According to the habit of Shangshu Gaofu, meals had already been prepared at this moment, and he was just waiting for Gao to eat. When he walked into the small restaurant on the second floor of the Rixin Building, everything was ready and the food was on the table, but there was no maid present. Only Liu Xin was sitting on the sandalwood bench nearby, holding a stack of reports. look in.
Gao pragmatic subconsciously turned his head and glanced at Gao Mo, who was half a step behind him. Gao Mo lowered his head slightly and said, "The secretary-general has something to discuss with the master."
Gao pragmatic nodded, and while walking towards the dining table, he greeted Liu Xin and said, "You haven't eaten yet, can we?"
Liu Xin stood up, took the stack of reports and walked to the dining table to sit down. She said, "I've eaten." Then she moved a plate of peeled pomegranates on the table in front of her and asked, "Do you mind?" ?”
"Most men are indispensable for fruits." Gao pragmatically answered indifferently, and then got back to the topic: "What's the trouble?"
"Trouble? No, no, no, I think you are the one who has a lot of trouble today - I heard that Xiao Ruxun's battle did not go well?" Liu Xin asked with a raised eyebrow.
Gao pragmatic took a small bite of the steamed seabass and replied: "Xiao Ruxun's battle...how should I put it, it did not meet my original expectations. But even so, it can't be said to be 'unsuccessful'. After all, from ordinary From a perspective of victory or defeat, in the end it was Tumen who took the lead in evacuating the battlefield, not him."
Liu Xin said: "What about the losses? The Ming Dynasty only recognizes the heads. His so-called estimate of three thousand serious injuries to the Mongols is probably not valid, right?"
"Well, from the perspective of the imperial court, this statement is indeed useless." Gao Pragmatic said calmly: "But it doesn't matter. When the imperial court compares the battle losses between the two sides, it will not compare the losses of Horqin and Manchuria. Taking this into account, I probably won’t even care about the loss of Jinghua—they are not an army of economics, and the court does not need to care about their pensions.”
"You are the Ming Dynasty ***, I know that, but the court really doesn't take it seriously?" Liu Xin couldn't help but frown.
"The imperial court belongs to the imperial court, and the emperor belongs to the emperor. These are two properties. Don't confuse them intentionally or unintentionally like some people." Gao Pragmatic smiled: "The imperial court may deliberately forget the loss of Beijing, but that is normal. If I am not the boss of Jinghua, I am just a minister of the court, and I will try not to mention this matter, because the person I serve is the court, not Jinghua."
Liu Xin couldn't help but joked: "You have done a good job as a ****."
"Thank you for your praise, I will continue to work hard." Gao Pragmatic also smiled and said: "But having said that, I can afford the loss of Jinghua, but if the imperial court is really dissatisfied with the losses of Tumut, Horqin and Manchuria, Wen Bu Wen, I don’t agree with this, you can even say… I firmly oppose it.”
"Oh? Why?" Liu Xin seemed a little surprised: "Wouldn't it be good to take the opportunity to weaken them?"
"It's not impossible to take the opportunity to weaken, but it can't be this time, and it can't be under this situation." Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "Hegemony must look like hegemony."
"Hegemony?" Liu Xin looked surprised and exclaimed: "You are a sixth-ranked number one scholar. Don't you care about 'inner saint and outer king', but hegemony?"
Gao Pragmatic seemed to be interested and paused: "What is hegemony?"
Liu Xin was startled and replied subconsciously: "Uh... I have my own way of doing things and bully the weak. Those who obey me will prosper and those who go against me will perish."
"Hegemony is called hugemony in English. According to some famous works, it represents the relationship between the most powerful countries in the world after 1648 in our original history, and the rules of the game they determined." Gao Pragmatic Smiling: "The three most important words among them are country, relationship, and rules, and these three words combined can be called a 'system'."
Liu Xin frowned and said, "I don't quite understand such an abstract statement."
"Okay, let me explain." Gao pragmatically said: "Do you still remember the European history I told you before?"
"You roughly remember it, what?"
Gao Pragmatic did not answer, but just nodded and said: "The Thirty Years of Religious War from 1618 to 1648 represented the fall of the theocratic political system of the Roman Pope and the establishment of the 'international society'.
The subsequent Peace Conference of Westphalia pioneered the resolution of regional disputes through conferences; a system was formed in which contracting parties abide by treaties and violators accept sanctions; countries began to establish permanent diplomatic representatives, etc.
In short, that is to say, after this, a system emerged in the international community in which a few big countries decided the fate of a number of small countries. Then we can say that these big countries were the hegemons until the rise of Napoleon. "
"Oh...that's what it means." Liu Xin suddenly realized, and then asked: "What about after the rise of Napoleon? Napoleon, oh no, France has become the new hegemon?"
"During the Napoleonic Wars, generally speaking, he can be considered to have hegemony on the European continent, but his hegemony has never been stable. There are not only competitors, but also those who work tirelessly to overthrow it. So whether his France should be counted as a hegemon, I think It's debatable.
However, after the Napoleonic Wars, the Vienna Peace Conference was held and the Vienna System was established, so a new 'hegemony' emerged. The Vienna System is also called the 'European Five-Power Multipolar Military System', but the 'military' here actually means 'balance of power' in English.
Therefore, in fact, hegemony at this time does not simply refer to a specific country, but a group of powerful countries that is generated under a power balance system and has binding force on other countries.
What about the next hegemony? After the rise of Prussia and the unification of Germany, the original balance of power was broken, leading to World War I. After the end of World War I, the victorious countries held the Paris Peace Conference, coupled with the subsequent Washington Naval Conference, thus establishing Versailles (Paris) - In the Washington system, during this period, several major powers joined forces to form a 'hegemony' until World War II.
Around the end of World War II, the Yalta Conference was held in Yalta and the Yalta System was established. After that, we experienced the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, etc... Well, now let me ask you, what do these systems have in common? "
Liu Xin didn't expect him to ask a question, so she had to think about it seriously before answering: "Let's have a big battle first, and then the winner will have a meeting after the fight?"
Gao pragmatically spread his left hand and said: "The meeting is a means, but what is their purpose? It is to form a treaty through the meeting. The treaty clearly stipulates the relationship and status between the various countries after the war, how the territory is to be distributed, and the international How should society be governed, what should we do if we encounter problems...and so on. In short, it means to determine who is the hegemon and who will govern this 'international society' through a treaty."
"What about after the Yalta system?" Liu Xin asked.
"After that, it's gone, it's just the Yalta system." Gao Pragmatic smiled: "Not long after the Yalta system was established, mankind mastered nuclear weapons, especially the emergence of two superpowers - note that this is no longer a balance of power, but It was the concept of superpower that emerged.
However, neither of the two superpowers dared to push the world into a nuclear war or press the reset button on the earth. Therefore, the Yalta system continued for a long time. At least when we came to the Ming Dynasty, this system still existed.
In fact, when a superpower emerges, "hegemony" in the true sense is truly established, because it is impossible for other countries to counterattack at least militarily - at most, you can only suppress it when its strength is not enough. The region is forced to make peace, but it is impossible to threaten or simply eliminate its homeland. "
Liu Xin thought for a while and said, "But the Soviet Union later disintegrated."
"Yes, so the world has become one superpower with many powers, and isn't this one superpower hegemony? Although the entire Yalta system nominally defines the five powers, for reasons that do not need to be elaborated, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the three After ten years, isn’t there actually only one hegemon left?”
"But you have come around in such a big circle. Isn't this 'hegemony' just like what I said? It can 'go its own way, bully the weak by relying on the strong, and those who follow me will prosper and those who go against me will perish'?"
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "What you are talking about is 'I and my family conquer the world', but the hegemony I just mentioned may have such power at a certain period, but in fact it does not do this. He needs help. The authority conferred by the Yalta system, coupled with its own power, brings all kinds of allies to fight the war it wants - don't you think about it?"
"Oh, so you want to emphasize the role of allies?" Liu Xin hesitated: "But to tell you the truth, in the wars it launched, I doubt how much role its allies played."
Gao Pragmatic smiled: "Then I have to ask: Is this hegemon capable of conquering its allies? Is it necessary to conquer these allies? If these allies are not its allies, but are at odds with it at all levels. Can it cope with the opposition, and is such a response in line with its interests?"
Liu Xin thought for a while and then said thoughtfully: "You are saying that although it is very powerful, it is not enough to make the whole world surrender by relying solely on force. Therefore, it needs to unite its allies to form a system, and then rely on the whole system. power to control the whole world?”
"This answer is close to ten." Gao Pingshi smiled and said: "But now I have to ask more deeply: What does hegemony need to do?" After a pause, he added: "Don't tell me what to do. After talking so much, he still answered me: Hegemony just goes its own way."
Liu Xin opened her mouth, then hesitated. Gao pragmatic did not wait for her answer, but continued to eat on his own. After a while, he heard Liu Xin tentatively say: "I think a hegemony must first be able to gain from it because it is a hegemon." profit."
Gao pragmatic stopped, but did not raise his head. He just rolled his eyes upwards, looked at Liu Xin and asked, "What next?"
"Then...it probably has to ensure that the system is stable." Liu Xin added.
Gao pragmatic smiled, chewed a piece of fish in his mouth, put down his chopsticks and said: "Hegemony is a country that provides public goods to an international system. Such public goods include both tangible and intangible. Tangible For example, it is easy to understand that it provides markets, funds, and even its deliberately transferred technology, etc. What about intangible public goods?”
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, let me figure it out first..." Liu Xin quickly stopped and said, "Hegemony must provide markets, funds and even deliberately transfer technology for the entire system?"
"Didn't you just say it yourself? A very important task of hegemony is to maintain the stability of this system. So do you think that for this system to be stable, you only need your force to be strong enough? Is the Soviet Union's force strong enough? , during the 'West-81' military exercise, the whole of Western Europe was almost scared to the point of pissing its pants. Why did it disintegrate when it was so powerful?
The answer is simple. The root cause is that it is no longer able to provide enough public goods for the small system in which it is located. The market is rigid, the funds are scarce, and the technology is unscientific. As a result, people's livelihood in various countries in the system is in decline and chaos abounds. Under this situation, even though it possesses extremely powerful force, it can only die violently due to hatred. "
Liu Xin suddenly said: "So this matter has to be explained this way... I thought the Soviet Union died because of corruption at the top and too much light industry." But she paused and then wondered: "But is it cost-effective to provide these? You What I just talked about was 'public goods'."
"Yes, but I haven't finished half of what I just said, which is the part of intangible public goods." Gao Pragmatic raised his eyebrows: "What are intangible public goods? They are rules and systems. Let me give an analogy: WTO's After all, who makes the rules, right? Then why does it decide, and why does it set those rules?"
Liu Xin responded quickly this time and immediately replied: "Those rules are beneficial to it, and it needs those rules to ensure that it can gain benefits in the system!"
Gao Pragmatic snapped his fingers: "Yes, but you put it a little too lightly. It should be 'because those rules can ensure that it gets benefits far beyond other countries' - it pays for tangible public goods and this intangible public goods." Objects, in the final analysis, are all about ensuring this profit.”
Liu Xin suddenly felt enlightened and thought for a while before adding, "I always feel that there is something missing from the above?"
"Yes, one more thing is missing: providing security protection." Gao Pragmatic smiled: "This is easy to explain. You are the boss. If you don't or can't protect your younger brother, then who will mess with you? Huh? So we have actually always had a premise before, that all superpowers have super strong military strength."
Liu Xin patted the table lightly: "I understand, this puzzle is complete... So you just said that you don't agree with the Ming court's indifference to the losses of Tumote, Horqin and Manchuria. The reason is that you think The Ming Dynasty is actually the hegemon within this 'system', so as a hegemon, in order to stabilize the system, the Ming court must provide certain public goods, right?"
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Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "Shi Jinglun" for their support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "pml5339", "Lu Senah", "snakedman", "Cloudy Good Mood", and "Cao Mianzi" for their monthly support, thank you!
PS: The basic views of the explanation of hegemony in this chapter were inspired by Professor Shen Yi’s open class "American Election - Witnessing the Twilight of Hegemony". Interested readers can go to an alphabet website to search for the video. There should be no text version. But as a reminder, this class is over two hours long.
