Despite Liu Chuanshan not being a saint himself, he was still stunned by the elder Mr. Liu's nonsensical ramblings.
What did he mean by strengthening the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire if their national strength wasn't strong enough?
Fine, so instead of investing in research and development within the Great Ming, they would go to those barbarian lands to serve the barbarians, and pour a large amount of money into R&D there to boost their national strength?
Was this some kind of madness!
If the Liu family truly wanted to commit to such an endeavor, they could have just stayed in the Great Ming and competed in R&D with other workshop owners, and they wouldn't have ended up in this situation today!
However, after carefully considering it, Liu Chuanshan had to admit that the elder Mr. Liu made a valid point – investing ten thousand taels of silver in R&D against other workshop owners in the Great Ming might not even yield a ripple, but if that ten thousand taels were invested in R&D in the Holy Roman Empire or the Ottoman Empire…
After all, books like "Tiangong Kaiwu" and "Qiqi Tushuo" were full of ready-made R&D achievements. They could simply be implemented, and it was estimated that they would be enough to crush the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottomans.
More importantly, competing in R&D with other workshop owners in the Great Ming required spending their own money. However, if they went to the Holy Roman Empire or the Ottoman Empire, they wouldn't need to spend their own money. This wasn't just saving money; it was making a fortune!
After understanding the intricacies of this matter, Liu Chuanshan bowed to the elder Mr. Liu and said, "Father is truly wise. Your son almost failed to grasp this matter."
The elder Mr. Liu chuckled twice, then stroked his beard and said, "This time, I will prove through the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire that the incompetent ruler was wrong to treat us so poorly!"
The elder Mr. Liu's speech immediately drew a fervent response from Liu Chuanshan: "Indeed, that incompetent ruler is insatiably greedy and exploits us like pigs and dogs. If it's not his fault, then is it the fault of us virtuous gentry?"
Liu Yuanqing also chimed in, "Big brother is absolutely right. Throughout history, there has never been talk of such heavy taxation, let alone cases involving tens of thousands of people like the current emperor, even the notoriously tyrannical Jie, Zhou, and Emperor Yang, or even Hongwu and Yongle."
However, no matter how much they clamored, even though the elder Mr. Liu's hands were stained with blood, Liu Chuanshan was ruthless, and Liu Yuanqing was bold and cunning, the father and his two sons tacitly avoided the option of "rebellion."
It was one thing to complain and curse a few words at home. Escaping far away to Europe offered a chance for a comeback. But to raise an army and rebel with real swords and spears might truly lead to their entire family becoming martyrs.
Of course, the elder Mr. Liu's family had neither loyalty nor martyrdom. Their best outcome would be to have their entire lineage wiped out.
To prevent their family from being annihilated, the elder Mr. Liu continued to instruct Liu Chuanshan and Liu Yuanqing, "Once we set sail, you two will go your separate ways. You brothers will decide amongst yourselves who goes to the Ottoman Empire and who goes to the Holy Roman Empire."
However, the elder Mr. Liu never imagined that his words would become the fuse between Liu Chuanshan and Liu Yuanqing – the principle of having multiple escape routes meant these brothers had to separate, but there was only one Holy Roman Empire, which was neither holy nor Roman, nor worthy of being called an empire. With Liu Chuanshan and Liu Yuanqing being two brothers, deciding who would go to the Holy Roman Empire and who would go to the Ottoman Empire became a difficult choice.
The Liu family had a habit of subscribing to "Da Ming Daily," and Liu Chuanshan and Liu Yuanqing were well aware of the situations in the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire.
On the surface, both the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire were governed by families, and the succession of the throne was generally similar to that of the central Chinese sects. However, there was a core difference between the two: religion.
Therefore, both Liu Chuanshan and Liu Yuanqing wanted to go to the Holy Roman Empire. As for claims of brotherly affection, they were both cast aside.
Liu Yuanqing spoke first, "Let big brother go to the Ottoman Empire. It's closer to the Great Ming, so it would be more convenient for him to return."
Liu Chuanshan immediately objected, "It's better for second brother to go. Currently, the Holy Roman Empire is dealing with attacks from England and France, and the situation is too complex. I worry second brother won't be able to handle it."
Liu Yuanqing snorted coldly, "Just two barbarians, what's there to handle? If elder brother insists on me going to the Ottoman Empire, I'd rather go to Western Kunlun!"
As the saying goes, one speaks without intent, but the listener hears with intention. Liu Yuanqing only mentioned going to Western Kunlun to compete for the opportunity to go to the Holy Roman Empire with Liu Chuanshan, but the elder Mr. Liu's eyes immediately lit up: "Yuanqing can indeed go to Western Kunlun – as far as I know, the Great Ming's influence hasn't reached Western Kunlun yet. Compared to Europe, Western Kunlun is safer."
"As for Europe, Chuanshan will go there. After arriving in Europe, we will find a way to forge an alliance between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire, so they can combine their strength to resist England and France."
"As for the Great Ming…" The elder Mr. Liu snorted coldly again and said, "I will remain in the Great Ming. If that incompetent ruler truly pursues the matter to the end, I will naturally bear it all."
With that, the elder Mr. Liu couldn't help but sigh, "It's a pity for you two. You lost your mother at a young age, and now even brothers must be separated."
Liu Chuanshan immediately comforted him, "What are you saying, Father? Although we lost our mother at a young age, haven't we grown up well? It is Father who has worked hard all his life and now must continue to stay in the Great Ming. Your son wishes he could take your place."
Liu Yuanqing snorted coldly, "If big brother truly has this intention, why not stay in the Great Ming? I will go to sea with Father."
Liu Chuanshan's expression stiffened, but the elder Mr. Liu paused his walking stick and reprimanded, "What nonsense are you spouting? The government's movements are unclear, and that incompetent ruler is not someone to be trifled with. Staying in the Great Ming for one more day means one more day of danger. I am old, but you brothers are still young. How can I let you two stay in the Great Ming?"
Liu Yuanqing felt aggrieved and couldn't help but grumble softly, "Western Kunlun is a barren and impoverished place where birds don't even shit. It's said that most of the people there are stupid, dull, and inhumane Kunlun slaves. If I go to Western Kunlun, I might as well stay in the Great Ming and wait to die."
Hearing Liu Yuanqing's grumbling, the elder Mr. Liu's face immediately darkened: "Then, as you say, I will go to Western Kunlun, and you will stay in the Great Ming?"
Seeing the elder Mr. Liu's anger, Liu Chuanshan bowed and advised, "Father, please calm your anger. Second brother is still young, and his words are bound to be careless. Why should Father bother with him?"
"The pressing matter now is to quickly find a way to deal with the government's interrogation – if we cannot report them first, then it's better to eliminate them all."
Liu Yuanqing was instantly enraged, thinking, "Is this advice or is he fanning the flames? What do you mean 'still young'? What do you mean 'bound to be careless'?
You might as well say that I, Liu Yuanqing, am just a child and unreliable, so it's better to leave me in the Great Ming to die so you can escape more easily!"
However, the elder Mr. Liu was clearly not in the mood to fuss over his sons' squabbles. He merely frowned and said, "Is this matter so easy to handle?"
"Not to mention that these families are not easy to manipulate. Even if they were easy to manipulate, the government would be difficult to fool. After all, they are all prominent figures. If all of them have problems at the same time, and our family has no problems, wouldn't that be drawing trouble to ourselves?"
Liu Chuanshan shook his head and said, "If they can have problems, our family can also have problems. Moreover, if so many prominent figures have problems at the same time, what will the common people think?"
"Those clodhoppers are all brainless fools. As long as we subtly guide the narrative in the small newspapers, they will believe that the imperial court is secretly acting out of anger, and they will never suspect us.
In this way, won't the pressure be shifted back to that incompetent ruler and the court officials?"
The elder Mr. Liu couldn't help but be tempted.
As Liu Chuanshan said, the common people were easily fooled. As long as the small newspapers guided the narrative well, the clodhoppers' minds would follow, and they wouldn't think for themselves.
However, after thinking for a moment, the elder Mr. Liu abandoned this tempting idea.
To suppress all the current problems, the heads of the Zhang, Li, and Qian families would have to disappear, which also meant that he, the head of the Liu family, would have to disappear as well.
Of course, disappearing didn't necessarily mean dying. After all, as long as they reported a major fire, threw in a couple of similarly sized corpses, and burned them beyond recognition, the elder Mr. Liu's identity would cease to exist in the world, and he could live well under a new identity.
Once these key figures disappeared, the original problems would become unsolved cases – as a precaution, the gossip in the small newspapers was personally handled by these key figures. Families without a certain status didn't even know about these matters, let alone the servants.
However, the situation now was not something that could be resolved by the disappearance of a few key figures.
The ancestral tomb of Old Master Qian was dug up first, followed by the ancestral tombs of Old Master Li and Old Master Zhang. Although the Liu family's ancestral tomb was still safe for the time being, the situations of the other three families were enough to show that the current problem was not whether the imperial court would take action against them, but that the common people could no longer tolerate it.
Despite their contempt for those who faced the yellow earth and faced the soil, and for the workers who only worked four hours a day with the backing of the government, the elder Mr. Liu and all the local gentry and scholars knew that offending the imperial court and government was not a big deal, but offending the common people was the most fatal.
This was because offending the government was temporary, but offending the common people was for generations – having a good reputation meant that even if a prodigal son appeared in one generation and completely squandered the family fortune, he could still beg for more than other beggars and even receive help, thus having a chance to make a comeback. If their reputation was ruined, then it was completely over, and they might be cursed for generations.
Of course, understanding this principle was one thing, and despising the common people and finding ways to oppress them was another. These virtuous scholars would control the degree, so that they could feel good without completely inciting the people's resistance.
Some, like the elder Mr. Liu, were even called kind families or great benefactors.
Just like the elder Mr. Liu.
Even though the elder Mr. Liu opened an infant nursery with a success rate of only two in a thousand, even though he opened opium dens, and even though Liu Chuanshan sent his daughter to be toyed with by Fuk'anggan, his reputation was well-established, and even the Great Ming government had to consider it carefully if they wanted to take action against the Liu family.
The deadly part was that the incompetent ruler Zhu Jinsong and the treacherous officials in the court were a bunch of shameless scoundrels. They personally entered the fray, using the most widely circulated "Da Ming Daily" to engage in a public argument with the local gentry and scholars, completely destroying the image that the local gentry and scholars had painstakingly built up.
Otherwise, how could the tomb of Grand Scholar Qian Qianyi, the tomb of the Donglin scholar Li Sancai, and the tomb of the She faction leader Zhang Pu have been dug up one after another?
In the past, these great figures' tombs were often visited by people for worship!
After carefully deliberating, the elder Mr. Liu simply shook his head and said, "Forget it, don't think about struggling anymore. When it's time to accept fate, you must accept it. We lost this battle to that incompetent ruler. Once our reputation is ruined, struggling further will be useless."
With a slight sigh, the elder Mr. Liu instructed his two sons, Liu Chuanshan and Liu Yuanqing, "You two will decide who goes to the Holy Roman Empire and who goes to Western Kunlun or the Ottoman Empire. We can discuss it slowly once we are at sea. The most important thing now is to set sail quickly to avoid prolonged trouble."
Liu Chuanshan and Liu Yuanqing exchanged glances, then both bowed in agreement.
However, after Liu Chuanshan and Liu Yuanqing went to pack their gold and silver, the elder Mr. Liu's expression gradually became ferocious.
After calculating for a while, the elder Mr. Liu simply ordered the Liu family's head steward to be called over and instructed, "Have someone bring a few household servants, reliable ones, to send Old Master Qian, Old Master Zhang, and Old Master Li on their way."
"Also, after the eldest young master and the second young master leave, our family will also go down in flames. I, those concubines, and you, must all be buried in the fire, do you understand?"
The Liu mansion steward was startled and asked, "Master?"
The elder Mr. Liu grinned sinisterly and said, "Master wants to see, facing such pressure, what will that incompetent ruler do?"