Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 744 A Trip Turns into a Visit

Just as he was about to board the ship, Jia Lian was summoned by an imperial edict and given a task: to represent the Central Empire on a visit to Europe!
The octogenarian never expected, nor did governments around the world, that this man, who had been out of politics for ten years, would reappear.

Jia Lian remained the reliable chief minister, accepting the imperial edict upon receiving it.
Instead of building a new passenger ship, they boarded a new ironclad warship, the Zhili, accompanied by two cruisers. The three warships formed a fleet and headed to Europe for a visit.

The ironclad warship Zhilu, as the empire's newest and most advanced warship, had a displacement of 8,000 tons and was equipped with six 305mm cannons, as well as several secondary guns.

This is the culmination of the empire's industrial strength, the world's first true ironclad warship.

To welcome Jia Lian, who is known as the founder of the Imperial Navy, the entire navy attached great importance to the occasion and held a grand farewell ceremony at Tianjin Port.

The above news is all news that can be reported. The content that cannot be reported is that the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict dictated the emperor's intention: as the most influential minister in the empire, His Majesty hopes that Jia Lian will not go to Donghua.

Well, there's more to this than meets the eye. Donghua University has been developing rapidly in recent years, leading to the emergence of the argument that the two countries should be equal!

From the emperor's perspective, Donghua could only be a vassal state, not anything else.

To show his high regard for Jia Lian, the emperor specially dispatched two excellent palace maids to accompany him, specifically to serve him. How to put it? These two were indispensable. They were a gift from the emperor; he couldn't refuse them.

After all, to put it bluntly, Jia Lian is a widower now.

After leaving the Bohai Sea, the warships headed south, and navies in various places along the way dispatched warships to escort and welcome them.

After the news reached Europe, political leaders from various countries interpreted the political significance of Jia Lian's naval visit.

Is it a show of force, or does it mean something else?

The true intention behind this is shrouded in mystery.

From the perspective of European political leaders, during Jia Lian's rule, his attitude towards Europe was to maintain economic contact but political distance, and he hardly got involved in European affairs, except for that unfortunate child, Tsarist Russia.

However, Jalian's overall strategy during his tenure was one of external expansion, including imposing various technological blockades on Europe.

After Jia Lian retired, the central empire's cabinet loosened its policy toward Europe, and it ceased its trade restrictions on some technologically sensitive equipment.

The actions of Europeans in the Middle Empire were no longer so restricted. Unlike before, when they were only allowed to move around in cities such as Guangzhou and the capital and were not allowed to leave the territory without permission.

The most important point in the eyes of Europeans was whether the Central Empire's reinstatement of Jia Lian indicated a change in its policy toward Europe.

The technologically advanced and militarily powerful Central Empire of this timeline has become a model for European countries, who are trying every means to acquire its new technologies and equipment.

This would have been almost impossible when Jia Lian was in the cabinet. Currently, the only areas where the Central Empire still maintains strict control over trade and technology with Europe are the traditional three commodities: tea, silk, and porcelain.

Silk and porcelain are fine, but tea is truly indispensable.

In recent years, relations among European countries have tended to ease, because these countries are all in a phase of rapid internal development, and external conflicts of interest have been relatively restrained for the time being. Even Tsarist Russia has begun reforms.

Of course, the reforms in Tsarist Russia mainly involved the introduction of machinery and equipment for production, rather than institutional reforms.

As for European studies of the centralized imperial system, various conclusions have been reached. The mainstream view is that a highly centralized imperial system was certainly far more efficient than the electoral system in Europe.

Compared to European politicians, the bureaucrats of the central empire had a clear system of accountability, which is the most fundamental difference. Elections did not necessarily produce statesmen, but rather politicians.

Politicians represent the interest groups behind them! A government composed of politicians is naturally rife with internal power struggles.

European nations anxiously awaited Jia Lian's arrival, hoping to glean information from him regarding the Central Empire's adjustments to its European policy.

When the Zhili ship arrived at Lijiapo to resupply coal and water, it received a telegram from the emperor. A new round of rectification of officialdom, led by the crown prince, had begun.

The first blow was aimed at the maternal relatives and members of the imperial clan!
Nowadays, the core interests of maternal relatives and members of the imperial clan are no longer land, but banks and commerce.

Over the past decade, relatives of the imperial family and members of the imperial clan colluded with officials, creating numerous messes in the banking sector and establishing many monopolistic practices in commerce. Commercial activities involving essential consumer goods were particularly vulnerable to these machinations. Their greed led to a fivefold increase in rice prices, a sixfold increase in coal prices, a tenfold increase in salt prices, and a threefold increase in oil and tea prices. While this primarily occurred in the capital, the situation was somewhat better elsewhere, but prices still rose significantly.

The price increase was not only due to the monopoly of the imperial family and relatives, but more importantly, the price of silver was falling.

As a silver-standard nation, the Central Empire suffered greatly in this regard. Due to trade relations and the rapid economic development that led to settlements, the emperor did not take steps to rectify the situation.

With economic development stagnating in the last two years, the emperor finally began to take action. It's also possible that the emperor is too old to continue.

After reading the telegram, Jia Lian merely chuckled coldly twice, even in front of the two young and beautiful palace maids.

I'm eighty years old. If I'm still worrying about this and that, wouldn't I have lived in vain?

The two palace maids, Caiyun and Lengyue, were both sixteen years old. Whether they were truly unwilling to be assigned to Jia Lian's side by the emperor was never a matter of their own choice.

Fortunately, the two soon discovered a pleasant surprise. Despite his advanced age, Prime Minister Jia was in excellent health, and despite his white hair and beard, he was still full of energy.

After the pear blossoms overshadowed the crabapple blossoms, the two palace maids became less resistant to the mission they were entrusted with.

In short, as long as Prime Minister Jia can return to China from Europe without worry, their family will benefit. If Prime Minister Jia chooses to go to Donghua and not return to China, their family will only lose two women.

This is a matter that cannot be reasoned with, and the emperor has no intention of reasoning with them. When their families sent them to the palace, they did not reason with them either.

During Li Wan's reign, he reduced the size of the imperial harem to some extent. He established a system of one empress and four concubines for the emperor, and the number of women in the harem was reduced by about half.

This wasn't because the emperor subjectively wanted to change it, but rather because relatively developed countries in the world today don't have a harem of the scale of a central empire's emperor.

Ottoman Pasha's harem was indeed very large, but the problem was, what was it compared to? Compared to this one!

In Jia Lian's view, Li Wan's methods were not particularly clever. When she ascended to the throne, she used her maternal relatives and the imperial clan to seize power. Now that she was old, she wanted the crown prince to take action against the imperial clan and her maternal relatives to establish his authority. This inevitably put the crown prince in a difficult position, and this operation was destined to be extremely challenging. The reason for this was that the imperial clan had also undergone changes in recent years, gaining control of a portion of the military.

If this operation is all bark and no bite, it's within the normal range. On the surface, it's about targeting the maternal relatives and members of the imperial clan first, which is just a show to get a few tasks and some money, and then legitimately rectify official corruption. This is probably Li Wan's real intention.

When the warships arrived in India, the local governor received them with the highest honors. The reason was compelling: Britain's long-term colonization of India was a framework established during Jalin's reign.

Time has proven the stability of this framework; Jia Lian kept his word, and this influenced subsequent cabinet decisions.

The last major Indian uprising was thirty years ago. Under the cunning strategy of the British, the current situation in India is similar to the British ruling over the princes of the princely states, and then the princes ruling over the people.

The Indian princes said, "If you had done this earlier, we would have known what to do sooner. As long as we can protect our own interests, the lives of the common people below us are insignificant."

There are some locals who advocate armed resistance, but they are a tiny minority. That's just how amazing this place is.

In a speech at the Indian Viceroy's Office, Jalian reiterated the framework agreement for the South Asian subcontinent that had been established, stating that the empire's policies would not be easily changed.

Jia Lian emphasized that the Central Empire has always loved peace, and its actions over the past few decades have essentially been a restoration of its traditional sphere of influence, a revival, not an expansion.

As for Donghua, that's another story. After all, they've already established their own country, and it was the emperor who bestowed the title upon them.

The peace-loving Central Empire has always valued internal governance and will not easily change its national strategy unless threatened by external forces.

Jia Lian's speech was interpreted by European countries as a form of intimidation. Europe had developed rapidly in recent years, posing a threat to the central empire in various ways. For the previous decade, the cabinet's stance had not been firm enough, so they released Jia Lian to intimidate Europe.

To be honest, Europeans actually believed this, after all, the Ottoman Empire still existed and its territory was still quite large, and Jia Lian deserves the most credit for this.

If it weren't for Jia Lian's military support plan for the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire would have been torn to pieces by Europeans long ago.

Of course, this is just European assumption. Historically, the Ottoman Empire was dismantled after World War I because it chose the wrong side. Even so, it was Churchill himself who pushed the Ottoman Empire away.

All for two warships, and it's turned into this mess.

Following Jia Lian's speech, the London stock market surged, with various India-related stocks experiencing sharp increases.

The Governor-General of India invited Jia Lian to inspect the territory, but Jia Lian politely declined, saying that he wanted to continue his journey and complete his mission.

The Governor-General of India could only express his regret and send Jia Lian a generous gift.

It was truly a generous gift; a large box was filled with gold artifacts and various gemstones.

Jia Lian pocketed the gold, while the jewels were given to two palace maids.

This made Caiyun and Lengyue feel much better, both physically and mentally. They suddenly realized how incredibly charming this old prime minister was. What if they couldn't live without him from now on?
When the fleet arrived in South Africa, the Governor-General of South Africa was on high alert. Africa was a very sensitive region for the British. It was the only place in the Middle Empire that they had not set foot in.

There haven't been any large gold mines discovered yet, so it's not the most critical time.

The reason South Africa is so tense is simply because the Cape of Good Hope is such an important place.

Fortunately, Jia Lian did not disembark. After the fleet was resupplied with coal and water, it immediately set sail, rounded Africa, reached the Strait of Gibraltar, and entered the Mediterranean Sea.

Jia Lian's first stop was the Ottoman Empire, a move that was interpreted by European countries as a threat.

Due to their unique geographical relationships, the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire, and the Near East have always been sensitive regions.

The mainstream view in Europe regarding Jia Lian's initial aid to the Ottoman Empire was as follows.

The Central Empire always attached great importance to its relationship with the Ottoman Turks and made efforts to maintain friendly cooperation between the two countries.

Jia Lian's speech in Istanbul emphasized this core idea.

Jia Lian also emphasized that the British colonization of India was a model of mutual tolerance and tacit understanding between two great powers, and hoped that neither side would undermine this tacit understanding.

What does this mean? It's because of Afghanistan, where the British repeatedly tried to intervene. But they all failed, ignoring numerous warnings from the Central Empire.

Fortunately, the Central Empire didn't take any concrete action on the surface, only making verbal pronouncements. How much weaponry and equipment was actually transported there in private, only heaven knows.

Osman Pasha was very welcoming to Jia Lian's arrival, personally going to the dock to greet him. Jia Lian also gave an impromptu speech.

When Ottoman Pasha received Jia Lian, he made a request to purchase new ironclad warships.

This thing looks so tempting. The Ottoman Empire was able to hold onto the Crimean Peninsula largely because of the sale of warships by the Central Empire.

After the last Russo-Turkish War, the Ottoman Turks, having regained part of southern Europe, conceived the idea of ​​initiating a war to reclaim all their coastal territories along the Black Sea.

Of course, it was just an idea, the idea of ​​some young radicals within the military, and the older senior officers were not interested.

The young officers also advocated for reforms, demanding that the civil service be conducted through examinations, rather than being controlled by nobles at various levels as it was now.

Recently, many new ideas have emerged in Europe, one of the most alarming being the idea of ​​so-called public ownership, which originated from the central empire.

The most pressing conflict in Europe right now is between Prussia and France, and it looks like the two countries are about to go to war. There is a view in the Ottoman Turkish army that they should seize this precious window of opportunity to avenge their previous defeat.

To be honest, Jia Lian dismissed this viewpoint, but he didn't say it aloud. Instead, he kindly reminded Ottoman, the young Pasha, that instead of focusing on Tsarist Russia, he should try to regain control of Egypt and re-establish connections between the traditional spheres of influence along the Mediterranean coast.

Doing this is the most practical action for national security, rather than thinking all day about defeating Tsarist Russia, which was a great power.

(End of this chapter)