Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1053 Reform in the eyes of the emperor

Regardless of what the emperor said, don't hide diseases and avoid medical treatment, but in fact, the Yellow River issue was indeed a taboo before the canal was abandoned and the water was transferred to the sea.

Many people know that the game of flushing sand in Hongze Lake will explode sooner or later, and that the Yellow River will get higher and higher sooner or later and something big will happen.

However, no one dared to really solve this problem.

Before Dashun was presided over by Liu Yu for military reform, flintlocks were equipped with bayonets and field artillery, the threat from the north always existed.This kind of existence forced Dashun to choose Beijing as his capital.

The north is the political center plus the military center of gravity, and the south is the economic center.Relying on water transportation and canals to maintain the operation of the empire; relying on the Lianghuai salt administration as an important emergency financial source for the imperial court.

Under this system, many problems are unsolvable.

How many years have you shouted to rule the river? Before Dashun went to Nanyang to completely defeat the Western Fleet, the Taiwan incident in the previous dynasty and Dashun’s maritime strategy of Japan’s eastward expedition were examples. No matter how much you shout, you dare not move .

After solving the shipping problem, the Yellow River issue really dared to be discussed, or in other words, it has the so-called qualification of "don't shy away from disease and avoid medical treatment".

Before that, everyone could only pretend to be stupid and wishful thinking that nothing serious happened to the Yellow River.

Liu Yu sorted out the abscess, but whether he killed it or buried it, he made it clear that he should not consider completely eradicating the Yellow River. With Dashun's ability and current productivity level, it was enough to prepare for disaster relief.

In the eyes of the emperor, Dashun and Daming were already different on some fundamental issues.

The pure political significance of the existence of the Ming Dynasty is to integrate the forces of the north and the south, and to prevent the invasion of barbarians and Di Dies north of the northern farming line.

The pure political significance of the existence of Dashun, after the northern issue is resolved, is actually to strengthen centralization and fiscal revenue, use the state's regulatory capabilities, and use various methods to alleviate internal conflicts and continue the rule.

Compared with disaster relief, which is "conservative treatment and waiting for death", reform and expansion of immigration is "active treatment and waiting for death".

Changes in this sense made it necessary for the emperor to accept some reforms to a certain extent.

Liu Yu has been fooling the emperor about many things, and the reason for fooling the emperor is for the emperor.

The emperor is certainly not a fool, but he still supports it because he really sees the benefits.

Many things, just like Kang Buxiu saying that Liu Yu is not from Dashun, the same thing, in the eyes of Liu Yu and the emperor, are completely different conclusions.

such as.

The previous incidents of the copper coin mint called a break, the Suzhou weavers went on strike, the Songjiang government kicked the workers out of business, and the Guangzhou government masons and shoemakers organized the "Western Family Guild" to fight against the boss and so on.

In Liu Yu's view, this is the proof of... germination... development... limitations... blah blah blah.

From the emperor's point of view, that would be quite different.

The emperor studied these similar events carefully and came to three conclusions.

One: These craftsmen are weak. These people who rely on their skills to eat are very easy to settle. They are very inclined to sacrifice to the leader, and they support the stability of the court because they themselves are the beneficiaries of the stability of the court. .

Second: These craftsmen only have economic appeals, and they have not put forward any kind of slogan that can threaten Dashun.Looking back at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the real threat was the group of people who put forward clear political appeals and a rough program.

Including but not limited to the equalization of land and exemption of grain, equalization of the world, eradication of injustice, reduction of rent and permanent tenancy, etc.Its main force is the landless small peasants, various miners and slaves, and so on.

Third: These craftsmen are more inclined to trust the upright officials of the court, and are more afraid and fearful of those factory owners and owners, and regard them as bad people.And the factory owners needed the court's protection even more because they couldn't beat them.At the same time, because of the extreme poverty in the rural areas of Dashun, both craftsmen and factory owners are basically satisfied with their current stable life.

From this, the emperor came to a conclusion: that is, his imperial power can use a detached posture to override craftsmen and workshop owners.When necessary, stand as a craftsman; when necessary, stand as a craftsman.

This kind of fragile and weak person who relies on his skills to eat can't accomplish anything.And they are very supportive of the stability of the imperial court. Most of the time, they only need to ask the factory owner to pay two more money, cut some meat and give some wine during the New Year.

This generation is nothing to worry about.

Therefore, the emperor supported the development of industry and commerce in southern Jiangsu, because the development of industry and commerce was in the stage of reform before the factory system, and the emperor had not seen what could really burst out power.

On the contrary, the emperor saw that these people could provide sufficient taxes, customs revenue, and trade income.

The emperor can use these financial gold and silver to contain the real dangerous things.

Another example.

A series of event chains such as waste water transportation, sea transportation, Huaihe River repair, and salt industry transformation.

From Liu Yu's point of view, with northern Jiangsu and central Jiangsu as raw material production areas, southern Jiangsu as the industrial base, and Southeast Asia and the West as the market, a new class necessary for the new era was born.

But from the perspective of the emperor, it is quite different.

Throughout the chain of events, the emperor saw the following problems.

That is, the monetization of silver from the middle of the Ming Dynasty has been irreversible, but money and materials are not the same thing.

The rule of the imperial court relied on the materials in its hands, such as food, salt, weapons and so on.

When money is stable, it can be equated to goods.

However, the monetization of silver has led to the imperial court collecting taxes on silver, and there are not many resources that can be controlled.The imperial court only had some food, but not much food, and no salt at all.

Under the premise that the monetization of silver is irreversible, the first task of the imperial court is to ensure that silver can be spent quickly and in large quantities when it wants to be spent, and immediately exchanged for various physical objects that the imperial court urgently needs.

That is to say, Dashun's top priority now is to get through the rapid conversion of "money-material".We can't repeat the mistakes of Daming, sometimes we can't buy urgently needed things even if we have money.

That is to say, Dashun must ensure that there are enough circulating stocks in the market, and they are in bulk.

When necessary, the imperial court can use money to ensure that these large quantities of spot goods can be purchased immediately.

These circulating spot goods must be in circulation, but will not cause a huge impact on the inside.

Well, this requires a reservoir.

This reservoir is Japan, North Korea, Southeast Asia, and some reprocessed products.

When necessary, the imperial court can change the water pipes leading to those reservoirs.

For example, Liu Yu's operations on the Huaihe Incident.

The essence is to use silver to buy coarse grains from large plantations and farms that are marketed in Liaodong, Ezo, Nanyang and other places, and are not small farmers. Many coarse grains are used for wine making and sales, so there are sufficient stocks.

Moreover, if there is a shortage of food in the country, Dashun's navy can quickly mobilize and quickly transport the food from the Ezo farms and Nanyang rice plantations, which are mainly in the Japanese and Nanyang markets, back to the country.As for the lack of food in Japan and Southeast Asia, it would not affect the emperor's rule anyway.

Dashun solved the problem of rapid conversion of "silver and materials", greatly increased the power of the imperial power, and strengthened the rule.

If you don't want to return the "tax in kind" of the previous dynasty, then how to ensure that money can buy things is the essence of Dashun's rule.

Or, return the tax in kind collected before the monetization of silver, and increase the corvee, transportation, and loss of the people.

Make sure that the court always has food, salt, and cloth in its hands.

Or, if it is determined that it is impossible to go back, then make sure that bulk materials can be purchased.

Ensuring that the court has money and a navy means that the court has food, salt, and cloth.

Since Liu Yu jumped to the decision-making level of Dashun, Li Gan, the emperor of Dashun, actually spent 20 years to figure out one thing.

And this matter can be summed up in one sentence.

It took the emperor 20 years to figure it out: Oh, it turns out that money is not wealth, but food, rice, salt, iron, cattle, and cloth are wealth.

It seems quite funny. It took the emperor 20 years to figure this out?

But really, it's not funny.

From the 23rd year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty, Qiu Junshang believed that the use of silver meant that the country gave up the right to mint coins, and it was equivalent to giving up the right to mint coins to merchants; then in the first year of Longqing, the monetization of silver and the taxation of silver were formalized; and then Dashun took the initiative to The influx of silver from overseas trade... After groping for a full 200 years, I finally figured out that it is completely different from the previous era of tax in kind.

And finally come back to it.

And after waiting for the emperor to come back to the taste, and then look back at the direction of the reforms in these years, the emperor finally integrated and used his own understanding, or a set of logic that he thought was effective, to understand all these reforms.

For example, saltworks reform.

The reason why the emperor supported it was because the big salt farms were easy to manage, and when needed, only a small group of soldiers and three or five wardens were needed to completely take over these big salt farms to ensure the production of salt.

In other words, it is guaranteed that the court has salt in its hands.

As for the small producer model of Huainan Salt...the same output is 100 million shi, is it easy to control a large salt field?Or is it easier to control the salt households with [-] to [-] small producers?

Another example is those who run farms and plantations in Ezo, Tohoku, and Nanyang.

If the imperial court urgently needs 100 million shi of grain, is it easier to get it from these large farms and large plantations?Or is it easy to expropriate 100 million shi of grain from 100 million small farmers?

The emperor made some calculations, and now he has much more power in his hands than 20 years ago, which is counted as the power that the court can control when necessary.

In his hand, there is an extra bank that can refuse to pay back the debt at one time. There are tens of millions of taels of silver in it, and he can grab it directly when necessary.Although it can only be used once in this way, it may be enough to save lives and turn the tables.

There are two more commercial grain bases, and when necessary, they will be recruited directly to ensure that Dashun can quickly collect grain in the event of a large-scale famine—you can use money, and if you don’t have money, you can use guns directly.

There is an extra chaebol-style transportation company that has been fostered, and when necessary, it will be directly recruited to ensure that the money can buy materials and the materials can be transported to the place.

Now, there is only one salt production base.This salt production base must be dense, centralized, with few people, and easy to take over.When necessary, an annual output of two to three hundred million catties must be guaranteed.

When everything is stable and smooth, the court only needs money.

However, in the event of an accident, when the money does not work, or there is no money available, he can use naval guns, cannons, and muskets to control these things.

In the past 20 years, the emperor has summed up two truths.

The first one: the one billion mu of land in Dashun belongs to the gentry, and the emperor was unable to mobilize the power of the one billion mu of land.Large salt fields and large farms can belong to the emperor, and the emperor only needs an army to control and transform them into imperial power.

Controlling a large-scale salt farm using steam engines is the same as controlling 10 small salt farmers, but the cost is very different.

The second one: In troubled times, such as the lesson given to Dashun at the end of Ming Dynasty.Money is not as useful as food, salt, iron, and cloth.

After the imperial court gave up the tax in kind, the control at the grassroots level, and the land equalization system.It is no longer possible to govern in accordance with the experience of the tax-in-kind era.

As for the reasons given by the emperor and Lin Min, they are just high-sounding.

The emperor simply didn't care at all. Hundreds of thousands of people related to the salt industry in Yangzhou Prefecture and other places were unemployed due to the changes in Huainan's industrial structure.

But it was not easy to say it directly, so he used reasons such as "great righteousness" and "great benefit"; he used the principle of "preparing for a rainy day" to imply that Lin Min: the decline of Yangzhou and Huai'an is a necessary price for "preventing problems before they happen".

Either, you solved the Yellow River problem; or, you solved the Jiangsu problem.

(End of this chapter)