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

Chapter 540: New Thoughts of Legalism
In the law school lecture hall, Xu Aimin and Zhang Pijiang were sitting at the bottom. Since they both came to the law school, they naturally wanted to listen to a class again and review their life in the school. Especially since the lecturer was Jia Yi, the hottest star in Chang'an City, they became even more interested.

Xu Aimin looked at Jia Yi, who was famous in Chang'an, and was surprised: "He is so young, less than 30 years old, and he has become a lecturer in the academy."

Lecturers at the Han Academy were equivalent to professors in later generations, and those who could become professors before the age of 40 were considered relatively young.

Influenced by Xu Fan, many officials and generals of the Han Dynasty liked to work as teachers or principals in academies after retirement. The academic circles of the Han Dynasty had very close ties with the imperial court, and many students were students of ministers and generals. Therefore, the competition to become a professor in an academy was quite fierce, and it was difficult for people without real ability to become professors in an academy.

Zhang Pijiang said, "Jia Yi is 26 this year. He has been a genius since he was young. He was proficient in the classics of hundreds of schools of thought at the age of 12. Don't underestimate him because he is younger than us. In fact, he is two years older than us. When he was in the law school, he was deeply loved by Prime Minister Zhang Cang, who took him in as a disciple and taught him. He is considered a leader of the new generation of legalists."

Jia Yi's speech was about his ideas on promoting industrialization, and the content was very Legalist, almost transferring Shang Yang's ideas to the Han Dynasty, but modifying some of the content according to the gap between agricultural countries and industrial countries. For example, the previous Legalists proposed to crack down on aristocratic merchants and make the whole society dualistic, with people being either farmers or soldiers.

The idea proposed by Jia Yi was also to strike against the nobles and big merchants, but now it was not to gain control of the land, but to allow the court to gain control of the industry. The pilot projects of the Legalists in Chenjun, Jiujiangjun and Hengshanjun provided Jia Yi with relatively sufficient experimental data. He believed that the reason why the economic crisis broke out in the Han Dynasty was because the court relaxed its control over the world, resulting in uneven distribution of wealth, which led to frequent economic crises.

If the imperial court were more powerful and directly served as the organizer of all major industries in the Han Dynasty, it could distribute the profits of each step in the industrial chain, and the wealth would naturally not be concentrated in one place. After obtaining the resources of the industry, the imperial court could carry out large-scale transformation of the world, expand the market with more powerful means, and transform the barbaric world into an industrialized society.

Jia Yi then elaborated his views from four specific steps. They are basically investment, production, accumulation, and reinvestment. This model does not require aristocrats and merchants to save wealth, and can invest in reproduction with the greatest efficiency.

At the same time, the imperial court also had to divide the work, and the Han officials who managed the factories had to find ways to improve production efficiency and produce more wealth. At the same time, more wealth was distributed to the producers.

The imperial court had to take care of logistical affairs, education, medical care, housing and other issues that concerned the craftsmen, solve their worries and allow them to focus all their energy on production.

These two aspects work together, one to solve production and the other to solve distribution. In the eyes of the Legalists, this is a perfect industrial production model and a summary of the Legalists' five-year study of the state-run economy.

Xu Aimin clapped his hands and said, "Great!"

Then he said to Zhang Pijiang: "This Jia Yi spoke to my heart, and even made me feel enlightened. The court solved the worries of the craftsmen and let them fully promote production. This is indeed what the court has lacked in recent years."

Zhang Pijiang smiled bitterly and said, "Prince, this is easier said than done. It can even be said that Your Majesty has been doing this kind of thing for decades. The compulsory education system in primary schools is to solve the problem of the difficulty of learning for the children of craftsmen. There are also medical clinics all over the Han Dynasty. This is a medical system that the court spent decades to establish."

"Your Majesty even worried that local Han officials would embezzle funds for education and medical care, so he directly controlled the salaries of teachers and doctors. The salaries of these hundreds of thousands of doctors and teachers amounted to tens of billions, and all of them were paid by the court's finances."

"At this stage, the imperial court has already reached its limit. Every year, tens of billions of dollars are invested in these two areas. If the amount continues to increase, it will affect the balance of the Han Dynasty's finances."

Zhang Pijiang shook his head and said, "As for the housing problem, it is even more difficult to solve. According to the statistics above, more than 500 million farmers come from the countryside to work in the cities of the Han Dynasty every year. If they have housing, they will definitely stay in the city. 500 million farmers need 500 million houses. A house costs 2 coins. It will take 1000 billion to meet the needs of these farmers. Even if it is averaged over 10 years, it will cost 100 billion every year."

"And according to the current population increase of more than 4 million people every year in the Han Dynasty, with men and women accounting for half each, the court will have to find a way to resettle 500 million families in just years."

Xu Aimin asked, "Don't people in the city give birth to children anymore?"

Zhang Pijiang said: "According to statistics from our superiors, about 5% of the Han population lives in cities, and the urban population increases by about 6 million every year. Moreover, even urban residents need to build houses to start a family and a career. Now, in order to solve the problem of population congestion, Chang'an City has begun to generally build - to -story residential buildings."

After hearing this, Xu Aimin smiled bitterly and said, "I thought that the Han Dynasty was more than ten times richer than the Qin Dynasty, and that problems that could be solved with money were all very simple. After hearing these data today, I realized that the most difficult things in the world are those that can be solved with money. No wonder my father insisted that I go to the inspection. I wonder how these data can help manage the Han Dynasty well."

As soon as Jia Yi finished his speech, a student stood up and retorted, "Teacher Jia, what you said was just a re-quote of the content of Shangjunshu."

Jia Yi smiled and said, “Indeed, although I have expanded it, its fundamental idea is similar to that of Shangjunshu. In general, it is still about making full use of the land, but the land has changed from fields to factories.

But this shows the greatness of Shang Yang. Even after hundreds of years, his ideas and systems are still relevant in the Han Dynasty."

In this time and space, the Legalists had relatively less historical baggage to bear. In addition, Xu Fan recognized the contribution of the Legalists in unifying the world. The official reforms of the Han Dynasty led to the rise of the Legalists earlier than in history. The blame was put on the First Emperor and the Qin Dynasty. They did not have to carry the burden of promoting the greatness of the Legalists. After all, the reforms of the Legalists were praised by the emperor.

"The emperor also said that social progress comes from organizing production. The situation in the Han Dynasty at this time is that most of the people who organize production are nobles and big merchants. They are naturally selfish. When facing production, they pass the pressure to the craftsmen. When facing the distribution of benefits, they give most of the benefits to themselves. They are so selfish. How could there not be conflicts?"

"But if the court organizes production, it will be different. As the decision maker, the court can reasonably distribute the pressure of production to all people in the entire industrial chain, and the profits can be relatively reasonably distributed to everyone. The retained wealth can be used by the court to continue to expand production. Isn't it better to let the nobles use it for extravagance and corruption, and the merchants use it for debauchery?"

The student sneered, "What if you, the Legalist bureaucrats, come and indulge in extravagance and corruption? Do you also want our Han Dynasty to collapse like the tyrannical Qin?"

Xu Aimin looked at the scholar who asked the question and found that he was wearing Confucian clothing and a Confucian cap. He smiled and said, "So you are a Confucian scholar. No wonder you look like you are here to cause trouble."

The colleges in Dahan are relatively open, and students from different universities can communicate and learn from each other, and there are many such debates and exchanges.

Zhang Pijiang looked at him and said, "This scholar is Yuan Ang, an outstanding student of the Confucius Institute. Confucianism has been a bit frustrated in recent years. Their base in the Han Dynasty has been continuously eroded by the enrichment of the people. If it weren't for the large size of Confucianism, the base of the education industry, and the base of overseas education, Confucianism would probably fall into a period of decline."

Zhang Pijiang found it a little difficult to understand modern Confucianism. On the other hand, there had not been much change among the Confucian scholars within the Han Dynasty. They were still as stubborn as ever and could not keep up with the current situation.

But outside the Central Plains, Confucianism spread like wildfire. In Liaodong, in the desert, and in the Western Regions, there were Confucian academies and statues of Confucius everywhere. Outside the desert, almost everyone had a copy of the Analects.

The Hu people in the desert may not speak Chinese very fluently, but they can recite the contents of the Analects of Confucius fluently in standard Mandarin.

These people could really scare the Han people when they put on Confucian clothes, but when they spoke, they just kept saying "Confucius said, Confucius said", as if they didn't know how to speak without the Analects. So the Han people quickly found a way to identify these people. As long as they opened their mouths and said "Confucius said", they were all Confucian scholars from the desert. Although these people were not very proficient in knowledge, they were very good at fighting, which effectively made up for the Confucian scholars' lack of martial arts.

At the same time, the Confucius Institute in Chang'an and Lu County in Xue County became places frequented by Confucian scholars outside the Han Dynasty. These people would kneel down and kowtow three times and nine times under the statue of Confucius at any time. Sometimes there would be thousands of people gathered. They wore the same Confucian clothes, and there were people of all races in the Western Regions and deserts. Organizing such a grand ceremony stunned all the people in Chang'an. It always felt that this was not a ceremony of an academy. Jia Yi smiled and said, "As long as we can do what Han Zi said, reward and punish every man, punish every minister, and punish Han officials who break the law, there will naturally be laws to punish them. If we can enforce the law strictly and investigate the violations, why should people in the world worry about the extravagance and corruption of my Legalist bureaucrats?"

Yuan Ang shook his head and said, "Master Jia, this is evading the main point. You want to use Han officials to supervise Han officials. The tyrannical Qin has proved that this method is not feasible. Officials protecting each other is the norm. The tyrannical Qin unified the world and destroyed the world. It was only a dozen years. The Qin officials who unified the world and the Qin officials who destroyed the world were almost the same group of people. In these ten years, the Qin officials were more corrupt than the nobles. The so-called extremely severe punishments controlled these Qin officials."

"I think the Qin officials are worse than the nobles. The nobles rule their own fiefdoms and kingdoms, which are their family businesses. If these nobles don't want their family businesses to decline, they must be better to the people. At least they won't drive the people to a dead end.

But the Qin officials were only managers sent by the First Emperor. They only had to be responsible to the First Emperor. They didn't care whether the people lived or died. This led to the situation of rebellion in the whole country during the Qin Dynasty.

Mencius said, "The way of the people is that those who have permanent property have permanent heart, while those who have no permanent property have no permanent heart. If they have no permanent heart, they will indulge in evil and extravagance, and do whatever they want. When they are caught in a crime, they will be punished. This is to deceive the people. How can a benevolent person be in power and deceive the people? Therefore, a wise ruler must be respectful, frugal, polite, and have rules for taking from the people."

The emperor also said that when the Qin law is no longer trusted by the people of the world, what the people will lose is the shackles, and what they will gain is the whole world. The establishment of the Han Dynasty is the best proof of this statement. "

After Yuan Ang finished speaking, many Confucian princes applauded.

Xu Aimin frowned and said, "The problem of official administration is also very serious in our Han Dynasty. It can even be said that they are not much better than the Qin officials."

Xu Aimin is not like those princes in history. When he was young, he had seen the villages of the Han Dynasty, visited the frontiers of the Han Dynasty, worked as a minor official at the grassroots level of the Han Dynasty, traveled across most of the Han Dynasty, experienced more than a dozen counties, and spent several years in the New World. He understood the things below more clearly and naturally would not be fooled by people who said that the prosperous times were coming because the Holy Son of Heaven was ruling the country.

Zhang Pijiang smiled bitterly and said, "The source of all this problem lies with your Majesty."

"Hmm?" Xu Aimin looked at Zhang Pijiang hesitantly.

Zhang Pijiang said: "Your Majesty is frugal and thrifty. It can even be said that Your Majesty has opened up a new model of emperors. The emperor supports himself and no longer uses the people of the world to serve one person."

But Your Majesty's frugality does not mean that the nobles and officials of the Han Dynasty are frugal. Just to put it simply, the Duke of Guangyang has more than a dozen merchant caravans and two fleets, earning hundreds of millions of dollars every year. His income is not much less than that of the princes of the Han Dynasty.

However, in the Han Dynasty, there are many feudal lords like the Duke of Guangyang. As officials of the Han Dynasty, nobles like the Duke of Guangyang are rich enough to rival a country. Naturally, other Han officials will envy and learn from them. In the Han Dynasty, which official family does not have a caravan and practices?

The power held by Han officials is too great. Only the most stupid Han officials would want to be corrupt. As long as they use the power in their hands, they can gain huge benefits. How many railway asphalts, roads, docks, and ports are contracted by Han officials? Is a stone statue worth 1 coins or 100 million coins? Who can tell clearly? The court invests tens of billions of yuan in infrastructure every year. How many families have been enriched? Who can tell clearly?

His Majesty has also noticed this problem. He wants to solve it by transferring the seal, but so far, the results are limited. This is no longer just the behavior of the elders, but a problem that affects the entire Han Dynasty."

Zhang Pijiang said: "To solve this problem, we need a major purge, just like the Han Dynasty's purge of the nobles and powerful people of the six kingdoms."

Hearing this, Xu Aimin shook his head and said, "Difficult, difficult, difficult!"

Xu Aimin knew that even if he did such a thing with his father's prestige, it might cause unrest in the entire Han Dynasty, let alone him.

In the classroom, Jia Yi was silent for a long time before saying, "The problem of officials is indeed impossible to solve in the Qin Dynasty. It can even be said that the indulgence of the First Emperor accelerated this. However, the emperor noticed this problem at the beginning of the Han Dynasty and took the initiative to solve it, that is, to let the people supervise the Han officials. This is how the sages of the Han Dynasty were born.

Hundreds of monthly newspapers in our Han Dynasty were born for this purpose. The emperor attached great importance to public opinion supervision and even wrote the White-robed Censor himself to inspire tens of thousands of reporters from all newspapers and periodicals in our Han Dynasty.

No matter how many Han officials there are, they can never be more than the people of the world. As long as the people of the world supervise the Han officials, they will not be as lawless and do evil as the Qin officials. We are also monitoring the Han officials. The hundreds of thousands of scholars in the world are hundreds of thousands of imperial censors. Therefore, I am not afraid of corrupt officials in the Han Dynasty. No corrupt official can escape the omnipresent eyes of the world. "

The students of Legalism applauded enthusiastically. They agreed with what he said. The Imperial Censors and the Supreme Court of the Han Dynasty arrested more than five thousand people every year, which could be said to be the highest number in all dynasties.

Xu Aimin said: "This Jia Yi is a talented person. I like his ideas about industrial development. My father is very radical in many things, but also very conservative in many things. The government-run reform has been going on for five years, but now it is only a small area in Jianghuai."

Zhang Pijiang said: "Legalism is a double-edged sword, hurting others and oneself. Even a monarch like the First Emperor could not control the Legalism. Your Majesty may be worried that the Legalism will disrupt the current good situation of the Han Dynasty."

Xu Aimin said: "My father agreed that I could become the Minister of Internal Affairs, so I asked Jia Yi to preside over the official operation pilot in Chang'an. I also know that haste makes waste. I am only 28 this year, so I have at least 30 years to complete the official operation reform."

After returning, Xu Aimin told Xu Fan about his desire to become the Minister of Internal Affairs.

"The tax collectors and Han officials all know my identity. They dare not let me get involved in affairs. I am like an outsider and cannot learn anything. Since my identity has been exposed, I think I should just take charge of the government. The Neishi is just a little Han. If I can manage Neishi County well, I will have more experience in how to manage the Han."

Xu Fan thought about it and agreed to Xu Aimin's request.

April 3rd, the 30th year of the Han calendar.

Crown Prince Xu Aimin was parachuted into the position of Right Secretary of the Interior, and the original Secretary of the Interior Zhou Chang began to retreat to the second line and prepare for retirement.

Zhou Chang in this timeline lived longer. Historically, he was the prime minister of Zhao State. Liu Bang believed that he was upright and outspoken, and could protect his son Liu Ruyi well. However, Liu Ruyi was killed by Lu Zhi, which made Zhou Chang depressed. He died three years after Liu Ruyi was killed.

Now he has lived ten more years, but because of the hard work in the southern reclamation and his advanced age, he has been in semi-retirement as the Neishi Ling for the past two years. Therefore, Xu Aimin, the right magistrate, can directly take over the power of Neishi County.

(End of this chapter)