Chapter Thirty-Three: The Guide Asks for Recommendations and Bookmarks

  New book uploaded, seeking recommendations, seeking collection

  The moon is in the middle of the sky, and all around is quiet.

  After coming to this era, Zhu Jishi was most unaccustomed to losing the sense of belonging to a country and nation. In his previous time and space, he was very clear that his motherland was China, but here he became a person without a motherland. The Qing Empire was not his motherland, if he went to the land of the Qing Empire, he would definitely be caught and beheaded, this country occupying the land where China is located and himself were enemies, not friends. Zhu Jishi thought helplessly. He rested his head on his hand, with no sleepiness in his eyes.

  The words Engels spoke to him during the day still lingered in his ears. The Qing Empire or China of this era was not so hopeless after all.

  Napoleon's views, Engels' views, and what he has seen and heard in the UK in recent days seem to prove that with some necessary reforms, China can easily resist Western aggression and smoothly embark on a modernization path, thus avoiding more than 100 years of suffering and humiliating history.

  Of course, the Qing Empire has a certain historical burden, but among the main countries in the East and West today, how many are not troubled by such or other historical legacies?

  Britain and France may be better off. The United States has a black slave problem; Russia has a serfdom problem; Germany is now in a state of "warlordism" - this metaphor may not be very accurate, but a truly unified German nation definitely does not exist; Italy is also a pile of fragmented small countries; the Ottoman Empire is even more so, a sick man of the Near East, with internal and external troubles, and strong domestic religious conservative forces, as well as conflicts between Islam and Christianity, and Russia and Austria, two traditional arch-enemies.

  As for Japan, which later became the mortal enemy of the Chinese nation in history, it is still playing the game of "Shogun" (Zhu Jishi's historical knowledge is limited, but he has played a computer game called "Total War: Shogun 2", and even learned some general information about Japanese feudal politics), this country's system is stuck in the Middle Ages, without even an effective central government that can control the whole country!

  However, Japan was able to successfully implement the Meiji Restoration, and the Ottoman Empire, which had a tangled mess of political, military, religious, and ethnic issues, was also able to establish a relatively strong modernized army through reform. Although it suffered defeat after defeat in wars against Russia and Austria, the number of troops Russia deployed in its war against the Ottoman Empire far exceeded the number of invading troops that China would later face from Western powers. From this perspective, the Ottoman Empire's reforms also achieved some success.

  But in the Qing dynasty, a country with a solid centralization of power and an emperor who has the final say, after decades of the Westernization Movement, not even one truly modernized land force was established!

  What's going on here?

  Moreover, what should we do for China in this era?

  It's been almost six months since I came to this world, and not only have I stood firm on my feet, but I've also made a name for myself with the medical knowledge that is over 170 years ahead of this era. Perhaps I'll be elected as a member of the French Academy of Sciences soon. Moreover, my plan to get rich is progressing smoothly, and I've become a major shareholder in a rubber products company and a pharmacy. With the four major patents of vulcanized rubber, morphine hydrochloride, diethyl ether, and atropine hydrochloride, the prospects for the development of the rubber products company and the pharmacy are unquestionable, and getting rich is only a matter of time.

  It's time to start thinking about what to do after getting rich. Getting married and that sort of thing was just a joke between me and Yui, for someone like myself who is well-known, wealthy, and decent-looking, picking up girls isn't even an issue. So naturally, the things to do after becoming famous and rich would be for the country, for the nation, but this topic really does sound a bit too grand.

  Zhu Jishi thought for a moment, although there is a saying online: "Wearing Qing dynasty clothes doesn't mean rebelling, chrysanthemum flowers can be used to drill holes." But he himself seemed to lack the skills for rebelling. He was just a medical student, not someone who studied military affairs or politics. Let alone rebelling, even becoming a bandit king or a fugitive, he couldn't do it.

  Indeed, the downfall of the Qing dynasty was closely related to Sun Yat-sen, who was a medical graduate, but that was decades later. If it were 1900 now, one might be able to join Sun Yat-sen in making revolution, and even use one's wealth and prestige gained in Western countries to become one of the leaders of the revolutionary party.

  But now, the Qing dynasty's fate has not yet been exhausted, although a Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rebellion will occur in a few years. But what does this have to do with oneself? What common language can one have with Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing, those "heretical leaders"? Is it necessary to go along with them, pretending to be the relatives of God?

  Of course, I can become a sponsor of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and even set up an arms company to provide them with weapons... Ah, yes, picric acid has been invented for a long time, but Europeans still don't know how to use it as explosives. I happen to know how to detonate picric acid and how to avoid turning it into highly explosive picric acid salt, so I can make powerful hand grenades. Why not start an arms company when I have some spare money?

  But is it really a good thing to let the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's leaders rule China? Although later generations of GCD highly praised the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and considered denying it as historical nihilism, who can deny that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom took the path of combining politics and religion. If they were allowed to rule China, China might have continued on this path, becoming a country like the Arab Empire or the Ottoman Empire, which is not suitable for the future world. Moreover, leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom such as Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing were actually quite ignorant, surpassing even the Qing rulers in their ignorance.

  In fact, almost all Chinese people in this era are completely ignorant of the West and the world! The real reason for the failure of China's Westernization Movement is probably ignorance.

  Helping the Chinese to open their eyes and see the world may be the mission given by heaven! In the end, Zhu Jishi told himself that he should become a teacher, one who introduces the world to China, brings science to China, brings Western culture, art, politics, education and military systems to China. He should become a guide for China's modernization!

  Thinking of this, he couldn't sleep anymore, so he put on a robe and sat in front of his desk, lit a whale oil lamp, picked up paper and pen, seemingly ready to write something. However, after a long time, he still hadn't started writing, not because there was nothing to write, but because there were too many things to write about, with countless threads and heads, yet he didn't know where to begin.

  Should I start with the Western customs and manners? Write a book similar to "Illustrations of China and Its People"? It seems that I don't understand the current situation in various Western countries, or should I spend some money to hire a ghostwriter? I heard that lawyer Jones has no business recently, why not let him write it? I'll just take care of the translation. The book title will be... "Western Travel Notes", but the author's name will still be mine!

  Or introduce the military and political affairs of various Western countries? Hmm, I don't seem to understand it very well myself. Why not ask Engels and Willich to write on my behalf later? They are experts. The book can be called "Taisei Military Methods" and "Taisei Political Strategies". I will be responsible for the translation and also sign a name, who knows, maybe one day I'll appear in the "Marx-Engels Complete Works" again.

  Why not write something about Western science and technology? This itself... doesn't seem to work either! It's not that I don't understand, but rather that I understand too much! If I'm not careful, I'll end up writing out all the chemical and physical knowledge that didn't exist in this era, and those European scientists will be left stunned. In the end, the gap between East and West in terms of science and technology will only grow wider! This... I'd better just find some British middle school and university textbooks to translate instead.

  Finally, Zhu Jishi took a deep breath, picked up his pen and wrote in Chinese on the paper: "English-Chinese Dictionary - Compiled by Zhu Jishi"