"In the summer of 1867, I became a qualified soldier in the Naha recruit camp. The training leader of my recruit camp was Shimazu Dairo, a Fuso native who was very good at swordsmanship..."
"That was the ultimate transformation in my life. I went from a skinny emperor who had been raised in the palace to a young man who was tanned but full of muscles..."
"Master...he changed my destiny..."
In Emperor Tongzhi's description, many scenes resurfaced in the summer of 1867. Ermao and the others were those who experienced it, and they all remembered it vividly.
And Gordon could also imagine what it was like at that time.
Xiao Letian made too many changes to Emperor Tongzhi. The most basic ones were physical fitness and strengthening recruit training. Then Lord Long also obtained countless prescriptions from the world.
Zai Chun worked hard during the recruit training during the day, and worked exhaustingly at night soaking in black medicine soup. Various precious tonics nourished and improved Emperor Tongzhi's frail body.
It was such cruel training that the physical fitness of Emperor Tongzhi was significantly improved, and the congenital deficiencies he had when he was born were greatly alleviated.
In real history, Emperor Tongzhi was in very poor health because he was born with congenital deficiencies and was very thin. In addition, he was raised in a deep palace, and many of the rules were unscientific.
There is no exercise, no reasonable nutrition, and even more sunshine.
Because Emperor Xianfeng was only a child and he ascended the throne at a young age, everyone overprotected him like a pearl.
The hands of women in deep palaces are full of Yin energy, and they lack Yang energy.
Emperor Tongzhi was different from the previous princes of the Qing Dynasty. The princes above him had to learn martial arts after all, and they had to be both civil and military. Practicing martial arts would definitely help them get into better health.
But this important link was delayed by the women in the palace and a group of favored ministers.
A Tongzhi Emperor who was born with deficiencies and lacked training would have died early even if he didn't have to suffer from that kind of disease!
All this changed in the hands of Xiao Letian, who used intensive military training and secret recipes to make Emperor Tongzhi truly become a man.
It is no exaggeration to say that if it were not for that period of intensive training and nourishing the body, Zaichun would not be able to survive today.
He had died of illness a long time ago, and there was no way he could survive now!
Being able to survive until now is really thanks to Xiao Letian.
Xiao Letian not only helped Zai Chun get a good body, but also shaped a better ideological system for him. In fact, the two masters and apprentices had the final analysis of the situation in Asia.
"Do you know how the Great Wall was formed? Why is it that image on the map?" Er Mao looked at the ceiling with empty eyes, looking at the master he missed.
He seemed to be back in front of his master again. He received the master's earnest teachings on that summer night. As long as he didn't study hard, the master would give him a headache.
It hurts a lot, but in my heart... it's very sweet. It's a kind of happiness where someone takes care of you, someone helps you break your confusion and enlighten you, so that you will never be confused.
"You don't understand... The Great Wall formed such a shape. On the one hand, it was built according to the trend of the mountains and rivers, and on the other hand, it was the division of rainfall lines..."
"The master called him the 400 mm annual rainfall line..."
Zai Chun began to repeat the conversation bit by bit. Gordon and Ermao's pens rustled, trying desperately to record for fear of missing any word.
The Great Wall was not drawn casually by one person. In fact, it is the crystallization of the experience of the Central Plains people. It is actually the dividing line between agricultural civilization and nomadic civilization.
On the one hand, this dividing line is blocked by mountains and rivers. Another important factor is the annual rainfall.
The annual rainfall is 400 mm, which is an important watershed. If it is above 400 mm, it is suitable for agricultural production.
From hardy wheat and millet to rice further south, these crops depend on annual rainfall.
And if the rainfall is less than 400 mm, it is not suitable for the development of agricultural civilization. It will be a paradise for nomadic people!
This is actually the natural division between agricultural civilization and nomadic peoples on the land of Asia. It is the earth's environment that has created two different ecologies, and finally two forms of civilization that adapt to different ecologies emerged.
Why did Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty expedition to Mobei and finally achieve a complete victory, but the Han people's rule could not last long? The root cause is here. Agricultural civilization cannot develop north of the 400 mm rainfall line.
At least under the technological conditions at the time, it was impossible to develop!
Since it cannot develop, a long-term occupation will waste money and food. In the end, if it cannot hold on, it will have to retreat.
Was the Tang Dynasty powerful? The forces also crossed the area of the Great Wall's rainfall line and projected the country onto the territory of nomadic civilization.
However, the Tang Dynasty could only rely on the strategy of using barbarians to control barbarians. In the territory of nomadic peoples, the legitimacy of the Tang Dynasty actually lay in each city, in the hands of the major governors and military governors.
In essence, those territories were governed by the nomads themselves, and the rule of the Tang Dynasty did not sink to the grassroots, that is, the capillaries.
To put it bluntly, there are still too few areas suitable for farming, and agricultural civilization cannot replace nomadic civilization.
Therefore, the center of the Tang Dynasty had to continuously transfuse blood and supplement nutrients for those who were in charge of the imperial guards, so as to maintain the huge empire.
Once financial problems arise, or one or two elite regiments are defeated, this fragile rule will collapse.
The nomadic lifestyle will return immediately, and the clash of civilizations will continue.
In the same way, when nomadic people take over the Central Plains, they always use their nomadic methods to rule farming. As a result, agricultural development will regress, agricultural output will decrease, and the people will be miserable, and in the end they will have no choice but to revolt.
If a farming civilization cannot survive, heroes like Zhu Yuanzhang will emerge one after another to fight back the nomads and restore the glory of farming within the 400 mm rainfall line.
It is such a cycle. Before the big explosion of technology and the emergence of industrial power, this cycle would repeat itself forever. There is no solution.
In fact, the Qing Dynasty's entry into the customs was just a continuation of this cycle.
But the Qing Dynasty was smarter. After entering the customs, it did not destroy the production order of farming civilization. Instead, it used its centralized power to improve farming productivity.
This is the fundamental reason why the Qing Dynasty was able to rule the Central Plains with nomadic people for so many years.
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty were very smart. They did absorb the experiences and lessons of the past, but they did not expect that an era of great global changes was coming.
Everything has changed!
"You British are here, you Western colonists are here, and the past cycle suddenly has a huge variable!"
"Do you know that this kind of destructive variable actually brings danger but also creates a new opportunity..."
Zai Chun said firmly, "This is a major change that has not happened in three thousand years. The Manchu and Han civilizations... or the farming civilization and the nomadic civilization will be under the threat of the marine civilization..."
"Finally moving towards unification...and Master and I are the founders of the unification of the two civilizations!"
"I am the dragon of the nomadic civilization, and the master is the guardian dragon of the farming civilization... It is time to work together, as long as the farming civilization and the nomadic civilization work together..."
"This is the only way for Asia to resist your European sea power civilization..."
