Daming Yuanfu

Gao Pragmatic, who had just decided to use economic means to add another layer of insurance to the Japanese Civil War to strengthen control over the course and intensity of the war, did not expect that economic changes would also become the source of political changes within the Ming Dynasty for the next period of time.

In fact, Gao Pragmatic has been carrying out reforms for so many years, many of which involve the economy, but it is only now that he has triggered political changes. This in itself is outrageous. It can be assumed that if the current European countries were like the Ming Dynasty, with such a degree of economic changes in just twenty or thirty years, the king's head might be moved.

This is not an exaggeration, nor is it a random comparison, because according to the development of original history, in a few decades England will push an important historical figure to the center of the stage due to changes in the underlying economic logic. This person is called Cromwell. .

There has been no subversive change in the underlying logic of the Ming Dynasty's economy, and the main economic entity is still the small-scale peasant economic model composed of "owner farmers + landlords and tenants".

This is very important, because it is one of the two reasons why there will be no "Defender (Cromwell)" in the Ming Dynasty for the time being, and the other reason is that China is not a European-style feudal monarchy; A characteristically centralized empire.

Teacher Ma proposed the "Five Ownership Systems", which was further summarized by Teacher En as the "Five Social Forms Theory", dividing social development into five stages, namely "primitive clan society, ancient slavery society, medieval serfdom society, and modern employment society". Labor system (capitalist) society and future GC socialist society."

The "future" is still too far away from the era Gao Pragmatic lives in at this time, so we don't need to mention it for the time being. But it can basically be determined that the current era can be regarded as the early stage of change from a medieval serf society to a brocade wage labor society.

However, there is a huge problem here, that is, whether Master Ma or Master En, what they said is actually based on Europe. If they are forcibly applied to China at this time, there is obviously an error, and the error is still very large. ——China has long ceased to use serfdom! (Tens of thousands of words are omitted here. Interested friends can find the information and research by themselves. It is all public and does not involve politics.)

Many scholars in later generations studied why the bourgeois revolution first emerged in Europe, while China was at best just a "budget of the bourgeoisie" and nothing more happened. It cannot be said that these studies are not important, but Gao Pragmatic has always believed that they made things too complicated. In fact, the basic truth is quite simple, in two aspects.

On the one hand, it is the economic level, because China represents the pinnacle of the development of agricultural society; on the other hand, it is the political level, because China represents the pinnacle of the centralized imperial organizational form.

The former means that the landlord class, which represents the agricultural social economy, is far stronger than the bourgeoisie, which represents the commercial social economy; the latter means that the ruling class, which represents the interests of the old system of the empire, is much stronger than the ruling class, which represents the interests of the emerging system. bourgeoisie.

At this point, the truth is obvious.

The reason why the bourgeois revolution broke out in Europe before China was not because of how advanced Europe was, but because Europe was not advanced enough in the era of agricultural society. As a result, the "feudal monarchs and their interest groups" were too weak to wipe out the emerging capitalists. Class, this led to the victory of the European bourgeois revolution and pushed society into the bourgeois era.

On the contrary, the "feudal monarchs and their interest groups" in China have a much higher level of development than their European counterparts. Their strength cannot be said to be strong, it is simply too strong, so that their strength can be easily defeated at both the economic and political levels. Attack the so-called bourgeoisie - that is, the "wage labor system" interest groups.

The balance of power is too disparate. How can your bourgeois revolution succeed? Isn't it just reaching out and cutting off the hands, or cutting off the heads?

Do you think there was no "bourgeois revolution" in the Ming Dynasty? No, there were some, but they were solved as soon as they appeared.

For example, a ready-made case in the original history: "In June of the 1601th year of Wanli (), there was a flood, and the price of silk was very high. However, the people of Su (Suzhou) had no accumulation, and most of them were engaged in silk weaving. In the northeastern half of the city, about where weaver households live, Sun Long, the weaving eunuch, was in charge of tax matters. He joined Huang Jianjie and others to impose taxes without authorization, even to the common people of weaver households. ', and took the opportunity to ask the machinists to pay taxes per horse before selling them, so that 'all things became expensive and the people were miserable. They also made the machines to pay taxes widely, and then changed the industry accordingly, so that the servants had nothing to eat.'

Suzhou machine owners and workers couldn't bear it anymore. First, servants Xu Yuan, Gu Yuan, Qian Da, Lu Man and others gathered more than 2,000 people and elected Kunshan machine maker Ge as the leader. The next day, some unknown people, led by some unknown people, led dozens of people into Xuanmiao Temple to agree on an action. Ge Cheng used the banana fan as his command, vowing to "not take a single penny", "not to take an inch of the knife, not to plunder a thing." Warn the countryside to prevent its spread.' Starting from Fengmen, they beat tax collector Huang Jianjie to death at Miedu Bridge. They also killed Xu Yichun at noon, and then went to Chang and Xu gates respectively. All tax officials who were there were beaten and killed by the people. Afterwards, they went to the families of the gentry and wealthy families who had taken refuge with the tax inspectors, and 'destroyed their houses and utensils, or killed their relatives', or burned them with torches. "

The above is the "Weaving Change" that has been focused on by many historians and scholars such as Frederic Evans Wakeman Jr., Masao Mori, and Zhao Dingxin. For Wu Renshu, an associate researcher at the Institute of Modern History of the so-called "Academia Sinica" in Taiwan, the collective action of the urban masses in Suzhou Prefecture, Jiangsu Province is just one of the many "urban civil unrest" cases he has collected from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. one of.

In fact, there are many examples of such "civil uprisings". For example, in 1484, in the 1518th year of Chenghua, the eunuchs in Suzhou rebelled against eunuchs and demanded bribes; in 1575, in the 1708th year of Zhengde, Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, rebelled to protest against salary cuts; in 1796, in the third year of Wanli, Huangmei County, Huangzhou Prefecture in Hubei Province, rebelled against taxation; In , the forty-seventh year of Kangxi's reign, there was a grain-grabbing riot in Pengze County, Jiujiang Prefecture, Jiangxi Province; in , during the Qianlong Jiaqing period, official craftsmen in Jingdezhen, Fuliang County, Raozhou Prefecture, Jiangxi Province went on strike to demand prices...

The above are only a very small number of objective cases, and in Gao Pragmatic’s view, these cases actually have a certain nature of “bourgeois revolution”. But what's the result? None of them succeeded, they were all suppressed immediately.

What is power disparity? This is power disparity. As in the UK, where the bourgeoisie organized an army to defeat the king's army and then established a bourgeois regime, there is no need to even dream about it in China - you know how many people your "wage labor system" interest group has in total? I wonder how many people are in the "yeoman farmers + landlords and tenants" interest group that is the foundation of the empire?

The former is at most a million, and there is a high probability that it will not reach this number, while the latter is in the hundreds of millions. The reason why Gao Pragmatic has always been just to guide more people to participate in industry and commerce, especially to guide representatives of the big aristocracy and the big landlord class to participate in industry and commerce, is because he knows that the so-called "budget of the bourgeoisie" is really just a "bud" in China—— Standing opposite them was a hundred-foot giant.

Only by leading these great aristocrats to the "emerging commercial aristocrats", leading the big landowners and plutocrats to the "commercial plutocrats", and strengthening the base of the "wage labor system" can it be possible to promote the so-called bourgeois revolution - of course not revolution It's the best, after all, revolution will always bleed. However, Gao Pragmatic has little confidence in this. He estimates that there will be a revolution in the end, but he himself may not live until that time.

In short, China did not take the lead in entering the capitalist era, not because China’s “bourgeois sprout” appeared late, but because China’s old system and old interest groups were too powerful. No matter how fast that “bud” develops, their The relative strength is still not enough. In summary, the essence of Europe's first move is that "a small ship can easily turn around." However, in the agricultural era, China, as a super giant ship, would have a very difficult time turning around.

However, in this plane, after Gao Pragmatic's unremitting efforts, the first sign of a "U-turn" finally appeared. Although this matter does not look good at first glance - it started with Gao Pragmatic's impeachment.

The initiator of the impeachment was "Inspection of Seaway Management and Military Preparation of Ningshao and other places to participate in politics", generally referred to as "Ningshao Military Preparation", which was subordinate to the governor of Zhejiang. This person's name is Li Shuyuan, whose courtesy name is Duanhe and his nickname is Luchao. He is from Jinjiang, Fujian Province. He was born in the 55th Jinshi of the Second Class of Renchen Branch in the 20th year of Wanli.

He impeached Gao Pragmatic on eight counts, namely: party formation, favoritism, flattery, dereliction of duty, tyranny, initiating war, supporting bandits, and colluding with foreigners.

If his theory is true, even if he is convicted of even the most minor crime, Gao Pragmatic would at least be worthy of a "capital" - retaining his rank but removing his position. As long as two of the two are true, Gao Pragmatic should be dismissed directly.

At this moment, Gao Pangshi was in the cabinet duty room of Wenyuan Pavilion, reading the memorial to impeach himself with great interest to see how his eight charges were formed.

First, form a party. This one is very simple, even Gao Pragmatic can guess it - you are the leader of the Practical School Party known to the world. How can it be wrong for me to impeach you for forming a party? It's only natural, okay!

However, Gao Pragmatic didn't care about this. In fact, no one from the emperor to ordinary officials cared about this, because the law does not punish everyone - as long as there is such a thing as a court, party disputes are inevitable. If you are already fighting in a party, you must first have a party! No matter whether you admire practical learning, believe in spiritual learning, or only believe in classical Confucianism, as an official of the Ming Dynasty, you always have your own political views. If you have it, you will have a "party".

As for saying that he is pragmatic and "forms a party", it is mainly because of his status as the "party leader". But it doesn't matter. The so-called "party leader" is not an actual position. It is just something that everyone determines based on personal prestige, strength of connections, etc. Everything is in everyone's mind, and there will be no actual evidence at all.

The reason why the crime of forming a party is placed in the first place is because it is politically correct, just like Yan Shenggong must be surnamed Kong, and the actual meaning is different.

Beyond this point, the next charge is favoritism. Gao Pragmatic is quite interested in this one, because according to his own opinion, although he dare not say that he is selfless, he seems to have never done anything blatantly "selfish", right?

However, Li Bingbei clearly impeached, citing several examples: After so many years since the opening of the sea, several famous private ports along the coast have all been Gao pragmatic industries. Isn't this not Gao pragmatic relying on power to seek personal gain for himself?

Before and after I answered the tribute, Gao Jingshi established Jinghua Trading Co., Ltd., which now controls more than half of the trade volume in the border horse market. He even established Jinghua's own horse farm after pacifying the Northwest Rebellion, and now accounts for about 70% of the domestic horse trade in the Ming Dynasty. Isn't that right? Favoritism?

The Liaonan Salt Farm was originally an industry under the jurisdiction of the Liaodong Capital Division. When Gao Jingshi was in charge of Jin Fuhai and Gaibingdao, he passed reforms and turned the Liaonan Salt Farm into the Gao family's private salt farm. Isn't this favoritism?

He even mentioned some situations that Gao pragmatic himself was not very clear about, which surprised Gao pragmatically. For example, he said that Jinghua Infrastructure has implemented "urban sewer renovation" in wealthy counties across the country in recent years, and has used "coercion" and "interest bribery" to "persuade" local officials to agree to Jinghua Infrastructure's excavation and construction in the city. "New Sewer Engineering".

Why are these projects being implemented? Li Bingbei said that this is just Jinghua Infrastructure's promotion of their new product "socket cement pipe", and because this business can be spread across the country, the funds involved will be massive - which means that the profits will be It’s massive.

Obviously, this has also been attributed to pragmatic "favoritism". It's your family's business! In this way, urban sewers are being built all over the country, and the main product required is "socket-type cement pipes" that only your Jinghua Infrastructure can provide. If this was not your instigation, could it be my instigation?

How pitiful God, Gao Pragmatic really didn't know about this until he saw the bullet today. Gao Pragmatic knew about the product "socket-type cement pipe" and that it was used to build urban sewers. However, what Gao Pragmatic knew before had nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty.

When Jinghua Infrastructure first reported this matter to Gao Pragmatic, it said that research from the Department of Medicine of Craftsman School showed that common diseases such as malaria and cholera that are widespread in southern Xinjiang and Nanyang are closely related to urban sanitation, and the cities in southern Xinjiang are related. Compared with Ming Dynasty, the sanitation gap in domestic cities is mainly reflected in sewers.

Many cities in southern Xinjiang do not even have sewers at all, or even sewage canals. This has greatly affected the sanitary conditions and led to the endless emergence of diseases such as malaria and cholera. In order to reverse this severe situation and reduce the mortality rate of immigrants (locals still die, but obviously Jinghua’s focus is on Han immigrants), Jinghua Infrastructure proposes to build sewers extensively in cities across southern Xinjiang and Nanyang, and use their newly developed products " Socket type cement pipe”.

This suggestion seemed completely reasonable to Gao Pragmatic. If he hadn't been away in southern Xinjiang, he might have thought of dealing with it. Therefore, out of some kind of remedial mentality, he immediately approved the following after seeing the sample of the product in person, and asked the southern Xinjiang authorities to cooperate vigorously. He also asked Jinghua Infrastructure to produce in large quantities to avoid product shortages - and by the way approved the expansion. Asset funds are allocated.

However, something Gao Pragmatic did not expect happened: the population density in southern Xinjiang was not as good as that in the Ming Dynasty, and the urban density was not as good as that in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the sewerage project in southern Xinjiang was progressing very quickly, while the work in southern Xinjiang was only half completed. Eight years later, Jinghua Infrastructure had surplus production capacity, which gave Li Bingbei the basis for accusing Gao of pragmatism and favoritism. Jinghua Infrastructure went directly to local officials in various parts of the Ming Dynasty and launched a nationwide "sewer upgrade."

Although Gao Wuzhi has just seen the bullet and has not had time to ask the person in charge of Jinghua Infrastructure, he basically believes that this matter must exist - each department of Jinghua is responsible for its own profits and losses and has a reward and punishment system. Your own KPI can definitely do this!

Of course, this matter itself is a good thing in Gao's pragmatic view. Improving sewers is not only beneficial in terms of sewage discharge, but also helps in preventing waterlogging during heavy rains. What Gao Pragmatic is really worried about now is whether there will really be a large number of "fraud cases" during the advancement of Jinghua Infrastructure, right?
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Thanks to book friend "doni" for your monthly ticket support, thank you!

PS: In the past few days, I have looked back at the previous chapters, sorted out my thoughts, and felt it was time to write about the results of the reform and the subsequent development momentum. Of course, there will definitely be party struggles by the way, and social changes will be presented through party struggles. This is pretty much what should be described during the closing period.