Chapter 32: Engels' Awakening Lion Theory

  New book uploaded, seeking collection and recommendation

  "Absurd?" Engels set down the delicate coffee cup in his hand and laughed, "Why absurd?"

  "It is quite obvious that the two almost equally corrupt nations and armies, with their peoples living in dire straits, perhaps the working class here in Britain suffering a bit more. Moreover, Britain is waging a distant war, dragging along logistics lines of at least thousands or tens of thousands of miles, while the Qing dynasty is fighting on its own soil. In terms of military strength, the Qing dynasty has an absolute advantage. Friedrich, don't you think the outcome of the Anglo-Chinese trade war is extremely unbelievable?"

  Zhu Jishi slowly expressed the doubts in his mind, his tone somewhat heavy. Although he verbally denied being a "Qing person", years of classroom education had still led him to view all the defeats of the Qing dynasty's foreign wars, including the Opium War, as humiliations for China and the Chinese nation.

  Engels smiled faintly, "Jason, I didn't expect your starting point for observing military and political issues to be so close to that of socialists, all from the bottom up, from society to politics and then to military. Indeed, British society is quite corrupt, the ruling aristocracy and bourgeoisie are only interested in profit, never caring about the lives of the people, in their eyes, laborers are actually just a commodity! Really, just a commodity!"

  Engels' face passed over a painful expression, "Actually I am also a member of the bourgeoisie. In my capacity as manager of 'Ermens-Engels Spinning Mill', workers are also a commodity, capitalists buy their labor power with money, and the price they pay is of course the lower the better..."

  "If productivity has improved further, workers' wages should have increased as well?" Zhu Jishi suddenly interjected. In his impression, the wages of laborers in Europe and America were relatively high, possibly having risen sharply since the Second Industrial Revolution.

  "Why?" Engels asked in puzzlement, "Why should the wages of workers rise with the development of productive forces? In nearly a hundred years, since the emergence of machine industry, productive forces have seen rapid growth, but workers' wages have not increased. Currently, the daily wage of an ordinary worker is only 4 to 6 pence, which translates to 2,000 pence per year, equivalent to 100 shillings or about 8 pounds (roughly 24 taels of silver, or about 2 taels per month), which, compared to a hundred years ago, has increased somewhat, but is roughly on par with the rate of inflation, and cannot be compared to the growth of social productive forces and the growth of British government revenue."

  Moreover, if the labor force of workers is a commodity, then its price is determined by supply and demand. And the development of social productive forces and the growth of capitalists' wealth are probably not closely related."

  Zhu Ji Shi was speechless, Engels was certainly not wrong, but the income of workers in European and American countries later on was indeed very high, while at the same time those countries still had a relatively large unemployment rate! That is to say, the supply of labor force was excessive...

  In comparison, the UK today, despite being in an economic crisis, is said to have 1.5-2 million "surplus population", but that's based on widespread use of child labor; if all children were sent to school, there would definitely be a labor shortage.

  He sighed and asked: "If Britain is such a corrupt country that doesn't care about people's lives, why is it so powerful?"

  Engels still looked at Zhū Jìshì with an incomprehensible gaze, shaking his head and saying: "Jeson, do you think that whether a country of the bourgeoisie or feudal nobility is strong has a great deal to do with caring about people's lives? Whose theory is this?"

  "This... doesn't matter?" Zhu Jishi thought to himself, it seemed like there really wasn't a big deal. Currently the most powerful countries in the world are Britain and Russia, one is the overlord of the seas, the empire on which the sun never sets. The other is the king of the land, Europe's gendarme. The situation here in Britain is that the working class is struggling, while in Russia most of the working class seems to still be serfs!

  "Of course not," said Engels, "whether the bourgeois or feudal aristocratic state is strong depends on whether the ruling class of the bourgeoisie or feudal aristocracy is strong and wise. It has nothing to do with the working people at the bottom, just like during this Sino-British trade war, the British working people are busy fighting against the British ruling class and have not stood on the side of the British government (in comparison, the Qing people are just watching and have not gone out to demonstrate).

  "So, in my view, the result of the Sino-British trade war is that it was a war between the British bourgeoisie and the feudal ruling class of China, not a war between the peoples of Britain and China. And the outcome of the war precisely reflected the fact that the British bourgeoisie was far stronger and more intelligent than the feudal ruling class of China. However, this war may not necessarily be a bad thing for China."

  "Isn't it a bad thing?" Zhu Jishi asked in puzzlement.

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

  "This is Napoleon's view." Zeng Jize knew the "Lion Awakening Theory", but he was even more aware that the British ironclads had not awakened the Qing dynasty at all.

  "Napoleon was right." Engels lifted his cup and took a sip of coffee, finding that the interview had gone off topic, but he was still happy to discuss Chinese issues with Zhu Jishi and planned to write an article on Chinese studies when he returned.

  "I don't think China will be awakened." Zhu Jishi shook his head, he was talking about history, but Engels didn't quite believe it.

  "Why?" Engels smiled and said to Zhu Jishi: "Qing Dynasty is a vast country with 400 million people, more than the entire Europe, ruled by an emperor...Jeson, do you know what a powerful force that is? This lion doesn't even need to wake up completely, just waking up a little bit is enough to restrict European powers outside of East Asia."

  "How is this possible?" Zhu Jishi looked at Engels in astonishment.

  "This is evident!" Engels emphasized, saying: "The Emperor of China 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 thorough reform."

  "It doesn't have to be thorough," Engels said. "It will be enough if it is done to the extent of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, Egypt, Maratha Kingdom, Mysore Kingdom and Sikh Empire."

  "Maratha Empire? Mysore Kingdom? Sikh Empire?" Zhu Zhi asked: "Where are they?"

  "India, they are in India." Engels introduced: "The population, land and wealth of the Qing Dynasty far exceed those of the Ottoman Empire, not to mention Egypt and several Indian principalities. Therefore, as long as the emperor of the Qing Dynasty takes reforms similar to those of Selim III of the Ottoman Empire, he can send envoys to various European countries... Perhaps these envoys are already on their way, hiring craftsmen, retired military officers and intellectuals from Europe to help the Qing Dynasty establish factories, military academies and modern universities, while imitating the European military system, forming a new regular army loyal to the emperor. Of course, if there are enough large feudal lords in the Qing Dynasty who can confront the emperor and hereditary privileged troops similar to the Turkish Janissaries, the difficulty of reform may be greater."

  "Is that all?" Zhu Jishi looked at Engels with a mixture of doubt and suspicion. "Such reforms haven't even touched the fundamental feudal system of Qing China, how can they possibly establish a new-style army capable of resisting European colonizers?"

  "There is no reform that can touch the foundation of things at once," Engels said with a smile to Zuo Zongtang: "Reform is not revolution, and China only needs a small, gradual reform. This country is too far away from Western Europe, and none of the European powers have the ability to send a strong enough expeditionary force to the Far East. So they only need two or three thousand noble youths loyal to the emperor who have received European-style military training, which is enough to support an army of over 100,000 European-style land forces, and this is enough to dominate the Far East. I think there is no harm in this for the Qing emperor and his court, and they cannot but carry out such a reform, unless they are all fools and idiots."