I want to be emperor

Chapter 1144 Core Goal

In the autumn and September of the 53rd year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue led a group of people to the Royal Institute of Technology for an inspection.

In the past few decades, Luo Zhixue has often gone out for inspections, but the Royal Institute of Technology has been the most frequent, and he has basically maintained a frequency of going once every two years.

Sometimes it is specifically to look at the research on some significant technological inventions. Sometimes there are no major technological breakthroughs, but it is mainly to look at some conventional technological breakthroughs and express condolences to the scientists.

Mainly to reflect the emphasis on scientific and technological research.

After all, the Dachu Empire was an imperial country, and the emperor's personal influence on all aspects of society was huge... If Luo Zhixue showed his attitude that he attached great importance to the development of science and technology, then many officials below would also embrace it. In the field of science and technology Pay more attention to it.

This further extends to various supporting policies and funds for the development of science and technology.

If you want to support the development of science and technology, you cannot just rely on your words. Many technological breakthroughs require a large amount of funds.

Especially breakthroughs in various materials and processing techniques... Behind this are often a variety of costly experiments, and success is found in countless experiments.

And testing is expensive!

At the same time, how will new technologies be implemented and put into industrial production?

This requires corresponding policy guidance and even support from the imperial government.

The most typical one is the automobile industry. Before the official attention of the Dachu Empire, the three major agricultural machinery companies had actually been developing internal combustion engines for nearly ten years, and even developed primitive gasoline engines... Four-stroke, electronic ignition technology It actually appeared at that time.

However, due to the immaturity of the technology and the lack of funds for in-depth research and development, the three major agricultural machinery companies invariably gave up the continued research and development of internal combustion engines.

In the years of the late 1930s and early 1940s, the three major agricultural machinery companies, which had a large amount of internal combustion engine technology, still needed to rely on the agricultural equipment business basically consisting of steam tractors to survive; the predecessor of Songhe Automobile Company, Hekou Machinery Company, even Because of operating difficulties, it had to supply a large number of tractor chassis to survive.

It was not until the mid-1940s that due to Luo Zhixue's attention, the empire quickly launched various policies and financial support for the internal combustion engine industry.

Various tax exemption policies are directly fulfilled, and the government provides guarantees to help companies obtain low-interest or even interest-free loans. Not to mention the routine operations, the government even directly stops and gives money in the name of supporting new technologies.

As long as your internal combustion engine technology has made a breakthrough and your project has some prospects, you can apply for special financial support policies and receive direct financial support.

In the 1940s, the Chu Empire officially provided internal combustion engines and the subsequent extension of the automobile industry through tax exemptions or refunds, scientific research fund rewards, undertaking corporate loan interest expenses, free supply of industrial land, and local government internal combustion engine products, such as Various measures such as gasoline tractors, official vehicles, and military vehicles have provided a cumulative blood transfusion of more than 30 million yuan to the internal combustion engine industry.

Thirty million Chu Yuan was spent to cultivate the early automobile industry... and the cultivated automobile industry showed strong potential, and then gained the pursuit of countless capitals, with a large influx of funds from the capital market, and finally It has created a huge automobile industry market with total production and sales expected to exceed 2.5 million vehicles in the current 53 years of Chengshun.

The reason why the automobile industry is where it is today, or that it can rapidly develop from early primitive internal combustion engines to contemporary mature automobiles in just over ten years, is inseparable from the empire's huge policies and financial support. of.

Of course, from many perspectives such as technological development, industrial application, and social changes, the Chu Empire was able to develop such a huge automobile industry over time even without direct support from the imperial government.

But this process may take twenty to thirty years or even longer.

The strong official support from the empire has greatly shortened this process...

Moreover, the imperial official's strong support for the automobile industry is not just a simple investment. In fact, the official benefits are more... such as the large number of jobs created by the development of the automobile industry, the increase in people's income, and the increase in tax revenue.

In the early days, in order to encourage the development of the automobile industry, a full tax exemption policy was implemented for many years. Later, after the development of the automobile industry, the full tax exemption policy was no longer implemented, but each locality provided some tax exemptions according to its own situation... Generally speaking, contemporary The automobile industry already enjoys certain tax concessions.

But even after this reduction, the tax revenue is still very large. The direct tax revenue collected by the imperial government from the automobile industry far exceeds the capital cost of supporting the automobile industry back then...

Not to mention that in addition to the direct taxes from the automobile industry, there are also a lot of indirect taxes.

The automobile industry is a typical leading industry. Its development directly drives the development of many other industries, and the development of related industries can also bring more employment and tax revenue.

Therefore, the benefits gained by the imperial government in supporting the automobile industry far outweighed the costs.

From an investment perspective, the Chu Empire's series of supportive investments in the internal combustion engine industry and the subsequent automobile industry over the past decade or so have yielded profits that are dozens or even hundreds of times higher...even from the politics of the entire empire. If measured from a strategic perspective such as the economy and people's livelihood, the returns obtained cannot even be measured in numbers!

How to estimate?

This is a super industry whose output value is expected to account for more than 30% of the entire industrial system's output value when it matures... You can't measure this kind of industry using pure economic data.

Instead, it should be measured by higher levels such as social stability, economy and people's livelihood!

And tax returns were not the main reason why the empire's top officials vigorously promoted the automobile industry... it was not even one of the reasons.

The reasons why the empire promotes the development of the automobile industry are complicated to say the least, but it is actually very simple: first of all, there is a large amount of employment, and employment is equal to people's income.

The second is to replace mules and horses with cars on a large scale, reducing the food needed by mules and horses, and then freeing up food and farmland to meet the needs of the people... tens of millions of mules and horses consume enough food or farmland to feed two people. With a population of 300 million, it may allow the existing Chu population to eat more and cheaper food.

In the final analysis, both of these are aimed at improving people's living standards.

Improving people's living standards is the core factor for the Chu Empire to vigorously promote the automobile industry.

Not just the automobile industry, but in fact the underlying purpose behind most other policies is to improve people's livelihood.

Making the lives of 800 million Chu people better is an important pursuit of the contemporary Chu Empire government... Of course, this is not the core goal of the imperial government!

The core goal of the imperial government is always to maintain the imperial rule with Luo Zhixue at its core!

As a typical imperial regime, the Dachu Empire government, like other regimes, had a starting point for all administrations and had only one purpose: to maintain rule!

As for people's livelihood, military strength, and many other messy things, they are all means and tools to maintain rule.

After understanding this, you will be able to understand why Luo Zhixue, Prince Luo Jian, and the core bosses of the Chu Empire, that is, those ministers of staff, keep an eye on ordinary people all day long and worry about the money ordinary people make. Is there enough food, is there enough food to eat, is the clothing warm, is the living environment good...

Because these most basic living standards of ordinary people, which seem to have nothing to do with these big shots, are the foundation for whether the Chu Empire can maintain its rule! You can't expect 800 million people of the empire to go hungry and shout "Long Live Your Majesty," right?

If you mess around and make the people miserable, you can't expect millions of soldiers of the Chu army to still side with the emperor and the powerful, right?

The soldiers of the Chu army also have families, relatives and friends... and most of them are ordinary people.

Soldiers, they also have a stand!

Such a simple truth may not be clear to the ordinary officials of the empire and even some dignitaries, or they may regard it as invisible... But the real rulers of the Great Chu Empire who are able to enter the Council of Ministers and become ministers of council are very clear about this. !

Some of these big guys who can enter the Senate are all human beings... It's hard to say whether these people are good or bad, but their ability and cognition are definitely no problem.

As for the Emperor Luo Zhixue, he knew better... He himself started as a rebel, and after unifying China, he also guarded against others rebelling against him.

Many designs in the military and political structure are actually not meant to improve the combat effectiveness of the army or improve administrative efficiency, but to avoid the emergence of a single powerful official...

In order to avoid the emergence of one powerful minister, Luo Zhixue simply hired nine powerful ministers... This is how the Council of Ministers system came about. Later, the Council of Ministers was expanded, and the number of ministers of councilors was expanded to eleven people. .

When there is only one powerful minister, it is easy for this powerful minister to have unnecessary ideas, such as various coups...

But when there are eleven powerful ministers...even if one of them has this idea, he has to hold it in, because you can't ensure that others will rebel with you. Even if they rebel with you, why can you be the boss? , I want to be your subordinate?

In the Great Chu Empire's council system, there has never been a so-called chief minister, foreman of ministers, etc... If there is one, it is the former Luo Zhixue, and the current prince... the two of them It is the imperial power itself.

The eleven ministers are not subordinate to each other, each is responsible for a certain aspect of affairs... Each of them is a big boss, with a large group of interest groups standing behind him!

If you want them to unite to rebel and elect a new emperor... it is better to expect them to commit collective suicide.

As for rebellion alone... there is basically no hope!

Although the Minister of Counselor has a high and powerful position, he only has power within his own jurisdiction and has no power to dictate other matters.

For example, the most important military issue... the civilian ministers of staff can't even express their opinions on military issues. Apart from calling for cuts in military spending every year, they have basically no other tricks.

And even within the military... there is a system called the Military Academy, and the big guys in the Military Academy each represent a large group of interests. How can we say that a union is just a union?

The two systems of the Council of Ministers and the Military Council are beyond the control of no one except the emperor himself... and it is unlikely that a single powerful minister will emerge.

Luo Zhixue created these two organizations to guard against a powerful and powerful official...

When Luo Zhixue prepares for rebellion, in addition to taking precautions at the upper levels of the organization, he will naturally not forget to take precautions at the bottom level... This is how various people's livelihood measures come about.

These people have had enough to eat and drink, so naturally they will not be idle and engage in rebellion... Although people's needs are endless, and after eating and drinking enough, they will always want more, but in order to have enough to eat and drink, in order to Those who dare to rebel due to other needs are still very few...

As long as they can get by, ordinary people actually don't care much about the changes in power at the top... As long as they have enough to eat and drink, it doesn't matter who becomes the emperor.

But... a group of hungry people who don't have enough to eat can do anything to survive. Rebellion is just one of the many options.

For ordinary people, prevention is actually the best thing. As long as people's livelihood measures are taken well, people can live a comfortable life.

As for the small number of ambitious, ignorant, courageous and other random people...it is not enough for these people to just feed and drink them, they must have strong intimidation and pressure.

So there is the Internal Affairs Department of the Hanlin Academy... From the beginning, and even now, the Internal Affairs Department of the Hanlin Academy in the Great Chu Empire has had the sole responsibility of preventing rebellion!

In order to prevent rebellion, the Internal Affairs Section of the Hanlin Academy monitored almost every senior civilian official and general, and selectively monitored mid-level officials and military officers in sensitive positions.

At the same time, branches have been set up in various places. What are they used for? Collect local public opinion at any time, control the local civil rebellion situation, and attack the main rebels in advance to avoid the situation from expanding.

As for counterintelligence, dealing with saboteurs and the like is just incidental business.

And anti-corruption and the like are not within the scope of their work. It is just that during daily work, they will inevitably collect a large number of evidence of corruption and bending of the law by officials... But unless there are very few special circumstances where His Majesty personally orders the collection of files, such as the purge of special officials, Otherwise, this kind of evidence would often remain hidden in archives and never see the light of day.

This is actually the reason why the Internal Affairs Department of the Hanlin Academy has been running smoothly in the past few decades without encountering great resistance or even resistance from officials.

The Internal Affairs Department does not care about corruption and other matters, and most officials and generals think they will not do it if they rebel... Even if there are a handful of people who want to rebel in their hearts, they have to say they don't want to. Since they don't want to rebel, then the Internal Affairs Department of the Hanlin Academy will not They are no threat.

Since there is no threat, there is no need to object...

After all, if you object on the front foot, the Internal Affairs Department will conduct a thorough investigation on you. What is the investigation? , check the evidence of your rebellion...

Otherwise, why would you oppose an agency dedicated to preventing insurgency?

Besides wanting to rebel, what other reason could there be?

In addition to the Hanlin Academy, the army is also an important means to prevent rebellion... This is why most of the more than one million regular troops of the Chu Empire are deployed in directly administered territories, especially in East Asia!

In fact, only a small part of the regular army of the Dachu Empire was used to deal with the indigenous people... The vast majority of the regular army with advanced equipment was used to guard against internal rebellions!

That's why the Chu army's military structure is so complicated, including the army, navy, guards, armed tax police, coast guard, palace guard room... In addition, there are provincial garrison troops, militia, and armed patrols. etc.

At the same time, the top brass of the Chu Army, under the instruction of Luo Zhixue, were preparing to form an independent air force into an army. They transferred the Army Air Force and the Naval Air Force to form a service specifically used for sky operations, the Air Force.

However, the Guards Air Force is not within the scope of the deployment.

The Guards not only has an air force, but also a fleet...

The Guards of the Great Chu Empire were actually a smaller version of the three armies that were directly controlled by the emperor and only took orders from the emperor. It had a complete set of various institutions and services.

(End of this chapter)