At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 384: The gap between Zhang Liang and military reform
During these three days, Pinglu Fort was extremely lively, with a large number of princes getting engaged every day. Even the Han princes who had wives would take one or even two or three concubines.

Among them there was an extremely pragmatic and smart man. He didn't care whether you were a thousand-year-old noble or a hundreds-year-old family. Everything mattered to money. He found ten fathers-in-law who had no family background but were rich, which caused a sensation in the whole Pinglu Fort.

Many people despised the behavior of this new rich. They said that if you marry a wife and take a concubine, you should at least consider your family background. They said that they just put the money relationship on the table without saying anything. They took a concubine just to make money. It really made the upper class lose face.

Even the upstarts of the Han Dynasty looked down upon him. This was like stepping your freshly washed feet back into the mud.

When Xu Fan heard the news, he was also a little surprised. What kind of combination of new money and new rich is this? Isn't this too early?

Zhang Liang found Xu Fan and said, "Your Majesty, do you know that these days Cheng has been even busier than organizing the meeting of princes? More than a dozen princes have asked me to be their matchmaker."

Xu Fan said: "During this period, there are indeed many engagements among the princes of our Han Dynasty."

Zhang Liang said: "Your Majesty, don't you worry that this combination of power and money will be detrimental to our Han Dynasty?"

Xu Fan sighed: "This is inevitable. Power will inevitably seek money, and money will inevitably rely on power."

In the later globalization, he has seen all kinds of political structures, including primitive tribes, chieftainship, and even feudal clan system disguised as the current country, and even gang system. It can be said that there are all kinds of birds in the forest. You can feel the atmosphere of cyberpunk when you go abroad.

Zhang Liang said: "But these merchants will bring their money to the major vassal states, which will definitely affect the economy of our Han Dynasty."

Xu Fan smiled and said, "It may be affected a little, but it's not as terrible as you think. Have you ever heard of a theory called ecological niche?"

“Ecological niche?”

Xu Fan said: "This is a theory proposed by various philosophers during the Spring and Autumn Period. The so-called ecological niche refers to the position of wild animals in an area. For example, on a mountain, there must be a tiger at the top, below the tiger there are three or two leopards and a dozen wolves, and below them are wild herbivores such as rabbits, deer, and roe deer.

This is the ecological niche, from high to low, from few to many. The higher the position, the fewer the number. Because there are more beasts at the top, the hares, roe deer and other animals at the bottom will be eaten up, eventually leading to the leopards, wolves and tigers at the top starving to death and the ecological collapse. Each animal has its own role in each position, and the numbers are balanced. This is the ecological niche. "

Zhang Liang sighed, "This senior's research does make sense. If we apply this theory to the rest of the world, it would be the same ecological niche structure as the emperor, princes, scholars, and common people."

"During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the emperor was weak and the princes were powerful, which led to the destruction of the ecology of the entire world. This is why there were hundreds of years of chaos during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period."

Xu Fan said: "According to the theory of ecological niche, as long as the structure is not damaged, the missing animals will automatically fill the upper position. In the ecological niche, if there are fewer wolves, rabbits will evolve into wolves to fill this position."

"The same is true for the rest of the world. Although these merchants leaving the Han Dynasty will have an impact in the short term, their departure is a good thing for other small merchants. When they have a huge living space, they will grow stronger and replace those old big merchants."

"To some extent, this is a good thing. At least it has achieved class mobility within the Han Dynasty and reduced conflicts within the Han Dynasty."

The money of these big merchants was not wasted. Instead, it was used to open up new homes. This is the greatest good thing for our Han civilization, as it has improved the living space of the Han people.

After hearing this, Zhang Liang fell into deep thought. Obviously, he had never thought of Xu Fan's statement, but after thinking about it deeply, it was extremely reasonable.

Isn’t this the case with the Han Dynasty now? All the nobles of the past three generations have been overthrown by the Han Dynasty. The princes of the Han Dynasty have opened up new lands outside the world, and the small and medium-sized nobles of the Han Dynasty have established their own homes within the Han Dynasty.

To some extent, the Han Dynasty was the new Zhou Dynasty. The fifty counties within the Han Dynasty were the king's territory, while other princes expanded their territories and established new vassal states.

But Zhang Liang hesitated and asked, "Your Majesty, according to your theory, our Han Dynasty is not building a harmonious world. On the contrary, the better it develops, the further away it is from a harmonious world?"

Xu Fan asked curiously: "Why does Zifang have such an idea?"

Zhang Liang said: "Now the Han Dynasty is using military force to seize land, and then distribute this land to meritorious officials to create new princes and nobles."

"Following this process, we discover new enemies, defeat them, create meritorious officials, send them to establish vassal states, and then discover new enemies and territories again.

But such expansion will only bring more and more princes. I do not believe that the land of this world is infinite. There must be a limit. When this limit is reached, there will be no new territories or new princes, and the chaotic times like the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period will befall our Han Dynasty."

Xu Fan laughed and said, "Zifang is indeed a wise man. Your inference is absolutely correct. But what's wrong with that? It's better to let the princes expand outward than to let them fight inward. Do you really think that the whole world has princes of my Han Dynasty? My Han Dynasty is the world. Fighting in the whole world is better than fighting inward on the current land."

The whole world speaks Han Chinese. This is the dream of many people in later generations. How many people hate their ancestors who closed the country to the outside world. They were 2000 years ahead, but failed at the last minute, and now they are almost reduced to scum.

But Zhang Liang continued, "But now the Han Dynasty also has problems internally. In addition to wanting to establish meritorious careers and become new princes, the people of the Han Dynasty also want to open workshops and become new big merchants."

“Production determines distribution. The current production model of our Han Dynasty cannot produce talents who want to build a harmonious world. Instead, it produces people who want to be workshop owners.

These workshop owners were trained by me, the Han people, from small workshop owners to big workshop owners. If they want to complete this leap in ecological niche, they must exploit the craftsmen to make profits.

Because the workshop owners who don't do this will be swallowed up by the workshop owners who do. The big fish eat the small fish, and soon the only ones left in the world are the workshop owners who exploit the craftsmen.

This will lead to the living conditions of craftsmen becoming worse and worse, and the lives of the people of the world becoming more and more difficult, which is further away from the world of great harmony advocated by the emperor."

"I hadn't figured this out at first, but the ecological niche you talked about today made me completely understand. The reason why you tried so hard to migrate the princes outside the borders of the Han Dynasty and let the big merchants cooperate with the expansion of the princes of the Han Dynasty was probably to slow down this process."

"But you are just drinking poison to quench your thirst. As long as the Han Dynasty keeps creating princes and workshop owners, the Great Harmony World will never be realized. Sooner or later, the Han Dynasty will be attacked by these princes and workshop owners."

After listening to Zhang Liang's words, Xu Fan thought for a long time before he understood, and then looked at Zhang Liang in astonishment. He was indeed a sage of strategy among young people. Relying on his theories with broken limbs and scars, he could reach the height of later philosophy.

Yes, Xu Fan knew what he was doing based on his experience in later life.

When it comes to cruelty, feudal landlords and workshop owners are completely on different levels.

The feudal landlords only destroyed a few ethnic groups, but the ethnic groups destroyed by workshop owners could circle the earth more than ten times.

But they are a new force. If the world wants to continue to move forward, it must produce workshop owners.

Of course Xu Fan knew history, but Zhang Liang was able to summarize the theory on his own. The gap between him and Zhang Liang was probably as great as that of Han Fei.

If Zhang Liang knew about the theories of later generations, it would not be my turn to teach Zhang Liang.

Xu Fan said: "The general trend of the world is unstoppable. If you follow it, you will prosper, but if you go against it, you will perish. Even if I am the emperor, I cannot reverse the general trend of the world by myself."

"The entire world is determined by production. Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs and formulated the five grains, which determined the demise of the ancient tribal system.

After the appearance of bronze farm tools, the ancient tribal alliance could no longer be maintained. A family dynasty and aristocracy were bound to emerge, and even the Five Emperors could not stop this.

When iron tools appeared, it sounded the end of the slave landlords of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. The First Emperor led tens of millions of self-cultivating farmers and swept the slave aristocrats of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties into the garbage dump of history.

“And now new iron tools have emerged, and the new protagonist is the workshop owner.”

Zhang Liang was stunned. He didn't quite understand the emperor's reasoning. What he said before was fine, but how come new iron tools appeared? And what evidence was there to prove that the workshop owner was the new protagonist?

Xu Fan said with embarrassment: "I will show you the new ironware when we return to Chang'an." Xu Fan saw Zhang Liang's confusion, but it was difficult for him to explain it clearly. Even though he already knew the result, it was difficult for him to reasonably reverse the process.

Instead, Zhang Liang gave him a severe lesson today.

When he was in school, he knew the above formula: production determines distribution. Production determines distribution. He memorized it like a formula and could get high scores by filling it in during the exam.

But he didn't know why this was so. In his opinion, it was just an axiom like 1+1=2. Why would there be so many reasons?
But today, through Zhang Liang's explanation, he finally understood why.

This bit of technology in the Han Dynasty determined that even though the country continued to distribute land equally and create self-cultivating farmers, these farmers could not maintain stable production. They would either go bankrupt or passively evolve into small landlords, who would then evolve into large landlords and finally into aristocratic families.

In other words, although the Han Dynasty has been suppressing the aristocratic families, its level of technology has determined that the Han Dynasty will continue to create new aristocratic families. Suppression is only a temporary solution, but the aristocratic family group will continue to emerge.

Only when technology continued to advance, and blast furnaces appeared in later generations and cheap steel became available, did Huang Chao, along with the farmers carrying iron farm tools, sweep the aristocratic families into the dustbin of history.

In the later Song Dynasty, common people rose up and technology could maintain stable production of small and medium-sized landlords. Therefore, the feudal dynasties after the Song Dynasty would only produce a landlord class, not a clan class.

Think about the Han people where Xu Fan lives. The level of technology has produced many small workshop owners, who, after fierce competition, have become medium-sized and large workshop owners.

It’s no wonder that Xu Fan’s generation was almost blown to pieces.

The eighth year of the Han Dynasty, October 19th. Pinglu Fort, the scene of the princes' meeting.

After three days of contemplation and discussion, these new nobles of the Han Dynasty chose their own vassal states.

Han Xin's choice surprised Xu Fan a little. He actually chose a place near the North Sea as his vassal state.

Han Xin smiled and said, "I set up a boundary marker in Beihai. I want to protect the border of the Han Dynasty for the emperor. There are still many barbarian tribes in Beihai. I can fight these potential enemies of the Han Dynasty for your majesty."

Xu Fan said: "Since you are so determined, I will confer upon you the title of Duke of Beihai, and the three vassal states near Beihai will be your fiefdoms."

But there are still fifteen princes who are not satisfied with the remaining rotten land. After all, in Mobei and the vast Gobi Desert, such a place has no practical value no matter how big it is.

So these 15 princes requested the part-time government to reallocate a vassal state to them.

Xu Fan thought for a moment and said, "Do you want the islands in the South Seas?"

The eyes of these fifteen princes lit up. Is there such a good thing?
But Xu Fan said: "Not all islands have spices, and many islands don't even have many savages. This means that even if you want to establish a vassal state, you don't have many people, and you can only educate these savages.

Furthermore, if your island is not on a shipping route, there will be only a few ships passing by in a year, and the support given to you by the imperial court will be extremely limited. The only advantage may be that there are no enemies, so it is a relatively good place to retire."

"We are willing to go to Southeast Asia and establish a country!" the fifteen princes said in unison.

The thoughts in the minds of these 15 people were extremely simple. They all went to Southeast Asia, formed a fleet, and went to the Spice Islands to get spices. This was not an easy thing. As long as their fiefdom was in Southeast Asia, spices would be their source of wealth.

However, many people have already thought that since there are spice islands in Southeast Asia, spices can definitely be grown there. They can completely reclaim land and grow spices in their own fiefdoms. Isn't this equivalent to having a gold mine that doesn't need to be dug?

Therefore, even if Xu Fan said that the conditions in Nanyang were terrible, they would still establish their own vassal state in Nanyang.

Xu Fan said: "The Prime Minister divided the 15 islands in the South Seas and gave them to the meritorious officials to establish their own country."

Zhang Liang said: "As you command!"

The other princes were not jealous and many of them wanted to change immediately.

But Xu Fan saw through their thoughts and said, "No regrets on this move."

Establishing vassal states is not just a reward, but also a responsibility. Without you here to suppress the desert, how can we assimilate the desert and prevent the birth of new grassland nations?

Xu Fan was worried about these princes who were unwilling to endure the hardships of the desert and wanted to go to other better places, so he told them in advance that he would not regret his move and would cut off their retreat so that they could develop in the desert with peace of mind.

After the fiefdoms were divided among the princes, new princes such as Han Xin, with their own tribes and the cattle and sheep granted by the court, went to their own fiefdoms to build them.

At the same time, the Han Dynasty's Mo Nan Governor's Office was abolished, and the Han court established a new Mo Bei Protectorate, with Han Xin still serving as the governor. However, the Han Dynasty's soldiers had already retreated, and the soldiers of the Mo Bei Protectorate became soldiers of the princes, just like the Liaodong Governor's Office.

At the same time, the General Zhenbei's Mansion of the Han Dynasty was moved back to Guangyang County. Ji Xin was still the General Zhenbei. At the same time, Xu Fan decided to establish the General Zhennan Mansion and the General Zhenxi Mansion. The two generals would be chosen after Xu Fan returned to Chang'an.

The Han Dynasty's standing military force will be composed of four general offices and the Guanzhong Imperial Guard.

Each general's office will have 1 standing troops, and Guanzhong will have 8 imperial guards. These standing troops are only the strength of the Han Dynasty in peacetime.

These standing troops are called soldiers, but the Han army trained them in the same way as officers. In time of war, each general's office could expand its army by 5 and become a force in a strategic direction.

According to Xu Fan's plan, three protectorates will appear in the north, and the Western Regions will become the new protectorate of the Han Dynasty.

These three protectorates were the Han Dynasty's force to deal with external enemies.

October 20th, the eighth year of the Han Dynasty.

After the meeting of princes ended, Xu Fan began to return to Chang'an. The princes of the Han Dynasty had already returned to their own fiefdoms.

Following the emperor back to Chang'an were King Hunxie, King Xiutu, and Ke Hu, the leaders of the Hu tribes.

The Han Dynasty's enfeoffment made them extremely envious, and many tribal leaders wanted to obtain a piece of territory based on their own merits.

But how could Xu Fan agree to such a thing as raising a tiger to cause trouble? Xu Fan did not have much confidence in the princes like Han Xin, and they would always obey the orders of the Han Dynasty.

In the history of the Western Han Dynasty, everyone was a blood brother, but in less than 60 years, the Rebellion of the Seven Kings broke out.

These princes he had enfeoffed had no blood relationship with him, so it was a blessing that they could obey orders and not proclamations after 60 years.

Xu Fan's only hope for them is that the meat will rot in the pot. Even if they rebel, it will be a civil war within the Han Dynasty.

You white-skinned, yellow-haired savages also want to get a piece of the pie in the desert. You are simply ignorant of the size of your own skin.

Of course, they are meritorious officials after all, and Xu Fan, who is too proud to care, would not abandon them immediately. He might as well bring them back to Chang'an first, use the prosperity of Chang'an City to corrupt the will of these tribal leaders, and then make them viscounts or barons, and let them receive a salary, so that they can live a rich life in Chang'an City. This is better than eating sand in the desert.

Whenever he thought of this, Xu Fan felt very gratified. There were not many good bosses like him throughout history.

(End of this chapter)