Zheng first quoted the words of his predecessors, affirmed the methods to deal with emergencies at that time, and pointed out that change was necessary to save the country at that time. He pointed out that we should know ourselves and ourselves, and then take out the results of our own study of western culture, communication with westerners and personal inspection. He pointed out that to change, there must be a more comprehensive change, not only in military innovation, but also in personnel training, agricultural water conservancy, commercial transportation and other aspects, so that people can make the best use of their talents, land and materials. It is mentioned in the tradition of China that things flow smoothly, but it was outstanding at that time.

Then he discussed the situation in the west step by step, how to appoint talents through schools and civil and military subjects, so that talents can discuss politics in the house, be pragmatic and avoid emptiness, and make a decision before moving. He believes that this form is physical and military development is useful. He pointed out that the government only cares about development, regardless of material development, or follows the trend from top to bottom. He quoted German Chancellor Bisell Meier as saying that he was not rich enough, and mentioned that he also had many works to introduce and discuss the relevant situation, pointing out that it was not suitable to open foreign countries in different regions, but to accept charitable acts for improvement. Then, he tells the reason and process of writing and publishing, and expresses his feelings.

"Warning in a Prosperous Age" program:

In the heyday? After editing? In Preface, Zheng expressed his thoughts in a more hierarchical way, which can be used as an ideological program for us to understand the dangerous words in prosperous times. At that time, there were two slogans: "commercial war" and "military war". Zheng clearly pointed out that "commercial warfare is more important than military warfare", and military warfare cannot be ignored, but "in the final analysis", commercial warfare is really important and is the "foundation". In order to carry out commercial war, a large number of rich and cheap goods must enter the market to compete with foreign capitalism, which requires strong industry as the backing. Therefore, Zheng strongly advocated that China should develop its own modern industry in order to achieve the goal of "making contributions with wings". Zheng realized that modern western industries used advanced machine technology, which made the labor productivity ten times and one hundred times higher than that of manual workshops. He attaches great importance to learning western science and technology, and advocates introducing advanced machinery and equipment and updating transportation and telecommunications equipment, which can reduce commodity freight and keep abreast of business conditions. Modern industry and transportation must have power, raw materials and so on. In this regard, Zheng Guanying advocates vigorously developing industries such as coal and metal mining and smelting. In addition, it is necessary to set up its own bank to solve the contradiction between production and circulation and promote the rapid turnover of goods and funds.

Zheng's On Commercial War comprehensively considered and discussed the whole process of production and dredging of industrial development. Although it seems inevitable to be superficial and clumsy now, it is of great significance to "start" domestic capitalist industry and commerce.

Related to this, Zheng also discussed the importance of education, ideology and political system to the development of capitalist industry and commerce. As factories, mines, transportation and banks are all emerging industries in China, it is necessary to have enough new management talents and technical talents to "borrow talents", which not only leads to high wages, but also increases the cost of products, which is forced by people. Therefore, the political administration should take the establishment of schools and the cultivation of new talents as an important part of the business war.

For him, the traditional concept of "agriculture is business-oriented" only adapted to the ancient society of "small farmers fend for themselves and die of old age". When "all countries merge, seek their own interests, strengthen the country by business, and borrow soldiers from industry and commerce", China must completely change the wrong concept of "not paying attention to business" if it wants to be rich and strong. In order to change the status of industrialists and businessmen, the Qing government should follow the example of western countries and set up a Ministry of Commerce to take charge of commerce, approach businessmen and listen to their opinions, instead of treating them as "scholars". The development of industry and commerce must also be guaranteed by the corresponding political system. Now, Zheng once put forward the political system that the monarch and the people co-govern, and in the prosperous times, it developed into a clear statement that China should establish a constitutional monarchy. This reflects his demands for bourgeois democracy on the premise of recognizing the monarchy.

To sum up, Zheng's bourgeois reformism thought takes the development of capitalist industry and commerce as the basic decision, and the establishment of schools, the cultivation of new talents and the reform of the political system as the auxiliary guarantee to achieve the purpose of "saving the nation from extinction".