Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1516 Final Chapter Ninety-three (Thirty-four)

After talking about so many reactionary mana tricks, Li Yan concluded: "Whether it is cutting wood to rebel or improving reforms, it is nothing more than four words: remove the old and bring out the new."

"In addition to these four words, you also need to remember that when it comes to the affairs of the Celestial Dynasty, you need to think about the four words 'unification of the world'."

"If you understand how to remove the old and bring forth the new, and understand the unification of the world, there will be more room for change."

"What does it mean to remove the old and bring forth the new?
"Gong Xingguo reformed in Sulu in the past. He encouraged the planting of cash crops first? Or did he go to the South China Sea to frighten North Korea into commercial grain bases?"

"Abolishing the old is to establish the new. And you must never remove the old just to remove the old. You must first think of the new law and make preparations before you can remove the old."

"Just like in the old days after the war, Louis XV of France communicated with me, saying that he wanted to abolish the high court in Paris. I replied that the Celestial Dynasty can rule the aristocratic family because of the imperial examination. It is impossible to do this, but I just want to destroy the old. At least you know what new looks like. Wouldn’t it be messy if you don’t know what’s new and wear out first?”

"Another example is that I want to run schools and promote real schools. Then, what about the free schools and ethnic schools in the past? How to change the colleges and schools that used to rely on the rent of the land rent school fields? How to change the private schools that relied on the donations of the gentry in the past? What is needed? Where did the teachers come from? The students and scholars taught them what to do for a living in the future? How to solve these things without thinking about it, just abolishing the old academic examinations without saying a word, how can there be no chaos?"

"This is called removing the old and bringing in the new."

"Then what is the unification of the world?"

"Nowadays, seventy-eight out of ten of the imperial court's finances and taxes do not come from land mu tax, but from export, commercial tax, colonization, salt tax and so on."

"Go to the provinces first, save tax collection, and don't need to deal with the most troublesome landlords, gentry and small farmers."

"If it is to save trouble, the imperial court will only rely on commercial taxes, customs duties, exports, and salt taxes in the future, and feel that the inland provinces are all troublesome. It happens that Confucian scholars talk more about restoring feudalism, and the power of the gentry talks more about old-fashioned methods such as recommending schools to discuss politics."

"In order to save trouble, to please the gentry all over the world, or because they didn't want to cause a lot of trouble at all, the imperial court followed them, no longer suppressed the power of the gentry, and the mu tax remained unchanged. If the tax law is only 2000 million taels, the rest will be handled by itself. , everyone is happy."

"The power of the gentry is expanded, the senior officials discuss affairs, control the localities, and the taxpayers and taxpayers are all discussed by the sages of the village. They must shout the emperor's sage, and the king's way will be restored. This is the true rule of the three generations."

"Is this the unification of the world? Or the separatism of the coastal areas, just like the Yin merchants who controlled the world with war, gold and copper, and trade?"

This can be regarded as a characteristic problem of Dashun.

Since the late Ming Dynasty, there has been a trend of "feudalism under the ancient prefecture and county system" among scholars.Needless to say, several great thinkers in the late Ming Dynasty were the radicals of Juntian, such as Yan Yuan and Li Wei. Although the ideas in their books did not mention feudalism, they were also quite enthusiastic about the idea of ​​decentralization.

For example, around the retro school system, the school is the political center of the state and county, the imperial examination system is abolished to solve the problem of students, and then the virtuous select true gentlemen and true Confucians to discuss politics.The school is not only a place of education, but also assumes the role of a local state and county council.

Of course, this kind of thinking was just talked about in the past, and the court would never listen to it.

After the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the rise of Shun, Dashun suppressed the power of local gentry for a long time.Because this kind of thing sounds good, but it is hard to say whether it is actually a step backward or an improvement.Although there are many problems in the imperial examination system, as far as it is concerned, it is better than the local system of recommending talents and examining them.

However, with Liu Yu's reforms, Dashun's financial revenue ratio is completely different from before.

Tariffs, commercial taxes, export taxes, colonial plunder, etc., these revenues have skyrocketed.

And mu tax...

As far as the imperial treasury is concerned, it is true that the tax revenue per mu was not too much before. What the local government wants to do is actually to turn a blind eye and let the local government make apportionment, additional distribution, donations, etc. means.

After all, for such a big country to collect 2000 million taels of silver in taxes a year, this is actually a stark thing-a gentleman stays away from the kitchen and tacitly allows the local government to make money by itself.Nominally, there are not many regular taxes, but other than the regular taxes, the chores, transportation, labor, apportionment, fire consumption and other things are the real squeeze to keep people from going crazy.

Now, it's much easier for Dashun to make money in the first-developed areas than to search for the mu tax.

Collecting land tax means solving the problems of landlords and farmers and dealing with local gentry. In fact, it is very difficult to collect land tax, and the key is not to collect much.

So some ministers in the court suggested that there are commercial taxes, customs duties, colonial income, etc., and mu taxes are laborious and troublesome, and they can't collect much.

So, can it be said that the imperial court does not want mu taxes to go to the national treasury?Can the mu tax be handed over to the local government?
The lack of mu tax is actually very easy to recover.

For example, if the inland area is set up to set up currency customs and collect inland tax—that is, the natural economic protection tax, or if the inland area is regarded as a region, it is equivalent to collecting "export tariffs" in the first-developing area. The money must belong to the Central rather than local - this makes it easy to make up for the little money from the mu tax.

In this case, can we only rely on the commercial tax, customs duty, natural economic protection tax, etc. of the first-developed provinces as the central government's finances?
As for the inland areas, since they are all cumbersome, tax collection is not easy, and local gentry power is still resisting, can it be said that the power of the local government should be appropriately expanded?
On the one hand, this is in line with the Confucian idea, local sages discuss and participate in politics, and by the way, it can also solve the problem of students.

On the other hand, the tax system before the imperial court was self-deceiving, and there was no money in the local area, and besides the regular tax, you had to think about fire consumption, apportionment, increase, etc., and the top usually turned a blind eye. .That being the case, why not simply throw the mu tax to the local government?Tax collection is troublesome, and the collection is not much.

In this way, let the localities use the mu tax to play, and the court will be happy as long as the tariffs, business taxes, etc., the court has thrown away a lot of trouble, and the gentry all over the world will definitely praise the emperor's sage.

Generally speaking, the inland mu tax is 500 million taels. If you want to make up for it, you only need to let go of such strict protection and control.

Allow cheap goods from the pioneering areas to enter, but set up a currency barrier and add a part of the natural economic protection tax?
For example, the cotton cloth in Songsu costs one yuan; while the cloth in the inland natural economy costs two yuan.

Then we can collect a natural economic protection tax of [-] cents, not to say that the destruction is too severe, and by the way, wouldn't it be easy to recover the tens of thousands of taels from the "internal tariff"?
As for the nature of this, whether it is a colony, etc., I will not mention it.

The point is, for the imperial court, money is a big problem, even the biggest thing.

And because after Liu Yu's reform, the money in the treasury is different from before, which makes it possible for the court to accept this idea psychologically and technically.

Five or sixty years ago, it would have been impossible.It is impossible for those Confucian local schools to accept the idea of ​​investigating and discussing politics when it comes to money.Because most of the income of the previous imperial court was mu tax.

But now, from the point of view of money, this is very possible - because the proportion of treasury revenue has changed, the amount of tax per mu is almost inferior to the land tax collected in India. Of course, this is Dashun. The border's colonial policy is relatively "radical". After all, it is the colonial ideology of industrial capitalism, and it still relies on the colonies to provide raw materials and markets, rather than the reactionary colonial ideology of commercial capitalism. The tax can be collected at 8000 to [-] million taels, which is much more than the mu tax plus salt tax before Dashun—and Dashun relies on commodity taxes, tariffs, and transportation improvements in the first-developed areas. The salt tax and so on, the land tax in the mainland is really optional.

In addition, Dashun's financial system is really problematic.Continuing the policy of the previous government, there are not many positive taxes in name, but the local government has to find ways to get money, otherwise the local government will not be able to sustain itself in essence.

That is to say, this almost unsolvable problem now seems to have a solution: the central government throws away the mu tax, no longer collects it, and returns it to the local government.

This is not to say that the mu tax will be abolished.

Instead, it means that the per-mu tax should be handed over to the localities, and the local gentry and subordinate officials should pay the per-mu tax themselves.

In this way, the imperial court not only earned the name of "benevolent government", but also won the support of local gentry, and could avoid the extremely troublesome problems of landlords and farmers.

Of course, this kind of thinking has been rampant among the DPRK in the past few years, not only because of the pure treasury revenue ratio, but because many people have contributed to it.

To some extent, Li Yan's insistence on reforming the imperial examination system has something to do with it.

Faced with this idea that day, Li Yan was rarely furious, and yelled at the court, saying only that this was "a pattern of partial security and separatist regimes, without the spirit of unity"; The thing is that "the tax system of Yuan, Yi and Di was pernicious, and Mencius said that the court did not collect the full amount of mu tax, which was actually the result of the Yi and Di's government."

As for the reason for his anger, or at least the reason for his extreme anger in the court, it was really the factors like "pattern" and "spirit" he mentioned, but the situation was more complicated than that.

In Li Yan's view, there are many problems left by the previous Dashun reform.At least until now, some of the policies in the past have caused deep cracks in Dashun.

If we really want to say that the central government of the imperial court retains the tariffs, business taxes, natural economic protection taxes that are easier to collect in coastal areas, and throws the mu tax to the local governments, then in essence, Dashun is completely split.

Once the imperial court's finances are only bound to the commercial taxes, tariffs, natural economic protection taxes, etc. of the pioneering areas, then the imperial court will really be in the hands of others.

At that time, the imperial court, the central government, can only follow the pace of the industry and commerce in the pioneering areas, as well as the large number of compradors emerging in the interior.

The finances are all based on this. Will the imperial power dare to make any changes that affect their interests?

And finally, what is the most likely scenario?
What the imperial court can really manage is the pioneering areas; and the people in the pioneering areas do not want to bear the various problems in the inland areas, and wish to make the inland provinces semi-autonomous and dumping colonies without any cost management and relief.

The nominally wealthy emperor, in essence, is in charge of the first few provinces.And the first few provinces don't want to solve the poverty, relief, disaster relief, water control, and landlords and farmers in the interior at all, as long as the compradors in the interior can help them buy goods here.

As for those matters of poverty, relief, disaster relief, water control, and landlords and farmers, let the inland provinces take care of themselves.

Therefore, although some radical ideas of the Xian School, in Li Yan’s view, they wanted to be the status of “Guanlong Group, Huaixi nobles, and even Wang Mang’s New Deal Classics”.

But at least, the radical ideas of the school of prominent learning, Li Yan believes that it is still "the pattern of the unified world", rather than "the twilight of the separatist regime".

Even if these people want to replace the old with the new and take the opportunity to replace the old bureaucratic group, after all, it is from the perspective of the world, not from the perspective of two or three provinces.

However, this idea of ​​suggesting that the imperial court rely on tariffs to commercialize taxes to expand the authority of the localities, while throwing mu taxes to the localities, is simply unacceptable to Li Yan.He would rather accept the theory of eminent learning and really support a group of uncontrolled "confucian scholars of ancient Chinese classics" or "new Huaixi noble group", than accept that this kind of situation will completely split Dashun and destroy the world. shredded thoughts.

In fact, the reason is very simple, just like what he said to the prince: get rid of the old and bring out the new, and the world will be unified, without which one will not work.

Son of Heaven, Son of Heaven, the world is split, what is it called Son of Heaven?
The ideas of the Expansion School are too radical and difficult to control.Once it is done, it is easy to form a group, and the tail is too big to lose. Therefore, it is impossible for Li Yan to accept the idea of ​​"radical reform, using intellectuals and literate people with different class attributes from the mainland landlords, to carry out the reform of land equalization"-once it is completed , Up and down, the whole world is full of "citizens", "classmates", "classmates" from the real school circles, he, the emperor, may still be able to hold back, won't his children and grandchildren be directly played to death when he dies?
And the hands-off faction, that is, intends to make the mainland a colony, and the imperial court only retains commercial taxes and customs duties, leaving the troubles of the mainland to the semi-autonomous mainland, and Li Yan is even less likely to accept it.

Therefore, this gave birth to him wanting to reform the imperial examinations and set up schools, trying to solve this problem, and fundamentally kill the possibility of mixing a well-established unified dynasty with a peaceful colonial mother country.

The world is unified, in fact, there are nine words in total.

[Books with the same text, cars with the same track, and travel with the same spirit].

It doesn't matter what content is tested in the imperial examination, which school of Confucianism, or which school of theory, it is necessary to have the same knowledge in the world, otherwise the world will have trouble sooner or later.

This is why Li Yan believes that the idea of ​​the school of Xianxue has merit, but it is not applicable: the school of Xianxue also talks about [Shang Tong] and [Six Harmony Styles]. ——The Xianxue faction considers issues from the perspective of the world, and firmly opposes the establishment of this model in which the Shang Dynasty uses the economy and the military as the common master of the world—only from the perspective of imperial power, they think that the methods of Xianxue are too radical , although the world is preserved, the imperial power may be gone.

To put it simply, Li Yan's so-called "remove the old and bring out the new, and unify the world" means both the world and imperial power.

Because now is the prosperous age after all, this is not to say that the emperor Li Yan has a high level of awareness, but that in the prosperous age, he has never heard of taking the initiative to choose between the world and the imperial power, and he still thinks about wanting both.If it really becomes a situation where decline is imminent, Li Yan may not only want imperial power, only want to be the emperor and ignore the world, and even do some things such as borrowing soldiers, becoming the emperor, and serving as the governor of the native land for others.

At least, he felt that if he tried his best to seize that chance, he could still "want it all".

Of course, it is really time to "remove the old and introduce the new".

If he does not continue to reform, Li Yan is worried that after his death, he will really be confused with the appearance of relying on the first-developed provinces to colonize the interior, allowing the interior to self-govern, regardless of the poverty and disasters in the interior, as long as it is a place for commodity dumping.

It's not that he has the world and the common people in his heart, but that he knows how to do this. If he insists on forcing those who have such great feelings for "the world" and "the common people" in the Xianxue school to become rebels, it will be really easy to dig up his family's graves in the end If so, he will even have a reputation that will last forever.

He wants to be the "progressive emperor" now, and he wants to talk about the world and the common people, so that those heroes of the era who have the world in their hearts can still follow him, at least they still have the illusion of improvement.If this group of people are really driven to complete disappointment, then something big will happen, especially after going through Liu Yu's reform almost the whole time, he seems to have brought about the great changes in the world in the past few decades by himself, which makes him have lingering fears ——If there are a few such characters, they are completely disappointed, give up reforms and become rebels, what will happen?

With the rise of practical learning, the vision for the future is no longer the vague appearance of the rule of three generations, but more specific expectations.

Then, it is impossible for the capital of Yao, the land of Shun, and the fief of Yu to be all those who seek fame and fortune, and those who can cut off their eggs at will when they are officials. Once these people have mastered advanced knowledge and have People with great ambitions in the world find that the imperial court is getting further and further away from their ideals. After this group of people are completely disappointed, if they really go to the impoverished areas in the interior to start an uprising, it will be a big deal.

This group of people, Li Yan knows very well, is very different from the past.Because they have a program, and a clear conception of the future, and what's even more frightening is that in these programs, evening the field is just a means rather than an ultimate goal.

This is very different from the past.

Therefore, the radical reform of the school of learning is not necessary, but at least a change must be made, which means that it is not that there is no progress or that it does not want to think about the future, but that the methods and methods can be discussed again.

However, if it is really a model of abandoning the governance of the interior and only using the interior as a place for commodity dumping, then a large group of people who could have "followed Xingguo to repair the Yellow River" will probably find that the imperial court has no intention of repairing the Yellow River. It's still a fart, let's bury this decadent dynasty first and then repair it.

In view of this, Li Yan was afraid that the prince would still not be able to grasp the essence, so he asked again:

"I would like to ask you, if the reform of the imperial examinations is carried out, schools will be established. You said that the money for the establishment of schools and the distribution to the teachers, should the local government add student donations like in the past? Or should it be funded by the imperial treasury?"

"Let me ask you again, if it is to promote practical learning, should we directly abandon the selection of imperial examinations and only use the talents of practical learning from all over the place? The old law of gentry power?"

The prince naturally avoided the first question about where the money came from, and answered the second question first.

"I think that if we want to promote practical learning, we should naturally only change the content of the imperial examination and keep the form of the imperial examination. The division of subjects is the imperial examination, the eight-legged examination is the imperial examination, and the sanshe is also the imperial examination. It is nothing more than 'diligent and studious, and if you are good at learning, you will be an official'. .”

"If the imperial examination and the school are consistent, the practical learning will not encourage self-improvement; and if the imperial examination and the practical learning are separated, the school must have a name but no reality."

"Who is it? The path of profit and wealth is what people are looking for; the heavy karma is what people are afraid of."

"If learning practical learning can lead to profit and fortune, then practical learning must prosper. Even in the past, practical learning was established in the country, because the navy, colonization, commerce, factories, etc., created many ways of profit and fortune that did not exist in the past, so practical learning just emerged."

"If it is only for the promotion of practical learning, the method of examination and selection must not be discarded."

"As for the old laws of the court's recruitment of talents, avoidance of fellow villagers, and official suppression of gentry power... I think it is in line with the original intention of the emperor's question of 'where does the money come from'."

"If you run a school, if the local government collects student donations, it will be the same as the old thing of the previous dynasty; when it comes, the power of the gentry will expand day by day. If there is no local support, it will not be possible to run a school; and the teachers of the school, etc., It all depends on the survival of the local gentry, and I am afraid that in the future, it will not be like the old Confucian so-called 'school discusses local government', and it will be really feudal again."

Li Yan nodded in approval, and said with a smile: "My son is not such a pedantic and empty talker."

"As I say, removing the old and bringing forth the new, and unifying the world, this is the essence of an emperor."

"Destroying the old and bringing in the new is to prevent revolution."

"Unification of the world is to prevent feudalism."

"If one of the two is missing, the emperor will not be an emperor, and the emperor will not be an emperor."

"A school of outstanding learning, too radical, no king and no father."

"The country gentry is old and ancient, talking freely for three generations, and really wants to be feudal."

"However."

"The school of Xianxue is limited by the old marks of Duke Xingguo. If they want to get things done, they need a powerful state apparatus. Therefore, when they are not absolutely desperate, they will most likely go to repair the Yellow River channel like Duke Xingguo."

"So, they can be used. But always put on a 'progressive emperor' look."

"It's like setting up a school."

"Yu Dayi, this is progress."

"Yu Xiaoli, recruit more teachers and pay from the treasury. If they used to raise hundreds of thousands of useless students, they would support them more."

"This matter can change from the debate of 'conservative and progressive' to the debate of 'leave the left leg first or the right leg first'."

"Is it Xianxing Practical Learning?"

"Or should we first equalize the land and relocate the people to reclaim the east?"

"Although, in essence, the two are not contradictory. Equalizing the land, taxing and reclaiming eastward, can also establish schools."

"However, this is called creating something out of nothing. By forcibly opposing two things that are obviously not contradictory, this can divide the schools of explicit learning."

"Han Feiyan: Confucianism and Mohism are the most prominent learning in the world. Where Confucianism came, Confucius did. Where Moht came, Mo Zhai also. Since the death of Confucius, there have been Confucianism of Zizhang, Confucianism of Zisi, and Confucianism of Yan's. Confucianism includes the Confucianism of the Meng family, the Confucianism of the Qidiao family, the Confucianism of the Zhongliang family, the Confucianism of the Sun family, and the Confucianism of the Lezheng family. Since the death of Mozi, there has been Mohism of the Xiangli family, and there has been a Xiangfu The ink of the family has the ink of the Dengling family. Therefore, after Confucius and Mo, Confucianism is divided into eight, and Mo is divided into three. The choice is opposite and different, and they all claim to be true. Learn from the world?"

"That's what you call it, it's the study of distinction."

"Scholarly, the study of change."

"The science of change is infinitely divisible."

"As a king, you must not feel terrible when you hear the words 'reform and progress'. Instead, you should make the best use of the situation, separate the obvious learning from Confucianism and Mohism, and support one branch as the correct learning."

"In the past, Confucianism was divided into eight groups, and in the end, all schools of thought were deposed to respect Confucianism. Which one was respected? Which one is the orthodox school? Which one is the orthodox Confucianism, if Confucius is revived, do you recognize it?"

"The first emperor burned books and buried Confucianism. In the end, Confucianism did not dominate? But is Confucianism the same as Confucianism in the pre-Qin period?"

"Da Yu said that it is better to control the water than to block it. But it does not mean that flooding is worse than flooding. It is said that it is better to follow the trend and let the river follow the course that Dayu wants it to go. This is called blocking than sparse."

"It's not like his father Gun, who died to protect the original river course and died in the end."

"It's not just letting the floods flood the river for three to fifty years, and naturally there will be new river channels."

"Today's affairs in the world, we must do this in order to find that glimmer of life."

"It's difficult, it's difficult. Encourage it, encourage it."

"If it is like Dayu controlling the water, what is the way? The way seems to be very simple, but the water flows to the lower place. Only by using the Taoist technique can things be done. If you don't know this way, everything will be over."

"Yes, I still ask you to read more books, especially some books that talk about class, production, and capital in the name of Duke Xing."

In fact, the prince really read a lot of books like this.

After reading it, the prince said: "Father taught me, and my ministers will keep it in mind. However, if you read these books, the policies of the school of learning seem to be very reasonable."

"In the past, Xu Guangqi talked about "The Elements of Geometry", saying: There are four things you don't need: don't doubt, don't speculate, don't try, and don't change. There are four things you can't get: you can't get rid of it, you can't get it if you want to refute it, and you can't get it if you want to reduce it. , If you want to put it back and forth, you can’t get it. There are three to three abilities: it seems to be extremely obscure, but it is actually very clear, so it can be used to clarify the most obscure of other things; It is the most complicated; it seems the most difficult, but it is actually the most easy, so it can be easy to change the most difficult of other things. Easy is born of simplicity, and simplicity is born of clarity.

"And the logic of "Geometry" requires two conditions."

"First, the hypothesis must be premised on the basic axiom; second, the reasoning and calculation based on this premise is seamless and logical."

"From this point of view, the policies of the school of Xianxue, such as land equalization, resettlement, reclamation, and industry, are not because of what the sages said, but the conclusions that are drawn through reasoning and calculation."

"From this point of view, it is inevitable. As practical learning flourishes, so too will the strategies of manifest learning..."

Li Yan still smiled when he heard the words, and said: "I got it. But let me ask you, the system of this dynasty is not like that of Japan and North Korea. Land sales are all based on title deeds, and the change of dynasty is just a change of color. It was the same land before, so it's just Even if the land is equalized, can the land ownership system be changed? It is possible to equalize the land, but not to change the land ownership system. Do you know the difference?"

Of course the prince can tell the difference.Because the previous Confucian revivalist debates, and a series of historical operations such as Wang Mang's restructuring, are not as simple as equalizing the land, but a matter of mobilizing ownership.This problem is very easy to distinguish in Dashun.

Seeing the prince nodding, Li Yan said again: "Then, if you continue to deduce, you will find the problem."

"According to their inferences, and the difference between the so-called new production and the old production, according to what they said, the new production system must continuously erode the old production system in order to be able to maintain it; and if it is a completely new production system, it cannot be maintained. , is about to disintegrate, because in the end, after all the calculations, the deduced result is that the things produced will definitely not be sold, so they must either expand abroad or create a group of producers outside the new system.”

"However, with the merger after Juntian and the disintegration of the old system in places such as Southeast Asia and India, the old system gradually withered away. Doesn't it mean that this is also a dead end in the end?"

"But the school of eminent learning only pushed it to the step of large-scale industry, and it stopped abruptly. Why do you say it?"

"Because it stops abruptly here, we can still maintain a significant combination of learning. If we continue to push down, we will have to split up."

"But even so, even if it is only pushed to the stage of large-scale industry, there are still endless debates within it."

"Equal fields? Unequal? ​​Even if they relocate and cultivate in the future, is it possible to merge?"

"Currency customs and internal tax, should they be released or opened?"

"Is it by natural order? Or by the art of salt and iron?"

"Railways, canals, etc., government-run or private?"

"Is it to continue Xingguo Gong's Dongjin Fusang, which is driven by capital's pursuit of profit? Or is it the Dongjin Fusang that the government-run capital invests in reclamation and resettlement for profit?"

"Just pushing it to the stage of big industry, there are already quite a lot of internal disagreements."

"You talk about the ideas of the school of learning, but you actually recognize its 'skills'."

"What is art?"

"The radicals in the Xianxue are nothing more than saying that most people in the Xinxue are both educated and educated, and the key is that they have nothing to do with the landlords and gentry in the interior. If the reform of the previous dynasty cannot be achieved, and the Taizu's uprising soldiers were able to do the same thing as equalizing the land."

"So they feel that the time is right now. They can rely on these hundreds of thousands of new scholars who have nothing to do with landlords and gentry, rely on the army and state machinery in the hands of the imperial court, and rely on the imperial court to support soldiers even if they don't collect mu tax now. According to the current situation, we should act radically to solve the problem of equalizing land, taxation, eastward expansion, reclamation, creating an agricultural environment for the purpose of exchanging currency and developing industry in one fell swoop.”

"What is Tao?"

"Equalizing the fields, advancing eastward, cultivating, creating an agricultural environment for the purpose of exchanging currency and developing industry, this is the Tao."

"This, don't you agree? If you agree, then there is no difference in the ultimate goal. The only difference is how to go."

"For example, when building the Yellow River, everyone agrees to divert it to the north. The difference lies in whether to seize the Daqing River or the Xiaoqing River, or continue to go north to the old river course of Gyeonggi."

The prince pondered for a moment, then said in a low voice: "I think that the idea of ​​the school of eminent learning is still reasonable. If the imperial examinations are reformed in the future, most of the talents with practical learning will be landlords and gentry, and their families will also live on land rent. This requires the reform of land equalization. , it is really difficult."

It is actually normal for the emperor or even the prince to talk about equalizing and limiting land.

This is the political correctness of the traditional unified dynasty. Things can be ignored, but words must be said.

For normal traditional dynasties, not only can they speak casually without being shot, but they can even speak directly to the emperor.

At most, the emperor would not do anything, or mutter a few words about a small husband, what is wrong with a rich man, etc., but he would never arrest people and shoot people because of these words—including those who said that the Manchus were hanged, and they were in Xiantian. On the issue, we can only say "Although this is correct, but...", no matter how good Dashun is, it will not be inferior to Manqing.

And as for some regimes that are really inferior to the Manchu Qing on the issue of land equalization, they can't even be counted as a basic unified dynasty, so they are the scum of the regime.Wang Anshi was very likely to be shot for being a "bandit" because of the "Merger" poem.

The meaning of the prince is very clear.

To reform the law, we need talents and officials, which requires scholars.

And if the literate scholars are all landlords and gentry who live on land rent, then what's the point?
Therefore, he felt that the idea of ​​the Significant School was advisable.It is indeed true now that a large group of scholars who do not live on land rent have been left behind in the legacy of previous reforms, and they are in an awkward position. They also hope to be "rectified", and there is no shortage of basic talents.

And the imperial court now has financial revenue other than mu tax in its hands, and it doesn't even collect the tens of millions of silver from the mainland, which has almost no impact.

Seeing that the prince thought so, Li Yan was not in a hurry or annoyed, and asked instead: "Then my son's opinion, is it to force the land to be equal? ​​Or is it Yan Lizhi's redemption?"

The prince was puzzled, and asked back: "Didn't my father do similar reforms before? By forcing industrial savings, building railways, and transforming the landlords in the first provinces..."

Hearing this, Li Yan laughed loudly, shook his head and said, "You know what it is but don't know why. Do you think the transformation depends on the construction of railways?"

"That's skin."

"The real bone is the land north of Songliao. The railway bond can give priority to land purchase. I exchanged the land north of Songliao for their transformation, not just relying on the railway. Otherwise, do you think it is so easy?"

"In other words, you have to have something in your hand before you can make them transform. If you don't have anything in your hand, how do you transform?"

"Creating something out of nothing? If the industry is so simple, you can make something out of nothing, and you can benefit from building an industry. Why is the problem so troublesome?"

"If you have industry in your hand, you can exchange industrial shares for their land; if you have state-owned land in your hand, you can also exchange these state-owned land for the land they already have."

"You only look at the skin and don't see the bones, thinking that the previous redemption reform was based on something out of nothing? It relied on industrial profits instead of land rent? You are completely wrong. It relied on the state-owned land in your hands in exchange. Because it is not enough to rely on the profit of the industry alone, but rely on the railway to make the originally worthless state-owned land valuable, and then exchange it."

"How much of the current industry is yours? You don't have anything in your hands, how can you exchange other people's things with others?"

"For example, a large textile factory. Now if it belongs to the imperial court, the imperial court will take out a quarter of it and buy back its land, so it can be done."

"The problem is, this big textile factory is not yours now, so why do you take other people's things and buy the land?"

"It's not impossible to create something out of nothing."

"For example, when the railway was built before, the land north of Songliao was originally wasteland, which was not worthy of capital investment; but after the railway was built, beans could be planted and transported to sell for money. This is called creating something out of nothing, and it was the land that was born."

"Now, you tell me, you create something out of nothing, and force the industry to save the landlord's redemption fee. What can you build to ensure profitability?"

"Think about it again, what I just said, it can last for ten years, and it can last for twenty years. This industry and commerce must have a serious disease of blood and fire. If you are doing a bunch of things now, just in time for future crises, wouldn't the world be in chaos? ?”

"Besides, since Duke Xingguo left, the gold and silver from Fusang and the profits from Ouyin have poured in every year. If there is really a profitable industry, it will be your turn to run it? Merchants are not short of money. If it is really profitable, wouldn't it be Do you know how to vote?"

"Moreover, when I reformed back then, I was really holding something in my hand. It was exchanged for state-owned land and industries developed by mining. It was exchanged for something that would definitely be profitable. Do you really think I Is it the empty-handed white wolf who lightly completed the attempt to redeem the average land?"

"The Xianxue faction is very aware of this, so what they think about equalizing the land is not at all a redemption, but a forced division."

"Because, either, transform into industry, with redemption costs as compulsory industrial savings, but the question is what profitable industry can you think of?"

"Either, the redemption fee is still paid to the landlord, then this is meaningless. Because the meaning of the school of thought is to rely on the mu tax after land equalization to forcibly develop industries such as shipbuilding and steel, and use the mu tax after land equalization to complete the completion of the government-run method." What's the use of buying and buying rent to the landlords and squires?"

"The reason why the world waits and sees is because my previous reforms have been redemption and transformation. They may accept the redemption and transformation, so they just wait and see and don't oppose it with all their strength. However, if they want to force the division, how can they be willing? You You know, Donglu can protect their land, but they are even willing to shave their heads."

"It's really about to fall out and use a bayonet to solve it... You also need to know that the blooming flowers in the area where the fire is cooking oil will not last long. Once there is a change in Europa, the market will be blocked, and there will be blood. If the disease breaks out, something big will happen.”

"At that time, under internal and external troubles, how can the situation of the world still be under your control? At that time, I am afraid that it will not be under your control. Once it is out of control... it will be done, and the world will be better But the foundation of the ancestors, Sanzhao and Sanmu are all dead."

"That's what I said: the great way is fifty, the sky is fourty-nine, and the human way is one. If there is a slight mistake in this lifeline, it cannot be grasped."

"And this line of life is in the crisis of plethora of outbreaks in the future. In the crisis, if you do well, you can take advantage of the crisis to buy bottom at a low price, buy its assets with the imperial treasury and the central bank, and become official property."

"Before that, no wars, no open borders, more money, and more food and rice."

"When the crisis is over and the prosperity returns, the imperial court has the industry in its hands and catches up with a new round of economic upsurge, so it will use industrial bonds to redeem and transform."

"So, kill six birds with one stone."

"First, the emerging big merchants and merchants have suffered a great loss of vitality. In the hands of the imperial court, the assets that can be controlled have doubled."

"Secondly, during the crisis, using Fusang fields to help the unemployed and hired workers won their support and disintegrated their ambitions."

"Thirdly, taking advantage of the urgent need for the market in the crisis, Zheng Boke Duan Yuyan, let go of Henan and Anhui, the collapse of the old economy, commercial exploitation, called the 'radical' ebb tide left by Xing Guogong."

"Fourth, the disintegration of the School of Practical Learning is a possibility for people from one or two provinces to unite, and the selection of talents by the School of Practical Learning does not make it necessary to use them."

"Fifth, the flag of change is firmly in the hands of the imperial court."

"The sixth...is...heh...the surname is still Li in this world."

"This is the glimmer of hope. If it can be done, it may keep the crown alive."

"I also know that it is extremely difficult. If there is a slight mistake, there will be no redemption. But this is a matter of changing fate against the sky. Fortunately, I have learned a lot of truths. Otherwise, once the plethora of blood breaks out, I will be at a loss. All contradictions will explode , unable to return to heaven."

(End of this chapter)