Chapter 11: The State of China

  "My dreams have always had the surging Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the majestic Kunlun Mountains and the Five Peaks. The beautiful rivers and mountains are forever elegant and stunningly beautiful. For many years, my ancestral homeland has been ravaged by imperialism's brutal and arrogant invasion, with corrupt officials oppressing the people. But my ancestors have long since imprinted a deep Chinese mark on my heart, no matter where I go or when, it cannot change my Chinese heart!! Fallen leaves must return to their roots, my ancestral homeland, China."

  "The long and winding Chinese history, is it because of the unity of modern times that the light of swords and halberds has dimmed, the sound of drums and horns has faded away, and the waves of slaughter have disappeared, allowing the Chinese nation to indulge in luxury and pleasure, and be content with the status quo? The long river of history flows quietly, thinking that it only came into this world for its own survival, for a little bit of pleasure, and then can die happily. In the end, we are just fleeting guests, and all the sorrows and grievances of the world can be forgotten."

  Traditional Chinese people, the greatest impression they give is harmony. Absolute harmony will not bring any innocent killing to anyone, nor will it disturb each other's quiet life. Everyone is a guardian of their own small world from birth, hoping for a better life, praying to become a celebrity in their own small world, hoping to get married and have children with a happy family, firmly keeping their so-called dignity and reputation, and finally living an ordinary life as an ordinary person.

  So, every Chinese is the emperor of his own territory, who needs to have a reputation, dignity and the possibility of survival, regardless of how others are doing or who can threaten the good life in their own territory. They tightly bind themselves within a very narrow scope and never take half a step out easily. As a result, everyone becomes a scarecrow in the wheat field, taking care of his own home and gradually evolving into a straw man, a numb straw man.

  That's why the Chinese have a good time watching the excitement, and once something strange and unusual erupts in their own circle of life, it's a rare pleasure, a topic that can be talked about for a long time to come. Whether it's the widow's romantic affair, or the poor person being bullied by thugs at the market, or some criminal being beheaded, there's always something that makes the scarecrow move slightly, and once the scarecrow starts shaking, it's going to shake big time.

  Slowly but surely, the Chinese people have evolved into a kind of apathetic being who doesn't care about anything that's not their own business. When they see something unjust happening on the street, they might let out a loud shout, but then everyone just disperses and leaves. It isn't until the "scarecrow" realizes that his own field is about to be occupied by lawless people that he thinks of resisting, seeking help, or taking action. However, the scarecrow's weak cry for help only attracts more apathetic onlookers who come to watch the commotion, just like they used to watch others' misfortunes. In the end, the bad guys devour everything, and the onlookers leave with plenty of juicy gossip, leaving behind a desolate landscape where the scarecrow is left to lament his fate, cursing the apathy of others without realizing that he himself was once just as apathetic when watching others suffer, shaking his head and then going home to hug his children.

  Such numbness gradually expands, until a country becomes a collective of straw men, and everyone lives through life after life in comfort, the value of life is enough, and the meaning of life is like this. In the multi-degree composed of small circles and wheat fields, the nation that has been thriving for thousands of years has a rich "harmony is precious" culture.

  "He" is Tao Yuanming's Peach Garden Utopia, where residents live a peaceful and serene life in harmony with nature; "He" is Laozi's small country with few people, the quiet and secluded world that has been yearned for by generation after generation; "He" is Confucius' doctrine of the mean, which explains the new doctrine of the mean as following the trend and changing; "He" is Mencius' benevolence-based philosophy, where benevolence prevails under heaven, virtue wins people over, and filial piety, righteousness, loyalty, and bravery are emphasized; "He" is Qin Shi Huang's Great Wall, which serves as a perfect defense for his own wheat field; "He" is the various treaties signed by Empress Dowager Cixi with foreign powers, where "survival at all costs" and "sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall" provide nearly perfect explanations for her actions.

  In short, "harmony" is the most important humanistic criterion in the development history of the Chinese nation, and it has been the greatest guarantee for the prosperity of the nation for thousands of years. Any invading nation has been assimilated by the vast and powerful Chinese nation and eventually evolved into a unified great nation.

  But the earth is so big, there are still some countries that have not evolved into a nation of straw men who value harmony and wealth, in the country of straw men, people jokingly call them barbarians. They advocate for progress and benefit, they sing the praises of life's splendor and charm, and the glory of wealth. After searching hard, they finally discovered great wealth, a group of straw men who tightly controlled resources and were like miserable slaves, actually controlled nearly half of the world's wealth. How can this be? The determination of the straw men can be defeated with cannons and foreign guns, their wealth and resources can be drained dry with opium.

  So, the arrogant scarecrow decided to punish the barbarians, but soon found itself defeated and humiliated. It quickly took out its ancestors' motto "harmony is precious" to comfort itself, indulging in self-pity and allowing others to bully it. However, this didn't last long, as a series of dizzy spells made it realize that it was probably anemic. The rampant imperialism would soon drain it dry, leaving it on the verge of collapse. This time, the scarecrow's dignity, maintained for thousands of years, was about to have a small explosion. But what power did the scarecrow have? A small outburst couldn't even eliminate others, and instead, it ended up losing more flesh and becoming weaker. At the critical moment, it was still the ancestors' advice that proved useful: cultivate one's nature, prioritize harmony.

  Such thinking is indeed correct, a nation that delights in killing will not have a good ending, but a peaceful nation like a small sheep will not become a true advocate of "harmony". "When the granaries are full, one knows etiquette; when clothes and food are sufficient, one knows honor and shame." Our ancestors also left us with such great wealth to remind future generations, but people like Cixi still applied the ancestral teachings of "harmony" at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and on the wrong objects.

  The unscrupulous aggressors who do not understand the rules are called barbarians. The treaties that humiliate and shame the country are scattered like snowflakes, and the wars that are worse than beasts are rising like a battlefield of mahjong, with smoke and fire everywhere. Can the hat of the "Sick Man of East Asia" still block the wind and rain? Finally, someone woke up and realized that if things continued like this, it would be strange not to perish. The rice fields guarded by the scarecrow have almost disappeared, and the dignity and honor that were held on to have also been lost. The revolution came like a stormy rain, and China finally woke up a batch of people, but whether others are awake or not is unknown. However, at present, the scarecrow's multiple degrees have lost their self-closing suit, and the fully open wheat fields can produce a lot of grain every year. Underneath the wheat fields, there are countless mineral resources, like fat meat on a chopping board waiting to be taken. It can also tolerate its own people's "devouring", so the awakened people returned.

  "The Xinhai Revolution at home is actually an unfinished revolution. Many feudal remnants were forced to abandon their traditional feudal ruling rights under the revolutionary trend sweeping across China, and transformed themselves into revolutionaries, following the trend to make the revolutionary situation even more intense and glorious, soon creating the Xinhai Revolution that swept across the entire Chinese territory..."

  Standing at the bow of the ship, facing the fierce sea breeze, the Asia-America Group's industrial inspection team led by Tang Guixin is riding on an oil tanker, cutting through the waves and heading towards their homeland. After five years of drifting overseas, five springs and summers of endless thoughts, if it weren't for some exceptional business skills that earned him the favor of the chairman, he would have followed the group's instructions after adapting to the group, leading a team of inspectors covering dozens of basic projects including mineral resources, industrial park construction planning, transportation construction inspection, etc. back to their homeland. The inspection team will work together based on the detailed objectives provided by the group, striving to complete all inspection tasks within three months and come up with feasible plans for decision-making in the US direction.

  It can be said that this inspection tour is more difficult than the last European automobile market expansion, and the group also attaches great importance to such a difficult task. Therefore, some members of the inspection team are not employees within the group, but rather experts in resource exploration, transportation construction planning, and other fields from various parts of the United States who occupy a considerable number of seats. However, thinking about the remuneration they can obtain for coming to China once, and then thinking about the importance of this task to the revival of the Chinese nation, Tang Guixin still feels that it is worth it. After all, everyone understands that the country lacks scientific and technological talents, and at critical times, relying on external forces not only saves precious time but also avoids many troublesome links.

  So, the group's investigation project objectives were clearly assigned to each small team within the delegation. Those who investigated iron ore would not come into contact with those who explored petroleum, and if you only knew how to repair railways and build bridges, it was best not to ask about other teams' discoveries of oil or large mineral deposits. In short, when it came to the country's precious resources, the goal was to minimize their use and reduce the number of foreigners who knew about them. Non-renewable resources could not be wasted lightly, and strategic national resources could not be revealed to other countries in terms of location, storage volume, or whether they could be developed and utilized. This is also why the Republic later became very fond of other countries' resources, although Tang Guishan was unaware of this at the time and only thought it was time to return to the ship.

  The group handed out a thick dictionary to everyone before they left, and at first, many people were skeptical about the purpose of the dictionary. However, over time, many people have grown fond of this dictionary, which has reduced the number of strokes in complex characters and added phonetic annotations using letters. For those who have lived abroad for some time, using English to annotate the pronunciation of Chinese characters has made it easier for them to learn characters, especially when learning to write simplified characters.

  It's likely that they don't know that this is because Wen Zhenhua wrote a letter to Zhang Yusheng in full complex characters, which took Zhang Yusheng a lot of effort to decipher. After that, he decided to ask Zhang Yu to bring back a dictionary of simplified characters from the future and use the intelligent system of the light brain to merge the two, creating the dictionary they have now.

  This dictionary has complex characters with simplified character abbreviations and phonetic annotations using letter combinations, and even some vocabulary includes English translations. It's become a primer that allows people to quickly learn to read and write Chinese characters.

  Tang Guixin returned to the cabin just in time for study, and those who learned quickly volunteered to teach Chinese characters and simplified writing. Tang Guixin was unwilling to become a foreigner who could only read and write English, and he wanted to learn and use his country's language, no matter how difficult or simple it was. Especially when the entire group was swept up in a strong wave of learning science and culture, and open-minded thinking, as an elder member of the group, Tang Guixin did not want to fall behind. After blowing enough sea breeze, he quickly returned to the cabin to study, and the beautiful Chinese characters were always full of endless beauty.

  The sound of a row of bronze bells, the thick and clear left and right sounds come from afar and near, each note entering the ear and refreshing the heart. The erhu is pulled out, the long-abandoned drum and zither are played, and the neglected strings of the qin still sound pleasant to the ear. The water grass on the riverbank is lush and green, who can still sing "Guan Ju" from the Book of Songs, standing alone at the riverhead, letting that ancient song fade away slowly with the river water; by the water's edge, who is still holding a long pole, swaying in the ripples, living a leisurely fishing life; on the sunny side of the mountain, who can praise "having mountains makes them high", who is still living a carefree hunter's life inside; by the sea, the rustling sound of the sea wind still blows, blowing gently over the winding and vast coastline of the Chinese mainland.

  Ripples of thoughts rose, and the ancient echoes sounded in my ears. The ethereal singing voice was like a lament, with the bright and clear sound of "The Book of Songs", the long and melodious sound of Qu Yuan's "Ode to Orange Blossoms", the majestic and magnificent sound of Yue Fei's "Full River Red", and the grand and heroic sound of Wen Tianxiang's "Righteous Song". The singing voice echoed in my ears, and my thoughts seemed to have returned to a thousand years ago. I saw the beautiful and slender hands picking mulberries, tea leaves, and hemp, weaving colorful lanterns and cloud brocade with deft movements, the white silk scarf of the sericulture girl, the peasants driving oxen to work in the fields, the wild horses galloping outside the Great Wall, the Yangtze River flowing endlessly, the majestic and magnificent Mount Tai, and the vast and heroic Kunlun Mountains.

  "I don't even know how they're doing, if conditions permit, I should go back too!" Standing by the window, looking at the trucks constantly passing by on the highway in the factory area, and the trains rushing by on the railway in the distance, the roar of the machines had weakened to almost a mosquito's hum. Surrounded by such a strong industrial environment, Zhang Yu Sheng didn't feel a bit proud, but instead was worried about the pioneers who opened up the road back home. "Heaven bless China, they will definitely be fine." After silently making a wish, Zhang Yu Sheng returned to his office desk and started anew.

  "Although Chu has three households that can resist Qin, is there a majestic China empty of people?" Almost at the same time, Zhang Yu, who was lying on the grass, looked at the crowd beside him who were also panting and thought to himself: "'A vow in my heart deeper than the sea, willing to let the divine state sink to the ground', this sentence should be better." After muttering to himself, Zhang Yu struggled to get up and said: "Today's training is over, dismissed!"

  After finishing the command, dragging his exhausted body, Zhang Yu almost crawled back to the car, and the others on the training ground were almost the same. Everyone saw Zhang Yu slowly leaving the training ground and slowly got up to prepare for dinner. Recently, the daily training volume and difficulty have been increasing, today's subject was very simple, just a rapid march followed by field fortification construction, trenches, anti-tank ditches, etc. After the rapid march, physical strength had dropped to almost collapse, and then they still had to carry out earthwork operations for themselves and the entire unit. As soon as the fortification construction was completed, shooting training began, when everyone finished shooting and cleaned up their guns to prepare for work, 400-meter obstacle training started, followed by bayonet fighting, hand-to-hand combat, grenade throwing, etc. When Zhang Yu collapsed from exhaustion, the young men were almost done too, and that day's training ended.

  Everyone knows that the industrial inspection team sent back to the country has set off, and at most, it will take three months to send a telegram about whether it is feasible or not. And then the first thing to be dispatched is not the various materials hoarded in San Francisco, but them. So recently, the training has become more and more realistic, bullets are used as if they were free, and I don't know how many pairs of Liberation shoes have been worn out, and how much sweat has been shed on this training ground, on the roads surrounding the industrial park.

  "How's it going, any news?" Zhang Yu didn't return to his dormitory to wash up, but instead came over as usual after training was over to ask if there were any updates. "Isn't it just a dozen or so mineral deposits? Do we need to spend so much time investigating? That's our motherland, using it ourselves shouldn't be afraid of anyone!" Zhang Yu wiped the sweat while complaining cautiously to Zhang Yusheng as usual. Returning to the country for development and construction, building one's own motherland is like doing something wrong, making oneself seem like an invader.

  "There's news, yesterday the first group has finished their investigation of the Hainan Shilu iron mine, the second group has finished their investigation of Liuzhou, and the third group has obtained very good results from their exploration of the Pingguo aluminum mine. The fourth group has begun to make a final check on the feasibility of constructing ports along the Guangxi coast. In short, judging from the current results, we can start preparing to return home and begin construction, but the chaotic situation in Guangxi at present is really worrying!" Zhang Yusheng said, handing over the long report to Zhang Yu.

  After receiving the telegram, Zhang Yu quickly scanned it and thought for a moment before saying: "It seems that Guangxi is indeed as you said, and Hainan is also very good. Oh no, I mean Qiongya Dao, they haven't been renamed Hainan yet! So let's prepare to go back, I don't believe anyone will dare to plot against you when you return to save the country through industry? Even if there are, didn't we buy a lot of military equipment? Can't we just recruit soldiers and horses? To be honest, Zhang Yu had to admit that he quite liked this era. With money, guns, and food, you're the boss. Especially in such a chaotic situation at home, with those three conditions, you're an emperor-level figure.

  "Do you really think it's that simple? Then why are you still here, why not just make money at home, buy arms and grab territory, how great! Why do you have to run all the way to America to establish a foundation before returning to China?" Zhang Yu Sheng looked at Zhang Yu, saying very seriously.

  "You may not want fellow countrymen to slaughter each other, you may not want domestic turmoil, and you may not even want a single drop of blood from ethnic compatriots. That's why strength is needed, strong and powerful strength as a backing, the road to domestic unity and rejuvenation cannot be solved by simple force, the key lies in how to liberate thought, liberate productivity, how many people can obey the rule of a violent government unified by force? The whole nation is not united, no matter how well you build it will still return to zero. Only when the entire Chinese nation resonates from ideology, culture, economy, and national righteousness, everyone thinks that building a strong nation and state is beneficial to their own development and family interests, beneficial to their so-called small circle of interests, that is the true path to rise!"

  "The martyrs who dedicated themselves with the spirit of 'giving one's life to save the country, and viewing death as a return home', we need them, but not all. Just like I told you a long time ago, for the national rejuvenation, as long as we achieve three things, it will inevitably lead to prosperity. First, continuously improving the education level of citizens, whether it's making everyone recognize their own traditional cultural heritage, or building spiritual civilization to improve moral character and cultivate temperament, or broadening horizons through scientific and technological progress."

  "Secondly, the cultivation of national dignity and sovereignty consciousness. A person's home is called a small family, a group of people's home is called a collective, and a nation's home is called a country. National dignity is sacred and inviolable, national interests are supreme and cannot be encroached upon, national sovereignty is precious and cannot be plundered. With scientific cultural knowledge, civilized quality cultivation, and national collective consciousness, one consciously maintains what needs to be maintained at any time and in any place, because he (she) is a Chinese."

  "Thirdly, a person must not have an arrogant attitude, but absolutely cannot lack backbone. Poverty and backwardness can only prove the current situation of a country or family, wealth and poverty are not innate, we cannot change our birth, but we must have backbone to change our fate. Labor is the most glorious, personal value is not reflected in how much wealth one gets, how powerful one's position is, or how rare the things one enjoys are. Personal value lies in whether the process of realizing one's value violates the principles of conscience and law, whether the respect one receives comes from one's own labor and dedication, nothing more."

  "Perhaps you are a cleaner, your contribution to society is just sweeping clean one or several streets, the reward you get may only be enough to stay at the lowest level of society, but what you create is not just providing citizens with a clean place, it's a manifestation of your self-worth. When you're old and grey, you can proudly say to your children: I'm happy, I've lived a fulfilling life, although I was just a cleaner. I supported myself and my family through hard work, I repaid society through dedication, I educated my children with integrity and life experience, I spent my days in peace and happiness. That's enough!!"

  "If every person in a country can do this, even if the social value hasn't been greatly improved, but with hundreds of thousands or even tens of millions of people making some contribution to society when they are realizing their own life values, our country and nation will surely become strong and respected. National sovereignty relies on guns to maintain it, national dignity and ethnic unity rely on education to guarantee them, national interests rely on the dedication of all members of society, one person's power is limited, don't always wave the flag of national rejuvenation alone, one person's shoulders can't hold up the entire banner, we need unity and cooperation, mutual complementarity and mutual assistance, common progress can win the ultimate victory of national rejuvenation."

  "Understood?" Zhang Yusheng looked at Zhang Yu and said finally.

  "I don't understand! I completely don't understand..." Zhang Yu replied very bluntly, but quickly added: "Maybe someday I'll understand, and more and more people will understand too!"