Liu Xin had not thought carefully about the two questions raised by Gao Pangshi before, but it was not a problem. She thought about it for a while and said: "As for the first question, I think even if it is possible, there is no need to worry."
She took a look at the map of the entire South Asian subcontinent and said: "You just said that in the face of the powerful Qin of the Mughal Empire, the Deccan countries failed to successfully implement any synergistic strategy. So I think, even this Qiang Qin was replaced by us, Jinghua, and they still couldn't make any waves.
I even think that we should have a kind of institutional confidence. After all, the Mughal conquest of them was only a very primitive conquest, but the system of the Mughal Empire itself had many regulations due to religion and its membership in a foreign ruling group. It is inconsistent with the development of social productivity.
In other words, if it comes to 'the lesser of two evils', the Deccan countries are unlikely to consider joining forces with the Mughals, but are more likely to consider submitting to us.
Although I don’t know much about the history of India or the colonial history of Western colonial empires such as Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Portugal in India, judging from the results, it seems that the resistance they encountered was not particularly great. Apart from its advantages in weapons and equipment, military organization, etc., one of the important reasons is that its governance methods are more suitable for the local area. "
"Hahahaha!" Gao Pragmatic laughed seemingly inexplicably and shook his head: "The previous words are okay. The latter words show that you really don't understand the colonial history of Western colonists in India. thing."
Liu Xin wasn't angry this time, because she really didn't understand, so she said, "Isn't it a system problem?"
Gao pragmatic took a deep breath, exhaled it slowly, seemed to organize his words, and then said: "There is a premise that you always seem to ignore, that is, the Western colonists, at least here in Asia, never rushed from the beginning. They came from 'colonization', and their original goal was very unified, which was to monopolize trade, in other words, to make money."
Liu Xin did not object to this, but was more curious: "Then why did they eventually move towards colonial rule?"
"It's a long story. If we start from the beginning of the Western pirates' entry, it would be too long. I will introduce it to you slowly when I have time in the future." Gao pragmatically said: "In this way, I will start with it for the time being. How about I introduce to you the struggle between Britain and France for India?”
"As long as it can explain the problem, I don't want to study their colonial history in detail." Liu Xin shrugged.
"Okay, let's talk about Britain and France." Gao pragmatically said: "Many people in later generations only know that 'India is the brightest jewel in the crown of the British Empire', but they don't know that at the beginning, Portugal was the first to enter India. European colonists, and later colonial empires such as the Netherlands and France once competed with the British in India.
Especially France, for a short period of time, their power in India was actually more powerful than the British. However, in the end, due to some reasons, France lost the competition with the British in India, making the British almost monopolize South Asia. subcontinent. But to be clear, when the British first came to India, they were almost beaten on the spot. "
Liu Xin asked: "It shouldn't be so tragic, right? It should have been the early Qing Dynasty when the British went to India. With the level of firearms in Europe at that time, wouldn't it be like sweeping thousands of troops against the Indians?"
"Hmph, the British have European firearms, but the Mughal Empire also had them at that time." Gao Pragmatic waved his hand: "In 1685, which was the 24th year of Kangxi, after three years of careful preparation, the English East India Company Launched an aggressive war against the Mughal Empire.
They sent twelve warships to the Bay of Bengal, equipped with more than two hundred cannon and more than a thousand soldiers, commanded by Sir Josiah Child, a director of the company. In order to quickly establish economic order in the occupied areas, the English warships even carried a full set of coin minting equipment.
Such a large-scale armed force was already quite large compared to the scale of European overseas colonial aggression at that time, so Sir Child had no doubt about his upcoming victory. But unfortunately, the Mughal Empire happened to be in its last glorious period at that time, and its emperor was Aurangzeb - oh, his grandfather was the Jahangir we just mentioned, and Akbar was him Great-grandpa.
This Aurangzeb can be said to be the last afterglow of the Mughal Empire. He served as the deputy king of the Deccan in his early years. From 1657 to 1658, he defeated his three brothers in the fierce succession war and imprisoned his father, becoming the Mughal Emperor. Emperor Wo'er.
After this man came to the throne, he used the method of recruiting mainly and supplementing by force to conquer the kingdoms of Bijapur and Gokunda respectively, expanding the territory of the Mughal Empire to almost the entire South Asian subcontinent except the southernmost tip. "
Liu Xin smiled and said: "The last ruthless person in the Mughal Empire?"
"Absolutely." Gao pragmatically said: "So in 1685, when Aurangzeb's rule was at its peak, how could it be possible to tolerate the English's behavior of touching the tiger's butt? The two sides immediately started fighting as soon as they disagreed, and the British-Mughals The war broke out.
At that time, the English relied on their advanced artillery, but they did not understand the basic conditions of the South Asian subcontinent at all. These soldiers from northwest Europe could not stand the hot and humid climate and environment of South Asia. Attrition.
And what about the Mughal Empire? Their firearms level is not low, because the French and Portuguese were unwilling to see the British coming to India to interfere, so they provided a large amount of military assistance to the Mughal Empire - of course, this required payment. , but Aurangzeb did not lack the money at the time, so the Mughal army was equipped with the same advanced European artillery. "
"Wait a minute!" Liu Xin suddenly stopped and asked, "How did France come here, and how could it stand in the same trench with the Portuguese to support the Mughals?"
"Do you know Cardinal Richelieu of France? It was he who established the French East India Company, and then continued to send people to explore. Finally, a colonial team arrived in Surat in the Gujarat region of India in 1668 and established the The first colonial outpost in India.
The French cannot monopolize any trade at this time, so as long as they can make money, they will do any business, and selling arms is no exception. Anyway, they do not have a large colony locally, and they are not worried that the Indians will attack Europe. The French are completely unscrupulous when selling arms.
Is there any need to talk about the relationship between Britain and France? Hehe, in short, when the French learned that Aurangzeb's opponent was the British, they became even more enthusiastic about selling arms.
As for standing with the Portuguese, the matter is more complicated. At that time, the relationship between England and Portugal was actually very good, but you know how Europeans are pissed... In India, it was related to interests, and the Portuguese colonists there would not give the English face. They should be cheated. Don't be lenient when taking a handful. "
Liu Xin nodded, expressing understanding, and then signaled Gao Pragmatic to continue.
So Gao Pragmatic continued: "Since the Mughal Empire was not lagging behind in terms of weapons and equipment, their absolute advantages in terrain and military strength could not be ignored. So Aurangzeb launched the invasion soon after learning about it. Counterattack forcefully.
Since the British stronghold was on the west coast at this time, and their attack place was on the east coast, the battle had two battlefields, the east and west, which also led to the length of the war. Just when the war between the two sides was at a critical moment, something big happened in England: King James II fell, the famous Glorious Revolution broke out in England, and the domestic contradictions between Protestants and Catholics were unprecedentedly intense.
In order to deal with the Catholic forces in the country and attack Scotland and Ireland, the English had to withdraw their power and focus on the country, and were forced to compromise with the Mughal Empire. In 1689, the two sides signed an armistice agreement. The English East India Company fully admitted defeat, paid a huge war indemnity to Aurangzeb and asked for Aurangzeb's forgiveness.
After the war, the English East India Company summed up its lessons and came to a conclusion, so Sir Child criticized his men and said: 'The results are obvious. I have told you to stop the war, so why do you still provoke such a senseless war? Focus your main efforts on trade! '"
Liu Xin burst out laughing and said, "Isn't he the commander? I don't believe that he didn't agree to start the war in the first place. This guy is really good at deflecting blame, and he has a thick skin."
Gao pragmatically spread his hands: "Anyway, these words at least indicate one thing: the purpose of these people coming to India is ultimately to make money. They did not go to rule the local area from the beginning. For them, Not to mention that you couldn't beat the Indians at that time, even if you could, even if you beat the Indians to the point where they were full of teeth, so what? Can you make money?
Because it is too far from the mainland and the population of India is too large, if we want to maintain a large army as the basis of rule, and at the same time prevent this force from betraying the mother country, it will probably be a loss for the English government and the emerging bourgeoisie behind it. Money - the bourgeoisie will never be willing to trade at a loss. "
Liu Xin asked, "What made them change their purpose?"
"Of course it's still to make money." Gao pragmatically said: "Here I have to talk about the early business model of the English East India Company in India - do you know how they made money without losing money in the beginning? ?”
Liu Xin shook her head and said: "I don't understand the thinking of the colonists. According to our experience in southern Xinjiang, we initially invested heavily in infrastructure construction, and at the same time relied on the domestic market of the Ming Dynasty to sell the main local output. Of course, there is also the export to the Spanish and Portuguese Empire.
Later, our basic investment gradually produced benefits. At the same time, because the agreement with the Spanish and Portuguese Empire allowed us to trade with India, we gradually entered the Indian market. In this way, we become a transit station with its own output.
Our southern Xinjiang and Nanyang systems themselves have a lot of hard currencies, such as spices, rice, tropical wood, etc., as well as industrial production such as coal, iron, shipbuilding, military industry, etc.
At the same time, we are connected to the Ming Dynasty and India, and can even take over the gold and silver shipped by the Spanish from the Americas... In short, the trade in our southern Xinjiang system is extremely developed, and our own output is not weak, so we can form enough profit. "
Gao Pragmatic was very satisfied with her understanding of the economic system in southern Xinjiang, so he explained: "Then let's follow this idea and see what the English can do in India."
Gao Pingshi said: "In the original history, the Netherlands and England entered the Indian Ocean and the Southeast Asia. Later, the Dutch mainly exerted their efforts in the Southeast Asia and gradually controlled the spice trade that was most valued by Europeans at the time.
At that time, because of the troubles at home, the English knew that they could not compete with the Netherlands for Southeast Asia, so they had to turn their attention to India. Although India is rich, in the eyes of the British at that time, India lacked a major product like Nanyang spices.
At that time, India was a place where many forces competed. Without competitive products, it would be difficult to form a monopoly trade. Therefore, although the English East India Company had been working as a second-tier dealer in the early days, undertaking the transportation work of Chinese goods for sale in Europe, the profits, even though they seemed huge, immediately became bleak when compared with the spice trade controlled by Portugal and the Netherlands. .
Needless to say, the British have a bad temper. How can this situation satisfy them? In addition, they always feel that trade with China is a unilateral gift of money to China. This has further aroused the dissatisfaction of the emerging bourgeoisie in England. They urgently need to create a new monopoly trade to create more generous profits for them. profit.
Later, they discovered that the Bengal region in India was extremely wealthy. Not only did it have an advantageous geographical location, it was located halfway between the South Asian subcontinent and southern Xinjiang. It had crisscrossed waterways and was connected to the sea. In particular, the local cotton textile industry was very prosperous.
The cotton textiles of Bangladesh are more suitable for wearing than the linen fabrics and woolen fabrics that were more commonly used by Europeans. The British then thought that if they could monopolize the cotton textile trade, they would surely trigger a frenzy in Europe, so they took up the idea of Bangladesh. ——This is the trigger for the war I just mentioned.
However, even after the death of Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire almost fell apart, and the British took advantage of the situation and obtained the actual management power of Bengal. However, they found that the East India Company's finances were still in danger, and they often failed to make ends meet. So they thought of another way to cut expenses and increase income. "
"Wait a minute, didn't you say that the sales of cotton textiles in Bangladesh should be very good? How come there are still financial difficulties after taking over Bangladesh?" Liu Xin wondered.
"The market needs to be cultivated, especially for the market to accept a new product." Gao pragmatically said: "At that time, Bangladesh cotton textiles were cultivating the market in Europe. However, as a primitive handicraft industry, although Bangladeshi cotton textiles were exquisite, they were completely dependent on The human output of local craftsmen.
The output under this productivity situation is naturally stretched, so the price of Indian cotton cloth in Europe is high, and it can only be sold to the upper class, so the market space is naturally very limited. "
】
Liu Xin suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said in surprise: "The Industrial Revolution..."
"Smart!" Gao Pragmatic said: "Because the market has opened, Europeans have begun to accept cotton as a high-end fabric, and the profits of cotton have become the object of covetousness by many people, prompting the UK's endogenous drive to improve the production process of cotton textiles. It was so huge that the Spinning Jenny came into being.
This was followed by Watt's improved steam engine, which was soon used for spinning and weaving. Mechanized large-scale production greatly improved the efficiency of textiles, and the British brought cotton cloth to kill everyone in the trade field until they decided that the next new market to open up would be China.
At that time, China's demand for industrially manufactured cotton cloth was very low because China had extremely abundant manpower. Under the small-scale peasant economy, most ordinary people either suppressed their own demand or produced and wore the cloth themselves. The commercial liquidity of cloth was limited.
Moreover, even though the production cost of British cotton is relatively low, its cotton origin is in India, the production place is in England, and the sales place has to go back to China... The cost has gone up all of a sudden, and it has no impact on China's local handmade cotton. force.
At the same time, British cotton not only cannot compete with local handmade cotton in the low-end market, but also cannot compete with Chinese handmade silk in the high-end market. Therefore, when facing China, Britain still has a huge deficit and sends money to China every year... "
"Ah, I know what happened next." Liu Xin's face darkened, and she said bitterly: "Britain started to turn its attention to opium, and then... the Opium War will begin."
"That's right." Gao Pragmatic nodded, his expression ugly, but he continued: "Anyway, you have to know that the logical basis for anything the British do in Asia is to make money, and anything else cannot be compared with making money. conflict.
In other words, as long as a battlefield is fought and money is lost, both the East India Company and the British government will immediately change their original views and force the focus back to making money. "
"I understand... Although you took the UK as an example, other European colonial empires had the same idea." Liu Xin nodded, but immediately had new doubts and said: "You seem to have missed something, wasn't it just now? Did the East India Company still have financial constraints for a period of time after they captured Bengal? How did they survive the financial crisis at that time?"
"Oh, I missed it." Gao pragmatically said: "To put it simply, it is 'cost reduction and efficiency improvement', but this was not a good word at the time, at least for Indians."
"How do you say it?" Liu Xin asked.
Gao Pragmatic sighed: "The method adopted by the East India Company was to nominally surrender to the Mughal Empire, obtain jurisdiction over some areas, and then start to collect taxes locally, but it did not bear any governance costs.
In other words, if I want to take the money but not do the work, what does it have to do with the East India Company if the local people starve to death and die in poverty? I just work for the Mughal Empire and the emperor of you Indians. If you have any problems, go to the emperor! The problem is that at this time, the Mughal Empire was already in civil strife, the emperor's majesty was gone, and he could not control anything at all.
Under such a 'governance' attitude, Bengal has become a hell on earth. For example, in terms of economy, the local handmade cotton textile industry, which was originally extremely prosperous, was destroyed intentionally or unintentionally by the British.
Not long after, only one-seventh of the original number of practitioners were left, and the number continued to decrease until they were almost wiped out by the British industrial cotton... As for other related British bosses, it is even more difficult to describe. , I will talk to you slowly when I have time. "
Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said: "There is another question that has not been explained clearly before. That is why other colonial companies such as the Dutch East India Company, the French East India Company and other colonial companies only existed as trading monopolies. Why did the British East India Company choose In the end, it’s like a country, right?”
"Yeah, I've always been curious about that."
"Let me give you an example first. The French established a foothold in a place called Pondicherry in southeastern India. The local prince chose to rely on the French in order to resist the threat of the Marathas.
They assigned two villages near Pondicherry to the French East India Company and urged the Mughal emperor to issue a letter of appointment to the French. The Mughal emperor had long been beyond his reach, so he approved it.
From then on, the French East India Company actually became the administrator of a certain place in the Mughal Empire, and local taxes actually became part of the French East India Company's income. This was the beginning, marking a new stage in the expansion of European colonists in India.
However, the impact of this incident on the French colonists themselves was not as great as on the British colonists, because in 1746, a war broke out in Pondicherry. That year, the French took Pondicherry as their stronghold and advanced by sea and land to attack the British East India Company from both sides.
This was a brilliant victory for the French. They captured Madras, the British's main stronghold in India at the cost of only six deaths, and was known in history as the First Carnatic War.
The local princes and nobles in India were greatly shocked after witnessing the well-trained French army. They sent large rewards to the French, purchased French weapons, and hired French as military instructors.
This was the first time that the East India Company in Europe relied on military operations rather than colonial trade to obtain a large amount of financial revenue. If the situation continues as it is, India's history will be very different. The major European powers will most likely end up in a mess in India, and there is a high probability that an India that is at least superficially unified will not emerge in the future.
But at this moment, an accident happened. Faced with the huge military victory, the top management of the French East India Company behaved nervously and uneasily. They quickly issued a clear instruction to the Governor of Pondicherry and the French commander Dupleix, requiring Dupleix not to be too ambitious. The main work of the French in India is trade, not military!
They made it clear in their letter: 'In general, peace is more appreciated here than conquest. We don't need such brilliant results. We hope to create a situation where trade can be conducted with greater peace of mind. In order to protect and assist trade activities, just a few strongholds are enough. We don't need victory or conquest. The company should focus on how to obtain more goods and promote further salary increases. '"
Liu Xin said in surprise: "This is a bit beyond my expectation. French people are so honest?"
"That's because they didn't taste the even bigger economic cake after the conquest, and at the same time they were unwilling to invest too much upfront before getting huge benefits." Gao Pragmatic smiled contemptuously and said: "By 1750, the French East India Company was in India With three thousand soldiers, this is more than four times the size of ten years ago.
So Paris couldn't sit still and quickly made a calculation: how many weapons and equipment, how many logistical supplies are needed for these three thousand soldiers, and how many command and management agencies need to be established to lead these armies...
In short, what a huge financial expense this is! How many wools can your East India Company harvest from India every year? If this continues, it will soon not even be enough to cover expenses! So, get rid of all these quickly! For this reason, Paris dismissed Dupleix from his post in 1754. "
Liu Xin shook his head and said: "The French are either short-sighted or worried that the colonial army is too strong. If they do this, they will be defeated by the British East India Company sooner or later."
"You guessed it right. The British East India Company quickly strengthened its armed forces in India after receiving a severe beating. A notorious rogue in the history of British colonialism stepped onto the stage of history - Robert Clay Wu."
"It turns out it's him. I happen to know this person." Liu Xin said: "When I was studying the Ganges Delta region, there was a reference book that mentioned it. It also briefly introduced the 'great achievements' of this scumbag, especially Pula. Battle of the West.”
"Okay, then I won't introduce his war history." Gao Pragmatic skipped this section and said: "In the end, he later became the Governor of Bengal and did countless bad things that should be killed by a thousand cuts, but he has since been let down. The East India Company could not only act as a second-tier dealer, but also directly collect taxes in many local places.
I have said that the British elders only have money in their eyes. Now that there is an additional way to make money, how can they let it go? Thus came the aforementioned 'costless governance' of Bengal, and later the cotton cloth trade was discovered during the rule of Bengal. "
"So that's it, so it's all connected." Liu Xin sighed: "Although it seems a bit coincidental, I can only say that the British are really a bunch of assholes who dare to do anything for money."
Gao Pragmatic nodded, fully agreeing with Liu Xin's evaluation of the British elder, and then asked: "Do you have any new insights now?"
Liu Xin pondered: "If the fundamental purpose of these colonists is just for money, then I think... I will have more leverage after going south. At least the Portuguese will not be part of our plan this time. resistance, it is even possible for them to become a helper. Of course, there is a premise..."
"Promise them some economic benefits?" Gao Pragmatic smiled: "Although you promise - but let me remind you: these benefits do not have to be too big, because it is not difficult to win over the Portuguese."
Liu Xin also laughed and said: "I know this, because the Portuguese have limited strength and have long been afraid of Jinghua. They are not worth the price we spend to win them over, and they themselves know this."
Gao pragmatically nodded with satisfaction and said: "You can decide the specific situation yourself. If time is tight, there is no need to ask for instructions on everything. I will give you the right to make decisions on the fly."
Liu Xin smiled, as if she acquiesced, but secretly thought in her heart: Huang Zhiting didn't dare to overstep his authority a little, let alone me? If I really make quick decisions at the spur of the moment, I'm afraid that if I do something wrong in the future, I will be the subject of attack.
Even if there are indeed a lot of things to do in this battle that cannot be delayed casually, then I can only bring more carrier pigeons, or even prepare a few carrier pigeon stations in advance, so that I won’t waste too much time.
After talking about these things, Liu Xin finally asked about the goal of the war: "This time we went south, we originally planned to capture the Kingdom of Arakan. The reason why we prepared to go to war with the Mughal Empire was essentially because we were worried about their active interference.
But now the situation is different. Assam and other places have surrendered. Prince Salim is also involved. I am a little worried that the situation is out of control and may lead to the advancement of the war. Do you have clearer instructions on our war objectives? I mean, like, where can I hit the most? "
Gao Pragmatic stretched out his hand, drew a line on the west side of Assam and Bangladesh with his fingertips, and said: "Unless Salim raises an army to rebel against his father Akbar, our army will not reach this line."
After a pause, he added: "However, we can actually control Assam and Bangladesh and other places east of this line. As long as the original local leaders do not oppose us, we can just win over what is necessary. No other benefits are required. Just tell them that we support them against Akbar...Based on the old British experience, I think they will in turn send us money and power."
"The secret method of stirring up shit is to hoe the strong and support the weak." Liu Xin sighed: "I remember this is what you used to summarize the old British colonial experience. It seems that now we have to use it too."
"Hey, hey, you have to be able to tell the difference between the enemy and us! The old British guy calls him a shit-maker, but that's not what I am."
Gao pragmatic rolled his eyes at her and said: "I am here to prevent the Indian people from being brutally exploited and oppressed by the colonists, and to save the local people from misery... You have to know, whether it is the old British rule or the current Mughal rule, For the local people, the ruthlessness of the rule can be described as sustainable fishing. We at Jinghua went to South Asia as liberators, and we must not misunderstand the nature of this."
Liu Xin chuckled, then immediately restrained her smile, and said very seriously: "Yes, yes, the Lord Marquis has brought Buddha to all the families, and he has always saved all the people and the water from the fiery life. Otherwise, how could he be the third generation of the secretly descended King Ming is reincarnated as an Arhat from the Southern Tradition?"
Gao pragmatic rolled his eyes and said helplessly: "I think if this continues, when India is settled in the future, I'm afraid I won't directly become a Buddha, or else I'll have to be Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu or something like that. That’s it.”
Liu Xin laughed loudly and said: "It's enough to become a Buddha. Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu are from Hinduism, how can they have anything to do with you?"
Gao Pragmatic waved his hand: "I'm just talking nonsense. I'm not interested in becoming a Hindu god."
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