unclear

Chapter 383 Shepherding Sheep on behalf of Heaven

Xuanfu has long been dominated by Shanxi merchants. If the mutual market is established there, who can trade with the Mongols, what goods are traded, and at what prices will be completely controlled by the shadows behind the Shanxi merchants. Others will not be able to trade at all. No one can get involved, including the emperor.

Gubeikou, Panjiakou, and Xifengkou belong to Miyun Guard and Dongsheng Guard respectively, and are under the jurisdiction of the Shanhaiguan General Army. Du Song and Sun Chengzong were both royalist officials, and coupled with the close surveillance of the Royal Horse Supervisor, the Navy, and the Royal Guards, not only Shanxi merchants could not cover the sky with one hand, but also other merchants had to act in a down-to-earth manner and follow the rules.

In addition, Hong Tao also had an ulterior motive. He wanted to use businessmen's capital to build infrastructure for the court for free.

In any commercially prosperous area, transportation issues must be put on the agenda. If the government does not invest, businessmen will raise their own funds to build the road. In this way, it was equivalent to helping the imperial court repair the war-prepared roads leading to the two important border passes.

The alliance with the Mongols will definitely only be short-lived. Even if the Ming Dynasty is willing to have permanent peace, the Mongols will not agree. The reason is very simple. In a few years, they will find that building factories in the mutual trade with the Ming Dynasty is a big loss. The Han people will make a lot of money, leaving the Mongolian tribes with nothing but water.

From a commercial point of view, there is no loss in selling wool and sheepskins that are of little use to the Han and Mongolians. However, our ancestors have finally summed up the problem of people. There is a saying that is good, don't worry about scarcity but inequality.

When everyone considers wool and sheepskin not to be good things, no one cares too much about their value. But when wool and sheepskin are processed into felt, blankets, woolen cloth and wool, and sold for more than ten or dozens of times the price, people will become very concerned about it.

At that time, the herdsmen shepherding sheep and shearing their wool must be unbalanced. They always feel that they have been working hard for a whole year, but in the end they are not earning as much as the cunning Han people. The same goes for the Mongolian nobles. They must have felt that the original distribution of benefits was unfair and they got less.

No matter what the business is, as long as this kind of psychological imbalance occurs between the partners, there can only be one ending: internal friction will increase, and eventually the company will close down. Then the shareholders turned against each other and became enemies. The good-tempered ones stayed away from each other until now, and the more explosive ones started to fight.

Therefore, when Hong Tao launched the plan to build a factory in each other's market and form an alliance, he had no intention of doing business for a long time. No, the business still needs to be done for a long time, but the model must be slightly changed to avoid the upcoming psychological imbalance.

It's strange to say that when things are done under the principle of fair dealing, some people will always feel that they are at a disadvantage. But when you occupy their homes, deprive them of their pastures, snatch their sheep, and turn them all into breeders, with only a dead salary every month and no shit rights, what do they do? All the problems are gone.

As long as they can be paid monthly, take holidays during holidays, let their children go to school and read a few books, and get a salary increase of a few dollars every few years. They will be very grateful, and even have a wrong perception, always thinking that the next generation can become a master, and can also build factories and pay wages to others.

Not only the herdsmen are like this, but the Han people are also like this. When King Fu was about to abdicate, he forced labor to carry out construction projects in the territory, causing many local farmers to lose their families and become homeless. Many people have lost their land and cannot live, so they can only enter the city and become homeless and beggars.

There are also many such people in the capital. If they cannot enter the inner city, they gather in the outer city and at the base of the city wall. In the winter of the first year after Hong Tao ascended the throne, it snowed heavily, and many refugees and beggars froze to death on the roadside. Emperor Shangshu of Shuntian Prefecture asked for an order to open warehouses for relief, and set up more than a dozen porridge factories in and outside the outer city. As a result, the refugees and beggars who had barely survived the winter by drinking porridge queued up to receive the porridge, kowtowed to the ground, and shouted that the emperor was holy and long live the emperor. Chen Ju saw this with his own eyes and even ran back to report the good news to the emperor.

But as the emperor, Hong Tao didn't think there was anything to be happy about in this scene. Instead, he felt a little sad and angry, so he asked Chen Ju a few questions to ponder.

Is it possible that the food used by the refugees and beggars for their porridge comes from their own land? If King Fu had not occupied the land and they were farming at home, would it be possible not only to drink porridge, but also to have a few big bites of steamed buns? And whose power did King Fu rely on to occupy the fields? Is it possible that the culprit is the Emperor?

The emperor took away the farmers' food and invaded their land. When they were about to starve to death, he threw out a handful of rice or flour, but in return they shed tears of gratitude. Isn't this logic a bit funny?

Chen Ju's face turned green at that time, cold sweat flowed down his temples, and his eyes were full of despair. It is estimated that the answer in his mind is no. The reason why the emperor asked this question must be that he did not flatter himself well. He must work harder and be more careful next time.

Although Chen Ju was not a Jinshi, he had studied in the inner study room, and his educational level was at least the same as that of Juren, but he still could not understand many not-so-complex truths.

However, most of his contemporaries have lower levels of education and even worse ability to distinguish between good and evil. In an environment without basic logic, many things end like this. Good intentions may not bring good results, and good intentions often turn into evil deeds.

At this time, it is wrong to think too much about what the public thinks. Acting according to their ideas often results in contrary to the original intention. This is as stupid as the herdsmen asking the sheep what they want to eat every day. There is no need to ask anything, they just graze wherever they take the sheep, which makes it easier to meet the needs of the sheep.

In other words, in this environment, whether the sheep can gain weight and give birth to more babies depends not on the collective wisdom of the sheep, but on the experience, vision and ability of the shepherd. With a good shepherd, the sheep can live a relatively happy life; otherwise, the sheep will starve and freeze.

Therefore, it is very reasonable for the ancient Chinese to compare the emperor to the emperor and the herdsmen on behalf of the heaven. It does not mean class oppression or derogation of the people at the bottom. It is just an incisive summary of the current situation.

Now Hong Tao plans to really become the emperor for a time and take care of the common people in the world instead of God. No matter what breed of sheep it is, what kind of grass it is used to eating, which river water it is used to drinking, or what kind of wool it has.

As long as we meet you, you will be greeted! Eat whatever you are told to eat, drink whatever you are told to drink, keep those whose wool is thick and shear them, and those whose wool is sparse, kill them for meat. Then train a few shepherd dogs to keep an eye on the sheep and not run away, and bite anyone who disobeys!

In this way, not only will the sheep-herding emperor feel relaxed, but the sheep who are eating and drinking will also feel happy. The busy sheepdog will also feel accomplished, and everyone will be satisfied, even if the productivity has not increased much. This world is also harmonious because demand can be reduced in disguise. Especially the tight fit.

(End of this chapter)