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"Ridiculous?" Engels put down the small and delicate coffee cup in his hand and laughed, "What about weishenme ridiculous? ”

"It's clear that two more or less corrupt countries and armies, with people on both sides living in dire straits, is probably more miserable for the working class here in England. Moreover, the British were laborers on an expedition, dragging tens of thousands of miles or at least thousands of miles of logistics lines, while the Manchus were waiting for labor to fight on their own soil. In terms of military strength, the Manchus had an absolute advantage. Friedrich, don't you find the outcome of the Sino-British trade war very unbelievable? ”

Zhu Jishi slowly expressed the doubts in his heart, and his tone was a little heavy, although he verbally denied that he was a "Qing countryman", but many years of classroom education in later generations still made him regard the defeat of all foreign wars of the Manchu Dynasty, including the Opium War, as a humiliation for China and the Chinese nation.

Engels smiled faintly, "Jason, I didn't expect that your starting point for observing military and political issues is so similar to that of socialists, from the bottom up, from society to politics to the military. Indeed, British society is quite corrupt, and the aristocracy and bourgeoisie who rule the country are mercenary and never care about the life or death of the people, in the eyes of whom the working people are in fact a commodity! Really, it's a commodity! ”

A painful expression slipped over Engels's face, "Actually, I am also a member of the bourgeoisie, and in the 'Oumen-Engels Textile Factory', where I am the manager, the workers are also a commodity, and the capitalists pay for their labor power, and the lower the price, of course, the better......

"If productivity develops further, workers' wages should increase, right?" Zhu Jishi suddenly interjected. In his impression, the wages of workers in European and American countries are relatively high, and they may have increased significantly since the second industrial revolution.

“weishenme？” Engels asked incomprehensibly, "When the Weishenme productive forces develop, will the wages of the workers increase?" In the past 100 years, due to the emergence of the machine industry, the productivity has grown by leaps and bounds, but the wages of workers have not been raised. At present, the wages of ordinary workers are only 4 to 6 pence a day, which is 2,000 pence a year, which is equivalent to 100 shillings or about 8 pounds sterling (almost 24 taels of silver, converted into 2 taels of silver per month, which is probably comparable to the handicraftsmen of the Qing Dynasty), although it has increased compared with 100 years ago, it is similar to the degree of inflation, and it cannot be compared with the growth of social productivity and the growth of British government revenue.

Moreover, if a worker's labor power is a commodity, then its price is determined by supply and demand. I am afraid that it has little to do with the development of social productive forces and the growth of the wealth of the capitalists. ”

Zhu Jishi was silent, of course Engels would not be wrong, but the incomes of laborers in European and American countries in later generations were indeed very high, and at the same time, there was still a considerable unemployment rate in those countries! That is, the supply of labor is in surplus......

By contrast, Britain is now in the midst of an economic crisis, with a said "surplus population" of 1.5 million to 2 million, but that is based on the widespread use of child labour, and if all child labourers were to be included in schools, there would certainly be a shortage of labour.

He sighed and asked again: "Since Britain is such a corrupt country that does not care about the lives of its people, how can it be so powerful?" ”

Engels still looked at Zhu Jishi with puzzled eyes, shook his head and said: "Jason, do you think that whether the bourgeois or feudal aristocratic class is strong or not has a lot to do with caring about the people's lives?" Whose theory is this? ”

"This ...... It does not matter? Zhu Jishi thought to himself, it really doesn't seem to have much to do with it. Now the most awesome countries on Shijie are Britain and Russia, one is the hegemon of the sea, the empire on which the sun never sets. One is the land overlord, the European gendarme. The situation here in England is that the working people are in dire straits, while the majority of the working people in Russia seem to be serfs!

"Of course it doesn't matter," Engels said: "Whether the bourgeoisie or the feudal aristocratic class is strong or not depends on whether the bourgeoisie or the feudal aristocratic class that rules the country is strong and wise." It has nothing to do with the working people at the bottom, just like in the Sino-British trade war, the British working people were busy fighting against the British ruling class, and did not side with the British government at all (in contrast, the Qing people only waited and watched, and did not go to the parade to make trouble).

Therefore, as for the outcome of the Sino-British trade war, my view is that this is a war between the British bourgeoisie and the Qing feudal ruling class, not between the British and Qing peoples. The outcome of the war reflected that the British bourgeoisie was far stronger and smarter than the Qing feudal ruling class. However, this war is not necessarily a bad thing for the Qing state. ”

"Not a bad thing?" Zhu Jishi asked puzzled.

"Of course not, on the contrary I think the British have done something stupid, they have awakened a sleeping lion."

"This is Napoleon's point of view." Zhu Jishi knew about the "lion awakening theory", but he knew better that the British ships and cannons did not wake up the Qing Dynasty at all.

"Napoleon was right." Engels took a sip of his coffee, and he found that his interview had gone off topic, but he was still happy to discuss the China issue with Zhu Jishi, and planned to go back and write an article on the study of the China issue.

"I don't think the Qing Congress is awakened." Zhu Jishi shook his head, he was talking about history, but Engels didn't believe it.

"What about Weishenme?" Engels smiled and said to Zhu Jishi: "The Qing State is a big country, with a population of 40,000, more than the whole of Europe, and is ruled by an emperor...... Jason, do you know how powerful that liliang is? The lion doesn't even need to wake up completely, just a little wake-up is enough to confine the European shili to outside of East Asia. ”

"How is that possible?" Zhu Jishi looked at Engels in surprise.

"It's obvious!" Engels accentuated his tone and said: "The Qing Emperor and his ministers must have realized the backwardness of their country from the Sino-British trade war, and then they will begin to reform. ”

"There will be no radical reform."

"It doesn't have to be thorough." Engels said: "It is only necessary to do it to the extent of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, Egypt, the Marat Kingdom, the Mysore Kingdom and the Sikh Empire." ”

"The kingdom of Marat? Kingdom of Mysore? The Sikh Empire? Zhu Jishi asked, "Where are they?" ”

"India, they're in India." Engels said: "The population, land and wealth of the Qing Kingdom far exceeded that of the Ottoman Empire, not to mention Egypt and the princely states of India. Therefore, the Qing emperor only had to adopt reforms similar to those of Selim III of the Ottoman Empire and send envoys to European countries...... Perhaps these envoys were already on their way, hiring craftsmen, retired officers, and intellectuals from Europe to help the Qing build factories, military schools, and modern universities, while building a new standing army loyal to the emperor, emulating the European military system. Of course, if there were enough large feudal lords in the Qing state to rival the emperor and a hereditary privileged army similar to the Turkish Guard, reform might have been more difficult. ”

"Is that okay?" Zhu Jishi looked at Engels suspiciously. "Such a reform did not touch the foundation of the feudal system of the Qing State at all, how could it be possible to build a new army strong enough to resist the European colonizers?"

"Shijie did not touch the fundamental reform all at once," Engels said to Zhu Jishi with a smile: "Reform is not a revolution, and a small, gradual reform is enough for the Qing Dynasty." The country was too far from Western Europe for any European power to send a sufficiently powerful expeditionary force to the Far East. Therefore, they only need two or three thousand aristocratic young men loyal to the emperor to receive European-style military education, which is enough to support a European-style army of more than 100,000 people, so that it is enough to dominate in the Far East. I don't think this will do any harm to the Qing Emperor and his court, and it is impossible for them not to carry out such reforms, unless they are all out-and-out fools and fools. ”