"Xinshun: Iron Century of Steel" is my second book and the first book I wrote as a novel from the beginning. Many old readers know that "The Jiedu of the World" was just a small clip of more than 2,000 words published on Longkong. With the support and encouragement of Lerahu and many friends, it became a historical novel of more than 2 million words.

When chatting with the editor, I once mentioned a phenomenon: many authors' first book is very good, but the second and third book are gone as if they are all the people, and they are getting worse and worse. Instead, they do not have the eye-catching characteristics of the first book, and finally disappear in the online literature world. The reason is that before the first book is written, the author often has been considering the information and feelings for many years, having sufficient savings, and then erupting out, which is naturally very exciting. However, although the text of the second and third book is becoming more and more mature, the savings in the abdomen are much shallow, and the level suddenly drops. Therefore, the most difficult thing for newcomers is the second book, just like the NBA has a rookie wall and the online literature world has a "newcomer wall". If you can't get over it, you will be eliminated. If you can't get over it, you will be a different world. After listening to it, I was a little nervous at the time, but I was also a little eager to try, wanting to see if you are like everyone else, or you can escape from a pupa, and it is another world.

When I was determining the topic of the second book, I hesitated for a while. Frankly speaking, online literature is a very market-oriented leisure and entertainment method. The author is often greatly influenced by readers' tendencies. The topic I have determined is definitely not as good as those of the Three Kingdoms, the late Ming Dynasty, and the Jingkang. After all, many ancestors have developed in these historical stages. Readers are generally familiar with historical figures at that time, and it is easier to form a sense of substitution, and naturally it is easier to write Xinshun.

Compared to the empty theme, readers may find that the phenomenon of pujie may appear. But I think if a historical novel is really praised and can capture the hearts of readers and let readers remember it, they must do the following two points: First, it raises a question; second, it answers this question convincingly. The most popular historical novels in recent years are all like this, such as "The Story of Ming", "The Usher of the Qing Dynasty", "The New China in 1911". These novels almost all have a view, and the deep sufferings of China's modernization

One of the reasons for being big is that the last feudal dynasty was established by a minority group. Since the interests of the ruling group of this minority and the interests of the subject nation often do not overlap, when encountering a powerful foreign enemy, the rulers often choose to sell the interests of the entire country and preserve the interests of their own small group. Moreover, in order to maintain their dominance, this group, which only accounts for a very small population in the country, has also taken various means to fool and weaken the Han people as the subject nation, and also treated them with various measures.

The foresighted elites massacred and destroyed it, so China's modernization process was so difficult and the price was so heavy that today's Chinese still felt the rest of the troubles. So the context of the novel was very simple. An omniscient and omnipotent time traveler from the modern era returned to the past, reversed the wheel of history, overthrew the rule of the alien race, and then the Chinese nation could successfully embark on the road of modernization, blabla.... More exaggerated is "Steering the stone and expanding the boundary for thousands of miles!"

But is this really the case? If we look at the entire global scope, the success of modernization is an extremely "rare" and difficult phenomenon. Apart from the great powers located in Western Europe and North America, the modern history of almost all the latecomer countries is extremely miserable and dark, full of shame and bullying. It is not only China. In these countries, massacre and plunder are common, and it is not rare to destroy the country. In these latecomer countries, many rulers belong to the main nation of the country, but most of them have failed. Even today, many underdeveloped countries are still formal **, and the entire country is still in the process of modernization, let alone modernization.

Even those few successful modernization people, did their lives be bright at that time? The Irish potato leaf disease that starved nearly one million people to death in the 1840s; after the Crimean War, Russia adopted the so-called "liberation of serfs" in order to export a large amount of grain to foreign countries for industrialization capital, allowing serfs to redeem themselves and deprive the public land of the villages and communities, and handed them over to farmers who are good at operating. As a result, while grain exports increased significantly, there was an astonishing famine in the countryside.

Serfs who lost the protection of the villages starved to death in groups; rural girls who were sold to Nanyang as prostitutes during the Meiji Restoration in Japan and farmers who worked all year round but could not eat a bite of rice they grew. These are all successful modernizations, but their lives are not much better than those who failed. Could it be that in 1644, a certain Han hero rose to defeat the invasion of the Manchus, and the last dynasty was the Han people. China's modernization reform could be successful? Can those sufferings be alleviated? Can the people live a better life?

I don't think so!

Modernization is an extremely complex process. It is not simply using advanced technology, then removing the emperor and replacing it with a president. In the ancient world, political and social life were actually only a matter for a very small group of people. Most of the rest lived in extremely narrow and extremely closed communities all their lives. For them, as long as the rulers leave them with some labor results that can survive, they will accept rule, at least not actively resist. Until the oppression is so heavy that these simple people can no longer survive, they will rise up and resist, and then wait for the next acceptable ruler. Life is like this, like this, like this.

It will not change far away. Therefore, whether it is democracy or dictatorship in ancient society, it is actually just a matter of a small group of people and has nothing to do with the vast majority of people. Therefore, the structure and function of ancient countries are much simpler than that of modern countries, and the connection between people and regions is much simpler and simpler. Modernization is different. The commodity economy occupies the dominant position of the economy. The entire region, country, and even the world have been connected into an organic whole in the true sense for the first time. A large number of cheap goods poured out from factories destroyed the extremely affiliated small handicrafts of the self-sufficient natural economy. People who lost their land had to make a living in big cities, and for the first time appeared in cities.

The huge number of proletarians, they had nothing but their own hands, and their work characteristics made them closely connected and had good organization. The city gave them a widespread knowledge. Politics is no longer just a small group of people, which is a phenomenon that has never been seen in human history. However, some members of the original ruling class lost their old superior status in this process of change, and often dissatisfied with the change, and even became the initiators and leaders of the revolution. The simple state machine of the old world was very weak and powerless in the face of this complex phenomenon. China's new army revolution after the abolition of the imperial examination system; the white reform of King Pahlavi of Iran failed, and fundamentalism returned

The tide is all this reason. It is not difficult to explain why modern countries are accompanied by huge instability, regardless of success or failure. The only British that maintains a relatively stable government is because they are the first industrialized country and have vast colonies that can transfer contradictions. Other countries are filled with revolutions, coups, foreign wars and civil wars in the history of modernization. Simply put, the factors of success or failure of modernization are extremely complex, and they cannot be explained simply by the national attributes of the dynasty rulers. A traditional Han dynasty can lead the Chinese nation out of this quagmire, break this "great change that has not been seen in three thousand years" and embark on the road of prosperity? I am very doubtful.

The above are my questions, but if I can't get the answers now, or the answers now may not be the answers in future books. Human thinking is very strange. For a question, I often think it is A at the beginning, but as I understand it, I think it is B, and then I go back to A. However, "A" at this time is not "A" at the beginning, it has to be profound and enriched a lot. Perhaps this is what we said in the political class in junior high school, "The understanding of things always continues to rise in a spiral shape, continues to deepen!" Writing a book is also a process. With the development of the plot of the book and the deepening of the historical background at that time, the author's ideas will not remain unchanged, and they are also constantly deepening, so let's read it yourself. After all, there are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand people. Maybe I wrote it A, but some readers can see it B. This is also a very good thing?

Finally, I wish you all good health and all the best! I also hope that everyone will continue to support Weber and write an extraordinary and good book!

Below is a short poem by Weber, which is considered a prelude to this book.

The slaves moaned heavily

Black coal and iron were excavated from the ground.

Manufacture boilers and machines,

Black coal ignited

Heat the boiler and drive the machine to operate.

Making guns and merchandise,

Guns and cannons open the door to the majesty of the empire,

A tide of goods poured into it,

To smash the beautiful idyllic rural life,

The extremely poor people were driven into factories,

The new giant baby treats the whole world as a toy.

Everything is reversed,

This is a new century,

This is the black century

This is the century of steel.
Chapter completed!