Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Zhang Tianlun accompanied Li Mi all the way from Zhangye to Jiuquan City.

Entering Guazhou and crossing the desert, Zhang Tianlun said to Li Mi:
"Bi Gong, let's rest in Jiuquan first, find a caravan and then go to Guazhou."

Li Bi nodded. He is also proficient in geography. He knows that the desert between Jiuquan and Guazhou is not a joke. For safety, let's go to the city first.

Compared with Zhangye in Wuwei, the city of Jiuquan is much smaller.

However, Jiuquan is still prosperous beyond Li Mi's expectation. Is this really Hexi?
The once prosperous Guanzhong area in the Tang Dynasty is not as rich as Hexi!

Walking into this Jiuquan City, it is not the same as Zhangye.

The city of Zhangye is in good order, and there are tolerances patrolling the streets everywhere. Zhang Tianlun said that there are tax collectors in charge of tax collection, police officers in charge of public security, and "urban management" in charge of sanitation and street order.

I heard that there are thousands of people eating the imperial food in Zhangye City, which made Li Bi speechless.

You must know that there are only a thousand officials who manage Chang'an City, including the government servants who do not receive salaries.

And those in Zhangye City who eat the imperial food have to get their salary every month.

It's no wonder that the order in Zhangye City is so good. With so many officials in charge, can the order be bad?
Li Mi also heard that the laws in Zhangye City are so detailed that it is outrageous.

For example, there are rules for setting up stalls. Not every place can set up stalls, and some places can only set up stalls at night.

Vendors who set up stalls are responsible for cleaning the sanitation of their stalls. If the sanitation inspection fails, the "urban management" will also fine them.

Another example is that restaurants and restaurants can not be opened in any house. They must be registered with the tax department to pay taxes, and they must also ensure that there is a water tank for fire extinguishing in the back kitchen. Restaurants that are open at night cannot be opened near residential buildings.

These terrifyingly detailed laws and regulations were promulgated by Cui Tao after he became the prefect.

These laws regulate almost every aspect of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

How to travel in a carriage, and how to deal with a carriage hitting someone.

How to build a new house, how to repair the collapsed old house.

These detailed regulations, as well as a large number of officials, are the fundamental reasons why Zhangye can maintain order in the bustling.

In Li Mi's view, this Cui Tao should be a legalist believer.

This kind of law stipulates all aspects of people's lives, so that everyone can live under a framework of order. Isn't this what the Legalists said, "no distinction between relatives and estrangements, no distinction between high and low, and one is determined by the law."

However, in Li Mi's opinion, the rules of Zhangye City are too strict.

Although compared with Qin Fa, who was about to chop off his feet at every turn, the consequences of most violations in Zhangye City were fines.

But Li Mi also saw that the order of Confucian rituals and laws in Zhangye City had disintegrated under the detailed laws.

When many people encountered problems, they would go to the "court" set up by the government to mediate or litigate, instead of relying on the clan to judge.

And the order established through fines naturally filled Zhangye City with a luxurious atmosphere of chasing money.

This made Li Mi smell as dangerous as Chang'an City in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

Under the surface of the order in Zhangye City, a value-oriented order based on money is being established. Not only the people are chasing interests, but even the government offices and Li Changfang in Zhangye City are pursuing "political achievements."

This "political achievement" is naturally the ability to make money.

This smell is so familiar to Li Bi.

In Li Mi's view, the biggest foundation of Zhangye's prosperity is Cui Tao, the governor of Zhangye who is now leading Zhangye.

All of this depends on Cui Tao's personal moral self-discipline and personal ability to drive Zhangye's chariot. Just like the emperor in the early Kaiyuan period, once the superiors start to lose their morals, the system will quickly deteriorate.

These officials with as many as a thousand people will become vampires who exploit the people layer by layer.

And all of this was not what Li Mi thought of, it was all an article he read in the Longyou newspaper.

This article titled "A Small Discussion on the Gains and Losses of the Qin System" is easy to understand and does not use any allusions.

However, the reflection on the system of the Qin Dynasty is very profound, especially the last sentence, "In the hands of the first emperor, the Qin system was a means of unifying the six countries, enriching the country and strengthening the army, but in the hands of Hu Hai, the second emperor of Qin, it was a means of mutilating the people and exploiting the world." Decay."

"When Qin II died, many officials served from the period of the first emperor to the period of Qin II. The same Qin law, the same executive officials, can get the opposite effect, which fully demonstrates the instability of the Legalist system. sex."

This article made Li Bi deeply think that the emperor is not a recent example of this article.

If King Jianning governed Longyou in this way, Li Mi would worry that King Jianning would not be another emperor in the future.

But after entering Jiuquan, the prosperity here is different from that of Zhangye.

There are not so many yamen servants and official servants on the street, but the shops can be operated in a regular manner, and there are not so many exaggerated signs in Zhangye.

Li Mi asked Zhang Tianlun: "Jiuquan seems to be different from Zhangye. There are so few officials on this street, how can these shops abide by the rules?"

Li Mi was a low-level official, so he certainly knew the difficulty of "governing the people".

If there is no government regulation, then the owners of each store will put the products on the street, or directly let the shopkeepers pull people into the store on the street.

There is direct vicious competition between various stores, and the final result is that no one can operate well.

Although Li Mi hated the "Qin Law" instinctively, he had to agree that without rules there would be nothing perfect, and if the common people were not restricted, the final result would be chaos and disorder.

Zhang Tianlun said: "Bi Gong, this Jiuquan is different from Zhangye. Jiuquan is managed by various industry associations."

"What is a trade association?"

Zhang Tianlun said: "I also read it on the forum, oh not in the newspaper."

"All walks of life in Jiuquan have their own associations. For example, there is a catering association in restaurants. The members of the association are all practitioners. The practitioners themselves elect a president of the association, which is the 'head' of the association."

"The head of the association has to meet with the members of the association every month to formulate the association's charter. Stores that fail to implement the industry charter will be warned or even fined by the association. If they refuse to correct themselves, they will be expelled from the association."

Li Mi asked: "Why do you have to join this association?"

Zhang Tianlun said: "The association can coordinate the conflicts between various stores, and the association can also negotiate in the name of the whole industry to get greater discounts."

Seeing that Li Mi still didn't understand, Zhang Tianlun said:

"I also said that the catering association can negotiate prices with the wine industry association. With so many restaurants negotiating together, the price of buying wine must be much cheaper than negotiating with a single restaurant."

"If you don't join the association, you will not only be squeezed out by your peers, but the cost will be much higher than those who join the association."

"And the leaders of various industries will go to the Governor's Mansion every month to discuss the development of Jiuquan with Zeng Zhizhou."

Li Mi was stunned for a moment and asked, "Isn't this an association of the Mohists?"