People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 476: Promoting the Ming Dynasty threat theory is just for the sake of monopoly!
Under a series of policies by Chen Han and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

Today, the Indochina Peninsula has unknowingly become the granary of the Ming Dynasty.

Many people have no idea what they are doing.

But one thing is very clear.

That is, the Ming Dynasty has now offered very high conditions that are impossible to refuse and they are happy to accept them.

Just like farmers.

Since ancient times, these farmers, whether in Indochina or in the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, life is quite hard.

And now the Ming Dynasty can give them a chance.

So that they can live a life that they never dared to imagine before.

What a great favor that is.

Therefore, in the Indochina Peninsula, the current Ming Dynasty is like a savior.

Even though many officials were promoting the idea that the Ming Dynasty was a threat.

But many people are unwilling to listen anymore.

For example, in Annan, many officials were actually opposed to cooperation with the Ming Dynasty at the beginning.

Because those officials all think they are knowledgeable.

I understand very well that if we continue like this.

Their country will definitely become the granary of the Ming Dynasty.

From now on, the initiative will be in the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

It's impossible to control it in your own hands.

So many officials made great sacrifices to save their country.

For example, the prime minister was hit and killed in the street because the king had ordered him to do it.

But why did the king want to kill an official who seemed to be working hard for the country and the people?

In fact, the king also had his own considerations.

He is not a complete tyrant either.

He knows very well what the country needs now.

What is needed is not this kind of person who talks big and always feels that the Great Disease Dynasty is a threat.

The biggest problem facing their country today is that people do not live in prosperity, and there are various contradictions.

And now the Ming Dynasty has given the people a way to survive.

What way to survive?

It can allow ordinary people to farm and get plenty of opportunities.

In the days to come, especially within a year, this king will find that the Ming Dynasty no longer poses any threat to them at all.

Nor do I feel that they will have to pay a so-called heavy price.

To a certain extent, it even provides more people with a way to survive.

The cooperation between the people and the Ming Dynasty gave them a real solution to the crisis.

He was a king who used to be a military commander, so he didn't know how to govern a country.

It is precisely because of this shortcoming that many officials and many people oppose him.

But all these problems were solved after the emergence of the Ming Dynasty, and the problems that he could not solve were solved.

The Ming Dynasty helped them solve the problem of farming.

As long as you farm and export agricultural products, you can earn two to three times more than the price you get domestically.

Moreover, the Ming treasure notes obtained can be used to buy more cheaper things in port cities, which are now the focus of trade.

A large number of merchants in Annan relied on trade hubs to obtain a large amount of goods from the Ming Dynasty.

These goods are cheap and useful.

Although it has impacted many similar items in the country to a certain extent, due to the good quality and low price, the more good things the people can get, the more they can develop other things that can complement each other.

It's not just about being plundered, but about being exchanged.

This is what makes the Ming Dynasty different from other plunderers.

What the Ming Dynasty was interested in was not their so-called resources.

It's not what they call a certain market.

But it's about their food.

Now their market is not worthy of the Ming Dynasty's attention at all.

This was because the Ming Dynasty's own technology had not yet developed to the point where it could plunder their resources.

What are the resources of Annan?
It might be the so-called rubber oil during World War II.

But now the Ming Dynasty has no way to use these things.

Unless the Ming Dynasty's technology made rapid progress, there would be no need to plunder these chemical energy sources from them.

But the Ming Dynasty is obviously not at this level yet, so it can only make use of the agricultural resources here, such as food and agricultural products.

And these things can only be grown by the common people.

We can’t just dig it out from under their ground unilaterally.

So what the Ming Dynasty had to do was to build the Indochina Peninsula.

Just maintain a good relationship with them.

Let the people of Indochina grow crops for the Ming Dynasty and then obtain treasure notes.

After obtaining the treasure notes, the Ming Dynasty processed their raw materials into more commodities and resold them to them, which was also a disguised form of support.

Because their technology is not yet good enough.

The technology of the Ming Dynasty was more advanced, which was another form of cooperation.

It was several hundred years later when the Ming Dynasty really needed these chemical energy sources.

Therefore, the people of Annan now regard the Ming Dynasty as their savior.

There is no problem with this at all.

Because the Ming Dynasty did give them a new way to survive.

Even the king thought so.

So at the next court meeting, when an official raised this question, King Annan knew how to refute these people.

Coincidentally, this time Xia Yuanji was going to the newly conquered kingdoms of Srivijaya and Majapahit to serve as the governor.

So when he passed through Annan, he was warmly received by the king of Annan.

After all, Xia Yuanji might become the governor of Indochina in the Ming Dynasty in the future.

So in order to leave a very good Yin imprint for the future governor.

The King of Annan immediately invited him to the court.

And at this time, a debate happened to occur which was equivalent to a diplomatic incident.

Some agents of old landlords and big capitalists began to spread the theory of the threat from the Ming Dynasty in the court.

In fact, when Xia Yuanji was on his way to Indochina, he already knew that these things would happen in some countries on the Peninsula.

As the right-hand man of reform.

As Chen Han's right-hand man and good friend.

Many people know that Xia Yuanji and Chen Han experienced many twists and turns on the road of reform.

Whether they are ordinary people or ministers of a country in the Indochina Peninsula.

In fact, I am not unfamiliar with Xia Yuanji's name.

But they actually knew very little about what Xia Yuanji had done.

All we know is that Xia Yuanji and the famous Duke of the Ming Dynasty are firm allies.

He is a veteran who worked together to carry out reforms.

So of course everyone respects Xia Yuanji.

Xia Yuanji's visit this time was also to publicize some of his policies for governing Srivijaya and Majapahit.

This is equivalent to giving many countries in the Indochina Peninsula a reassurance. Telling them that they can come by themselves is definitely not just to scare these countries in the Indochina Peninsula.

When the court meeting just started, several ministers jumped out.

First, I talked about the current situation in Annan.

Although they recognized the people of Annan, they became more proactive due to these policies of the Ming Dynasty.

By cooperating with the Ming Dynasty, their lives were secured.

But they also expressed some concerns.

For example, the Ming Dynasty is now purchasing large amounts of grain.

The common people benefited, and so did those who dealt in grain.

But for the court.

If we encounter any disaster or something like that in the future.

What should the people of Annan do?
The entire country of Annan does not even have any food reserves. What should it do if it encounters a crisis?
These questions actually make sense.

If such a crisis really happens, we must take care of our own citizens.

So they say passion is running high.

This issue has been emphasized all the time.

Even though someone had highlighted this issue before and had their king kill them, they did not back down.

Because they understand very well.

If I back down this time, I will be giving in.

In the future, that kind of trade in the Ming Dynasty will become more and more in-depth.

It will become increasingly difficult for them to survive in the future.

I have talked about this before, why these powerful people can dominate the common people.

It’s because the powerful used their power and the money class to make a deal.

The reason why these powerful people refute many policies in the court.

It is not for the common people, even though their slogan is, I am considering the common people.

Their real purpose is actually to think about themselves.

Their real purpose is to make the court take a step back, and then their interests can still be guaranteed. This is their real purpose.

These people stood up just to keep their jobs.

In fact, why do these people stand up? They originally have more favorable conditions than most ordinary people.

These people have more money, more capital, and more connections.

They could purchase grain on their own and then trade it with the Ming Dynasty.

But why don't they do this?
A very simple truth.

They are doing business with no capital.

If I really negotiate with the people, buy back their grain and then sell it to the Ming Dynasty.

Even if they could make some money, it was really child's play compared to the business they had done before.

Because what they are doing is rent-seeking business, not real money business.

It is not like ordinary merchants who buy grain and sell it to make a profit from the difference.

Take advantage of information asymmetry to do business with poor profits.

But what?
Instead, I know the direction of the court, and then I let the wealthy people behind me make arrangements in advance, and then make money from the huge difference in power and information.

I even took advantage of legal loopholes in the imperial court to help the wealthy class behind me avoid taxes and make huge amounts of money.

This is much more profit than what a businessman can make from trading.

But if they really want to make this deal, they have to satisfy the interests of the wealthy people behind them.

What are the interests of the rich?
Force the imperial court to make concessions and exclude the common people from doing business with the Ming Dynasty. We will then purchase the grain and sell it to the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, we decide what the price of food will be.

For example, the current Ming Dynasty has increased the purchase price by three to five times to purchase grain from Annan.

But after all, the price is still relatively low.

Because Annan's domestic grain production is relatively large and the price is relatively low.

For the Ming Dynasty, an increase of three to five times was still a relatively cheap acquisition price.

Especially when using treasure notes to purchase grain, the purchasing power of the Ming treasure notes appeared to be stronger.

So these wealthy people came up with an idea.

If we have a monopoly on grain procurement, then we will set the price.

Originally, the purchase price of grain in Annan was two to three cents per pound. Even if it increased three to five times, it would only be around fifteen cents per pound at most.

Considering that Daming is purchasing in bulk, the price can be negotiated.

So the price was actually set at around ten cents.

Although this price is much higher than the grain price in Ming Dynasty.

But Ming Dynasty now has the money to afford it.

Because of this price advantage, more ordinary people and small vendors were willing to sell to the Ming Dynasty.

But for the big landlords who are in collusion with the powerful, such profits are still too low.

What they wanted was to monopolize the domestic grain prices and then raise the domestic grain prices to ten cents per pound.

In this case, Daming, you must buy it from me at the price of twenty-five coins per pound.

In this way, their interests will be greater.

At the same time, they monopolized the food prices in Annan and made money on both ends.

On the one hand, they make money in the country, and on the other hand, they make money from the Ming Dynasty.

But if this request were stated bluntly, the king would not agree.

Even many officials would not agree.

Because once the domestic grain prices are driven up by these monopolists, no one will be able to survive.

So these powerful people came up with a roundabout way to save the country.

The first step was to vigorously promote the Ming Dynasty threat theory.

Let all the people and officials know that the Ming Dynasty purchased these grains in order to deal with the Kingdom of Annan in the future.

This is so that when a disaster happens to you, you can use food as a threat and send troops to directly annex Annan.

This conspiracy theory is actually very popular to a certain extent.

But now the king's approval is still needed.

If we get the king's nod of agreement, then everything we have to do from now on will be very simple.

They could have just passed a law.

In order to prevent large-scale exports of domestic grain, which would weaken the country's ability to cope with famine, we stipulated that only a few companies could trade grain with the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, a few large conglomerates have control over the negotiations on food prices.

If your Ming Dynasty wants to import grain from our Kingdom of Annan in the future, you can talk to us and we will decide the price.

This is the rogue method they came up with.

So now they are lobbying the king under the banner of patriotism to do things according to their ideas.

But this time he met Xia Yuanji.

Xia Yuanji was originally an economist.

After listening to these people's statements, especially Xia Yuanji, who had been in a political structure of the size of the Da Ming Dynasty for so many years and was gifted.

To put it bluntly, as soon as these officials raised their butts, Xia Yuanji knew what kind of shit they were going to do.

It is actually clear what they want to do behind this.

He said sanctimoniously, I am doing this for the people, I am doing this for our country.

In fact, it is still a distribution of interests behind the scenes.

Seeing that there were many benefits to be gained from doing business with the Ming Dynasty, they wanted to establish a monopoly and exclude ordinary people...

(End of this chapter)