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Chapter 511 The New Deal is Stronger than a Tiger

Why do the same bureaucratic gentry groups respond completely differently to the same changes? The answer is actually very simple and complex. The New Deal has indeed not changed, but the gentry group and the gentry group are just the same class, but they are very different in nature.

As the saying goes, where the soil and water support the people. The initial starting point of Han culture was in the Central Plains and Hexi regions. In a narrow sense, the Central Plains is Henan; in a broad sense, the Central Plains also includes Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong and Huaibei. Before Qin, this area was the foundation of the Central Plains dynasty.

The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and parts of Anhui and Jiangsu, as well as the southwest region, including Sichuan and Yunnan-Guizhou, were incorporated into the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty after the Qin Dynasty destroyed the Six Kingdoms. However, it was not until the Tang Dynasty that the Central Plains The imperial court could not effectively rule them, and most of them adopted a policy of restraint.

Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian were historically known as Lingnan and have always been areas where the Yue people lived. Fujian has Minyue Dongou, Guangdong has Nanyue, Guangxi has Xiou, and Vietnam has Luoyue, collectively called "Baiyue".

Although the Qin Dynasty sent a large army to conquer Baiyue, due to geographical restrictions, nine counties were not officially established until the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. However, until the Song Dynasty, the Lingnan region was still a wild land with inconvenient transportation, covered with mountains and forests, scarce cultivated land, and relatively backward economy and agriculture.

Youdao is that poverty leads to change. Driven by the Song Dynasty's policy of vigorously developing overseas trade, relatively large port cities emerged in Guangdong and Fujian, such as Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, etc. The local people sailed out to sea purely for survival. , there are not many rules in mind.

The situation in Jiangsu and Zhejiang was similar to that of Guangdong and Fujian during the Three Kingdoms period. The vast area occupied by Soochow was sparsely populated and had slow economic development. However, from the time of Emperor Jin and Yuan to the Southern Song Dynasty, three trips of clothing to the south brought fundamental changes to the local area.

The people who crossed the river from the Central Plains to escape the war not only brought sufficient labor to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but also allowed millions of elites from the Central Plains dynasty to take root in Jiangnan.

These people were not only rich, but also had systematic culture and technology. They soon made the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions a prosperous place, and they also brought another thing with them, family inheritance! As wars continued in the north, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions not only inherited and developed the Han culture of the Central Plains, but even replaced it.

The core content of Chinese culture is that learning and excellence lead to officialdom. Further analysis, why do we have to study hard to become an official? Two words, seize power. What's the use of that right? In addition to allowing people to express their ambitions, the biggest function of power is to make money.

This is the difference in core values ​​between the bureaucratic gentry in Guangdong and Fujian and the bureaucratic gentry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The former is accustomed to looking outside and tirelessly looking for opportunities to make money. No matter how dangerous it is, as long as Mazu doesn't say no, he will give it a try without hesitation.

The barren environment forced them to give up their attachment to the land and could only look outside. The result of the involution was that everyone starved to death. Home is wherever you can survive. No risk can compare to the cruelty of the sea. If you are not even afraid of nature, what is there to be afraid of?

From this point of view, they are more like nomads on the grassland. Hometown is just a spiritual support and has no strong practical significance. Any place with abundant water and grass is home. As long as there are enough benefits, there are no psychological or cultural constraints to change.

However, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions have a standard farming civilization. In front of the land, any assets are just a cloud. Whoever owns more land and tenants is truly wealthy.

And land cannot be carried, nor can it be carried too far. It is meaningless to tell the landlords in Suzhou that there is a large fertile unowned land in Vietnam and that you can make a fortune just by going there. It is too far away from home to have effective control, because if you want to fully own the land, money alone is useless, you must have power.

They are like big trees. Their strength does not depend on the prosperity of the canopy, but on looking below the surface. Whoever has deep roots and a large network will be able to thrive from generation to generation. If the soil nutrients and water under the tree are insufficient, the roots will continue to grow around and compete with other trees. Involution is the only way to survive.

Can't it be replaced by a piece of fertile land? It's too difficult, as the ancients said, people move the living tree and the tree dies. The larger the root system and the taller the trunk, the smaller the chance of survival in a new environment.

The reason why agricultural civilization is called civilization is because it is the essence that has been continuously summarized and refined over thousands of years. Giving up everything you are familiar with and the hard work of several lifetimes to do something you have never seen before and cannot control is like asking a big tree to move.

Therefore, no matter how good the New Deal is, for them, it is tantamount to cutting off their roots, which is basically the same effect as confiscating their families and exterminating their families. Even if you know that confrontation is very dangerous and the success rate is not high, you have to bite the bullet and have no choice.

"It's shameful to say that a certain person in Gutian has been facing the stinky people all day long. Although he tried his best to fight, he could not stand alone. Rather than join the evil trend, it is better to retreat bravely."

Zhang Bangren's situation is similar to Yang Dezhou. He served as county magistrate in Gutian, Fujian. The local area is not close to the sea, and the New Deal was promoted relatively late. It was not greatly affected at the beginning, and it was able to make do.

But being late doesn't mean he won't come. When the New Deal went north along the Minjiang River to Gutian, he couldn't bear it. If it weren't for Ding Jisi, the governor of Fujian who is also a fellow Ningbo fellow, and came to protect him in every possible way, he might not have been able to wait until this morning. He was dismissed from office.

"Qizhuang, Shangfang, Shutian, it's no pity to lose their official positions. As far as I know, in the past three or two months, no less than forty or fifty people have resigned from their posts in various prefectures in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Youdao is like an emperor and his ministers, and a foolish king will do his own thing. "What can I do?"

Listening to the complaints of Yang Dezhou and Zhang Bangren, Lu Maolong was relatively calm. As early as five years ago in Jingyang, he was demoted to a commoner for being involved in a rebellion. Although his resentment has not diminished over time, his anger has subsided and he is more accustomed to calm down and face reality.

"What Brother Leng Chen said is absolutely true. It is our loss not to serve the Hunjun. However, the New Deal is as fierce as a tiger. Now Shandong and Zhili have also begun to implement it. If it becomes popular, it will soon spread to South Zhili and Zhejiang. When the time comes, we will It will be inevitable later.”

Tu Benjiu was very supportive of Lu Maolong's attitude. In terms of political losses, he should have suffered the greatest loss. However, compared with these losses, he values ​​the gains and losses of his family more.

Unlike the county magistrate, as a central government official, even if he despises and hates the New Deal, he cannot turn a deaf ear. Based on the summary of these years, once the New Deal takes hold, it will definitely not be limited to one province or one place, but must spread to surrounding areas.

Zhili and Shandong are not as remote and independent as Guangdong and Fujian. After all, they are where the capital is located. Merchants from all over the country are concentrated, and goods flow frequently. If there is a slight disturbance, it will soon follow the Grand Canal all the way south, and it cannot be blocked even if it is blocked.

(End of this chapter)