Chapter 1063

The deeper the night, the brighter the palace lights appeared.

The official implementation of the wired telephone was undoubtedly a major event for the Empire, and with the explosive growth of the Empire’s talent, the Empire’s technology was also bound to experience a burst of explosive growth.

Therefore, for Xiao Ming, this was just a natural progression and a result of more than ten years of accumulation.

It was for this reason that he was not worried about technological development. For him, the most important thing now was how to plan the future map of the Empire.

“Since you are all gathered here today because of the telephone, let’s also take this opportunity to talk about the Empire’s strategy going forward. The mortars have already been shipped to Southeast Asia, and the war there is about to break out. If the war goes well, we may take over a region with a population almost equal to the Empire’s. For this, your Cabinet must be mentally prepared.”

As for India, the cabinet ministers now had a basic understanding of this region. Fei Ji said, “Your Majesty, I believe that we should adopt a strategy similar to Britain’s for India, which is to govern but not rule. The Empire only needs to extract wealth from India and there is no need to waste resources on how to govern India.”

On this issue, Pang Yukun’s idea was surprisingly consistent with Fei Ji’s. He said, “I agree with Elder Fei’s suggestion. I believe that we should govern the overseas colonies according to local conditions. For colonies like Australia, which have a small native population and a vast area, we should send officials and relocate people to govern them according to the Empire’s policies, because the Empire can achieve true occupation of such colonies.”

After a pause, he continued, “For colonies with a large native population, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, we should adopt a high-pressure policy. We should force the native chiefs to acknowledge the Empire’s rule through war and force them to serve the Empire’s colonial economy. In this way, we only need a small amount of resources to maximize our profits.”

After Pang Yukun finished speaking, Zhan Xingchang said, “I have a different idea. I believe that the Empire’s current population welfare policies will inevitably lead to a sharp increase in population in the future. The current population of the Empire is nearly one hundred million. In less than a decade, a population increase of thirty million will be more than enough. If the time is extended further, the population will only increase linearly. At that time, the domestic land will definitely not be able to meet the demand for land. Therefore, the Empire should seize areas with excellent land resources in advance before this problem arises.”

“Does Elder Zhan mean that we can even massacre the local natives for this?” Yang Chengye heard the hidden meaning in Zhan Xingchang’s words.

Zhan Xingchang nodded. He said loudly, “Everyone, with the progress of the Empire’s technology, the Empire’s civilization and ideas will inevitably radiate to every corner of the world. And the fact has proven that the so-called racial superiority theory of the West is extremely wrong. Any race, as long as it receives a good education, can master advanced scientific and technological knowledge. Once these civilizations are enlightened, they will no longer be content to be ruled by the Empire. In the future, they will inevitably seek independence. And at that time, the Empire that once ruled and oppressed them will become their biggest enemy.”

Hearing this, Xiao Ming nodded slightly. As the Empire became stronger and stronger, many people were already thinking about the future of the Empire.

“Elder Zhan’s words are probably a bit one-sided. It is already a rare and valuable thing to govern the Empire properly. Now, the Empire simply does not have enough officials to govern the entire world. Moreover, massacring the natives will only lead to chaos in the colonies and intensify conflicts. The Empire will have to spend a lot of military funds to maintain the stability of the colonies. One colony is one thing, but two, three, four, or even more? Where will the Empire get so much money to waste?” Fei Ji said.

“Most importantly, if all the natives are killed, who will the Empire sell its industrial products to? Therefore, this is a situation where both sides lose. The Western countries probably hope that the Empire will get bogged down in a war with the natives.”

Zhan Xingchang smiled. He said, “So, my point is only to occupy the fertile lands. For the low-value lands, we can adopt Elder Fei’s method. For now, the only places I am interested in are Australia, North America, and India. The first three have a small native population, and the Western colonists have basically exterminated the local natives. We only need to drive out the Westerners to successfully control these three regions. However, India’s population is simply too large…”

With that, Zhan Xingchang looked at Xiao Ming.

“India is a natural plantation. Since it is a plantation, it needs a large population to work on it. Massacring the population will not benefit the Empire. However, this place will still be a potential threat to the Empire in the future. For this, we need to have dozens of countries here, not one,” Xiao Ming said calmly. Compared to mineral resources, India was not particularly rich. However, India’s flat plains were very suitable for the growth of crops. It was precisely for this reason that India could support such a large population in such a small area.

The problem that everyone was discussing now was something he had already had his own thoughts about. Just as Zhan Xingchang said, the Empire’s civilization would inevitably bring about changes to the world. This was a natural law. When a barbaric civilization invaded an advanced civilization, it would cause the advanced civilization to decline.

And when an advanced civilization invaded a barbaric civilization, it would bring its own advanced culture. For example, in modern times, human space exploration stagnated due to technological limitations, but if an alien civilization were to arrive, Earth’s technology would develop rapidly. Of course, it was also possible that the people of Earth would be exterminated like the Indians of North America.

As for why the Western colonists engaged in large-scale industrial construction in the colonies, the reason was simple: one was to sell their goods, and the second was to increase the colonies’ consumption level and sell more goods.

Therefore, historically, while colonists strictly controlled weapons and cutting-edge technology, they were very willing to transfer low-level industrial technology.

Now, there were also similar voices within the Empire. Many officials had already suggested that the Empire open up low-end technology to the colonial countries.

In this way, the Empire could gain huge profits, and the colonial countries’ consumption capacity could also increase, thereby promoting the sales of the Empire’s high-end industrial products in the colonies.

“As far as I know, this India is just a place where many local rulers act independently, not a complete country,” Pang Yukun said.

“That’s true, but that doesn’t mean it will be the case in the future. To prevent this from happening, we must consider this,” Xiao Ming said.

Although India was called a country where one hundred million people managed one billion cattle in modern times, this country still had the ability to be a pain in the neck. He would not give them this opportunity.