Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1008 This Is Called Struggle

After all these things were properly arranged, after the Chinese New Year, when the good news from Lianghuai and Huai River kept coming in March, a big event happened in the court of Dashun.

Changed yuan.

It was the first time that the emperor changed his Yuan when he was alive. This was the first time after Ming Taizu. One Yuan and one life has become an unspoken rule.

But Li Gan still asked to change the Yuan, and the Yuan was changed to be new.

Changing Yuan was actually quite normal before the Ming Dynasty.But after the Ming Dynasty, changing the Yuan Dynasty had the meaning of "strengthening chaos and blaming gods".

Many of them are just coincidences, but there are too many coincidences, and it feels a bit like fate.

For example, the year name of Emperor Yongle, I don't know whether it is self-deprecating, self-deprecating, or something.

Yongle is the reign name of Fang La's leader when he proclaimed himself emperor, a rebel's reign name that is so standard that it can no longer be standard.

Such as Tianshun.

That was the year name of Mengyuan Asojiba, and then there was a battle between the two capitals. Although the change of seizing the door was not as large as the battle between the two capitals, it was not much different from the inside.

For example Zhengde.

That was the year name of Li Ganshun in Xixia.

Coupled with the two show operations of Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty, a lot of fatalism was added.

For example, when succeeding to the throne, there are four years to choose, with Yongchang ranked first and Chongzhen second.

For example, in Xiuwanping City, the west gate is called Yongchang Gate, and the east gate is called Shunzhi Gate.

Under these coquettish operations of the previous court, although they said that they were not talking nonsense, but they always felt that the title of the year could not be messed around with.

But since it has been changed, it will inevitably make people think more.

It looks more like a "political declaration" by the emperor.

The word "only new" is not difficult to explain.

The words come from "Daya·Wen Wang": Although Zhou is an old state, its destiny is only new.

But the real intention of the emperor was because Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty used the phrase "all nations come to the court, the art of longevity is great, but the new order begins".

According to the old rules, using the conjunctions that appeared in the edicts of changing the Yuan Dynasty in the past is a kind of admiration and admiration for that dynasty.

Changing Yuan Well, nothing more than a few.

Either the green dragon appears in the world, the phoenix comes to the ceremony, all kinds of auspiciousness.

Either borrow the year name of the previous dynasty or ancestors to show respect and inheritance.

Or just pick words from ancient books.

Or it is the feats of governing the country such as regaining Shuofang and blocking the Yellow River.

The other one is Wu Zetian's sense of sight of simply changing WeChat signature or QQ name and wishing to change it every three days.

Dashun changed the Yuan this time, not only to show the emperor's determination to reform, but also to draw a clear line with the previous dynasty, expressing the feeling that he is the heir of Li Tang.

Since the previous dynasty was one yuan one, this dynasty is not.

Anyway, the six ministries have been changed to six governments, military equipment and roads have been changed to defense envoys, and governors have been changed to festival envoys.

The emperor originally thought that his greatest achievement so far was to restore the Western Regions and win the new Western Regions of Nanyang.

No matter how you look at it, vertically or horizontally, one of the two "Western Regions" is always true, and this is the only place where I am not guilty.

Ordinarily, if you want to chase, you should chase after Emperor Xiaoxuan who first opened the Western Regions Protectorate, but firstly, there is a powerful minister Huo Guang, and secondly, his surname is Liu.

Thinking about chasing after Li Zhi, it would be unlucky if there is a "chicken sitting in the morning" chaos behind him; chasing Kaiyuan Shengshi, it would be even more disgusting and unlucky.

When it came to Emperor Taizong of Tang, he was embarrassed to overtake him, and could only admire it, so he picked such a word from the imperial edict of changing Yuan Dynasty.

Originally, the Li government gave several alternatives at the beginning. For example, one was selected from the "Yao Dian".

But it was rejected by the emperor.

I don’t know if it really has the meaning of God’s will in the dark, or if it is so easy to change the name, it must be worthy of the name. Not long after the change, it really has the meaning of "only new".

The beginning of March in the lunar calendar.

Dashun was changed from Yuan to Weixin to the first year.

The fifth day of the fourth lunar month.

The Academy of Sciences presented auspiciousness to the imperial court. The winter wheat heaped from pure money, saltpeter, and struvite mines yielded [-] catties per mu. The emperor personally went to the experimental field of the Academy of Sciences to hold a grand opening ceremony.

After the auspicious offering, a reform truly worthy of the title of "Weixin" was officially rolled out in southern Sichuan, northern Jiangsu, Huguang and other places.

…………

The first shot of reform was fired in southern Sichuan.

It will take about half a month for the Huaihe River to be repaired.

This year's salt transportation will not begin until the dry season is over.

In southern Sichuan, a group of officials who came to the Xuzhou government quickly took over the government affairs in southern Sichuan.

The news of Sichuan Salt's entry into Guizhou had already spread, and all kinds of rumors were true or false, but no one dared to say that it was true before there was an official order from the imperial court.

A large number of Shaanxi businessmen gathered in southern Sichuan, and the newly established Xiqin Guild Hall couldn't even accommodate so many "villagers" who suddenly poured in.

A large number of Sichuan businessmen, also carrying capital, came from all over the place.

The first thing Niu Congyun, the newly appointed governor of Syria, came to Yanjing District to check the situation here.

People from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce have also come over. Although the two sides are not affiliated with each other, they have met each other in southern Jiangsu after all, and they have cooperated.

Niu Congyun and the people from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce first came to a salt well run by Shaanxi people, grabbed a handful of good salt with a color like snow, and watched the shirtless hired workers working there, and felt a little familiar.

No matter whether he was in Taiwan or Jinghai before, Niu Congyun has seen factories like this before.

Those who saw wood, pound rice, squeeze sugar, etc. are not salt producers, but the mode of hiring, division of labor, and cooperation is the same.

The Shaanxi businessman followed Niu Congyun, pointed to a salt well and said, "My lord, the rent for this well is quite high."

"One month and 30 days, I have to give half a month's salt to the landlord. The landlord has nothing more than a piece of land, but they don't invest in production."

"If the imperial court really wants official transportation and commercial sales, I dare not say anything else, but if the price is set low, we will definitely not do it. We can only use half a month's salt to feed these hired workers and cattle. , fodder, etc., if the price is really too low, I really can’t afford it.”

Niu Congyun hummed, he had never dealt with a similar situation before.Be it Jinghai or Taiwan, many lands are terra cotta.

Or, it is from a tribe or a tribe.Dealing with them is simple and rude.

The situation in southern Sichuan is very different.

From a rational point of view, it seems reasonable.What happened to people collecting some rent for their land?If you think it's too expensive, you don't have to rent it.It is the capital that begs for land rent to rent out, not the landlord begging for capital to rent out.

In theory, this is the case, but from the perspective of industry and commerce, land rent is the biggest enemy.

The businessman followed behind, and muttered: "The guests come to build high-rise buildings, and the guests go to the owner to collect them. If there is no court to decide, we really dare not invest too much. If we invest a lot, after ten years, all the equipment will belong to the landlord. Then of course we can make do with it.”

"If the imperial court can preside over it, or run a permanent tenant, or accept it as an official property, it will be most beneficial to us."

Niu Congyun thought to himself, this is of course beneficial to you, but it will be very unfavorable to the landlords here.

Sure enough, as Xing Guogong said, this kind of class struggle is all about life and death.

Thinking of this, Niu Congyun asked: "The Xingguo Convention talked about you that day, and also told you about the matter here. I have always known his attitude."

"Originally, there were some small handicraftsmen here who raised, fried, and sold themselves. According to the intention of the Duke, these should be eliminated and annexed by you. As long as you get machines and technology, those small handicraftsmen will perish. .”

"What does the Duke mean by this matter?"

The businessman hurriedly said: "Guogong said, this is a natural principle, and it is against the sky to keep small handicraftsmen. What Guogong means is that after we develop, they will either sell their properties to participate in the stock; or wait They were squeezed out of bankruptcy by us, and came to our saltworks to do hard work and sell their labor."

Although this was his consistent attitude, Niu Congyun couldn't help but click his tongue, Xindao Xingguo is really not human at all, cold.

Although in theory, the truth is indeed such a truth, but it lacks a little human flavor.

If I take on such an errand, I will never be an upright official in this life, and I may not know how to organize myself in the future.

All the praised Qingtian masters need to protect small farmers, small handicraftsmen, and small people, but what they do is just the opposite.

While thinking about it, he was led by the businessman to the place where the bittern was raised.

A few oxen pulled the heavy brine barrels, pulling the dark brine out of the well hundreds of feet deep.

Several people sent by the Academy of Sciences were communicating with a local craftsman there, and they were studying how the steam engine would replace the bull.

These well brines flowed along the laid pipelines to distant natural gas wells, where they were uniformly decocted.

In fact, before Liu Yu was ready to instigate the reform of the salt policy in southern Sichuan, this model had gradually overwhelmed those small salt well households that produced and fried themselves.

The salt from shallow wells is not good, and they can't afford natural gas wells, so they can only burn firewood and coal. They really can't compete with these losers in the Huaihe River.

Niu Congyun has seen similar large-scale workshops in Taiwan, Jinghai, and Southern Jiangsu, and knows the advantages of these large-scale workshops.

From the perspective of an imperial court official, drastic mergers and land rent reforms can facilitate the imperial court to strengthen the control of well salt.

From the perspective of a scholar, if you don’t look at the wailing of the landlords and the elegy of the small producers, you can suppress the price of salt, so that many people who are “Ningkoudan” can afford to eat salt.

When he was in front of the emperor, what he said was very clear.

Either, the imperial court collects the land rent of salt wells and taxes according to the wells; or it collects salt taxes.If you can't charge both, it becomes double taxation.

Now that the court's intentions are so clear, he also knows what to do.

Seeing these simple machines continuously bring up the brine, he thought to himself, a family crying is better than a road without salt.

His Majesty asked me to read the biography of Xin Ang, just to let me remember the words "Gou Li people".

After turning around two more times, as soon as I left the workshop, I saw a group of people kneeling in darkness outside.

"grown ups!"

"Are those rumors true?"

"Isn't the court doing this by force?"

"The land and the salt well passed down by our ancestors have committed some crime, and they will be forcibly confiscated?"

"How is this different from the former tax supervisor and mine supervisor?"

"We are all good citizens. We are heirs to farming and studying in the family, guarding the ancestral property. If the lord insists on reclaiming the land, I would rather die in front of the lord, otherwise how can we meet our ancestors?"

"This is the people of Qin taking the property of us Sichuan people!"

The group of people all knelt outside, blocking Niu Congyun's way.Niu Congyun didn't speak, but stared into the distance, as if waiting for something.

Not long after, there was a sound of horseshoes, and a trumpeter shouted: "The defense is coming!"

While speaking, a line of troops appeared behind, more than 600 soldiers with guns followed Ma Haochuan, the Syrian-Malaysian defender.

Ma Haochuan rode his horse in front and came in front of the group of people. He flicked the whip in the air and made a crisp snap.

Seeing the troops approaching, Niu Congyun was full of confidence. He cleared his throat and said, "What are you going to do? Did the court ask for it for nothing? Don't you say it? Buy shares at a discount, buy shares at a discount. What else do you want?"

"Is the salt under the ground yours? Don't say that it was passed down from the ancestors. It was a monopoly in salt and iron in the Han Dynasty. This salt belongs to the imperial court."

"Han Zuo was passed down in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and then Sui and Tang Dynasties, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The dynasty took it according to the destiny, and inherited everything. I want to ask you, when did your ancestors occupy the official property as private?"

"Now that the imperial court doesn't ask you for the 800-year interest, it's not bad. It even allows you to buy shares at a discount, but you are not satisfied?"

"If you had invested in the capital and built the salt well before, why did the court need to do so much? You occupy the land but only collect rent. What else can you talk about?"

"I know what you are capable of. Either find someone to sue me; or hang yourself to death in front of me and make a fuss; or find an old man to stop you and die."

"You just use these methods. If I blink my eyes, I won't be able to be the prefect of Xuzhou!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a group of Sichuan merchants came from behind, surrounded the landowners and said, "If you say this, you should cut out your mouth and tongue. What do you mean by Qin people taking property from Sichuan people? Don't we wait?" Sichuan people?"

Niu Congyun said coldly: "Of course! This is clearly a contradiction between industrial capital and your landlord's land rent, but you must instigate some people from Qin and Sichuan, and you will be punished!"

(End of this chapter)