Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 727 Declaration of War?

The world has changed so fast in recent decades that the younger generation is exposed to things that many older people have never seen in their entire lives.

The younger generation is taught that the world is vast and that a good man should aspire to travel far and wide.

Of course, this applies to economically developed areas such as Beijing and coastal regions. Inland areas, however, remain largely unchanged.

Development is destined to be unbalanced! But we can't wait.

When Jia Lin returned home, she learned that her grandfather had not come back because something big had happened again, but this time it was far away, in Donghua Country, across the ocean.

The new ruler, Li Wan, is very interested in what is happening in Donghua Kingdom. The news he has just received is from last year, saying that negotiations between the two sides have broken down and war may break out at any time.

"If only we could send a telegram to Donghua now," Li Wan sighed to Jia Lian. Shen Lei and Fei Yun, standing nearby, looked at Jia Lian's calm demeanor with a sense of helplessness.

This mountain can't be moved anytime soon. It will continue to weigh on us; when will it ever end?

"Your Majesty, that day will come. The laying of the submarine cable will take time. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications' idea is to first connect the cable between Korea and Japan, and then plan the next step. Ten years, we will definitely be able to connect to the other side of the ocean within ten years." Jia Lian said this, but he was still quite confident. We are now in an era of technological explosion, and shipyards are even planning to build steel ships.

I wonder if I'll be able to see the shipyard build a steel hull before I die. If I can, then I'll die with my eyes open.

Jia Lian had no idea how long he would live. He was still in good health and didn't seem to be aging much. What if he was lucky enough to live to be a hundred?
The Jia Lian we see now is entirely an act of aging; he still gets the better of himself by relying on his age.

"Should we provide some support to the Imperial Uncle?" Li Wan seemed a little hesitant, mainly because Donghua Kingdom was in a state of self-reliance. If there was any way to give back to the local area, it would be through the market.

The annual trade volume between Donghua Kingdom and China reached 20 million yuan. Donghua Kingdom's imports mainly consisted of precious metals such as gold, silver, and copper, and in recent years, high-quality saltpeter has also been added.

In modern terms, this is a severe trade deficit. But Donghua had no choice; many things were simply irreplaceable, the biggest of which were arms and new motorcycles.

This is the consequence of a lack of technological accumulation, and it will take at least twenty years to catch up, even with the help of local partners.

“Normal trade is the greatest support for Donghua Kingdom. There’s no need for aid, lest we start something and then resent it when it stops,” Shen Lei objected, while Fei Yun turned his head away and remained silent.

The current situation is that if Shen Lei wants to become the Grand Secretary, he must step forward and take the lead, take charge of all government affairs, and gradually erode Jia Lian's power, ultimately aiming to expel him from the court.

In name, Li Heng is in charge of Donghua Kingdom, but in reality, everyone knows that the Jia family has been operating in Donghua Kingdom for decades.

Jia Lian pretended not to hear Shen Lei's veiled criticism and said to Li Wan with a smile, "This matter is not urgent, let's wait and see."

Jia Lian, who had no expectation of support from the imperial court, naturally wouldn't propose providing assistance, especially not in front of Shen Lei and Fei Yun.

These two now spend all their free time around the emperor, and they don't even go home after get off work, not even afraid that their wives will cheat on them.

Shen Lei felt he had won another point, unaware that his standing in Li Wan's eyes had once again declined.

Li Wan originally meant that Donghua Kingdom was the result of the efforts of the two previous emperors in foreign affairs, and that he should cherish and protect it. That's why he addressed the emperor as "Imperial Uncle" instead of directly saying "Donghua".

So you jump out and say that trade is the biggest support. You can stand by and watch when your own people who spend money to buy things have problems, but what if they are the ones selling things to you?
What kind of mindset is this? If you were to go into business, you'd definitely be the kind of person who forces people to buy and sell, right?
If you are that kind of person, how could you possibly enter the cabinet? In the future, wouldn't everyone in the world be able to seize and plunder at your will?
Will the Li family's rule eventually fall to the Shen family?
Take a guess!

Li Wan still had a smile on her face, but it had turned a little cold.

Fei Yun watched coldly from the sidelines, a slight sneer on his lips. He glanced at Jia Lian again; the old man also wore a smile, showing no emotional fluctuation whatsoever.

Fei Yun was quite desperate, feeling like he had lost another round. The key was that he couldn't speak up; if he did, the alliance would break down. But if he didn't speak up, he would still be led astray by his incompetent teammates.

"Donghua is a vassal state, and we are essentially one family. Trade support can be tax-free." This import/export tax was a characteristic of that era. Fei Yun could only try to make up for it with this.

Back then, products like tea were traded exclusively, and both buyers and sellers had to pay taxes, a practice that extended to other products as well.

Jia Lian saw right through Fei Yun's thoughts: "Are you helping Donghua Kingdom? Are you planning to use this opportunity to waive taxes on both sides?"

"Taxes cannot be waived! Especially the export of tea, porcelain, and silk, which are extremely profitable. They also constitute a large portion of the imperial court's tariffs. We must never lightly implement tax exemptions, otherwise it will be difficult to recover them. The same applies to the imperial court's policy-making. Before changing old policies, we must conduct thorough research to ensure that the changes will not cause too much turmoil. Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish; we must be careful."

Jia Lian's unhurried words were a silent slap in the face to Fei Yun.

Fei Yun's face flushed slightly, but fortunately, he was very composed and did not show it.

"The Prime Minister is absolutely right. I was oversight." Fei Yun's prompt admission of his mistake left a good impression on Li Wan.

As a result, Jia Lian was an hour late getting off work, but he still politely declined the emperor's invitation to stay for dinner and took his leave first.

Shen Lei and Fei Yun wanted to stay for a meal, but Emperor Li Wan laughed and said, "It is my fault for delaying you two gentlemen from your shift."

Well then, I had no choice but to take my leave.

On his way out, Shen Lei was still complaining: "Brother Fei's suggestion of tax exemption was well-intentioned, but that scoundrel Jia was too shrewd and saw through the scheme. What a pity, what a pity."

Fei Yun was disgusted by this. If you didn't speak without thinking and liked to speak first, why would I need to speak?
What Shen Lei didn't know was that the two telegrams traveled south overnight, reaching Songjiang Prefecture and Guangzhou Prefecture. Songjiang Prefecture had an office of the Donghua Kingdom, and Guangzhou Prefecture had a tea trade management department.

The tea trade with foreign countries mainly goes in two directions: one is overseas, and the other is westward and northward.

Both the Shen and Fei families had large tea trading businesses. The Shen family sold their tea to Europe and America by sea, while the Fei family sold tea to the grasslands and Russia via Zhangjiakou, a route known as the "Westward Journey." As for the tea trade in Central Asia, the Fei family had no involvement there.

The export tax on tea was very high, reaching 20%, which is extremely rare in customs duties. This was possible because of exclusive trade; if you didn't want it, you had nowhere else to buy it. Modern European and American countries, however, are completely dependent on tea. After the British seized maritime supremacy, the tea trade was a powerful tool for Britain to exploit European and American countries. The central empire's control over tea trees reached an abnormal level; anyone found smuggling tea trees was subject to the extermination of nine generations of their family! During the reign of Emperor Chenghui, only three generations were exterminated for treason.

At present, the surrounding areas of the Central Empire still follow the tributary system, which Jia Lian has always wanted to change, but has not had a good opportunity to do so.

Especially regarding North Korea and Japan, Jia Lian actually had no designs on Japan whatsoever. That region had almost exhausted its gold and silver reserves, leaving only manpower and mineral resources. North Korea wasn't particularly important either, mainly because with the Far East under his control, its significance wasn't apparent.

The Japanese shogunate's foreign trade in manpower and minerals is now thriving, and they are very proactive in doing so.

The reason is simple: it's not easy to sell people these days. Clients require that the people provided by contractors be young, healthy, and have basic Chinese skills.

This is changing little by little. The shogunate is now actively teaching Chinese. They have no choice but to teach it, because the mining business is not doing well, and the Koreans on the other side are ruthlessly stealing their business.

Therefore, Japan should never have had any opportunity to become a major power.

In Donghua, Li Heng's new round of expansion eastward has severely provoked the US government.

On the issue of whether or not to wage war to resolve the dispute, the Democratic and Republican parties in both houses of government have reached a rare consensus.

The reason is simple: both the North and the South have realized the existential crisis.

Don't underestimate these people who have made it across the ocean to North America to make a living; they are no pushovers.

When they realized that the possibility of the United States losing its room for development had been magnified to an extreme degree, they immediately united temporarily, and the North and the South stopped getting caught up in their respective contradictions.

The South proactively placed numerous arms orders with the North's industries, aiming to arm themselves to counter the expansion from the East China Kingdom.

After Chicago was briefly occupied, the North, which had destroyed all its industry, also came to its senses and abandoned any thought of negotiation, deciding to fight a war first.

The federal government also issued an emergency mobilization order, requiring all states to send troops to launch an attack on Donghua Kingdom from the north and south.

When Roosevelt returned to New York, it was too late. Although he rushed to Philadelphia and tried his best to persuade the people to stop the war, he was attacked by the crowd and called a coward.

Even the president was powerless against the collective resolution of both houses of Congress and had to send Roosevelt as an envoy to declare war on Donghua State again.

War is not something that can be started on a whim. Roosevelt could only advise the president that preparations for war should be thorough before discussing the start of the war.

However, the newspapers in various cities don't care about that; news has to be new to sell. So, the two houses passed a resolution for the war against Donghua State, which was already reported in the newspapers.

Secrecy? Doesn't exist! At least not in the United States right now.

After learning of the news from the United States, Li Heng realized that things were serious and personally traveled by special train to Kaiyuan City to discuss how to deal with the situation with Jia Zhi.

What other way could they deal with it? Jia Zhi and Li Heng discussed for three days and finally decided to confront them head-on, forming a three-pronged army from the north, central and south, with Li Heng as the commander-in-chief.

Of course, the commander was well aware that in a critical moment, the North and Central regions would prioritize their own interests. Therefore, he didn't make any excessive demands, only requesting that he be given command of six new cruisers from the Northern Fleet to form a fleet of ten new cruisers to sail to New York and blockade the port.

Unlike Li Heng, Jia Zhi considered the interconnectedness of the situation and not only agreed to Li Heng's request but also specially transferred a 75-aircraft artillery regiment to the southern command. Simultaneously, he urgently allocated 10,000 paper-cased needle guns to the south to alleviate its weaponry shortage. These rifles were already outdated in the north and central regions, but were still the latest models in the south.

Jia Zhi was not stingy; with Jia Lian's support, the Northern Province was able to produce its own metal ammunition and bolt-action rifles, though production was currently low and barely enough to sustain its own needs.

From a strategic perspective, Jia Zhi advocated relying on the mountainous defenses in the central region while launching attacks from the north and south.

Long ago, when Jia Zhi was still in China, Jia Lian predicted that war with the United States was inevitable. This was not something that could be controlled by personal will, but rather an inevitability for survival.

When North America was just a mere thirteen colonies, it dared to rebel against Great Britain; how much more so now? How could it possibly tolerate the encroachment of the Eastern Hua Kingdom?

After the discussions concluded, the Donghua Kingdom began intensive preparations, aiming to reduce the United States back to its original thirteen-state structure, or even reduce it to ten states or fewer.

In terms of war mobilization potential, the northern and central parts of Donghua Kingdom have a combined population of 15 million, including 3 million natives.

Jaji's plan was to arm 100,000 men, with 30,000 of them, with the cooperation of the natives, to hold the central mountain area. The main force would then launch an attack from the relatively flat area to the north, heading towards the Great Lakes to completely destroy the industrial zone.

The northern and central regions already had a combined total of four infantry divisions with over 60,000 professional regular troops, so the pressure from this mobilization order was not too great.

The real work was on the logistics line, but things are much better now because the railway has been extended to the Missouri River.

After the mobilization order was issued, the existing militia forces in each prefecture and county immediately began to recruit soldiers.

The enthusiasm of young people for joining the army was unexpectedly high, especially among those of Japanese descent. Most of these young men were of mixed race because their fathers couldn't afford East Asian women and had to reluctantly marry white women, primarily from India. White women from Southern Europe, sold off by the Ottoman Empire, commanded even higher prices.

Black skin has no market in Donghua Country; it simply can't be sold.

The second most enthusiastic about joining the army were the local people, with countless young people running away from home to sign up for military service.

A month later, while the United States was still preparing for war, the newly formed troops in the northern and central parts of Donghua State were fully equipped and began two months of pre-war recruit training.

Two professional divisions originally from the north were transported to the banks of the Missouri River first and were conducting reconnaissance and other preparations before the battle.

This time, Jia Zhi decided to put aside his so-called mercy and, after attacking, did not intend to leave the other side with a single intact tile.

(End of this chapter)