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

Chapter 493: Destroying the Steam Engine Movement
On the 17th day of the seventh month in the 20th year of the Han calendar, in Wu County, Kuaiji Prefecture.

The people from Tianzhu Trading Company returned with a piece of news that shocked the whole county. Not only were all the three million pieces of cloth they brought to Tianzhu sold out, but Tianzhu Trading Company also brought back another order for 800 million pieces of cloth. When the news spread, merchants from textile factories throughout the county went crazy. This was the annual production capacity of the textile industry in Kuaiji County. For the next year, they didn't have to worry about orders at all.

Influenced by this good news, the textile factories in Kuaiji County not only resumed work in full, but also purchased steam looms and recruited textile workers. The recovery of the textile industry led to the recovery of other industries. From then on, Kuaiji County and Chen County became the driving forces of the economies of Jiangnan and Jianghuai, driving the rapid recovery of the economies of the two regions.

At the same time, during this economic crisis, the Han Dynasty court vigorously cleaned up illegal and unscrupulous businessmen, closed down their workshops, drove the inferior coins out of the market, eliminated some of the inferior production capacity, and for the unemployed craftsmen, the court increased the intensity of land reclamation, guiding them to the vassal states of the Han Dynasty, to Jiangnan, to Southeast Asia and other places, reducing hundreds of thousands of young and strong laborers in the Han Dynasty.

The major industrial counties of the Han Dynasty also borrowed money to build asphalt roads, railways and renovate urban areas, increasing the number of urban residences. Infrastructure projects created hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout the country and increased the consumer market by tens of billions.

By August of the 20th year of the Han calendar, the economic crisis had finally hit bottom and began to gradually rebound. The number of unemployed craftsmen decreased rapidly, and taxes in various places were also increasing. Although it had not returned to the level before the economic crisis, it was obvious that the Han Dynasty had escaped from this crisis.

The three dukes and nine ministers of the Han Dynasty finally breathed a sigh of relief, especially Ye Teng, Cao Shen and others. They had been in charge of the Han Dynasty's government for ten years and had worked hard for ten years. They did not want to retire with such a poor performance.

August 7th, the 20th year of the Han calendar.

Zhou Bo, the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, wrote a letter to the court, recommending Dian Qing, the county lieutenant of Yuyang County, as the prefect of Chen County, Wang Guan, the magistrate of Luoyang, as the lieutenant of Chen County, and Li Yu, the right supervisor of the court, as the military supervisor of the county.

The reason why Zhou Bo did this was because the emperor was urging him to return to Chang'an City to prepare for the promulgation of his policy program at the Assembly of Sages. He could not continue to stay in Chenjun to prepare for the reform, but Chenjun could not be left alone. These three people were Zhou Bo's old subordinates, and they could preserve the results of Zhou Bo's reform in Chenjun.

Zhou Bo did not forget the contributions of the Legalists. He recommended Li Si's disciple Zheng Qi as county magistrate, Xie Yu as chief clerk of Chen county, Zhang Hui as Wen Wuhai, and dozens of Legalists' disciples were arranged to be minor officials in various places in Chen county. They continued to promote the Chen county reform. This was the largest-scale entry of the Legalists into the Han official system since the establishment of the Han Dynasty.

August 10th, the 20th year of the Han calendar.

The court fully recognized the officials recommended by Zhou Bo. Although the government-run model was still in the pilot stage due to opposition from Zhang Cang and others, most of the three dukes and nine ministers of the Han Dynasty had high hopes for the government-run pilot and naturally did not want the pilot to fail. Therefore, they tried their best to reduce obstacles for Chen County, and all the people recommended by Zhou Bo were appointed.

August 25th, the 20th year of the Han calendar.

With the arrival of Dian Qing, Wang Guan, Li Yu and others, Zhou Bo also boarded the train back to Chang'an City.

Before leaving, Zhou Bo told Dian Qing and the other two, "As for the government-run reform, you should ask the Legalists more. We must make this pilot project a success."

Dian Qing nodded solemnly and said, "I will definitely help the Prime Minister to carry out the reform."

Zhou Bo said: "If you have any questions, go to Shangcai and ask Li Si. He is one of the most learned masters in the world. It is not shameful to ask him for advice."

Shangcai County is in Chen County, so strictly speaking, Xu Fan and Li Si are from the same hometown.

Dian Qing said: "I understand."

After Zhou Bo gave his instructions, he boarded the train to Chang'an City with great confidence. The Han Dynasty will be changed because of him in the next ten years.

The 28th day of the eighth month in the 20th year of the Han calendar, in Guanzhong, Chang'an City.

Zhou Bo got off the train station. He was surrounded by passengers coming and going and hawkers. He felt as if he was in another world when he saw the scene around him. He encountered too many things and was delayed for too long on this trip out of Chang'an City. Since he became the tax inspector, he had never been away from Guanzhong for such a long time. Everything in Chang'an was still so prosperous, as if it had not been affected by the economic crisis.

"Father!" a young man shouted excitedly.

Zhou Bo looked towards the source of the voice. It was his eldest son Zhou Sheng, with his second son Zhou Yafu and third son Zhou Jian beside him.

Zhou Bo saw his son and smiled, "How is the family doing these days?"

Zhou Sheng said: "Everything is fine at home."

Zhou Bo continued to ask: "How is your study?"

Zhou Sheng said: "You will graduate from the School of Government Affairs next year."

Zhou Bo was very fortunate at this time. He got married after he surrendered to the emperor. The children in his family were all young. His eldest son Zhou Sheng was only eighteen years old and was still studying in the academy. His second son Zhou Yafu was only ten years old this year, and his third son Zhou Jian was eight years old. They were all children and were still studying in elementary school.

Other noble families were not so lucky. In the imperial court's purge of the four major money houses, many descendants of Chen County elders were affected and were to be demoted to Southeast Asia. However, no one dared to plead for mercy because the trouble they had caused was too great. With hundreds of billions of bad debts, they had poked a big hole in the sky.

At this year's conference of princes, twenty-seven families of marquis will be relocated to Southeast Asia to establish vassal states. This is an unprecedented event. It is called a relocation, but it only looks good on the surface. In fact, due to the influence of their offspring, the whole family will be demoted to Southeast Asia.

Thinking of his son's upcoming career, he said seriously, "After you graduate from the academy, you will be a man who can support the family business. You must be upright in the future and don't go astray. If you do anything illegal, I will expel you from the Zhou family to prevent you from bringing harm to the family."

Zhou Sheng was shocked when he heard such harsh words, but he immediately said in a panic: "Yes."

Seeing Zhou Sheng panic after being harshly scolded, Zhou Bo was disappointed. How could such a small ability support the Zhou family's business?

In this way, Zhou Bo and his companions got on the carriage and drove towards Chang'an city.

Just as Zhou Bo's carriage was traveling on the main road of Chang'an City, a large demonstrator blocked his carriage, and Zhou Bo and his companions got off the carriage.

All I could hear was people shouting loudly all around: "We want to eat, we want to live, reduce the number of steam engines, and keep our jobs."

"We are against migration, against going to the countryside, and against reclamation. We are from Chang'an and we want to stay in Chang'an." Zhou Bo asked Zhou Jian curiously, "What's going on?"

Zhou Bo knew that the people of Chang'an had a tradition of marching and demonstrating. Even in Chen County, he could imagine that the scale of the marches and demonstrations in Chang'an City would only be larger due to the fluctuations of the economic crisis. But now the crisis has bottomed out and the situation in various counties is improving. Logically, the situation in Guanzhong should only be better. How could there be such a large group of marchers and demonstrators?

Zhou Yafu said excitedly, "Father, I know that a few months ago, hundreds of thousands of textile craftsmen lost their jobs and had no food to eat. At that time, the court asked them to go to the Western Regions to cultivate land, but the people were unwilling. These craftsmen thought that the steam looms produced too much cloth, which led to their lack of jobs. These suspicious and resentful craftsmen smashed more than a dozen steam looms, hoping to force the textile factory to hire more workers in this way. In the end, they were reported to Chang'an by the workshop owner."

"The Chang'an Order ordered the craftsmen to repay the losses of the workshop owner. However, a large steam engine now costs hundreds of thousands of coins. How could these craftsmen come up with so much money? They were directly sentenced by the Chang'an Order to confiscate their property to repay the losses of the workshop owner, and their entire family was exiled to the Western Regions. They could not return to the Han Dynasty until they had repaid the debts in the Western Regions.

But the unemployed craftsmen in Chang'an were dissatisfied, thinking that the Chang'an order favored the rich. At first, the craftsmen in the textile factories went on strike, and then more and more people in Chang'an joined the demonstration. Finally, a strike of more than 100,000 people was formed. Some wanted the court to change the sentence, some wanted the court to help them solve their jobs, and some did not want to go to the Western Regions to cultivate the land. Everyone vented their dissatisfaction with the court in the demonstration. "

Zhou Bo shook his head and said, "There are too many idiots like this in the Han Dynasty. Economic crises are when conflicts accumulate the most. Chang'an's ruling will only completely ignite the conflicts."

He acted according to the court's orders, but almost got blamed. The Chang'an Order triggered conflicts at the most serious time of the crisis. Isn't this seeking death?

Zhou Sheng shook his head and said, "Some of those craftsmen went too far. Without the steam loom, there would be no prosperous Han Dynasty. They directly denied the role of the steam loom because of a crisis. This is too stupid. How is this different from the ignorant people in the countryside who are bewitched by those charlatans and Taoist priests?"

The wealth of the Han Dynasty has increased rapidly in the past twenty years, and both ordinary people and the upper class of the Han Dynasty have benefited, especially the upper class of the Han Dynasty. Their wealth has grown faster than ever before, and they have accumulated more wealth. They are natural supporters of industrial revolution and technological progress.

Take the Zhou family for example. Although they were nobles, in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the wealth produced by their land was only a few hundred thousand coins a year, which was enough to support a few private soldiers. They were considered middle-class nobles in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. However, in the Han Dynasty, their various industries could bring the Zhou family millions of coins a year, which was almost on the edge of the top nobility. If they had a fiefdom, it would be easier to earn 10 or 20 million a year. Of course, the hard work of cultivating a fiefdom was ten times harder than in the Han Dynasty. The choice mainly depended on which family could endure hardship.

The nobles of the Han Dynasty prospered because of their industries, so they naturally stood on the side of developing industries. Destroying machines was like destroying the gold mine that created their wealth, so they naturally hated such behavior.

But it was different for ordinary people in the Han Dynasty. Although they also enjoyed the benefits of industrial development, they also suffered the disadvantages of industrial development and bore the greatest pressure during the economic crisis.

The mechanism of economic crisis is difficult for ordinary people to understand, but they can feel it. Because steam textile machines are highly efficient and produce a lot of cloth, workshops cannot sell the cloth, so they become unemployed and are forced to settle in the wilderness.

How could anyone bear the fact that they lost their jobs because they produced more cloth? As long as a normal person has a set of values, he or she cannot accept that he or she would lose his or her job because of hard work and be driven to a wild land to cultivate land.

The craftsmen could only find the most intuitive reason: the high efficiency of the steam loom caused them to lose their jobs. So they smashed the machines and replaced them with the old water-powered looms. In this way, the workshop could employ more people and they would not be unemployed.

Zhou Bo snorted coldly and said, "You have studied in the academy for three years, and this is all you know? Spoiling a child is like killing him. You have been too comfortable in Chang'an City these years. After graduation, you should go to the barren land of the Han Dynasty to gain more experience."

Then Zhou Bo said: "You go back home first, and I will go to the Yan Palace to meet the emperor."

After saying that, Zhou Bo headed towards the Yan Palace. Not long after, he arrived at the Yan Palace. At this time, Prime Minister Ye Teng, Cao Shen, and Mohist giant Qin Bo were already in the Yan Palace.

Zhou Bo saw Xu Fan bowing and said, "Your Majesty, I, Zhou Bo, greet you."

Xu Fan helped Zhou Bo up and said with a smile: "No need to be polite, but I didn't expect you to come so soon."

Zhou Bo said: "What does the court plan to do with the demonstrations in Chang'an? After all, the court has a plan to convene the Sages Conference and the Han princes. If there is no way to appease hundreds of thousands of craftsmen who are marching in protest, it will be detrimental to the convening of these three major conferences."

Ye Teng said: "We are also discussing with the emperor how to appease the craftsmen."

Ye Teng and his men were also anxious. They were going to retire in two months, and they naturally did not want to be discredited at this critical juncture. If the matter was not handled before being reported, it would make them lose face in front of the county governor of the Han Dynasty and the princes of the world.

Zhou Bo looked at Qin Bo and said, "How could the demonstration, which you Mohists did not preside over, turn into a demonstration that destroyed the steam loom?"

This is something Zhou Bo did not understand. You should know that the Mohists have always been famous for their ingenuity. The reason why the Mohists were valued by the Han Dynasty was that they could develop various efficient machines. All types of steam engines in the Han Dynasty were developed by Mohist masters. It can be said that the Mohists made great efforts and contributions to the prosperity of the Han Dynasty. Now the craftsmen are against the steam engine. To some extent, this demonstration is a slap in the face of the Mohists.

Qin Bo said unhappily: "The economic crisis was originally caused by the greed of merchants, but the craftsmen suffered the greatest losses. They are naturally angry. They are not against steam engines, but they are discovering their anger and opposing the deeper inequality hidden.

Obviously, the steam engine is more efficient and can produce more goods. Logically, everyone in the world should get more wealth, but the reality is obviously not the same. Not only did the craftsmen not get more, but they became unemployed because they produced too many goods. Didn’t the prime minister think that the craftsmen should not be angry? The craftsmen smashed the steam engine not because they wanted to smash the steam engine, but because they wanted to smash the merchants who controlled the steam engine. "

Ye Teng said: "The court is also trying to solve this problem. It has relocated people to the lands of the princes, expanded the market to the south, and even tried to sell cloth to India. All counties are recruiting craftsmen, building various infrastructures, and building more houses so that craftsmen can live in the city at a lower price, so that they don't have to spend most of their salaries on renting houses. These actions of the court are also very effective. The crisis is now over. Now as long as the court is given some time, everything will return to its heyday."

Qin Bo sneered, "Has the court really solved the problem? Then why are the craftsmen in Chang'an so afraid of losing their jobs, and believe that the main reason for their job loss is the steam loom. The steam engine is obviously a tool that helps craftsmen reduce the hard work and allows them to produce more wealth, but now the craftsmen think that the steam loom has taken away their jobs and even threatened their survival."

"Given the current situation in Chang'an City, can you say that the craftsmen's worries are wrong? A few months ago, even if the craftsmen in Chang'an City worked two jobs and worked for eight hours a day, they still couldn't support their families. Why is it that the harder you work, the poorer you become?"

“Who made the craftsmen think that the steam engine was taking away their jobs, so that the craftsmen who should have relied most on the machine destroyed the assistants in their work?”

"Could you tell me, Ye Xiang, what went wrong here?"

Ye Teng remained silent. The Han Dynasty had studied the economic crisis for more than ten years. Without setting any obstacles for the scholars of the Han Dynasty, and with the help of Xu Fan, the scholars of the Han Dynasty were able to find the problem very quickly. Li Si had already announced to the world that the merchant class had taken away part of the profits, and this part of the profits had not circulated back to the world. This was the main reason for the outbreak of the economic crisis. Ye Teng knew that Li Si was being polite. The Han Dynasty also had a huge aristocratic system, and they were also a dam that intercepted wealth, but he could not say that the problem was with him.

Qin Bo said bluntly: "We have all read Zifang's "The Book of Great Harmony". It has been clearly stated that if we want to achieve the Great Harmony of the Han Dynasty, we must first develop production and create more efficient machines, just like the original textile machine became a water-powered textile machine and a steam textile machine. The efficiency of the steam textile machine is dozens of times higher than that of the original textile machine, and the wealth of cloth in the world has increased dozens of times."

"But in recent years, our Han Dynasty has only focused on production. Everyone has been working hard to produce and improve efficiency. But have you forgotten the content of distribution in the back of the "Book of Great Harmony"? The efficiency of cloth production has increased dozens of times, but have the salaries of craftsmen increased dozens of times? The production of goods requires division of labor and cooperation, but when it comes to distributing these benefits, merchants get 90%, leaving only 10% for craftsmen to support their families. Obviously, the goods are produced by everyone's division of labor and cooperation, so why do a few people occupy the bulk of the profits? If the distribution is unreasonable, the extra goods produced will naturally not be sold, and the so-called economic crisis will break out."

"Today, craftsmen in Chang'an City marched and smashed steam looms. These craftsmen did not hate the steam looms, which represent advanced machines, but hated the unfair distribution system of the Han Dynasty."

(End of this chapter)