Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 229: The treacherous and dangerous struggles of later nations, Lao Zhu's review of "All or Nothing" [Request for subscription]

Liu Kuan said: "Western capital has naturally used similar traps against the Xin Dynasty in the past, such as the grain import trap."

"But we have a long history and have long understood that food supply is the lifeblood of a country and cannot be left in the hands of other countries."

"In addition, hybrid rice was developed in the 1970s and 1980s, which greatly increased grain production and prevented us from falling into the grain import trap set by Western capital."

"Of course, the New Dynasty has suffered losses from Western capital in other areas, such as soybeans. The Bald Eagle took advantage of its production and capital advantages, as well as our massive demand for soybeans, and at one point, the New Dynasty became very dependent on that country's soybeans."

"Thus, Bald Eagle capitalists manipulated soybean prices to earn excessive profits from the Xin Dynasty. They even blocked soybean trade to threaten the Xin Dynasty when politically necessary."

"Fortunately, before I came to the Ming Dynasty, the Xin Dynasty's dependence on Bald Eagle soybeans had already been reduced."

"There may be similar things in other areas, but I am not aware of them, so I will not elaborate on them."

Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Zhu Di and others looked at each other in surprise. They never expected that soybeans alone could be used by countries in later generations to fight against other countries.

Then Old Zhu couldn't help but sigh, "The struggles between nations in later generations will be so treacherous, complex, and dangerous. Being a head of state must be very difficult. I'm afraid he must be up all night, worried about making mistakes."

Liu Kuan said, "It is certain that being the head of state in the future will be difficult, but it is not as difficult as Your Majesty imagines. Your Majesty now knows how to set up a cabinet and a military council to assist in handling government affairs, and future heads of state will naturally know this as well."

"In fact, there are more similar institutions in later countries, and they also have more wise men and professional talents. It is common for a think tank to have thousands of people."

"Coupled with the help of supercomputers, we can now handle complex and sophisticated national affairs."

Old Zhu was surprised at first, and then he was fascinated.

"A think tank of thousands of people? If we could have so many wise men and professionals, governing the country would surely be much easier."

At this time, Zhu Biao interrupted and said, "Father, if you want to have so many talents, you need to pay more attention to education."

Old Zhu nodded. "Of course I understand this principle. To attach greater importance to education, the court must have more money and grain. That's why we planned to attack Korea and Japan, why we sent people to America early to find crops like corn and sweet potatoes, and why we started the great voyages of discovery."

After saying this, Zhu Yuanzhang gestured to Liu Kuan to talk about how the new dynasties in later generations seized the window of development.

Liu Kuan said, "Speaking of which, the development window of the new dynasty is just as described in the video, which is only 20 to 30 years."

"Of course, China, with its glorious history spanning over 3,000 years, has always been a target of vigilance for Western capital, and shouldn't have had the opportunity to develop over the past 20 to 30 years."

"But through the selfless efforts of countless predecessors, coupled with a hint of luck, we were able to seize the development opportunities of those 20 to 30 years..."

Afterwards, Liu Kuan recounted all the major events, treacherous situations, and lucky happenings that the Xin Dynasty had experienced during the next twenty or thirty years of rapid development.

(I originally wrote it in detail here, but unfortunately I couldn’t get past the level of the great god Hexie, so I can only replace it with a few words.)
Although Zhu Yuanzhang and others had expected this, after listening to Liu Kuan's story, they realized that the dangers and traps experienced by the Xin Dynasty in later generations were much more numerous than those in Egypt, and the situation was much more treacherous and dangerous.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang could not help but admire the wisdom of the leaders of the later Xin Dynasty who made certain important decisions.

Afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang did not continue to ask about the affairs of the new dynasty in later generations - because those things did broaden his horizons, but were of little use to the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty was already a top-tier global power, perhaps even the strongest. As its technology and industry developed, it would further distance itself from other nations, ultimately becoming a true global hegemon.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty did not need to face traps set by Western capitalist powers such as the Bald Eagle like the Xin Dynasty in later generations, and it would not be targeted by any country in this way for hundreds of years.

Since the development experience of the later Xin Dynasty could not be used, Zhu Yuanzhang would not spend time on it given his character.

After collecting his thoughts, Zhu Yuanzhang said directly: "Let's play the movie. I'm afraid the little ones can't wait."

Hearing this, Liu Kuan couldn't help but look at Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Zhi, Zhu Zan, and Zhu Quan. Sure enough, he found that these princes and grandsons of the emperor, who were only a few years old, were looking at him eagerly.

Obviously, the previous videos were a bit too advanced and boring for these children, and they only vaguely understood what the adults were discussing. In this case, they naturally looked forward to watching the movie even more.

Liu Kuan replied "yes", picked up the tablet and found the movie he had prepared.

"Your Majesty, this film is called 'All or Nothing', and it's a film about the evils of fraud in later generations."

Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly puzzled. "Isn't fraud common enough to warrant a movie? Or perhaps fraud has become rare in later generations?"

Liu Kuan explained, "Fraud is still common in later generations. Criminals even take advantage of advanced communications and the internet to defraud thousands of people at once, swindling their entire fortunes in just a few minutes. Their crimes are even worse."

"But the Xin Dynasty in later generations was peaceful and stable. For many people, losing most of their money or even all of their wealth was as painful as losing their life. As a result, many families were destroyed by fraud."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned slightly and said, "It seems that the development of communications, like the development of transportation, not only has benefits, but also brings some disadvantages that were not originally there, or even amplifies certain crimes." Liu Kuan said, "That is indeed the case, but just like transportation, the benefits of developed communications far outweigh the minor disadvantages that come with it."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, "Don't worry, we won't give up on this... Let's show the movie."

"Yes."

Liu Kuan put down the tablet, touched the screen, and the movie "All or Nothing" began to play.

This is a movie set in a modern city. For the Zhu family, many ordinary scenes and events are very novel, so even though the plot seems a bit bland at the beginning, everyone is still fascinated by it.

The movie played for a while, and the plot went on to the part where Pan Sheng and others were sent to the fraud gang, which is the main content of the film.

The fraud gang in the film lives in a building that looks like a high-end hotel, possesses powerful muskets, and is able to combine later technological products such as mobile phones and computers with fraudulent methods such as gambling to defraud money on a large scale on the Internet.

Even after hearing Liu Kuan's general description of the film's content, Zhu Biao, Zhu Di and others still felt that this plot was somewhat subversive and even unacceptable.

After seeing Pan Sheng risking his life again and again to send out alarm and distress signals, but failing again and again, the situation became increasingly dangerous. Except for Lao Zhu, everyone else became increasingly nervous.

They were all worried that Pan Sheng would eventually die in the lair of this evil fraud gang.

On the other hand, we see Gu Tianzhi, played by Wang Dalu, being cheated step by step until he "gave" all his family savings to the fraud gang, and then borrowed another 8 million yuan to be cheated by the fraud gang again, and finally jumped off the building in despair.

Zhu Di and others hated Gu Tianzhi's greed and stupidity, but they also had a deeper understanding of the viciousness and evil of the fraud gang.

The film was 130 minutes long. After more than an hour, the movie ended and the ending credits began to appear. Only then did Zhu Biao, Zhu Di and others shift their attention.

Zhu Tan, who considered himself clever, was the first to say, "That Gu Tianzhi is too stupid. Not to mention that there are no such things as pie in the sky, the scam they used to defraud him of his money was clearly full of loopholes, yet he turned a blind eye to them."

"Even after being defrauded of some of their money, they still didn't wake up and were deceived again and again until they were forced into a desperate situation. They simply deserved it!"

Hearing this, Lao Zhu said, "Gu Tianzhi certainly deserved it, but the main reason he went that far wasn't stupidity, but greed."

"Also, the ones who deserve the most damnation are still those in the fraud gang. If they hadn't learned all sorts of intelligence about Gu Tianzhi from the internet and designed something specifically for him, how could he have been tempted by greed and fallen deeper into the scam step by step?"

Zhu Biao sighed, "It seems that it is indeed as my brother-in-law said. Technology is in the hands of evil people and can be used to commit even greater crimes."

Queen Ma said, "I thought that in the future, with advanced technology, people would have no worries about food and clothing, and communication and transportation would be so convenient, so there should be nothing to worry about. I never expected that such a good life would also have so many dangers."

Seeing the Zhu family's emotion, Liu Kuan couldn't help but say, "In fact, the harm caused by overseas fraud gangs in later generations to the people of the Xin Dynasty is even greater than what is shown in this movie."

"The viciousness, cruelty, and cunning of the fraudsters portrayed in the movie are less than one-tenth of what they are in reality. It can even be said that they are just the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, the incident at the end of the movie where Anna Liang was released by the fraudsters is simply impossible."

Hearing this, Zhu Xiongying couldn't help but ask, "The teacher seems to be deliberately emphasizing overseas fraud gangs? But the scammers in the film are all Han Chinese."

Liu Kuan said, "First of all, the fraud gangs are indeed mostly Han Chinese, that is, Chinese people, because only Chinese people understand the situation of Chinese people and can successfully commit fraud."

"Secondly, if these fraud gangs were based in China, they would be easily found by the police in the new dynasty and busted."

"So, in later generations, the dens and nests of cyber fraud gangs were almost all located abroad - they took advantage of the inconvenience of handling cases across borders to avoid being cracked down by the police."

"In later times, there was even a special fraud park in Beibei—because Beibei was a lawless area at the time, even a place without law, so fraud gangs set up their dens there."

"At their worst, the rulers of Meibei were a scam, and the local people were mostly accomplices."

"So, if someone is deceived and sent there, their experience will be like in the movies - even if they escape the lair of the fraud gang, the 'police', 'girls', and 'children' they meet outside are untrustworthy. Not only will they not help the person in distress, but they will hand them over to the fraud gang instead."

Zhu Xiongying was still young, and he shuddered when he imagined a situation where even children were accomplices of a fraud gang.

At this time, Lao Zhu snorted coldly, "Isn't this similar to what was revealed in that movie 'Operation Mekong' you showed earlier?"

"One manufactured opium and other toxic substances overseas and sold them back into China, while the other set up fraud dens and operations overseas specifically to defraud Chinese citizens."

"They're just taking advantage of the inconvenience of transnational investigations in the later Xin Dynasty. If this were the Ming Dynasty, we'd definitely send a massive army to wipe out these filthy creatures!"

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)