kingnovel Chapter 559: Even Using Colored Glass as a Footbath
Chapter 559: Even Using Colored Glass as a Footbath
The style of a great country.
Shen Zheng has always felt that this is a very "suspenseful" "attitude".
The Great Zhou was a big country - big in terms of land area, population size, and the scale of its military base.
With such order and regularity, the Great Zhou was a well-deserved "great power" in the eyes of many surrounding small countries.
Being big has big advantages, but also big disadvantages.
The advantage is that it can intimidate many small countries - even though some of the smelting technologies of the Great Zhou are not as good as those of other countries, and even the horses are not as strong as those of some small countries, those small countries do not dare to look down on the Great Zhou.
why?
Because the Great Zhou had a large population.
To put it in a less polite way - "One person's spit can drown you."
Moreover, humans are social animals, with national consciousness and blood. Although the people of the Great Zhou would cover themselves with quilts in private, scold the court for its incompetence, and denounce the corrupt officials for their inaction, when foreign countries really invade, the people would not really shrink back and allow their birthplace to be trampled by others.
So this is the biggest benefit. Even if the current Da Zhou may be just a "paper tiger", it can be considered half a tiger.
What are the disadvantages of being a big country?
In fact, it is obvious.
Do military commanders want to take the initiative to provoke conflicts with other countries? Perhaps some warmongers do - they want to expand their territory, show off their masculinity on horseback, achieve merit, and establish a career.
But do the emperor and his officials want to?
Probably not - civil officials are more rational, while the emperor has to consider the overall situation. He is responsible for the people of the entire Zhou Dynasty. With such a heavy burden on his shoulders, it is actually difficult to start a war unless other countries take the initiative to invade.
Then comes the problem.
How else can we demonstrate the demeanor of a great power if we don't rely on iron-blooded means?
In one word, it is called "reward".
What to reward? How to reward?
——Reward what the Great Zhou has, and reward what other countries lack, and choose a day to "reward according to merit."
For example, on a day when the whole country celebrates the Queen Mother’s birthday, various states would come to congratulate and “tribute” some “rare” treasures. In order to express gratitude and show the demeanor of a great country, the Great Zhou would naturally wave its hand and give rewards!
What should be rewarded? First, we need to see what the person being rewarded needs. Most likely it will be food, but a small chance it will be gold and silver.
In fact, if you savor this act of "tribute" carefully, you will find that it has a whole different flavor.
Because in the eyes of both sides, this "tribute" is not actually a tribute in the formal sense.
In the eyes of the Great Zhou, a lot of what your people eat is rewarded by me, so you are naturally half my younger brother. In terms of status and position, I must be higher than you.
No matter whether it is an individual or a country, they will enjoy the pleasure of being "superior to others" and even get lost in it.
But in the eyes of the tribute-paying countries, would he feel that since he had given something to the Great Zhou, he was the Great Zhou's younger brother?
Shen Zheng felt that it was highly unlikely.
If it was Shen Zheng, she would probably think - "Haha, I've ripped off another sucker. These are just some forged items. I can give them as much as they want, and I've fooled this sucker into losing his mind!"
——Being a sucker is also a “big one”.
That's why Shen Zheng felt that the demeanor of a great country was a very daunting "grace". Even if you savored it carefully, you could find a hint of humor in it.
But in the final analysis, does the emperor want this? Do the civil and military officials want this?
I probably don't want to either.
So what is the crux? The crux is that the current Great Zhou is not strong enough, so it can only maintain its status as a great power by "each taking what it needs".
What is true strength?
Even if I give you a speck of spit or a bowl of leftovers, you will still be grateful to me, shed tears of gratitude, kneel down and shout "Thank you, big brother, for the reward."
Everyone wants their motherland to be strong and prosperous. Shen Zheng wanted to, Liang Fu in front of him wanted to, and the emperor in the capital wanted to, even more.
Liang Fu was an "engineering student" and had a more rational mindset, so he thought more directly about the various states coming to congratulate the Empress Dowager on her birthday.
"Those strange things... I don't know how they made them. They are definitely not born naturally. They had leaked the news long before, saying that there was a treasure that would be presented on the Queen Mother's birthday."
Most of the things that can be called "treasures" in the Great Zhou Dynasty are objects that are naturally born, difficult to copy and reproduce, and hard to obtain.
This view is applicable in many cases, and Shen Zheng's previous life is no exception.
That was why Liang Fu despised and sneered at the treasures "tribute" from other countries - those things could be had for money, in any quantity you wanted, and their appearance and shape were almost exactly the same.
What kind of treasure is this? It's just that he is incompetent and the Ministry of Industry is incompetent, and they haven't figured out the reason yet.
But this time...it seems different?
Liang Fu didn't dare to be happy too soon, and just said according to the original words of the messenger: "It is said that the treasure is transparent throughout, and its small appearance is dazzling, better than hundreds of gems in the world... In short, it is unique in heaven and on earth. And the treasure can be made into jewelry, and can also be made into various utensils..."
He frowned and recalled, "It is said that the wine cup made from that treasure has a fragrance like peach blossoms in March. One can even smell the fragrance of peach blossoms."
"......" Shen Zheng was speechless, "So they also used aromatherapy to make it. It must have been hard for them to sell it at such a high price."
If she was also a native of Da Zhou, she might really be shocked by this "treasure" that is "unprecedented in heaven and on earth".
Liang Fu saw Shen Zheng's look of disgust, and the drum in his heart began to beat loudly.
He swallowed his saliva and asked Shen Zheng cautiously and expectantly, "Is this what you want to make?"
If it is true, Liang Fu must prepare to fight a great turnaround! He wants to let those envoys who are sly, looking around, and plotting against him know that his Great Zhou also has top talents! His Great Zhou is not something that can be fooled by just any cat or dog!
Liang Fudu described the treasure to such an extent that he was just short of reciting two lines of poetry praising the glass lamp to Shen Zheng. What else was there for Shen Zheng to be unsure of?
"It is that thing." Shen Zheng nodded, very sure. "The raw materials needed for manufacturing are what I asked you to find. As long as the raw materials are ready, I can start the trial firing. As long as it can be done, you can tell me what shape of glassware you want. You can even ask for a foot basin to wash your feet. Just be careful when you put it on the ground, it will break easily."
Liang Fu's beard twitched, his face full of disbelief: "A foot basin?!"
Using what other countries call a treasure... to wash his old feet?!
This was something Liang Fu would never dare to dream of.
His heart was pounding, and he forced himself to remain calm and asked, "It shouldn't be easy to make this thing, right? Based on my understanding of them, if they are not 100% sure that they can monopolize this thing in the short term, they will definitely not dare to pay tribute."
The other party must be sure that the Great Zhou may not be able to produce this thing in the next ten, twenty, or even a hundred years, so they dare to blatantly offer this thing as tribute in exchange for materials beyond the value of this thing.