The generation that grew up watching Ming warships being launched and the generation that followed Zhu Jinsong in overthrowing the Great Qing were two completely different mindsets. The generation that followed Zhu Jinsong in overthrowing the Great Qing was filled with aggression, their hearts brimming with pride. However, this generation was too sharp-edged, constantly waiting for the will of Zhu Jinsong, the Great Ming Emperor—to conquer the rebellious!
It seemed as if this would further prove the Great Ming's might, further prove themselves.
As for the previous generation, they were truly reserved, or rather cautious. This was due to the influence of the Great Qing's hundred years of enslavement and rule. Even though they had become masters overnight, a sense of crisis always lingered in their hearts.
Only the generation that grew up watching Ming warships being launched was filled with the confidence and pride of the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties. They could treat any European commoner as an equal. They appeared more reserved, but their hearts were prouder, and their sense of vigilance was stronger.
More importantly, starting from this generation, the population of the Central Plains, or the Great Ming, truly entered a phase of explosive growth. The demographic dividend alone was enough to ensure the Great Ming's development for the next century.
Of course, explosive population growth, while bringing a huge demographic dividend, also brought a significant potential problem—the entire Great Ming would gradually enter an aging phase, with an increasing number of elderly people needing care.
It was like the rabbit's home.
When the rabbit's home was just founded, it was truly poor and blank, much like Zhu Chongba's predicament when he first established the Great Ming.
Zhu Chongba had overthrown the Yuan Dynasty, and the rabbit had overthrown the "KMT" that represented the powers.
When Zhu Chongba founded the nation, most of the gold and silver in the Central Plains had been taken to the grasslands by the Yuan court. When the rabbit's home was founded, a large amount of gold and silver was taken to the island by the "KMT."
But just as the Great Ming had once been the father of the whole world, the rabbit had also successfully achieved the feat of a dying person suddenly sitting up in shock, realizing that the powers were actually their own.
Anyway, the third child only had over 80,000 tons, and most people didn't know how much "over" there was—according to basic mathematical concepts, the smallest positive integer that 8 cannot divide evenly is 3.
It seemed to be fine?
How much demographic dividend did the rabbit enjoy during this period?
The infrastructure maniac ate the demographic dividend;
The "wonder of building a nation" and the real estate bailout also ate the demographic dividend;
It was also the demographic dividend that allowed the aunties to stir up winds and clouds in the gold market.
To give the simplest example—even if real estate were to completely collapse one day, with the rabbit's home's massive population base, this day would come later than for any other country!
One could even say: if the five benevolent elders of the "little broken pot" collectively went mad and bombarded each other with nuclear bombs, relying on the huge population base, the rabbit would be the first to recover!
It's just that the rabbit's demographic dividend period was a bit short. After all, the rabbit's territorial area was fixed. Even if the rabbit wanted to enjoy the demographic dividend for a few more years, it wasn't so easy. Instead, it had to face the problem of an aging population structure—living conditions are getting better and better, medical conditions are getting better and better, and the aging trend is an inevitable social phenomenon that will appear in any country. It's just that there is a black-and-white entity that plays with a good virus, while the conscience and morality inherited by the rabbit's home for thousands of years do not allow the rabbit to do such heinous things.
The Great Ming would also face the problem of an aging population structure sooner or later. After all, the Great Ming's land area at most occupies the entire "little broken earth," and it is impossible to expand indefinitely.
Once it reaches this stage, the Great Ming must balance population growth and aging.
However, the Great Ming is far from considering the problem of an aging population structure—has India been filled? Has the Ottoman Empire been filled? Has Europe been conquered? Have the Americas been pacified?
No?
With so much land, it's enough to resettle several hundred million more Great Ming citizens, right?
In other words, the Great Ming's demographic dividend period will last for at least another fifty or even a hundred years—fifty years is almost enough to carry out an industrial revolution!
Thinking of the words "industrial revolution," Zhu Jinsong couldn't help but curl his fingers and slowly tap the table, saying, "The Ottoman Empire will most likely back down and, like France and the Eagles, send students to study in our Great Ming."
This was almost a foregone conclusion.
Since Ahmed I abolished the "fratricide law," the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire have been declining generation by generation. The entire Ottoman Empire has also begun to decline. By the time the current Sultan, Selim III, took charge, the Ottoman Empire's strength had clearly weakened.
If Zhu Jinsong hadn't overthrown the Great Qing, then the Ottoman Empire and the Great Qing would have been rare "卧龙凤雏" (dragons and phoenixes among crouching tigers, meaning two exceptionally talented individuals) on the "little broken earth," brothers in misfortune, with neither able to laugh at the other.
The problem was that the Great Qing was overthrown by Zhu Jinsong, and the Great Ming, re-established, had even taken the lead in the industrial revolution. The "little broken pot's" ways and its powerful army had even suppressed all European countries.
Although the Great Ming would not mock the Ottoman Empire without reason, the current Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Selim III, could be considered intelligent. He would definitely not give up the opportunity to learn from the Great Ming.
Zhu Jinsong had even thought of the reason for Selim III—"Although learning is far away in China, it should be sought!"
Look, even the sages of the past said so, so what reason would the Ottoman Empire have to object?
Zhu Jinsong said with a smile, "The ancients said: 'Those who come are not refused, those who go are not pursued.' If the Ottoman Empire truly has a desire to learn and is willing to send students to study in our Great Ming, I think it would be better for our Great Ming to open its doors wide and accept some students?"
Liu Huaiwen said indifferently, "As long as the Ottoman Empire is willing to pay tuition fees like England and the others, I have no objections."
Meng Fanzhi, the head of the Ministry of Rites, glanced at Liu Huaiwen and said with a cold smile, "Anyway, the Ottoman Empire is paying. You, Old Miser Liu, of course, have no objections. Try it if you, from the Ministry of Revenue, were to pay?"
After habitually retorting to Liu Huaiwen, Meng Fanzhi suddenly changed the subject and said, "Actually, we in the Ministry of Rites have no objections either. Anyway, the teaching materials prepared for them are the same. Whatever students from Europe learn, they will learn the same."
Zhu Jinsong looked at Liu Huaiwen and Meng Fanzhi and the others speechlessly—Look, look, these are the esteemed officials of the Great Ming Dynasty!
The dignified Minister of Revenue's entire mind was focused on collecting tuition fees from foreign students, and the Minister of Rites' entire mind was focused on tricking foreign students with castrated versions of "The Analects" and "Mencius" and the Four Books and Five Classics, while still pretending to be noble. Bah!
Is there anything else good here!
After silently complaining, Zhu Jinsong simply tapped the table with his finger and said, "The students from the Ottoman Empire are different from the students from Europe and the Eagles."
"Students from France and the Eagles, or students from other European countries, have the same beliefs and worship the same god."
"But students from the Ottoman Empire are different. They worship the gods in their doctrines and have scheduled prayer times—our Great Ming should respect their customs and traditions. Let them pray when it's time to pray, and don't force them on this matter."
"Of course, if they delay their studies because of this, that's their own business."
Having said that, Zhu Jinsong suddenly changed the topic and instructed Ke Zhiming, "Is Europe not carrying out some kind of movement or something? Send people to lead those things to the Ottoman Empire."
After Ke Zhiming bowed and agreed, Zhu Jinsong looked at Meng Fanzhi, the head of the Ministry of Rites, and said, "Revise the teaching materials for them."
"In addition to respecting their customs and beliefs, increase the content such as 'wind can bring rain, rain can lead to progress, but kings cannot advance' and reduce content such as 'the country is rich and the people are strong' or 'the people are rich and the country is strong' as much as possible."
"I heard that the Ottoman Empire uses scriptures as laws. You officials have the responsibility to let Ottoman students see what real law is, understand?"
Meng Fanzhi immediately bowed and agreed—If cultivating Ottoman students into elites like the great scholars in the Great Ming Royal Academy might be a bit difficult, but if it's about leading them astray, then Meng Fanzhi is very confident.
After all, they learned from Zhu Jinsong, the Emperor of the Great Ming. When it comes to trickery, if the officials of the Great Ming's Ministry of Rites admit to being third, then only the elders of the Grand Secretariat dare to admit to being second.
The first, of course, is His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Ming, Zhu Jinsong.
Zhu Jinsong then looked at Song Yucheng, the head of the Ministry of Works, and asked, "How is the railway construction going? If we add another 100,000 laborers, can the speed be increased?"
Song Yucheng said with a wry smile, "Reporting to Your Majesty, even with millions more laborers, the speed cannot be increased further, unless more steel mills and steam locomotive manufacturing plants are established."
"However, there is no need for that—establishing more steel mills can indeed increase the speed of railway construction, but this will also affect our Great Ming's railway construction plan, and it is not worth it."
Zhu Jinsong nodded and said with a smile, "Then let's see where laborers are still needed?"
Hearing Zhu Jinsong say this, not only Song Yucheng, the Minister of Works, became excited, but even Zeng Cheng and other elders became excited—Where are laborers still needed? Everywhere!
Railway construction is relatively easy to talk about, as it is the focus of the Great Ming court's development for the next few decades. More than half of the laborers introduced by the Great Ming in recent years have been allocated to railways.
However, besides the railway projects, the Great Ming has a large number of other miscellaneous projects that are in urgent need of labor!
For example, water conservancy projects.
The Central Plains have many and severe flood disasters. In the more than two thousand years from the first year of Han (206 BC) to the fourteenth year of the Great Ming Sacred Emperor, there have been over a thousand major floods in the Central Plains, with an average of one every two years.
Therefore, the Central Plains have always had the saying, "Governing water is governing the nation."
Especially after the Jianyi entered the pass, the people of the Central Plains suffered from two major disasters.
One was the "iron rod crops" and the "Great Lord" created by the Jianyi, and the other was floods.
Zhu Jinsong's uprising overthrew the Qing Dynasty, thus ending the disaster of the "Great Lord." As for how to manage floods and turn harm into benefit, it has become an important issue for the Great Ming court.
In the first month of the second year of the Great Ming Sacred Emperor, the Ministry of Works' Water Conservancy Department submitted a proposal for a plan of "combining storage and drainage, and treating water by treating rivers first," intending for the provinces along the Yellow River to jointly dredge the Yellow River channel, and at the same time build large reservoirs near the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and other major river channels, as well as in water-scarce areas.
At that time, the Great Ming court was not yet wealthy. Although it was not so poor that it was like a beggar, after all, Emperor Zhu Jinsong of the Great Ming never took the usual path and would not be soft-hearted when he could find ways to make money, but the Great Ming had countless places to spend money, especially with the expenditures of social schools and illiteracy eradication. At that time, the Great Ming treasury was indeed tight.
However, no matter how difficult it was, the treasury still managed to allocate three million taels of silver to the Water Conservancy Department, and in the subsequent years, five million taels were specially allocated for river management and reservoir construction.
Frankly speaking, if Liu Huaiwen, the Minister of Revenue, had not been so stingy in saving money for the treasury, many Great Ming projects would have been delayed, and it would not have been possible to start them as readily as they are now.
However, the problem of money is ultimately easier to solve. The truly troublesome problem lies with people.
As everyone knows, digging mountains to build roads, building bridges over rivers, and digging wells to find water are all life-threatening matters. In the beginning, it was acceptable for the Great Ming to send troops to dig wells for the people. After all, the Great Ming needed to win popular support at that time, and there were truly no other options. Even for risky matters, the Great Ming army had to go first.
The Great Ming army came from the people and was naturally obliged to serve the people, even if it meant sacrificing.
But now the Great Ming has more choices.
For example, laborers.
Zhu Jinsong didn't care much about the lives of laborers or Kunlun slaves. Zeng Cheng and the other elders didn't care either. The leaders of the Five Military Commissions cared even less. They only cared about the lives of the Great Ming soldiers—the Great Ming soldiers are the people of the Great Ming first! Wherever laborers can be used to fill the gap, the Great Ming court, led by Zhu Jinsong, would never let the army go into the gap!
The problem is that the number of laborers is not infinite.
Taking the example of managing the Yellow River channel alone, is it excessive to conscript a hundred thousand or eighty thousand civilians for labor at one time? To ensure the safety of these hundred thousand or eighty thousand civilians, it is also reasonable to calculate the number of potential sacrifices in advance for many dangerous projects and prepare Kunlun slaves in advance, right?