reserve?

Couldn't you just print money and fleece the whole world? Great Ming is the suzerain of the world! How did you manage that?

The United States of New Continents, the United Kingdom of the Southern Continent, the Qing Kingdom, the Li Family's Three Kingdoms, Japan, Joseon, Siam, Annam, and all those countries in South America — who among them did not accept banknotes bearing the portrait of Great Ming's Hongxing Emperor?

Even if you didn't fleece the whole world, wasn't there still real estate? Zhu Zhongshu was even a descendant of the Landlord King! How could he not know this?

Once real estate took off, wouldn't the money for infrastructure be there? A mere 20 million tons of steel was nothing in the face of a great infrastructure push! Great Ming was far bigger than New China, and it had a whole host of vassal states it could invest in — Great Ming is the suzerain of the world! Its status was even more badass than the American hegemon. If Great Ming wanted to invest, who would dare stand in the way?

As long as infrastructure got going, the bank accounts of the common people below would all look good, and once housing prices rose, everyone would be middle class — wouldn't the Great Ming realm be as stable as Mount Tai?

But it was too late for Zhu Yaofei to say any of that now!

Back when he had the chance to speak, he didn't; who was he supposed to tell now?

Zhu Yaofei sighed and kept reading.

That muddle-headed Zhu Zhongshu had started writing about the world war.

Unlike the world war in the original history, which was finished in a few years, the Second World Unification War dragged on endlessly for ten years.

It went from 1901 in the Western calendar all the way to 1911 before it was over!

It had to be said that the Great Ming Empire's foundations were deep — nothing short of a ten-year war could have brought a crown crashing down. But no matter how deep the foundations, they could not withstand such a battering, and the crowns finished off by this war were not limited to the one crown of the Great Ming Heavenly Dynasty — the Western Roman, Russia, the United Kingdom of New England, the Eastern Roman, Prussia, the Indian Li Dynasty, the Indian Timurids, the Ottomans, Persia, and the Khoshut — truly crowns fell all over the ground!

And in the end it was fought to an indecisive stalemate, so world unification naturally fell through as well. Zhu Yaofei no longer had any interest in reading on. He let out a long sigh and shut off his tablet computer.

Then he looked around. Not bad — he had made it onto a private jet. It seemed the struggles of his previous life had been worth something after all!

The afterword ends here. I had originally wanted to write a bit more, but Luoluo felt it was good to leave a little to the imagination. Besides, Luoluo still needs to save time for more entertaining content.

Starting tomorrow, Luoluo will be writing side stories. In Luoluo's side stories, the Chongzhen Emperor of Great Ming, who has been interning for over fifty years, will finally get to show his true abilities!