February 14, 12th year of Baode in the Western Song Dynasty. The atmosphere in the Huaqing Palace has never been as depressed as it is now, and everyone felt the depression of the end of the world.

It is not the end of mankind, but the end of the despotism of the Western Song Dynasty, the authoritarian empire, is approaching.

The war between the three heroes of China had already been decided... In fact, more than eight years ago, when Emperor Zhao Hao of the Eastern Song Dynasty led members of the royal family to take the battleship of the local fleet of the Eastern Song Dynasty and left the Zhaojiagang Wharf in Jiangning, the victory or defeat of the war had been decided.

Because in this war of unification, the real opponent of the Great Zhou Dynasty was the Eastern Song Dynasty. The Eastern Song Dynasty was a world empire with a population of 120 million. It also carried out the industrial revolution and also had maritime power second only to the Great Zhou Dynasty.

As long as the Eastern Song Dynasty was united and wanted to resist to the end, the Great Zhou Republic did not have enough power to conquer the Eastern Song Dynasty.

But the problem is that the Eastern Song Dynasty did not belong to the Emperor of the Zhao family, but to the Hezhong states. The Hezhong states just regarded the Emperor of the Zhao family as a banner.

It is impossible to make the states of the United States abandon the prosperous and decadent bourgeois lifestyles of the past, endure all kinds of suffering, and use their blood and life to defend a banner.

Therefore, after the Battle of Longshi Island, there was only one problem facing Hezhongzhou in the Eastern Song Dynasty, which was what conditions he had to join the Great Zhou Republic.

The Great Zhou is a world empire with the sun never set, occupying a chosen land of 167 million square miles in North and South America!

Moreover, the Great Zhou land was extremely vast, occupying the area called East and West Siberia and Mongolian Plateau in later generations, with an area of ​​more than 6,000 square miles.

Add to the small colonies in Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the South Ocean region, and the Great Zhou Republic owns a land area of ​​230 to 40 million square miles, equivalent to 51 million square kilometers!

It is 10 million square kilometers more than the more than 40 million square kilometers of the British Empire in history!

Moreover, the British Empire has only a population of tens of millions, and it is inevitable that it will be difficult to maintain it for a long time.

If the Great Zhou natives merge with the Eastern Song natives, the population could reach 260 million, while the population of so many colonies included slaves and indigenous people, which was 30 to 40 million.

Thirty to forty million people want to rebel against 260 million people... let alone doors, there is not even windows.

If the Great Zhou and the Eastern Song Dynasty do not merge, and the two wealthy Chinese families engage in internal struggles and destroy each other, it may lead to a wave of colonial independence movements.

But once they join forces, there will be no colonial liberation movement or anything else in the next three or four hundred years.

A Sun-Don't Set Empire with a population of hundreds of millions and more than 50 million square kilometers of land is undoubtedly the ultimate dominant of this world!

Therefore, for the capitalists of the 50 prefectures of the Eastern Song Dynasty, joining the Great Zhou and becoming a member of the world is much more cost-effective than fighting a scorched earth battle with the Great Zhou Republic with heavy casualties.

Of course, the conditions for unification need to be discussed carefully...

And this talk lasted for three years!

During the negotiation process, several recurrences occurred. Zhao Hao, who fled to the New Song Dynasty, also had many supporters in the Eastern Song Dynasty, namely the so-called royalists. They tried every means to use negotiations as a cover to gain time for the Eastern Song Dynasty to rebuild the navy.

It’s a pity that the Great Zhou Republic always had a better chess game because they had always invested in naval and steam engines than in the Eastern Song Dynasty (the Great Zhou had a large demand for steam ships and had stronger financial resources), so they had better technology and production capacity.

Therefore, after the navy entered the era of armored steam sailing, the naval gap between the Great Zhou and the Eastern Song Dynasty not only did not narrow, but became even bigger.

Therefore, the efforts of the royalists of the Eastern Song Dynasty were eventually destroyed because they could not defeat the Navy of the Great Zhou.

However, their delay policy is not meaningless. They at least bought time for the transfer of population and property of the Royalists in the Eastern Song Dynasty.

Oh, after the Great Zhou negotiated with the Eastern Song Dynasty, it did not implement a battle to block the coastline of the Eastern Song Dynasty. Of course, the Great Zhou did not restore the exit of bird droppings.

The purpose of not blocking the coastline is to release all royalists while maintaining the economic collapse of the Eastern Song Dynasty.

The Great Zhou did not intend to kill all the royalists of the Eastern Song Dynasty, otherwise Zhao Hao would not be able to go to the New Song Continent.

It is not easy for the Great Zhou Navy to annihilate his local fleet?

However, doing so is not in the interests of the top leaders of the Great Zhou Republic.

First of all, the leadership of the Great Zhou Republic did not want the royalists of the Eastern Song Dynasty to stay and make trouble for themselves. It would be nice to have a good place for them.

Secondly, the military of the Great Zhou Republic hopes to retain an opponent for itself, and only with opponents can one maintain a strong army and navy!

Otherwise, what excuse should the military, especially the navy, use to demand military expenditure?

Therefore, the military of the Great Zhou Republic not only sat on the verge of the royalists of the Eastern Song Dynasty, but also classified the Nanyang Islands east of Java as "affiliated islands" of the New Song Dynasty, and were all areas that were not recommended to be seized.

There are many areas that are "not recommended to seize", such as the Guowa County State in Tianzhu, the Abadan Autonomous Territory on the Arabian River, the Ceylon County State in the Little Atlantic Ocean, and the Siam County State, which are not recommended to seize.

Because the Great Zhou Republic is not an invader... Well, the Great Zhou was a liberator!

Therefore, the Great Zhou Republic will not use aggression to deal with a civilized and progressive country or autonomous territory. The price of doing so is far greater than the gain.

"civilized areas" such as Ceylon, Guowa, Abadan, Siam, and even the royal territories of the Xinsong Dynasty can completely become the united partners of the world system led by the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Under the combination of coercion, temptation and expulsion of the Great Zhou Republic, the parliaments of the 50 states of the Eastern Song Dynasty finally passed the resolution to join the Great Zhou Republic before the end of June 230.

Although the Red Dragon Banner of the Eastern Song Dynasty was still flying over the New Kaifeng Prefecture, it was no longer a local Chinese tycoon, but became the first "independent" colonial country...

After June 230 of the Republic, only the Great Zhou Republic and the Western Song Empire remained in China.

By this time the strength comparison on the East Asian continent has been completely unbalanced.

The Great Zhou Republic, which unified the Eastern Song Dynasty, owned 260 million citizens and 50 million square kilometers of land.

The Western Song Dynasty only has a population of 60 million, and its territory is only seven or eight million square kilometers. Its industrial strength and financial resources are not the opponents of the Great Zhou.

But no one expected that the resistance of the Western Song Dynasty was very tenacious, and launched millions of troops to resist step by step. Although they were defeated repeatedly, they still caused relatively large losses to the attacking Zhou army.

So much so that the ruling class of Zhou began to doubt the need to unify China, and after the Battle of Xiangyang in 232 of the Republic, peace talks with the Western Song Dynasty began.

Of course, Xiangyang was occupied by the Great Zhou. In this battle, the steam armored gunboats of the Great Zhou drove to the foot of the Great Leaf Castle in Xiangyang, and used large-caliber artillery cannons to destroy the city walls of Xiangyang.

However, in the subsequent brutal street battle for a month, as many as 30,000 Zhou soldiers were killed, and nearly 20,000 were disabled for life.

Faced with such a huge loss, the top leaders of the Great Zhou Republic also felt their scalp numb.

It turns out that the enemy supported by hundreds of thousands of military households and gun doctors is not easy to deal with!

Although the fight was defeated, is it worth the death or injury of hundreds of thousands of people?

Moreover, there was nothing good in the Western Song Dynasty, no gold and silver, no bird steak, nor was there a great plain. The Great Zhou clearly went to help the poor, and was beaten like this, thankless... From the capitalists who were tempted to see money, to the diligent working people, they didn't agree.

So from the 232nd year of the Republic to the 236th year of the Republic, Zhou and Song dynasties continued to fight and the two sides began to negotiate.

In July 236, the two countries finally signed an agreement on the "Comprehensive Ceasefire". So the army of the Great Zhou Republic retreated from some of the occupied Jingchu areas (including the Jianghan Plain and the Dongting Lake Plain).

The retreat of the Great Zhou Republic should be a good thing for the Western Song Dynasty... But no one expected that the retreat of the Great Zhou Dynasty would sound the death knell of the destruction of the feudal dynasty of the Western Song Dynasty.

Because during the years when the Great Zhou Republic ruled part of Jingchu, the Great Zhou Republic not only implemented a republic system where the world was public and a civic system that was equal to everyone.

Moreover, the government of the Great Zhou Republic carried out a series of social reforms in the Jingchu occupied areas with the idea of ​​"poverty alleviation".

For example, allocate land to poor farmers (land comes from redemption); free bird droppings and new agricultural tools; reduce and exempt agricultural taxes (in fact, tax collection is collected according to the standards of the Great Zhou and Eastern Song dynasties), and issue low-interest loans; open a large number of schools and implement compulsory education; open many hospitals, Tzu Chia... In short, it spends a lot of money earned from the New World to win people's hearts.

In addition, the government of the Great Zhou Republic also vigorously improved the local administration, paid high salaries to officials, and seriously managed corruption.

So when the officials and army of the Great Zhou government retreated from the Jingchu occupied area, the people of Jingchu really gave it to each other, and cried again and again. Many poor peasants who were assigned to the land and lived a rice soup life were eager to follow the team to fight against feudalism and carry out the revolution!

This kind of scene that people are willing to do also infected the Western Song soldiers who came to take over Jingchu.

Especially a group of "Huashan Sect" officers from Jingchu. After learning about the benevolence of the Republic, many officers of the "Huashan Sect" of the Western Song Dynasty who were originally fiercely confronted the Republican Army were transformed into the Republican faction.

They all have a feeling of being deceived. It turns out that the republic system is so good and so progressive. Under the republic system, ordinary people can also eat rice soup every day... This is happier than the master!

At the same time, the Western Song court was unable to give satisfactory rewards to the meritorious officials who worked hard. Because the Western Song court gained nothing in this war and spent all the copper coins in the national treasury!

What did you ask Zhao Mian, who was in a hurry to give the reward for his aid? But he dare not treat the heroes too badly, at least he can't treat the military families unfairly, right?

So he issued an order to take back the land allocated to the poor peasants of Jingchu in the Great Zhou Dynasty and use this batch of land to reward the meritorious officials.

But unexpectedly, the poor peasants in Jingchu who had lived under the republic for several years were no longer lambs. They not only knew what kind of life people should live, but also obtained flintlock rifles and ammunition from the retreating Zhou army and armed themselves.

The great peasant uprising in Jingchu broke out immediately! The peasants who revolted also raised the banner of "the world is for the public"!

While the peasant uprising occurred, the Western Song army also experienced great shock.

Due to the unfair land distribution, a large number of middle and lower-class soldiers were extremely disappointed with the court.

In the eighth year of Baode in the Western Song Dynasty (237th year of Republic of China, 1351st year of the Western calendar), the same year when the great peasant uprising in Jingchu, a secret revolutionary group Congregational Church appeared in the Western Song army.

The Congregational Church advocated overthrow of the Western Song court, implemented a republic system and negotiated peaceful reunification with the Great Zhou Republic. With the help of the Great Zhou Republic, land reform was implemented and every peasant was allocated a piece of land that could not be bought and sold to ensure his basic life. Abolishing the military household system and other hierarchical systems, all the people on the former Western Song land were equal...

Although the Western Song Dynasty court repeatedly cleansed the army and wanted to eliminate the Congregational Church. However, the Congregational Church and the Republican Revolution gradually became deeply rooted in the hearts of the people as the war between the peasants in Jingchu continued.

In December of the eleventh year of Baode, due to the sudden death of the Western Song Emperor Zhao Mian, the congregational members in the Huashan Martial Arts Hall suddenly shouted the slogan "The imperial system ends, the republic prospers"!

A republic revolution broke out as the emperor Bintian and the new king had not yet been established.

The revolution quickly swept across the entire martial arts hall. Not only did the teachers and students in the martial arts hall join the revolutionary camp, but even the teaching officers and soldiers stationed in the martial arts hall camp launched an uprising.

On February 1, 12th year of Baode, about 10,000 rebel officers and soldiers arrived at the square outside Huaqing Palace, and then exchanged fire with the imperial guards in front of the imperial guards. The rebel army transferred cannons from the Huashan Martial Arts Hall and bombarded the imperial guards who were defending to death. The two sides fought fiercely until February 13, a Western Song infantry division stationed in Tongguan also underwent a mutiny. The officers of the Confucian Party seized command and led the unit to join the attack on Huaqing Palace.

Now the imperial guards in front of the imperial court could not resist and had to retreat to the Huaqing Palace to defend the dead.

The rebel army then surrounded the Huaqing Palace and delivered the ultimatum to the crown prince Zhao Ming, who was about to ascend the throne.

According to the conditions given by the uprising, as long as Zhao Ming announced his abandonment of ascension to the throne, the revolutionary army could let Zhao Ming and his family leave the Song Dynasty and go to the Great Zhou Republic to take refuge.

Otherwise, after the rebel army captured the Huaqing Palace, it would liquidate Zhao Ming and the entire Zhao Song Dynasty!

The last prince of the Western Song Dynasty, who was desperate, had to accept the conditions of the Congregational Revolutionaries in tears and agreed to give up the throne. On the next day, on February 14, the 11th year of Baode in the Western Song Dynasty, he left the Huaqing Palace. He first went to the Great Zhou Republic, and then went into exile in Egypt, where he spent the rest of his life.

The feudal monarchy of the Western Song Dynasty also ended!

In the following years, the Western Song Dynasty, which implemented the republic, began to negotiate mergers with the Great Zhou Republic, and finally reached an agreement in the 240th year of the republic.

The two countries jointly form a unified Republic of China... the three parts will eventually be unified!

The end of the full text.

Thank you for your support and wish you a happy Valentine's Day.

I hope that tomorrow, Luo Luo can see you in your new book "Rescue the Ming Dynasty".
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