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

Chapter 514: The foundation of hegemony, the conflict between the nobles and the workshop owners

On the other side, Xu Fan led the feudal lords of the Han Dynasty to look at the sand table of the new continent that he had modified continuously. He pointed to the middle part and said, "This area should have the largest gold and silver mines in the world. There are not just one or two places, but there are many gold and silver mines in this area of ​​thousands of miles. It can be said that this is a land of wealth bestowed by God on my Han Dynasty."

Then Xu Fan pointed to the north of Beiyinzhou and said, "This area is mostly plains. Although there are no special products such as gold and silver, the area is several times larger than our Central Plains. Billions of acres of land can be reclaimed and dozens of wealthy vassal states can be built. This is the best area if you want to pass on your family business. The only drawback may be that the mountains on this continent are east-west and cannot block the cold wind from the north. It will be very cold in winter."

"There are no powerful countries or civilizations on this continent. Their civilization level is roughly at the level of the Xia and Shang dynasties. They don't have bronze or iron tools, so it's not difficult to educate them."

It has to be admitted that Yinzhou Continent is indeed a chosen land. The world's largest plain is located on this continent. Of course, it is not easy to fully cultivate it. Xu Fan remembers the westerns he watched when he was a child. Those adventure movies were mostly about trees, which covered the sky and made it so that you couldn't even see the sky. The rest is what is reported in modern news. The timber resources are so abundant that the speed of felling cannot keep up with the speed of their natural growth. If a fire occurs, the trees will burn themselves directly, not to mention the rich oil and gas resources buried underground. The resources are so abundant that every Chinese would stamp their feet.

It has to be admitted that after the industrialization, this undeveloped land instantly became the chosen place for the birth of overlords.

Today, this group of princes are standing relatively far away. Most of them are just here to watch the fun. Their vassal states have been established for decades and have just been developed. It is impossible for them to give up their current vassal states and go to the Yinzhou continent.

On the contrary, new nobles like Ye Teng look at it more carefully, as it may become their own fiefdom in the future. If the location is not chosen well, the family will suffer for hundreds of years.

Cao Xing hesitated and said, "Yinzhou is far away after all. Can we prepare for a few more years before establishing a vassal state?"

The New World was so far away that they were still a little hesitant. They were a little worried that they would be deceived by the imperial court to go to the New World to suffer. After all, the imperial court only sent two expedition teams, so how could they know the New World so well?
Xu Fan smiled calmly and said, "Of course you can. After all, going to the New World is a big deal. The more prepared we are, the better. The court plans to establish a governor's office in Yinzhou and build the most basic city, docks and other facilities first."

Then Xu Fan waved his hand and said, "Ai Min, come and meet your uncles."

Xu Aimin stepped out and said, "Xu Aimin greets all the uncles."

Ye Teng and the others also bowed and said, "Your subjects greet the eldest prince."

Xu Fan smiled and said, "You are all Aimin's uncles, there is no need to be so polite. I asked Aimin to come here because he will be the governor of Yinzhou Governor's Office of the imperial court and the pioneer of the imperial court to open up the new continent."

Xu Fan knew that these princes were still hesitant, so he simply let Xu Aimin serve as the governor of Yinzhou to dispel these people's concerns.

The Han Dynasty naturally did not know the location of the Yinzhou silver mine, but this was a thing that had happened in history. Xu Fan was not worried about making mistakes. The silver that could be transported by a fleet was said to have been transported for hundreds of years, causing global financial inflation. Xu Fan could not imagine the amount of silver here. Niu Niu's hegemony began by robbing these silver fleets.

Moreover, this was a huge experience for Xu Aimin, as he was able to build a complete political power from scratch, which allowed him to have a deeper understanding of the laws governing the operation of an organization.

When Ji Bu heard this, he immediately objected, "Your Majesty, this is absolutely impossible. The eldest prince is of noble status, how can he not enter a dangerous place?"

Xu Fan said: "Going to Yinzhou is not as dangerous as you think, otherwise the court would not allow meritorious officials to go to Yinzhou to establish a vassal state."

Cao Shen said: "The court is going to Yinzhou to establish a governor's office, and I will be included in it. Your Majesty, please don't despise me for my greed. I also want to obtain a gold and silver mine to find a golden rice bowl for my descendants."

The emperor even sent his eldest son to the Yinzhou continent, so it was almost certain that there would be gold and silver mines.

Xu Fan said: "Yinzhou Continent is the continent that the court gave to all the meritorious officials to share. The better your vassal states develop, the happier the court will be."

Then Xu Fan looked around and said, "If you want to move ahead of schedule, you can consider it in the next few months. After all, to cross 20,000 miles of ocean, the larger the fleet, the safer it is. If you miss this opportunity, you can only wait until next year."

The feudal lords of the Han Dynasty saw how confident the emperor was, and felt that the gold and silver mines in the New World were not false. If they went too late, they were afraid that the good place would be occupied by others. For a time, these feudal lords became worried and anxious. They had to act cautiously to use their own property to fight for a vassal state in the New World.

After the feudal lords of the Han Dynasty left, only Ying Bu and other trusted princes of Xu Fan remained here.

Ying Bu smiled and said, "I'm afraid many people are tempted. I estimate that dozens of princes will be transferred to the new continent this time."

Ying Bu felt that these elders must have been fooled by the emperor. The emperor did not lie, but that did not mean he would not play tricks. There might be gold and silver mines in the New World, but there could not be too many. After all, there were not many gold and silver mines in Chinese history. How many gold and silver mines could there be in the New World? And the court needed the princes to suppress the New World, so it must have played some tricks to deceive some of the feudal lords.

Xu Fan said: "I didn't lie to them. There are a lot of gold and silver mines in Yinzhou Continent, more than you can imagine. Let me tell you this, the wealth on the Imperial Court's Gold and Silver Island is less than one percent of the gold and silver mines in Yinzhou Continent."

Ying Bu was shocked. You know, the gold and silver on Treasure Island have been mined by the imperial court for more than ten years. Even if the annual production capacity is 700 to 800 million now, if I really have hundreds of times, it would be more than the annual fiscal revenue of the imperial court now. It took him a long time to react and said, "Let them pick it up. If Yinzhou is so rich, I would also like to go there."

Xu Fan smiled and said, "If you have this idea, the court will definitely support it. We can exchange the land of Yinzhou Continent at a ratio of 1:10."

Ying Bu smiled awkwardly and said, "I was just joking."

It took him nearly 20 years to build the present-day United Kingdom. Now he is planning to retire. Where would he find the time and energy to develop a new vassal state?

Xu Fan smiled and said, "Don't think that Yinzhou Continent is a barren land now, but if it is really developed, it can be said to be the land of the chosen overlord. If our Chinese civilization occupies this continent, our hegemony can last for hundreds of years."

Ji Bu hesitated and said, "If that's the case, why doesn't the court hold on to this continent tightly? Your Majesty wants to divide it among the princes. If a war of unification also breaks out in the New World, wouldn't that create a powerful enemy for the Han Dynasty?"

Chen Xiao then said: "The potential of the New World is so great. Your Majesty can enfeoff the kings of the Xu family to suppress the New World. In this way, there is no need to worry about the New World escaping from the control of our Han Dynasty."

Xu Fan said calmly: "If the New World really wants to become the foundation of hegemony, it will take hundreds of years to develop. By then, it is unknown whether my Han Dynasty will still exist in the world. We should not worry about our descendants hundreds of years later. Moreover, the hegemony I am talking about is not the hegemony of my Xu family, but the hegemony of my Chinese civilization for hundreds of years."

After the discovery of the New World, Xu Fan felt that his mission in this world was accomplished. Now his only expectation was to watch the major vassal states of the Han Dynasty take root in the New World and develop these vast continents bit by bit.

Chinese civilization has already occupied half of the land in this world. No matter how the world evolves in the future, no matter how the countries compete for hegemony, this hegemonic country must be evolved from Chinese civilization, and the meat is rotten in the pot.

If other civilizations want to break through the limitations of Chinese civilization, unless the technology of this world develops to the point where it can colonize the entire solar system, other civilizations will have hope of surpassing Chinese civilization.

Xu Fan has already established such a huge advantage for the Han people in this world. If his descendants do not live up to their expectations and fall behind in the space age and are surpassed by other civilizations again, Xu Fan can only think that those descendants deserve it.

Lu Chen said: "Your Majesty should have more sons. The Han Dynasty has such a vast territory that it is impossible to manage it with only three princes. Your Majesty should take more concubines and have more sons."

Xu Fan said: "Be careful that the Queen hears this, or she will not forgive you."

Queen Chen Xiu also had great power. Almost all the doctors and nurses in the world could be regarded as her disciples. Xu Fan also gave the money earned from the treasury to Chen Xiu, asking her to subsidize students all over the world in the form of scholarships. The remaining money was used to supplement the welfare benefits of the Han Dynasty. She established welfare institutions such as nursing homes and orphanages in various parts of the Han Dynasty. The people who had received Chen Xiu's favor were as numerous as stars in the sky, so Chen Xiu's reputation in the Han Dynasty was not much worse than Xu Fan's.

Lu Chen was too embarrassed to speak. Ji Bu said, "The eldest prince has reached the age of marriage. I wonder which young lady your majesty has chosen?"

Ying Bu immediately responded and said, "My second daughter Yingying is 28 years old, beautiful and charming, and can be the consort of the eldest prince."

Ying Bu just felt a little regretful. Why didn't he think of this when he came to the meeting of princes? If he had brought his daughter's scroll, wouldn't he have seized the initiative and become the future father-in-law of the Han Empire?

Lu Chen said: "My daughter Lu Su is also 28 years old and has the best appearance in Liaodong. If Your Majesty does not mind, I will arrange for my daughter to come to Chang'an City."

Ying Bu said contemptuously: "The cold wind in Liaodong is fierce. How can you compare with the women in my Jiangnan area? It's not that I look down on you. I am afraid that a beautiful woman in Jiangnan area can become a beauty in Liaodong."

Lu Chen was furious and said, "How can you, Ying Bu, who is so strong and muscular, give birth to a daughter who is as beautiful as a fairy? I'm afraid you are just flattering yourself."

Xu Fan said with a headache: "But we still need to see what the Queen and Ai Min think. Blind marriage is not popular in the Han Dynasty now. How about bringing the young ladies from your families to Chang'an City first and letting both parties meet. If both parties feel it is suitable, we can discuss the marriage later?"

He would not interfere with his son's relatives, but would introduce some daughters of princes to him.

He would not follow the example of the Ming Dynasty, which chose girls from small families as queens in order to prevent external relatives from interfering in politics.

This did restrict the influence of the imperial relatives, but the emperor would have no help.

In Xu Fan's opinion, foreign relatives, princes, eunuchs, and even the scholar-officials of later generations were not good people. If they were divided into several forces, they could compete with each other.

The scholars only say that relatives by marriage, princes, and eunuchs are not good things and can threaten the imperial power, but they forget to say that they themselves are not good things and can also threaten the imperial power. If they want to be an emperor, they should die in poverty like the emperor of Ming Dynasty, and their sons and grandsons should become beggars or fat pigs. It is better to die early and be reborn, so that a new hero can change the dynasty.

Moreover, if a feudal dynasty is going to decline, you can’t prevent it. My Qing Dynasty is said to have integrated 2000 years of feudal autocracy into one, and it has prevented princes, relatives, eunuchs, and even literati. A combination of literary inquisitions has made these people dare only call themselves slaves.

But what's the use? The foreigners came and exposed your paper tiger appearance.

Obviously, there were no eunuchs in the Han Dynasty. Apart from the military power in his hands, the only things the emperor could rely on were these foreign relatives and princes.

Ying Bu and others said: "Yes!"

On October 15th of the 22nd year of the Han calendar, a gathering of wise men was held at Zhangtai Palace.

As the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, Zhou Bo reported on the achievements of the Han Dynasty's construction in the previous year.

But not many of the sages present cared about these achievements, because their focus was all on the New World. After the three dukes and nine ministers of the court reported the results.

Kuai Che said, "We want to know how the court plans to deal with the New World."

Zhou Bo was stunned and said, "Of course, we should establish a governor's office to command the overall situation and relocate the princes to suppress the new continent, but these are all matters of the princes' meeting and have little to do with today's meeting of sages."

Kuai Che said dissatisfiedly: "The emperor said that the Han Dynasty belongs to all the people in the world, so there is the current Sages' Conference, which represents all the people in the world to exercise the right to rule the Han Dynasty. How can this have nothing to do with our Sages' Conference? The court wants to develop the New World, shouldn't we be concerned about it?"

"You're right. We, the Sages Conference, also have the right to inquire about the affairs of the New World." Many sages shouted in unison.

Kuai Che said seriously: "But now the court has discovered the New World, but they only think of the court's elders and nobles, and not give a single cent to the people of the world. Isn't this inconsistent with the system of our Han Dynasty?"

Zhou Bo said: "It is not easy to cultivate the wilderness. The people of the world are still unwilling to go to the reclamation camp in the south of the Yangtze River, let alone the New World 20,000 miles away. In such a wild place, it is very difficult for ordinary people to survive, let alone cultivate it."

Kuai Che said: "Whether the common people can go is one thing, but it does not mean that the court should deprive the common people of the Han Dynasty of this benefit. Since the New World can be opened to the feudal lords and nobles of the Han Dynasty, I think it should also be opened to the common people of the Han Dynasty."

Other sages also started to make a noise, "What good things have the court achieved in recent years? The first thing that comes to mind is those elder nobles. They have made great contributions to the construction of the Han Dynasty, and we accept that. But now the area of ​​the New World is larger than that of the Han Dynasty, and such a large land was distributed to the elder nobles. Aren't the elder nobles of the Han Dynasty too greedy? We can't let them take all the good things in the world."

"We don't accept this. We have contributed to the development of the Han Dynasty over the years, and the tax burden we bear is getting heavier every year. Now that the court has good things, it has forgotten about us. Does this conform to the equal rights and responsibilities that the emperor said?"

"The nobles of the Han Dynasty only paid one-tenth of the feudal tax to the court, while we pay as much as 30% to 40% of the tax burden to the court every year. Who supports the court's current prosperity and who is more important to the court? Isn't it obvious?"

"According to the principle of equal rights, the New World should belong to all the people of the Han Dynasty. The imperial court should set up an office and let the people of the Han Dynasty develop it."

Obviously, the sages of the Han Dynasty also had great resentment towards the imperial court, especially those born into the business and landlord families. The imperial court had imposed taxes on them again and again in the past 20 years. They believed that they had no merits in the current prosperity of the Han Dynasty, but they must have worked hard. It could even be said that the current prosperity of the Han Dynasty was achieved by squeezing their blood.

The discovery of the New World made these people extremely excited. They thought they had found a new source of wealth, especially when they heard that there were huge gold and silver mines in the New World, dozens of times more than the current Treasure Island. More people were excited and had already begun to prepare ships to go to the New World. This would make so many people rich. If they could occupy a gold mine, many people's families could become wealthy overnight and become tycoons in the Han Dynasty.

Their happiness was short-lived, but they heard that the emperor had summoned the feudal lords and elders of the Han Dynasty when he was making a plan, intending to distribute all the gold and silver mines in the New World to these elders and nobles of the Han Dynasty.

This was difficult for the merchants and powerful people of the Han Dynasty to accept. Damn it, this was the case when the Spice Islands were discovered. In the first two years when they were the most profitable, they were not qualified to land on the Spice Islands.

And now the nobles of the Han Dynasty are even more outrageous, they want to directly allocate the gold and silver mines to their own vassal states. The nobles of the Han Dynasty eat meat, but now they are unwilling to leave them even a mouthful of soup. This is too much, and the nobles of the Han Dynasty are so greedy.

During the founding period of the Han Dynasty, if you said that these elder nobles had made great contributions, they would admit it, but the court also gave them generous treatment. They had fiefdoms within the Han Dynasty and vassal states outside the Han Dynasty, including Liaodong, Nanyang, Jiangnan, and the Western Regions. There were vassal states in all directions of the Han Dynasty. The treatment given to them by the court was generous enough, enough to reward them for their founding contributions.

Now these elder nobles wanted to receive preferential treatment and even occupy a new continent. This was unbearable for the merchants and landlords, and even for the wise men from ordinary people.

If the gold and silver mines belonged to the imperial court like those in Wodao, ordinary people like them could still find ways to dig for them and dream of becoming rich overnight.

Even after more than a decade, there are still hundreds of thousands of gold diggers in the Japanese island. Although there are few lucky ones who get rich overnight, there will be one every one or two years. Even now, although it is difficult to get rich overnight, you can still earn hundreds of thousands of hard-earned money a year, which is still a relatively high-paying industry in the Han Dynasty.

But if all these gold and silver mines were divided among the vassal states, then what would they have to do with it? How could the vassal states of the Han Dynasty be so greedy as to deprive them of even the right to dream?

(End of this chapter)