Chapter 762: East India Company

Liu Zheng looked at the letters Ling Chen had written, unable to decide whether to laugh or cry.

The Supreme Prince, standing nearby, was also laughing heartily as he read them.

"This Ling Chen is actually quite adorable!"

Previously, the Supreme Prince had not advised Liu Zheng to let Ling Chen have his own way. He felt that Ling Chen was a man of immense ambition, and furthermore, having been a prisoner, he lacked inherent reverence for the imperial court.

But he had not expected...

Now, in his letters, he was like a headless fly, or a wronged young wife.

Liu Zheng also smiled slightly: "This fellow, it seems he truly has no brains; he hasn't learned a single thing from the ways of the Western Regions."

The two looked at each other and laughed.

However, having said that.

The ways of the Western Regions might not necessarily be suitable for India. The situations in the two places were different. When Ling Chen took over the Western Regions, the small states there had already been beaten into submission. But the former governors of the Mughal Empire were each still quite powerful. At that time, there were no religious conflicts in the Western Regions, whereas in India today, the greatest conflict stemmed from religion.

How to balance this was something Ling Chen needed to consider.

Liu Zheng thought for a moment, then picked up his brush.

The Supreme Prince eagerly ground the ink for him.

As for how to govern India?

In fact, Liu Zheng already had the answer in his mind. For this, one could fully refer to his past life and how Britain colonized India; just copying the homework would suffice.

Regarding the subject of colonization, Liu Zheng had spent some time studying it.

In *The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development*, there was a passage: The fertility of colonizers influenced their choice of governing institutions in the colonies, and the choice of institutions in turn influenced the economic development of the colonies after independence.

Why were the British able to rule three hundred million Indians with only five hundred people?

This was due to the choice of governing institutions.

The South Asia Subcontinent was one of the most isolated regions in the world, yet invaders came in an endless stream. From the earlier Aryan, Persian, and Greek peoples, to the later Turkic and Mongol peoples, horse-riding nations always poured into India like a tide through the Khyber Pass in the Northwest, reshaping it over and over again. The British were the final conquerors, and their difference was that they did not seize the passes from the Northwest, but landed from the coast.

Britain began its colonization of India precisely because of the decline of the Mughal Empire, the death of Aurangzeb, the mutual conquest between domestic warlords, and the resistance of the people, while the Iranian and Afghan peoples began wave after wave of attacks and devastation. At this time, the British East India Company, relying on its immense financial resources, subdued a large number of governors and warlords through bribery, division, and attack. The development of the situation at the time even exceeded the expectations of the British, and in the end, even the British Cabinet had to take the matter seriously. Finally, more than a hundred years after the British landed in India, the first Governor-General of India appeared. At this time, Britain was ruling in the name of the East India Company. Then, another eighty-plus years passed before Britain officially began its colonization of India.

Therefore.

Unlike the violent rule of other countries in history, British colonization had its merits.

That was that they were not interested in the land; all they wanted was trade.

Even when they occupied land, it was for the convenience of trade. The British rarely stationed large armies in the colonies to supervise the lives of the people and demand assimilation. They only needed a simple administrative structure and a peaceful order conducive to trade, and that was enough.

A common saying among East India Company officials was "Trade, not land," which was by no means a hypocritical statement; it prevented Britain from becoming bogged down in any particular colony.

Therefore.

Liu Zheng began to write.

The first suggestion was to advise Ling Chen against founding a nation. Although Ling Chen had already realized that his three hundred thousand troops in the South Asia Subcontinent were completely isolated and deep in enemy territory, Liu Zheng still found it necessary to provide a reminder. If not founding a nation, then what to build?

A company!

Liu Zheng's suggestion was to establish an East India Company that relied on Liangzhou and Longyan!

To let the Western Regions Construction Corps transform from a militia—a group combining military and agriculture—into a group combining military, trade, and commerce. This transformation sounded difficult, but in practice, it was very simple. Why? Because products from Yintan City could be continuously transported from the Western Regions, giving Ling Chen a unique advantage in commerce.

No matter the era, India's caste system was quite astonishing.

It was the same today; the hundreds of princes, nobles, governors, and warlords in India at this time had a surprising talent for extravagance and debauchery. They not only loved elephants, tigers, gold, and jewels, but naturally also pursued various "luxury goods" from Yintan City, such as fine wine, soap, and perfume. Their level of greed was startling.

It would not be a big problem for Ling Chen to win them over through trade.

The second suggestion was that while winning over the princes and nobles, he must also find a way to win the hearts of the people.

Whoever wins the hearts of the people wins the world; no matter where one goes, this saying holds true. Even in a colony.

The most important reason why Britain was able to colonize India for over a hundred years without non-violent force was that they left behind many things worth praising for India. That was industry; at the time, India's railway system was the best in the world in terms of advancement and mileage. Bengal produced the best jute in the world, so British textile machines began to be widely utilized there.

Liu Zheng suggested that Ling Chen follow suit, develop India appropriately in the name of the East India Company, build factories, and rely on Mumbai Port and other important ports to expand trade with Western countries.

Secondly, the British established effective civil service and legal systems in India, implemented humanitarian laws, abolished many local Indian customs, and carried out necessary interventions in India's deep-rooted caste system. They also promulgated the Exclusion of Caste Incapacity Act, declaring that caste rights must unconditionally submit to government decrees, and that certain Indian residents could not be deprived of their property and inheritance rights due to religious beliefs or caste reasons.

The third suggestion was to strictly crack down on religious conflicts, open schools, and urge the people to cast off ignorance.

This naturally had nothing in common with the practices of the British in his past life. But Liu Zheng believed it was very necessary.

One must know that, in fact, India under British rule in his past life was the only time it truly enjoyed long-term stability. On the contrary, their "national leaders," the three great heroes of independence—Gandhi, Nehru, and Jinnah—all once held British lawyer qualifications, yet in terms of political civilization, they were blinded by national sentiment and performed very poorly.

Nehru was a worshiper of the Soviet planned economy, and Jinnah was an Islamist.

Gandhi was even more extreme; he opposed industrial civilization, was anti-scientific and anti-rational, and advocated that rural communes and natural ignorance were the source of Indian happiness. It was precisely his ideology that caused the resurgence of India's caste system, religious massacres, displacement, and the flames of war...

The lessons of the past must be prevented.

The final suggestion.

It was also the conclusion of this letter.

Liu Zheng smiled slightly, then put down his brush.

Use a few hundred people to rule India.

Use three hundred thousand troops to fight in Central Asia.

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